Ensi

Kind of in the same boat as you with the shin. The entire left side of the ATA kit is cursed

After thinking, hmmm, the belt might have something to do with fitment of the ab/kidney I tried with a belt and yup!! I cut my shims to half the size and I think it is pretty spot on I also went to a makerspace in Oslo today along with some other people also building TK's. I prefer working at home on stuff but this was a good opportunity to do a test-fit and also have some fresh eyes. To me it looks like this suit will fit me pretty well right out of the box Will have to do some tapering on the shim here Got some stuff from Mr. Pedigo + some elastic from a UK eBay seller Fixed my sniper knee which needed some trimming Started assembling arms as I was able to borrow some heavy duty magnets from someone at the makerspace

An honor, thank you This subforum is starting to get pretty full!

With a little bit of velcro on butt and cod the belt will sit right if the abdomen is properly fitted to you. Besides you'll get a little bit more freedom inside the suit without those edges Although I see now that your codpiece looks a bit short so maybe it was designed to be used with the edge. If you put it up against the ab piece where the edge would be and then compare it to up against the ab piece (right beneath boxes) how does it look?

Seems like it's missing yeah. But you don't really need it. You can go the screen accurate route and add all the small tabs or just attach the cod/butt with snaps as many have done Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Hey and welcome! Great choice in armor, i've seen Denis' work on the Deathtrooper and it looks amazing, his FO stuff looks pretty stellar too! It seems like you are merely linking to the photos, go into your picture on Imgur and copy the BBCode that's there and just paste it right into your post. Should display the image in your message and not just a link If that doesn't work you can check my tutorial here: I don't have long hair (anymore) so I wouldn't know but.. Can you tie it up and jam it into a balaclava? Most of us use those regardless to hide the skin and the FO helmet should be large enough for it. Looks good Yeah filling and painting should do the trick. What do you mean by the sides of the front of the abdomen? Got a pic?

I'd say line it up with the bottom/belt first, as the back should go over the top of the TD and cover it.

Thanks for the input and reference pic, Joseph! I was wondering a bit about trimming more on the knee plate and now I will, luckily I only clamped them down for the pic and haven't glued yet For the shim, after trimming the ab plate and having the webbing in place I think it will close up perfectly! And i'll be sure to follow that guide. ABS paste is a whole new beast to me

Always loved the R1TK, looking forward to this Is it going to be vacuumformed?

Thanks Tony, I just wish certain carbonated beverages weren't so good So I got some paint: Finished cutting all of my strips. I'll start assembling my parts when my magnets arrive. Went to town on the sniper knee, and did a dry fit with clamps. Looks ok? Did some more hot water bathing on the shin. Before: After (much better!) Since I also have to shim my kidneyplate, I did a testfit and they flare out way too much. In with the hot water! Before: After: I'll clean up/line up the edges, and what little "flare" is left I think the webbing is going to take care of Also ordered more supplies, 100pcs refill of Prym 15mm Sport & Camping snaps, more elastic, and E6000. I went on eBay and picked one from a US seller, should be the real deal

These 2 things really make the suit look much better! I had to trim the greeblies to fit snugly too. Also I see Jim added the bicep details in the newest version, nice

Oh heck yes

Been searching for it for the past 2 days. Nothing locally. Only one that I found only sold to registered businesses Oh well! Most of my free time this week has gone to more research and trimming/fitting. I have come to the (sad ) realization that I won't be able to do canon measurements for strips on legs. I seem to have larger limbs than I originally thought Here is the thigh taped up at 25mm in front and 30mm in back. It's a tight fit but I think it can work, there's barely any return edge left here but I may remove it all for an even better fit. I plan to have the same config on the shins to make it uniform. Also what I found strange was that this area chafes a bit for some reason, only at certain angles tho. (Most of the return edge is trimmed) In other news I put up a big order from Burkbench Designs over in the UK: Cloth belt Hovi Mic Tips E-11 Holster Some more rivets TD Tube TD Clips+Screws Neckseal And I also got him to pull me some inner drop boxes Planning on jumping on Imperial Boots next wave to get my classic TK boots. Also put up an order from a local hobby store for the Humbrol paints. Only missing chemical gloves from the hardware store and a blaster then I should be all set

Flipping great build thread dude, Jim's V5 looks great! I'd recommend you to figure out fan/mic/padding/electronics placements before you plastidip the inside of the helmet, then put those velcro patches in and mask them before spraying. This is so the velcro will stick well to the material instead of the plastidip which can be peeled off. Although i've heard many just velcroing straight on to plastidip and having no problems, it can be something you can consider doing Thigh knee-side cut looks good, most of us do it anyway (and to the back). You should also consider trimming the thigh shape (towards the cod) to make it more accurate and also more comfortable. Jim's thighs seem to be very "symmetrical", if that makes sense. I think ANOVOS gets it pretty bang on. You won't get 100% exactly like the screen used with Jim's kit though. I should've cut more on mine since my thighs rub against my cod leaving nasty marks Also are you planning to plastidip the entire insides of the armor? If it is because of the itching you only have to sand the insides with 120grit and 220grit then wash. That's what I did and I have had exactly zero itching since.

I've found out it is only the left shin that is a problem, right one has plenty of space. Without the extra material overlap from dry-fitting, another hot water bath, and classic TK boots (they seem narrower than FOTK ones) I think canon measurements will work fine. So i'm gonna go for that and hopefully it works out Trimming/fitting continues while I at the same time try to figure out where to source different stuff. Right now scratching my head a bit trying to find some pipe for my TD, in the right size and color

Thanks mate, it doesn't really feel like it as I keep running into problems to solve. But hey, what would a build be without?? So I was initially going to go for canon measurements on the coverstrips, but apparently I have somewhat big shins. So what i'm thinking now is: 15mm arms 25mm shins and thighs front + thighs back 30mm shins back Don't know if the 15mm arms will look disproportionate to the increased legs, though. Here's a fitment with 25mm front and 30mm back measurements. It's really tight but with the excess "coverstrip platform" removed and maybe some more heatshaping I think it'll be doable. About that, what is the best way to heatshape these huge pieces? I have a semi-large pot but could only get 1/3 of it in there. Maybe just pour it over the piece slowly?

So my build hasn't progressed as fast as i'd want to, but i've been taking my time getting to know ABS and how it behaves. Continued trimming, quickly realized even though score and snap is scarier, it is way faster and requires less cleanup. Left ATA bicep all wonky as heck. After completely removing the lower return edge and some more at the top it fit nicely. Still going to give this one a hot water bath to make it fit even better. Right now it is very tight, if I flex it moves/shifts, hope it'll be better after the bath. Right side did fit well without such "drastic" measures. One thing that I figured out is that i'm not really 79kg/175lbs, i'm 83kg/183lbs So the ab/kidney didn't fit as well as I had hoped. This pic was with me pushing my stomach all the way out. If I really really sucked it in they'd touch eachother but that's not doable so i'm gonna have to shim this. Arms are trimmed and fitted. Shins are trimmed but not fitted yet. This pile took a long time but it makes me happy nonetheless Also ordered rivets, screws, and handguards from Joseph. Big thanks for that man

Thanks all! Yes the gaps had me wondering a little, but the screen used helmets were indeed a bit gappy and wonky yeah? I could maybe try to trim some more but i'm not going to touch it yet until i'm sure. I did not assemble it, but if it's OK as is that's great Am I correct in that the teeth could use some more filing? Awesome I already have a TRamp from my TFA TK and I absolutely love it!! Thanks for naming those suppliers, i'll check them out, would indeed save some on shipping and wait time. Thanks for this! Funny thing is I read ukswrath's Anovos guide and ordered all the elastic/webbing/magnets from eBay, 2 minutes later I see your post 75mm black, 50mm white+black, 25mm black, and 20mm white. I started out removing the wrist-end forearm return edges. First cut was hard for the soul but i've already gotten kinda comfortable with it I've learned that if you trim by blade you do it real slow and real careful, almost put a nice deep cut into the armor. Lexan scissors and cleanup with sandpaper was the way to go for me, score/snap for bigger pieces. Also started making some of the coverstrips. I went straight for 15mm and it fits me pretty well (using my TFA undersuit), although i'll probably have to trim a bit off the return edges at the back, was a bit tight. Any thoughts on the buttplate?

Hey all, some of you might know me from the TFA section where i've primarily hung out and posted. Well.. to make a long story short I went to a con with my big armor case and came back poorer with an ATA kit. I want to post this build thread now in order to get help from all of you before I make any mistakes/order the wrong stuff and so on. I am 177cm tall and weigh about 79kg (5'10", 175lbs). My plan is to build this to centurion from the start. My first kit was my TFA TK, which was very intricate so i'm happy to start a more straightforward build Here are some pictures from the sea of plastic. Note some of the parts have already been trimmed/worked on. Please comment if you see anything worrying One "concern" I have (not knowing a lot about the ANH TK) is the buttplate which seems to be rather rounded off in the corners, where most of the ANH's i've seen have it very sharp. This is what I think/know I need to acquire (with my suggestion of vendor in parentheses): Boots (Imperial Boots) Gloves (chemical gloves from hardware store) Latex/Rubber handguards (???) Undersuit (2-part compression suit will do fine?) A whole lot of rivets/screws/elastic/webbing/snaps I don't yet know about (but will read up on!) Canvas belt (trooperbay?) Holster (trooperbay?) Neckseal (my TFA seal may work but not ideal I think) E-11 (Doopydoo's with an accuracy upgrade kit i've heard of, or praetorianblasters) TD tube + metal clips (???) Humbrol Paints (hobby store) Teeth mesh (trooperbay?) EDIT: Inner drop boxes, maybe I could make my own? Tell me if I missed something or you have suggestions for another vendor My game-plan forward will be to do intensive research on the kit, and then order the correct needed parts. In the meantime I can do some trimming! Appreciate any and all help I can get with this

I don't see why you can't just leave it uncut if you can put it on from above and slide it on. Worst case you can just do a single cut later. I started putting my jim-ab piece on from above as the constant flexing from going into it via the opening made everything crack.

Hello all! I've seen a lot of confusion about wetsanding and polishing with the goal of increasing the shine. Lots of people mixing up terms and using the wrong methods/products at the wrong time/place. So I decided to put up a little tutorial to clear (hehe) things up. DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional, I do auto detailing in my spare time and have some experience with paint correction. This will be a pretty long tutorial but stick with me and hopefully we'll learn something 1. What is shine? To be brief: when something is really really flat, it will reflect a lot of light directly into your eyes, making it appear shiny. Below is an illustration of perfect paint reflecting light, this would look like glass: (Illustrations are not to scale, just there to give you an idea). But that's a show-car-130-hours-polishing-lunatic-finish. Most of us use spray cans, and spray cans suck. They spit out paint unevenly and most of it is propellant anyway. And we do it in conditions that are not optimal, so we end up with very uneven paint full of orange peel. For this tutorial i've prepared a plate of ABS plastic which has been painted black (easier to demonstrate) and clear coated. See this pic below? See that wrinkly, orange'y look to it? That's orange peel. Image 1: If we want to go the extra mile to get rid of this, we need to do.. 2. Sanding - Levelling the paint Using sandpaper is ABRASIVE. From Merriam-Webster: abrasive 1: causing damage, wear, or removal of surface material by grinding or rubbing Focus here being "removal of surface material". Every time you swipe that sandpaper it removes some material. What we are trying to achieve here is a flat surface, we are trying to flatten out those "peaks and valleys" by removing/flattening the clear coat. A sandpaper's "grit" determines if it's coarse or fine. A higher number means it's more fine, and will remove less material. A lower number means it's more coarse and will remove more material. You need to have enough clear coat on your piece to be able to do this correction. Or else you might sand into the basecoat or even the primer. Which sucks because that means a re-paint.. Here is a list of my PERSONAL sandpaper grits: 40 - Super coarse for doing an Alderaan on whatever you are working on, I never use this 80 - Very coarse, for removing material quickly. I use this on woodworking projects 120 - Quick removal of material while still being in control 180 - I use this to knock down 3D-print lines and filler 240 - Smoothing filler if i'm feeling a bit scared 320 - This is what I sand my parts with before primer 600 - For wetsanding my primer 800-1000 - Anything from color-coat/clear-coat fixes to wetsanding hard clear coat 1200 - For knocking down tough orange peel 1500 - For knocking down orange peel 2000 - For removing 1500 scratches 3000 - For removing 2000 scratches For this test piece I started with 1500 grit to knock down the orange peel as the clear coat I used is kind of soft. Keep in mind every sanding step in this tutorial is done wet/wetsanding. As you can see here i've flattened out the peel on most of the piece but I missed a spot. I went over it again and made sure the entire surface was equally "dull". After this I went over it with 2000 grit. This is a finer sandpaper and my goal here is to eliminate the scratches from the 1500 job. Notice the sanding marks going the opposite direction this time. This is a good way to gauge if you've successfully sanded away the marks from the previous steps. And finally I went over it with 3000 grit in the opposite direction to remove the 2000 grit marks. At this point you should start seeing some shine My camera really struggled to focus taking these pictures. And we're done with sanding! Dry off your parts and move on to.. 3. Polishing - Levelling the paint again, just very very little From Merriam-Webster: polished; polishing; polishes transitive verb 1 : to make smooth and glossy usually by friction : burnish 2 : to smooth, soften, or refine in manners or condition 3 : to bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state : perfect This is were it gets confusing. Some people "put polish" on their car, but they really mean wax. Some people "polish in the wax". I mean, it's been used so much in so many different ways I know it seems confusing. For simplicitys sake: Polishing is the last step in paint correction. In the auto detailing world, if you would let's say fix orange peel on a car, you'd go through all the steps above then.. 1. Use a RUBBING COMPOUND with a machine to knock down the 3000 grit scratches, paint should look like ANH Vader at this point 2. Use a POLISH with a machine to further level the paint from the faint marks the COMPOUND may have left, at this point the paint will be as clear as an ESB Vader 3 Apply a WAX/SEALANT/COATING on top of the newly corrected and flawless paint, to protect it (and also add a tiny bit more shine). Wax/sealant/coatings will fill in tiny tiny scratches making the paint appear more shiny, but the effect will diminish as the wax deteriorates. Rubbing compound and Polishes are ABRASIVE, they will REMOVE clear coat, just like sandpaper, only much much finer. Think of them like liquid 30000 grit and 80000 grit sandpaper After drying off my newly 3000 grit sanded piece, I found a foam polishing pad, and primed it with some rubbing compound. Priming is basically just "feeding" the working area of your pad with polish so there are no dry spots. All my compounding/polishing was done by hand. I then applied some more compound to the pad, a pea sized drop and went to town in small, circular motions. Follow the instructions on your product. After finishing I wiped off with a microfibre cloth aaaand... BAM! Shine!! The compound I used was Menzerna FG-400. It's a really good compound, it finishes super fine and you could just leave it as it is right there! You can also use Meguiars M105 for this step. Or any "rubbing compound", as long as it doesn't have fillers/wax in it which will trick you and lie to you. You can also just straight up use a polish, but you might have to work a bit longer to achieve the same effect. Now on to the polishing, for this I did the exact same thing with a finer foam pad and Menzerna SF-3500 (Meguiars equivalent M205). Honestly it didn't make much of a difference since the FG-400 finished out so nicely. If you're using other products you may have to do this step if you see "haze" from the compounding step. I tried my best getting an in focus picture but my camera got so confused because of the shine 4. Wax/Sealant/Coating - Protective Layer A wax is a protective layer, it is NOT abrasive. At this stage you can add wax if you want, it'll protect the paint a bit and also give it a tiny bit more shine. It's the prep-work and COMPOUNDING/POLISHING that really makes it shine. I didn't bother adding wax to my polished test piece as it was already as good as it gets. I did however tape off the piece before polishing, so I had one side which was 3000 grit sanded, and one side that was polished. I tried adding wax to the sanded side: After buffing it off with a microfibre and removing tape: And that's it Hope you learned something! Any questions feel free to post them here and i'll do my best to answer. After closely inspecting the piece I can see some orange peel left, but that's from when I put my color coat on, which is under the clear coat.. oh well.. Spray cans suck!!

Thanks Going to post some more updates later as i've had some time with the armor. Mods i've done etc!

Aw man the Anovos suit looks so good, superb job on this one!!

Aw man, if that's true it'd be a bummer. Planned on buying a few parts from him, they looked real good!

Hit up Belts Of The First Order on Facebook, great 3-layer kit. If you decide to go Jim he offers the pouches (at least he did when I ordered mine) which work fine. If not I know Trooperbay has them too.