Firedog

Definitely locate your local garrison website and sign up on the forums. You won't have access to their 501st members area until you complete your armor and are approved, but you should have access to announcements about build parties and other social events, although during this time it may be quite limited. There may even be members nearby that can lend assistance if need be. Its a good way to get to know some of the folks you will be trooping with.

I believe it doesn't show up on your own post until someone has liked it. At least, this is my experience.

Done!

Regarding the Velcro, it depends on where you are using it. I only used Velcro on my armor for shin closure and to mount padding and electronics in my bucket. In these cases, they were self-adhesive. I used a 3" Velcro when I sewed my belt and it was non-adhesive, as the sewing machine needle can gum up while sewing on adhesive backed Velcro. The small plastic containers will be for sorting small bits and materials as well as small tools.

Welcome back! I look forward to following your build thread.

Welcome, Jessica and CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Congrats and welcome, JP!

This is exactly what I did to achieve the appropriate angle. Eric Dyke has a great AM helmet tutorial.

I also recommend lightly tapping them with the weight of the hammer. When I started, I was using too much force, which caused a few to offset.

Thanks Christian!

Thanks Andrew! EI is in the bag, sir. I'll be posting my Centurion application VERY soon!

And so it begins! Good luck on your build, Paul!

Hi Dan. Welcome to FISD!

Oh, soon...very soon. I’ve knocked out the the blaster adjustment that was requested for Centurion, but I have a couple of minor tweaks in other areas before submission. I put a check mark by one of those today as well.

Congrats on Expert Infantry!!!

Congrats on being #1000!!! You brought us over the finish line!

Looking good! I ended up picking up a small anvil from Harbor Freight for around $14. It made snap setting a breeze.

Greetings, Brandon, and welcome to FISD. You may find the following threads useful in your search for armor.

Congrats David! Welcome to EI!

Welcome to FISD! You won’t find a better place with more friendly and helpful folks than right here! Good luck on your journey!

I thought as much. That’s helpful information regarding the history of how these were previously made as I’m just getting into it and following current build techniques. I do think I could loosen the top of my thighs some, but I have been wearing boxer briefs underneath my compression pants and should gain a smidgen more room if I stop doing that, so we’ll see. I could even remove one side and use Velcro I have difficulty with them once I get out and walk for an extended period. Then I could dial em in to the sweet spot.

Thank you for your kind words, Paul. You mentioned not glueing the strips prior to trooping. What did you do in lieu of gluing them?

Congrats!!!!

Looking really good so far! Keep it up!

So, I said this was a dueling build, but there was no way I was going to be able to build both of these kits simultaneously and make my goal of first 1k EIB. Also, as I mentioned earlier, building my kit first would allow me to use those skills to build my son's. In addition to this, if for some reason I screwed up and cut too much off when sizing, he is smaller than me and I could have swapped out parts with his and still had plenty to trim off. All that being said, here is what I have been up to the past week. First, I worked on trimming return edges from appendages. As he wasn't here at the time to do any fitting, I began cutting the fronts of the thighs and shins to about 11mm on each side and sanded them down to close to 10mm as I still wanted a small amount of reveal on either side of the 20mm cover strip. And then, cover strip installation began Front cover strips on thighs and shins done. The two pieces without magnets had already been sitting for 24 hours and I needed the magnets, so I removed them and left the clamps just for my own peace of mind. On to the forearms. Here is where I have questions. My son takes after me at his age, as in there's not much to him. He's about 6' and 165lbs. His arms are a bit on the small size, but I don't really want to trim this armor down so much that he can't grow into it a little as he matures. If he's anything like me, he'll put on a little more weight in the not too distant future. You can see in this photo that there is about a finger width on the inside/outside of the arm, but in the next photo, you can also see that the forearms are a decent amount larger than his arm. Will this cause the armor to look wonky? I told him we would add padding to keep the armor from moving around. While we're on the subject of things fitting properly in two different directions. We worked on fitting the body pieces this evening. I trimmed off the ab, kidney, and shoulders to get this fit. While it fits pretty good in front and back, as you can see, there is a decent amount of room on the sides. I put him in my arm pieces just to get the overall visual. He's a skinny fella and I don't want him to be swallowed in armor that looks way too big for his frame. I have seen some threads where the ab and kidney are reformed to hug a little closer on the sides, but it seems a daunting and risky endeavor. Any feedback here is greatly appreciated.