MintImperial

Sorry if I’m coming to this really late. Amazing thread. You’re crazy talented. Not to mention devoted. I kind of stumbled across this as I was interested to see if anyone ever made an EVA foam butt plate to swap out with their, say, ABS plate for troops where there’s a chance to sit down. If you don’t mind me asking: how flexible is your butt?! Can you actually sit down with your armour?

Thank you, justjoseph63. I’ll try to get to that tomorrow. In the meantime, this angle shows the contour of teh visible bottom edge. (Kind of what you’re asking for, just without the kidney.) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

First pass with the clamps was a success. Still a long way to go but I’ve reduced the buckling by one order of magnitude. It may not look like it here but it’s already way better than before.

My build is progressing in fits and starts. In resolving a problem with the left & right sides of my ab plate not being the same length (thread here: I’ve shortened my kidney plate, butt plate and back plate to better fit my 5’8” frame. Shortening the back plate was terrifying as I knew I wanted to keep some return edge on it. I needed to take just over half an inch off it, as indicated in the markings below. The lower pencil line was my cut line. The upper line was where I wanted to create new return edge using a heating iron. Given the extreme curve of this piece, I was expecting a lot of buckling as I folded the material under. And the result was every bit as disastrous as I feared, with pronounced buckling all along the curve. Despite the horror show above, I’m still confident I can save it now that I have the basic shape I wanted. (Btw, the overall fit is so much better now. The straps no longer stick up over my shoulders.) After letting it rest for a day or two, my first approach will be to heat it up again, small portion at a time and try to flatten each part with a clamp before moving along. If that doesn’t work, I will let it rest again and try plan B: making small cuts so that i can fold the layers slightly over each other (like tabs in paper engineering) and again try to flatten them by squishing them together with clamps. Plan C is to fill the hollows with ABS paste and grind it all out for a nice smooth curve. The only thing part I’m really concerned about is the “dent” about 1/4 of the way along from the left, where I folded the material too high up. I’m hoping to correct this very slowly in a few passes, pressing against a round buck that I have.

Thank you, Lord_Potato. I may yet have to straighten the top line of my kidney plate, though for now it seems ok. The issue for me wasn’t so much that the whole assembly was crooked. It was that the left side of the ab plate was simply shorter than the right. By cutting the top off the ab right and shortening the kidney evenly on both sides, it now fits my 5’8” frame better anyway. Next thing I’m shortening is the back plate. The tabs still stick up about half an inch above my shoulders when it’s all put together and the crotch is snug. I’ve already heated and curved them round more but it’s not enough. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No problem at all. Thanks for your attention. Grateful for any input!

Thank you, gmrhodes13. I’ve got my heating iron and this sink has some great curves on it that I’ve already started to make use of as a buck to work against. Kind of like a 3D french curve set.

So I’ve taken the plunge and started doing exactly what I said I would do here: lowering the kidney plate to shorten it and trim the bottom off instead of the top. Used compasses to scribe the original bottom line. WIP. After cutting and cleaning up, I’ll create a subtle return edge to match the original.

But I suspect it would be easier to lower the kidney plate instead and trim the bottom (including cutting new notches), so that I don’t have to make a new return edge at the top:

So, to do that, would look like this:

Thanks Lord_Potato. In fact, the two photos at the top are exactly that. I’ve aligned the bottom notches on both sides so that the kidney plate sits straight. But the tops do not align as the left side ab plate is too low. I’ve put the 2 sides here for easier reference. If the bottom lines up, the top doesn’t. I wanted to build the top left edge of the ab plate back up to where it should be. But since I’m 5’8”, I’m considering bringing everything else down instead: Lowering the top of the kidney plate and the top right side of the ab plate to match the top left side of the ab plate and create a new top return edge on the kidney plate.

Thank you for that sage piece of advice.

Btw, Glen, congratulations on your FISD Achievement Award.

Thanks Lord_Potato. I haven’t moved any further with it as I’ve been concentrating on my bucket. Yes, I’ve tried matching it up and even measured it. According to the trim lines, I matched the top of the notch on the kidney plate on each side to the corresponding ridge on the ab plate. That way, I know the bottoms are straight. But doing that, the top left edge of the ab plate falls short of the top left of the kidney plate. I was tempted to rebuild the top edge to make it match up, but I’m 5’8”, so I could probably do with making some cuts somewhere anyway. I just don’t know whether it’s safer to cut from the top or the bottom. Either way, I’m going to have to make some new return edge.

I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to drill holes to line up with my ear holes, so I taped my ears into position and drilled through the existing holes. Of course, they match up nicely now, but I ended up drilling out the nice countersunk hollows I’d created earlier. So I created a little reinforcement plate behind each hole, glues in place with ABS paste, which I also used to fill up the holes, ready to start again. That should hold ’em.

OK. So, I’ve trimmed the eyes out quite a bit more. Took the DaveM helmet as the inspiration.

Thank you, CallMeMrTibbles. This will be a stunt build.

The DaveM helmet!

Details are a bit soft on the vocoder. Do these lines look about right for painting?

Here’s where I’m at with ears. I’m happy for them not to be perfect as I prefer something more authentic. Also going for thinner ears. But are they too thin?

God, the ears! Thank you, gmrhodes13, for your crazy fast feedback. For the eyes, did you mean could do with more meat or more trimming?

Here’s where I’ve got my ears. Does the angle look ok? I’m a bit worried about the backside bottom of the right ear. I’ve trimmed three sets now and they’ve all ended up this shape. Is it acceptable?

I’m really just getting started. Would love to get your feedback on my WIP bucket. Have I trimmed my eyes and teeth ok? Do you think I’m ready to start painting the frown yet? Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom.

To start off, here’s the E-11 from Kassaraptor that I’m working on on the side.

Hi folks. I’m just getting started. Though I feel like I’ve been trimming ears for a decade or so.