vettereddie

Not trying to ruffle feathers regarding original strapping. Small head, star padding allowed too much movement laterally, MICH pads allowed for adjustment. Armor-wise, brackets would have made it difficult to pack the torso in a smaller box; I remove the chest and back to stack on top and fit in a 25 gal. Would be hesitant to install on the Anovos given the amount of cracking already, seriously considering running reinforcing strips around the entire inside perimeter of the chest, back, ab, kidney and butt plate. Love the Han hooks and permanent forearm to bicep straps though to keep everything lined up and tidy. Nice thing is Centurion still allows for all options, whatever works best for each trooper (hoping to submit this weekend).

Awesome resolution on the printer (assuming you didn't touch up yet), I'll have to look into one.

Blaster inside the shins, thanks for the tip. I'd been doing the nesting concept in the smaller 250-gal Husky mobile job box (sans helmet) but it's always a challenge to fit the blaster.

Definitely not too ambitious. With planning before the build should not be any extra work really. Note that Centurion only applies to the visible outer portion of the armor. Things like helmet padding and lining, armor strapping method (snaps, Velcro or brackets) and rigging (thigh garter or snap to armor) are completely up to you. If you're trying to replicate the suit as a movie prop, you'd go with the star foam pad in the helmet and brackets instead of snaps for the chest armor, but keep in mind they may not be the most convenient / comfortable / durable way to do things. Browse the forums, take a look at what other members use at troops and try any build you like. if you use e600 for strap assembly, you can always remove and reconfigure later without too much effort. My personal build primarily uses elastic straps glued to one piece and snapped to the other which allows full disassembly while cutting the number of snaps needed in half. Good luck and have fun with the build.

I've been using the foam ball (Mother's Powerball 4Lights) in a cordless drill from a headlight restoration kit. Clean w/ 1, then go 3-2 using the ball and 1 with a cloth. Just make sure not you put too much pressure and keep the cordless drill at a lower RPM. Haven't tried the headlight polish yet that came with it, may try on an inconspicuous area, especially if it has UV protectant in it.

If you're set on Anovos there isn't much to change for Centurion. - swap the belt. The top two holster screws need to be removed and patches for the holes aren't acceptable for higher level - get latex or silicone handplates. It comes with rigid ABS, they work for basic and EIB but not Centurion - paint the outer teeth. Factory teeth leave the outer corners unpainted Optional: - trim / sand the left eye. For some reason they left a lot of extra and it gives it a lazy eye look - replace the hovi tip mesh. The factory mesh is finer than the movie accurate one - replace the helmet screws. They come with pan head, countersunk slotted are more accurate - replace thermal detonator screws. They come with Philips head, if you remove the helmet screws they will work on the TD if painted black Removing the rivet covers to swap the belt can be difficult due to the hellish pink glue Anovos used to hold them on. I found it easier to partially drill out the rivets from the back side, the heat from friction will soften the glue to be able to pop off the front covers easier. Don't drill all the way thru without removing. Skip the soft goods option, you will want to replace it and the supplied Velcro is useless. Good luck w/ the build and narrowing down a vendor.

I seriously thought this was about material compatibility of ABS and rubbing alcohol, whoops. Probably not the best idea for armor parties either, at least not until after your cuts are finished and the clamps are set.

My ANH TK ran ~$64 when it physically shipped last year. I would hope it's similar for the FO box. I don't know why but their shipping estimator is absolutely horrible. Was looking at a FO tactical vest, one week it estimated $63, the next $37.

If you haven't seen it on the Garrison Tyranus boards yet, next armor party is May 21.

Wondering what the definition of "soon" is. As an owner of an ANH kit with a TFA on order, I've taken to treating statements from Anovos in the same manner as that from an Army recruiter. best of luck, I'll be following the build, curious to see what changes are made to the bucket, scooped my standard up off of Amazon last summer.

I used e600 and glued sew-on Velcro to justjoseph's silicone handguards with the duck cloth backing, along with the dish gloves. Hold is great, and excess e600 peels off the rubber gloves with moderate effort. When velcroed together, they hold well and remain flexible. Transferring them to the nomex had mixed results because the Velcro I previously put on them was a smaller contact area. In hindsight, I'd probably just glue direct to the rubber gloves and skip the Velcro. After some use, I noticed everything kinda sticks to the silicone plates (pet hair, dust, etc.) so keeping them clean if trooping regularly could be a challenge. For now I think I'll keep them on the rubber for Centurion approval and troop with the ABS on nomex.

Same as above. Nothing needed out of the box. If you just want to improve accuracy for it's own sake, in addition to the above, the ear screws (pan head) can be replaced by countersunk slotted. The size is M3.5 but they can be hard to find in small quantities. The screw used for electrical outlet covers is a near match and easy to find.

You can see a picture of my internal chest strapping in my EIB submittal. It's a simple process. - lay out your strips w/ the armor pieces touching and draw an outline of where you want the strap to go - put e600 on one side and lay it against the armor - tape it in position w/ painter's tape and wait 24 hours For lining up the snap plate on the other end I put the snaps in the elastic and plate, lined it up with the other end and marked again. Then I moves the plate a bit further away to glue down, this will allow for tension in the elastic and hold the pieces tight together. Don't be afraid to use a sharpie on the inside to mark, it will never be seen. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/40996-tk-75053-requesting-anh-stunt-eib-status-anovos-705/

15' of Velcro in white and black? How are you planning on doing your strapping? I see both that and snaps, you won't need both. I'd recommend 1" black elastic for the bicep to shoulder and armband, 2" for everything else, and white for the shoulder. I did use white industrial Velcro for my calves, but that was it. Found it in 6" strips at the local Wal-Mart, was able to cut the width in half to only need one pack per calf. Cut up squares of the no parking sign make excellent snap plates. You can glue the elastic directly to one side of the armor w/ e600 to cut the number of snaps needed. I did not end up needing a dremel, the curved + straight lexan scissors worked great. For magnets, you will need a LOT, 20 - 40. Buying retail from Ace or another hardware store will bust the budget, check online for them in bulk. The nickel-sized ones worked best for me. Good luck, even without an armor party, you could likely borrow clamps, magnets, paint, etc. Reach out to Anna (ID-13609), she is close-by and has previously hosted armor parties.

Based on wait for delivery alone, I'd go MTK. My Anovos ANH TK was ordered in November 2015 and delivered by Feb. 2016. However, the TFA TK ordered September 2016 won't be available until July 2017 at the earliest, and Anovos has a history of rolling back release dates. For accuracy, swapping the belt is a PITA mainly due to the infernal pink glue used to hold the rivet covers in place. For optional accuracy, tube stripes are also too low, point teeth need painting and the TD and helmet screws are wrong. They are relatively easy fixes though. The soft goods are a waste of money, the under suit bleeds into the armor, the gloves can be found for less and while I'm fortunate enough to fit the neck seal at a 16" collar, others aren't so lucky. It's nice that they do offer an option without them now. After trooping under a year I am having cracks show up in the chest plate, butt, shoulder bells, shoulder straps and back plate. I've bee making running repairs but do wonder the longevity of trooping in it, may be forced to go play in the sandbox at some point.

I did a duct tape mannequin, leaning against the wall so no stand. Only change I'd recommend is to use saran wrap instead of old clothing, makes cutting it off a lot easier. You can also tape from the feet to torso, cut the legs to not overheat, then finish the upper body. I overstuffed slighty with polyfill and newspaper, so the armor does fit tight and no sags. ------------

TK-96302 was approved in March using the stock Anovos drop boxes. The 2 - 1 X 11 inch white elastic straps would not be needed for Centurion, another accuracy thing to rivet them externally vs. the way Anovos did tucking them in. The Anovos belt will require replacement, patches for the holes aren't approvable for higher level, but other than that and the flexible handguards everything should be approvable out of the box. The Mr. No Stripes internal bracket / strap kit is nice, but as a non-visible piece internal strapping isn't defined for Centurion. For Anovos in particular, the ABS is on the thinner side so if you go the bracket route, you'll want to reinforce the return edges to keep the brackets from cracking the armor. Pretty much whatever works though if it holds the armor together in the proper places, even the Anovos velcro could theoretically get approved, though it wouldn't hold past the first troop. My recommendation, re-use the Anovos elastic but use snaps / E-600, purchase the belt and hand plates as individual items, it will be a lot cheaper and you won't end up with stuff you won't use. The Trroperbay kit seems geared to a maker that only supplies the ABS hard armor with no strapping included.

Thanks for all the responses. Gloss white and satin canyon black it is then. I'll play around with the silvers to see what looks right.

- Quality of paint The helmet comes pre-painted. Decals for the traps and ears are great, tube stripes are good but may be slightly off from the pencil width standard. Teeth paint is durable, but some kits have overspray that may need clean-up with rubbing alcohol and/or thinner (not acetone). it is missing the teeth corners being painted, but won't hold you back from basic. - Durability After about a year of trooping I am noticing return edge cracks in certain spots. Reinforce from the inside with scrap ABS, this seems fairly normal across all kits. The shoulder straps started cracking on me about midway, you will definitely want to reinforce the underside. I took a scrap piece of flat ABS from what I trimmed, heated it w/ a heat gun and wrapped it around a beer bottle to get the curve. - Ease of build Some makers come pre-trimmed, no such luck with Anovos. They do, however, provide a cut line that was built into the molds, gives an excellent guide. Because it's on the thinner side, either lexan scissors or the score and snap method with a razor work well. I never needed a dremel, and did 90% with the scissors. Do not try with paper scissors.

Congrats, enjoy the build process (both of them). Walt's Trooper Factory has kid's mini-TK armor for the second set but it may be a while before it would fit.

Good luck Jess, looking good. May want a lighter background for the E-11 pics, hovi tip mod looks good, will need to check out how it sounds at the next troop.

After a fruitless search, I'm trying to figure out the proper paint and sheen for the standard F-11D. I have quite a bit of Rustoleum Painter's TouchUltra Cover 2X in gloss and semi-gloss white from the Anovos ANH stunt TK ABS, and semi-gloss and satin canyon black. Not sure on which "silver" / aluminum would work best. Recommendations? Kit is coming w/ rubber hand grips so don't need to worry about that part.

All speculation until the revised Anovos kit is out, but if filling is required is ABS paste and wet sanding and option to avoid bondo and paint? I took this route w/ the ANH TK to get rid of gaps where the return edges joined. Was not a perfect match but pretty close from anything greater than a foot away.

The silicone look great with the Anovos armor, almost a perfect color match, same sheen.

Wow, excellent build. May need to consider Darman for a new seal, looks way more comfy.