MomoSS

Quick update. I get checkups every 2-6 months just to make sure everything is ok post chemo, so far so good. I've been walking a lot and working out. Losing inches, weight not so much >__> this stuff doesnt come off easy lol Pain in the butt. My armor is still in the crate waiting for me to get back into it so meanwhile I've been fixing up my stormtrooper themed car and going to some local car shows with it. I'm hoping next year my stomach will be slim enough for me to feel more comfortable with the chest/ab plate porportions cause right now they way out of whack Theres my other work in progress. Looks more stormtrooper than I do right now, haha.

Hey guys! I'm not dead! lol 6 months of chemo and some TLC later I'd thought id post an update. So far its looking like I'm in the clear. Had 2 doctors appointments checking in with scans so far and they have come out good. Hair is growing back and I feel like my old self again except now I weigh more D: So before I can get going on my armor again I need to lose the stomach. But I'm still here! Missed out on the Centurion stuff I know...but thats okay. My #1 goal after all was just to get my armor finished and approved! One day it'll happen!

Sorry there hasn't been an update in a while...I've been going through a lot lately. My health took a rough turn and I'm gonna be out of commission for a little bit while I recover from dodging a bullet from ovarian cancer (caught it early at stage 1 but need chemo). Had to have surgery and all that and my first round of chemo is tomorrow. When I come through on the other side of this I'll get back to building my armor again. Just thought I'd give an update since I've been MIA for a while. Also got this flag from Galaxies Edge in the mail so thats something to raise the spirits while I get better. I'll be back in action soon! For the first order!

Those spats look a bit different from the ones that came with my kit. Like if they were a flat piece of abs that was just curved around. Also looks like part of it is securely affixed or permanently attached to the shin and the side where the shin opens up is where the spats are loose at. This was what I was thinking about doing. If its okay for L3 Centurion, I will go this route with my shin/spats.

Got a quick question regarding shins and spats. Would it affect EIB or Centurion if the spats were semi-permanently attached to the shins and just clasp together after clasping the shins? Or would they have to be separate pieces? The reason why I ask is because the spats seem really wonky and I feel like they would come apart when walking around and doing poses. Ive seen people use velcro to keep them in place but why bother having them be separate to begin with?

I'm in the same boat. I think right now hes having issues shipping to the US because of all the covid stuff going on. Real bummer right now as I cant finish my thighs without it.

Progress Report - 9/30/20 So that extended piece on the spats connector wasnt working out after all. There was too much force wanting to pull them apart and on the left shin the spats were still coming apart even though on the right it was barely making it. So I decided to bite the bullet and cut into the spats to extend them. I cut them in the front since the spats come together at an angle there and put an angled shim there. Going to go over it with ABS paste to make it seemless later, but now with this extension the spats are no longer an issue. Going to need some velcro to keep these in place when they are finished. Got one of my blasters in the mail! Very exciting! Seems like a nice quality print and it already came in the right colors which is nice. Just need to clean them up, smooth them out then hit them with primer and paint and throw them together. Also on the fence about adding leds to this one. It's mostly just going to hang out on the holster, but it would be nice if it lit up like the F11D. Still waiting on that bad boy to come through the mail. I think I need some metal mounting hardware to go on this too if I'm right. Assembled my biceps. I was worried about my cuts at first but once they were put together things seemed to line up ok. And yes! I remembered to overlap the insides! My mobility definitely took a hit though, taking the helmet on and off is gonna be a challenge LOL Can barely do it with just this on, with the chest armor and everything else that will eventually be on me I think it may be impossible. I may have to admit l need a helper here xD I think I'm going to trim the insides of this forearm a bit more. The edges are really cutting into my hands and its uncomfortable, not to mention I dont want them to damage my gloves over time. With the extremities mostly put together its about time to take the chest stuff out of the bin and get back to work on those.

Gonna try that to see if I can improve the shape. In my panic, I added a shim where the 2 halves connect which may have solved my main issue. They still dont connect very pretty, but at least now they are not trying to come apart and they can actually stay together with masking tape long enough to get a few shots in. I need to find a way to connect these together, the neodymium magnets are too big to fit behind the greeblie clip that goes where these 2 halves connect and I feel like velcro is still too weak to hold these together while trooping. I'm very animated while in costume So I dont want parts coming off when I bust a pose. Gonna add this strip to the other spat and then gonna go see if I can reshape these with a heat gun I got from Ace Hardware. Last time I played around with heat with an iron it didnt go so well. Maybe this heat gun will go better.

The build has been going slow lately as I've been running into a few roadblocks. So... The good news is I've got my shins all fitted up and held together with neodymium magnets and they are snug and comfy. Looks great with the IB boots! Just need to add the greeblies, primer and paint. The bad news...the spats do not fit The shins are too large for the spats to make it all the way around and thats quite a big gap. I think the issue is the shins are not exactly round at the bottom where the ankle is, more of an oval shape, but the spats are not fitting around them too well. Not sure how to go about shimming these either, they have a specific shape about them, not sure where I would even cut. I could force it together but then theres no way for it to hold; the forces wanting to pull apart are too strong. Even neodymium magnets wouldnt be strong enough to stop them from wanting to come apart and velcro or snaps would just come off. I'm not sure how to fix this. I feel like I need a set of larger spats honestly because the KB prop ones were wonky from the start. They didnt fit together 100% even before this problem. Trying to find build threads where anyone else has run into this problem, but so far no luck. Not many people run into big shin problems I guess.

I'm making my armor pre-centurion ready so when I do finish it, all I will need for centurion status is rubber gaskets...thats the plan anyway. As soon as I get basic approval im gonna finish an F-11D and immediately go to request EIB and once I get that then I'll need to go hunting for rubber gaskets for centurion. Hopefully it will all go to plan.

I'm happy for all the troopers that made it to this milestone. I wish I could have been a part of it but theres Centurion 500. Im definitely going for that!

Good luck to the #1000! I'm aiming to be in that 1500 bracket lol

Progress Report - 9/8/20 Not all progress is plastic! The undersuit that once did not fit, now fits! Good to know the diet is working! Gotta keep it going, even if the bigger undersuit is about to come in the mail. The knee gaskets right now like to slide down my legs, hence why I'm not wearing them. I'm thinking this wont be an issue once its velcro'd to armor. My order of extra neodymium magnets came in the mail, also the mesh for the TLJ helmet and my gloves from Endor Finders. The endor gloves fit a bit better and they are also soft on the inside compared to the gloves from Imperial Boots. But I also like how the gloves from IB feel a bit more breathable. I think I will keep both but that means I need another set of handplates. The velcro is not the same side on the 2 pairs of gloves. As for the Deathtrooper gloves I got by accident, someone in the garrison already called dibs

Eh, not really a progress report as Dragoncon distracted me a lot today and I decided to take a break so I dont burn out - 9/6/20 Cleaned up the spats, they were a little thick on their edges. Alignment is a little wonky. Cant see it with the tape but they dont mesh together exactly. Just trying to visualize how to throw these things together. Ive seen people use snaps, velcro, or magnets and not sure what would be best. Also should I trim those tabs off a bit more? I thought about leaving it there as a hinge or something to help glue the front parts together. I'll see if I can find a build to help visualize how these go together better. Also these things barely fit around the bottom of the shins...so I'm kinda leaning more towards magnets if anything... Was nice to take a little break today. After Dragoncon Virtual is over with there will be no more distractions!

Progress Report - 9/5/20 "Leg Day Part 2" After success with the thighs (Thank goodness!) I went straight to the shins to get them ready for the primer phase. These are gonna need a bit more detail work cause those greeblie indents dont really line up. I'm thinking about using the abs paste to make them look right before putting the greeblies there. CRL for comparison You can see that botched ironing job on one of the inside overlaps. Couldnt fix it 100% but since thats gonna be on the inside and covered with velcro or magnets, nobody will see it. You can see what I mean by the greeblie indents not lining up...even though everything else does. Vacuform mold defects maybe...? For some reason the right shin did NOT want to cooperate. The shin fought hard to stay open. Took like 5 attempts to glue the thing together, so yeah not the cleanest job sadly. I'm hoping when I get to the sanding and priming phase this can look a lot better. Some of the glue got on spots I wish it didnt, and trying to remove it didnt seem to help a whole lot. Hopefully I should be able to make this smooth again when I get to the priming and spot putty phase of the build. I plan to work on spats tomorrow. It shouldnt be too much trouble....I hope lol

My username MomoSS is actually short for MomoSuperSpeed. It was the name of a character I made in an old game called Toontown. Funny thing about that game is that you dont just type in your name, you have to pick 3 words to create your username in that game, and MomoSuperSpeed just stuck. Dont know why...perhaps it was fate. Over the years I've just shortened the name to MomoSS with the SuperSpeed part being reduced to just capital SS and nowadays people just call me Momo, even in person. I keep the SS though because Momo is a name usually taken when signing up for things.

Progress Report - 9/4/20 "Leg Day" I've dedicated this whole day to just the thighs. I'm determined to get them set, also got Dragoncon Virtual running in the background. Working hard but also taking it easy while the con is going, so only gonna focus on one section a day till the virtual con is over with. The right thigh is now assembled. Outer side is joined together, the inner side overlapped and both halves are glued with JB weld so they are non-functional seams. I'm pretty sure with how thick my thighs are if they were functional seams they would constantly come apart. Dont feel like dealing with that, so thats how its going to be! Right Thigh - Outside Right Thigh - Inside If this is right, hooray! If not, I'll be sad, but I'll probably just live with it at this point and get new thighs later. Glue kinda got messy as the 2 halves were clamped together with clamps and magnets. But a light sanding before primer should take care of that. The left thigh is going through the same process at this moment with the outer section being JB welded. In an hour I'll get to the overlap and then call it a night. Tomorrow I'm belt sanding the edges to remove excess abs. Then I need to address the issue of a lack of greeblie rectangles on the thighs, I'll need to mark where they are supposed to go and then I'm not sure what next. I could put the clip there but I think I need the little etching too. I'll also install that abs holster base with the epoxy putty I picked up the other day.

Hey! Thanks for the kind words of encouragement! I've been watching your build too, we have similar height challenges Though I've got a bit more meat on me to fill in the gaskets and space lol The undersuit I'm still waiting on, but I do have my gaskets and I've been building my armor with that in mind. I've consulted some other people who have built FOTK and I think this is good for an overlap for L3? I hope so... It does look much better than how I had them before. I've pretty much accepted that I wont make it to EIB 1000 but I've got my sights set for the future. Still aiming for EIB but I want my armor to be centurion ready so all I'll need to do is get rubber gaskets for the upgrade. I spent most of today throwing together a belt sander...also Dragoncon Virtual has been kind of a distraction xD But tomorrow I'm gonna smooth out a lot of rough edges that are on some of my armor bits and hopefully get more stuff assembled and ready for primer.

Oooh! I need this! I was originally working on a TLJ and decided to switch to TFA partially for this reason. I eventually want to get back to TLJ later on. How does one go about getting this?

I feel your pain. I thought I maybe had a chance till I experienced how hard FOTK thighs are to get right when your vertically challenged.

Progress Report - 9/3/2020 Happy Dragoncon! After getting some feedback regarding the thighs I decided after doing some quick work on the shins to get right into fixing my noob issues with my thighs. I've JB welded these strips inside the back halves of the thighs. I'm really tempted to just do this lol It would be good enough for Expert Infantry and be much less painless. But I want to be centurion one day so. From here im going to glue another strip on top and once it cures I'll put my abs paste to use. Once it dries, best believe im taking a belt sander to this mess. I cant wait for these thighs to be right...sheesh.

Hmmmm that does present an issue. I wanted to be able to go centurion eventually. I guess I'm going to need to recreate this overlap but in a way where it looks like this: I want it to have that return edge before it goes in the thigh. I got some spare abs strips and abs paste on stand by. I'll see what I can do to recreate that inside overlap These are my shins currently. The greeblie side didnt have enough material to overlap but the other side does. (The greeblie indents dont match up either but I'll deal with that later...) Unfortunately the part that goes underneath the overlap doesnt recess inwards like what I've seen in some other kits like Anovos so its causing an issue where its pushing the front half outward. Plus it doesnt leave much room for velcro or anything as it is currently. I might try to see if I can bend it inwards with an iron so the 2 halves can clasp together naturally and have room for connecting mechanisms. I might be going for magnets here. As for the other side since theres no L3 requirement I may just put an abs strip inside and be done with it. I'll put a strip inside the thighs tonight so I can apply some abs paste to rebuild the inside. We'll see how it goes! Edit: Well trying to bend that inside overlap inwards with an iron wasnt a great idea. Didnt really do the job and ended up warping the inner flap. Before I did any permanent damage I stopped and restored the shape as best I could. Trimmed off the wobbly ends. It wont be seen once the costume is done but I'm going to need a strong connection to keep these shins from coming apart when im walking.

I have a question about the thighs which will apply the the shins as well. Either because of the way I trimmed it or because of my kit, theres not really an overlap to glue the thighs together. I'm going to need to put a strip inside of the thigh to act as the overlap and glue the thighs that way. Thats not gonna ruin the accuracy will it? Shouldnt change the way it is from the outside. Also because I had to trim them so much I lost all the return edge on the top of my thighs. Is there a way to rebuild return edge so it looks like the bottom of my thighs? Is it okay to leave it without return edge? My thighs also didnt come with recessed spots for the greeblies (those carved in rectangles the greeblie tabs sit on top of), so I'm wondering how to fix that too. One more thing, is R2Dan the only one that makes FOTK holsters? My kit came with a lousy resin one that I REEEAALLLLY dont wanna use. It's not the sturdiest thing and I really dont want to risk it breaking while holding a pricey F-11D. So I'm on the market for a metal holster with hardware. I'm going to try and get the shins to the point the thighs are at tonight. If theres time I'll tackle the spats too.

Haha but I never was really into biker scouts. I feel like if your gonna go stormtrooper gotta go full on stormtrooper! Thats my mentality lol I'll live and die by it. Unfortunately the undersuit I have doesnt fit, I've ordered a size up but it hasnt arrived yet. But I decided to take your advice so I put on something similar to the undersuit material and put on some gaskets and tried fitment again. Heres the results of that. And here I was thinking I was gonna have to whack off a whole lot of the shins, thank goodness that doesnt seem like the case. The thighs are definitely spot on to me though. Thats the height they have to be on me to not have any leg movement issues and leave space for the knee plate. Glad I did this before starting to really work on the shins. I feel a lot better about my leg fitment now, that was a big hurdle to jump. The Ab plate and chest are gonna be my other big hurdles... lol

Progress Report - 9/2/20 It seems like everyday 1 more expert infantry gets approved, I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna make it. But I wont let this deter me. Work moves on as I do the best I can to get through this build. May not get to #1000 but #1500 I can do! Dremeled the holes in the hand plates. This was the easy part for the day. Here is the CRL for the thighs. I said I would work on the thighs today. Apparently this is one of the hardest parts of the FOTK so I've heard. How bad could it be I thought....it was a pain. It literally took all night to get them to this point, and if I look hard they probably are not 100% symmetrical to each other, but I dont know how to make it any closer than this without going insane. I'm about 5'0 so because I'm so vertically challenged I literally had to chop off a bunch of the thighs to get them to this point. Pretty much annihilated any return edges wherever it had to be downsized. Trimmed a good 2 inches from the top and behind the knee I made a cut out that was nearly as tall as in the front of the thigh for the knee. But at least I can bend my legs now and it somehow still looks like the CRL despite how much I sawed off. I want to be able to sit, that was part of the reason I picked FOTK in the first place. I'm sure the shins are going to be the same situation. Right now they clash with the bottom of the thighs and they leave no room for spats...ugh. I'm gonna turn in a little earlier tonight, I'm tired. Gonna get my rest so I can deal with more short people problems tomorrow