wook1138

I have a feeling this will be a great build to follow.

10

Looks good!!

I almost wrecked my shins with a heat gun fixing the same problem (but I have no skills whatsoever ). The heat gun can create uneven hot spots and you run the risk of the plastic kinking in one spot instead of a nice curve. I would second Tony's advice and go for a nice hot bath.

To repeat others - yeah, the coverstrips need to be lined up. For the elastic, I used something closer to B. I tried having my elastics offset like the Billhag diagram (similar to the RS suit). I didn't like it. Then I put the elastic underneath the cover strip seam - and it was much better (my forearm kept better alignment with the bicep and the elastic didn't bulge out when I bent my arm). I also went with thinner elastic - I tried the wider first but found is bunched up too much when I bent my arm. That is what worked for me but, as long as you use E6000, you can change it down the road if you are not happy. Keep up the good work!

So far very good!! Someone might ask you to bring your forearms up a touch so the black space between your handguards/forearms is more like space between your forearms/bicep, but that is a minor thing.

40

50

I glued mine so they were just barely taught. If they are too loose your shoulder bells might flare out a bit. Use E6000 and all is good. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

99

Helmet looks awesome! Nice work. The tube stripe template will bleed paint. If you do decide to revisit the tube stripes... Using a toothpick to scrap away unwanted paint works incredibly well. Just give the paint a few hours to dry and it will cleanly scrape off. And put the paint on in light coats. Good of to see you back at it!

ha ha! I can say with some higher level of certainty, that yes - that is the right way. We learn from our mistakes. The build is looking really good!

Yep. Mine started working too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congrats! Nice job.

Thanks Dan. No dice. Hummmm. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm using an iphone as well. I've updated the app, can you reply to this to see if I get a notification? Thanks.

Now that you've mentioned it... I have the same issue. I checked my phone settings and nothing has changed there. I still get notifications within the app - but I am no longer receiving the pop-up message on my phone (lock screen or banner notifications).

Yep, that's the paint I used. Shaking might have not been enough. The paint will separate and you can get very heavy sludge at the bottom. At least I did. No amount of shaking seemed to mix it. I had to take a toothpick and stir - even then it took some effort to get all the heavy sludge mixed back into the paint. So test the paint with a toothpick - if you don't detect any sludge at the bottom, then you might have bought a mislabeled tin of paint. That is all I can think of. Maybe you can get away with a shiny vocoder.

Mine for comparison. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine has a little shine to it, but not as glossy as what you have in the picture. Did you stir the tin with a toothpick or something similar (I hate to ask the possibly obvious)? I find the Humbrol paints need a lot of stirring. Thing is - it looks like you did an awesome job of the painting!

Very nice! Yep, easy pass.

Good question. I went with satin and I like the look of it... and no one has complained about it yet. I have tried (quickly) to look at reference pics to figure this out - in some pictures the reflection seems to go over the black just like the glossy grey and in some pics the black stands out suggesting it is not as reflective as the glossy grey and must be something more matte (I'm at work and don't have any pics handy, sorry). Heck, in some pics the vocoder looks glossy. So, in summary - flip a coin? Here is the Dave M helmet - the black in the tear looks to have satin black due to the break in the reflection - but I have no idea if this is the original paint or even a fluke.

Looking very nice, Luc!! The only thing I noticed was the frown paint - it could be brought down a bit more (past the missing tooth). But this is not consistent on all buckets anyways. Also, if you trimmed a bit of return edge from your shoulder bells, they may sit a little closet to you body - eliminating some of the black between your chest and bells. Both of these things are pretty minor and will not affect acceptance. Easy pass, man.

Yes to this! I had never been a part of an online forum before this. I wasn't even on Facebook. Researching and building my first TK was a steep learning curve one its own- navigating a forum for the first time was another learning curve for me. Yeah, I'm old and out of touch - but I'm sure I'm not alone. A pinned thread or post that compiles all this info would be awesome!

Inner cover strips will provide more strength but is not always needed. At the very least, you will want inner cover strips on the shins (front of course) as this piece gets flexed a lot during dressing and undressing. I found with the AP kit that there is enough cover strip material to put inner cover strips on everything, if desired... and if you didn't scrap too much material (I oops a few). I also put inner cover strips on my thigh pieces as this made it easier for assembly (in my case). I haven't put inner strips on my arms, but probably will since I have the material. Better safe than sorry, right? If you are good about rough sanding the glued surfaces first and you used an adequate amount of E6000 - you should be good with just the outer strip in most cases. Also, note that there is a good and bad side to the cover strip material. One side is whiter and shinier than the other.