Cricket

Thanks for those pics, Michael. I understood how to attach the shoulder bell straps to the white elastics. I was looking for a suspender solution, though. I was able to dig up a pic that I downloaded from somewhere... this might help to describe what I'm trying to achieve... Based on the pic, where do the shoulder elastics attach? Across the front? Across the back? Is it just one long length of elastic? I am hoping to reduce the extra stress on the shoulders entirely by using this kind of setup.

Would anyone have suggestions about connecting the shoulders to wear in a way that doesn't keep them snapped to the white elastic on the shoulder straps? I've seen diagrams about how to connect it all together with a suspender/garter system, but I'm confused about where the elastics from the shoulder bells attach. Do they snap directly on the suspenders? Are the elastics on the shoulder bells attached to each other and run along the top and back of the shoulders?

Progress. Hahaha! Happy holidays y'all!

Credits sent your way! The support here has been so helpful for me on this journey. Long live the FISD!

Thanks, Michael! I've also reviewed your Sniper Knee Attachment Question thread, and that was quite helpful. I will get to the other side of that door soon!

Maybe a hot water bath?

Did some sniper knee gluing. Does this look like it's in the correct position? I've been staring at Centurion pics to compare it. I'm just needing some other eyeballs on it to verify if I need to change the position or not. Feedback would be very helpful! Thanks, troopers.

Thanks, Frank! Yes, I love my holographic Helmer. I think it cost me less than $20 in materials and about 2 hours to complete. Totally worth it! Lots of little bits o' progress happening lately. Like attaching the inner right hand snap plate into the chest. And making the snap part of the shoulder elastic. Not much, but necessary. Oh, hey, it's a belt! Outer drop boxes are aligned with the plastic ends of the belt, but this pic makes 'em look a little off due to the curve of the belt. I temporarily removed the holster while I installed the drop boxes. I added industrial velcro in the middle of the belt to add extra support. And a little bit of velcro was attached to the insides of the drop boxes in case I decide to use them for some small storage or something. Also working furiously on getting the thighs to fit just right. They're glued together with inner cover strips for the moment. I'm waiting to add the outer cover strips until I've sized everything correctly to fit. In this pic, the larger thigh hasn't yet been trimmed to fit. The smaller one fits width-wise. I still need to remove more of the extra length at the top. Lots to trim on these! It's all coming together, little by little!

Hey Christian, I've had nothing but great experiences dealing with Rob over at RS Props regarding replacement pieces. They're awesome. They've replaced several pieces in my kit very quickly and without any issues. They'll take care of you for sure. I'll be following your build. Have fun with it!

1. The left shoulder bell has a swoop to it where it kind of flares out a bit at the bottom. 2. Mine are the same. Guessing it's universal for shoulder bells. 3. I wouldn't make 'em match. From what I've read, they're gloriously asymmetrical. 4. *can't answer this one for you yet. Sorry! Regarding recommendations on how to proceed with the chest, all I can say is to cut a little at a time as you go. Trim, fit, trim, fit. I ended up trimming a lot on all sides, but it took me a while to get there. Be patient and you'll get there! Good luck, trooper!

Oh, hey, does anyone remember when I was building the magnetic closures for my shins? I made a short video so you can see how they function. Any feedback appreciated!

A.B.B. Always. Be. Building. That's what my GML mentioned recently, and it's a term that I think about every day now. When something's drying, there's always something else to work on. There's lots of little things that I'm tweaking on my kit in a somewhat OCD manner. Like what Christina said: Truth, sister. This was the little push I needed to remove all six split rivets and paint new ones. And yes, I know that I could have easily painted them while installed, but... Here's some more truth: this was actually the second time I had removed all six rivets. The first time was from a major screw up: I installed the rivets using webbing to attach the kidney and ab. This was a very bad idea because there would be no flex in the joint, and over time, I'd end up with some serious breakage either in the kidney and/or ab. So using two tiny flathead screwdrivers and a pair of needlenose pliers, I was able to get all six split rivets off without any issues. Then I installed the second round of rivets using elastic. "Yay, me!", I thought. But then as I tried on the armor (even as it was on me in the pics), I didn't like how the elastics were. I figured out that I had made the holes in the elastic just two millimeters too far apart from each other. So there was a tiny bit of a gap when the elastics were not flexed. I wanted the ab/kidney joint to be tight, but without overlapping. It was bugging me. But not enough to remove all the split rivets again. Then Christina made her comment.... aaaaand that was all I needed. The first time I removed the split rivets, the learning curve was steep, and took me almost 30 minutes to do. The second time, they were all out in less than 5 minutes. Woo! So I made some new elastics with the holes closer together. Here are the old ones and new ones for comparison. And I painted some fresh split rivets. Installing today. Installed some snaps on the ab. I worked on my belt. Made my 12mm measurements at the corners of my belt, and made my 45 degree cuts. Another trooper in my garrison (shout out to David!) gave me a fab tip about attaching the belt using industrial strength velcro. So that's what I did. This isn't going anywhere unless I tear it off with some serious brute force. I also got around to attaching the button plates to the ab. Looking a bit more trooper-esque now. The nice thing about using velcro to attach the ammo belt is that I can adjust it up or down as needed. I think I may raise it up just a little bit. Or do you think that it's good where it is in this pic? Opinions would be great on this. Oh, and I took care of one other thing that really, really, really makes me crazy about armor. I know it doesn't matter for approval, but it drives me nuts when I see screws for brackets that don't sit flush on the outside of the return. Visually, it looks sloppy to me, even though I know that screen used armor had them like that. Also, the screw heads can kind of 'lock' on each other- at least this is what was happening on my armor. I kept having to fuss to get them to stop fighting with each other. Here's my example: A little blurry, but the screw on the left has been counter sunk. The screw on the right has been drilled in without being counter sunk. Which one looks better to you? I easily achieved this by using a step bit and turning it by hand very gently into the existing hole. This opened up the top layer of the plastic enough for the screw head to sit into. Keep in mind that I've reinforced the area below the screw with some extra ABS, so it's thicker below for support. And here's what it looks like after: I proceeded to do this to all the brackets except for the ones on the ab (because those can't be seen). Just another little detail that maybe no one but me will notice, but it was something that had to be done for my own sanity. I'm off to get more TK done. A.B.B.!!!

The glue will soften, but with the short amount of time that you have them in the water, they shouldn't come apart. My biceps were glued with cover strips inside and out before I tried this. (The e6000 had cured for several days before I stuck them in the boiling water.) You can also wrap the biceps with blue tape before dunking them in order to give the joints more support.

For me, the biceps were the easiest pieces to shape in the hot water bath. My hot water from the tap didn't get hot enough, so I boiled water in a 6 quart pot. Using tongs, I dropped the bicep into the simmering water for not very long... maybe ten seconds? I was always worried that I would leave it in too long, so I tried to keep it in there for as short of a time as possible. I wore chemical gloves so I could handle and shape the bicep quickly after removal without getting burned. I recall that there wasn't much time to work with it after removing from the hot water. Once I got the bicep into the shape I wanted, I put it under a stream of cold water to help it cool faster and hold the shape. If I didn't like it afterwords, I would put it back into the boiling water and reshape it.

Ah, yes, sanity check, stat! And it's good. Rivets are indeed on the left side. The zoomed in pic is from the mirror, so it looks like the rivets are on the right, but they're not. Here's a less confusing pic... Thanks for verifying!

Ab/kidney have been conquered! Drilled the holes for the split rivets. Cut three 1 inch x 60mm sections of black elastic. Made two holes in each section at 10mm from center using my snap setter (love that thing). I used a lighter to melt the ends of the straps as well as the little holes in order to prevent fraying. Inserted split rivets, straps, and washers on the armor and smashed them all together. I used a phillips head screwdriver to open the split rivets, then hammered them down flat once they opened up a little. Easy to do. I repeated the process for the other side, and it was done. Here's me trying it on to see how the rivets line up. I think I understand why some smaller troopers add foam into the kidney now. It should help to keep the butt plate from popping out like that as well as keeping the kidney from shifting forward at the top. Still, I'm happy with things so far! The other side view. My shoulder straps aren't installed yet, and that will help line things up on this side. My armor was just being held up by the belt alone, and the belt is just attached with the velcro (ab snaps not yet installed). And this is my Kardashian Trooper selfie. Can't see my duck lips in this, though.

That moment when you realize that your kit won't be done in time for the Christmas Parade... or Rogue One.

Hey Emma! Good to see you back! <br><br><br> The gaps look fine to me. But... and I hate to say this... to me on my small phone it looks like you've got the ear on the wrong side. I've been looking at a screen used lid to compare... and I can't get the link with the pic to work from my phone. <br> Can anyone confirm this?

Nope, thank goodness! I confirmed this over in Diana's Centurion submission thread. All that matters is that the tops of the kidney/ab line up, and that the rivets are evenly set. The bottom will be covered by the belt, so it won't make a difference that the notch isn't lined up with the ab.

Hope so, Jim! In doing some research today in the FISD about kidney/ab rivet placement, I stumbled across this great post from gazmosis. It's specific to the ab/kidney rivet placement on RS armor. I'm finding it to be incredibly helpful as a guide, especially that I've modified my kidney/ab so much. I think I've got the correct places marked on my kidney/ab. Does this look right to y'all? Comparison screen used armor on the right.

Yep! Progress is being made, just slower than I'd like. Lots of activities with my kids have been keeping me busy lately. But still, I have pro-gress! I've been doing some little things here and there that no one but me will notice. Like adding reinforcing strips (30mm) to the ab and kidney where the strapping/rivets will go. Reinforcing these areas now will prevent repairs in the future. And I got around to reinforcing my shoulder straps before installing them. Check it! I used the pieces of stainless steel strip that were not going into my magnetic shins as reinforcement. I just cut it to fit. Then I cut a piece from a super flexy piece of styrene to cover it to make a strip sandwich with e6000 as a condiment to keep it together. I clamped everything together for a day, and voila... When you shine a light through them, you can see the strip doing its thing. These shoulder straps are now super strong and flexible. I don't think these will crack anytime soon. And I have been working hard on fine-tuning the ab-to-kidney fitting. It's almost there! Here's my kit on my DTD. I wasn't happy with how the left side of the back plate was fitting. See how it sticks out here? I've since given it a hot water bath to reshape it, and now it's good to go. I worked on getting over the learning curve of how to assemble snaps yesterday. Didn't take pics of that because I felt like it was such a fail for the most part. I only sacrificed 5 snaps until I finally understood what I needed to do. Which isn't bad because I have a bag of 100 of 'em. Oh, and I need to share this. This is the thing that I have used the most to size my kit down. It's a quick-and-dirty jig for heat bending new returns on the kidney and ab. My most valuable tool! If you are sizing down your kit, you must build one of these if you want to get fairly clean returns while using a heat gun. You can see how I used it on my replacement kidney below. I was about half way into the kidney reduction in this pic. Remember to do your heat shaping first before trimming because the edges can get a little warpy sometimes. I used a cut off portion of a wooden stir stick (for paint) in order to smooth the returns after bending. I'm now off to work on strapping and my belt today if the kids will let me get to it. Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Hahahahaaaa!!!! Good to know. I think I'm getting close, too. I realized today that I need to remove a bit from the sides of the ab as well as the kidney to get it all to fit correctly. It seems that once I clear the hurdle of these two pieces fitting together, the rest will be all downhill from there. Today was spent reducing the sizes of the returns on the kidney, ab, butt, and back plates (they were all about 1.5cm wide). I removed all the brackets and have glued some ABS strips to reinforce the bracket areas for strength. I wish that e6000 didn't take so flippin' long to cure!!! Tomorrow I'll be putting the brackets back on and getting a better idea of how everything is fitting together. The thick returns that I had before were putting the armor all out of whack when it was assembled.

Sorry I missed this comment! Thanks! My Halloween display was larger this year because I inherited most of my late sister's Halloween decorations (she passed away in June). She did a really big display in her yard each year. It was a great way to remember her. She would have loved it. And somehow I also missed that you earned your Centurion! Great job- congrats!

Hey Frank, I haven't really examined my face plate until you mentioned this, so I pulled it out of my box. Well, whaddya know.... denty here too! Have you emailed Rob about this? Mine is paper thin in this area as well. I'm guessing that a hot water bath might help to ease things out. I've been too busy tackling the rest of my kit to tend to this issue yet. And heads up: if yours is as thin as mine is, you're absolutely going to need to reinforce the mic tip areas.

So after some brief testing, the magnetic closures seem to work really nicely to keep the shins closed up. Very happy with how they turned out so far. I even had someone try one on while wearing jeans. I made him move around a bit in it to see how it would perform, and I didn't see any signs that the shin wanted to open up. I'll need to troop in 'em before I feel completely comfortable giving these the thumbs up, but it's promising so far. They stay closed on me while going up and down stairs, so... yay! I finally tackled my replacement kidney and butt pieces this past week. I created a new return edge on the kidney (at the bottom only! I've learned from my mistakes...) and shaped both pieces in hot water baths. I had to use a heat gun to flatten out the creases in the return edges after shaping the pieces in hot water. (I finally have my heat gun techniques down! Woo!) I haven't done much trimming on the sides of the kidney and butt at all. Last night I was able to get all the brackets assembled on the back/kidney/butt pieces and try it all on together. Just about everyone kept assuming that I was a Legacy. Just because I'm a woman in white does not make me Legacy, thank you. My first thought after seeing the pic below was, "Um, does this armor make my butt look big?" And the answer is, "That's no moon..." The back plate has been resized to fit me, but the kidney and butt plates need some trimming in a major way. I also have to trim more at the shoulders where the back and chest pieces meet. I will tend to that this week for sure. The front seems good, though, so that's a start. I still need to trim my thigh tops more than I expected to. This was the first time I had tried on so much of my armor at once. In the past, it's always been an arm section here, a shin there. It's kind of cool to see how it's all beginning to come together, but I'm also seeing that I still have (what feels like) a long way to go. Here's what's left: Thighs trimmed and fitted. Cover strips to complete. Sniper knee and ammo boxes added to shins. Trim kidney and butt plates to size. Complete inside strapping at kidney, shoulders, and cod Install snaps on ab and cod Install snaps/elastics on shoulders Install shoulder bridges (want to reinforce these before installation, see here) Create garter for thighs Paint bracket screws white Assemble belt/drop boxes Rivet holster to belt Attach button plates on ab I think that's it? If anyone sees something glaring that I need to address in my pics, please let me know! I'm not including the work I still need to do on the lid. The hurdle on assembling it is a very low one for me because I've already completed my ATA bucket. When I finish my armor, I'll get to the helmet, and I know it'll be a quick assembly. So I'm not counting the lid for now. Huge thanks to David, Leigh, Melissa, Sarah, Brent, and others at the armor party for helping move my progress along.