First ST armor build (ATA)

[HaVoK]

Hey all, Hope everyone's weekend is going good.

 

I just purchased and received a TE derived ATA set of armor, This will be the first time I'm doing a build.

TK-4510's stickied topics about the helmets is a really good resource, it'll come in handy but I'm saving the helmet for last.

 

So far I've got a ATA set of armor and stunt helmet.

Resin Aerators.

Clamps upon clamps (Got a bag of them at Lowe's for 9$!)

Lexan curved Scissors, Utility knife, Hobby knife and masking tape.

 

I've still got to decide on what glue is best to use, I've seen various types mentioned like plastic weld, e6000, zap-a-ap, But I'm not sure whats best.

Have to get buttons, rivets, velcro, elastic soon as well.

 

I'm just starting to do rough trimming now, I'm trying to triple check references as I go along because I believe I might have messed up on the right thigh area of the ab/cod piece. I started using the score and snap method, but now I'm using the curved scissors to a much better effect on the other parts I've trimmed so far (chest and back)

 

Heres a picture. I think I cut it too short, from now on I'm leaving a bit of extra room before going back in and doing a finer slow cut.

 

 

I've started rough cutting the chest piece as well, for the neck I made sure to leave myself room to work with, there doesn't seem to be a seam or fine line around it that is well defined, should I just sand off the extra slowly?

 

 

Also, I put feint red and black lines along the left collar piece. Should I cut along the red or black line?

 

Here is the back piece, it's the third piece I've started to trim, I've gotten abit better with the scissors now and found it much easier to cut from right to left due to how the blades are while pulling lightly on the extra piece of plastic to help along.

 

 

How much of that extra bit should I leave?

 

Thanks!

[FIVE[501st]]

No, you've not cut too much at all.

 

There are 2 "lines" on most of the edges of TE derived armor. Starting from the INSIDE / main part of the armor you have 1) the initial / first "dip" which is often a quite obvious "ledge" of sorts and is the true return edge, then 2) the "edging" then 3) the "bump" that leads out to a finishing edge.

 

 

So what you want is to cut between #1 and #3 and cut right in the middle-ish of #2.

You may then trim away #2 so it's almost gone, but leave #1 completely there.

 

Some parts are MUCH harder to see where these 3 areas are. But if you find it in one place on the piece you're working on and then trace from there you can always figure it out.

 

So, for your cod piece, you really should cut all the "red" off here... all the #2, leaving the return edge of #1.

 

 

Make sense?

Hope that helps!

[DarkTrooper[TK]]

Good luck with your build. I've built an ATA also. It's a fun build. I bought that same bag of clamps from Lowes too, they'll be very useful when you join the various armor halves together.

[HaVoK]

Thanks No'l and Darktrooper, That helps out a bit. I'm still iffy about the collar section though of the front Chest plate of where to trim there.

 

I've come across Stuka's flickr photos which is nice reference and a big help for setting up the straps inside of the armor and how to glue and add shims/buttons.

I'm trying to figure out what thickness I should get for elastic/canvas for the inner straps. Also what type of buttons and rivets, I read I can get the industrial velcro at wal-mart I believe.

 

What I'm really not sure of though is, what is the best type of glue to use?

I see Stuka uses e6000 and TK-4510 has plastic weld and zap-a-gap.

Edited June 6, 2010 by HaVoK