Lord_Potato

I have had some home repairs to take care of and other matters to attend to. Home repairs are almost done. So I am starting to get back into my build. I haven't gotten any advice about my back plate. Maybe I was not very descriptive so I will try and be more detailed. Hopefully I can get some insight. So the way my back touched my kidney plate....seems a little off. I think the top of my kidney is pretty straight but I took some photos to help show this: It looks like my back plate matches my kidney plate when it sits like this: But the way my body is.....the back piece fits on my body more like this....... I got the bottom return edge of the back plate to help make it straight/have a flat even surface.....the return edge was not completely flat. But it still looks the same as you can see in the first photo. Here is a good reference photo: It seems like at least on of the TK's has his back plate similar to mine.....as the back plate curves towards the ends it "separates" from the kidney. Anyways, any guidance will be appreciated. So I have my novus polish kit. I wanted to wait until I have the back plate strapped before I disassemble the strapping system for the ab to kidney plate so I can start filling my split rivet holes.

Ended up cutting off the return edges for the top kidney and bottom back plate. I tried to flatten the top of the kidney instead of trimming but was not successful. Not sure whats going on with my kidney to back alignment. It looks......sloppy. not sure how to proceed. Also I have a novus polish kit coming in the mail to aid in my split rivet repair. Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

Caleb, I appreciate the assistance. I must really suck at searching on this site! I tired browsing a bit for polishing tips LOL.

Mario, Thank you very much for the for the advice. I like the idea of heat bending the top of the kidney to flatten it out. I will try and do that and if I mess up or don't like the end result I will just cut it off.

Removed split rivets and will be attempting to fill and sand the holes with ABS paste. I will be attempting to redo the split rivets with the correct spacing. I would like a bit of guidance.....I have some experience making ABS paste and sanding, but I hear the term "polishing". How do you polish the area you repaired? The only thing that I can guess is that after you sand down they dried ABS paste you polish the area with some sort of polish? I have seen the term novus polish on various threads. Looks like I will be doing some searching and see if I can find a polishing tutorial on this site. If polishing doesn't work, hopefully airbrushing paint will do that job. The good thing is that the area I have to fill and sand just 3 very small holes on each side. Getting ready to get the back plate sized/attached. First thing I noticed is that the back does not fit flush with the top of the kidney. Maybe the kidney changed shape during the hot water baths? It has to be......even though the sides were the only part I was messing with. Anyways, here is how they line up currently: I am thinking about marking a straight line near the very top of the kidney and cut straight across to make a new flat/level top:

Bottom Cod rivet and snap to attach to posterior plate installed: Trimmed down the butt plate to match the kidney notch: Question! It looks like my left side the butt plate can be trimmed a bit more in a slight angle. I pencil marked where I think it should be further trimmed. Any inputs would be appreciated:

Most of what I have strapped so far has been snaps and elastic. I like the idea of fully taking apart my armor for cleaning/replacement. The only exception I have for my build is the butt to kidney plate. I just glued elastic to the kidney and butt plate. This is the only part of the armor where I prefer sturdy/very hard to come apart vs ease of disassembly: Marked where I intend to put my cod split rivet: I have marked where I intend to trim down my butt plate: Even though I will be redoing my split rivets to try and make approved for higher levels......The strapping method for the torso will not change. That being said, I decided to try and strap everything together and see how its all fitting together:

Well, it looks like I made a step forward by finding a sturdy strapping system for my torso......bad news is that I messed up my split rivet placement. Lesson learned: even though the CRL states something that might sound pretty straightforward.......still refer to reference photos. I need to decide if I still want higher approval. I still need to fix my butt to better match the kidney (I keep thinking I have the butt perfect, but then see it still needs reshaping). Hopefully after this final butt reshaping i would have my mind made up if redoing the split rivets and try and go centurion is still worth it.

Thank you for the advice! looks like that is the only thing I can do if I still want to go for higher approval. I know its important to look at reference photos.....i just thought the CRL was descriptive enough that I didnt need to look at photos.

Thank you! I hope he serves the empire when he's older. Well shoot. I thought i was following the CRL. It states 10 mm from the edge and evenly spaced in-between (in reference to the kidney side)

Butt snaps installed and made the shape of the butt match the kidney a bit better: My velcro strapping system for my kidney to ab was not a good idea. You had to be exact everytime you strapped it on and the velcro still gave "play" when you applied pressure to tighten the torso, the kidney plate sides would easily overlap the ab plate sides. So i decided to make a snap closure system (the split rivets lost paint during the hammering process): Since I cut new "notches" on the kidney plate, I will have to cut the sides of the buttplate to make it match. Also, everyone meet the little guy that's slowed down my build LOL!

Ab button plate is almost done. Had to take it apart to sand it down. It still stuck out a whole lot from the ab plate and when placing the belt against it......the belt was going to have a lot of extra space at each side of the ab plate since the belt has to be touching the base of the button plate. Its currently drying. Hopefully the profile is small enough. So trying to get the torso to finally come together...... Reshaping the kidney plate has left the butt plate to no longer align with it anymore: Put a bunch of tape to conform the butt plate to the kidney plate and dipped it in hot water: The butt plate now follows the shape of the kidney much better now. Still need to do some minor adjustments on the end of the left side: Also getting ready to make the "notches" and cut the butt plate as to not exceed past the notches: I know the CRL states that the notch is not needed. But the way I have my kidney sized......the left side still has part of the original notch left over after trimming. The right side is pretty much flush. I could try and trim the kidney more on the left making the notch go away. I do have excess room. But I feel it might be safer to not make the torso any smaller and to just make the notches and trim a few millimetres of the butt plate on each side. Any guidance would be appreciated. Overall the torso seems to be fitting nicely:

I continued to make progress on making my own backing for the ab button plate. Another reason why I decided to make my own rather than try and make the replacement one work is that the plate is very tall. I made my ab plate have a shorter profile which better matches the screen shot references and my RS: Side by side comparison in case you veterans think my ABS paste version should not be used (abs paste is on the right) It's now ready to glue on. Just waiting on constructive criticism: Once its glued and dried I can make progress with the belt. I am trying to see what else I can be working on since I am going to wait a day or two for opinions before gluing the plate on. Most of my armor is assembled. Once the belt is attached then thats when I will start trying to make the butt piece fit. So far (besides painting details) the legs, arms, helmet, boots, undersuit, neckseal, chest, thermal detonator, basic approval gloves and centurion gloves are done. The belt, ab plate buttons, and the butt are all I have left before strapping everything together. OH! I have been trying to find a E11 blaster. I don't want to steal my RS blaster. Look like doopy doos blaster is sold out, and original stormtrooper blaster is sold out as well. I messaged praetorian blasters on facebook 3 weeks ago, but have gotten no response. If someone can direct me to a blaster that meets centurion standards I would be most grateful.

Good idea, I think I will do that if I still proceed to rivet my ammo belt onto the cloth belt. I am currently leaning on attaching the ammo belt via snaps. I am just afraid that it might be easy for them to randomly "pop" if the curvature of the belt is too much. I was thinking of doing a combination of velcro and snaps. Looking over your first RS build, your entire ammo belt was attached to the cloth belt via velcro. May I ask your thoughts on it?

I really like that idea.......the concept of being able to remove the belt for maintenance or replacement seems to be a more efficient move than riveting. Have you had any issues with your snaps pooping off? I think I am leaning towards snaps but want to make sure that the snaps wont pop once the belt starts to curve.