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troopermaster

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Posts posted by troopermaster

  1. Jim,

     

    No miscommunication mate. You asked how the bells were hung and mine are from the inner shoulder strap and the biceps are NOT connected to the shoulder bells in any way. You may choose not to use a black elastic strap at the bottom of the bells but that is not how they are supposed to be. That's why your AP will never look right from an accuracy POV.

     

    John,

     

    I have never heard of curving a joining strip. I think you guys try to be too technical. If the flat overlaps on your legs (or wherever) are curved, make your cut straight. So what I would do is if you are using a 20mm joining strip is to clip the strip to one half of the thigh and leave about 1mm from the tightest edge of the thigh (which is more than likely the middle where the curve peaks). Then even out the top and bottom so maybe you might have a 3mm gap between the strip and hard edge of the overlap. Is this making any sense so far :P Then do the same on the opposite half of the thigh. Don't try too hard to get a perfectly straight edge and trying to be too 'exact' as the real suits were far from it.

     

    HTH :)

  2. You could try trimming more plastic away to help bring it closer to the helmet. One thing I have learned about the ear caps is to rough trim them first, then offer up and see where to trim more. Offer up again and trim again until you get it close. I suppose it is different with an AP because it has the holes pre-drilled so they should all be assembled the same but even so, the ear caps are tricky to get right.

     

  3. Paul, you should add a picture of your abs piece with the snap in to help with the location and overall look for future reference.

     

    You already posted a pic of my armour in the Elite Status section, question 3, second pic down :)

     

    If you have some spare ABS or HIPS, you can cut a small square to stick behind the hole in your ab plate. Heat the square up until it is flexible and press it into the hole from the inside. This should make the hole fill up with ABS and then glue the square in place. If it doesn't work the first time, try heating the plastic more until it can be pressed into the hole.

     

    When I put the holes in my belt for the snaps, make sure that the belt is not tight against your ab plate. If it is tight then it will want to pop off so give a bit of slack.

     

    -Paul :)

  4. Closing the gap doesn't mean that you have to rivet the ab and kidney together. The real suits were hinged at the side, probably with black elastic. The other side simply overlapped (or not if you were larger) so if you were to glue the plastic to either your ab plate or kidney, you would still use elastic to connect them together, that's what the rivets are for, holding the elastic.

     

    You could simply rivet the extra plastic to either you ab or kidney and just have the other section overlap and have done with it. Job done and looks good :)

  5. I am guessing that your belt is flat, and may work better if you were to reshape it curverd so that there is no resistance and the snaps should stay together.

     

    On my belt, I put the snaps through the canvas and they are hidden behind the plastic ammo belt, pretty much how they did it for the real suits. The square tabs on the belt are only for covering the rivets which attach the plastic to the canvas, not for snaps.

     

    You can see in this below, the rivets and then 2 holes where I now have my snaps (I took this pic before I installed my snaps to show someone my belt set up).

     

    fUtCSsS.jpg

     

  6. These are just my opinions for Elite status.....

     

    1. White plastic should be used to close the gap but white elastic would do at a stretch (no pun intended :P )

     

    2. 3 rivets to be used on the left hand side (as you wear it).

     

    3. The bottom rivet is hidden behind the belt but should be there all the same.

     

    4. Belt snaps should be used to keep the belt in the correct position.

     

    Just my thought's mate :)

  7. So your recommendation is 15 mm strips for both front and back of forearms & biceps and 20 mm for calves and thighs, but 25 mm for the back of calves, right?

     

    Spot on my friend :P

     

    If you check out any suits that I have assembled I think you will agree that the seams look as wide as the originals. I will throw together a couple of pics later tonight to compare them.

     

    -Paul :)

  8. OK, the ANH suit's only had the joining strip on the front of the shins, thighs and forearms presumably to help with assembly. The backs didn't have anything and could be glued shut with a strip of ABS, thus allowing some variation of diameter of the parts. Biceps didn't have any strips moulded so they were just butted up and closed with strips.

     

    ROTJ armour on the other hand, had the strips front and back, and were designed to be overlapped unlike the ANH suits which were designed to be butted up. The AP armour is cast from an ROTJ so it is designed to be overlapped. You can still assemble the AP like ANH, but the joining strips moulded into each part determine where you have the joining strip and no adjustment cna be made without adding wider strips or trimming the strips right down.

     

    I hope that makes a bit more sense :)

     

    If you glue the front and velcro the backs f your forearms, I don't see any problems if you wish to glue the backs in the future.

     

    -Paul.

  9. You want the 'butt seam' on all parts....no overlapping in ANH or ESB. You should remember that the AP is an ROTJ so it is designed to be overlapped, that's why it has the joining strips at the back of the parts and the ANH/ESB don't have this feature.

     

    When I use the 15mm strips, I cut the moulded front parts (you'll need to do the same on the backs for AP and TE) at 8-9mm so that when I glue the strip on, you can see a bit of the edge underneath and the strip is not hanging over, just like it looks on Hans in the picture above.

     

    If you want to use wider strips, that's fine. There is no law that says you must use what anyone else is using. It's your suit at the end of the day and you can do whatever you like.

     

    Cheers,

     

    -Paul.

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