MissionTrooper

Here's a picture of the outside. Tandy Leather was clearing out the gunmetal snaps, so I grabbed a bunch. I went with silver on the outside and gunmetal on the inside because it would bother me if one looked different from the rest. Thanks for pointing out the bottom snap. The nice thing about snaps is I can leave it off and have a spare strap for the top. I see some people have made a slot and tab for the right side; I may do that.

OK, I went with snaps held on by the split rivets. Right side.

Thanks Daniel. Putting the rivet through a snap is exactly what I was thinking of doing. I like the strain relief you put on the other side; I'll copy that too.

I've temporarily fitted the left side with machine screws while I'm getting things to fit. When I install the split rivets do they need to be functional, or can the internal strapping have snaps? I'd like the front and back to be separable, if possible, for storage and transportation purposes.

Good point; I hadn't considered the nylon or snaps wearing out. I accidentally glued one upside down and had to remove it, so I know it can be done if need be. I cut the glue with an X-Acto blade. I did scuff up the ABS to give it some tooth before gluing. I was just trying to find something quicker than e6000, not that I found it didn't bond well. This brings me to my next question. What glue will work for the silicone handguards on the rubber gloves?

I got some work done on the back of the armour. Being too impatient to use e6000, I tried gluing the nylon strapping on some test scraps of ABS using CA, epoxy, ABS glue and hot glue. I'm not normally a fan of using hot glue, but it held the best by far. It melted into the nylon and bonded very wealthy abs. The other three stuck fine to the ABS, but didn't bond as well to the nylon.

More progress. I made a belt. Should I use elastic or canvas straps to connect the thighs to the belt?

Just what I needed. Thanks guys.

It is a little long. I haven't seated the end caps all the way. It looks like it should be about 190mm OAL and the caps should be about 20mm. Is that correct?

Some sanding and polishing and it darkened up a bit. I think it'll do nicely. It's just a dry fit of the parts in the photos; before final assembly.

Boots arrived today!

The boards arrived today, but I'm getting a buzz on the DFPlayer when running on the 5V from the Arduino. I found that it's the RX line on DFPlayer, but a 1K resistor or powering off the 3.3V pin clears it up. I've been using DFPlayers in lightsabers for a while now without ever encountering this problem, but they run on a single cell Li-ion. If I wan't them to be able to run on a 9V or a USB power pack, I'll have to re-design the boards.

I may have. The only name I remember is Marco. My brother-in-law and Pandatrooper used to work together at EA.

The boards for the voice changer I designed arrived today, so I've been putting one together.

Cool! I met some troopers from the Outer Rim Garrison at Vancouver Fan Expo (I met Billy Dee Williams too!) and they gave me the contact info for Mark at AP and then Quest Canada. Now I'm on my way.

Thanks for the advice. Shipping is the real expense, especially to Canada. Yes, I have bigger problems if my head is that close to my...

Thanks, I will be ordering the s trim today. I picked up a piece of grey PVC for the thermal detonator to replace the black ABS that came with the armour. I can sand and polish it to get it looking decent, but it is just a little lighter than the stickers that came with the kit. How accurate do the colors need to be?

My bucket came with u trim. Where can I buy s trim? I tried searching the forum, but I couldn't find a source.

Thanks. I did make ABS paste to fill in the gaps on the forearms, but it was quite a bit thinner than the stuff in the link you sent. I'll try a thicker batch and see how that goes.

Looks like they're filled in, but still visible. I'll fill them in.

I'm shooting for Centurion, so please let me know if I do anything that would prevent that from happening. This brings me to my next question. There are seams that aren't covered. Is it OK to fill those in, or is it considered more screen accurate to leave them alone?

Forearms are done. When I took off the clamps I found gaps on one of them. I found some posts on ABS paste and made some to fill the gap. Then it was just a matter of sanding, polishing and elbow grease. ABS paste is a brilliant.

I tidied up the cover strips. I wasn't confident that tape would hold the forearms together while the E6000 cured. So I glued strips of HIPS on the inside with CA to hold things in place while I applied the cover strips. HIPS Strip on one side. The strips are glued inside. Cover strips are in place. I'm glad I have lots of clamps, but I wish I had more magnets. Greg was right.

Thanks. I was watching Pandatrooper's videos and he said to err on the side of slightly long. Maybe just so you can sand back to flush. I'll do that.

My first pieces done.