CloseTheBlastDoor

Onward to the right shin. After trimming the front, cutting strips, and aligning the tops, there arises the length disparity noted in other WTF kits (outer half is longer). Also, the right shin is more of an oval shape than a round one. So I decided to glue both a front and back cover strip to the front of the shin, which afforded lots of strength against bending, then used a water bath to reshape. Here is a comparison (both shape and length difference on right shin are shown). Right shin is on the left, sorry. For the water bath, I had no vertical pot large enough, so I went horizontal with a roasting pan over the stove: My wife commented that it looked like I was roasting a turkey leg! After all, you can’t spell TurKey without TK! After getting the water just past 170 degrees, and a 30 second dip and reshape two times, I got the shape I wanted. Since the sides were coming together at an angle, I also found it useful to clamp them together so they would heat-form more aligned: I then fitted and trimmed the back edges, and trimmed off the excess on the bottom of the shin so it was nice and even. Then I glued the back strip and waited. Last thing to do is to decide on whether I want the extra inner backing strip to support the mating Velcro. I am a bit concerned that adding this inner strip only makes me have to open the shin even wider to fit it on (which puts more stress on the ABS), and I’m already opening it pretty wide.

Yeah, we were meant to have something to miss targets with

Ah, good point! I had already removed the clamps after 24 hours. Putting them back on. I would love to shoot for EIB or Centurion someday. I wasn't planning on having a blaster at first, but I think I'd feel a bit naked without one.

I did go ahead with the spacer idea (don’t remember where I saw this before). It did also help with giving me more surface area for E-6000 adhesion. I traced out a rough pattern, used my bandsaw to cut some ¼” acrylic, rounded out the top edge of it (just in case it might scratch me), and glued it on. But I decided against trimming the sides of the plate any further. Since I can only cut once, I’m being conservative. The photos that Glen provided seem to all show a bit more of the plate cut back, but hopefully this is OK. I then went ahead and glued the shin plate, with the spacer, and made fine adjustments as I could to line things up. The sides are pretty much in line with the shin ridges, and the angle appears correct. I then glued the cover strip on the back: Whew!

Thanks, Glen! Those all line up so nicely!

More “shinanigans,” it appears! I checked with someone from Golden Gate Garrison, and it appears that there is some leniency, but I still want to do the best job I can and not take approval for granted. These are the toils of the severe overthinkers! I got pretty stuck on this. So while I was stuck, I went to work on the right shin, and trimming out thighs and looking at other things on the horizon. I’ll post all that later in the interest of keeping my build thread a bit more linear. Here are the two alignment options, given the out-of-the-box sniper plate: I did try twisting the sniper plate a bit using the heat bath method, and that seems to help a little. I also removed the return edge on the bottom so at least it’s more in contact with the sides of the shin (= more E6000 surface area to contact). I am probably going to tweak a bit more, maybe using a spacer behind the front (to give me a better angle to work with, and so the plate won't catch under the thigh), and whatever other minor adjustments or heavy clamping I can devise. For future reference, I wanted to put some more detail into the situation I’m faced with. First of all, the shin itself is not symmetrical: So putting on a sniper plate that is symmetrical is not going to fit straight on. Second, the sniper plate, when trimmed so it aligns to the corners of the ridges, will not have the same length on each side: Also, the plate looks a little bit different from ones from other kits. The three bumps almost touch the ridge in other kits, like the one that @dblcrosshas, whereas they are quite a bit apart in mine: On the other side, they’re a bit more separated still. And I’m pondering trimming back some of the length: Trimming would not put the end close to the corner of the ridge, though. Will post more when I have figured this all out!

Yes, I agree. And there are so many contributing factors to how it will ultimately end up fitting together. I understand keeping lineage with the originals, but I do wish that some adjustments could be made so fitment is within tighter tolerances.

How might I get in touch with my GML?

Yes, it's been a struggle. I've been trying to get this to fit. I did end up removing all of the return edge. Even having done that, the plate doesn't sit symmetrically or level on the shin, as one side is higher than the other if I align it to the ridges on each side. I have four clamps on it to test-fit right now just to keep the sides and front touching. So aligning the sides AND having it level is just not possible. So I'm thinking that I'll just leave it this way, unless I won't get approved. Is it OK?

Thank you, yes, that helps!

Thanks, I understand, I'll give it a shot! Thanks for also finding those reference photos!

Still working on the shins whenever I get a chance! For the sniper knee, I've searched around looking for what is the proper way to cut the sides. I saw @Tilheyra's post on his build, and he said that there were some reference photos, which I did not find (I think I'm a lousy searcher!). But he has some good photos, and I'm just going to follow what he's got: If there are specific details that are must-have, please let me know. Like does it need to have the downward-curved taper? Or does the end of the plate need to line up with the corner where the shin edge changes direction? Like this? Also, since the shin has to flex out so much when putting it on, I'm thinking of cutting back the return edge as follows, to reduce stress points:

Ooh thanks! I had not seen the magnet one.

Looks like there is no true consensus on the FB page, but I'm going with A&B right, and C&D left. I have seen back shin attachment with either bra hooks or Velcro. Velcro looks more appealing to me (and no drilling). Is there any reason why I shouldn't use Velcro?

hahaha, that top post on WTF FB is me!

Thanks, Glen, I will have another look and will confirm with WTF.

Glen, thanks for the quick answers! So in my photo, are A&B the left shin and C&D the right shin? I did see the cricket build, but still wasn't sure about matching the halves. So is the Sandtrooper sniper plate just an accidental inclusion in the kit? Thank you!!!

OK, progress report! So far, I have completed the thermal detonator, the biceps, and the forearms: This was a whole lotta work! But I’ve gained some confidence with doing it, so hopefully things will accelerate as I go forward. Next up is the shins! This is what I know, please correct me if I've got it wrong: WTF shin pieces are not symmetrical. Tops need to be aligned, not bottoms. To avoid shingate-like disasters, I will ask here and confirm with the WTF FB page which piece is which. Cover strip is 20mm wide on the front, 25mm wide on the back. Strip is glued on the front to both halves. On the back, it’s glued to the outer half only, and covers, but does not attach to, the inner half. No return edges on the bottoms. Outer halves are slightly lower over the boot than inner halves. Sizing must be performed with boots on. Sniper plate on the left shin. Glue with E6000 rather than super glue. These are the questions I have: I don’t have the undersuit yet (bottom). Will sizing with the boots on be adequate? For strength, should there also be a cover strip on the inside of the front of the shins? There is this extra piece in the kit, does anyone know what it’s for (piece on the top)? Per what I said at the top, which half is which?

Continuing with the forearms, I removed all the return edges at the wrist ends of each side, then cut the front edges down so they could accommodate the 15mm cover strip. Then I taped the front sides and attempted some sizing. Since I wasn’t keen on the strength of the boundary between the curved and ridged edges, I opted to cut and install some inside strips as well: After 24 hours, the inside strip: Now I get to the HELP moment! The WTF forearm parts are not exactly the same length on the left side, so they don’t align. I had read several other threads, and asked the WTF FB group, and the advice was to line up the top (elbow) sides of the forearms, not the wrist side. Then trim at the wrist side. So I followed that. But somehow I guess the strip upon gluing slid up a bit, and now I’m left with an even larger alignment problem, as seen here: Is it OK to trim roughly where the pencil mark is? I am worried that trimming will make the outer side’s edge look bad. I hope this is not an irreversible mistake!

Much credit goes to you, Tony! I was quite lost until someone pointed me to your build thread.

Perfect, thanks Mario! Although I'm sure you meant 0.75cm/7.5mm. It totally makes sense to cut it so it lines up with the cover strip on-center.

I started on the forearms next, still mainly following @ukswrath's build thread. There are a few differences between the WTF suit and the others, such as the back edge on the outer pieces just being rounded versus having an edge. Left and right forearms are distinct from each other as well: According to Walt, the curved side is the one that gets cut. But I think both edges will need to be cut to some extent, because the ridged side has some sloppiness to it from the vacu-form. So I cut off a bit of that just to get a clean edge, but how much of the ridged side can/should be cut?

Thanks! Even *I* forgot! I had to go back and look in a slight panic

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I’ve been hard at work when time allowed. Bending the clips properly was indeed the next challenge for me. In one of my earliest posts, I had pre-drilled the screw holes in the strips before bending, and those points proved to be the weak points in the curve. You can see that the arc is sharper at those points: This strip, I screwed onto the sacrificial PVC pipe I used earlier, first with one screw at the end to hold it, then attempted to bend it by hand. This didn’t work great. Trying to keep it all square, plus having enough hand, or even clamp strength to get the bend, plus not knowing exactly how much arc to impose overall made all of the process awkward. The aluminum bar that I used was pretty stiff, maybe stiffer than typical for this? So after some noodling, I thought I’d make a jig that better imposed the required shape. I broke out the hole saw set and cut a semicircle in the edge of a 2x4. This would be the outer side of the arc. For the inner side, I cut off some of the PVC. Since the PVC is 2” inner diameter, 2.375” outer diameter, and the biggest hole saw in my set is 2.5,” this left 1/16” of radius for the strip - perfect! I had not initially seen @ukswrath's build thread. Looking through it, I was so impressed with the amount of detail and clear images. The approach to the TD build was easy for me to follow, so I decided to back up a bit and start over with the strips. Here is that post: I got the bars to length, drilled holes and rounded the corners on one end: Then worked each bar into the jig a little bit at a time until I got the angle I wanted: The curve is a bit smoother: Now to drill the holes in the tube. I marked everything as carefully as I could. The hole closest to the control panel, I drilled to 9/64”, which is what is recommended for #6 screws. For the other set of holes, I wanted to have a little bit of play just in case my marks were off, so I drilled those to 11/64”. The screws I got were not black. It was hard enough to find the right size to begin with. So I needed to hit the heads with black. After screwing them in, they will need a bit of touch-up where the screwdriver was in contact. Next was doing the rest of the bending on the clips. Tried to get a square bend on the first one. Then I flipped it over and increased the angle. A bit of bending by hand with spacer in place followed this, so I got to close to 180 degrees: Then on to a vice to take it the rest of the way: Fitting the clips and caps onto the tube was next: I think it turned out pretty well! Now, all I need to do is glue the cover on.

Ah, OK, that makes a lot of sense. I also see the Velcro on the clips. Is this because the TD has a tendency to come off the belt? Thanks again for all your info!