Blast 'Em!

I'm sorry to hear that Caleb, and I'm sure this was a difficult decision for you. I'm impressed with how you're handling such a challenging situation and I'm glad that you'll continue to share your expertise and enthusiasm on here. There's no reason to apologize for your hiatus. Your super detailed and informative posts and encouragement have greatly helped myself and many others. Stay strong, and we'll see you in white armor soon.

Hey Jason, nice work on your build so far. In regards to your Imperial Boots question, I recently ordered an 11 from them earlier this spring. I wear a size 10 1/2 running shoe, but I have wide feet and rock an EEEE width. I too read that people recommended ordering a size up, so I ordered an 11 and hoped that the leather would stretch to the width of my foot. When the boots arrived I found that they seemed true to length (I have a 1/2" of room at the toes), and I was happy with my selection of an 11 because my feet aren't too cramped width-wise. Long story short, I recommend the 11s as a safe bet. From my experience, you could even go with the 10 1/2 if you're feeling lucky.

Haha sorry for all the false alarms Caleb! I only had a few hours for "TK Time" last month so my progress has been minimal. I should have more time this month so more posts are in the near future. Thankfully I've been able to find a spare 10 minutes here and there to hop on FISD and see what other people are up to, which is still fun. I hope things are going well with you and your family too and its great news for all of us that more detailed MV posts are on the horizon. Cheers bud.

Haha yeah I've found the same thing. I didn't use as much glue as I could have on my biceps and forearms, but then I switched to using lots of glue on the thighs and shins. Thankfully E6000 isn't too bad to remove if it gets anywhere or squeezes out around your cover strips. @TKSpartan recommended using a cotton rag and just rubbing it over the glue. Friction from the rag will heat up the glue and it should ball up and fall off the ABS.

Hey Adam, the thigh strip looks good to me, but again my experience is limited. For your forearm, I've found that there's three things to examine if your having issues with glue holding Adhesive potential: you want to maximize the amount of surface area for your glue and make sure that the glue covers all of this surface (per Joseph's recommendation, I use a popsicle stick to spread the E6000 everywhere. Forearm cover strips are narrow, but it looks like you have over half the width of the cover strip available to glue which is great. I don't think this is part of the problem for you Surface prep: myself and others have had success sanding (220 grit) the cover strip and the surface of the armor to create a rough layer for the E6000 to latch on to. I've been sanding in two directions, effectively cross-hatching the piece, which might be overkill. I can't tell if you've sanded your pieces, but this might be a solution Alignment: If two edges have to considerably bend to meet up, your cover strip joint will be under a lot of stress while curing. The clamps and magnets we use help alleviate this issue, but sometimes a hot water bath is needed prior to gluing. I just learned this lesson with the rear cover strip for my shins. I don't think this is a big issue for your forearms.

I've hot water bathed both ways, with outer strips and without outer strips. Either way will work. If you're looking to contour the form of the armor significantly, then I'd recommend not gluing on the outer strips so the piece is more moldable when heated

Great work so far Chris! Love seeing the Hertl poster and jersey on your wall (I'm a Sharks fan)

From my experience and what I've read on here, there's no significant impact on E6000. The boiling water may soften the adhesion of the glue, but it's probably a negligible amount.

Hey Ryan, I recently hot water bathed some of my armor pieces and I tried to capture everything in my build thread. I need to do a second round of water bathing in the coming days, so this is a good refresher for me too. I think the main considerations are as follows: How big of a pot do you have? If it can fit the entire armor piece, great! Just submerge the piece, being careful not to let the plastic touch the walls of the pot while also not burning yourself in any manner (I've seen people use a string through the armor to hold it). If you don't have a large enough pot, like me, you can try a large bucket or your sink. Water temp: you want it as hot as possible (think rolling boil). ABS doesn't go through a phase transfer until it reaches temperatures above the boiling point of water, which is quite convenient for us. Dunk time: use a test piece of ABS, of equivalent thickness, to test how long it takes for the plastic to soften. For me, it was around 70 seconds I think, but this was partially because I had to pour my water into my sink, dropping the temperature. Setting the shape: pull the part from the water, mold into the new shape (use your hands, rubber bands, zip ties, etc), and then submerge in cold water. I've used a sink and a bucket for the cold plunge. I hold it in the water until I can feel the temperature of the plastic cool off (maybe 20-30 seconds). I tried using painters tape to hold my shins closed but all the tape came off in the boiling water, so I don't recommend tape. Depending on how much shape correction you get, you might need to repeat the process to get the desired change. Good luck bud, you got this!

Nice work David, looking really clean! For reinforcing the edges of your chest piece, what kind of tape are you using (looks like drywall tape to me)? I'm planning on lining the neck and sides with ABS strips, like you, but I haven't seen anyone use tape like that before and I like the idea.

Welcome Shawn! That's awesome that you and your son will be building together. Which armor did you guys choose?

Hey Luke, I'll chime in and recommend going piece-by-piece for your return edges. I'm approaching it as you proposed- using fit to determine how much (if any) return edge I keep. I started with around 5mm of return edges for all pieces, and I've been modifying that amount right before I glue pieces together. Joseph has a great resource for return edges in his signature (Return edges 101) that I heavily relied on. Like you, I'm currently working on my Anovos kit from their initial run so I'm happy to share what I've learned over the past few months. Good luck bud!

Yesterday I glued the front cover strip on my right thigh. I only have 12 of the 22mm N40 magnets, which I prefer to use when gluing anything with an inner and outer cover strip, so the left thigh will wait until today. After a month of working with those big rare earth magnets, they still make me nervous when I handle them. I've also spent over an hour cleaning up the glue from my biceps, forearms, shins, and thighs, prepping the parts for showtime. I don't yet have the scrap material to make my bicep hooks (I'm saving scrap for reinforcing the chest and back after I glue my snaps), so I'll leave those pieces for now. I think it's time to pivot to the helmet : 1. Use mineral spirits to clean up frown paint and around the vocoder. Re-paint frown, extending the edges 2. Dremel/ small file the edges of the eyes. 3. Paint ear screws white, swap current screws to the TD 4. Strip all Velcro from interior, using Goo Gone for cleanup. Clean interior of helmet with rubbing alcohol (maybe mineral spirits instead?). Mask features. Spray 3 coats of plasti dip, 30 min in between, and then let air out for 4-5 days. 5. Cut green lenses to size, attach lenses and frown with Sugru 6. Re-attach S trim, connecting under the chin 7. Test tactical pads, assessing if they're too tall/ will take up too much room For the Hovi tips, I'm still deciding between Tony's mic tips or just replacing the mesh for now. If I replace the mesh, I'll paint the edges white. Down the road I imagine I'll try and trim my ears so they sit flush.

Nice progress Adam, it sounds like you're rolling up your sleeves and getting into the thick of it! I'm also working on my first build and I'll be going the shim route because my legs are too big for my Anovos thighs. As you mentioned, I'll be using a 20mm spacer (my supplied cover strip) to provide extra circumference, and I'll back it with a 40-50mm wide inner strip to provide structural support. On the exterior, I will use a 25mm cover strip to hide my 20mm spacer. I think it will look quite fine as it will match the cover strip for the back of the calves. Unfortunately my extra ABS material for this shimming is super delayed in the mail, so you'll beat me to the finish on the thighs. I like all of your proposed solutions, and I think you nailed your order of attack. We all learn on the fly while building these kits, and the good news is there's usually a fix for any mistakes we make. Keep up the good work!

Like Caleb, unfortunately I haven't yet used those glues with ABS, but I'm sure someone with knowledge will chime in here shortly. I'm also on my first build and I chose E6000 because it's more forgiving, although it takes a long time to cure. Although I've researched a lot and gone slow, I've still made plenty of mistakes along the way and E6000 has allowed me to correct those mistakes (I had to pull apart my thighs and retrim them). These kits are tricky haha. You're doing the right thing asking questions- the amount of knowledge on this board is nuts. These guys and gals will have a solution for you and you'll be suited up before you know it