wook1138

Yikes. I painted mine. Wasn't that hard - way easier than the tube stripes. I used a drafting template for drawing circles and used a pencil to leave a heavy outline. This helped keep the paint contained to the intended area when painting.

Congrats!

Good luck Matthew! Nice build.

Congrats and welcome!! Nice job!

Looking great!

Hey Robert, for my build that I didn't trim the back of the legs I clamped the pieces into the proper position and dipped into a hot bath to attempt to reshape them a little. I think I also tried a heat gun, but I don't recommend a heat gun if you have not used one before (it can be tricky to work with). Once I reshaped the parts a bit, I then glued with a piece of abs along the inside - I used a bunch of E6000 and kept it clamped for a couple days. Then I filled in the gap with a bit of ABS paste. It was a lot easier than it sounds. You probably don't even need to reshape before gluing.

Looks good Erick! Good luck!

Congrats trooper!

Congratulations, Sal! See you next week!

Congrats and welcome!

Looking great, Robert!

Yeah, sure. Now it is - ever since I originally invented it. I also invented the internet and oxygen. So... you're welcome.

Also, the thermal detonator looks good to me. My two cents. If your OCD requires you to trim a few mm off each cap, keep in mind that you will need to move your clips outwards a bit as well.

Looking great. When it comes to the thigh, I would leave it as is. A bit of extra room is better than too little. Foam padding will help if it is even needed. The space between the thigh and cod looks good. It is all about balance - if you are a taller trooper so you can get away with a bit more black there than some - just so long as the black at the knee is proportional. You are really moving along with this build. Keep up the awesome work!

Honestly, I'm not sure. You might get away with that for basic approval. For upper level approval the CRL states "overlap construction is not allowed". I would assume this applies to the back closure as well. The closure might look weird if you were to overlap the shins.

Oh, and for the thighs... if you have enough room, you can try a tapered trim long the back seam. This can make the knee opening a bit smaller but maintain enough room at the top.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For the shin question - yes, regarding the 25 mm coverstrip - it gets glued to the outer half of the shin (so the Velcro closure opens inward so fewer people will notice it) and the overlap part gets the soft side of the velcro. The inner half of the shin gets the rough part of the velcro (half inch thick strip to match the velcro on the coverstrip). I'll send a sketch in a bit. It is not uncommon to have a bit of room around the knee - it is just the way the thigh fits. If you try to trim it too much then the thigh piece wont fit in the middle part of your thigh. If you find the part bangs up against your knee when walking, you can always add a bit of foam to the inside.

Based on the picture, I would say you just need to rotate the thigh out a bit. Unless the thigh is just too long for you and is overriding the cod and/or butt and causing comfort issues, I wouldn't worry about trimming it. My two cents.

I think the arms look fine. Centering the forearm so that the black showing at the elbow is proportional to the black showing at the wrist (between handguard and forearm) is the important thing. The best advice now is to attach the hand guards and see if you have need to move your forearms up a touch. The right thigh can be a bit tricky. The raised return edge along the front seam is curved a bit. I had to glue the coverstrip to the bottom half - let it dry - and then do the upper half so I could bend the coverstrip enough to allow for the curvature. Also, using inner coverstrips helped as well. And... you will likely want to do inner coverstrips on the shins as they receive more stress than other parts due to the dressing process. Keep up the great work! You are flying through this.

If lowering your back piece does not do it, you could reinforce the seam by gluing a couple of pieces of nylon strapping to the back side - in between the riveted connections. These pieces will resist rotating somewhat. Also, when it comes to how your ab and kidney fit - you will want to test it with the belt before you get too carried away with fine tuning. The belt holds it all together and can make a difference. Looking great so far!

Yes. In fact, the standard for the holster to belt connection is Chicago screws. I used single cap rivets for the ammo belt to canvas belt connection and the straps to drop boxes connection. A lot of people also use rapid rivets (or whatever they are called - the ones you attach with the rivet gun). The rivets on the belt get covered by little ABS caps and you can't seen the connection on the back of the drop boxes, so you are free to use whatever works for you. The holster connection is the only one that is seen.

Not necessarily. The back plate will be flush to the top of the kidney while the chest piece will freely overlap the abdomen.

Congrats Simon! Awesome job on the tweaks.

Yes you can.