revlimiter

Think of it this way: there's many ways to skin a cat. Every way that ends in a fresh cat pelt is valid and correct. Nothing you've done has barred you from centurion level and there's likely more work to be done in the future to achieve it. You're still on the right path. I mean some folks have to move bolts to be locations for centurion. Others have to splice in sections of abs to make their armor fit at all. The material is very forgiving and there are techniques to do all of this without destroying the armor. Anyways, back to getting you some basic approval.

Truly you did not do anything wrong. The photos I supplied in this thread are of my own centruion-approved AP armor. You do not need to punish your body with these return edges and you did not harm anything in their removal. All of the cuts you did were fine and you have been doing fantastic work in making the armor fit your body. There's no need to second guess and no need to stress. No need to go backwards either. You were sorting out the belt. Best to move forward with that IMHO. If you're doubting things, look at this. This is not remotely wearable. It needed to be fixed. You fixed it.

Rivets? Whoa. That's not common. The drop box looks perfect in that last shot. Maybe nothing to worry about at all.

The top edge of the butt plate has the return bridge. It's the same width as the lower kidney return bridge. No other return should be on there. No return on the lower and side butt means less likely to crack when sitting thanks to no stress points. It's just flat plastic, so it bends very nicely. You've still gotta be careful of that tab with the snaps as that's the most delicate spot.

I would remove anything that comes back and points into my thigh. But that's not a rule or anything. It's just my own preference. I'm about 95% sure you should have the cover strip as the center and the top of it should be flat. Instead of having the apex next to the point, just shave the longer thigh half down to match in height with the short one. It's not that much height lost. Unless someone more knowledgeable disagrees. My AP thighs - pretty well flat at the top of the cover strip.

Yup. I'd use that tape line as a final trim line. That should look good. Definitely match the front cover strip to the new thigh edge level. It'll be SO much more comfy without that upper thigh return edge.

That's my belt strapping for reference. Even after a year of troops it still sits this way. Those drop boxes won't stretch elastic much themselves. You can see the discoloration on my canvas belt. That's from superglue. My straps CANNOT go anywhere but the correct place. There's no allowance for any slop. However, they're also not too tight. They're just right. When and if you adjust yours, make sure to account for their position when worn. The leg armor makes the boxes move forward a bit. They don't just hang down straight, they hang down and out a bit when worn with the thigh armor. Of course, there's many ways to skin this cat. This is just mine as done by @Scimitar. When I was building the spare belt for my HWT, I marveled at how nicely Eric built this one and really labored to reproduce it.

Wow, that's at least a double kit. That's not bad at all!!! And yeah, that's the stuff. They're about half the thickness of real military helmet pads and are perfect for padding arms, knees, and even bucket areas that don't need thick stuff. That double pack will last you for a while if you get it.

Trust me, I know from OCD. I know it too well. I used to polish my armor after literally every troop until I decided I liked it weathered in a certain way. Now I try to maintain that weathering... OCD can be brutal. It took me about 10 troops to get my armor truly feeling GOOD and fitting me as I wanted it. That involved those cheap tactical paintball helmet pads in various spots. I like them because they're about $15 for a full set (amazon), stick onto velcro dots, and can be easily removed for washing and moved around for the perfect fit. I have padding on the inside edge of my forearms. The inner elbow edge (elbow armpit?). With padding there and how I have my bicep-to-forearm strap, it keeps any armor bites from happening. The forearm armor touches the bicep armor without any pinch happening on the inner forearm. This works well for me. Others have padding on the elbow itself to keep the forearm smooshed up against the armor and prevent bites that way. Others have no padding at all and don't seem to have issues. For your drop boxes, I think a little elastic needs to come out to keep the boxes in their correct spot. Where that trimming needs to be done is hard to say, but it looks just ever so slightly long. Back gaps look great to me.

YES!!! Congrats Luca!!! and of course... one for tomorrow. . . . . . . . . .

If I ever get it in hand, I will spam every aspect of the install along with some video.

That looks great! Does the arm feel good? I would guess it does.

Congrats Ardeshir!!!

I don't feel old at all. nope.

NICE!!! That's some fast shipping!

The bicep looks good to me. Good height for it. Does it feel good? You might hook the shoulder bell onto your torso for test fitting each time since you'll be wearing it that way. The arm can slouch down on its own if not strapped at the top. I run my bicep-forearm strap at the very front, basically along the cover strip. Though it doesn't seem like it would be out of the way there, it is indeed out of the way there and helps keep things aligned correctly. There should be about a finger's width between the bicep and forearm. Like 2cm or so. Your forearm looks raised quite a bit above your hand armor. If you moved the strap around and lowered the forearm, I think it would be more comfy and look better. And you might wanna just use tape to hold the forearm elastic in while you're moving it around trying to find a comfy spot for it. That way you're not blowing through a lot of elastic, e6000 and time.

I'm 30 weeks into my 12 week wait for the BlastFX kit... not that I'm impatient. Just really really thought I'd have it by now. Alas. Anyways, I've trooped twice with the Leia Leveller and it has one problem. It hangs TERRIBLY in the holster. It's not nearly this bad with my leg in the way, but it still pokes out a lot. It's unpleasant. In contrast, my (well, like 50% at this point) resin Quest Design hangs like this. It's fine. Good weight and it doesn't poke out. The QD has the original metal folding stock from Joseph, a hollowed out barrel for the little blinky light and some sound, and the metal Blaster Factory grip and trigger. In contrast, the Blaster Factory E11 is as it came aside from paint and the real Hengstler. The weight and weight distribution is unchanged from the factory spec. So I got this - another genuine Stirling folding stock from Joseph. My thought was that it would add more weight to the nose and help the blaster hang better. The Blaster Factory stock is aluminum and doesn't weigh much at all. The Stirling stock weighs a good bit. They're almost identically sized. A slight different bulge or bend here and there, but the bolts line up. I was able to use the original Blaster Factory screws and spacers (seen at the top) to mount the OG stock. And here it is! Looks pretty much identical huh? I was prepared to file, dremel, cut, and slice to make this work but no work was required. Uninstall one, reinstall the other. I also swapped over the greeblies. And now it hangs like this. It's not perfect but it's WAAAYYYY better and doesn't poke out during troops. The extra couple pounds of weight also feels nice in the hand. The folding stock still folds nice and interfaces where it should with the cap. It doesn't snap in, but it doesn't flop around either. I could bend this a bit more and make the fit tighter, but I hardly ever fold it and don't want to affect how it mounts otherwise, so I'm leaving it. This mod was a slam dunk anyway. Maybe 2023 will see this blaster having some electronics...

The things this armor has done that few others can even imagine... and it still looks amazing! Good luck Luca! Not that I think you'll need it. You're already at least Legate rank.

That sort of return edge is easily fixed with a dremel and sanding drum. Be careful to not go past the edge, but yeah, it'll just zip right off. Quick motions in a straight line will make the dremeling as flat/smooth as possible. Once you're done and happy with it, get out the 200 grit sandpaper and it'll smooth out to flat very quickly.

Howdy Matt! I can't wait to drool on some E-11 photos. And welcome back!

Tape, my friend. Tape. Tape that plastic together and then to your body. Then do your best to recreate/preserve the tape positioning (once you're happy with it) via strapping and elastic. Painters tape works great. Stick it all over the top of the armor and make a mess, but get things lined up correctly. Ideally there wouldn't be any tape on the inside where the strapping would go so that you can cut and install the strapping most easily whilst the tape is still attached and holding things in place. Start with the chest, which looks to be about right on you in the above pix, then tape a shoulder bell to the shoulder bridge. The edge of the bridge should ideally touch the edge of the bell for centurion, so make them touch with the tape. Then apply the bicep and add some tape. It should be positioned so that you can fully bend your arm while wearing the forearm armor. The forearm and bicep should have a little less than an inch between them. The bicep to forearm gap should be about equal to the forearm to hand guard gap. Slide the forearm around till you've got that about equal and add some tape. The add the elastic behind. Does that help at all?

Fantastic!!! And huge props for posting as much back info as you did. Hopefully no recasting accusations will come forth.

When this one appeared from today's troop, I couldn't help myself. I had to follow Morgi's lead.

HELL YEAH BROTHER!!! Very exciting. I've got the Jimmi R1TK kit in a box ready to build... just gotta start a thread. Will follow with great interest.