lucnak

Did you do this on both sides? I'm curious! Been thinking about doing something similar.

Think it's kind of a convenience thing. Less snaps costs less and gluing right in means it won't unsnap. However, this could be an issue if you want to take your chest and back apart when packing. If you are going to be using a 50 gallon box though, shouldn't be a problem.

Update: belt is all done. GML here helped me out. Just awaiting my snaps, TD clips, and neck seal in the mail...gotta be patient!

Oh and you should also have no gap between your back and kidney! I think you need to make your shoulder straps longer and then you will probably have to move your shoulder bridges up accordingly.

For centurion, you will have to ensure your chest does not come over our ab, your ab buttons need to be painted, your holster should only have two rivets vice four (unless you go for hero, which has other implications), your drop boxes should line up with the ends of your ABS belt, along with everything else discussed here so far. I'm on my phone so I can't tell if you got latex hand guards and rubber gloves.

Wow, that looks like a lot to take off the biceps! Not familiar with how your armour comes out of the box, but is your bicep tight against your arm when you have it taped like that? Your bicep will be attached to your shoulder bell to keep it in place, so it should have some room in there and doesn't need to really hug your arm. In any case, I would trim off the same amount from each side. Keep in mind that your forearm cover strip should like up with your bicep cover strip (ideally), so maybe tape those up and check to see how that looks. Oh and regarding your thighs above, wait till you put your shins together. You should have some motion but not full motion at the hips so, wait before trimming.

Congratulations!! Hopefully joining you soon!

Yeah I looked at a bunch of Centurion apps before cutting mine and I saw all styles of cut outs. I cut mine to meet the cover strips and that gives me the room I need. Gives kind of a triangular look. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Think you just need to move your ab up. Hard to advise you on the ab to chest connection without seeing your internal strapping. Also ideally there is no gap between back and kidney.

Making progress!

A lot of people cut out from the knee area for mobility. Regarding your sniper knee, put some foam in the front of your shin and in the back of your thigh. Should prevent locking in.

I think he meant that the edge should be white. The mic tips are black on the outside and white on the inside...might be hard to tell white from light grey with the mesh in front. And regarding the edge, I've seen a lot of both and ended up painting them black and sanding the paint off. The helmets were treated roughly and that's how a lot of them ended up looking on screen.

I don't think it will affect basic approval. EIB/Centurion you will be asked to bring them up though, for sure. I've seen so many troopers with some pretty big issues with their armour (in my opinion - the biggest being the chest plate going over the ab plate) and that made me realize that basic isn't too hard to pass.

Legs done. I took some out of the knees to help with mobility. The thighs are really as high as they will go without creating excessive tension on my garter. I've also cleaned up some of the return edge on the thighs since this photo.

Quick question of opinion, but do you think I need to trim my thighs/shins for length to give more room between them? Note that my thighs are not held up by my belt yet in this photo - the one seen on the right is lower but would end up sitting a bit higher. After perusing some Centurion applications, it looks like most people my height have simply removed a lot of ABS from the thigh and shin in the knee area to give more mobility. I'm just wondering if this could cause problems with my ammo pack and sniper knee.

TK 1636 has a series of great videos as well. Checking out Centurion applications is very useful, as well as checking out the Pinned build threads! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which parts?

Crack it open and get to it! I had a rough plan of what order I wanted to do things though I held off all the gluing for a while. I ended building my bucket completely before anything else!

Cover strips are all on, velcro is on shins. Will be attaching sniper knee and thigh ammo pack in the next week. Also my GML is helping me assemble my belt (getting my canvas belt and holster from him) next Monday. Almost there! The big thing left is redoing the internal strapping. I have ideas for contraptions to holding everything together at ab/kidney nice and secure and lined up! Also have my TD left.

Drop boxes should be 15mm deep. Looks like you still have some to shave off their from my guess.

So unfortunately the brand of snaps that I bought makes two different sizes of snaps despite the packaging showing the same sizes. This means that some of my connections are loose due to the female parts being slightly too big and some of my female snaps aren't really well joined because my setting tool is too big. After being pretty bummed out, I ordered a bunch of Tandy snaps online last night and I am going to redo all of the strapping once they arrive. Sadly, that means delays in finishing my build! But I think thattaking my time and doing it right will pay off in the end. I won't be worrying about snaps undoing while on a troop and I'll be able to use my lessons learned from the first time around doing the internal strapping. I am moving on with the rest of my build and hopefully by the time the snaps arrive, they'll be all that's left! I'm shooting to be done by the end of the 3rd week in April. How long did it take you guys to become 501st (basic) approved? Wondering if I'll be able to troop on 1 May.

My last few days in photos. Getting there! I have trimmed the kidney on one side a little bit and aded a few more panels and rivets since these photos. Got a lot of work cut out for me this week.

Thanks guys! Troopers helping a soon-to-be trooper! Hahah.

I know I've seen a bicep hook tutorial around here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it right now! I searched the tutorial and how-to sections...

Yeah it looks like you left more ridge near the bottom when you cut the two sides of your shin. Not sure if a lot of people get asked to fix that. Definitely your call for now!