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Revvek

501st Stormtrooper[TK]
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Everything posted by Revvek

  1. Going to have to heat bend this some to make it curve in toward the ab plate better. glued up and read for the right side. all dry. I put 2 sets over here in case I wanted more to help with vertical alignment. Not sure I’ll keep things this way now… Made more elastic straps, here I am showing the way I used the paper for hole placement. And maybe come up with a way to stop them from sticking out as well if the bend isn’t enough to help.
  2. Centurion is kind of the plan… maybe Made my left side snap strips, and glued them into each side. Used paper to figure out the pattern I ended up with. (Hard to keep everything exact) then made 2 layer 2 inch elastic straps that fit over those. (That’s Ken for the idea!) then put holes in the centers of the paper template. used a silver sharpie poked through the back to mark the snap points on each strap. I used a clear plastic scrap (not pictured) with the hole size for the punch in it to help draw the dots for the punch to help placement. And the straps are folded and glued around the snap areas with e6000 first to hold them flat.
  3. I got close to having armor to wear at Celebration 2022 Anaheim, but just ran out of time… I need to sort out the pads in my helmet to make it not ring like a bell on my head, and the current top pad that was in there, is to thick… so I’ll probably not have a top, or back one up there either. (So my face isn’t pushed into the front) wow these things are tight. I’m also not at all happy with the seam on my shims! This ABS paste filling thing is kind of a joke… may have to carve it out more before attempting this. Or I should have put he paste in the seam even before putting the parts together! the color difference also likely means I need color matched paint at some point… More updates to come
  4. Some of these red arrows seem to point to the edges of things and others to the centers, or a combination of both… 4.5cm from edge of belt boxes to center of first hardware, seems clear. both others are not so clear… 1.5cm from bottom edge of belt to Top of rivet or center? 2.5cm from bottom of belt to top of holster or center of rivet on holster?
  5. I really like the idea of making the holster easy to remove!
  6. I will refine the side elastic and Velcro in the future but for now these are connected. moving on to the kidney - ab side connections. marked out my rivet hole placement I'm not going to use these rivets for the actual connection, I will be using snaps. the original holes where patched and are not visible under the blue tape at the moment. so far I am NOT pleased with ABS patching. it's ugly. I needed just the heads of the rivets to go in the holes, so I dug out my wire saw and vice. and now I have 6 rivet heads! I pre painted them (not pictured), so they will be ready to add once the armor patching and extensions are polished up.
  7. I fiddled with placement for the holster holes, but was advised to put that aside for later after I can wear the armor. So I started to make the snap points for my back armor connections. it was tempting to put them right at the edge, but I moved them 1/4 or so away from the return so. making the snaps pull forces more sideways. (I talked to Ken about it and he confirmed that’s the best option) After the e6000 started to set, I taped the butt and kidney plates together over the return edges. then used a scrap of paper to press over the 4 snaps for one of the 2 center connections to get the hole placement on the first strap. the side connections are going to be Velcro and elastic to start with, not snaps.
  8. Next I worked on the dangle boxes got some new elastic, and decided to go with the pop rivet in the back of the box method. Before gluing the front box on with some e6000 in each corner, I put some 1/4 EVA foam inside the back box to help make them sound a bit less wind chime… I think they will do
  9. Body snaps, and belt boxes installed. to make the body side work with my snaps, I had to remove the old ones. then I discovered my snap tool would not reach! so I had to dig out the mallet and setting tools! I decided to make a small spacer for under the inside, because this armor is so thin. Checking alignment after the first snap is attached and it looks good to me.
  10. Mesh installed in bucket using black VHB tape new screws installed. Bucket just needs lenses, padding and other guts, but it’s back together.
  11. added Chicago screws. glued in place with some E6000 with a bead of E6000 around the edge of the covers ready for the belt
  12. Thanks! Wish I could put more links in my signature like yours!
  13. Oh, oh a side note… R2 got to make new friends.
  14. Assembly of new belt started as I wait on the liner to dry for a few days. centered boxes on new belt. planning to mount it with Chicago screws this time so I can work on it easy in the future. got a few…
  15. Truck bed liner applied, masking removed.
  16. I dug around for how I want to dye the belt, and for the moment I decided I’m going to hold off! to many variables to go wrong… so I’m going to use Chicago screws to hold everything on it. That way I don’t have to worry about dealing with glue later when I finally do decide to tackle this. I moved on to cleaning up the bucket for now! the eyes where just horribly trimmed. (Don’t care if some film used where just as bad!) left sill needs cleanup, but the right is cleaned up. I can live with these now. I am also going to paint the inside with black truck bed liner spray, so time for some masking. plugged the holes from the inside and then the eyes from both sides to make sure nothing gets on the outside. and used heavy plastic for the outside
  17. I will never buy any armor again pre built, that does not come with a lot of scrap material of the same color!
  18. How to get the belt to better match is the next question…. Looked up Rit dye Sweet Corn Silk looks like a great option, but finding it for sale someplace is a completely different issue…. Definitely not e6000! first cover came off with some effort using a flat end xacto chisel blade. Used a ball end burr to grind away much of the pink glue. Kind of smells a bit like epoxy or fiberglass resin…. then I used wire cutter to pop the rivet out and cleaned up the rest of the pink glue with the burr and sand paper to make room for a new rivet. The middle cover proved to be extra tough to remove! ended up with a big hole… so I patched it with a few small scraps and repaired the hole. once I sort out how to get the cream color on the belt, I can put it all back together! only with 2 holster screws not 4!
  19. I hope the difference in off white plastics fades with polishing. but gloss white color matched paint may be needed at some point... the new Belt arrived! started to dismantle the original first by drilling out the rivets from the back to make things easier to handle. and ran into an issue... unlike other places on this armor, the person who glued the belt, didn't skimp on the glue on this part... these are not coming off easy, even with the backs of the rivets removed... thinking.... maybe I can find a way to remove things through the back and come up with a different way to attach to the belt than pop rivets...
  20. after the internal backers were in, I had to thin down the shim material to better match the part edge. so I taped it face first to a small board and sanded it with my palm sander. (Difficult photo!) I then formed a return edge with a heat gun and hot iron, before using a cold solid metal block to do the final bend. (not pictured) the iron is good for playing with bending and not cooling it off to fast, but the cold metal helped lock in it. its hard to document some of this with only 2 hands! then I used solvent glue spread all over (like I did for the backers) to bond the shim to the backer. clamps are you friends, but make sure they are not squeezing to much, and that no glue is under them! they make nice dents when the glue softens the plastic if they are to strong... I have much to learn about ABS slurry application... sanded down the first try and filled in the remaining seam with more. this time using a small syringe (not pictured, but maybe next time I'll get a shot)
  21. Progress up date time! After working with TK-88667, we determined I need to add shims, and he provided me with some Anovos white scraps that will help with that! Thanks! So I have begun moving forward with that upgrade. started with cutting the return on the sides off. (Gulp) Removed the rivets Glued plugs in the holes and patched with ABS paste oh, and I don’t recommend adding paint thinner rather than Acetone to make your paste… oops grabbed the wrong can! I was wondering why it wasn’t getting more fluid… and I have started to glue in backer material (not the proper white, but it’s inside)
  22. So busy lately! Partly as described in my TK build log, and because R2 is out visiting! So, I haven’t touched this build for some time… But I did get a replacement grip! Thanks Marc! Forgot to post about it.
  23. Started to do some cleaning on my bucket after pulling it all apart. plan to spray the inside with truck bed liner, before putting pads and fans back in… (Not pictured) I also decided on how I was going to add structure to the shoulder bridges. Glueing white webbing to the underside. side note I present to you R2! He was finally publicly presentable a few weeks back! and I’m playing with how to hang buckets on my walls.
  24. Been hard to get anything done these last few weeks… my 17 year old cat Daisy died on Jan 9th. (Raised her from 5 weeks old)… my mom died at the end of Jan… and then my dad died end of Feb… but I did get around to doing something more on my armor the other day. I added elastic straps for holding the shoulder bridges down. this is how I did it. aligned the ends stapled together added e6000 heat shrunk over that and they work
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