kman

My current intent is to put in webbing instead of elastic. I can't really picture an instance where it will need to stretch. My shoulders may move up, which would shorten the line, but it can wrinkle just fine to shorten... there's no case I can think of where my shoulders would magically get broader, though. That's bone structure. I'll be doing this in conjunction with exchanging the Anovos strapping (which I'm still using for the moment) for Centurion-approvable white straps.

Cheesecloth method doesn't use the spray, you need the thick paint version of the plastidip, to really lay it on thick and saturate the cheesecloth. In theory it stiffens the helmet. Also gives it a sort of fiberglass look that some people like. Other than that, not much different than simply spraying the interior with the spray plastidip. FWIW, I've yet to see a complaint of plastidipped helmets peeling up, from people who applied velcro and such directly to the plastidipped helmets. It doesn't peel off as easily as some imply, unless you're picking at an edge. Placing adhesives directly on it, in the middle of a covered part, puts very different forces on the dip than peeling an edge. Nowhere near as big of a deal as others have implied. Now, if you're seriously abusing the parts inside, and pulling on them hard constantly, that may be a different story. But normal use (wearing it, occasionally pulling pads off the velcro for washing, etc.) doesn't seem to be an issue in most cases.

More important than the price is the fact that I have yet to see an single report of anyone who ordered a completed ensemble actually receiving one! AFAIK they're all still waiting... including those who ordered (and paid) in early 2015! Has anyone actually seen one delivered yet?

Link?

Anovos is one of the more accurate armors out there. The pulls are sharper than other makers, but the underlying sculpts are as close to the originals as you're likely to get, wonky symmetry and all. Very similar to RS armor. There are a number of other armors out there that are "idealized", but I don't think Anovos falls into that category.

Balaclava is not required for EIB. Odd that it would be required anywhere. Not mentioned anywhere in the CRL, either. To the OP, French Braids might be an option that could help.

LOL I doubt it'll ever be locked down. It's been a sticky ("pinned") post for months, though.

That 1" strap will work, but you may have an easier time with a thicker 2" piece of elastic. That's what the screen used armor used. This video is helpful as well: ------------

Use E6000, because if you use your armor a lot, snaps can eventually get loose and need replacing. With E6000, just peel up the snap plate and put a new one on. If you use CA glue, you'll have to move the snap plate to a new location and leave the old one, or risk damaging the armor trying to remove the old one.

Yeah, depending on how things go as I wear the armor more, it may very well end up I'll only use the top and bottom snaps. Well, once I lose a few pounds, at least. Armor is a tad snug at the moment, even with my shims. My trip to Italy was not beneficial to my waistline, LOL

What's remaining in Ukswrath's build post at this point? I think that build is done, but for helping people who ask questions in his thread. Armor has been delivered to the trooper, all done!

Been pretty busy, but I've managed to get a little gluing done here and there, and it's time for a quick update. I glued in the side button strips on the ab plate, of course: That finished with the side button strips, which are SO much nicer than the straps I had before! They really reduce the shifting, and make the whole thing a lot more solid. A bit tricker to put on, especially the middle snaps where you have to sort of reach in to get them snapped, but definitely an improvement. Next I made some more male snap plates to glue into the chest and ab plates. One on each side of each plate, connected with a double snap strip, in conjunction with the two I previously added in the middle (not quite enough), seems to have stopped the chest from popping off. I still have the stock Velcro/elastic straps connecting the plates, as well, to keep things as snug as possible if I bend forward a little, but the extra snaps provide a pretty good stopping point when moving back, making the ab plate FAR less likely to be able to pop out from under my chest. Here's a shot of all of the current/new rigging inside: I adjusted the shoulder caps a little, which was the last thing on my GML's request list of fixes. Better now, although I still want it even more better, so I'll be converting them to snaps shortly. Just not immediately. The current system will suffice as long as I have someone to assist a little here and there. Next up I want to mess with the helmet some more: The ear screws will be removed, painted black, and moved to the TD. I got the correct screws for the helmet to use instead, so I'll need to just cut them down to size (Home Depot only carried #6/32 screws in 1.5" and 2" sizes), paint the heads white, and that's done. Last (for this stage) I want to remove and repaint the frown, including adding the triangles at the tips. I may go ahead and replace the Hovi mesh as well, or hold off on that last one for Centurion. (Also I haven't decided if I'm going to get speaker tips from Ukswrath or not, and if I do, there's no need to do the switch anyway) I probably won't get this done until next week, unfortunately, as I'll be visiting mom this weekend for Mother's Day. Should only take a day or two next week, though, so I foresee an EIB submission towards the end of next week! Here's how things stand at the moment, showing off how all the recent mods are lining up: I'll do more shots later, of course, for the EIB submission. Oh, one additional fix on the to-do list, for comfort: I need to round off the sharp points in the back of the thighs a little, as they're digging into my bum. Not horrible, but just enough to be annoying. That'll be pretty straightforward with the belt sander.

Looks good, congrats!

Nothing wrong with that. (although there is zero question about the no return edges needed there thing. that's long settled)

While I certainly agree it looks better to have it, there is no requirement to have any return edge at the tops of the thighs. I see lots of armor that doesn't have it, even among Centurion / EIB applicants. It's fine. That said, it's better with it.

Buy the 100 pack if you're doing double snap strips (two per location, recommended by many), definitely. You won't need quite that many (around 80, depending on exactly how you do it), but it's cheaper than buying multiple smaller kits, and it's VERY likely you will mess up on a number of them, so spares are important.

I agree, they are correct. In the top photo, they are correctly laid out: The one on the left of the photo goes on the right leg, and the one on the right of the photo goes on the left. (as is appropriate since we're viewing from the front) In the second photo, viewing from the back, they're backwards, because you just spun them in place for the picture.

Someone posted this graphic which helps make it even more clear than Tony's description: Note you generally want the scratchy hook side of the Velcro attached to the armor, so when you pull it open to put it on, the hooks are away from your leg and don't snag your undergarment. The soft loop side, which faces in, on the inside of the cover strip, is then the only part you'll rub across your leg as you put it on.

I can't imagine it would be an issue. Sandies are still Stormtroopers, and the build is 99% identical right up until the weathering.

As long as it's built right, and the ends haven't been trimmed down from the stock size, then yes.

A quick return to discussion of the shins, since it has come up elsewhere, and I want to be able to find the discussion later down the road. A comment was made that there is some disagreement among high level 501st armorers, as to the shins. Not so much on assembly as to which piece goes on which leg. I grabbed a quick shot of my shin armor and overlaid some curves to show the lines clearly, and grabbed some anatomical pics off the net. Obviously there's a ton of variation to the human body, but the generalized shape of the lower leg muscles is shown in these anatomical images: You can see there are, essentially, some longer muscles that run down the outside of the leg (Peroneus longus), and the much shorter, bunched calf muscles on the back which protrude to inside of the leg, viewed from the front (Gastocnemius). The result is that there is a long, slow curve down the outside of the leg, while inside the leg, there is a much sharper curve that starts higher and comes in farther and sooner than the more gradual curve on the outside. This view shows it pretty clearly, I think: Mapping these curves onto properly assembled, laid out shin armor, viewed from the same angle, and you can see the sharper, higher curves to the inside, and the longer, slower curves to the outside: It's hard to get just the right angle in a photo to clearly show everything you want in one picture, but IMO, this is fairly illustrative. The curve in the armor is pretty clear, to my eye. I don't see how anyone can look at the anatomy, and then look at the armor, and think it is supposed to be any other way. (read, swap the two legs, so left goes on right and vice versa) It seems clear that the original sculptors of the screen armor must have had this basic human anatomy in mind. I suppose it's possible that the people actually assembling dozens of suits screwed up the assembly, but that's arguably a different discussion.

This is as good a place as any to actually go over this, so I grabbed a quick shot of shins and added some curves to show the lines, and grabbed some anatomical pics off the net. Obviously there's a ton of variation to the human body (people who work out a lot can have some VERY different muscle profiles from the average body, bicyclists, for instance, will have unusually pronounced calf muscles that don't necessary line up the same way as for average bodies), but the generalized shape of the lower leg muscles is shown in these anatomical images: You can see there are, essentially, some longer muscles that run down the outside of the leg (Peroneus longus), and the much shorter, bunched calf muscles on the back which protrude to inside of the leg, viewed from the front (Gastocnemius). The result is that there is a long, slow curve down the outside of the leg, while inside the leg, there is a much sharper curve that starts higher and comes in farther and sooner than the more gradual curve on the outside. This view shows it pretty clearly, I think: Mapping these curves onto properly assembled, laid out shin armor, viewed from the same angle, and you can see the sharper, higher curves to the inside, and the longer, slower curves to the outside: It's hard to get just the right angle in a photo to clearly show everything you want in one picture, but IMO, this is fairly illustrative. The curve in the armor is pretty clear, to my eye. I don't see how anyone can look at the anatomy, and then look at the armor, and think it is supposed to be any other way. It seems clear that the original sculptors of the screen armor must have had this basic human anatomy in mind. I suppose it's possible that the people actually assembling dozens of suits screwed up the assembly, but that's arguably a different discussion.

It was discussed ad nauseum, but I don't think I had the curves specifically laid out in my thread. (at least, I didn't see it when I started looking through the first few pages just now) I had a shot or two of the properly assembled pieces, though, plus some shots of the incorrectly-assembled ones. Most of the shin stuff happened on pages 2-3. There were some pictures with curves posted somewhere, I just can't recall if it was in someone's thread here, or in the FB group.

True, but I'm honestly not sure why there is disagreement. There's a curve that follows the line of a normal human leg (i.e., how the calf muscle bulges). That's what TrooperMaster uses as a key, and I really don't buy any arguments to the contrary that go against basic human anatomy.

Soo, MASSIVE difference, in both comfort, ease of dressing, and perfect positioning (every time!) with the new thigh rigging. No belt here, so it still looks a little off (wish I had remembered that), but I got partially suited up, and if you compare the submission picture (repeated in post 194, above), with this: ... you'll see the big difference. VERY happy about this one. And it was simple, too! (as long as you have and can operate a sewing machine to sew a 3" straight line, I guess) Tonight began the next phase: Starting to convert to snaps, and overall tweaking all the mounting. I started to work on the chest, which would have been nice so I can take new pics and knock out EIB... But ultimately I decided against the shortcut. Sides need to be tweaked first, as long as we're doing snaps in the clamshell. First thing I did was tear out all the side connections between the kidney plate and the ab plate. The Anovos Velcro on the right peeled right off, of course: With a small sigh, the split rivet connections on the left were cut out, too, going from this: To this: Step one, slice through the webbing, step two, slice the webbing up to the washer, so you can work out the little remnant webbing piece, and step 3, hammer the split rivet down flat again, now that the webbing is gone. The exterior rivets will now be decorative only, with the interior snaps doing all the actual work. Next comes the snap strips. This took some thought. Double snaps? One row or two? In the end I decided that, based on materials at hand, my best option was to use 1" webbing to mount 4 snaps down each side, and one single piece of 2" webbing to connect them, lengthwise. Measure out the 1" webbing, on both the ab side and the kidney side: Decide where the rivets will go (based on where they will lay on each side), and tape the two pieces (ab+kidney) face to face, so the snaps will align exactly. Mark locations with a silver sharpie. Next, the old red hot nail trick through both pieces (separate immediately after punching each hole so they don't get welded together!), and we have a line of perfectly even snap holes. Here is where the right ab strip one will lay. Note I left the required male snap in place: Hopefully I can use it with the new setup, else I'll tweak things slightly. You'll see. The left side is simpler, except for the old split rivets underneath. The top snap will be laying on top of the top side rivet on each side, but I spaced the other snaps to avoid the rivets. Last I went ahead and hammered in all of those snaps to the webbing. Ugh. Here is where the left ab strips will lay: Next is the connecting strip, using 2" webbing. I taped the two strips into place, put the 2" webbing over it, and feeling where the snap was underneath, marked the location for the female snaps. Done! The other side looks nearly identical, of course, except I left off the upper left snap to place once everything is glued in, since that one will hopefully utilize the existing ab-mounted male snap. I wanted to use small clamps that don't put excess pressure on the plastic, to avoid any warping issues with the E6000, so for tonight, I'm only gluing the kidney-side strips. (I have a limited number of these very small clamps) Tomorrow I'll glue the ab-side strips, and might try to get the new chest snaps installed at the same time.