StrmTRPR85

Welcome To the Family

Well its been a minute since I have updated. So far have been focusing on getting the bucket assembled. I am not sure if this will be an issue for level 3 approval as my left ear on the bottom goes over my S-trim. Do I need to trim the ear at the bottom to remove the over lap? Or do I build out my edge on the bottom of the shell to move the S-trim in more?

On the top of my kidney plate I think I removed a bit too much of my return edge than what I would have liked. My simple fix for this as it was only a cosmetic piece was to put some painters tape down and add some ABS paste to extend the edge. After letting the ABS paste dry i'm left with And a bit of trimming gives me I'll probably trim it a bit more as I trim the rest of the edge but at least the armor will appear thicker on this part and uniform with the rest of the return edge.

Ah look my wife knows exactly what to get me for my birthday!

My entire build had been a battle with comfort zone. Everything with time, asking questions and research helped alot. You just have to make the calls with what will make you happy

Thank you both! It was a bit scary at first but really not hard at all. Here is the butt plate before sanding with ABS paste and now after sanding I don't think I need to smooth out too much more. What are your thoughts?

Congrats on starting your build!

Right forearm all fixed! Much more even and a bit more snug but still feels great. I'm tempted to do the left arm to make it more snug too....

Well I went for it. Started to make my return edge on the top of the butt plate. But the butt plate on the jig and a few boxes to hold up the other end. I found working on the kit from this angle was much easier than the scrap as the part I wanted to bend was in front of me and pusing down. Starting in the middle I put the edge of the sealing iron on the line I drew and allowed it to heat up than gently and slowly rolled the sealing iron down over the jig to bend the ABS into my return edge. The sealing iron did leave a few edges that I will sand out to give it a smooth appearance. I started with 120 grit sand paper and wet sanded the edge as I had originally have a very sharp 90 degree and I wanted it to have a more rounded appearance. I will be working up with sand paper to 2000 grit wet sanding along the way to give it a great luster. Overall much easier than I thought it would be to make the return edge. Next up the kidney plate!

Alright first practice with the jig and a piece of scrap I took a fairly large piece of extra cover strip that Walt provides (he gives you a lot) and clamped it onto my jig, set the iron to max heat and started my practice run It did not take long for me to be able to shape the ABS with using the iron I started with a little at a time moving the iron along the back where I wanted it to bend. I found it best to heat one area than move over to heat that area and than back to the original area I was heating to make bending it easier, rather than fighting the "memory" of the sheet of ABS. And after a little more time spent working on it After looking at my practice work I thought that it went pretty easily and that I had made my self a nice 90 degree bracket for reinforcing the kidney and butt plate where I will make the return edges on them. I cut the wings off and lined it up on the butt plate and what did I find..... PERFECT FIT!!!! The wings that I cut off I am shaping for the sides of the butt plate to make additional reinforcing brackets plus more practice before the real thing. I will repeat the same steps for the kidney as well.

As my desire to use brackets to attach the front and back of the chest, abs, kidney, and butt plate only to discover that I have a slight issue with the kidney and butt plate..... there is no return edge on the top of the butt plate and bottom of the kidney plate after cutting them apart So whats a cadet to do? Well we make a return edge. I found another build thread (Crickets thank you) that did this using a heat gun and a jig. So I started with making my jig The idea is to sit the butt plate and kidney plate over the jig and heat the plastic and bend to create a new return edge using the jig to make a nice 90 degree angle Before I actually put the kit and started to heat it up I opted to work on some scrap first. I opted to try using a sealing iron versus a heat gun to give myself better control. This I did all free hand before I made the jig. My goal was to get a feel for how to mold the ABS and how long to hold the iron on place. I'll be giving it another go with the jig and scrap to get a better overall feel for heating and making the return edge.

On Walts the Ab and Butt plate are pulled in one piece, so one needs to cut these apart. No I didn't make my wife trim my armor with me on Valentines day, we just still have the table cloth up Also trimmed up the chest, back and ab pieces while I was at it. Abs Untrimmed: Abs Trimmed: Chest Untrimmed: Back Untrimmed: I forgot to take pictures immediately after I trimmed back some of the excess edges on the chest and back but those will be included once I get to that section

Working on wrapping up my left shin (no more shin gate ) On Walts kit he has one side that is longer than the other, usually the longer goes on the outside (confirmed by Walt and Rocky) and you have to confirm by the curve in the parts. Mine goes on the outside. Obviously pairing up the long and short means we must trim the long side down at the ankle to match up with the shorter. I took a pencil and sat it on the edge of the short side and marked the long side where I would need to trim. I cut close to the line and ended taking my dremel sander to the rest to bring it in line and shape the remainder of the ankle Next came trial fit with undersuit and my boot. Fits great and feels good too! I have a small amount of trimming/removing a bit more of my return edge by the knee but nothing too pinchy. Last was to attach the rear coverstrip. I made mine 25 mm and placed to my best half on the shin and allowed the other half to overlap. Added some E6000 and a few clamps and sit and wait

Thank you Daniel! It is reassuring that I haven't mucked it up...yet Although I have ultimately decided to make it more equal halves. I removed the coverstrip on one side and trimmed a small amount from the lower half to make the havles more equal. Once the E6000 is fully cured I'll get some better pics up. Test fitting with the one side taped together after trimming resulted in a slightly more snug forearm but still fits and feels good.

Thanks Magni I may remove it and reset it to make sure it is a bit more over the one side than the other. Glad to hear it shouldn't cause me any issues on Centurion approval.

That's what I feel 95% of my posts are for my own peace of mind lol

So I was looking over my right forearm and noticed that I do not have my halves symmetrical.....will this be an issue for level 3 approval? Do the cover strips need to be parallel?? Wrist Side Elbow Side

I only posted my left forearm in my main build thread so far. This guy is my right forearm that has me concerned. I'll post it up in there and see what gets called out and solutions. Thank you Cableguy!

Pictures incoming!

My concern is that the coverstrips are not parallel. I can snap a few pics in my undersuit in a minute.

Hello all, Last night I was looking over my assembled parts and realized that I have trimmed my forearm halves down a bit to much to have them fit me just right. Will the unsymmetrical parts prevent centurion approval? Wrist Side Elbow Side If this is an issue for approval whats the best fix? How water bath?

Now that I had my ears trimmed up I dissembled the bucket (face plate and helmet shell) to mount the lens and move on the plasti dip spray the interior black. For mounting the lens I opted to use these small screws I picked up from Ace Hardware. I do not recall the size exactly. I than drilled a hole in the middle of my lens that came with my kit (it was cut up in some odd ball shape so I still have to clean it up a bit if not order a new lens). Than I used a dab of E6000 on the head of the screw centered it on the inside of my mask and used a magnet to hold the screw in place until the E6000 had cured completely. End result is I still need to put in the screws on the side to hold it in place and bring the lens closer to the face plate to eliminate some gaps from that can be seen from the front

I wanted to post Crickets thread and that was shared with me here to direct anyone that direction that may have the same desire to make a return edge

No trouble Tony, your knowledge is always in demand