Cricket

Hey John, I just wanted to check in with you to let you know that we're in the final stages of processing your Expert Infantry review. It won't be too much longer! Thank you for your patience!

Quick little mod I'm able to share today before heading out to the Atlanta Braves troop this afternoon... Have you seen @gmrhodes13 kidney/butt tab modification? Basically, it's a small piece of plastic that you glue to your butt plate to prevent it from sliding out and away from the kidney. After seeing his diagrams of how it looks, I had to give it a go. And it's total genius! Here is his diagram: And here's how I did mine. I made two of them, one for each side of the butt plate. (I suppose I could make a few more, but two seems sufficient for now.) I used a scrap piece of thick ABS and marked 3cm for the outer parts of the tab, and allowed about 1cm for each of the interior bend areas. It's just a guide as I heated and formed things up. I stacked four paint stir sticks together to help form the interior shape. After some heat gun shaping, I ended up with this: I realized that the interior white part would be visible between the armor pieces, so I hit it with some flat black to conceal the tabs. Then I glued down just the half on the butt plate. This retains the vertical movement between the butt plate and kidney, but won't allow any horizontal movement from the butt plate outside of the line of the kidney. Everything is in a state of curing right now, so I can't try it on. That said, here's what the outside looks like with the tab installed... I'm trying to push the butt plate out of line of the kidney (my hand is out of frame), and it just stays lined up. Behold! So much in line! I can't wait to try on my kit once the glue is fully cured. No more butt plate pop! HUGE thanks to Glen for sharing this awesome little kit improvement!

Thanks, Andrew! I think this build is taking me so long because I know exactly what you all nitpick over (), and I'm trying to make sure that everything is good to go when I apply for EIB/Centurion. That said, I know that I'm going to miss a few things, no matter how much I try to cover all the details!

That's the goal! Thanks for noticing!

Ugh. All this fine tuning is taking for-evah! I have lost weight since I began this build (10 lbs to be exact!), and am at my goal weight of 108lbs. My weight loss has resulted in my TK thighs being too big for comfort. Something I've learned about fine-tuning a TK is that if your kit fits well, it doesn't make a huge amount of noise. If it's too big somewhere, you will hear your kit loudly! When I first tried on my kit to see how it all fit together, I was shocked about how much noise it made! (FWIW, my fully completed stunt TK makes a little clacking as I move, but it's relatively quiet.) And the biggest noise maker were the thighs. They were huge. I realized that I needed to tear them apart to size them down further. It was an easy fix to take off some excess plastic, but it's the time to get things glued back in place that slows me down. Ah well. So here's the back before fine-tuning, and after (sorry about the crooked belt!): And the front: I am still dialing in the shoulder bells for mobility, which is why I don't have them on in the current pic. But I'm happy with the progress and am glad that the finish line is in sight!

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." ---T.S. Eliot

Thanks for the superfast correction on that frown, John! You've got a great attitude about getting that fix done. Nice work, sir! We will get back to evaluating the rest of your armor and will be with you shortly.

Okay, guys... who didn't bother telling me that you could sew in the size 10 snaps with a machine??? Were you all keeping this little secret from me just to torture me??? I spent so much time sewing these in by hand, and only now (working on my 4th kit!) I figured out that I could have saved hours by using a simple zigzag machine stitch! *serious, massive facepalm here* And for those of you who didn't know this and are still building your kit, let me tell you, this is such a great shortcut to sewing in the snaps onto the elastics for the shoulder bells. Use a button foot on your machine and adjust your machine's stitch width to make sure that the needle won't hit anything. Set the feed to zero. Observe!

Greetings John! Your review is still underway. Thank you for your patience while we go through it! You did a great job getting that frown taper down! Painting those little triangles can be a challenge for sure. That said, we've noticed that your Hero's frown needs some attention before we can proceed further. We don't want you thinking that you haven't done a great job on your kit- you really have! Sometimes when we are evaluating armor, we see more detail than what some GMLs notice, and small things can get overlooked from time to time. According to the CRL for Basic Level Approval, "Frown is painted gray and does not leave the teeth area." It might be the angle of the photo, but it looks like some paint is going outside of the tooth line (outlined in green). To correct this, it's an easy cleanup fix with a brush and a little enamel thinner. Some use a wood toothpick to gently scrape off the excess paint. Choice is yours! Once you've made your corrections, please submit a new photo showing your frown's detail. At that time we can then resume the review. Thanks again for your cooperation and patience!

Yep, that's me! I knew that if I flipped my legs back hard that it would make me look like I was jumping higher than I really was. One of the 'outtakes' makes me look a little... let's say, uncomfortable.

Your WTF helmet's eyes don't look any more asymmetric than screen-used helmets, actually. When you take photos in a mirror, be sure to flip the picture before evaluating how you look. A mirrored image can really throw you off when you look at it later! I have a tough time getting the shape of the eyes just right, too. Because they are so 'organic', pretty much anything goes as long as you're in the ballpark, shape-wise. I've compared your lid to a frequently-used screen-used lid. This might help you better visualize what you're aiming for. To me, it looks like the inner corners of both of your eyes could use some additional trimming. And maybe a little more off of the tops of each eye? But I'd get other opinions on this as well before cutting.

Hey Jonathan, I have been assembling helmets lately myself, so I know the struggles of getting the ears shaped! Somewhere here in the FISD, I found a great method for getting the ears shaped properly to the helmet. I didn't come up with this method, but it worked for me when I was messing up my ears. 1. You need to install those gappy ears first. It won't matter if there are huge gaps, you just need to make sure the ear is cranked on the helmet with the screws. 2. Get a large piece of aluminum foil and fold it three (maybe four?) times over, so you have a large thick flat rectangle piece. It should be large enough to cover the ear and areas around the ear. Go big on this. 3. Now, with the ear securely attached to the helmet, press and form the aluminum on the ear and on the helmet. Press firmly and make sure you're getting the aluminum into all the nooks and crannies. You want to make sure all the detail of the ear and helmet are well represented. 4. Carefully remove the aluminum from the helmet. Look! You've got a template of the curve of the helmet and the ear! Coolio! 5. Next, carefully place an untrimmed ear into your new aluminum template. It should fit nicely inside. Conservatively trace the edges of the template onto your new ear. 6. Then conservatively trim around your trim lines, and you should have something pretty darn close to the shape you need to fit the helmet. Again, this worked for me, and saved me tons of time. It's not perfect, but it should definitely get you going in the right direction!

Soak the holster in water. Let it get completely saturated. Wrap your blaster in a few Ziploc bags (I used Ziploc and three plastic grocery bags). Stuff your bagged blaster in the holster and allow it to sit and dry for a few days. That should loosen it up enough for you to holster and remove it while in kit. Holster lubricant spray helps as well as once it's been shaped and dry. Hope that helps!

Did some more work on the lid this weekend. Vocoder! Before cleanup and after cleanup. Tackled the tube stripes using Trooperbay's templates. The templates make this job super easy and quick. As I was taking these photos, I noticed this small Polaroid taken last year at DragonCon with my kids. And since today is Mother's Day, here's me being a good TK momma. If you've never seen my really easy way of getting tube stripes applied, here's what I do: You'll need a small cosmetic sponge (you can find them at most drugstores in the cosmetic section, and they are cheap. Or if you live with a female, they probably have some in their stash. Raid their stash for one- they won't notice that it's missing, trust me.) Pour some paint into a very shallow compartment, dish, or whatever. You will be dipping the sponge into a shallow pool of the paint and dabbing off the excess. I use a small plastic artist's palette picked up at a local craft store for cheap. First, apply the stencils and tape them off so you don't get paint all over the place. Make sure the stencils are firmly stuck on there. Double, then triple, check this. Ask me how I know. Next, sponge a thin layer on the stencil. You will be applying three thin coats. Go lightly on this!!! Don't expect opacity all in one shot or else you'll end up with bubbles in your paint and mess under the stencils. Think "dab-dab-dab" very gently, just enough to get the paint to stick. Don't keep going over the dabbed areas because the paint will pull up. Go thin and leave it alone. I make my way around the helmet to each area (tear, tear, trap, trap), which gives a few minutes dry time to each section before the next pass. By the time I get to the third sponge coat, this is what you should have (I go a little thicker on the third coat): Once you've got good coverage, then remove all the masking tape and stencils. Oh, and always remember to remove your stencils before the paint dries. This will prevent your newly stenciled design from lifting off with the stencil. I have to do a tiny bit of cleanup with a small brush and some enamel thinner when I'm done, but it's not too shabby! Tears. Before and after cleanup. All the tears and traps took me less than 30 minutes to do, and that was including applying the stencils, taping them off, sponge painting, and cleanup. This method is easy and the results are uniform and opaque. Who can complain about that?

Hey John, Thank you so much for being so quick with those photos. You've got a nice, clean build there, sir! Your review is currently being processed by the Deployment Office, and we will get back to you shortly.

Polished up the filled teeth areas and did some additional teeth cleanup. Then decided to tackle putting a frown on this lid! Before and after: The end "triangles" of the frown were my biggest hurdle at this stage. I freehand paint the frown, then clean up around the edges with thinner and a brush to get a nice, crisp, clean edge. But here's the problem: the ABS patch over the tooth divots isn't perfectly flat, even though it's been polished. There are still some tiny holes there. From experience, this means no cleanup can be performed in these areas without making a massive mess. Any sort of thinner mixed with the paint goes into all the tiny crevices and highlights them to a huge degree- and it's nearly impossible to get out unless you totally sand everything down. So I had to paint those triangles perfectly on the first go. I drew a very light pencil line to outline the ends of the frown. Then with a teeny-tiny-itty-bitty brush (I think it has about 5 fine bristles in it total and is just 2mm long), I carefully applied the paint until I had the outline of the triangle I wanted. From there, it was an easy bit of painting inside the lines to fill the triangles in. I can't tell you how relieved I was when I finished!

Hello John! It's always great to see another Hero come through for Expert Infantry! You've done a great job with this kit. So we can best evaluate your application, we will need a few additional photos: close up photos of your left shin sniper knee: left, right, and front views close up photos of your ammo pack on the right thigh: outside and inside fasteners on the left and right close up photos of your kidney shim areas: outside views of the left and right with no belt close up photo of your ab buttons without the belt Once we have these photos, we can get moving on processing your application. Thank you!

Hey Jared! You're making good progress! Slow and steady wins the race every time. A couple things I noticed on your recent photos: Your smaller ab button plate looks like it could still use some more trimming around the edges. Ideally, it should be flat against the ab plate. The smaller ab button plate is really narrow, actually! When placing it on the armor, you should be able to see the "cleavage" at the bottom and underlying ridges around the base of where you're mounting the plate. The ridges along the front of your shin are a bit too wide. The front cover strip looks good to me- that should be about 20mm wide (give or take). There should be a few millimeters of ridge showing along either side of the cover strip. It looks like you have a few centimeters there. This should be an easy fix by taking a little more off of each side of the shin joint at the front. Keep up the good work!

Finally got around to cleaning up my nerd room today and managed to make some more progress on my Hero TK! I've been spending a lot of time working on Mr. Cricket's stunt TK lately, so it's nice to finally work on something of mine. It's kind of nice to have so much white armor in the room to block out that rebel scum back there... I'm suddenly realizing that I'm pretty dang close to the finish line with my Hero suit! I've got to do some additional trimming off the back of the shoulder bells. They're tucked under the back plate too much back there, and all that extra material feels odd. Should be a matter of try-on-mark-take-off-trim-try-on etc. to get it right. I've filled in the teeth to the Hero lid and assembled the ears. I still have to do some additional clean up around the eyes and teeth before I get to doing the face paint details. I also want to polish the areas where I filled in the teeth just to make sure that the paint applies the same as on the smooth area around it. The ears gave me a lot of trouble , but I don't think they look too bad. And next to Mr. Cricket's stunt lid in progress... Oh, one more thing! I bought this gadget last year, and whoa, it is a total game-changer! It's a snap press. OMG, it's simply the best for setting snaps without any effort at all! No more bang! bang! bang! bang! bang! to get the snap attached. You simply put one half of the snap on the bottom, the other on the top, press down on the lever, and voila! Perfectly set snap. This is my favorite tool next to my Dremel. I'm considering bringing it to the next armor party I go to, just so I can set snaps for people. It's that much fun to use! True story: I had this snap press out at my last armor party, and one of the people there loved it so much that she actually bought one online before she left the event! BTW, this is where I bought mine. Currently it's listed at $69.99 and only $0.99 shipping within the US! Select the die option "Die Set for Ring Snaps (Double Cap) 24 Ligne/15m" if you're planning on setting Tandy Line 24 snaps. I did not select a hole cutting die.

I'll add that before you trim those forearms for length, you may want to strap the bicep and forearm together first. Allow for about 1/4" gap between bicep and forearm. Try it on, putting the bicep where it's comfortable on your arm. Bend your arm to a 90° angle. Now move your hand and note where your wrist needs clearance. Mark and trim conservatively. You will probably need to trim again once you get your gloves/handguards on, but that's an issue you will encounter at final fitting stages.

Always trim forearms from the wrist end for length. You need to remove those returns anyhow! And if you lose a divot or two, it's perfectly fine. There is detail at the elbow end of the forearm that you don't want to lose.

Oh! Good to know! I love carrying a BFG while trooping. You know the saying... Speak softly and carry a BFG. More lid work today. I decided to remove some additional thickness off the right ear even though it was fitting fairly well. I was able to reduce the small gap in the front as well. I would prefer to get the front half of the curved part of the ears thinner, but after looking at things a while, I don't want to risk mucking things up. They're fine as they are. Worked on the left ear as well. Worked really hard to get the screws lined up with the angles of the traps. This was a super P.I.T.A.! Which is why I don't want to try to change the thickness of the ears at this point. It's all good enough! Once I was done with the ears, on went the frown. A bit of gloss grey, some clean up with thinner, and I'm calling it a day for now. And if anyone sees something "off", please feel free to let me know!

No worries! Take your time. We'll be here when you're ready. Thank you!

Sorry I'm late to the party, but congrats Jen!!! Yay!

Apologies, I forgot to request additional mandatory information (as listed in the EIB Application Guidelines section): Mandatory Information Armor = Armor Maker Helmet= Helmet Maker Blaster= Blaster Type Please update your application with this additional information. Thank you!