fleurderys

I took a 3 month hiatus from this project for a variety of reasons, but am finally revisiting. I trimmed 1 square off the forearms (from the wrist end) as well as some of the width, which made the overall shape a bit more difficult for attaching the outer cover strips, but with some muscling into place, I think I finally got it. The torso has been the biggest hang up, but I was recently able to get an in-person second opinion from a fellow garrison member. As other short troopers on here have done, we determined I needed to take some of the height out in the cod piece area (that will be hidden by the belt), and removed an inch from each side of the back kidney plate. I've done some hot water bath shaping and it's still quite boxy and loose in the waist. I'd love it to be more fitted, but I realized today I don't think I can lose any more of the circumference due to female hips! Will post photos in a bit.

Thank you!!! That was another question that I couldn't figure out how to ask -- that I would need to re-center the swoop after trimming. Thank you! All my questions, to clarify, are in regards to trimming width! The green line is more what the trim feels like it needs, but that would be at an angle vs. the straight yellow line. Does that make sense? (note this piece is rotated so I could show potential cut lines) Good tip about where to trim in terms of height, that has been on my mind and am constantly referring back to your build thread At the moment, I'm not planning on taking off any height on the forearms -It's kind of hard to tell from the photos since the forearm kept sliding down (dang slippery compression shirt) but my arm measurement from wrist to elbow is about 10.75" and the forearm armor is just over 10". I may change course once I start strapping together.

Okay, I've been staring at my forearms for a few days now... I'm using @Cricket's suggestion in one of her build threads of doing the trimming in the back. I essentially need to trim off the raised area on both sides, perhaps more, but I'll start there. Can it taper/slant a little bit at the wrist, or should it stay a strait line? (note: the yellow line on the left is approximately where I marked the forearm on the inside)

I bought this kit mostly pre-trimmed to my measurements, but inevitably, there will need to be some adjustments. Checked the sizing on the arms- the bicep fits well, the forearms will need to be sized down a little width-wise. I feel good about the length of the forearm for now (when I took this picture it had slipped down my arm a little) - if I change my mind, I'll undo the inner strips and cut from the wrist (as learned from Cricket's handy cutting-down guide!) Also following Cricket's lead from her Hero build on installing the inner cover strips for the front of the forearms and will do resizing from the back. Someone posted the "one day at a time" technique of doing one side at a time with E6000, letting it cure 24 hours, and then doing the other side, and I'm heeding that recommendation. You guys weren't kidding- shaping these so that they line up on both sides is gonna need some TLC and lots of hot water or some serious forging This build is finally starting to make sense, which means I'm due to make a mistake... going to try to take it slow and keep reading. Stay tuned. I'm scared of making the outer cover strips so I'll probably put that off as long as possible. Cutting things evenly has never been my strong suit!

@revlimiter @Cricket @Goggytalks Thank you all for your swift replies and thoughtful feedback, it is very, very much appreciated!! I see what you all mean about the front hanging lower in the pics - thanks for that! I won't trim anything on the torso yet but will make adjustments for my next fitting. Going to focus on the arm pieces, will do some trimming on the forearms for sure, and see how that all shakes out before tackling anything too large

GREAT tip! Thank you. Tried it all on together-- I didn't realize the front was crooked when I took this, apologies! front back bonus accidental side picture when I turned too early I've done a little bit of hot water bath shaping: the chest & ab pieces to curve the sides more, and the shoulder pieces of the back plate after I took these pictures. I have a bit to trim in the waist for the ab/kidney pieces, there was a lot of extra overlap when I taped these off. I'm still unsure about the height of the front. For the back, I have to shape the kidney piece and the butt piece a bit, but overall I feel good about the height unless you guys spot something I've missed? A couple of questions: 1) Mark from AP suggested that I use foam strips inside the arm/leg armor rather than trim them exactly to me since I have skinnier limbs and that may look off proportionately with the torso. That makes sense, but so far, I haven't found a similarly-sized person's build thread who did this? Is that an acceptable method? 2) Do y'all heat shape the....crotch area connection? I'm sure adding the snap will help, but those two pieces did NOT want to go together when I did this try on, haha!

Phew! That's a relief. I was staring at it so much I couldn't tell anymore. I will leave that alone for now and focus on width This is great advice and very helpful!! Thank you so much!! And thank you for the warm welcome, all! Pleasantly surprised to see so many initial responses. Will post updates and questions shortly, I hope!

Hi! I got my AP armor a few months ago and have just been scared on where to start. But, it's doing no good sitting in the box, so I may as well try to put this thing together. I've found great comfort and information in Cricket's WIP threads and spent an hour this morning reading through it again. I'm 5'6 / 126 lbs. I got the armor pre-trimmed but realize I will need to do some (okay, a lot) of additional work. Someone suggested on here that beginning with the torso can make it easier to appropriately size the arms/legs and that's my current plan of attack - the torso also scares me the most, so getting that out of the way will (hopefully)? make it easier to get moving. Here's the initial try-on of the front - trying to gauge for height and if that needs any trimming... I know I need the sides to taper a bit more, but what about the height? I feel like I could trim either the top of the ab or the cod piece... or both? I'm quite scared of trying to recreate that return edge on the ab piece, but I will do it if I have to.

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