kman

^^ I still want one of those buckets! LOL

For the record, I wasn't using the dremel on the actual rivets, but rather cutting away the epoxy ROCK that was holding the rivets in place. Yes, though, be careful with heat. I only did a little at a time. It's all small, so I needed to pull the dremel away anyway to see how the progress was going.

You could do that. Heat wasn't the issue, I'm quite sure. I was pulling at the rivet with pliers, after cutting more material away from it, when mine crumbled. I really think that cutting out the discs from behind, with a dremel cutting wheel, is the way to go. (use a razor/exacto knife to cut away the cloth part first, of course) Put on cover plates like I did, and the belt is ready to attach to the new one, no problem, and very high likelihood of success for anyone. Then take your time working the rivets out. Go slower than I did on that part, because there's really no rush. You can literally complete every single other thing in the entire armor, other than the button covers, without any further delay.

Small update from last night: (Also read as "THE END OF THE SHIN CONTROVERSY!") The shin matter has finally been settled to everyone's satisfaction, including my own. TrooperMaster was dead right, as usual. That having been settled, last night I was finally able to attach the sniper knee plate (to the CORRECT leg this time!). And on the other leg, I attached what is hopefully the last inner cover strip I'll ever need to attach. (until I build my next set of armor, that is, heh-heh!) So here are the final shin armors, laid out correctly: Note the exterior (side) curve is more gradual and symmetrical, top to bottom. The inner (side) curve is a little higher on the top, and tapers in sooner. The lowest part of the lower ankle guard is on the inside. Once that glue cures, I can deal with the back closure, finally. Just to revisit the button plate issue for a moment, here are the two intact buttons, after cutting them the f&%k off the belt with a Dremel cutting wheel. See how full they are with SOLID epoxy?!? Yeesh! And that's AFTER cutting out a bunch! Small wonder the third plate pretty much crumbled. I shot off an email to Anovos, seeking replacements (paid or free, I don't care). I'll give them some time to respond, but otherwise I'm not going to bother with any of this for now. 99.9% of the armor can be completed without the button covers, which literally can be glued on as a dead final step, so I'll let the issue percolate for a while and move on to more important things. Finally: I was cutting while extremely tired (as usual) and managed to nick my finger. So I put an Imperial Bandage on my boo-boo. Seemed appropriate.

I think I follow you. But I think I'll probably say "screw it!" and go with David's suggestion to buy a set from ATA, LOL! I might give one brief try at the DIY method with a hot coin in the gazmosis thread that Sentry linked, but if that doesn't turn out fairly well fairly quickly, I don't think I have the patience to try much more than that. Or sand perfectly smooth circles. For detail work, I'd imagine. For most work, I still like my coffee stir stick!

Nice job! All this is next on my list, as soon as my armor is finished and 501st admission accomplished...

Any idea why your thread is locked and archived?

My next door neighbor just got a 3D printer she's super proud of, and keeps asking me if there is anything I want her to print for me. I'll have to see how these power cylinders come out! Then they'll get a home on my Rubies E11 blaster. I'll post pics if it comes out well!

Elbow elastic positioning in screen-used armor: Stromtrooper armour - correct biceps-to-forearm connection:

FWIW mine was the same as yours. Tons of epoxy inside the buttons. Had to cut them out from the back and reinforce. And now I have to make at least one button cover...

The armor-building adventure continues! Or perhaps I should say "mis-adventures" in armor building? I tore off the sniper knee again, to get things 100% right. Probably "good enough" as it is, but knowing something is wrong would have driven me batty. So one more time, I peel off globs of E6000, my best friend. At least the legs themselves are finally assembled correctly! At least as fixes go, the sniper knee is easy to move. And doesn't use any precious magnets, since clamps work great on the edges. It'll have to wait for tomorrow to be glued, though (see below). Next, I decided to tackle my belt once and for all. After spending a week in the freezer, though, those damn button caps did NOT want to budge. After seeing a thread on FB where someone had screwed theirs up, however, I realized the simple answer. Stop struggling, and cut the damn things out! Very easy to patch and reinforce from behind. Then I don't have to worry about damaging the belt itself. Patting myself on the back, I cut them out, lickedy-split. (the holes you see are completely behind the button plates) Then I grabbed more scrap and made "cover strips" for the back of the belt, using my now well-honed skills at making cover strips. Glued, clamped, done. Sweet! Of course, all of that went far too easily. Because now began the task of getting the rivets out of the button covers. Apparently some people had very lightly glued setups. I did not. It's not clear in this photo, but all three of mine were absolutely cemented in there rock solid, with the entire cup filled with an industrial epoxy from hell. I had to resort to a Dremel with a cutoff wheel, sawing in at an angle to get under the rivet, and then popping it off with pliers. Two went fine, once the Dremel chewed away enough of the epoxy. Then the third literally crumbled in my hand while trying to get the rivet out. *sigh* Anyone have a link handy to a tutorial on making button covers? Moving on. Now that the thighs are done and the front "shims" have been ABS glued and sanded a bit, it's time to attach the ammo pack, finally. I drilled the two indented holes on the ammo pack. Then I placed it carefully, centering the middle "bump" under the cover stip, and wrapped it around to the sides, with the hole centered in the "ridge" at the base of the thigh armor, then drilled the hole in the place right through the first hole. (1/8" drill bit for these, btw) Stuck in a split rivet, and did the same on the other side. At least this one was easy! Moving on, it's time to start the rigging inside the arms. At some point I'm going to need to use heat to round out the biceps a bit, too, because they're a lot more oval than round, and my arms are bigger than that. It works, but it could definitely be more comfortable. I watched this YouTube video with footage of the rigging system in the original arms: Stromtrooper armour - correct biceps-to-forearm connection Key point is that the actually connection should not be down the middle of the outside NOR should it be down the middle of the inside, but rather offset. So that's where I placed the velcro loop pads, once I tried it all on and made sure the spacing was good. I haven't put the last strip in the bicep yet, where shoulder bell connects, but I'll do that on my next test fitting, so I know where the end lays inside. And lastly, I installed the cover strip inside the front of the right leg, and clamped the heck out of it. Shortly after this, of course, I learned of the leg swap / mixup, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow until I can mount the sniper knee plate on this, when the clamps and magnets come off. That's easy, though. Once I put the inside cover strip into the other leg, I'll FINALLY be done with inner cover strips, once and for all. Oh, and in other good news, my shoes arrived today! Hopefully this evening I'll be able to test fit the legs a little. I doubt I'll have time to do any sizing (cutting) or mount the cover strip, but that should happen in the next day or two, now that I can do real fittings with the shoes on. The only issue is the shoes are a bit tight. Not at all painfully so, but even with thin dress socks, they're quite snug. They're leather, and I'm sure they'd break in just fine... but while I MAY be able to get thicker socks inside, I doubt I'll be able to get insoles in there, too, even if stretched. Any opinions on whether I should try to exchange them for the next size up?

I'm sorry, I really did no intend even a sliver of disrespect, if that's how it came off. I'm new here and don't know who to listen to, beyond that you and ukswrath BOTH are clearly well-respected. So it's confusing to get conflicting answers from two apparently solid sources. Clearly one of the two knowledgeable, respected people is incorrect... how was I to determine who without asking for clarification? I guess under the circumstances, with you having confirmed your answer with explanation and reference photos (and confirmed it again when questioned on it), that I'll go with your advice. I want it right, or it'll bug me, even if it fits.. Looks like I get to tear off that sniper knee plate one more time. Wheee!!! I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to let me know.

That's odd because ukswrath, in his thread, said I had it laid out correctly, based on the same photo: Yes Who is right? I've already re-attached the sniper knee, too. As long as it fits ok, it's not a problem, right?

There should be NO return at the bottom of the sniper knee. Take it all off so it fits flat. Ukswrath did this as well. I believe the TD straps are supposed to be flush to the caps. Did you shorten the pipe at all? I believe I've read in a couple of places that it's about 1/2" too long.

I did this for my build. Worked great! One tip: If you're using pencil, you'll get lead all along the relatively rough side of the shim. Looks terrible. But turns out it sands off really easy.

Not all. I've seen a number of reports of issues. My button covers were filled FULL with some sort of hellspawn epoxy. I had to finally cut them off the belt (from the back) with a dremel, and then I just patched the back of the belt, since the button covers will cover the damage anyway. That was actually easy, once I gave up on "gently prying up the button covers". The hard part was then getting the rivets out the solid epoxy they were embedded in, inside the button covers. I finally had to use a dremel with a cutting wheel on THAT, too. Went well except for one. And now I have to find a way to make a replacement button cover...

I've just been reading up on Centurion submissions. Based on discussions in there, a split ab is fine as long as the shim is covered by the belt and there's no noticeable dip/bump. Shims aren't as scary as I first thought, particularly if you're not so large you need more than 3-4" shims (per side). 2" and below is easiest, because the scrap piece cut out from the the back panel (or was it the chest?) has a large flat section that's perfect for cutting shims, and since it's from the exact same plastic source, the color match is perfect. Bigger than that and you can use the bent piece that came from the ab plate, but that will have to be worked on a little to remove the bend. Still quite doable. You can see what I did for this in my build thread. I haven't had a problem with the Anovos cut lines, but some are definitely close. This part all depends on how muscular (or heavy) you are, in addition to simply tall, I think. I'm going to have to a lot more aggressive with removing returns than some smaller/thinner troopers, however. One area I'm thinking I may have to adjust is the back panel. The curve from the back panel towards the front is very sharp, and holds the back panel a lot higher than it needs to be. I'm going to try to taper the return and lessen that sharp bend so the back panel curves more gradually and thus sits a little lower. All in all, though, I think the armor will work pretty well. I'll try to get some more test fit pics on my build thread soon, although you can already see a number of them there. Lots to do yet, but getting closer every day...

Forgot? This is the 2014 poll... the Anovos kit didn't exist. Of course, when it's updated for 2016, that does seem like an obvious addition. Somehow I doubt it's far from anyone's minds, though.

Getting there. But wow, there's still such a long way to go... I checked in on the ABS paste, and I'm glad I just let it sit, because it was pretty much perfect today. I stirred the thick goop with my stir stick (wood starbucks stir stick!), and spread a thin layer over the right thigh front bit that had used a filler piece to close the gap. It looks great there, even goopy! I'll sand this down this weekend and it should really disappear (it seemed to dry within 15 minutes, but I want to give it more time). I wanted to start testing on this one, though, because if I mess up, at least it'll be hidden behind the ammo pack. Once the proof of concept is confirmed, I can start on the other bits needing this treatment, too. The shin armors are finished being reglued, after swapping the mislabeled part. Looking at these as if I was wearing them, i.e., to you, my right leg is on the left side of the photo, and my left leg is on the right. So in the photo, the sniper knee plate needs to go on the left leg armor which is on the right edge of the picture. Here they are from a lower angle, where you can see the inside calf plate sloping downward much more sharply than the outside, for both legs, much as ukswrath described in his thread: Two other identifying features I note (assuming I've assembled these correctly) are that (1) the top edge, the one that would be visible from the right, angles downwards much more sharply than the top edge you can see looking from the left. Further, (2) the ankle portions appear to dip a bit lower for the outside ankle, on both sides. As soon as I have confirmation, I'll add the inside cover strip and pop the sniper knee back on the left knee (again, the one on the right side of the photo). Shins mostly sorted, I turned my attention to the rest of the kit. The button plates for the thigh armor have cured: So I test-fit the armor again, so I could be sure where the thigh straps will hit, and added the interior loop-side velcro. Here's the full kit (except of course for the shins, shoes, thigh ammo pack, corrected belt, TD, a LOT of fine-tuning...). It's starting to look a lot more like real TK Armor! Next step is to glue the interior cover strip on the back of the left thigh. I prepped a strip, and like the right thigh, I decided to incorporate a bend to follow the lip ridge, which closes the small gap in the back nicely, from behind. This is the last inner cover strip I'll have to do, other the shins! YAY! I love the way it looks, but what a pain. I loaded it up thoroughly with magnets, because the thighs definitely have more of a curve to them than other pieces. OH! Great news on the shoe front: A guy on the FB Anovos group bought a pair of TK Boots (in my size) just before they ran out, and just realized they don't fit him. So he sold them to me at cost. Technically, I think I saved $0.90 or so on brand new boots (except for the one test fitting, no different from the shoe store), AND I don't have to wait until the end of next week for TK Boots to get their stock replenished and start taking orders again, and actually ship them out, and they get here. I should have them in hand early next week, which should move my completion date up by easily a full week! Once I have the boots, I can finally finish closing up the backs of the shins, so that's a BIG step forward.

Not a huge amount to report, from last night. My re-done shin came out fine, as expected, so now the other one is clamped and glued. Nothing much to see here that we haven't seen before, but: I did a quick test fitting so I could see about connecting my thigh armor, since it's a PITA that it always falls down. The stock Anovos button plates seem just fine, so I went ahead and glued them in place on the back of the ab plate. Naturally, I sanded the back for better glue adhesion, and just in case, I used some Scotch tape to cover the metal backs, in case of E6000 heat reaction. (not likely, but an easy precaution) I taped them in place thoroughly so they don't drift in position along the smooth plastic back. I wanted them to stick on really well, and my regular clamps were a hair too small, so I grabbed some beefier ones from the garage. You can't actually see the button plates, here, because I laid a strip across the top (still more scrap, just a really hard piece shaped like an L bracket and thus nice and strong) of the two buttons, so the clamp put even pressure across them. Next up is some finishing work on my side shims, and on the little filler tabs I installed on the thighs. Gotta take care of those before I attach the ammo pack to the end of the thigh, else I won't be able to get to it later. So I had my first foray into the fun-filled world of ABS paste. I'm not ready to actually apply until tonight (perhaps), but I thought I'd prep it. I've been stuffing small scrap plastic bits (powder from the belt sander, curly-cues from edge cleanup, etc., along with some hand chopped little bits, into a baby food jar I had. (I have a bunch saved from when my dog was a puppy, as they're really handy for small stuff like this!) I added perhaps a teaspoon of acetone (no measure, just eyeball a splash) and let it sit for a while. I was trying to be careful not to add too much and have runny paste. I don't have a stir stick handy so I grabbed one of my plentiful pieces of scrap from cutting the cover strips, and poked it a bit with that. It clearly needed more, so I added about the same again, capped it again, and later stirred it more. I think it might need still a bit more, in the end, but it's clear the process happens fast enough I can deal with it tomorrow. I'll also grab a proper stirring and spreading stick. (read: wooden starbucks coffee stir stick!) Here it is after the last acetone addition and a small amount of poking and stirring. I expect things will dissolve further overnight. I capped it, and will revisit tomorrow... Fun fact: I'm actually getting low on E6000! I picked up another tube at lunch today, so I don't risk running out. Turns out Michaels (craft store) is cheaper than Amazon; I wish I known that the first time I bought...

You can, but if the images are hosted elsewhere all you need to do it link to them here, as long as they're regular JPG pictures. You don't need to actually "attach" them to your post. Click the image button, paste in the path to the photos (like "http://www.mypage.com/stormtrooper/chestedge.jpg") and you're good to go. Usually you can go to the other place where the pics are, right click the picture, and choose "view image" (or something similar) and it will show JUST the photo, and the address you want will be in the address bar above. (This is a lot easier on a real computer than a phone or tablet)

Yup, I got my shipping notice last night, as well. USPS.

Just to wrap up last night's work, the inside cover strip finished up on my thigh pieces last night, and I'm quite happy with how it all came out. Also, the little gap at the bottom of the thigh, just above the knee, that I was worried about? The little shims I made to fill the gap seem to have worked well, too. I'll still be doing some ABS paste and sanding to clean it up, but already it looks a lot better than it did. Even as-is, you really can't see it from more than a few feet away.

Quoting from ukswrath's build thread, here. There have been many photos posted of people with the exact same shin armor issue that I've been worrying about. Here are mine: Since my shin armor clearly has the same issue others have pictured, I decided to bite the bullet, last night, and tear apart the pieces. Fortunately, they were only attached at the front, and I had not even gotten around to putting in inside cover strips, so it was quite simple. It look a fair amount of muscle to start the E6000 tearing apart, but once it really got started, it all came apart with relative ease. Frankly, the most difficult part was removing the sniper knee, even though it was only attached in a relatively small space, because you had to be careful about how it bends while pulling hard. Removing the knee plate left behind some glue reside, as, of course, did separating the pieces. The area where the knee plate attaches was sanded lightly, of course, for better glue adhesion. Once the pieces are all reassembled, I'll likely need to use some Novus 1-2-3 to repolish the section that moved to the other leg. Otherwise, the process should be quick and easy. I left the cover strip attached to one side on, so reassembly is even simpler, with the cover strip already firmly glued into position on one side. I scraped, picked and pulled all the old glue residue off as best I could (takes some hard pinching and pulling... my fingers are kinda sort this morning!), and a sponge sanding block took care of the rest. When ready to re-glue, the surfaces looked just as good as they did the first time I glued. I used every magnet and clamp I could get on there to make sure it's nice and flat, so I could only do one last night. I'll do the other tonight. Initial appearance of the clamped armor seems considerably more closely aligned than the original version did, above, so I feel confident this was the right move.

I look forward to seeing how the notch question is worked out. Meanwhile, it's easy enough for me to change, if need be.