fishgoh0nk

what's the best way to put on the shins?? since the front is sealed up by a coverstrip, would you have top open it up like a hotdog bun and place your leg in like a hotdog? Or is it better to open it up slightly, then slide your foot in from the top?

HAHA! That means your suit's super good. Good illustrations too! And good advice! Already on it! Just added the inner splint and gave my self another 2mm to play with - there's enough room for the 20mm coverstrip to look mighty good and gives me more room to play with when working on the closure.

Ah, forgot how much information Tony's build guide HAD! Definitely should've gone back to read this (pre assembly) again. I see here he's experiencing that same offset.

The ANOVOS calves are a bit weird, they were sent incorrectly marked to a lot of people, my playing with the pieces resulted in swapping the left and right inners. This fixed the issue of having 2 blade curves on the right leg and 2 calf muscle buldges on the right. However, this also resulted in more material to trim on the left and less material to work with on the right. The result of the re-matching corroborated with what people had done online (pieces 24+27, 25+28), so I think I'm good, just not sure if the lower edges (near the foot) should be roughly the same length or not and whether I should employ trimming to fix the angles of wear. I think the snaps feel ok, I have some meaty arms and a soft armpit, where the snaps sit so I don't feel them at all. Using a black strap material also gives the bicep some illusion of a float. I'll post pictures of it worn soon.

Got some nooshooz! Fits pretty well, my feet vary from 9.5-11.5, seems like the average shoe maker fits well at 10. I ordered an IB 11, and the width is very good, but I have a good toe clearance about .5-.6 inches. Now I can start adjusting the calves! I'm having a bit of trouble getting the calves to not tilt outwards. I'm not sure if it's because the bottom crescent edge on the inside is longer/closer to the ankle bone that the outer. (Left edge is on right ankle bone) Not only does the ankle bone push against the edge and tilts the calves' top side outwards, the shoe also gives it a rise. I trimmed as much off as i could without making them "even". Should the be "even?" or should the inside be longer than the outside? Notice I'm tilting my leg INWARDS to get the calve to sit perpendicular to the floor. If I stood up straight, the calve would go to the left. Biceps: I tried using bicep hooks, but it appears that the hook length needs to be about 4 inches long, 2 inches to close the gap between bottom of the bicep cutout and 2 inches to be glued. I decided to forego the hooks and use elastic straps and snaps. I plan to glue about 4inches and leave 1-1.5 inches for some tautness when attaching to the shoulder's inner elastic strap. I'm excited, can't wait finish!

Yea, I agree - I trimmed off more return so there'd be less outer pull. I'll decide whether i'll need to trim off more once the new elastic straps dry and I finish trimming the rear biceps.

Got it! Further analysis reveals that my lats/rear delts are pushing down the bicep in the rear. I'll need to take off more material and the biceps will continue to sit high when my arms are at my sides.

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!