HOWTO: Make your own Inner Drop Boxes

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

Hi everyone,

I just finished my Inner drop boxes and as it might interest some of you I decided to share with you how I did them. The main idea of this, is to only use ABS scraps to save money where it can be saved

 

List of materials:

-          You’ll need an untrimmed armor kit for this as we need ABS scraps

-          An X-acto

-          A pencil

-          Some glue

-          Lot of patience

Optional stuff:

-          A hand drill

-          A paperclip

-          Some black paint

 

 

1^st:

While trimming the Shoulder bridges take advantage of the four corners already present on the excess of ABS to make things easier. You can also use long stripes of ABS and bend them with a lighter.

(You can also find four corners like that on both Ammo belts)

 

Trim them away with your x-acto without cutting the corner. You won’t be able to score & snape them so make as many passage as required to cut a whole side:

 

And then, score & snap the other:

 

Once the four are trimmed we begin to see the shape of the inner drop boxes:

 

2^nd:

Now you need to cut the ABS corners to the right length so they can fit inside the outer boxes:

 

 

Take your time here, you can always cut some more if it’s too long, but adding material is much more difficult!

 

3^rd:

Now you need two large and flat pieces of ABS. You can normally find them on the excess of ABS around the handplates. If you can’t find a piece of ABS large enough, check the end of this How to

 

So once you are happy with your corners, take them out and use them as a template to get the right dimension for the back of your Inner boxes:

 

4^th:

Now trim the back plate until it fits inside of your outer boxes. I proceeded one corner by one rather than trying to get the right shape from the first attempt.

 

5^th:

Here my back plate was a little too high...

 

…so i had to take off some ABS on top of my corners/walls. The idea is to level the corners/walls until their height arrives right under the top of the outer boxes:

 

Now the back plate should fit better:

 

 

6^th:

Now just glue the corners/walls along the edges of your back plate. You can e6000 them but rather, I would advise you to use CA glue for this because it’s impossible to clamp or magnet them.

 

7^th:

Use some ABS paste to smooth the junction between the corners/walls and the back plate. Then sand it or not, as you want:

Don’t worry if the sides aren’t perfect because they won’t be apparent.

 

8^th:

Final result:

 

 

Annex:

If during the 3^rd step you weren’t able to find a large enough plate of ABS, this is for you. I will only show you the theory here, but I had to use this technique for my second plate so I can assess it works.

 

1^st:

Find 2 pieces of ABS which when assembled together are large enough. The thicker they are, the easier it will be for you.

Then cut straight the 2 pieces so they can fit together:

 

 

2^nd:

Score the edge’s middle on one of the piece with the tip of your x-acto:

 

And use this scoring as a guide for hand-drill the piece in its thickness. While doing this keep your thumb and your index pressed tight against the piece faces, this way you can feel if you aren’t drilling straight and approaching the surface of one of the face.

 

3^rd:

Once you have your first hole, you need a matching one in the opposite piece. To do so, put some paint around the hole:

 

And while it’s still fresh, align and press the two pieces together:

 

Now you know where to counter drill the second piece:

 

4^th:

Repeat those steps all along the edges as much as possible. The more you do it, the stronger the bind will be. I would recommend three as a minimum.

(Here the bottom of my pieces were too narrow for me to be able to make a third drill)

 

5^th:

Take your paperclip and cut it into several small tabs with a length that matches the depth of your holes:

 

6^th:

Then fit them into the holes:

 

If you worked well , you should be able to slide the two pieces together:

 

 

7^th:

You now just need to glue the paperclip tabs inside their holes, and then glue the two ABS pieces together.

 

8^th:

Feel free to smooth the transition between the two pieces when you will make some ABS paste 

 

 

And that's it !

Thank you for reading this, I hope it will help some of you 

Edited October 25, 2014 by The5thHorseman

[Sonnenschein]

Merci beaucoup for doing this!

 

I wanted to write a similar how to for ages, but I didn't find the time.

 

I love the idea with the paper clip! Tis would have saved me some time (and money) years ago!

Edited April 12, 2013 by Sonnenschein

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Instant tutorial. 

 

Thanks!

 

-Eric

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

Love it! Sharing across the galactic interwebz, if you don't mind me doing so!

 

For those who might not have scraps lying about, or a new kit, shiny white hobby Styrene or the thicker "for sale" signs might work.

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

Of course, share it as much as you want ! it's my pleasure