willeywonka

This!

Awesome. This is super helpful! Thanks.

Ben, I am going to get the acetone for my ABS paste this week. Would you mind elaborating on the process of wet sanding? I have never wet sanded anything before and honestly have no idea what that really means... Do I just need to wet the sand paper? Thanks for your help!

Does anyone have any thoughts on if it is worth purchasing a snap press instead of the old hammer and anvil method? If so, does anyone have a press they recommend? There seems to be a broad price range out there. Also, if I get one I want to make sure it’s compatible with Line 24 snaps so if anyone has a recommendation it would be helpful. Thanks!

My boots from Imperial Boots came today! Very pleased with them. They fit like a glove. They also included a rad patch. Hoping to collect some more patches once I get approval!

Okay I’ll give that a shot. I’m 5’11” but my height is spread more through my torso than my legs. I actually have some slight back problems because of how long my torso is. Thanks!

Thigh update: The flared pieces are glued in place now. Since I have already dropped some serious cash on this build this month I have to wait until April to purchase further supplies like the acetone to make my ABS paste. Gotta stick to that monthly budget. Happy wife, happy life! I have completed my biceps and forearms aside from some final trimming (getting Lexan scissors in April) and sanding. I also started working on my shin pieces. My left rear cover strip is done and the right rear cover strip is curing. LEFT: RIGHT: Lastly, I have been doing some test fitting of my chest, ab/cod, kidney, and butt plates. I have a pretty long torso so it'll be a bit difficult to not have any gaps in the back. I tried to get it to where the length needed for any gaps is split equally between the back plate-kidney plate and the kidney plate-butt plate. Will this be okay?

Awesome. Thanks!

Yeah I have. Still seems a bit tight. I guess I’ll just slowly trim bit by bit from the ridges and test the fit until it seems right?

Yes, that’s the main issue. The other is that it also seems to be pretty tight on the top of my forearm just below my elbow. It may get better after I trim because it’s kind of hard to piece it together exactly with the extra plastic, but it seems like it’s going to be troublesome.

You mean like a removable cover strip attached solely by Velcro? No glue?

I’m building an AP TK stunt kit. After marking off where to trim my forearms and trying them on for sizing they are really snug. I don’t think I’ll be able to just slide them on. Would it be approvable to have Velcro closures on the back of the forearms similar to the shins? I am hoping to go Centurion. If this is not approvable, could I have wider cover strips to allow me the room to slide them on? Thanks in advance for your help!

So I am wrapping up gluing my biceps today and am testing out my new magnets that finally arrived yesterday In the mean time, I have started working on fixing the back of my thighs. Here is my progress so far. Here is how they currently look. Try not to vomit... First, I cut down a slightly curved piece of scrap ABS that fit the shape of the thigh to glue on the inside. After this cures, I found other pieces of scrap with a nice flare on the end that will pretty closely match up with the ridge that I cut too far above. I marked off with a pencil where to cut them to size and will glue them to the piece on the inside pictured above. Once in place they should look something like this (but more flush with the trimmed edges because it will be glued on top of the inside scrap piece): ' After that's done I'll make my ABS paste, fill in the seams, sand, and hope it turns out well!

Awesome. Thanks to you all!

All, I am in process of building my AP armor. I have everything trimmed but haven't started gluing yet because I am waiting on my magnets. When I do start assembling I am wondering what pieces (none, some, all?) should have inner cover strips. It seems to go either way with a lot of build threads I have seen. Some people have them on all parts, some have them on a few, and some don't seem to have them at all. Do parts without the inner strips hold up well? I can't seem to find any discussions on them, so I am hoping someone can provide some recommendations. Thanks!

I set up a little inspiration from my childhood in my home office today. Long live the Empire! Joke's on them though... Anywho, I am pretty much ready to start assembling but am waiting on my magnets to arrive. In other news, how does the fit of this bicep look? I also finished prep work for my belt. I went ahead and trimmed off the rear large rectangle on my should straps. I kind of liked the symmetry but I decided screen accuracy should trump my OCD-ness. I also glued in a bit of extra ABS to give more surface area for when I glue them to the chest plate.

Haha oh man. Idk now. I’m torn. I’m gonna sit on this for a bit and trust The Force to guide me lol.

Copy that. Appreciate it!

I noticed while researching last night that the shoulder straps need to free float on the back and be held down with white elastic. It also looks like people have theirs cut to remove the large rectangular portion on the rear of the straps (below the red line in this pic): Is it required for Centurion to trim them like this ^? I kind of like the balance of the large rectangle on the front and back.

Will do. Thank you!

I know I was disappointed. Maybe if enough people react they can be convinced to stick around? Competition is always a good thing! The good news is Imperial Boots provides a great product as well I hear. I can’t wait to get mine!

I am following those lines for the most part, just need to tweak slightly because my right calf is about 3/4” larger than my left.

I've got my thigh pieces trimmed down to allow for the proper cover strips now and am working on the task of collecting shavings from my other trimmings to make my ABS paste so I can overcome Thighgeddon 2018. In the mean time, I have finished rough trimming my bicep pieces and shoulder straps (shoutout to Mark for the instructions to leave 1/8" around the straps): I also trimmed down the front of my shin pieces and sized them with tape. Here are some pics. Just FYI, I have pretty hefty calves. They run in my family and come in handy on leg-day workouts, but not so much when sizing my armor. Please let me know how this looks. I honestly can't go much smaller than this without cutting off circulation haha. FRONT BACK I plan to trim along the red line on both. The back right shin trim line is not as crooked as it looks in this picture, it's just angled differently than the left shin.

They were actually my first choice but I received a reply from them letting me know they are going out of business. I went with Imperial Boots which was my second choice only bc of a potentially long shipping timeframe (20-30 business days after boots are made). Here is a portion of their response. This was sent 2/21/18: Due to the massive influx of low-quality plastic and vinyl boots flooding the 501st, not to mention 99% of the armor being absolutely terrible quality, tentatively, we're closing down TK Boots. We cannot compete with the low-quality boot's pricing when we're producing handmade leather boots. We're still producing our high-quality high gloss white ABS TK/Sandy armor kits but we're scaling back on those as well.

Thank you! I appreciate the detailed advice and the encouragement.