revlimiter

Thank you all! This was such a fun project. I hope I have the heart to install the BlastFX and reduce the accuracy...

Whew, over a month passed. I guess I've been putting off this update since I didn't wanna be "done" and put the blaster on the wall until my BlastFX kit comes. But DONE comes for us all... so here's the Leia Leveller's most screen accurate form that I am willing to achieve. I got the banana bend in the rail and totally reshaped the nose to fit nicely in the barrel. It didn't take a whole lot of effort, but a bit more than was expected. I also got the greebs from Joseph installed in their spots... though I suspect the rear one fell off for filming and was originally farther back. Starboard side. I just love this thing. So pretty. So satisfying to hold. The port side beauty shot. I'm very satisfied with this. And I'll be even more satisfied taking it all apart again to put in the BlastFX guts. and lastly... My daughter put on my torso and arms and posed for me. She's 10. The plastic was uncomfortable and the blaster was heavy. I didn't get the rubber gloves out. But having this shot fills my heart with happy little laser blasts.

Front raises are super super rough on rotator cuffs. I would never suggest those to anyone. There's many other ways to get upper chest activation. Definitely be careful if you want to do those. I do side lateral raises. Same thing, but directly to the side in a T formation. It's more for trap activation though.

My own week update: I sprained my back... no. That's not right. My back got sprained last Thursday. I have no idea how and there was no sudden twinge when I was bending over or anything. It just started to slowly hurt while I was sitting at the desk and then it hurt a whole lot. I've been lurching around like Frankenstein's Monster for most of the week. Not great. I stretched for over an hour yesterday which helped a lot and was able to do an abbreviated workout today. Not a lot of weight or cardio effect, but it felt good to work out. Fortunately, not much in the way of side effects from 4 days of sedentary life and then today with a small workout. Crohn's still on the ropes and scared of my newly found health.

Dumbbell exercises I like: Overhead press - it's a much more natural motion to do with dumbbells instead of a barbell since your head can fit between the dumbbells. Keep your shoulders back so that you're not cheating and lifting with your front shoulder (anterior head I think) and risking rotator injury. Bent over row - I prefer no bench for this. Get your legs in a front leaning stance and rest your elbow on your front knee (you'll be bending almost all the way forward to do this). Then grab the dumbbell and row with the free arm. Switch after 45-60 seconds. Tricep kick backs - basically the reverse of a bicep curl. You're leaning forward like with the row and straightening your arm. Gravity wants to make your arm bend into an L. Go slowly on the down stroke to get more out of it. Dumbbell squats - pretty simple. Rack your dumbbells on your chest and then squat. Dumbbell bench press - you can use the floor if you don't have a bench handy. I also like this more than using a barbell because your arms can naturally rotate on the down motion, which a barbell henders. You also can get a squeeze at the top for more chest activation. (Literally touch and then squeeze the two dumbbells together at the top of the motion.)

Dank farrik that's beautiful.

It's from Denix and it's really something. My metal E-11 came from Blaster Factory. I highly recommend it!!!

As Mario said, step by step. You got this James! Any and all inches down are good inches. As for my own update, I'm still doing well. I've stepped the workouts back slightly because I was sore all the time and risking injury. I ride the bike and do core stuff on rest days and don't do heavy lifting days every other day. I'll do about 2 heavy lifts per week and the other lifting day with more cardio style. I also now own an EIGHTEEN LB (eight kg!!!) all metal DLT-19. It's ridiculous and insanely heavy. I want to be strong enough to troop with it someday. It's a goal. I can carry it about 10 minutes before I wanna put it down.

YAAAAAASSS!!! Looks so perfect.

YES!!!! Looking fantastic! Almost ready for your post. For inner elbow armor bites - try something like these cheap paintball helmet pads. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGF4CTH One of the smallest ones up high on either the front or back edge should eliminate the bites. It'll either bring the armor super close to your skin and eliminate the bite, or bring the armor away from the skin and give clearance to eliminate the bite. My own armor has a pad on the inside for one arm and the outside for the other. It just happened to work best that way. And as a bonus, the larger pads work great on the front of the shin to keep the sniper knee spaced out. For back of the knee bites - scissors. Give the shins the mobility cuts.

Your sniper knee looks great!! And yeah, definitely E6000 on the ammo knee.

Your sniper knee looks good! That's just about how mine is. I boiled and reshaped that outside side a lot to get the top to sit flat, but yours looks quite close already. For your glove, get a thing of Plastic Bonder System. https://www.loctiteproducts.com/en/products/fix/super-glue/loctite_plasticsbondingsystem.html It worked perfectly on mine. A bit of sanding is required on both the glove and silicone but that's about the only trick.

That one bit of info is absolutely key for getting the AP sniper knee to align well. Boiling it helps reshape it correctly and get rid of the leaning issue, but that bottom edge needs to float above the cover strip. I filled mine in with 4 layers of cover strip plastic to give the knee bottom a base, just as Glen said.

Since the canvas holes match up with the ab plate holes, those are certainly for the snaps. You'll need to poke new holes to pair the ABS belt and canvas belt. And since they're already in your ABS, it should be quite simple to create the new holes in your canvas one. Try to pre-bend the ABS belt to a nice curve before you pair them up. You don't need to heat it or anything. Just give it a bit of curve to help it conform to the armor. A flat-built belt won't sit as nicely as a pre-curved one. DO NOT DRILL HOLES IN THE CANVAS! It will snag the material and rip. You want to poke the holes mechanically. I use a soldering iron. It makes a brown mark around the hole, but you'll never see it. Not sure what Mark used to make those beautiful, non-burned holes. It's possible (and not too hard) to fix holes drilled in ABS. It's much much harder to fix holes in that canvas belt. And also, I'm super flattered you're referring to my pix for Centurion.

YESS!!! Congrats Brit!!!! Well deserved as you built a hell of an armor set. Don't forget to request TK status here:

I'm positively beaming at these comments. Thanks for the kind words y'all. @Daetrin I keep my own phone hidden just behind my thigh armor. My DSG compression pants have a pocket for a phone right there that hides it perfectly, and between the thigh armor and holster, it's not at all visible. I can quickly slip it out for selfies and song changes though. It does just barely fit though since my thigh armor is quite tight. However... having a dedicated (and smol) older phone for music duties is a very good idea. When I snap a pic, the music either pauses for a second or totally stops. Then I have to restart it or repair the bluetooth... which really sucks at times. Something small in my chest pouch or HWT pack would totally solve that.

So it turns out I do have an update for this little build. I really didn't think I'd have anything more once I got the binocs sealed up. I made a little carrying case. This is a cheap 50 caliber ammo box from amazon. It just happens to be the right size to house a set of bincos. I painted and weathered to match my TK armor box. Of course there's a little plaque on top. I modeled this after vintage military plaques for similar gear. It reads "A unit of stereoscopic sights and enhanced magnification." The serial has my TK number in it, the bar code is my TK number, and it is, of course, property of the Imperial Stormtrooper Corps. All of this exists to protect the delicate volume knob. The resin holding that in place is super thin in order for the knob to mount and spin. It seemed like that could be damaged in transport to and from troops... so a case was in order. This was my first attempt at padding the inside of a case like this. It's adequate but not too pretty. Foam wrapped in black cloth. It should last a long time though, since no foam is being touched directly when taking the binocs in and out. also... the factory put out a 2nd binoc unit. The left set of binocs belongs to @Daetrin . They're also made by @justjoseph63 and got a nearly identical bluetooth modification in my hands. Paul has taken delivery of these, so these pix aren't spoilers. I was holding off posting them till he had them in hand. Paul asked if I could do a 2nd pair, Joseph sent me a fresh electrobinocular, and the magic happened. Aside from the extra weathering, the only big difference between mine and Paul's is that his should be able to open if needed via the 5 screws on the eye plate end. Mine is epoxied shut. I also moved the red light into that grey area. It fit extremely nicely there. And, of course, Paul's set also got a transport case. I didn't want to mail it with any lesser level of protection. Enjoy the binocs Paul!!! They're set 2/2. No set 3 will ever be made... unless my daughter demands one. heh

I've had crazy network problems here which knocked me offline for several days. Painful but things are working again. And I haven't stopped working out. Over 3 weeks straight. I feel so much healthier than I have in so long.

Dick's Sporting Goods also has excellent compression wear with their house line of DSG running suits. The black leggings they sell have a phone pouch that hides perfectly under our thigh armor. Their online photos show a big white DSG brand stamped on the leg, but all of the ones I've seen in the stores have that branding in invisible black. I own several pairs of these and love them. Imperial Boots and Crow Props are the go-to's for footwear. My Imperial Boots are super comfy with an insole. Good luck building your armor! Start a thread here and let us share the fun?

VERY nice side latch method!! That should be very secure and always align itself nicely. One thing you might do is swap out the strap in the middle of your back-to-kidney seem with an elastic one. The outer two can remain nylon, but that middle one really wants to have flexibility. It'll pop free otherwise. That's mine. It's REALLLLY hard to tell that the middle strap under the OII is elastic, but that's what I have. The two ends have some spare plastic sandwiched in between for strength. All the other straps are nylon.

That's a huge improvement!! Well done sir.

You might want to replace those clips with longer straps with snaps on the ends. I have double snap plates E6000'd into the inside of my thighs and snaps-on-straps velcro'd to my belt. The strap length is about 6" total to get the snaps a little farther down the armor and not have an end peeking out. Don't get me wrong though. Looks like a great belt! And some fine paint work. -edit- heh, Glen beat me to it.

Yeah, it might be a bit of work, but Glen's suggestion with the straight green strip is totally worth it.

Eric's mention of your thigh armor made me look at it. The back thighs seem to have a sorta heart shaped pucker at the cover strip on both sides. You can sand that flat so that it's a straight line / constant angle. A dremel and sanding drum would do it in a few minutes. That would give you one less pokey area.

Very tidy in there! Hopefully comfortable too. I'm also a 1 fan at a time kinda guy. I don't often need both of my fans blowing.