Lord_Potato

Hey Cricket! Thanks for your advice. And you are not late to the party at all. This is my first build so I am taking it slow and my job loves taking up most of my time. Your RS build thread was one of the first threads I ran into and I implemented a couple of things your thread when I resized the torso of my RS (I think it might be good enough for expert infantry). Anyways, I might try the forearm thing this weekend ( if I'm feeling cowardly, I might work on the helmet instead ). I guess I will trim it the way it is supposed to be, put my forearm in......if my forearm is swimming in the armor then try and do what you suggested. And thank you! my wife is super excited. She posted a thread on the Sandtrooper forum asking for opinions on making the TD better sized to her body but there were no responses. Fortunately, TK-44678 lives near me and is pretty good with building. We came over and he helped adjust her kit. As soon as she gets some MP-40 pouches she submitting for approval. Once that's done I will have a bit more time to attack my WTF.

You are correct. I guess I am over analyzing everything. I'll try and proceed better next time I get a chance to work on my kit. Thank you

Thanks for your comment! and yes I think you are right. Holding an individual piece is different than it put together. It can easily give you a skewed image as I have learned. And yes, hopefully there will be others to help handle and take photos

It's going to be a rough week for me, but my goal is to try and do something, even if its a little during the week. I knew I didn't have time to heat and correct my left forearm so I decided to cut my right forearm to be ready to just cut down the "cover strip edges" to be ready to try and size/shape at a later time. CRL states no return edge at the wrist opening for centurion. I removed the return edge wrist side (just need to sand to smooth out) and left minimum return edge on the opposite side. That's it for the right forearm for now. I trimmed the ab piece from the excess plastic and removed the return edges (I learned from my RS that the crotch area return edge tends to dig in my thighs) Just putting the chest and belly pieces against my body, it seemed to fit pretty well! I just need to take a tad off BOTH sides of the belly plate (where they connect to the kidney plate) mainly to make a straight line edge: Another thing I noticed is that I might cut just an extra sliver off the lower crotch area. My upper thigh seems to graze against it. I won't cut anymore until the strapping phase. Last thing I noticed was that the chest plate does not seem to fit evenly on my chest. My top left of the chest plate (the area where the shoulder tabs go on) pops up about an inch while the right side sets flush with my chest: LEFT SIDE (side that springs outward) RIGHT SIDE I intend to heat up the upper left area and then press down on that area and that should even the upper chest area. I would like to hear some opinions on this. I might hold off until I am in the fitting part of my build.

Thank you, yes, I was pretty lucky with not messing up the RS pieces I hear bended. Like I said, the Walt's ABS plastic is harder to manipulate. I will try what you suggested for my next piece :). Thank you so much.

You are very correct. I only have minimal experience in heat bending. Here is a couple of pictures of how I increased the curvature on my kidney with hot water and how I increased the curvature on my ab plate with a heat gun on my RS armor: Just so you can see I have done a little bit of bending. I removed the return edge on the top of my kidney armor after the hot water bath.... My RS is PVC plastic and Walt's is ABS. I think that (along with minimal experience) made me mess up on the left forearm. The PVC was a lot easier to get to a bendable state. I n my opinion, PVC is a little easier to mess with. The next time part I need to heat bend, I will take extreme caution.

Distractions and unbroken promises: I have been trooping for a few months now and I am always accompanied by my wife (handler and taking pictures). She started to really get into the 501st and has been wanting to join for months. I told her once my Walt's TK is done we will get either a TK or a scout for her. I also said if we happened to find a TK for sale that happened to closely fit her short body, then we could do that as well. As it so happened someone was selling their 501st approved sandtrooper outfit and it was not too ill-fitting on her. Seems like just a little bit of work and it would fit her pretty well. Anyways, the traveling and deciding on going forward with the purchase has taken most of my Friday and Saturday. I guess I'll be able to work on my WTF tomorrow. Also, the money diverted to the sandtrooper only means I might have to wait for an extra paycheck before I continue to get soft goods and soft hand guards.

Haven't done much on my build yesterday or today. I guess I realized that I cannot rely too much on referencing my RS armor. Some armor pieces (like the forearms) are shaped very differently which I realized I was going to have to do some extreme shaping of the left forearm to make it look like the RS. But that is not the point. WTF is supposed to be different, it is a fan sculpted version. I spent time trying to reshape my left forearm and kind of distorted the shape. I am leaving the left forearm alone for now and tomorrow, I am going to just do the normal cuts on the right forearm and see how it naturally comes together. Before I try and put the right forearm together I am going to browse over a few more WTF threads. So I learned a small lesson and it might have cost me ruining a left forearm. But I have a job and I can get it replaced if it is not recoverable. Anyways, I really do appreciate the few of you who are checking up on this build. This build will take a minute and it makes me feel a bit more confident as I get some inputs. the last update for today, right before I received the kit my neck seal arrived in the mail from Geeky Pink's Phantastic Gaskets. Here is a picture of the fit. I was not sure where to go for various parts of my soft goods and stumbled across Geeky Pinks, it was also nice that she made the based on your neck measurements! I think it fits very well. One part of my soft goods down!

JustJoseph63, thank you for the input. I intend to removed the return edge during final fitting during my sizing stage, I realize I am leaving a little extra room.

Thank you, there are two main reasons for a little reshaping, one was for flare out the inner part of the forearm where it turns and digs into my skin. The other reason is if I make the forearm more circular it will be a better fit. Holding it together by hand is has a really oblong shape. I am hoping some hot water baths I can get it into a more circular shape. I don't think I posted a good picture on how it looked with both parts on my forearm (held together by my other hand).

Thank you, and after looking at my RS it does curve outwards! I always thought it was an illusion due to the armor getting wider. Thank you for the information. When I get back to the bells I will try and implement the curve.

I went ahead and trimmed the left side forearms I measured 16mm across the outboard cover strip and a 17mm cover strip in the inboard portion of my RS left forearm. So I decided to cut the flat pieces on my forearms (where the cover strip goes) to a 10mm width for now on each side, which should allow for a 20mm cover strip if I need it. (which I doubt) Most of the return edge is gone for the forward part (will remove all of it since I am trying to go centurian) and both sides of the inner part have a 10mm flat edge and the out part only has the top part with a 10mm flat edge. The bottom part is all curved so I didn't know where to cut it, so I left it alone for now Putting the armor on was interesting, I knew it was not going to be a perfect fit, but I assumed pieces will almost always be larger. The inner forearm is actually snug (and I have small arms) It looks like I will have to do some reshaping with either hot water or heat gun. I drew some arrows on how I intend to reshape the left forearm. Here is a pic on how its aligning but not well enough for the shape of my forearm It's getting late so a might try reshaping tomorrow.

As of now I am just trying to get my forearms sorted out the right way. I showed this image to one of the admin people in Walt's facebook page (he was the one I paid for the WTF kit and offered to help me with any questions I had). He said it "looks right". I wish I had a more concrete answer than "looks right" but I feel the curve of the armor helps indicate what side it is supposed to reside. I would appreciate any inputs.

So I do appreciate the original strapping system that my RS came in but one I disassembled my armor for my refitting, I put it back together using snaps. I like this so much better. For me, the less small metal parts to worry about the better. I tend to sweat more than the average trooper and sweat is a no-no when it comes to metal. CORROSION! as most of you already know, out sweat contains salt making it an electrolyte which is the main source for corrosion (technically, in naval aviation corrosion requires: an anode, a cathode, contact between anode and cathode and electrolyte). Anyways, what's important is that electrolyte is making contact and causing corrosion. My little screws on my strapping system and in my helmet started to rust. My snaps have not corroded yet and I believe the main reason is that it is easier to wipe down/clean than all the tiny screws throughout your armor. So I would recommend using snaps if you tend to sweat more than the average human.

Did a rough cut out of my back plate. Lots of return edge left but most of that or maybe all of it will be cut away as I get further in my build. Just trying to get most of the excess material off. So as for width, the WTF seems a little narrower than RS but is taller than RS The kidney and butt plate come as one piece. So the top of the butt and the bottom kidney do not have return edges. As of now I do not intend to recreate the return edges. I am not a fan of certain return edges on some of the armor pieces digging into me. I do think it is a cool skill to learn and have experience in and might be important, so my utmost respect for Cricket's sharing of her success and how to make return edges. Here are the pieces I have pretty much cut out of all the excess plastic (the only thing left to do on these are reducing the return edges on some and removing the return edges on others.