Phat Rob

Lower leg and thigh work for this round of photos. GMRHodes, I made sure to create two curve areas on the knee ammo belt as per the CRL. TKSpartan, I think I'll go ahead and trim about a 16th of an inch along the bottom front of that sniper knee plate just to nail down the flushness more. Thanks for the suggestions. In order to ensure the lower legs close more tightly I heated along the front area of the left and right pieces. I decided to use the velcro method to close the back area of the shin. I simply glued the velcro strips along the cover strip and back area. For the thigh ammo belt I used the score and snap method to remove from the original piece. I proceeded to cut two curve edges into the bottom corners. In doing so I believe I may have cut too much of a straight angle on each side. Any suggestions on how to fix this miscalculation are most welcome. Here we have the left and right thigh pieces marked along the flash for cutting out and the final sanded result. I've left a half inch distance along the front creases for the front cover strip. For now I've left the return edges at less than half an inch along the top and bottom edges. Is this acceptable or is it advised to go thinner? Lastly, I've seen several suggestions for the type of rivet to be used for the thigh ammo belt. Even the instructions in the CRL seem to contradict each other. (I think I'm shooting for Level 2 Centurion certification?) Geez this stuff is so confusing lol. Anyways, that's it for now and thanks in advance for your time and help!

Ok the last couple of weeks have been mostly devoted to sanding, gluing, and adjusting the lower legs for proper fitting. Here we have all appropriate trim sanded. I've left it at 1/8" at the top and just below the curve along the ankles. The front, inner edges of each half are at 12 cm of flat area along the middle area. Cover strip was resized to run the length of the front shin. The strip was then glued fastened, and set aside for 24 hours. The cumbersome process of marking the rear section of the lower legs was slowly but surely successful after donning the leg armor. While referencing the CRL for the back section of the lower legs I noticed a discrepancy along the top section of the rear side. The spots marked with "x's" will be cut out for better accuracy. I need to acquire a PVC pipe (for the thermal detonator) that I believe can also function as a suitable template when tracing the curvature for the trim of the right knee ammo pack. If there are other ideas I'm all ears. Anyways, I've proceeded to trim the flash from the sniper plate. I wasn't sure about the cut along the bottom. Is 1/8" from the corner an accurate cut? That's it for now. Thanks in advance for your time and help! I truly appreciate it!

Alright fellas. Here's my very,very first progress post. After reading through everyone's helpful suggestions I'm left with a much clearer direction and inspiration! Caleb and Josheph, I intend to do some more research regarding achieving Centurion level certification. I'm sure I'll have more questions the further down the rabbit hole I get. For now I'm going to see about procuring correct bubble lenses and 3 column ear pieces. Also Caleb, the link to your build has so far served as a real useful guide in preparing my leg pieces. Mario, "Measure twice, cut once." is now my motto haha. I am taking it super sloooooow so as to ensure success. Glenn, anytime I begin a new process I'm making it a point to cross-reference other ATA build threads to ensure best practices. Andrew, Randy and everyone, I truly appreciate the sincere welcome and all of your time and advice. In time I hope my build can be just as useful. Thanks everyone! Joseph, I would certainly welcome you to relocate my build thread with the ATA suffix if it can get more eyes over here. Thanks for that! So now to the creamy center... All progress examples are from the right leg shins So far I'm merely cutting all the excess flash off each part. If you guys think everything looks ok my intention is to make the final cuts at 1/8" thickness at the top, and cutting to show some curvature at the bottom ankle area. Since the front cover strips are 7/8" wide I'm assuming to half those dims for both the inner and outer pieces? I intend to measure/cut the rear halves until they fit snug n proper. The sanding will then commence! I've got 60 grit sandpaper for rough sanding and 120 grit to even things out. What do you recommend for a baby smooth finish? I'm making sure that all corners are rounded off to mitigate snap, cracks n pops For gluing pieces do you recommend glue with ethyl cyanoacrylate or good ol' E6000? I think that's it for now. I can't thank you enough for all of your encouragement and advice but THANK YOU! Until next time...

Hello Everyone! Super excited on this first step into a much larger world! Here are a few pics from BBB day (Heck,even the cat was excited!). Now that I have all the armor I've checked out several hours worth of threads and tutorials over here and... I am pretty overwhelmed lol. I have my dremel, files and cutting tools ready (but I think I may need some tape) and I think I'll start with trimming the lower legs first. Here are some thread links that I'll be referring for beginning the trimming process. Since my kit is an ATA Works product I believe it's suitable for a Hero version but not Centurion. Is that correct? There have been several references to 7.5mm as well as other measurements. If there's an experienced trooper out there that can clarify what any measurements refer to I would be eternally grateful. Also, any knowledge shared regarding the trimming and building of the legs would also be appreciated. Of course, if you have any other words of advice, those would be most welcome as well. Thanks in advance for your time and help!