TKSnake

Barrel pt 2 and Receiver Assembly I finished printing out all the barrel parts and tripod parts. At this point, the only pieces left to print are the t-tracks. I finished glueing the inner and outer barrel assemblies up to the muzzle parts, except for Muzzle pt 5 that goes on the ned of the outer barrel. The other muzzle parts were glued together. In the image below, the muzzle is placed on the inner barrel but not glued, so that I can paint and finish the assemblies separately. The reason why I couldn't cut the outer barrel when it was mis-assembled is apparent when the inner barrel is inserted. They need to match perfectly at the muzzle so both assemblies connect there. For the receiver, I installed some shallow screws on the structural reinforcements I added, after drilling pilot holes, for additional strength and to help keep parts aligned during epoxy gluing. After using CA glue to add some structure for the electronic trigger switch (discussed next), there was nothing left to do but epoxy the front and rear right receiver pieces together. One the right side had cured for an hour or so, I dry fit and clamped the left receiver pieces to the right receiver assembly to ensure that there was no bowing an that the left pieces would be able to be bonded without issue. I finally obtained the fast action switch I want to install in case I decide to install electronics later. I wanted to mount it on the mounting arm on the right front receiver part, but I had to highly modify it to make way for the electrical contacts. After that, the arm was flimsy, so I printed some custom supports using MS 3D Builder to make some simple shapes to CA glue into place before major assembly. Once those were dry I bonded the right receiver pieces together as previously described. Then, I CA glued the switch into pace after adding lead wires for future use. Once the right had cured more, I commenced to epoxy the left front and rear receiver together, insert shallow screws in the reinforcement, and then immediately exofy that sub-assembly to the rest of the receiver. I had to use all my clamps for the latter. Notice that the left rear piece is missing the grip. For future electronics installation, I decided to make the left grip removable in order to install a USB battery or other components, since getting into the hollow grip without a removable panel would have been extremely difficult with everything glued together. I fastened a mini rocker switch into the panel to turn any future electronics on or off. I could have mounted it elsewhere but it was an easy instal that required little modification of the model. The additional blocks in the right receiver's handle are for mounting screws for the panel. The reinforcement on the other part of the left rear receiver also doubles screw mounts for the top of the grip panel. When the panel is mounted, it looks like it a natural part of the piece. Finally, the tripod legs are two parts each, but like the barrel parts, only connected together with weak, tiny tabs. I created some scaled-down sections based on the same legs, printed them, and inserted them in the hollow section of the legs to act as reinforcement. While I glued the left receiver to the right, I used the extra epoxy to glue the tripod legs together, and the front sight to the muzzle. Then I laid everything out on the garage floor. I do need to finish assembling the receiver top door, but other than that, I'm going to wait until I get the spray resin I purchased so I can start finishing assembly. The idea is to sand and apply a coat of spray resin to smooth the parts and also add additional strength before fine sanding, priming, painting, drybrushing, and a matte finish. More to come...

It's certainly worth future consideration, although one might have to worry about dirt and grime building up on the clear parts over time. I've also had to tear parts apart and glue them together due to bad layer lines, probably due to some extruder clogging. Overall, the epoxy joints seem to be stronger than layer lines. One thing I kept in mind was the "grain" of the print. most of the outer barrel was printed vertically, and the inner barrels printed horizontally, in order to "cross the grains" and further increase strength in the barrel especially. Overall, I'm considering doing a light resin coat on the outside before sanding, priming, and painting. Epoxy's an option but I would have to whip up a lot of small batches and apply it as evenly as possible to avoid pooling, which might be tricky and sticky. I'm currently researching spray-on solutions as I finish initial building.

Barrel: Overcoming More Poor Design Issues Waiting to get to the electronics shop to get the switch for the receiver's trigger assembly, I started focusing on printing and assembling barrel parts. The barrel consists of an inner and outer barrel, along with miscellaneous parts for front & rear braces, front site, and the end pieces for the muzzle. The main issue with these parts, like with the receiver, is that, besides some small male and female tabs, there's very little in the way of strong joints on these parts - they're all butt jointed together without any overlap or increase in surface area to make strong adhesion. Taking what I did with the receiver, I used MS 3D builder to slice up some barrel parts and make small connector pieces that would fit inside the barrel pieces, like pipe joints in plumbing, but inside the pipes instead of outside so they'd be hidden from casual view. This took some trial and error, but eventually I found some pieces for the inner and outer barrels that would be close enough but not snug, so I could easily CA glue them in place, and then epoxy two or more pieces together. For the inner barrel pieces, I printed these horizontally since their cross section would not offer a lot of surface area for printing vertically, even with brims. Thankfully, they also didn't require inside supports, making them super easy to print, with only the brim and a slight flat section to remove. I also decided to print these pieces in gunmetal instead of black. Ultimately, these pieces will be inside the outer barrel and not very visible, so I plan to only lightly sand, polish , and paint them in matte clear coat to preserve the PLA's actual color. Some of the muzzle pieces will also be painted in gunmetal but will have some paint and weathering added so they don't stick out too much. The inner barrel had 5 pieces number from front (muzzle side) to rear (receiver side). The outer barrel also has 5 pieces but numbered 1, 2a, 2b, 3, and 4, for no apparent reason. The outer barrel pieces were harder. I printed all but one vertically. Outer Barrel 1 was particularly tricky because it has holes near the very end of the print. I printed the pieces from last to first, starting with piece 4 (with the screw post) to 1. Pieces 1 through 2b I printed vertically, as seen here with the inner barrel counterparts. Piece 2a was high and popped off the print bed during printing (below, center). I ultimately printed this horizontally after running a small test print for feasibility, and although structurally sound, will require a lot of post work to remove print lines and support leftovers. I had the worst time with Outer Barrel 1 (which I'll show in another post). After about 5 attempts and a lot of filament, I discovered on Cura (my slicer) that I could uncheck the "print brim on outside only" to also print the brim inside the hollow part of the piece, and increase surface area to successfully print it vertically. Of course, I ran out of filament after printing about 95% of the piece, so instead of reprinting it again, I used 3D Builder to slice of the missing part, print it separately, and glue it to the end. One of the reasons I ran out of filament is because, for Outer Barrel 3, both ends are the same and aren't keyed to any particular direction, so if you don't check the Sketchfab image, you can easily glue it backwards, which is what I did, and the holes aren't in the correct position. Here's what that looked like: Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until after the pieces were permanently bonded with epoxy. Because sawing them would change their length, which needs to match up precisely with the inner barrels, my only recourse was to redo 15 hours of printing. Again, I was caught off guard by bad design. So.... while I reprinted those pieces, I used the bar clamp on the inner barrel pieces. Inner barrel pieces are easier since they are keyed in one direction and easier to ensure they don't get messed up. The reinforcement inserts were placed with CA glue, and then the pieces were epoxied together for extra strength. Once I had the outer barrel piece printed (AGAIN), I was able to use the bar clamp to get them in the CORRECT order and epoxy them together, shown below. Note how the holes from Piece 3 (the bigger diameter piece on the left) are right up against piece 2b. Also note: piece 2a NEEDS to have the holes oriented on the bottom so the tripod holder can be mounted correctly. Mounting the tripod holder first can help you keep track of proper orientation (Piece 4's flat part on far left is the top of the barrel). After piece 2a but before piece 1 is the AA mount. Piece 1 will be added with corresponding muzzle piece later. For assembly with epoxy, the bar clamp is indispensable and keeps the right amount of pressure on the pieces until the epoxy sets, and makes it easy to make sure the assembly is very straight (super important for barrels). Between this, the extra reinforcement parts between the barrel parts, and using 4 wall prints and 30% infill, I'm hoping for something stronger than the average PLA prop. Finally, I printed out the last of the inner barrel pieces and reinforcement parts. There's a muzzle piece between piece 2 and piece 1 which I also printed out in gunmetal. I'll finish up the barrel more after I get more printed. Until then...

Receiver, Pt 2: Reinforcing a Poor Design Late replay as I've been pretty heavily invested in this build, but I'll make new posts in the context of when the photos were taken. Also going to update the original post to include tools I've been using. I decided to build the hollow receiver; eventually I might add electronics, and it would be terribly easy to hide most everything in a hollow receiver. Printing the receiver parts required a lot of supports. I was apprehensive at first, but with the matte black PLPA, they popped out without issue. The hollow receiver is printed in four quadrants. I started with the rear quadrants to ensure parts would match up. Test fitting the stock was very satisfying. Eventually I was able to print all the parts out without too much effort. For all receiver parts, they were printed with the seam down and outside up, so that supports marks would be on the inside of the pieces. For the rear site, If I had to print this again, I't probably do 100% infill. The bottom ring is thin and fragile near where it connects to the rest of the piece, and I had to glue it back onto the main body after it cracked during test fitting. It should be strong enough now but I still think it may break in the future. I did some preliminary fitting of the top cover to the receiver parts. It required sanding down part of the rear lip so that the door could come down far enough to close over the rear receiver. So far the build parts have been clean and crisp. However, the one thing that bothers me about this kit is the lack of connector parts. For example, although the left and right sides fo the receiver have connection and alignment tabs, there's no such luxury between the front and rear right parts. For one of the most vulnerable joints in the build, where the weight of the butt stock and barrel assembly will be centered, there's nothing but a simple butt joint, the weakest of all mechanical connections. Finding some parts on thingiverse (later I would build custom parts with MS 3D Builder) I created some reinforcement shims the help keep the pieces together. Between these, using epoxy, and perhaps even spare hardware fasteners like shallow screws, I'm hoping this will be enough to keep the thing from possibly breaking in half during a troop. More to come soon as I have done a lot more since this.

Receiver, Pt 1 After printing out the stock and a few other parts, I was starting to run low on filament. It was too close to call, and I didn't want to leave a print running overnight if I wasn't there to pause the print and change filament, so I paused it overnight. Before I did, I made sure to pause the print right at a new Z-axes increment (horizontal slice) in case something happened. And something did happen. When I tried to resume the print the next morning, the printer went to the last point on the print... and simply did nothing. Not about to lose hours of printing and filament, I decided to alter the gcode directly until I found the z position at 14.8, and start the print from there. This almost worked. the rest if the print printed out, but 1) a bunch o f filament extruded at first due to a bit of gcode I forgot to to remove and 2) the print was offset lengthwise by about 2mm. STILL not about to lose hours of printing and filament, I came up with an idea that actually worked pretty well. Because of the big pause in the print combined with the glob of extruded filament, for better or worse the to pieces of the print were very easy to split from each other. After removing the supports (to ensure they didn't get cemented to the pieces, I sanded the edges smooth with a sanding block and used CA glue and clamps to cement them together. The final product is very usable, and should only need some plastic putty and sanding to finish before painting and installation. I was right to worry though as there wasn't much left on the spool once this part was printed. I printed out some monir items and then finally changed to new filament that ended up being matte black instead of gloss. It won't matter since everything is getting painted anyhow, but if the paint scratches off, I think I actually prefer the matte black. Look how nice this charging handle came out, for instance. I finished printing out all the smaller pieces of the receiver and started working on the main receiver pieces. There will be a lot of supports for these since they're hollow (so I can fit electronics in later. More to come once the receiver pieces are finished and I get into assembly.

For a long time now I've wanted a DLT-19. I've been looking at buying one but don't have the scratch for a prefab blaster at present. But due to the pandemic, I have time, a 3D printer, and filament. After some minor searching on FISD I came across two previous build threads here and here. The Sketchfab files have been updated by the creator a bit, and included threaded screw-together parts for easier break-down and potentially part replacement should the need arise. The Printer The first tool of my trade was the Ender-3 Pro. I got this during the holidays and started with small prints and then larger ones, adding upgrade parts, the usual stuff, until I've come to a point where I'm comfortable enough with the slicer program (I use Ultimaker Cura) and the printer to attempt something if this scale. Firstly was how to print it. After reading the other build threads, this seemed like the best advice for a good mix of durability and weight: I created a new DLT-19 printing profile in Cura with the following parameters: Layer thickness: .2mm Wall thickness: 4 Infill: 30% grid Plate adhesion: brim (no need to lose a 10 or 20 hour print because of lifting, especially on sharp corners) Supports: variable - some parts only need supports for parts touching the build plate, while others will need supports everywhere (perhaps with support blockers) Other Tools Other tools I'm using for this build: Hobby knife Miniature files Sanding block Quick-release C-clamps Quick-release bar clamp (for gluing the larger assemblies and barrel parts together) CA Glue (for basic adhesion) Epoxy (for structural/ load-bearing adhesion) Ruler Digital callipers (for measuring pats to within fractions of a millimeter) The Build Buttstock After a quick failed start wherein I needed to get my print bed more sufficiently leveled and locked down, I started with something easy, the buttstock. It is in three parts; left, right, and a front cetner section. I started with the right section. You can see the walls and infill on the first photo, then the finished right part on the right photo. After successfully printing the right, I printed the left and center pieces, Once they were finished, I did some minor deburring and sanding, and fitted them together. Even without adhesive, they fit together like one piece. So far, so good. Next, I'll be starting on the receiver and grip. More to come soon.

On that note, let me know if you want me to try taking it apart if you want to figure out how it's made for customization purposes.

I ended up picking one of these up during the cast preview and of course couldn't post about it during the NDA window There's also a small compartment for sticking a passport-sized photo

Improved the shin closures with the tried & true method, thank goodness! Didn't take of the Velcro because I can't be bothered at the moment. Two systems are better than one anyhow, right? https://obsidiustk.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-road-to-swcc-2019-what-have-got.html

As for my next update, after mucking around with shin closures for too long, and in prep for Celebration, I'm finally putting in bra hooks. Never been happier to purchase bra hooks in my life! Might leave the Velcro in as well since it's just a big PITA to remove anyhow.

Oddly enough, I still see the question come up in the FB Anovos build thread. The shin post is by far my most viewed post by those who are confused by whichever shin pieces go with which. It's sort of a historical context at this point, I haven't a clue what the current SOP is. What I might do is put a disclaimer at the top stating that the build has changed over time and, honestly, point them to your subject on the matter, since I referenced your thread a lot. Would you be OK with that?

Hello all, I built my armor in 2016 but posted the whole build blog on Blogger. So here, I'm going to make an index for easy access from WhiteArmor. It will be mostly chronological but may skip around the blog's actual timeline based on my work, returning to fix things (coughcoughthighscough), etc. For a purely chronological order, the blog itself is organized as such. Also, since I'm constantly tweaking things, I reserve the right for additions in the future. Index: Unboxing: These are your first steps... Arms: Bicep trimming Bicep fitting and cover strips Bicep assembly Forearm fitting Bicep and forearm gluing Trimming bicep cover strips Forearm gluing cont'd Forearm assembly Revisiting forearm fit Trimming forearm cover strips Trimming forearm cuff for fit Strapping arms using Anovos Velcro straps Improving on the Anovos hand guard straps Making screen-accurate should straps that work with the Anovos Velcro method Legs: Shin trimming Shin cover strips Shin fitting Shin cover strips cont'd Properly mating the shin halves (Shin-gate) Shin initial assembly Shin back closures using Velcro Shin back closures using bra hooks Adding felt to shins to reduce boot wear Thigh trimming Thigh fitting Thigh fitting cont'd Thigh cover strips Thigh front assembly Shimming thighs (for troopers with big thighs) Trimming thigh tops (FOR SHORT TROOPERS ONLY) Rebuilding thighs if you removed too much material Making thigh garters Ammo pack and sniper knee trimming Sniper knee mounting More on sniper knee mounting Mounting right thigh ammo pack with split rivets Torso: Chest and back piece trimming Reinforcing the thin Anovos chest piece Ab, kidney, and butt plate trimming Torso pieces test fitting Mounting kidney plate straps using split rivets Mounting the cod piece/ butt plate strap & snaps Ab plate snaps for belt and upper right strap (Solo snap) Mounting butt plate snaps Mounting the cod piece strap and split rivets with ABS washer reinforcement Shoulder strap trimming Reinforcing the shoulder straps with scrap ABS Mounting the shoulder straps Ab, kidney, and but strapping using the Anovos Velcro straps Repairing a cracked kidney plate Painting ab plate buttons Mounting ab plate buttons Belt: Reinforcing the v1 Anovos belt Rebuilding the Anovos belt with a belt from ImperialIssue.comRepairing cracked belt plastic Thermal Detonator: TD Initial construction Rebuilt TD for better screen accuracy Helmet: Dealing with the terrible Anovos hardhat strap Anovos hardhat strap cont'd Blacking out helmet interior Replacing Anovos ear screws with screen accurate screws Replacing the Anovos hardhat strap with padding TKTalkie com FX system: TKTalkie v2 TKTalkie v3 TKTalkie v3.15 (sound glove beta) TKTalkie v4 (sound gloves & voice modulation) Other Accessories: Soft parts & boots Bracketed helmet fan assembly Bracketed helmet fan assembly cont'd Seriously overbuilt bracketed fan system Simplified fan system using 4x mini blowers HyperFirm A-Grade E-11 blaster (NO LONGER SOLD NEW) Repainting the Disney E-11 Stormtrooper blaster (NO LONGER SOLD AS NEW) Constructing a Hearing Assist powered by USB Power Bank Abating RF noise from a wireless mic for your hearing assist Non-canon accessories

Your calf halves look possibly mismatched. If you've used E6000, you can disassemble them and swap the halves and see if they match better that way with less gap.. Otherwise follow Troopermaster's sage advice.

QFT. First WonderCon I did in armor and the damn Chicago screw fell out on one side. Sour way to end a troop. Taught me to pack spares and thread lock them in

I have the Anovos suit (way back when it was on presale for $350), but it's hard to go wrong with RS Props from what I've seen and others have told me.

Agreed with everyone here. Wranglers are your best option. If you must carry something on your person, passport wallets are a good option. If you need easier access, some GMLs might let you get away with a "cheat pouch" on your belt opposite your blaster holster, usually colored black or white, where you could put some items, especially considering any medical conditions. I use one for conventions.

Digging this build. Looking forward to seeing more

Agreed. Bondo is great for auto body work, but for building armor, most of it is butt joint or overlap, depending on the armor and CRL; in either case you don't need a seamless fill. Unless you're building a FO TK, where you do need seamless joints between two armor pieces, I'd stick with E-6000.

Soldering 101 If you've always wanted to get into soldering your own electronics for cosplay but have never picked up a soldering iron before, I've created some tips on how to do basic soldering, based off my personal experience on doing soldering as a hobby and for the US Military. The Basics of What You'll Need: Soldering Wand or Station Soldering sponge or metal tip cleaner Solder Flux Soldering Clamps (like Velleman Helping Hands) Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol An old toothbrush Assorted wiring shrink wrap If you'd like to know more, please read on. Soldering Irons Cheap soldering irons can get your foot in the door. As long as it can melt solder, you have something you can work with. Simple soldering wands are the main way people do soldering. However, if you want to get into good soldering, a solder station will be a better option for a number of reasons, but most importantly because: Soldering stations have a built-on solder iron holder. You don't have to worry about dropping your iron, which can be dangerous and cause bodily harm or damage property. Most stations have a sponge holder, which is important for cleaning the iron and making clean solder welds. You can control temperature. Soldering wands always operate at full power, meaning that tips wear down faster due to oxidation; plus, there's a higher possibility of damaging components at high power, especially when soldering on Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). Soldering stations typically have a temperature dial. For about $30 - $50, you can get a decent soldering station with adjustable temperature. For example, the Weller WLC100 is a great beginning soldering station, doesn't cost much more than a stand-alone wand, and includes a sponge and temperature control (my non-endorsed, honest opinion). Tips are more expensive than budget tips, but rightfully so - they'll last longer than budget tips too, especially if you use my Best Practices tips below to help ensure their longevity. When I was in the USMC, I was trained on Pace PRC-2000 workstation. I'd love to have one since it does soldering, paste dispensing, has a de-soldering vacuum, etc., but as they cost over $5000 they're a but out of my price range at this time Types of Solder Electronics work is done with solder, which is a blend of tin, nickel, and sometimes a touch of lead to lower the melting point. Typically, I use standard 60/40 (60% tin / 40% nickel) solder with a rosin core. For health issues, ironically, lead (if using leaded solder) isn't as big of a fumigation problem as the rosin flux inside of the solder, since lead doesn't boil off until it reaches ~2000 degrees F (most soldering is done only at ~400 - 500 degrees F). Rosin helps the solder adhere and melt, but is a sticky, tarry substance that can build up in lungs over time, like tar from cigarettes. Make sure to solder in a well ventilated area, and blow fumes away from your face when soldering. Most solder has a flux core to help with solder jobs. For electronics jobs, we use rosin flux, NOT acid flux (which is used in plumbing). You can also use solder without flux, and use extra flux instead (which is what I personally do). Look below for more info on flux. Flux Most beginning soldering jobs fail because they don't use extra rosin flux. I can't emphasize how important flux is in creating strong, clean solder joints. Although there's typically flux already on many solders, extra flux can really help solder a joint together. Flux cleans any oxidation and helps lower the surface tension of the solder, so it can better permeate the solder joint and create a strong weld. Just a small dab per joint is all you need. It does leave a sticky film afterwards, which you can clean up using my Clean-Up tips below. Best Soldering Practices When soldering, using the following steps help ensure a clean, strong soldering joint: Apply solder to the joint, NOT the iron. Apply flux to the joint, heat up the joint with the soldering iron, and add the solder to the hot joint. Using clips can help keep joints stationary while soldering, especially when soldering two wires together, for example. This leaves your hands free to apply flux, the soldering iron tip, and solder. Keep your soldering iron clean. Before you start a solder joint, run the tip of the iron across your wet sponge quickly to remove oxidation. Always use non-abrasive methods to clean your iron to ensure the nickel outer shell lasts as long as possible. Prevent tip oxidation. While your iron is idle, tin the tip with some solder to protect it against air, which causes oxidation. Turn your iron off if it's going to be idle for longer than a few minutes. Replace your tips as necessary. Over time, the end of the tip will become irregular, as the outer nickel outer shell wears off and the tip's iron core is exposed, which oxidizes and wears out faster. When this happens, you should discard and replace the tip. Otherwise, your solder jobs will start getting chunkier and chunkier, leading to bad joints and faulty circuits. Solder Joints Tinning Whenever you solder stranded wires (wires made of smaller wires, like in most flexible wiring, it's important to tint eh end of the wire. This is done by applying some flux and then soldering the end of the wire with a hot iron and some solder. Tinned wires are easier to work with, and provide a little extra solder when soldering the wire to a board or another wire. Hook Joint When soldering wires together, one technique you can use is a hook joint. It's easier when using helping hands but can be done also via gravity (dangling one wire from the other during soldering) so long as there's no weight load on the wires. Tin the end of both wires to be joined If the joint will close the connection, remember to slide shrink wrap down the wires to be shrunk later Use a needle-noise pliers or round pliers to create a u-shaped hook on the end of each wire Hook the wires together, and crimp the hooks on top of each other Apply flux to the joint, then solder with a hot iron and solder Apply shrink wrap to cover the solder joint Butt Joint Butt joints are harder and require your clamps or helping hands to hold both ends of the wire together during the solder weld, but are sometimes necessary when wires are close together or you want to keep shrink wrap from bulging to make installation wire mesh or the wires themselves easier. It's similar to the above procedure, but with fewer steps. Tin the end of both wires to be joined If the joint will close the connection, remember to slide shrink wrap down the wires to be shrunk later Use the helping hands to place the end of one wire on top of the end of the other wire Apply flux to the joint, then carefully solder with a hot iron and solder without disturbing the placement of the wires Apply shrink wrap to cover the solder joint Through-Board Joints For Velleman MK136 and other solder kits, your solder joints will be through-board; that is, the component leads will go through the top of the board, and soldered on the bottom of the board. When doing through-board soldering, remember to get your components set up first and trim as much of the lead off as your' comfortable with (using masking tape to hold components to the board while soldering also helps). put on some flux, and get the hot iron to touch both the lead and the pad before adding solder. Remember to only use as much solder as necessary to connect the lead to the entire circumference of the pad. Surface Mount Soldering Surface mount components are what most modern PCBs use, wherein micro-miniature components are soldered onto the top of the board, typically using wave soldering, or paste soldering and heat guns. These are advanced manufacturing techniques and not currently part of this how-to post. De-soldering If you need to de-solder, such as removing pre-fab components from a PCB or correcting a mistake (like soldering an LED backwards), de-soldering is typically done in two ways: Wicking braid: This is copper broad that is placed on top of a soldering joint. A hot iron is placed on top of the braid, which wicks up the solder as it melts, like a paper towel. The braid can get hot during de-soldering, so take care to not get burned. Solder vacuum: While liquefying the solder joint while applying the iron, a small vacuum is placed near the joint. When the button on the vacuum is pressed, the vacuum engages and suck up the liquid solder. Although this method doesn't require any disposable braid, I find it less useful than braid personally. Some high-end soldering stations include a de-soldering tool, which is essentially an iron with a hollow tip which acts as a vacuum. However, these stations can be quite expensive. Insulation and Shrink Wrap When you're soldering wires together, it's important to add shrink wrap to each conductor so your wires don't short out. Think carefully when soldering, as often times you'll need to apply shrink wrap before you solder, since you won't be able to add it after the solder joint is made. You can shrink wrap with a heat source, like a lighter or heat gun. The former works well enough, but remember to move your heat source around while shrinking to avoid charring the wire or shrink wrap. Heat guns work better in this case since they are less likely to char. Use shrink wrap just large enough for the job, to ensure it shrinks to a nice, snug fit. For some joints, you might need two different gauges of wrap - a larger one to cover the joint, and another to place over the end of the larger gauge, to shrink it more snug to the wire insulation. Clean-Up On the soldering kits and larger jobs, you'll want to remove excess flux with isopropyl alcohol and an old toothbrush or disposable towels. Alcohol cleans up the stick flux residue without corroding or damaging the components. An old thrombus is stiff enough to scrub off the flux while gentle enough to not damage your components or solder joints. Clean your soldering iron sponge or tip cleaner after your soldering sessions. You don't want to get old solder back on the tip while you're trying to clean it. After everything else is clean, remember to clean your hands. Flux is a stomach irritant and can lead to GI discomfort. Like your solder projects, you can clean flux from your hands with some rubbing alcohol and light scrubbing, and good 'ole soap. More Information: You Tube: How to Solder (from CuriousInventor)

No updates yet, but I might have a lead. If I hear anything I will let you know.

I can check with my garrison. What size?

I'm new to the RO CRL. You can use the Black Series bucket for the CRL? If so, that's pretty cool

Problem: You cut your thighs too short Did you get ahead of yourself? Did you try fitting your thighs for movement and then discover there's waaaaayyyyy too much black between where the top of your thigh stops and where your belt and ab plate start? Oops. You could buy new thigh pieces and try all over again. But if you have some scraps (including the pieces you just cut off, or even some larger cut-off sections), some ABS paste (for ABS kits, mode from other ABS scraps dissolved in acetone), or filler putty for non-ABS kits, you might be able to correct this issue - although it won't be fast or easy. Like you often hear when building things, it's easier to remove material than to put it back, and you're going to have to put back some material, ergo, not easy. My experience is with the Anovos ABS kit, so if you're using PVC, HIPS, etc. your filling method might be different, and you will probably have to paint afterwards, but the theory is still the same. First, start by fastening some spare scrap to the inside top of your thighs (using ABS paste or CA glue) to act as a backing to the pieces you'll need to re-add. Add a copious amount of ABS paste or filler to the top of the thigh pieces, and then glue to cut-off portions back onto the thigh as close as possible, sandwiching as much of the filer in between as possible. You can also use CA glue for faster set-up, but you'll have to work more quickly. Plus, this will leave a seam of CA glue between the visible joint of the two pieces, so if you don't want to paint afterwards, this method may not be as desirable. You'll want to ensure the facing portions are as flush as possible. You can do this by using clamps (and perhaps a flexible straight edge), clamping one side to the main thigh and the other to the re-added portion. This is necessary to not only avoid unnecessary sanding, but to ensure that the pieces were as continuous as possible for a good look. Make sure to give the filler plenty of time to dry so you can move directly towards sanding and re-filling. If you no longer have the cut-off piece, and you're good at shaping, you can create a new piece to re-add if you have enough stock or scrap. You can begin by taking a a piece of scrap large enough for the missing portion. clamp it to the top of the thigh piece and trace a line on the scrap as a rough outline to cut out the bottom so it will be flush to the top of the existing thigh. Then, before doing any more cutting or shaping, attach the piece to the top of the thigh using the aforementioned steps. Once the initial butt joint is set, get a general idea of the shape you need for the top of the thigh and trace a lin e for cutting. I was fortunate enough to be able to use some cuttings to help create this shape, but there are plenty of pictorial references on FISD, like the CRL and reference shots on these forums, to help convey the shape at the top of each thigh. As discussed earlier, the top pieces are shimmed back on using backing supports, glued to the thighs and shimmed pieces using CA glue, as they'll be permanently attached and require added strength, since the tops of the thighs take extra stress as they often get crammed into a trooper's hip when the leg is flexed. Other strips are also added to the sides to help retain the shape of the thigh in those areas. Once the butt joint is sufficiently set, you can cut along the top cut line to finish creating the new top of the thigh piece. To be honest, the easiest way to apply ABS paste in these situations is to just use your (clean, unsoiled) fingers. This way, you can press it into the cracks, smear the more liquid paste like finger paint, or sculpt more solid paste like soft clay. When you do this, make sure your hands are clean or use silicone gloves. Remember to wash your hands when you're done. The rough ABS paste is then sanded down. Then, more paste is added in divots, pock marks, and other depressions in the armor, and then sanded down. This process is repeated several times with 100 and 150 grit sand paper until the seams are smooth for the most part. ABS paste is also added at certain parts on the top of the thigh near the edges of the added pieces, to help better secure the pieces and to maintain the shape of the top of the thighs. Use a new batch of unadulterated ABS paste and very clean thigh pieces for the last coat, to color match the thighs as best as possible, as a final coat that can be lightly sanded and polished to make a natural-looking thigh piece. Before you do this, though, you'll probably need to fix your cover strips too. You might be able to source ABS or plastic from the hardware store that matches your armor color close enough, cut to the correct width (20mm); otherwise, you might need to repaint once you finish repairs. I Was lucky enough to have some scrap strip left over that I was able to butt joint cement using regular CA glue, with minimal seaming. In my case, the scrap strips were butt joined to the existing strips using a carefully-cut matching joint and CA glue which, despite the small cross-section for adhesion, worked extremely well. Afterwards, I coated the seam with ABS paste and sanded down. When I put the final ABS paste coat on the rest of the thighs, I'll do the same here to even better hide the seam to give the appearance of one continuations piece of strip. Before moving on to the final paste layer and sanding, you may need some build-up on the edge of any fabricated pieces to function as edge return. Use filler or ABS paste, and a putty knife; build-up by scraping the paste off of the knife on the back edge of the piece. The considerable layering and build-up may require some time to harden to sand and shape the build-up to match the desired edge shape and thickness. Fill in any air bubbles in order to avoid edge return cracks in the future. Finally, if you're painting the pieces, you should be able to rough them up at this point to prime and paint. For ABS kits where you don't want to paint, in order to get the best color match to the rest of the pieces, make some some new, pristine ABS paste, making sure to use only fresh scraps in a new glass jar. This mixture should be more liquid than paste to help ensure the coating is more uniform and less thick to, reduce the amount of sanding required, since it is only being applied superficially and not structurally. Once this paste is ready for application, apply it using your fingers (using clean, washed hands) like one would do when finger painting. Dab a bit onto the seam area and spread it until the paste starts to set; repeat until the seam or work entire work area is covered. After coating the entire work area of one thigh, move to the other of working both thighs. When that thigh is done, as the paste sets up fast due to its thin coat, start sanding the first thigh with 150 grit paper to remove streaks, and repeat on the second thigh. Then repeat this entire process to add a second coat. Overall, this should help minimize the seams between the pieces significantly. With that process done, it's now time for final sanding and polishing. This is accomplished using the following sandpaper grits and processes: 350 grit 600 grit 600 grit wet 1500 grit wet 2000 grit wet (optional) For the wet sanding, for those unfamiliar with the process, simply dip the sandpaper in a bowl of water to get the paper wet, and then sand with the wet paper and water. This method is used in automotive finishes and helps to polish the area before final polishing. While sanding, take care to look for deeper scratches (drying off wet areas with a paper towel to inspect work areas). If need be, drop to a rougher sandpaper or start over on certain sections to help remove deep scratches. Once you're satisfied, apply your favorite polish, like Novus 3 and then Novus 2 plastic polish, until the thighs are nice and shiny. Better! Original blog references: https://obsidiustk.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-thigh-re-re-master-ctrl-z-ctrl-z.html https://obsidiustk.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-thigh-re-re-master-pt-2-mr-sandman.html

From the desk of TKSnake From the urging of other members, I am going to port some of my knowledge over from my build blog at http://obsidiustk.blogspot.com to create a series of tutorials from info I've gathered from my first few years of building and patching ANH armor, and making electronics. Like many recent additions to the FISD, I am using the Anovos kit. I was fortunate enough to get in on the ground floor with their dirt-cheap offering. It's a decent kit, but its thinner pulls can cause cracks and wear to happen sooner. I've been patching mine as I go along, and will create tutorials that display my methods, based upon info from here on teh FISD forums as well as some methods I'm trying out through a process I somewhat accurately call "mad science." The Empire wasn't built in a day, and neither will this thread. Stay tuned for posts. I'll be editing this OP with a ToC as I create posts to make navigation easier. Table of Contents: Armor Ho-Tos: Problem: You cut your thighs too short Electronics How-Tos: Soldering 101 More added as I manage to write it

From what I know, it's not like what you have with SDCC where you have to do the "room lotto"; they'll just have hotels offering special convention rates at a first-come-first-served basis, but somebody correct me if I'm wrong.