fishgoh0nk

Maybe i'll give it a bath and change the cylinder orientation - right now it's kind of flat where the "front" of the bicep pushes against my actual bicep and deltoid, If i change the shape so it's flat on inner and outer, maybe my arm will fit better.

It's on the left, that picture is taken in front of a mirror

I can pull up, but my shoulders don't want to fit in the current bicep funnel, that's why I was mentioning shortening the bicep tops. I believe if I take 2 inches off, I can pull them up higher by 2 inches. I've being using this list for return edge trimming. Just double checking, taking off the return edge on the shoulder bells is ok?

I think I need to shorten the biceps, they kind of get pushed downwards by my deltoids. What do you guys think? I also think I need to tighten up the shoulder bell's lower, inner strap- it has the possibility to stray a little too far from the arm when the bell moves (rotates out).

Looks like the elastic for the chest and back is a little too loose, causing the back to droop more than it should. Also, the snap for the shoulder bell needs to be moved towards the front, I had it right smack dab in the center, combined with rear drag, the shoulder bell didn't slope forward enough to close the chest/bell gap.

I was wondering about that - I gave the strap exactly 1.25 inches so when the black shoulder bell elastic is resting, the tip of the bell touches the white elastic used for the shoulder attachment so no black is showing. I guess I'll have to wear it to see how far the elastic stretches. I'm not using the ANOVOS supplied elastic, so it's actually a lot more taut... hope I don't have to redo this...

Strapped the bells don't worry, the lengths are the same. The camera distorts!

Thanks for the picture, do you have a close up of you wearing it? I'm more curious about how the cover sits in relation to the elastic underneath. I'm wondering if approvers will be concerned about the look of that. Let's so i glue it on centered on the front, but there's some exposure of elastic (you can see it from profile), and the back doesn't really line up. Would that be a problem? I guess it depends on how bad it looks huh?

Good tip, i'll start on it when I have some room to work in so I don't breathe it all in! I assembled all the brackets, and actually had a chance to wear it. Thighs for effect, but not held up, and i wasn't able to pull them all the way up today, leg day was yesterday and they're super swole I haven't peeled off the protective layer yet, I'm THAT guy. I will however, once the shoulder covers are installed, glue on the button panels. I do have a question about the cover straps however; does anyone have a good method to align the straps so they: 1. cover the elastic 2. look centered in the front as well as the back 3. is it a 2 person job? Can someone post pictures how the cover strips for the shoulder should look when worn?

finally got my 600+ grit sand papers - definitely a lot smoother and glossier moving on up all the way 1200. This is basically an ATA + ANOVOS hybrid left bicep, used a sealing iron to turn the return edge of the ATA into part of the inner bicep. There was material remaining, so a file was used and the sand papers, then Novus 123 polish. Biceps are curing: Kittle's belt got here, so I got started rehashing the existing ANOVOS belt for L3. I really dread removing the epoxy and material from inside those buttonns... ::shudder::

Haha, guess not everyone watched the SW bonus DVDs, apparently Carrie Fisher had to use gaffer tape to hold down some stuff. I've never heard the term 'gaffer tape' used before, until she mentioned it in the bonus content; that word is now permanently ingrained in my mind as associated to holding up princess privates. http://boards.theforce.net/threads/carrie-fisher-gaffer-tape.50016468/

Who am I? Carrie Fisher?

Yea, I figured my legs might just rip through these one day... I've had wardrobe malfunctions before, won't let that happen to me troopin'!

Had to take a weekend trip, but my hands were not idle. Ever see a guy sewing at the airport? Yup! That's me.

Oh, I was talking about the Mr. Nostripes screws for the bracketing system. Apaprently, they're rubbing against the screws on the adjacent piece of armor, since the point of contact is on the same plane.

Didn't get to post anything last night - but I did manage to finish the thermal detonator. Tony's post never mentioned that once you put the end cap on for the ANOVOS TD, you'll have to heat it up again to get it off I cut the tube to 7-1/4 inch, sanded and painted with gunship gray. My measurements were a bit off, i think due to the uneven cutting of one side using a dremel, the end cap had a gap between the paint and where it should've been. Had to bag, tape and recut. While test fitting the armor, I find that the screws that I had painted white seems to be getting scratched, lot of paint rubbing away from the edge of the screws - I'm guessing these will need to be repainted for L3 approval?

I was in bed, but I wanted answer you asap as I don't seem to catch you in the day -- good thing I took some photos earlier yesterday of placement. These were taken in succession. Edit: I took this before gluing the snaps/straps. Would you recommend a hot water bath for the covers? If i were to glue as-is, I fear there would be a lot of strain on the current angle.

I have a question regarding the shoulder covers and how high / tilt / cant of the chest plate to back plate. It feels natural on my body to have the shoulders of the chest sitting lower than back. However, when the cover strip sits, it's so bowed that there's almost no contact I can make with the chest plate. If I wear the chest a bit higher, the cover strip sits better, but still requires a good amount of pressure to keep it down between front and back It seems like the only way to get the covers to seat well is if I wear the chest WAY high up, much higher than the shoulders of the back, unless I use a hot water bath to reshape the covers. Can someone show me how these should be worn? Ideally I wanted to install the cover straps on before I begin riveting kidney to abs. Thanks!

Thanks for the tip Joseph! I'll start that as soon as my second coat of paint has dried (didn't like the rough texture of the first coat). Haha thanks! I jest, I jest all in good fun!

Wow, didn't think reinforcing the bracket system with extra plastic would be this arduous. Well, in my case - i had to re-cut a lot of the reinforcement bars to fit the narrow return edges I have in my build. Some of the holes were a little too narrow or too wide, so I had to re-make about a quarter of them. Another thing that made it take a while was letting the glue dry before adding the brackets... I had to add brackets to some because the return edge was so narrow, I needed the screw post to stabilize (couldn't use clamps or magnets). After installation, they seem to be holding up pretty good. I added reinforcement to the cod split rivet as well, waiting for that to dry before I tacked on the elastic. There's some e6000 on the rivet, will come off easily Like Tony's build - I used the handguard elastic included in the kit - but instead of cutting the 8 inch band to 4 inches (single layer), i kept it as a double layer, added layer for more strength and to protect my nether regions from the split rivet Next steps: 1. Finish the shoulder elastic and mount the shoulders 2. Attach the webbing and split rivets on the ab/kidney left side 3. Make and attach the ab's right strap 4. Bracket / strap together 5. Make sure posterior will fit with Tony's 5/8 and 1-3/8 S popper placements Here's how it looks so far.

Got the waist belt snap holes drilled and reinforced - just waiting for the E6000 to fully dry before add the male snaps on the outside: Added the brackets for the chest and back - I wanted to do the chest first because it's really hard to tell where to mount the brackets on the abs. I'm hoping with the brackets mounted, I'll have enough vertical visibility to see the brackets and mark the ab holes appropriately. I also added the shoulder snaps - using double like how Kman did his. The back bracket reinforcement was a bit too long, started an upward bow, so I have to use a clamp to hold it down for the glue to dry. I didn't sand down the reinforcement, backside had slick text (no parking sign)... hope it stays.

Frankenstein bicep - The ATA biceps have a huge 12mm return edge, and I'm guessing the coverstrips would need to be around at least 20mm - to maintain the current ANOVOS suit's 15mm arms (bicep and forearms), I used a sealing iron to flatten the return edge on the inner bicep, filed, sanded and polished it to minimize the remaining evidence of a fold. Even though this turned out well, fitting the flattened ATA inner with the ATA outer bicep would not allow me to use a 15mm coverstrip to cover both edges, all 15mm would sit on the return edge of the outer bicep - I cannot remove any more material here as the bicep is already quite snug. I can either flatten the outer ATA bicep's return edge... which, again is risky... or use the ANOVOS outer bicep: The hybrid looks pretty good - fits the bicep and I can maintain a 15mm coverstrip. [Left to right: warped ANOVOS inner left bicep (too small), hybrid (ATA outer + ANOVOS inner), ANOVOS right bicep) Apparently 400 grit isn't enough to use NOVUS polish yet- so I'm waiting for the mail to come with some 600, 800, 1000 and 1500 grit paper. Once I get the bicep polished up, I'll assemble and trim to fit. Ab to Kidney - using Tony's guide - I cut out 1.5 inch webbing strips and popped in 2 holes, 20mm apart. I figured since we'll be using the rivets with webbing, and my body is pretty flexible, the holes would need reinforcements. I decided to add a layer at the places where the rivet holes would be: Also to figure out where to drill, I made little 1.5 inch strips of tape with holes marked 20mm apart and taped them to the outside of the torso and kidney. These will be my indicators for hole drilling. The tape was attached when the seam was together, as tight as possible, then cut with a knife to separate for my working convenience. Ab Buttons - decided it was a good time to do this. I found it easier to score the backside of the button panel where the return meets the face, and just keep slicing. Doing this yielded a very easy way to trim while yielding an extremely straight edge.

Just got some ATA biceps in to replace the left one I ruined. This is a ATA right bicep compared to an ANOVOS bicep right. Just curious - will mixing parts affect approval?

LOL you caught me... i was only wearing 1 pant on a leg, and only pulled up to my thigh, I had the other leg in my teeth as a i took the picture. The undersuit definitely isn't as baggy as it appears. I'm also ordering from Imperial Boots this week for shoes - I guess I can use a pair of dress boots to do the sizing, thanks for reminding me. I also do have some return here - I will try removing some until it helps. Thanks!

One question about strapping the torso - any reason why everyone tends to put snaps toward the top of the shoulders? Is it bad to have it lower? Just wondering I can see the shoulder bells could pull the strap (if longer because it's snapped lower), but you get less of a snap bulge at the top (more hidden)