EJGreen Posted July 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2015 I received these a couple of days ago from Trooperbay... Two canvas shoulder straps with snaps. Now, it's just a matter of determining exactly how all of this stuff was attached to the suit. I know that the snaps are used to connect the shoulder bells to the shoulder straps but I don't know if the straps, themselves were glued, riveted, or snapped into the armor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 Weekends tend to be my time set aside for "armoring." I generally lack the energy and brain cells to accomplish much of anything during the work week. With yesterday being Saturday, I had plans to get my shoulders done but after posting my recent progress, I accomplished nothing. I'm having a hard time fitting my torso for the shoulder bridges. It's really hard trying to do it alone and as much as my wife tried to be a good sport, she doesn't know what to look for in terms of how things are supposed to look. I sent a couple of the pics, above, to Steve and he noted that the chest is riding too high, the back is obviously too low and I'm certain there's discussion about the number of shoulder ridges that are supposed to be glued in front but I can't find any of them. Is there an easy way of getting these shoulder bridges done without looking like an idiot along the way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 12, 2015 Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 When you say shoulder bridges I'm assuming you're referring to cover strips, correct? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 When you say shoulder bridges I'm assuming you're referring to cover strips, correct? That's exactly what I'm referring to. Well, those and the elastic/canvas strapping that goes underneath. I'm just trying to figure out how to get a good fit with just two hands to work with. It's hard trying to measure the gap between the chest plate and the back piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 12, 2015 Report Share Posted July 12, 2015 (edited) If you have no assistance, don your armor and use tape to hold the front and rear plates in place. Lay a fabric ruler across your shoulders (front to back) next to the plates. Using you phone or camera and take a shoulder selfie. This should give you the measurement between the two. Am I making sense? Edited July 12, 2015 by ukswrath 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Trooper[501st] Posted July 13, 2015 Report Share Posted July 13, 2015 I get what you're saying about how it says Tandy on it. I just put mine in the other day and I'm not too worried about it for now. If my GML says anything I can do like you did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2015 Does anyone have any information about how the shoulder bridge elastics were put on the original suits? Pics of the RS suit show what appears to be rivets but I was told that may not be correct. I'm assuming that the straps were placed on the inside of the chest and back plate whole the shoulder bridges were glued down on the front of the chest plate. The elastic straps had to be snapped at one end, correct? How else would you put the suit on? Any details would be most appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2015 Still playing around with the fitting of my torso armor. Here are some recent pics that my wife took. Is it me, or does the back plate look low? The chest plate is cutting me in the throat but if I push it down too much, the back plate goes down with it. Believe it or not, I'm more concerned with the way the back looks than the front at this moment. Any feedback would be most appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khazid[TK] Posted July 18, 2015 Report Share Posted July 18, 2015 (edited) Back plate looks great. The chest plate is too high, looks like it could come down at lwast an inch, maybe two. Edited July 18, 2015 by Khazid 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2015 Thanks for the feedback Brandon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2015 Thankfully, Mathias (Locitus), had this response for me... "They were never canvas. Not on the sandtroopers either. They were 45 mm white elastics. The left side was glued in on both sides (back and chest). The right side was only glued in the back and attached to the chest with a single snap." Makes sense to me. I was actually thinking about gluing down both ends of the strap on the left side. When you think about it, the left side of the torso armor is riveted shut anyway so it would seem consistent to permanently secure the shoulder elastic on the left side as well. I'm confused as to what prompted me to buy the canvas straps from Trooperbay. Is there information floating around the forums that suggest this material instead of the elastic? Doesn't matter, I was standing outside of the fabric store this morning, waiting for them to open up and I got my hands on the proper elastics to finish up the shoulder bridges on my suit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Locitus[Admin] Posted July 19, 2015 Report Share Posted July 19, 2015 The rumor about the canvas is from the times before we knew it was elastics. We knew it was some sort of fabric, and the weathering and dirt made it look like an off white canvas. Here's a picture of the right side elastic on the inside of the RS original back plate. More pictures here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/album/59-the-rs-suit/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 19, 2015 Report Share Posted July 19, 2015 Another detail I descovered and have started incorporating into my builds is, from what I can seen in refrence pics is these straps are glued to the back plate and snapped to the chest plate. Paul do you care to comment on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Locitus[Admin] Posted July 19, 2015 Report Share Posted July 19, 2015 Another detail I descovered and have started incorporating into my builds is, from what I can seen in refrence pics is these straps are glued to the back plate and snapped to the chest plate. Paul do you care to comment on this? Just the right front has a snap. The left side is glued in both ends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 19, 2015 Report Share Posted July 19, 2015 Thanks for the clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 21, 2015 I'm starting to consider the work process for my belt construction and after tearing through my box of armor, there's no rivet covers to be found. I don't know if this is the way RT suits are shipped but I gotta figure out if anyone sells them. Totally bummed right now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kredal[TK] Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 I may be able to help... The AM2 kit comes with loads of rivet covers. The bottom set is what I used (it comes with 2 of these sticks), and you just cut squares around the circles, and glue in place. The other ones may be for a different type of trooper? I have no idea. There's also a different belt that has recesses where the rivets go, instead of just dimples. Maybe the cut-out-squares are for that? Anyway, I can drop one of these sets in the mail for you, and they'd get there in just a couple days. Let me know if you're interested. Send me a PM with your address if you are. (: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 PM sent Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 (edited) Thanks to Josh (Kredal), I will soon have rivet covers for my belt. But I have a lot of photos to share of some of the most recent progress I've made with my build... I pretty much left off with the task of finishing off the shoulder bridges on the armor. With sincere thanks to Mathias (Locitus) and everyone else who chimed in on this part, I was able to finish the job as close to screen accuracy as possible. I ditched the canvas shoulder straps that I got from Trooperbay and got my hands on the more accurate white elastic. It took a lot of trial and error (and blue tape) to get the shoulders fitted in the right place but once I felt more confident about it, I went ahead and cut my elastic strips and sewed on the snaps that will attach to the shoulder bell elastic straps... You'll notice a couple of pencil marks on the elastics which is where I determined the edges of the bridges from the chest and back armor plates should go. Locitus confirmed that the elastic strap was glued down inside the chest and back plate on the left side of the armor. All I needed to do at this point was line up the pencil marks that made on the elastic strap with the edges of the chest and back shoulder plates and glue the ends down. On the right side of the armor, the elastic strap was glued down inside the back plate but held in the chest plate with a snap. Now I could've made a snap plate but then I realized that I could install the snap directly onto the chest plate and it would be covered up by the plastic shoulder bridges. I marked (on the inside of the chest) where the elastic strap would fit and marked (on the outside of the chest) where the edges of the shoulder bridge would go. That way, I knew where I could drill a hole for the snap installation and not be worried about it being seen. Here's what that looks like... And on the inside... Next, it was just a matter of adding the female snap to the right shoulder elastic strap... Once that was done, I simply glued the unsnapped end of the elastic into the back plate and the other end snaps into the chest... I did a test fit to see how it worked and those elastic straps are holding pretty strong! Now I just had to glue the plastic bridges onto the front of the chest plate. Using the correct white elastic to tie down the free-floating ends of the shoulder bridges in the back, here's what it looks like... EDIT: I will add that in order to get better adhesion of the plastic shoulder bridges to the chest plate, I folded a piece of white elastic and glued them into the ends of the bridges so the bond would be stronger. More to follow! Edited July 22, 2015 by EJGreen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 Now I had to finish the strapping on the shoulder bells. I used the measurements from the "what we know..." thread and attempted to make my elastic straps close to the same specs that were documented. Turns out that the elastic around the bottom of the bells was too long and I had to shorten it a bit. I copied the same specs for the elastic straps that connect the bells to the shoulder bridge and sewed on the snaps that would attach to the shoulders... Now I was anxious to put everything on for a test fitting and pose for my wife while she took a few pictures... My wife and I both agree that the black elastic straps connecting my should bells to the shoulder straps are too long as well. I could feel my shoulder bells slowly sliding down my arms but I'm pretty certain that a quick fix would be to simply fold some of the elastic over and securing it down thus making them shorter. For the sake of appearances, I posed with my bucket on (neck seal is on order)! And that's where I am at this point. I plan to continue with my belt once I've gotten the pop rivets needed to do the job and my blaster holster is also on order. Thanks for checking me out! As always, comments and beer are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 Wow looking great Eric, almost there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Thanks for the support, Tony. I'd say that I'm probably 80% of the way there. I still have to find those damn black boots and a blaster. I'm hoping that I could coax Tim into building one for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Thanks for the support, Tony. I'd say that I'm probably 80% of the way there. I still have to find those damn black boots and a blaster. I'm hoping that I could coax Tim into building one for me Going for paint to match on the boots huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Going for paint to match on the boots huh? Yup! So far, the only source I've seen for black TK boots is Imperial Boots but I don't know how well they rate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Yup! So far, the only source I've seen for black TK boots is Imperial Boots but I don't know how well they rate. Some people love them, some don't. You be the judge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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