Kredal[TK] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 I have the Imperial Boots, and love them. (: Oh, and you should have your rivet covers Friday! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 23, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Once again, Josh, you are da man! Seriously though, the boots are good? Worth the $118? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kredal[TK] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 I think so. Of course, I haven't actually trooped in them, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Trooper[501st] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Hopefully Tony can give the official word, but is the chest suppose to ride that high up to the neck? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Hopefully Tony can give the official word, but is the chest suppose to ride that high up to the neck? lol thanks for the vote of confidence Jason, the only official word is that the chest plate sit atop of the ab plate. How high it rides on your neck is up to the individual, though this seems to be a common theme with the bracket type attachment system, not so common with the snap and nylon. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Trooper[501st] Posted July 23, 2015 Report Share Posted July 23, 2015 Ok, understood. I think it works good for Eric as the back forms around his body much better this way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2015 (edited) The neck does ride up high but as Tony suggested, the bracket system tends to force the chest upwards. No matter how much I try tugging it down, it wants to ride back up there. The back does seem rather comfortable but my concern was that the back is too low. Edited July 24, 2015 by EJGreen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kredal[TK] Posted July 24, 2015 Report Share Posted July 24, 2015 Eric, are you going to be mounting any sound hardware in your chest? Cause that seems to help counteract the elastic forcing the chest up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2015 Eric, are you going to be mounting any sound hardware in your chest? Cause that seems to help counteract the elastic forcing the chest up. Yeah, I definitely have plans to mount a sound system in the chest although I suspect that the job will probably be one of the last things that I do. I figure that once my suit is at the point where I can apply for my TK ID, I'm going to start work on adding the electronic stuff like sound and fans in the bucket. I'm really hyped by what Tim (Dark CMF) did with his electronics and hope to do the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 I know that the drop boxes, on the belt, are supposed to align with the ends of the plastic belt. Is there a specific measurement for how low the drop boxes are supposed to hang? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted July 30, 2015 Report Share Posted July 30, 2015 I know that the drop boxes, on the belt, are supposed to align with the ends of the plastic belt. Is there a specific measurement for how low the drop boxes are supposed to hang? Flush or just below the belt edge. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2015 Began work on my belt and made some pretty good progress with it. I pretty much followed Tim's (Dark CMF) thread on the belt since it was pretty straight forward. First thing I did was attempt to find dead center on both of the belt pieces. For the canvas belt it was simply measuring the length from end to end, dividing the number in half and marking a spot where the center rivet would be placed. I then tried to find where the end rivets would go and drilled the holes into the plastic belt. I transferred the marks onto the canvas belt and everything appeared to line up quite nicely... You don't want to use any power tools to drill the holes into the canvas belt as the cloth material can get bind up. I used the tip of my soldering gun to make the holes. The canvas belt I got from Rob has plastic sandwiched inside the canvas material so it's pretty strong and well worth the money. With the rivet holes made, I could place my pop rivets into place to see how it would hold together. I used clamps to help secure things together while I was working. I determined where the snaps would go onto the canvas belt, drilled the holes with my soldering iron and popped the female snaps into place... I clamped the belt onto the AB plate of the armor to see where I needed to place the male snaps to hold the belt into place. I popped those in although it was rather tricky trying to hammer those snaps into place with nothing but my knee to serve as support for the anvil. Moving on to the drop boxes, again, it was pretty straight forward. Drill holes into the back of the box and pop a rivet with the elastic into place... A look from the inside... I taped the drop boxes closed to get an idea of where they needed to be placed. I lined up the edges with the ends of the plastic belt and made marks onto the canvas belt for more rivet holes... Here's the drop boxes riveted to the belt.... All that was left at this point, was to rivet the canvas belt to the plastic belt and it was ready for a test fitting... You'll notice that the rivet covers and the drop boxes aren't glued in yet--this was just a quick fitting to see how everything was coming together. The cod plate isn't permanently attached either; it's just being held in there by magic. Here's a few more pics from the fitting... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2015 Here's my concerns after having my initial fitting... Notice how the plastic belt doesn't wrap nearly as well as the canvas belt at the ends? Is this acceptable? My wife says you can't notice it too much. Also, that damn canister doesn't want to clip onto the belt the right way. My wife had to attach it for me since I couldn't really reach back there myself. She also said may have made some minor scratches on the armor with the canister clips. The last issue I have is that one of the snaps holding the belt to the AB plate wants to come unsnapped after I've tightened the belt around my waist. Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, beer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted July 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2015 Here's one last pic where I'm basically holding up my thigh armor... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airborne Trooper[501st] Posted August 1, 2015 Report Share Posted August 1, 2015 You could use a little heat to bend the belt to conform to your body. For the clip some clear tape or clear coat on the side not seen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted August 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2015 (edited) I'm looking around various build threads and came across Lee's (jmm7375) RT thread and he actually used Chicago screws to attach his belt to the abdomen plate. I'm seriously considering that idea but I've already got snaps in place. Last time I attempted to remove snaps that I had already installed, I ended up with a jar of abs paste. I'm concerned about the snaps not holding up while trooping. They hold but as soon as I velcro the belt in the back, the left snap comes undone. I suspect that Chicago screws would permanently attach the belt to the Abdomen plate but I can live with that. Like I said, I just don't know how to swap out the snaps for the screws.I'm also looking at alternatives to the metal canister clips that I got from Evilboy. Where the metal is bent back to attach to the canvas belt -- I can barely fit one ply of canvas in there let alone 2 and yet the velcro. I'm so ready to just PayPal someone for a completely new canister. Edited August 2, 2015 by EJGreen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted August 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 2, 2015 I've recently taken care of my thigh garter system. It's relatively simple and pretty much works the way the original suits were designed. On the original suits, a 3 inch piece of black velcro was glued into the thigh pieces with a loop folded over at the ends. The actors simply wore a belt around their waist and the loops from the thigh velcro went over the belt. I started with a roll of 1 inch nylon strapping and a parachute buckle... There's instructions on the back of the buckle packaging that tells you how to assemble a belt and it's pretty simple. I left some additional nylon strapping on the ends in case I need to make size adjustments in the future. But this is how it looks... I then cut two pieces of 3 inch-wide black elastic ( you can find the length in the "What We Know..." thread)... The original velcro straps had a 30mm fold to form the loop so that's pretty much what I did. But the actual buckle is pretty wide and to be able to slip the thigh straps off the belt, I'd have to make the loops on the thigh elastic much bigger. I decided that the thighs would be permanently looped onto the belt.... Here's the finished belt with the thigh elastics attached... All I needed to do was glue the elastic into the thigh pieces... And this is how everything turned out... It may not be overly-engineered as some other garter systems but it's sturdy and will definitely hold up under pressure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted August 16, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 I thought I would share some recent photos of where I currently stand with my suit and post some observations about how it's turned out so far.... Ignore the fact that I'm still a barefooted trooper. My boots are on their way from across the Pond and should be arriving in a couple of weeks. I still have to paint the AB buttons and I have a new set of TD clips coming from Tony, this week, so I will have my TD finished. 1) It's really hot! I was dressed inside with air conditioning and I was still sweating. I hope to have fans installed inside the helmet but we'll see how that goes. 2) Like Luke said in ANH, "I can't see a thing in this helmet!" It's true! I can slightly turn my head side to side but to tilt my head forwards or backwards is really difficult. I can see straight ahead but if a child should be standing right in front of me, it's possible that I might not see him. 3) The snap for the left shoulder bell tore from the elastic strap on the shoulder bridge so I will have to re-sew it into place. 4) It's really difficult to put this on by myself. Perhaps I need to re-think the process of suiting up but the more pieces I put on, the more limited my range of motion becomes. You can see that the belt is crooked and it's really difficult to reach back there and pulling it tight without it looking crooked. 5) I'm not certain if I would be able to kneel or sit in this thing. The tops of the thighs cut into my groin if I attempt to raise my legs and if I try to sit, they cut me into the backs of my knees. Perhaps, they're too long. 6) The latex paint is already starting to peel from the hand guards. I originally put 5 or 6 coats of paint on them but there are a couple of spots where the paint is starting to peel off. 7) The chest plate is riding too damn high! You can see from the front pic that there's a huge gap between the chest plate and the AB plate. The elastic loops are starting to loose their strength and I'm thinking that I can fix this issue by shortening the elastic loops on the brackets that I've installed. That's pretty much most of my initial observations. I'm sure some of you will have other comments to make. Let me know what you think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kredal[TK] Posted August 16, 2015 Report Share Posted August 16, 2015 1) It's really hot! I was dressed inside with air conditioning and I was still sweating. I hope to have fans installed inside the helmet but we'll see how that goes. --Yes, it's hot in the suit. Make sure you hydrate a lot before wearing it for any appreciable amount of time. 2) Like Luke said in ANH, "I can't see a thing in this helmet!" It's true! I can slightly turn my head side to side but to tilt my head forwards or backwards is really difficult. I can see straight ahead but if a child should be standing right in front of me, it's possible that I might not see him. --Hopefully, you'll have other troopers around, and will be able to alert each other to small people. Barring that, try looking out the teeth holes? 4) It's really difficult to put this on by myself. Perhaps I need to re-think the process of suiting up but the more pieces I put on, the more limited my range of motion becomes. You can see that the belt is crooked and it's really difficult to reach back there and pulling it tight without it looking crooked. --I think I've gotten the order of operations down pretty well for putting it on myself. Thighs and thigh-belt, boots, calves, core, white belt, TD, arms, gloves, helmet. Your milage may vary. And remember, you should never troop alone, so you'll always have a handler or another trooper around to help you put your belt on tight and straight, and then attach your TD and arms if you need help. Your cod-butt snap is up to you, unless you really like your handler. (: 5) I'm not certain if I would be able to kneel or sit in this thing. The tops of the thighs cut into my groin if I attempt to raise my legs and if I try to sit, they cut me into the backs of my knees. Perhaps, they're too long. --Don't expect to be able to sit or kneel. If you sit, you're sitting on your TD and buttplate, which is bad. If you kneel, there would be a ton of stress on your sniper plate. Stormtrooper armor is standing room only. (: 7) The chest plate is riding too damn high! You can see from the front pic that there's a huge gap between the chest plate and the AB plate. The elastic loops are starting to loose their strength and I'm thinking that I can fix this issue by shortening the elastic loops on the brackets that I've installed. --That was the first thing I noticed. (since it was the main thing wrong with mine...) I solved it by putting a non-elastic strap between two snap plates in the center of the chest and ab. You can see it over on the left here. It will cause your back to pull up some, or stretch out your shoulder straps more, depending on where the tension goes. You won't know until you try it on... but at least you won't see daylight under your chest plate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted August 17, 2015 Report Share Posted August 17, 2015 (edited) Yea the Canon bracket system has always confused me. In my observations the sections are tied together at the edges. Gravity alone wants to pull the two apart causing a gap. Using less material is supposed to remedy this issue, I guess if your 5'10 or so that makes sense. At those heights your chest plate would naturally hang over the ab however, if your a taller trooper that theory probably won't work as intended. That's where a bit of improvisation comes is. Not the best option but it gets the job done. Looking good Edited August 17, 2015 by ukswrath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted August 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 Finally... I'm probably going to spend my weekend converting these from black to white! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJGreen Posted August 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2015 The process has begun! I have started a more detailed thread about painting my boots in a different location in case anyone is interested... http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32499-my-new-boots/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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