toxication

I am working on a new neckseal, with velcro to the bib so it stays in position better when worn on top. Didn't think of trapping the tramp to the chest yet. Might experiment with that a bit indeed. And comfy, well. My first troop was a 10km hike in it, so yeah.. it is well worn in by now

Had my first few troops in armour the last few weeks, feels very good and comfy. I do have a few kinks I want to work out. First and foremost: the elastic straps between chest and back pull out somewhat when wearing the armour and my shoulderbells are attached. Any suggestions to resolve that? Secondly: I use a TrAMP, so basically an aker underneath my armor. I prefer wearing my neckseal inside my undersuit, however then you (I guess) see the strap of the tramp in my neck. Any ideas there? Or let me rephrase, how do you peeps do that? And lastly, the tramp pushes my chestplate out quite a bit, makes it a bit less comfy. Any interesting suggestions how to fix that? I was pondering to somehow work it into the backplate?

Whoop whoop!! Received my approval last Saturday !! Adding TK to.the TI and TN designations... now mentally prepping for my first troop in TK.

I do believe it is looking pretty cool Background and scenery is not hte best. But at least here I had some OK light. Crap to make proper photo's when the weather it overcast. And I had a small mishap while getting suited up. My son handed me my helmet:

For my left thigh I have a weird little gap that simply doesn't want to be closed anymore. For now leaving it like this and going to discuss with one of our ABS guru's here in NL whether he has ideas to shape a piece the right way

so far what I have seen is the ABS hand covers on flight gloves, which is going to be my go to thing. The rubber globes came with the kit since it basically is completely ready for centurion. I am however going for basic approval for now. then I will look into what might need to be done for centurion

So... I did this this evening: Still not 100% happy with the butt plate, but it is a lot better: Tomorrow I will be finishing sanding the buttons in the right shape and stick those on there, Also really want to tighten the padding in the bucket a bit more, feels too movie for comfort yet. But ... Almost!!! I do feel massive in this costume btw Oh yeah, also got to finish the ABS hand plates so I can wear the custome with my normal nomex gloves instead of these sweat things But that is not needed for approval.

I stopped yesterday evening since I wasn't 100% sure how far back they should be. Moving them inwards more is the easy part, getting them out would be the difficult part

Mesh installed in the hovi tips Cleaned up the blue stripes and put the ears back on:

I did do that on a small split I had on the left knee. The back gaps however were really hardly fixable. The little bit that is still there now is potentially fixable. Otherwise I might still go for what @ukswrath proposed. I do like the look like this more than with the back fully trimmed away though.

stripes and lines on the bucket: Still some cleaning up to do in there, but over all quite happy with these. The blue lines really did drip quite a bit unfortunately, but nothing a tootpick cannot fix The lines on the dome are also nice: I had these gaps on the back of my thighs, which I didn't like at all. So was looking around and made a pre-emptive modification to my legs, took a half moon out so I can walk easier and the gap is a lot less visible. Still need to clean them up a bit more but the raw image now is something like this: Didn't get around to a trial fit today, instead I painted all the split rivets that need painting. Hopefully tomorrow and otherwise definitely tuesday a trial fit again. Need to order some tactical helmet padding for my bucket, since that foam that comes with it does not make the helmet comfortable at all.

No, didn't do photos, but the bottom part was still wide while the top part was looking good. So mainly using a bit of hot water to close the bottom in a bit. I am using the watermethod as little as possible. Not really fond of bending the ABS. I have bad experiences with that on my ANH Tie bucket

tried the butt plate with snaps more in the corner, but that doesn't achieve the goal, Well in all fairness it sort off achieves it but not in the right way. the corners are now pulled in, but the bottom part still stands out, resulting in really oddly shaped hips. So, going to try the watermethod after all. Fixed the elastic in the shoulder bells to go across the biceps, Finally closed the split rivets on the thigh ammo pouch belt. Now fixing the drop boxes to the canvas belt.

I have indeed used the boiling method for small parts, also for my 2 tie costumes. No idea how to apply it to the butt plate indeed. So trying the snaps more to the edge first. it feels flexible enough indeed.

I still need to do the strap within the shoulder bell, around the bicep. the strapping between bicep and forearm is in place and I am actually planning to shorten the one on the left a little bit to pull my forearm up a tiny bit more. The idea of the strapping more to the tips of the butt plate sound like a very very much more attractive idea than changing the full shape indeed If I don't have to screw around with boiling water I'd rather not. going to investigate that right now! as for the height of the biceps, the right one is a bit more tight around my arm than the left, so might also be that when dressing I shoved one higher than the other.

Tomorrow I will try to fix the butt place, bend it in a bit more. Hopefully it will work with boiling water, not certain yet how to apply it to the butt plate, haven't tried to bend such a big piece in one go before.

So, pulled in the shoulders and shortened the strapping at the back. Looking a lot tighter already, although haven't tried it with the belt yet. Need to first fix the belt a bit so it easier fits but this is what the back looks like now:

really pleased with the progress I made today indeed. First time I had the full armor on without any bl

really pleased with the progress I made today indeed. First time I had the full armor on without any blue tape, feels like such an amazing achievement!

Lots of progress today. Had a very productive evening. Finished 99% of the strapping today: Going to tighten the shoulder bells a bit more, then I will add the straps around the biceps, Still need to fix the buttons to the stomach and attach the dropboxes. Once that is all done I have some minor paint work to do on the costume, the rivets all need a drop of white. The rivets for the ammo pouch need to be closed properly still. I also need to extend the canvas belt a bit to make it a better fit. \ I want to shorten the coverstrip on the right upper leg a bit so it looks better. Next time I put the full costume on I will also pay a bit more attention to the alignment of my calves closing, doesn't look nice like this. Fortunately I am using velcro there so that is really easy to do right. Also considering shortening the elastic on the left elbow a little bit to pull the lower arm in a bit more. Another tiny detail to be added: elastic bands on the shoulder straps. This Sunday going to finish the helmet as well. For completeness sake:

Belt is done now.: Since I put chicago screws through the canvas so it is adjustable if needed. The screw side is on the canvas side. finally put the ammo pouches on the thigh as well: Put it lined out on the coverstrip in the end. Still need to paint the rivets, but first need to fully close the split rivets. For the rest spent the evening putting in the majority of the snaps, still have 3 to go now. Also prepped all elastic to be able to do a full fitting later on this week, hopefully this weekend. And of course, not to foget, the rivets in the kidney plate are in place as well And yes, these also get painted last Just to show, they really are the split rivets: So happy to be almost done!!

Update time! This weekend made a lot of progress. First and foremost, thanks to @VulpX for the help, support, guidance and steady hands with making my bucket awesome! Vocoder is nice and black as well now: Still need to install the mesh behind the teeth and in the hovi-tips. Next up: I finally prepped the dropboxes. Got the elastic band attached: They are all pretty and closed, although not glued closed yet, since I ran out of e-6000 this weekend. Drilled some holes and installed the rivets in the stomach plate: Nice authentic split rivets from trooperbay Removed the last bit of edge from the ammo pouch for the belt. Cut the corners, without cutting corners The ammo pouch is connected with chicago screws to the canvas belt. Next up, get the cover buttons a bit smaller and put them over it. But again, need some e-6000 first Placed the shoulder straps on the chest plate. Fixed the strapping for chest and back plate, added all strapping from shoulders down to the lower arms. Added the snaps in the chest plate for connecting to the ab-plate. Added the first snap on the left side of the ab plate and again, ran out of glue to awaiting more glue to finish placing all snaps. Also fixed the belt for my upper legs, attached the strapping to the upperlegs and belt so I now have wearable upperlegs. Todo this week: finish closing the calves with velcro, add more snaps all over the place so I can finish the strapping. Get a bit more help from our Attache to get the ammo pouch properly on the upperleg. Hopefully we will have a chance this week or next week to finish the stripes on the bucket as well, so that one is just checked off.

Not much progress at the moment unfortunately. I have decided how to put the ammo pouch on the thigh though. It will get less overlap on either sides so that I can line up the middle box with the coverstrip. It does look prettiest. I was hoping to move along with the bucket a bit, adding the stripes. I have this wonderful template, but it seems on the large side. So decided to first check here for tips. How fer should the stripes go? Mainly at the front, since at the back it will be part obscured by the ears of course

Thanks for the beautiful detail photos But it was indeed just to see the length, not the placement just yet. In these photos the corners merely look rounded, I understood that the bottom corners should be more than just rounded? As far as the straps around the biceps, glueing them in it will be. A lot easier than snaps.

Pondering how to connect the elastic band that goes around the bicep. Just glue it down, or do that with snaps as well? Snaps is the pretty option of course, but that is really not needed on this one I guess.