QuartZ

I am working on some 3D printable snap plates too. After several prototypes to work through my design ideas, I came up with these two plates. They are good for Tandy Line 24 snaps, they have a 1mm deep recess that allows the plate to sit flush against the armor once the snaps are set, they feature a little bevel on the post hole for were the snap post slightly flares (this really solved some issues with earlier prototypes), and, by printing them on my print bed this side up, I get some subtle texture on the finished part so I don't need to sand them before gluing! Here's the parts in Fusion: I started with printing the double snap since I plan on using a bunch of these. Here's are some prints. On the left is the gluing side (toward the armor) and on the right is the side that the strapping interfaces with: So then I had to install some snaps to test this version (hoping that it would be the final version). I honestly made 6 or 7 prior designs and kept tweaking until I got to this. After several hammer blows here's how it looks: And the reverse side showing how those recesses allow the snap base to sit below the surface of the ABS snap plate: The printer is running a batch of them now. I'm doing 9 at a time on the print bed. I think I could fit 12, but instead I'm going to do 2 batches of 9 for a total of 18 so I have some extra. Can't wait to glue these into the armor and start on torso strapping! -Dana

Thanks. But then I wouldn't be able to finish this thing! -Dana

A few days back I was asking questions about the shoulder bell elastic and snaps that attach to the chest/back elastic. I wanted to assemble these and get some more experience with sewing. I've done a bit of sewing a long time ago for some other costumes/props. However, I haven't sewed elastic. I also wanted to get a sewing machine and this project has a few places where I could use one. So I bought a fairly inexpensive sewing machine - a Brother XM2701. After setting it up and testing an elastic stitch on some spare elastic pieces, I felt ready to try it for real. So here's the raw parts. I chose 1" wide elastic cut to 6" in length along with the Dritz size 10 snaps: I folded over one end of the elastic such that it was slightly bigger than the snap diameter. I think the folded area is a little over 1" long. Then I used the sewing machine to sew the loose edge down to hold it in place. This made it easy to handle when hand-sewing the Dritz snap and also should help prevent some fraying. The exposed edge is going to fray a bit, but it shouldn't get too out of hand with this stitch (I hope). Finally I used the same black thread to attach the snaps. This was more tedious than the sewing machine work which went really quick. Why isn't there a machine for this? Here's how they looked when I was done: I'm going to hold off on gluing these into the shoulder bells so that I can finish connecting the chest to the back first. I'm about ready to spend some more time on the torso and install those connections. Feels good to get these done and I enjoyed learning some new tools/techniques. -Dana

Wow, that's a really kind thing to say. I hope it all comes together at the end. I'm doing my best at each step without trying to do anything too crazy-OCD. The sanding is really pretty quick actually and I'm not using anything other than sand paper. The lean scissors gave me a pretty clean edge to start with! Thanks for that perspective as well. I kind of got the feeling that everyone does something a little different and it makes sense to leave the final attachment of some of these connections until the end. I haven't mounted my bicep hooks yet either as I want the shoulder bells mounted and tight to the chest/back first so that I can remove one variable. Since everything in the arms is a balancing act from there on. I figured that would be a good process. I'll leave the elastic until I get to that point. This is.a good segue to my next post! -Dana

Cool beans. -Dana

I should have checked that myself. So I just did. It looks like the Anovos supplied is 1" elastic: That clears up the confusion. Hope it helps clear up any confusion for someone else. -Dana

@ukswrath - in your tutorial, you mention using Dritz #10 snaps and 3/4" elastic for the connections from the shoulder bells to the chest/back elastic. I picked up the snaps, and when I laid them on 1" elastic they look proportionally correct to the screen used armor in the RS gallery as well as the photos of your tutorials. If I were to lay them on 3/4' elastic, the snaps would touch the edges of the elastic. Do I have something wrong here? Do I have the wrong snaps? Or is there a typo in your tutorial and you meant 1" elastic. Here's what I have/what I mean: I appreciate the double check, -Dana

Had a weird, rainy day yesterday. It was BBB Day #2. Huh? I'll explain if you forgot/didn't see my first post. I ordered my kit from Anovos back in December of 2016 and all the delays last year frustrated me to the point that I went out and got a kit from an individual who had one in-hand. Well, a little more than a year has passed and I received a shipping notification from UPS and went to go pick up the box since I wasn't going to be home to sign for it. So now I have a V1 kit and the new V2 kit. Not sure what I'm going to do with this one yet but I'm going to hang onto it for now. -Dana

I know you've been watching my thread (you post there). I've been watching yours but realized I haven't said anything, Creeper alert! Anyway. Seriously you're doing great work. Did you get any more paint work done on the bucket? -Dana

I almost forgot to post these, not that they're a big deal. I pulled the clamps and magnets off the forearms (just the first halves) and I cleaned up the extra E-6000 ooze with my 3D printed tool I've been hinting at (I promise I'll show it soon). It works really well. So here's some photos I took right before I glued up the other sides of each forearm. Right side: Left side: Gotta keep on keeping' on! -Dana

Last night I worked on the shoulder bells. First I worked on the trimming. I wanted to get the edges near the chest/back to have that nice curve we see on the screen used armor. Mine were a bit to straight/flat from my rough trim. So I tweaked it, sanded it, and was happy. I also marked the insides of the bells with the part #s and a little L/R for quick left/right reference. Once the shape was locked down. I grabbed some 1" wide black elastic (Dritz braided) and measured 2 pieces. My Anovos armor seemed to be perfect for a strip 9" in length. This gave me 2" on each side to glue down. I cut out 4 little scrap pieces of ABS at 2" x 1" to aid in clamping. Here's a look at the shoulders: I ended up supplementing the clamps with magnets as well. Once these are good, I'll work on the connections to the chest/back bridges. I already have those Dritz #10 snaps. Again, I'm just bouncing all over! -Dana

I'm watching closely as you work on your helmet. I've been impressed with all of your modifications so far. The hand-painting is certainly difficult looking. Can't wait to see the "final" product (I know you said it will always be a work in progress...but you know what I mean)! -Dana

Looks like you're moving at a pretty good pace! Keep it up and don't rush. Check your reference often and you'll do great! I didn't realize the new kits had copyright information printed inside each piece. Interesting! I wish they would have printed something more useful inside like the part numbers so that they don't get lost when you take the protective plastic film off the outside Good luck, -Dana

By now anyone following my threads (this one and my long-neglected E-11 build thread) know that I'm always looking for ways to 3D model and print parts/items that I can. So I thought I'd take a stab at those bicep hooks. Something that I wanted to do with my design was to improve the surface area that gets glued to the inside of the bicep and create a part that had flexibility and more strength knowing I planned on having the hook jog around the "top" return edge of the bicep. After some measurements of my armor, and referencing ukswrath's dimensions, I whipped up this part in Fusion 360: These didn't take much time to print out since they're not big parts. Here's 2 of them printed in white ABS: Below are some photos showing some test fittings. I used some magnets to temporarily hold them in place to get an idea of how they might mount. Everything seems to line up well (on both arms): This shot (looking at the bicep from the inside) illustrates how they get around that return edge and make a lot of good contact. I'll have some great bonds once I sand the both the hooks and armor in these locations. It even rides most of the return edge which gives me even more surface area to glue: Another note is the way I printed these (orientation on the print bed) also was deliberate to increase strength in the direction that forces would be applied to the hook. I know that the armor doesn't weigh much, but I took my first test print and put an unreasonable amount of force on the hook (trying to bend it backward so to speak) and it didn't snap. Very resilient little parts. -Dana

I'm back! I know, that was quick. I actually took these photos before my previous post was made. I just needed to clean up my work area before I posted these. So, I did my usual dry test and determined that I would use mostly my larger magnets. On the right arm I could use clamps for the ends but on the left one I found the clamps didn't fit well in the raised channel that the cover strip sits on top of. So I used the large magnets the whole length of the cover strip. I also decided to use some thin blue painters tape as suggested by others to help keep things in place. Here's the right forearm: Left forearm: Tomorrow morning I'll do the reverse side(s) and that should be that. Moving along! -Dana

Alright, it's been a couple days since I showed progress... but I was working on the armor. I mentioned before that I got all the final fitting, trimming, and sanding done on the forearms in preparation for assembly. Here's how the parts looked starting with the left forearm: And the right forearm: Tip: I've been using this technique when sanding the butt-joint surfaces to ensure good adhesion with E-6000 I just forgot to take pictures and post it when I was working on the biceps. Since the arm cover strips are 15mm wide, I measured 6mm in from the edge of all the arm parts, and ran a strip of blue painters tape down to act as a guide and protective layer so that I could hit the edges with 120 grit sandpaper to give the surface some "tooth": The photo below shows what the roughed up surface looks like once the tape has been removed. You can see where the reflections stop as they hit the rough area. Oh, and those little pencil tick marks were made to help me put the blue tape down in the previous step (they are 6mm in from the edge): I also have been using a Sharpie marker on the "glue side" of all the cover strips to denote where they go. LF = Left Front, RR = Right Rear and so on. I also consistently make these marks at the "Top" edge of the cover strips so there's no question of which end is which. I say "Top" meaning towards the sky when the armor is on. Another nice thing about the Sharpie markings is that they seem to hold up even when I sanded the glue sides of the strips. Here's a look after sanding. I still know where this one goes : That's it for this post. I'm uploading some more photos right now as I just completed the first stage of forearm gluing. Be back soon, -Dana

WOW!!! I’ve looked over these pictures a ton before to help me with other aspects of my build, but I’ve never noticed both of those tiny little glimpses of the hooks. In fact I’ve pointed out the white tape on the trooper in the second photo to friends before but never noticed it seems to be holding a hook onto the exterior of the bicep! I thought it was repairing a crack in the plastic! I am humbled by this knowledge drop and hereby retract my notion that the hooks were possibly non-canon. I just got schooled Thank you all so much. That’s some exciting info, -Dana

Got it, thank you all for helping me. Sorry if you've had to go over this a million times before. My last question for the bicep/arm connections is where did the idea of adding hooks for the shoulder elastics come from? I haven't seen this anywhere on the screen used suits. This seems like a non-canon connection that IS visible from the outside when wearing the armor. Did the original suits have any connection to keep the shoulder and bicep aligned/connected? I can't find any evidence. Thanks! -Dana

Hehe, I got all that I think you may have just caught the question in my very last post. I appreciate the reply though! I was trying to decide between gluing the elastic straight to the inside of the armor or using snap plates in the bicep and forearm as a way to secure the elastic with snaps. No matter what, I'm absolutely connecting them with 2" black elastic to match what we can see on the real suits (from the outside). I may just glue them into the suit but I'm trying to understand ukswrath's point about one method being suggested over the other. Looking to understand the preference component especially if there are any functional or aesthetic advantages to the "canon" method. Thanks, -Dana

Thanks, canon is straight glued right? If so, care to shed some light on why they are highly suggested? Only reason I can think of is accuracy. We never see the actual connections from the outside, right? Just trying to understand/make sure I don't overlook anything when deciding. I'm new -Dana

Thanks! I'm still moving along at an encouraging clip. Last night I took all the clamps and magnets off of the biceps and cleaned up any E-6000 glue that had been squeezed out of the sides of the cover strips. At first I used a popsicle stick as suggested in a Panda Props YouTube video. Then I had an idea for a simple tool that I could 3D print to help make the job easier. I'm still iterating on it, but the first version works really well! And since it's printed in white ABS, it doesn't seem to scratch or leave any marks. More on that tool hopefully later. So here's the cleaned up biceps: I still have a few items left to do on these biceps in order to call them done (please chime in if I've missed any). I think I'm going to add snap plates that connect the bicep to the forearm. I know that the elastic can be glued directly the armor, but I like the idea of being able to adjust the elastic length/replace it when it wears our simple by remaking a new elastic piece with snaps. Any opinions either way? I'm also debating wether to go with the bicep hooks on the inner side of the biceps or additional snap plates on the outer side that connect to the shoulder bells. Again, thoughts? -Dana

Over the last few days, I moved over to the arms. I started by sizing the biceps. Here's where I started with the rough trim from before: I followed all the advice I could find here as far as the fitting/trimmimg process is concerned. And I looked at reference of the original suits from the RS gallery and film stills to gauge how I wanted mine to look/fit me. After several iterations, I was able to get both left and right biceps trimmed, test fit together with tape and the sanded before gluing. Not all of the butt-joint edges are perfectly straight, but they fit nice: Tip/Hint: I don't know if everyone else does this, and I haven't seen it mentioned, but I found it really helpful to do a test run with my clamps and magnets for each piece to figure out which size/strength of magnets were needed and where I wanted them depending on how the cover strips laid down. Some locations along the length needed more pressure from the magnets because of the curvature of the biceps. I could also determine the spacing of the magnets and have a mental picture before I added the E-6000. I decided to glue the biceps in 2 stages. So, overnight the first sides were drying and tonight I was able to get the other sides glued up. Here's a photo I took of the first glue stage: I have both sets of forearm parts nearly final-trimmed as well. Just a bit more material to the left forearm and a quick sanding pass then I can cut cover strips and start gluing those. -Dana

Thanks for inspiring me. -Dana

Alright, so my Kittle belt finally fully dried (it took 24 hours) and I'm really happy with the results! It took me 2 passes with the tea dying method described by @Harbinger but I'm really glad I went for it. To recap, I wanted the belt fabric to be a warmer off-white tone than stock and slightly darker than the armor. I think this is good enough for me: Here's some notes on what worked for me, your results may vary and I tried to follow @Harbinger's instructions/advice but my results were different so I hope these notes help give others some potential hints. For the first bath, I boiled a small pot of water and steeped 3 regular sized black tea bags for 1min 30sec. I took the tea in the pot and poured it into a larger bucket that contained 16 Cups of room temperature water (this was the pre-measured amount needed to submerge the belt fully I this particular bucket). It was also an attempt to dilute the tea. I stirred the mix and let it cool a bit (maybe 1 min of cooling time, I checked that the bath was warm with my hand). I had already pre-soaked the belt when I was testing how much water was required to fill the bucket with fresh clean water... some people suggest you fully soak the fabric to help absorb dye more evenly. Next, I submerged the belt in the dye bath and gently moved it around for about 1 minute. Then I pulled it out and put it into another bucket of cool water and a bit of white vinegar. Again, I gently agitated the belt for a minute or so then removed it and let the water run out as much as possible. This was suggested to help the dye to set. I draped the belt over a coat hanger and let it sit overnight. The next morning, it was still damp, but it also wasn't the color/tone I wanted. The cool white was a bit muted, but not the result I was aiming for. I figured it was better to go this way as I should be able to repeat the process and get closer to what I wanted. I did most everything the same on the second pass except the following: 1. I increased the tea bag count from 3 to 5 this time 2. I steeped them for 2 minutes instead of 1min 30sec 3. The belt spent 2-3 total minutes in the diluted dye bath (checking the color after each minute) It's tricky, you can't tell what you've got while the belt is in the bath/wet as the color changes when it dries. It looks lighter when dry and slightly more tan than when it's wet. If I were to do it again, I'd probably do it the same maybe even use 3 passes of the same batch for more control. It just requires more patience as you need to wait for everything to dry. Sorry for the lengthy write up without photos. I just wanted to pay it forward, -Dana

Paint cured on the bracket screws. They look like a good match (they aren't tightened down in the first shot): So, I started installing all of the brackets using E6000, the screws with lock nuts, and some of my clamps: I also tried some of my smaller magnets to get some experience using them to hold drying glue: Overall I'm happy that this step is finally done. I lost some paint on some of the screws when tightening things down. Oops. I'll do some touch up later today when these parts all end up sitting 24 hours to cure. -Dana