ATA ANH Stunt Build (let's see how this goes!)

[bigtrev503]

Let's see a test fit!

[Techne[TK]]

Looking good....keep up the great work...

Thanks!

 

Let's see a test fit!

Will do!  One of the next things on my list.

 

First, here's my torso strapping...nothing special, pretty much the standard.

 

 

I moved on to my bucket.  Out of all the things that intimidated me on this build, this was the most, and I waited until the end when I was sure I could deal wth it well, since it's the most visible part.  I think it was a good idea to wait.  However, like almost everything else that intimidated me, this turned out to be not SO bad once I got to it.  It took some work and some of the judgements on where to cut etc. were as hard as ever, but with all the great source images here on FISD, it worked out pretty well.  I am drawing heavily on the builds by Pandatrooper, bluetric450r, Minuteman, Aosen, Mac Bragg, Moose, and TK-4510.

 

Here's pictures of my cut lines, although I drew the  lines in pencil, so you may not be able to see them very well.  But basically I just marked where the mold was and cut about a quarter or half inch away from there just to be sure at first. I used scissors to cut off most of it, and a dremel for the eyes and teeth.  It was exciting to be able to finally hold it up in front of my face and see through the eyes!

 

 

Then here is the refined cut stage.  I did all this work with the dremel, and then sandpaper.  The one section I was not really sure about was the back/bottom of the cap (maybe best seen in the 4th pic down on the right).  Does it ned more cutting?  That's an area where it's less clear to me whether the bumpiness comes from the excess of the mold, or if it's supposed to be like that.

 

 

Also, what do you think about the cutting on the eyes and teeth?  I know that the shape of the teeth is pretty key.   I've looked at the collection of teeth on the archives.  I've definitely interested in hearing opinions on this.  I could easily make them bigger but didn't want to cut too much away.

 

 

Then I took the big step and clamped it all together and rivited the mask and cap into one piece!  I used washers inside the rivets.

 

Exciting.  It feels like a huge step.  I think it looks pretty good myself but I'm happy to hear input.  The main thing I'm worried about is whether the bottom ear scrw ends up being in the same spot as the bottom rivet.

 

Oh, and a question.  The ATA kit came with helmet hardware.  There's a set of 6 brass screws for the ears, plus their washers and nuts.  There's the aerators, and their washers and nuts.  Then there's two thick short screws with washers and nuts.  Anyone know what these last ones are for?  I was thinking it was for the ear-attachment site (where I used rivets), but then there would be nothing for the lower attachment site.

 

And of course the self-pic, with silly looking eyes peeking through!

 

 

Next up, the ears...the most intimidating part of the most intimidating part!  Let's hope it ends up being as unproblematic as the rest.

[Techne[TK]]

I'm going to start painting tonight.  So anyone with feedback on my teeth, let me know now, before they're painted!

 

I did the ears, and I have to say their difficulty was not overstated.  Here's the best I could do, with some fairly clear gaps.  I know the originals had lots of gaps, but I would have liked to have minimized them more than this.  In retrospect, I would have cut the ears' shape down before riveting the helmet, and in fact before doing the final cut of the helmet shape.  It would have helped if the cap's sides came forward just an inch or so more to the front; I had to force the ears' positions to cover up the border between the cap and back.  Shaping them was a fairly tough ordeal, but oh well, they're done.

 

 

Here's my first real test fit.  There's still work to be done.  I knew, for instance, that the chest/abdomen connection was a problem, and so are a variety of straps.  Anyway I'll show the pics and then pick it apart!

 

 

The pictures, I should note, are by my 8-year-old daughter.  But it was my genius choice to take them so they're all back-lit in front of a window.  And, I just noticed, I put them in the wrong order

 

The helmet still needs to be painted, there's no padding, and the lenses are only temporarily in there.

 

I didn't bother centering my thermal detonator, and I'm obviously barefoot...I realized I should have put my boots on after my legs but before my torso.  Once I had the torso on I couldn't sit down, and the left calf is too tight to put the boot on without a lot of work.  I got a heat gun today to deal with that.

 

In terms of bigger problems, I need to use shorter straps on the shoulder bells, which are too far from the plastic shoulder straps.  I also was really surprised at how much of my wrist you can see--the lower edges of the forearms are really high up.  I intentionally used short straps between the forearm and bicep partly because the examples I was looking at were short, but also because I read that if they're short, it reduces armor bite in the inside of the elbow--which is true, it doesn't bite me at all this way.  But now, looking at it, I think I probably need to change this.  The biceps could go down in theory, thus lowering the bottom of the forearm, but in reality the bottom of the bicep armor pieces are pretty close to the bottom of my actual biceps.  I do have pretty long arms.  So I guess longer straps between the bicep and forearm?

 

The thighs actually look decent to me here, but I think they need to go up higher, their bottoms are halfway down my knees.  I need to shorten the straps that hold them up.  The shins also need to be held up, I guess by some foam padding?

 

The connection between the back and the kidneys is better than I thought, I'm happy with that.  No weird spacing or angled ends.

 

The main problem, obviously, is the connection between the chest and ab plate.  It's been doing this since I made it--the chest doesn't go very far down past the abs, so the abs often pop out.  Now I later realized that in this pic, one of the straps between the chest and abs popped off its snap.  But that's relatively irrelevant, it's been doing this regardless.  I think the solution is to shorten the straps between the chest and abs.  This would pull them closer, and force the abs to go under and not in front of the chest, obviously.  It has room in the crotch to go higher, so I think this will work.  Hopefully I don't have to make suspenders to hold them up, that's more internal structure than I'd like to have.

 

In any case, I decided on a new solution to shortening the snaps--instead of doubling up a portion of it and sewing it together, I'm going to put a second set of snaps on the straps, closer to the center, and then add new elastic snap plates on the torso, so they get double the snap connection as a redundancy.

 

It looks here, at least, like the left side of my ab/kidney connection looks OK.  The right side opens up towards the top.  So I may have to shorten those straps as well.

 

Any other critiques on the fit?  Or solutions to things I've already noted?

 

Here's a close up of the chest/abs just to show that when I'm careful with it, it can look right, but then all of a sudden, POP out it comes!

 

 

 

Anyway, fire away!

[Techne[TK]]

Just a quick update.  I've fixed a lot of the strapping problems I had.  The chest/abs now fit together perfectly, the shoulder bells are fitted better, as are the thighs.  Basically I added a second snap in the middle of the existing straps, and snapped that one to the existing snap plate on the armor.  Then I added another snap plate on the armor and snapped the original snap onto that.  The effect was to shorten the strap distance and also strengthen it by having more snaps in one spot.

 

 

I have been coming along pretty well on the helmet and ab painting.  I just need to do the black lines and the tube stripes on the helmet.  I have to check and see how many lines are in the black line sections.

 

The major part I am now unsure about is the forearm location, as I mentioned above.  The forearms are too high up on my arms.  I can't lowe the biceps much, since their bottom edge is more or less at the elbow joint.  So I would have to lengthen the bicep/forearm strap.  But it is my understanding that (1) it's supposed to be pretty short and (2) the shortness is a major anti-armor-bite deterrent.  So I am loath to lengthen it.  But I don't know what else I could do.  Again I do have long arms so I may not have many other options.

 

I'll show another pic when I do another test fit soon, probably after I finish the painting and install my helmet foam and shin padding.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Double snaps in all the structural places is a good idea, I did this one mine, just in case on snap fails you still have your back up snap, I had an bell snap fail once but was lucky the back up still held

[SCTrooper[TK]]

Once everything strapped properly you will look really good. Being taller trooper myself ,make sure to use three straps to hold the ab and the chest plate together, this should keep the chest from popping out. I went through numerous snaps and straps before everything was fit right. The shins will set nicely on the boots, so don't worry about that.

The biceps could come down a little, but the forearms look really good the way you have them. Having longer arms will show more of the glove when the arms a at your side, this is normal and how often will your arms be at your side anyways.  Showing more black between the bicep and forearms, ruins the look.                                                                          The helmet looks really nice, the teeth could be more squared off in the corners, try an exacto knife, these work really well. One thing , the elastic on the thighs needs to be wider to support the weight. Most fabric stores will have this, get length of 2.5 ft of 3 inch wide elastic, you may not need that much, but just to be on the safe side. Hope this helps , your almost there.

Edited August 31, 2013 by SCTrooper

[meanders[TK]]

Its all coming together. The larger bolt you were referring to one the helmet, I used in place of the rivets which hold the two pieces together. That means I can put together and pull apart the helmet during construction. Makes it easier if you have to make adjustments (I ended up cutting more from my teeth as well as making a more complicated lens attachment).

[Techne[TK]]

Double snaps in all the structural places is a good idea, I did this one mine, just in case on snap fails you still have your back up snap, I had an bell snap fail once but was lucky the back up still held

Yeah, I've had several fail just putting it on, so backups seemed like a good idea to me!

 

 

Once everything strapped properly you will look really good. Being taller trooper myself ,make sure to use three straps to hold the ab and the chest plate together, this should keep the chest from popping out. I went through numerous snaps and straps before everything was fit right. The shins will set nicely on the boots, so don't worry about that.

The biceps could come down a little, but the forearms look really good the way you have them. Having longer arms will show more of the glove when the arms a at your side, this is normal and how often will your arms be at your side anyways.  Showing more black between the bicep and forearms, ruins the look.                                                                          The helmet looks really nice, the teeth could be more squared off in the corners, try an exacto knife, these work really well. One thing , the elastic on the thighs needs to be wider to support the weight. Most fabric stores will have this, get length of 2.5 ft of 3 inch wide elastic, you may not need that much, but just to be on the safe side. Hope this helps , your almost there.

You're right, the boots will probably put the shins in the right place.  I did put some foam in there anyway just so they don't klonk around.  Thanks for the thoughts on the arms, I am going to try to keep that in mind.  I had already painted the teeth, so I may wait a bit before cutting them down more.  And I also agree that a wider strap would have been better on my thighs; I was lazy and didn't want to buy what seems like the tenth kind of strapping.  But perhaps what I will do is sew on a second layer of the same kind of strapping, to make it less flexible.  I appreciate the feedback.

 

 

Its all coming together. The larger bolt you were referring to one the helmet, I used in place of the rivets which hold the two pieces together. That means I can put together and pull apart the helmet during construction. Makes it easier if you have to make adjustments (I ended up cutting more from my teeth as well as making a more complicated lens attachment).

That's what I was thinking.  But then I figured that if it was to hold the two pieces together, there would be four of them.  But I guess you could use just the two of them plus the ear screws and it would all be steady.

 

 

 

Well, what I've been working on recently is mostly the holster and helmet.

 

For the holster, I made it, but it's only going to be a temporary place-holder until I get different leather.

 

I really had no idea what kind of leather to get or where to get it.  I got some nice brown leather for the straps (top left pic).  I ordered some bookbinding leather, but the back of it has all the suede shorn off and I didn't like the look (top right pic).  Then I got a leather coat at a thrift store for cheap, and cut it apart.  The back gave me a perfectly-sized piece, and the back looked good (bottom two pics).

 

 

However, it turned out to be very thin and flexible, even stretchy, and what I quickly realized is that it was not optimal for holding up my heavy blaster (top left).  So, my lovely and amazing wife mentioned that you can buy iron-on fabric stiffeners.  So I got two of them--a fairly stiff white, and a less stiff black/grey to cover up the white--and ironed them on.  This worked reasonably well.  They ironed on easily, and they did stiffen the holster so it held the blaster up better, but still it sort of crunches up (lower right).

 

 

So I went all around trying to find better leather.  All I could find in my area was giant hides, like 22 square feet, for hundreds of dollars.   That was a no-go. I talked to a leather guy and he said what I should use is "belt leather," which is obviously the leather used for belts, and is the right thickness for this kind of project.  It's also called 8/9 oz leather.  I still had a hard time finding it even on the internet, at least in the right size and color.  But eventually I found some on eBay and hopefully I'll win the auction I'm currently in!  Don't bid on my auction! 

 

But while I'm waiting I decided to finish the original one, just for practice.  My wife sewed the side, and I put in the various rivets.  When it comes to attaching it to the belt, I went with the technique of putting snaps on the holster straps, and snaps on the inside of the belt--but attaching these snaps on the belt using a rivet, so the rivet head shows from the outside, and it looks like the whole thing is riveted instead of snapped.  I was going to use a regular rivet but it wasn't thick enough to hold the snap in place, so I used my leftover split rivets, which worked fine.

 

 

 

 

Once it was actually hanging on the belt, it held the blaster in place better than it did before.  I think the straps helped hold it flatter somehow.  So it's not perfect, but a good first try.

 

The tip of the blaster does peek out of the end though.  I assume this is not correct?

 

 

I've put most of the stuff inside the helmet.  I have a small head, and the star foam I got wasn't thick enough to hold the helmet at the right level for my eyes, so I put in some extra grey foam at the top, then glued the star foam on top of that.  I've used E-6000 for all of this.  Then I put in the eye piece, the straps (which I attached to the bottom screws--I believe the originals may have been attached to one of the upper screws, but when I tried that it didn't hold my head in the right place) and the s-shaped black rubber.

 

 

Most of the painting on the helmet has been pretty straightforward.  Just FYI, I had bought a couple jars of most of the paint colors, but it wasn't necessary, one jar of each color was all I needed.  The traps and tears all went pretty smoothly, I just hand painted them with a wide brush for the grey and a thin brush for the lines. The teeth and ears were also fine.   The tube stripes I obsessed over for a long time.  I looked at everyone's stripes (original and other builds), I studied the correct direction for the bend, I tried to figure out the measurements from measuring the pics of the originals and using various tutorials.  Finally I drew them out on a Frisket mask, making them 9 cm long and 17mm high.  I can't promise this is perfectly accurate but it's my best guess.  They're a pencil's width from the side.

 

I painted through the Frisket with a layer of white to plug any gaps in the mask first (as recommended by Bob-o), and then two layers of blue.  Unfortunately the frisket couldn't flatten down perfectly due to the complex double curves of the tubes, and a fair amount leaked out underneath regardless of the white layer.

 

 

I thought I was going to have to wipe them all off and start from scratch, but I gave it a shot cleaning it up, and it actually worked.  Using a toothpick, q-tip, small brush, and paint thinner, I got them to look pretty darn good, and then I painted back in a few details that had lifted off.  I was honestly amazed by how well I was able to fix them.

 

So here it is, my pretty-much-complete helmet (except for painting the screws):

 

 

 

 

A few more minor details, then another test fit to come.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Coming along nicely, for my holster I used vinyl, I glue two pieces together to give it some strength. A few of the outer black lines on you bucket are a little big but may still be passable.

[meanders[TK]]

Great recovery with the tube stripes. They came out really well.

 

I actually spent last weekend hand painting mine as well. It was the part of the helmet build I was dreading the most.  

[Techne[TK]]

Coming along nicely, for my holster I used vinyl, I glue two pieces together to give it some strength. A few of the outer black lines on you bucket are a little big but may still be passable.

Hmm, you're right, they are thicker than the originals now that I look at them again.  I've seen some fan versions this thick, but I should probably thin them down.  That's no problem.

 

Great recovery with the tube stripes. They came out really well.

 

I actually spent last weekend hand painting mine as well. It was the part of the helmet build I was dreading the most.  

Thanks--I'll be interested to see yours when you're done.  Your inner drop box lids came out really neatly, mine were kind of rough.  I just filled in the edges with ABS paste and it looks good now, but it would have been nice to just leave them, like yours.

[Techne[TK]]

It's hard for me to know where to start here.  I've been doing a lot.  I finished up my build and wore it for almost a week at a festival, so I've really gotten to know it.  It held up surprisingly well and I only have a few tweaks to do to fix up minor problems.  I wasn't too happy with my audio, which I'm sure is just how I set it up, and I can work that out.  I didn't install my fans, and will try that out later.

 

Right now it's dirty as hell, so I've got a lot of cleaning to do!  When I've done that, I'll take some final test fit photos to see if anyone has any final comments, then submit for FISD.

 

Anyway, here's what I did before I left:

 

I forgot to take pics of my shoulder straps before.  Here they are with their elastic.  I believe the originals sewed their thin elastic to a hanging snap, but that seemed kind of unnecessary to me, so I just sewed it into the loop made by my existing snaps.

 

 

I had enormous extra trouble with my hand guard paint job.  I had tried to use the printing ink (shown in a post above) and thought it worked, but it rubbed off pretty easily.  Then I figured I might as well try the same white enamel I used on the ear screws.  This seemed good, and flexible, but wouldn't dry.  It had dried quickly enough when I used it on the screws, but was still not dry after days on the hand guards.  I did a lot of research and there was a lot of random internet advice about this.  It seems enamel doesn't really dry, it cures, which is more of a chemical process.  But I'm not sure why it wouldn't cure on the handguards.  Anyway, I thought one possibility was that I hadn't mixed the paint enough, so I stripped it off with paint thinner and painted it with white enamel spray paint instead, figuring this would certainly dry quickly.  But despite the paint's directions, it didn't dry either, even after a day and a half. It was still very sticky.  The heat gun didn't do anything.  So, relying again on the ol' internet advice, I stuck it in my over for an hour at about 175 or 200 F (which is as low as my oven goes).  Then I let it cool in the oven as the oven cooled.  This worked perfectly!  The paint was hard and dry and smooth.  Perfect.  Over the week, it has cracked and flaked somewhat, but overall it's still not bad and I can repaint it when necessary.

 

Sorry this pic is over-lit, I'll take another one later.

 

 

Here's some pics of my helmet.  I repainted the outside black lines to be about half as thick as they were before and I think it looks much better.  I also touched up a few other lines here and there.

 

 

Also, a pic of my ab buttons.

 

 

The main thing I put work into was the back of the drop boxes.  I didn't like the seam I had, it looked hack-y.  So I finally made some ABS paste.  I cut up teeny fragments of ABS (I've been saving all my cut-offs), and barely covered them in acetone.  I covered the bottle and waited about an hour, and it was perfect.

 

I filled in around the backs of the boxes. I probably put on too much, but it was hard to control the application.  Then I sanded it down after a few hours, using 400, 600, 1000, and 2000 grit.  I'm not exactly sure how the whole wet sanding works, I just did it dry.  I tried the Novus, but it didn't really get the shine back, but then I tried this stuff from Pep Boys (forget the name, I'll check it later) and that worked better.  I had to sand/shine the fronts too.  Overall I was very happy with how this experiment worked out.

 

 

 

 

 

Also I got the new, thicker leather to make a new version of my holster.  I'll start making that soon.

 

I got a Sterilite trunk from Wal-Mart to pack my armor.  I was able to get the whole thing in there, including helmet.  I didn't bring my blaster along, but I think I could have gotten that in there too.  Actually this pic shows the electronics in there but I eventually took them out and brought them on carry-on.

 

 

And finally here's one pic of me during a test fit before I left.  I made more changes after this, so I won't post the rest from this fitting, I'll take another set of pics when I've got it all cleaned up.

 

Edited September 18, 2013 by Techne

[Techne[TK]]

I've been spending the last week or two fixing and cleaning up my gear after it got pretty dirty wearing it around for a week.  I took a whole series of before and after photos (dirty and cleaned), but then I realized it made for pretty boring pictures.  So for brevity's sake, here's a pic of my trunk after I got back, you can see the black rubbed onto the back, which was pretty typical on a lot of the parts.  Lots of dirty scrapes in the forearms and shins.

 

 

I tried cleaning it off with water, but that had no effect.  Then I used Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which was recommended on several other threads, and I'll be darned if i didn't work like magic!  It was really easy, got off really dark grime.

 

Then I sanded and polished a lot of scrapes and gouges (from wearing it, but also stuff I never got around to dealing with from when I was building it).  I used sandpaper all the way up to 2000 grit, and also Novus and Meguire's Ultimate Compound for polish.  Now it's back to nice and smooth.  Not quite as sparkly as the original finish though, I'm going to continue to experiment with that.

 

I fixed a couple straps that I hadn't been happy with, fixing them or optimizing their lengths.

 

Then I made a second holster, using the new, thicker leather I had gotten.  I got it off eBay, from this guy:  http://www.ebay.com/usr/bobkitchener

 

I only mention it because I looked all over the place for thick black leather that was dyed through and sueded on the back and couldn't find it anywhere else, except in huge rolls.  I only needed about 16x20", and found a perfectly-sized piece on one of the guy's auctions.  He seems to sell a lot of medium-size pieces like that, and for what seem like reasonable prices to me, so if you're stuck like I was, I would give him a look.  I got 8/9 oz, and that may have actually been a bit too thick, 7/8 may be more typical.  But it worked, and I extremely happy with the finished product.  This holster may actually be the piece of the armor I'm happiest about.

 

Here's the leather.  You can see how much thicker and stiffer it is than my first holster, which was shown in an earlier post.

 

 

I used these two tutorials, especially the second, and of course Troopermaster's diagram, but I had to make some of my own variations.  For instance, I made it about an inch longer, to make sure my gun didn't poke out of the bottom like it did with my first one.   I cut it out and marked the holes for sewing, using my daughter's Swiss Army Knife leather punch to make the shallow holes .  Then I attached the front and back together with double-sided tape, as suggested in the second tutorial, so I could punch the holes all the way through.  I honestly thought the tape wouldn't work on leather--I got a basic scotch tape version--but lo and behold it really held it together very well.

 

I tried to use a sewing machine, with a leather needle, and on a manual setting, to make the holes go all the way through, but the leather was too thick and it didn't work.  So I ended up having to drill the darn holes.  I didn't really want to, and was worried about ruining the leather, but it worked fine.  And it was probably for the best anyway, because the holes were then big enough to easily get the thread through.

 

Here's the thread I used.  Thick and waxed, to make it easily go through the holes.

 

 

I've never done any leatherwork before, but I have done a lot of bookbinding, so this part was right up my alley.  I used a heavy bookbinding needle, and used a variant on a standard stab-binding (a.k.a. Japanese binding) sewing technique.

 

 

 

Actually, before I sewed it, I put on the front snap.  This was a problem, because the leather was thicker than the length of the prong on the back of the snap--it didn't poke through far enough, so it couldn't connect to the other half of the snap.  So I had to cut out a divot in the back of the leather and inset the snap into it, so that the prong of the snap would protrude from the leather.  This was a major pain in the a$$.  Cutting a nickel-size depression less than an eighth of an inch deep into the leather took a ridiculous amount of time.  But it worked, and I put the snap together.  This is the main reason I say that my leather was too thick.

 

 

I cut a hole for the handle strap, and once again inset the snap into the leather.

 

 

Then I finished it off by adding the belt straps, using some tan leather scrap from Tandy Leather Factory.  (They have cheap small scraps, but nothing [that I could find, anyway] that was the right size for the holster itself, thus the use of eBay for the main piece.)  The leather was so thick that I had to get some 1/4" long rivets to attach the handle strap (going through 2 layers of leather plus a washer) and 1/2" rivets for the belt straps (3 layers of leather plus a washer).  I was sure they would be too long and I'd have to dremel them down after I stuck them in, but amazingly they were exactly the right size.

 

Then I was done!  Here's some pics of the top and bottom, showing the thickness.  I'm just fascinated by how much more sturdy it is compared to my first one.  It feels awesome.

 

 

And here it is, with my blaster inside and on its own:

 

 

I'll do a final test fitting in the next day or two, and put up the pics for some final feedback.   Then hopefully I'll be ready to apply for general approval and above!

[meanders[TK]]

That's a nice solid looking holster you've got now

[Techne[TK]]

Alright, here's what is hopefully my last test fit, or close to it:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So....opinions?  Things I should improve?

 

It looks like one of my plastic shoulder straps ended up underneath the back plate; that's just an accident and not the way it normally fits.

 

It's possible the biceps could go down a bit farther, I don't know.  I did already lengthen the strap between the shoulder and bicep.  The shoulder and biceps kind of lock together physically though, so even if I lengthened the strap, I'm not sure it would go much further. Also the horizontal strap that goes around the bicep from the shoulder wouldn't still go over the bicep by much if I lowered it much farther.  But I think I feel OK with how it looks at this point.

 

The other possible question is the way I connected the kidneys and abs. There's a square tab, attached to the kidneys, that fits between the top and middle straps, and keeps the kidneys from popping out too far to the sides. But you can occasionally see a bit of the tab.  In these pics, you can't see it on the left side, but you can see it on the right side a little bit.  This seems to be because the two plates are aligned at a bit of an angle on the right, while on the left they're more parallel.  I'm not sure if this is an accident of how I randomly tightened the belt, or if it looks that way on a regular basis. I could have sworn I had taken a pic of this tab, but I guess not.  I can show a close up if anyone wants.

 

Let me know what you think, and based on what I hear, I'll either make changes or go for 501st approval soon.

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

- Nice right forearm, you've fitted it well! Very often the right ATA forearm looks wider than the left one but you managed to keep them the same size, well done.

 

- Your helmet stands high on your head though, there's maybe too much padding inside

 

It's possible the biceps could go down a bit farther, I don't know.  

I think your elbow gap looks acceptable.

 

The other possible question is the way I connected the kidneys and abs. There's a square tab, attached to the kidneys, that fits between the top and middle straps, and keeps the kidneys from popping out too far to the sides. But you can occasionally see a bit of the tab.  In these pics, you can't see it on the left side, but you can see it on the right side a little bit. 

Just paint them black and you will be good

 

Anyway you should have no problems for the 501st approval!

[Techne[TK]]

- Nice right forearm, you've fitted it well! Very often the right ATA forearm looks wider than the left one but you managed to keep them the same size, well done.

 

- Your helmet stands high on your head though, there's maybe too much padding inside

 

I think your elbow gap looks acceptable.

 

Just paint them black and you will be good

 

Anyway you should have no problems for the 501st approval!

Thanks, I did wrestle with the forearms' size.  The left is a bit thinner but not much.

 

I agree that the helmet is high compared to most other people's armor, and it is because I added extra padding...but I had to do it so I could see out of the eyesockets.  Without the extra padding, my eyes were too high up in the helmet to see out of it, unfortunately.

 

And that is a great idea for those tabs.  Sometimes I think about things too much and miss the easy solutions! 

 

Thanks again for the input.

[Techne[TK]]

I'm very excited because I've officially been accepted by the 501st, I'm now officially TK 31198.  It's been a long road getting to here, even if the build itself has only been a handful of months long.  So that's very gratifying.  I first saw the 501st at an appearance a few years ago and was totally impressed by the members' armor quality, so it's exciting to finally become a member myself.

 

In terms of my build, I did paint those tabs as 5thHorseman suggested, and since I realized I never showed a picture of them in the first place, here they are:

 

 

My GML also suggested trimming down the tops of the cover strips on the back of my thighs, which made sense to me, so I did so.  Here's what they looked like originally, with a couple of options I had for cutting in red and blue:

 

 

Here's where they are now:

 

 

 

 

He suggested cutting the right one down further (at more of an angle), so they're more symmetrical.  Which makes sense to me.  But on the other hand the armor itself isn't symmetrical; the reason they're not symmetrical now is because they follow the actual armor's angles in each leg.  Anybody have any thoughts on this?  Currently I feel like leaving it but I could be persuaded otherwise.

 

I want to apply for EIB and Centurion, but I am leaving town for a week starting Wednesday, so I may not get a chance until I get back.  Hopefully I can at least get the EIB thread started.

[Techne[TK]]

I've made a few changes.  Before I went up for EIB, I lengthened the shoulder bell-to-bicep straps a bit, so less of my wrist is showing, about an inch less than before.  If I lowered it any more the bicep would be completely loose from the shoulder bell.

 

 

In the discussion on my EIB thread, they recommended that I remove my button paint and keep the paint on the top part of the buttons, and not have it go down the sides of the buttons.

 

Looking at some paint removal threads, I decided to go with paint thinner and a toothpick.  I've seen warnings about how too much paint thinner can melt your plastic, so I was careful about that.  I tried to see if I could wipe the paint off using a q-tip, but that didn't do much.  Mostly I got the paint wet with paint thinner, then scraped away at it with the point of the toothpick, using a fair amount of pressure sometimes, and occasionally rewetting it with thinner.  It took a while but eventually came off.

 

 

 

Then I repainted.

 

 

They also noted that the 45-degree cuts at the end of my belt were too big (3/4 inch on each side), and that I cut a bit off each end of the belt to make the removed sections smaller (1/2 inch on each side).  I put a metal ruler under the plastic to make sure I didn't cut into the canvas and trimmed it to the edge of the square, which is where they recommended I make the cut.

 

 

 

Completed:

 

 

 

So that's it...now on to try at Centurion.

[Techne[TK]]

In my Centurion thread, they suggested I fix my right ear, which was sticking out from the helmet quite a bit at the top.

 

I took it off and checked out the problem.  It turns out the two helmet pieces weren't very close to each other.  The cap was popping away from the face, and that kept the ear away from both.

 

You can see here how they were not touching, and how I could press them closer together.

 

 

 

The obvious fix was to rivet the two parts together.  I know normally most people only need one in that section, but I put in two more, and it worked like a charm to press them together.

 

 

 

Then when I put the ear back on, it was able to lay very flat to the bucket, just like it should.  Nice to have a simple fix!

 

 

 

Still a gap at the bottom, but the top is much improved.

[Heathen Viking]

_{Thanks a lot for posting this thread.  I'm in the process of grinding down my ATA kit, so any and all tips I can gather will help with my assembly.  It's going to be a challenge but the end result will be well worth it.}

Edited November 13, 2013 by Heathen Viking

[toybiz[TK]]

Thank you for sharing of your build. I'm on the ATA wait list and this will really help me when it's my turn.

 

Adam

[Techne[TK]]

_{Thanks a lot for posting this thread.  I'm in the process of grinding down my ATA kit, so any and all tips I can gather will help with my assembly.  It's going to be a challenge but the end result will be well worth it.}

 

 

Thank you for sharing of your build. I'm on the ATA wait list and this will really help me when it's my turn.

 

Adam

No problem!  I relied on previous posters' threads to make my armor, so I'm glad if my build can help anyone else.  Good luck with your builds!

[Techne[TK]]

I ended up making a couple other changes due to comments in my Centurion thread and figured I might as well update my build thread so it's current.  Some of this may be useful for others trying for Centurion.  I should point out that I put my armor up for Centurion right before the newest version of the CRL came out, so I was judged by the old CRL and not the new one.  So some other details may not pass muster under the new CRL.  For instance, the drop boxes are not supposed to have flat covers in the back now.

 

It was suggested, although not required, that I ease the transition between my kidney plates and my side shims.  I covered the lines between the kidneys and shims with ABS paste and sanded it down.  This took a few rounds of adding ABS and then sanding.  For some reason I got a lot more bubbles in the ABS paste this time.  In any case it all worked out.

 

 

 

Then there was a rather lengthy discussion of the cover strips on the backs of my thighs.  My argument there is probably best summed up in posts #30 and 33 of that thread, and can essentially be described as "the cover strips should be as thin as they can be in order to fit the user, while still covering the entire raised ridge," and it did get some support, but in the end the decision was that the cover strips do NOT need to cover the raised ridge.  First I made a model of what a canon-width strip would look like (right leg), in comparison with my original wide one (left leg):

 

 

and then after some further discussion and compromises on both sides we agreed to go with this, in which I made the thigh cover strips the same width as the calf cover strips (which are also wider than canon but can't be altered due to the positioning of the holes and the gap between the shells of the calves):

 

 

Ultimately I stil think that covering the raised ridge is the optimal way to go, but I am OK with this compromise and appreciate that the DO, Gazmosis, worked with me on this.

 

Here's the final product:

 

[the1stoner[TK]]

Very cool!! I am in the research stage now and will be using your thread as a reference for many things.