shashachu

Snuck in a wee bit of work last night. Closed up the right bicep: Thanks to @Cricket's suggestion, I got a roll of gaffer's tape, which is super sticky and much better for holding together pieces. I also glued one side rail of the right forearm: For those of you who have completed the 4-part KB forearms, I have a couple questions: 1) For the side rail that doesn't include the indents for the greeblies (so not the one in the picture above), is it glued to the outer forearm piece with an overlap or are you supposed to trim the outer piece and attach them with a butt-and-cover technique? I looked at both @Ruthar and @Anzo's build threads and it's not 100% clear to me. I wanted to confirm before I trimmed the outer piece. 2) How much return edge (if any) do you leave on the inner forearm piece? Should I trim it completely off so that it's basically just a flat piece? If I do leave a bit of return edge (I have a few mm right now) it's not really clear to me how to glue it on, as it would just be sitting on the mounting rails of the side pieces, which gives little surface area for gluing. On the Anovos kits it seems to be totally flat, but looking at some KB build threads, it seems like some folks leave a bit.

Your photos look a lot like mine when I did my first torso piece fittings. I heard that WTF chest pieces are the smallest out of any of the armors so you may not be able to do this, but I was able to get away with *not* trimming the bottom of the chest armor. I'd make that a last resort because although the return edge on the chest is not required, I think it looks a lot better with it, and recreating it is tough. * Like Luc said, trim the neck even more to bring the entire chest up. You should be able to trim the chest shoulder tabs as well if they're overlapping the back tabs too much after you trim the neck. * Your back piece is sitting too low. Do you see how the tabs are below the tops of your shoulders? They should be above it. Anovos shoulder tabs on the back piece come bent at a pretty severe angle. Most people end up heat bending them to be straighter (so the back sits lower), but them being so bent should work in your favor because it will bring the back piece higher. On my WTF kit I heat bent the back shoulder tabs more to bring the back up. The back is also wide on you - you can heat bend it in to wrap around you more. * Once the back is higher, the overlap on the back and kidney will be less severe, but you'll likely still need to trim it smaller. Trim from the bottom because that cut will be hidden by the belt. * Not sure what you mean about the cod and butt connecting - they don't need to touch - they're connected by an elastic strap. * The back/kidney/butt should *not* overlap at all. They all sit below each other. The torso is a bit of a puzzle because of the way things need to align - as you shift pieces around it affects the rest of how the torso needs to fit together. If you haven't already, take a look at this section of my build thread: I had a lot of the same challenges you did.

I'm sure you mentioned this before, but you're doing your filling with ABS paste? How's that working out? Does it have any flexibility to it or does it seem like it might develop cracks?

I used the TrooperBay templates and found them pretty easy to use. The one tip I followed that I read on here is to not wait too long before pulling the template off; otherwise the paint will dry too much and pull up when you remove the templates.

Already congratulated you on Facebook, but I'll make it official here as well. For belts I strongly recommend Rob Kittell's belts (imperialissue.com) - they are made of sturdy canvas and also have a strip of plastic sewn inside. http://imperialissue.com/product/canvas-belt

Haha nope, mostly bragging rights. Very occasional merch.

I have the old 4 piece forearms but thought maybe the 2 piece would be too hard to size down for me anyway. Really nice fix!

This is for Centurion only, but looks like your left belt box is not quite aligned with the edge of the plastic belt. A dab of glue will probably hold the strapping in place.

Talk about a speed build! Looking good!

Nice work! I had to heat bend all the torso pieces to fit around me better as well. (I used a heat gun but same idea.)

Lol you make everything look so easy! I don't even think I'd had everything rough trimmed in 8 days...

Nice work!! Everything is really coming together. Re the chest/back closure, I'm wondering if you can do a touch of heat bending to bring them together a bit more so that they're not pulling at the snaps - might make them sit a bit more flush.

Hm, I see what you mean. I'd not heard of KB making a new shoulder bell mold, but it's possible. You could also probably just scoot the tabs in a smidge and they wouldn't stick out as much.

Yeah it's all personal preference, for sure. On screen it looks like sometimes the tabs are visible and sometimes not.

Good to see another wtf build! Personally I'd trim the teeth a bit more.

Here's two approved EIB applications where the tabs are visible: So looks like it shouldn't get in the way of approval. If you're worried about screen accuracy that might be a different issue.

Have you gotten your kit yet? I'm also slowly slowly working my way through a KB build. Looking forward to your progress.

Unfortunately not, but thanks for checking in We moved a couple of weeks ago so my kit is still in a pile of boxes in the garage. My goal is to finish assembling the kit in 2018, if not get approved. Slowly slowly...

What paint are you using? And tabs look fine to me - what concerns you?

Welcome! Great to see another shorty. I'm 5' 3" and made it to Centurion so I'm sure you'll do great! Like everyone else said, take it slowly and remember that almost no mistake is unfixable. Besides trimming, us small troopers also have to do a lot of head bending to make the kits fit - most people use the hot water bath because it's much more forgiving, but I used a heat gun extensively and found it to be an indispensable tool, just one that you have to be very very careful with. I'll be following this thread.

Nice job! I'm jealous of the bin - I used Velcro but it came off the bin so I need to redo it. I like the snaps...

Congrats! See you at Centurion.

What @justjoseph63 said! If you can afford it, definitely buy more than you think you'll need - nothing more frustrating than having to pause your build because you don't have the right tools.

I used nylon snap plates with Tandy Line 24 snaps and haven't noticed any deformation. I have a WTF kit which is also on the thicker side as well.

Thank you! Yes, there's not much to be done about the forearms, unfortunately. But I'd definitely encourage you to do a rough fitting (with tape) and see if the forearms don't look okay once everything is on. It's just a BIG kit. My biggest worry is not being able to take my own helmet off and on due to the length of the forearms, but I figure I'll cross that bridge once I get there. I will likely to the 'Finn mod' and cut out a notch on the forearms, but maybe only after I'm approved.