StrmTRPR85

I think I kept you all in suspense long enough. It still needs a little more love but much better

Thank you Luc! I don't remember if my Ab button had much space to work with when I was trimming it, hence just trimmed it down. I have another WTF builder I've been assisting through facebook that is going to send me a pic or two of his untrimmed Ab button later tonight.

Thank you for calling that out! My intention was to have it touching the bottom of the button, than 2 am rolled up on me and I completely forgot. Easy to drill some holes and add new pop snaps

Worked on putting my belt together the other evening. I trimmed everything down to size on the guide I have a few posts back Than I measured the 45 degree angle cuts and cut them out I than added the pop snaps to the Ab piece. I forgot the measurements from the horizontal edge but the vertical are 1/2 inches from the bottom edge Right: Left: With the help of some tape I measured the distance from right snap to the left snap I took this measurement to my Imperial Issue belt. I measured between the velcro and marked the halfway point on the belt than I measured 6 1/4 inches from the middle point I than used a soldering iron to put the holes in the canvas belt at the 2 outside marked spots and added my snaps I test fitted this on the Ab to make sure the spacing was correct Now onto the waist ammo belt. I measured the 3 holes for the rivets according to the illustration again and drilled them out I lined up the belt with the inside 45 corner on the inside line of stiching and marked the points on the belt with a dry erase marker Again I used the soldering iron to make the holes and than put the rivets in place. I put a 3mm washer on the back to give it a bit more grip Did a test fit on the Ab and with the waist ammo pack on I was unable to get the snaps to stay snapped. I drilled out one rivet and moved one snap over to where the edge of the old one use to be. Made a new hole re-snapped, and riveted. That did the trick.

I need a bigger pot to get to the middle parts if I go that route.

Thank you Sha Sha! What did you use to reshape the shins? My shins are a bit wavy despite my best efforts with the heat gun

So trying to fix my shin to close better and I may have gotten a bit further than I wanted..... Any suggestions? Maybe its not that bad?

Before I put my belt together I wanted to get the Ab button plate in place so I could determine where I wanted the belt to sit. I sanded down the rough cuts and ran the back of it over sand paper to even out the back and allow it to sit more flush on the Ab Added some E6000 to the back and put in place

Worked on the elastic strapping for the chest and back pieces. I measured out 10 inches of 2 inch white elastic. I measured out extra because I was not sure where everything should fit and its easier to have more to work with than less. I marked the half way point and than measured 3/4 inch from the edge for where my sew in snap will go. The snap is off centered to provide some overlap of the straps, so the snap will be closer to my neck rather. This was done the same for the left and right straps. For the right side I folded over and sew a loop to strengthen to add a Tandy line 24 snap. I also redid the snap on the chest as I needed a stronger hold than what I had before. I played with placement and was trying to figure out where to glue the straps for placement. I opted to use the shoulder strap bumps as my guide. I placed the chest piece on and counted the bumps to where the center of my should is and wound up with 7 bumps from the front. I glued the right side strap to the back with the sew snap at the 7th bump and clamped in place. For the left side the front and back straps are glued (Thank you Tony!). I repeated the same process for the left as the right centered the sew snap at the 7th bump and glue and clamped the front and back strap in place After drying gave myself a little test fit

I just did my belt last night. It was frustratingly fun to see the ab come together. I did my belt from imperial issue. My advice is determine where you want your belly to sit ie cover an ab button or just below, as the belt snaps will dictate how high/low it will sit

If I had a galatic credit everytime I made an odd mistake I could get another kit Your doing the right thing keep asking questions, we will point you in the right direction

Here is how I began to fix that gap First I put some painters tap on the front of the gap covering the area that I want to fill with ABS paste I than applied the ABS paste from behind to fill in the gap and allowed to dry I'll keep you in suspense for the results

So looking over my parts and realized my left thigh has this gap on the bottom. Can I fill it in with ABS paste? I mean I know I can do it but will it impact approval?

I started by measuring 5 mm from the boxes on both the thigh ammo pack and belt. My question is what should the overall length be of each of these? Is the belt 1 1/2 inches from the outer boxes to the edge? For the thigh ammo what should the distance be as well?

Found this to use a a reference for my thigh ammo pack and belt trimming

oh so the shoulders were riveted on the originals? Very interesting

Ah so it is Thank you Tony! I thought that snap on the left side was what it hooked up to. They must have used that snap for something else. So everyone from my pic before disregard the left side that will be coming off later tonight once I get home from work

Assembled my front chest snaps. This will be where my white elastic from my back plate secures to the chest. First I measured the width of the area on the chest that the snaps will be going and cut a piece of extra material that Walt supplies Than I drilled my holes for my snaps with a 5/32 drill bit and honed them out so the post would go through. I eyeballed dead middle of my squares Using my snap tools I hammered them into place and sanded the backs of the mounts and a bit on the chest to give the E6000 something to grip on to. I placed the mount on the chest and clamped into place.

Definitely will be putting this in later on to hold it all together better

I used E6000 as it is flexible and forgiving if/when you need to replace parts. This website explains lots of glues. http://mikegigi.com/glues.htm

Tried on the shins this morning. Looks great directly from behind Although from the sides I think the coverstrip is causing it to spring out a bit. I'm thinking a heat gun and guide it closer will fix this.

What have you been up to on your build. Very interested in seeing how you build yours!

Got on the old work horse and strengthened the bra hooks to my elastic straps Much better using the machine than doing it by hand. The hooks are solidly sewed in and no longer concerned about them falling apart on me. And now my hooks are installed in a manner that makes it easier to hook them and unhook them (Thank you Tony for calling that out!) Out of curiosity....are there many troopers that would want to do the elastic hooks? I'm willing to sew some up for people for a fair price for those that are interested.

Thats exactly the same thread I read and saw that statement about the tabs. I'm leaning towards cutting the large tab off but I want to wait and see how/where to cut once I am wearing it.

yep elastic so it has some tug to it.