FN1313

With snaps installed on the abdomen and the belt I was able to test out the belt sitting with the kidney armor too. Based on where it sits and the Velcro in the rear it also seems I’ll be able to trim maybe .5 inches of kidney armor on each side. Though I’ll have to better measure before doing so. I’m working to trim out the button pieces for the abdomen as well so that I can glue those down and get the abdomen one step closer to being done. Side note double check before you clamp set your snaps on the belt. It’s a pain in the a— to remove them after. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Your 10mm lines looked good. The bottom lines looked good to me if you decided to go that route. That’s how I trimmed mine. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think some of that is preferential tbh. I removed what I did because it was uncomfortable. And even then on the rear of the thigh I plan on mobility cuts as is. If in doubt you can leave them for now and remove later if needed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BELT I started work on the belt today First thing was to drill out the holes on the plastic. As I debated the methods for assembly and such I opted to go with Chicago screws to connect the plastic to the canvas. I can change this if I need to as I have two plastic belts that came with the kit. I want to see if this will work the current way and then if I need to change the outer points to be snaps instead I can. I think it will work though. I drilled out 1/8 inch holes (I think, might have been one larger) in the little marked grooves.) I then trimmed some length off the top/bottom and then flat perpendicular cuts off the ends to give me the flat edge as well. I had previously marked the middle of the canvas belt and lined up the middle hole with the mid line. I used a leather hole punch to make a hole in the canvas for the Chicago screw and put the .5 cm length screw female end through both. I noticed that there was still some open space so I cut some plastic back pieces and drilled a hole in them and applied to strengthen the connection points I’ll have to see how things line up on the armor to debate if I keep this or go the snaps on the ends instead. Though if I recall that would place the snaps really far out and not more central to the abdomen as I’ve marked so I will check that later. As a final step I marked the 45 degree angle cuts to make. I didn’t have special tools, but using trigonometry for the first time since middle school in the real world I marked the distance from the canvas intersection to the top/bottom edges and then marked that same distance from the plastic outer edge inward. If the sides of a triangle are the same length than the angles are 45 degrees. That’s where my belt is for now. Update. I added the female snaps to the belt to help hold it in the front against the abdomen. I will get some pictures going forward as well as start looking into work on the drop boxes. I also will trim the 45 degree angle corners soon. Trimmed the corners tonight I installed the holster today as it was a quick step in the progress of my costume. First using this diagram I marked the location of the 1 3/4 inches from the edge of the plastic. Then lining up my edge of the first leather strap with the line I measured the midway point of the leather strap. It was about 1cm from the edge (2cm wide strap) Knowing that I marked 1.5cm up from that 1cm in position to find my hole in the canvas spot. I then marked an inch down from the canvas to the top of the holster on the strap to know where it should sit. Knowing the location of the first strap I just lined up the second strap, holster 1 inch away from the belt and then same thing 1cm in and 1.5cm up on the canvas to find my second belt hole. I then used a leather hole punch to punch out the holes on my canvas belt. Lined up the belt straps and marked the spot to punch holes into the holster straps. I punched the holes and inserted the female end of a chicago screw into the canvas belt and the leather straps. Then I screwed the inside edge shut and have my holster mounted. I sanded down the rear cover’s outside faces of the belt drop boxes so that it would easily slide into the front cover and have good grip for glue. I then used e6000 glue on the front cover’s inside faces (the ones around the box. The issue that I realized is if there was no way for air to escape it would create a pressure pocket that isn’t ideal when gluing or holding together so I took the smallest drill bit I have and drilled a small hole below the Chicago screw spot to let the air get out when closing and gluing. I then slid the piece in and clamped the ends to hold until cured. Tomorrow I will finish up the belt assembly with the drop boxes being secured to the belt. Alright, so I finished up the last bits of the belt and am currently waiting for the Chicago screw covers to cure the glue. I don’t have a picture of the rear side yet and with the covers glueing I don’t want to interrupt that for a photo. (Add photo of rear of belt later) Here’s the belt in it’s current waiting state. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Front lines look good. I personally recommend trimming g the return edge around the top before sizing, makes it easier to work with, plus that’s a nasty armor bite area with them there. The bottom I trimmed a little different. I took off the return edge in the front and back but curved it to leave a little on the sides being as those have the edge that sticks out a bit so that edge is okay for the thicker look and not biting you. That’s my recommendation. I’d draw lines first and check before you trim though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ll get some details and reply later when I’m able to some answers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m feeling the need for a celebration march of the beach troopers. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Me as soon as I saw this to my wife “Honey, remember how you told me to never buy or wear a Speedo…?” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another option for the helmet padding is some Air Conditioner weatherseal. I’ve done that in a few helmets and it’s strong enough to hold well but not going to be too strong to hurt. It’s also a little more liquid resistant than some foam padding. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Frost-King-1-1-4-in-x-1-1-4-in-x-42-in-Grey-Air-Conditioner-Weatherseal-AC42H/100059869 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Questions are good, always worth asking and understanding before trimming and fixing. So with the Thighs and Shins being as both require a 20mm cover strip in the front you will want to measure 10mm on each half’s front from the return edge inward and trim off the excess. I would do that and apply inner cover strips for holding and maintaining that while you then size the rear of the thighs and shins to your body. You should hopefully have enough excess size in the back to to that without shimming anything. (This is an earlier picture I used to emphasize the 10mm cuts ideally you’ll want to not have it look like barrel thighs, but have things wider at top and narrower near knee, more triangular so to say. An adjustment I did later as I sized the rear of the thighs.) Also be sure to note that the two halves of thighs and shins are different. The thighs has one curve that goes lower and more scooped (that’s the inner thigh) and the outer thigh seems to be less scooped and more curved straight up to a higher peak. The shins will have one side that is angled inward a bit more near the bottom (inner) and one that is less (outer) As you can see below this is my left shin Regarding the cover strip on the rear of the thigh, if you are going for higher levels of approval then it needs to be 20mm just like the front strip. Only the shins have a 25mm rear cover strip and that’s to cover for the fact that they are not glued down and cover up the enclosure method. If you have much larger thighs then there are methods to make them even larger and still get a proper cover strip of 20mm in the rear for higher levels of approval. You’ll need to shim them though. You can see this question I posted previously with a good response detailing information on how to shim. How large the rear strips can be to be accepted really comes down to your GML, however I’m sure you’ll also feel much more comfortable with the appearance of your armor if you can manage to achieve the 20mm rear strip appearance. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53132-thigh-back-cover-strips/#comment-758624 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just found out about this build. Really liking the progress and looking forward to seeing it come together!

Consistency is the key. I dropped almost 40 pounds over 6-8 months to get down to my High School weight. It’s not the easiest. Pizza was my enemy, but just being consistent was the biggest part of the success. You’re on the right track and got this! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Trimmed the shoulder bridges and filled the hollow areas with strips of ABS where they will be glued to the chest piece. Roughly 2mm width from the side return edges and 3mm from the front and back return edges. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Another round of abs slurry to fill the holes that came from the first round. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey Matthew, Sort of echoing some of the info GoofTrooper was mentioning. I wanted to illustrate a few adjustment items for your fitting that may help better. The armor itself looks pretty solid. Only thing I had questions on was the belt as it looks like the canvas doesn’t go under the whole length of the plastic which is causing the issues where it’s sagging around the back. Is it possible to keep the belt without that length from behind the plastic? Sure, but it may run the risk of doing what it’s doing. I’m also not sure why the drop boxes are angled in so much on both sides, I wouldn’t expect them to naturally hang that way unless it’s also due to the angle which the canvas is bending from not being a whole piece behind the plastic. See below I’ve marked the straps that you’d want to make shorter so that the chest piece rests over the top of the abdomen. The idea here is you want to have your abdomen sit higher for comfort as well as appearance. If your thighs are attached to your abdomen this may help, but I know in the past I’ve had armor that the thighs attached to the abdomen and actually brought it down no matter what. If that’s the case I’d recommend separating the rigging from the abdomen for your thighs and then rigging them to a belt system instead as that will keep them separate from your abdomen so they don’t pull it down and instead rely on a belt better fit to you to keep them up. I also marked the blue imaginary areas I think your belt canvas is and why it’s bending downward. In green are where the drop boxes should ideally sit and I think that’s due to the canvas angle. Finally I think you have an elastic strap that is really thick on the shoulder straps (in blue rectangle) wasn’t too sure, but that looked like something that shouldn’t be there. Same ideas below the only other thing I noted is you’d want to try to have your abdomen sitting higher and your kidney doing so as well so that your posterior armor isn’t under the kidney but the edge of the bottom kidney and top posterior are side by side. Here’s some references. Belt and Posterior placement Shoulder strap Chest over abdomen I hope that gives you some ideas on rigging. If you have questions of course feel free to let us know as everyone is here to help [emoji846]

Worked on the ammo belt thigh this morning. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just wanted to check my lines are the right place to trim first I also have these that came with the kit, I don’t see why, I’m guessing some sort of reinforcement for the straps, but they don’t really fit flush as is. Also in prep for the belt snaps on the abdomen I marked 28mm from left return edge and 59mm from right return edge both 15mm up. I also marked mid point and 1/4 inch down from the return edge of the box. Just wanted to show pictures and verify things look correct before drilling holes. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk I guess the 1/4inch mark isn’t necessary. The top of the belt must be even with or slightly above the bottom of the ab button plate.

I’m hoping to add one more to it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

True statement. I’ve also found it depends on the style of armor. Seems that each armor has areas more likely to crack than others. my FOTK constantly cracked around the shoulders of the yoke. But then again that’s just due to the design. Any areas of stress I’d recommend reinforcing prior to much wear and tear to help. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’d recommend looking through pre approval posts and expert infantry and centurion posts just to get an idea of the fitting nuances. That way when you get your armor you can know how things should looks when you fit them. Congrats on the shipment! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, got some plastic polish on the way so tomorrow evening I can sand and polish it and start fresh. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep just did that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Easy enough fix. Just put a piece of abs on the back with e6000 and I’ll fill the hole then make a new one for the new snap. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It’s up in the abdomen section above, but here’s the. Male snap aligned 20mm in and 20mm down Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Is there something not correct with my snap there? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk