Sabyre Posted May 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2015 Ok, it's time to share my mic tip solution, and today's progress. I will make the tips go from the one on the left to the one on the right. Here you can see how far the back piece must go into the mic tip. This is how deep the speaker is. Not quite a good match. The speaker needs to set twice as far in than it currently sits. Here is how it fits together now. To start, I picked up some 1/4 x 1 nylon bolts. The heads are quite thick and interfere with the speaker. Using the sanding drum on the dremel, I sanded about half of the head off. Then, using this wonderfull little bit, I started thinning out the walls of the mic tip until the speaker set far enough in. What a mess. Once I got the speaker to set where I wanted, I had to cut about a 1/4 of the inner rim off of the back. This allows the back to set in around the speaker connections. I then drilled out a hole for the wires to run separate from the bolt. I added some super glue to the bolt and glued it to the back plate from the inside. After a few minutes, the glue was dry and I could glue the back to the tip. I do not want this to be permanent, in case of needed repairs or replacement of speaker, so I opted to use good ol' E6000 here. I put a glob of E6000 on a paper towel and used a craft stick to spread it on the tip. I spread it on the rim of the tip trying to avid getting any glue on the speaker itself. After getting the back on, I taped it up and set it aside to cure. This morning, while I wait for the tips to dry, I soldered the new mic on to the EAS. Once it was cooled, I heat shrink-ed the connection and mounted it in the bucket. I then covered the speakers with foam and an old shirt. I did this following the example given by Skyminer on his EAS web site. That site can be found here. I also cut some foam to place over the mics. They are not glued in as they will be held in place by the lens. Here I reinstalled the lens holding the foam over the mics. After many test and different set ups, I finally decided the best pace for the speakers was right over my ears. This put them next to the mics. However, with the hot glue and all o the foam separating them, I get no feed back. I am eager to see how it works with the mic tips, but I will have to wait till my Rom/Fx arrives to find out. As of right now the EAS work great. Now it is time to install the reworked mic tips. I opened up the holes I drilled previously, to allow the bolts to be fitted. I also made a little room for the wires to set off to the side of the bolt and avoid being pinched by the nut and washer. I then installed the Echo fan system I got here. Last part I can install at this point is the s-trim. Now the bucket is closer to being finished. I still have to paint the ear screws, but will tackle that a little later. I will wait until very last to do the painting. Once I get the Rom/Fx, I can install that and then start all of the wiring. This will be my last addition to this thread for a bit. At least a couple weeks. We are traveling back home to Texas next Friday to visit family and I have a good bit of chores to take care of before we go. Soon as we return I will build the TD, and then start on the ab, kidney and butt. I have been putting that off, because that will entail ABS paste. I have been fairly lucky so far maybe it will continue. Thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted June 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 I couldn't stop myself and had to squeeze in a little work before we leave. No I have not become addicted! Who am I kidding, yes I have, but just a little. Any way lets get on with it. I decided to get the TD's done, since they are about the easiest and fastest parts to do. I'll start with a pic with all the parts. The belt clips came from Evilboy. Never mind the hard ware in the pic. after taking this, I was doing a little more research before starting and discovered I had the wrong size. The hardware in the pic is 8- 32 and I needed 6-32. I went to the store the next day and got the right size. I first put the end caps on to check the over all length. The CRL reads Aprox 7.50 inches. this one measured out to be 7 and 11/16, so a little had to be taken off of the tube. Aclose up pic is below showing the measurement. This means I need to remove about 3/16 of an inch. I marked the cut line using a square. I tried to use my protractor, but it would not measure that small. I used my curved lexan scissors to cut close to the line. After that I used the dremel to remove the rest. Once I got it all removed I ran it over a piece of sand paper I held flat on the table, in order to even up the freshly cut end. I replaced the end caps and remeasured. Now it is apox 7 1/2 over all length. Time to cut down the end of the clips. I laid the clips on top one another and made sure to line up all the holes and belt hooks. I then made a mark across both pieces at the same time. this will ensure they set evenly on the TD and line up with the control panel. I then used the cutting wheel on my dremel to cut the ends off. before putting them on the TD, I ran them across the sand paper on the table, same as the tube, to straighten the cut. I then put the correct screws in a piece of card board and took them out side to paint black. I left them over night to dry. Sorry no pic of them after paint. Last night, I put it all together. I started by holding the control panel on the tube and tracing a line for the clips to meet. Holding the clip next to the end cap and touching the line, I drilled out the first hole, and inserted the first screw. I then held the clip tightly against the tube and drilled the second hole and paced the second screw. The drill bit did walk on me a bit in all the holes and I had to ream the holes a little to get the clip to set where I wanted. I didn't get pics of this process, but with the holes reamed out, the screws will not hold tight. I placed a washer and a nylock nut on the inside of the tube, so this was no issue. When placing the second clip on the tube, I also held the control panel on touching the first installed clip. this was to insure, that both clips would be touching the panel regardless of where they set in relation to the previously drawn line. After installing the clips it was time to glue on the panel. I placed E6000 on the panel and spread it out over the entire piece. After lining it up with the clips and pressing in place, I put some rubber bands over it to hold it down, and let it set for the 24hrs. After it sat for 24hrs I removed the rubber bands and cleaned up the excess glue. Unless any one can see a mistake I have made, this is my first finished, cleaned and ready to troop part. Thanks for reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Havoc[TK] Posted June 4, 2015 Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Good job on the TD build. FWIW, I put a soft side piece of Velcro on the metal clip that goes between the belt and your armor. This will keep the metal clip from gouging your armor when you put on/ / take off the TD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted June 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 4, 2015 Good job on the TD build. FWIW, I put a soft side piece of Velcro on the metal clip that goes between the belt and your armor. This will keep the metal clip from gouging your armor when you put on/ / take off the TD Thank you for the kind words. Good call on the Velcro. I recall reading this in a few build threads, but it slipped my mind while building the TD. I will add that after we return from our trip. Thank you sir Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteHammer[TK] Posted June 5, 2015 Report Share Posted June 5, 2015 Incredible detail! Thanks for all the effort you put into recording your build. Well done! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 After a bit of an absence, I am now back and ready to pick up were I left off. Incredible detail! Thanks for all the effort you put into recording your build. Well done! Thank you for the kind words WhiteHammer, I see you completed your TK. It looks good! congratulations on the new digits! I am now to the part I have been dreading. Putting the torso together. After a good bit of contemplation over were to start and what order to go in, I decided to just grab a part start making and cutting. I started out with the cod piece. After test fitting and looking at some reference pics, this is how far I decided to trim. After trimming and sanding, I test fit it again, and am happy with the result for now. I will check this again after putting it all together for a test fit. I then moved on to the chest plate. Not much done here. I trimmed off the extra side pieces and trimmed a little out of the neck opening. The pics are not that great, but the shaded areas are what I removed. This is the small amount I removed from the neck. I just tapered it back a little so it wasn't digging into my neck. I will see if any further trimming is needed when I fit it all together. Here is the final result. Next, I worked on the back plate. After looking over a few builds and ref. pics, I think I had a good idea what needed to be removed from the back. If any one sees something I missed please feel free to chime in. Here is what I ended up with. Next was the butt plate. Again, shaded areas were removed. You can't really see the pencil make. Basically, all I did was remove the extra material from the sides. The final result. Last but not least, the kidney plate. This is the part that will require a little more attention. SHIMS must be added. I have tried a few times, I just can't squeeze this 280lb guy into a 180lb man's armor. Lol. I left the extra flashing on this piece. This will be the backing support for the shims. I also left the extra material on the ab plate. Once I fit them together I will trim it all down to match, so the extra on the ab will act as the shim on that half. The NE kit has the kidney notch molded in, so I will cut out a filler piece to fill that in as well. Here are my shims and filler pieces. Sorry, this pic is BAD. You might be able to make it out. After roughing up the backs of the shims, fillers and the outside of the kidney flashing, I places the glue, added clamps and magnets. After it sets up I will try and get better pics of the finished piece. The shims over hang a little bit on the top and bottom. However, I can fix this when I trim it up to match the ab. I have also done a little work to the calves. I will post them after I get the pics downloaded. Thanks for reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2015 Here is the wok I did to the calves. I have them built already, they just need fitting, fasteners, and the sniper plate added. I haven't tracked down the hooks or elastic for the fasteners yet, so I just did the fitting and gluing the back cover strip on. I started out, with my under suit on, by placing the calf on and fitting it were I wanted. I then marked on both halves, top and bottom, to give me a line up mark. I then removed the calf, held it so the line up marks were aligned and made a mark on both halves directly across from the front seam. I then used a straight edge to draw a line down the back of the calf. I did not take any pics of the process I used to get my center line, I apologize for that. You can't really see it but here is a pic of the line down the back of the calf. After scoring and snapping this extra material off, I did the same for the inner half. marked the line, score and snap. I used sand paper to smooth out the cuts. I also used my dremel to remove the remnants of the return edge around the ankle. After cutting the cover strip, sanding the back of the cover strip and out side of the calf the cover strip will be glued, I applied the glue and strip. Placed the clamps and magnets and set them aside. Here is the ankle area devoid of all return edge. repeated the same procedure for the left calf. That is it for today. Any and all comments welcomed. Thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor[TK] Posted September 5, 2015 Report Share Posted September 5, 2015 Thanks for picking this back up. The detail is awesome! I somehow missed this thread in my research but I am following now. Keep up the good work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Thanks for picking this back up. The detail is awesome! I somehow missed this thread in my research but I am following now. Keep up the good work. Trogdor, Thank you for the kind words. Now that I have returned to my old job, I find I have more time to chase after this long held goal. . I would caution you not to follow too closely to what I do, as I am still learning as I go. I don't want to lead anyone astray. Well, I finally got my pics from this weekends progress downloaded, so lets get to it. For starters, I had fully intended to use the original method to close the shins. Hooks and elastic. However, I have instead decided to steal a design for velcro closure I saw while I was reading Haridon72's build thread. His build was remarkable, and a great inspiration. I started out cutting a piece at 1 1/2 inches for each shin. I then cut two pieces at 1/2 inch for each shin. After roughing up all of the pieces, I glued the two 1/2 inch pieces together. I then glued the 1/2 inch stacks on to the 1 1/2 inch piece. this will leave me room for a 1 inch strip of velcro. I placed the clamps in place and set them aside to dry. Sorry for this really bad pic. I taped everything together for a test fit. I didn't get any pics of the fitting process, but rest assured there was a good bit of frustration and maybe a swear word or two involved. After taking a break, doing some more research and calming down, I gave it another shot and I think I got every thing to set about right. I got everything marked out and started trimming. I didn't take any pics of the ab and kidney shim trimming. It wasn't till I started to do the chest and back that I remembered to take pics. At this point, there isn't much to trim from the chest. I did trim some of the return edge that sits on my shoulders. Here is the rough trimming of the return edge on the outside. Again, no pic, I trimmed the same amount off of the inside (neck area). I will wait till I get it strapped up to see if any more return edge in the neck area needs to be trimmed. I then decided to trim up the shoulder bridges. I will not glue them on till after I have everything strapped. I started to try and measure out the trim line. After doing some research, I went with the eyeball it method. I think it turned out ok. If I am wrong please let me know. Here they are before trimming. One done. Both done. By this time, the velcro fixtures have dried. Time to glue them in. I didn't get good pics for this, for that I apologize. I will try to explain what I did. This pic is the left shin, so the half of the shin with the cover strip is pushed inside of the shin. I glued the 1/2 inch piece to the inside of the shin half without the cover strip. I lined up the 1/2 inch piece flush with the outside edge of the shin. This leaves 1 inch hanging out over the half of the shin with the cover strip. If that is too confusing, I will get better pics once the velro I ordered arrives and I install it. Now it's time for snap plates. I might have gone a little overboard with this, but I am squeezing a lot of person in this armor. I used 2 inch nylon, which is about 50mm, and cut it 35mm in length. I then used my soldering iron to punch holes in the webbing and burn the edges to prevent fraying. I am using line 24 snaps from Tandy Leather. When I ordered the snaps I also ordered the setting tools that went with them. Made the job a cinch. Here is one finished. Here is (what I thought at the time) the rest of them. I might have miscounted. Before gluing the snap plates in, I gathered up the nerve to attempt a modification I saw in Mutter's build thread. The left shoulder bridge on the back plate is at a terrible angle and didn't allow the back to set flush. I used my heat gun and reformed it to set more like the right side. The pics are not great, but hopefully you can see the difference. Now back to gluing snap plates. with the snap plates I'm using, a clamp will not put even pressure on the webbing around the snaps. I found a thread months ago, which I can not find now, where someone had made some pretty good gluing plates out of Popsicle stick. (some people call them craft sticks, I call them Popsicle stick. mmm, hmm). I can't remember exactly how he did it, so here is my weak attempt. I cut two pieces the same width as the webbing, one the same length as the webbing and one small piece to set in the middle between the snaps. In this pic, the piece is upside down, and the snaps will set on either side of the middle stick. This is the way it will set on the snap plate. After testing, the sticks are not thick enough for the clamp to set on the stick and not the snaps. So, I cut a second stick to glue down on top. this raised the clamp off of the snaps themselves. Here they are in use. Gluing the snap plates into the back plate. I only have so many stick jigs and clamps so, one part at a time. In the mean time I decided to glue the sniper knee plate on to the left shin. You may notice some glue that needs removing from the cover strip. I will do the clean up once all the gluing is complete. Back plate done. On to the kidney plate. Before gluing the snap plates on, I lined the back and kidney plates up to ensure I got the snap plates in-lined to one another. While that dries, I went on to lay out and drill the holes for the rivets in the left side of the ab and kidney plates. I did a bit of researching before proceeding with this. Basically what I did was to center the middle hole and space the other two hole an equal distance from the center. I measured 10mm from the seam (were the ab and kidney meet). I then measured 25mm from the top of the ab piece, 25mm from the bottom of the ab piece and this leaves 65mm from each hole to the center hole. As I learned in Dark CMF's build thread, be sure to lay out the ab first. then align the kidney and make the holes match. Reason is, if you do not have the notch cut out of the kidney already, it can throw off the holes in relation to the ab. Lay out from the top of the kidney, 25mm from top 65mm to middle and 25mm to bottom hole. 10mm from the seam. Line the two up, to make sure they match. ( the extra material on the kidney below the last hole is were the 22mm x 22mm notch will be.) Went ahead and drilled out the hole for the rivet in the cod. Then drilled out the rivet holes in the ab and kidney. Once the holes were drilled, I cut out a couple pieces, from extra cover strip material, that were 3/4 by 7 inches. I placed one strip on the inside of the ab plate over the rivet holes. I taped it in place and drilled holes. This will be used to place over the elastic holding the halves together. I repeated this for the kidney. Here are the two pieces marked out, so I don't mix them up. Back to gluing snap plates. I lined the butt plate up with the kidney and aligned the snap plates for gluing. I had two snap plate jigs left, so I glued the snap plates on to the shoulder bridges. Once the butt plate dried, I glued the snap plates to the bottom of the chest plate. Here is were my miscounting comes in to play with the snaps. I ran out of snaps. One plate short, so the kidney will get only one for now, on the opening side. More snaps ordered. Closure plates glued to the ab. Last but not least for this go around, is the belt. I measured 1 1/2 inches from the last box to the end of the belt. I marked a cut line approximately 3mm from the boxes across the top and bottom of the belt. To make the angle cuts on the ends, I measured 10mm from what will be the end of the belt and 12mm from what will be the top of the belt. This gives me the top notch. 10mm from the end of the belt and 12mm from the bottom, and this gives me the bottom notch. I cut the ends using the score and snap method. I used lexan scissors to cut the top and bottom lines and the notches. I then went back over the scissor cuts with the rottery tool to even them out. Here is the end result. I hope this didn't bore any one to death. If you spot any mistakes please let me know. Thank you for reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haribon72[TK] Posted September 9, 2015 Report Share Posted September 9, 2015 Awesome build! I see my pics on your laptop. So happy it's helping troopers! Cheering you on brother! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 20, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2015 Awesome build! I see my pics on your laptop. So happy it's helping troopers! Cheering you on brother! Thank you for the kind words Walter. Your build has been a great help. Here is a little update from the past week. There isn't much to share and it seems I haven't really accomplished much, compared to the time I have spent and the aggravation caused. I started off by making that last snap plate, that I had forgotten and glued it in place. Now it is time to make the elastics for the enclosure for the left side of the abs and kidney plates. I lined the two up and clamped them to the table. This way I can double check the measurements between the two holes attaching the pieces. Here is the elastic I used for this and the strapping. I cut three strips at three inches. I marked a center line the length of the elastic, then marked the lines for the split rivet location. I placed my holes at the exact same spacing as the holes in the plates. In hind sight, I could have moved them in one to two mm, to account for the elastic stretching. Using my soldering iron, I melted the ends of the elastic and burned out the holes. I decided to go a head and cut out the kidney notches before putting the enclosure together. This way I have easy access to the notch on the left side, without having to fight around the ab plate. To avoid splits, cracks and tears, you want to avoid making and right angle cuts. I used a 9/32 drill bit, the same one used to drill out the split rivet holes, to drill out the notch area were the two edges meet. This will put a radius in the corner of the notch and not a right angle. I used the lexan scissors to cut the rest of the notch out. Now to finish the enclosure. I placed the split rivets and put tape on the outside to hold them in place. I clamped the ab and kidney down, lining up the holes. Put the elastic on. Added the strips I made on top of the elastic. Then using a flat head screwdriver, I pried the legs of the rivet apart till I had them far enough to hammer flat. Here it is after removing the tape. I then moved on to making straps and fitting this beast. Not an easy task. I didn't get any pics of this process, as I #1 had no clue what the heck I was doing. #2 Was getting way to aggravated to even think about taking pics and finally, I had to do a lot of guessing and adjusting as I went. I think I finally got every thing were it needs to be. Be sure to have plenty of snaps, I quit counting how many I messed up or had to remove to readjust straps. Anyhow, while fitting, I found that the back was not sitting right. I had it sitting the way I wanted while fitting with just tape, everything sets a little different with the strapping. I had to big a gap between the back and kidney. I noticed they ends of the back curve downward and prevent the back from sitting flush with the kidney plate. I marked out what I would need to remove form each side to give the bottom of the back plate a straight edge. I had to break out the heating iron. Instead of cutting away the corners of the back plate, I wanted to form them over to were I wanted then trim away the extra material. I was more than a little nervous about using this. I have read quite a few build threads that ended with good results, so I figured I would give it a shot. I practiced a few times with some old scrap pieces before moving on to the real thing. I don't have it in the pic, but I did end up covering the iron head with some fabric. The iron wanted to stick to the ABS as it heated up. Here is what I ended up with. The bottom edge is not perfectly straight, but nothing else on this armor is either. However, once strapped on it sets pretty darn good I think. On a side note. On a recent excursion to the, not so, local toy store I found the 31 inch TFA trooper my desk has been missing. That is much better. Now if I could just finish this build so I could clean the rest of the junk off of it. Little Sabyre also found something he was missing. Doing my best to raise 'em right. Thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 Time for a progress report. After my last post, I reatached the reformed back plate, did some more adjustments ( wasting more not so cheap snaps) and I think I now have the torso fit correctly. My next goa; was to get the arms hung. This started with hanging the shoulders. I already had the snap plates in the shoulder bells and the elastic strap to connect them to the shoulder bridge strap made. I made the elastic strap a bit long and cut the excess off after getting it attached. I suited up, held everything in place and had Mrs. Sabyre mark the elastics were they crossed. you can see the pencil mark on the white elastic. There is also a white mark on the edge of the black elastic showing were it lined up with the inside of the white elastic. I transfered the outline to the other side. I then measured 1/2 inch in and made a line. Then 1 inch in from the edge of the white elastic. This gives me my snap location. I did the same on the black elastic. 1 inch from the line up point and 1/2 inch in from the edge of the black elastic. After some really pis poor sewing, the snap was attached. NOTE* I am no seamstress. Seeing as I have yet to figure out a way to weld the snaps on, this will have to do. I then cut the extra elastic off at the line up line. This will put the end of the black flush with the inside edge of the white. Snap sewn to the white elastic. I did the same thing for the other side. Suited up and put the bells in place and they seemed to be right. I need to get the rest of the arms hung to do a final check. The bells were trying to fly up on me, once I have the strap that goes around the bicep on I think it should be good. After reading a few threads, I decided to go this route for prepping the shoulder bridges for gluing to the chest plate. I cut some scrap abs to fit in the recesses in side the bridge. I have read it is preferred that 5 ridges be on the chest plate, so that is what I will do. Add a little E-6000 Put pieces in place. Now to glue the shoulder bell strap on. I am placing the strap right next to the bottom of the bells. I have long arms, so my biceps will hang low. I measured 1 inch in from the outside edge. This will be how far in the strap is glued. After doing some test fits with the bicep inside the bells, I finally found a good length for the elastic. I placed a piece of tape over the elastic compressing the side closer together. This will keep the elastic from being pulled as it glues. Next was snap plates for the biceps and forearms. I placed these just inside the edges a little so the snaps or webbing pieces on the elastic strap would not be seen. They are also butted up agsinst the inside cover strip so the strap will be above the elbow bend while you wear them. Alink to a great tutorial on the correct strapping method of bicep and forearms can be found here. This is how I'm hoping these turn out. Now for something I played with for a couple days. Lots of research was done for this bit. The NE ESB hand guards are quite large. In a way this is good. I have good size hands and have a hard time finding gloves that work, so I would rather trim some than have guards that are too small. I know Troopermaster makes ESB guards. While I would love to have some, I worry about the color between them and the NE armor not matching, but more over I haven't the extra funds available at this time, so I'll try my hand at tweaking these. I didn't have my gloves at the time so I placed the guard on my bare hand and traced around it until it looked close to the same as the screen caps. This will be the left hand guard. I did the same with the right hand guard. This was a bit harder, as I am right handed and can't do much of anything left handed. After getting both of them marked out, I went back and did some more research. I wanted to make darn sure I was happy with it before cutting. After doing some more looking, I decided that I wanted to try taking off a bit less than I had planned. You can see on the left guard the difference between the original line I drew and the second line ( close to the bottom of the guard.) I set them aside for the night. The next day after work, I went and found me some gloves. This way I could check one last time with the gloves on before cutting. While wearing the gloves, It looked to me that the second line drawn was more correct, so I went to town. Here is the left one (on the left) after trimming. I tried it on and it looked about right. It's a good thing I double checked before cutting, that first line I drew would have made them way too small. here is how the left one looks with the glove on, after trimming. Here is the right one before trimming. I placed the left guard on top of the right and traced the cut line. Since tracing it like this doesn't give you the exact same cut line due to material thickness. I will cut roughly the thickness of the material below the line. Here is the right one after trimming. ( on the right.) Fit with the glove on. I didn't find any real good clear screen caps of the top of the guards. I read in a couple threads about the ends being bent in a little. I did find a thread in which Troopermaster had a picture of the ESB hand guards that he makes. Since he is know for being very accurate in his sculpting, this is the look I was going to make a weak attempt at recreating. A link to that thread can be found here. This is the picture Troopermaster posted showing his new hand guards. The ones on the bottom are the look I was attempting to match. I used the heat gun to heat up the sides right near and at the corners, then pressed them inward towards the wrist. Here is what I ended up with. Not a match, but for a dirty old welder/ fabricator with no artistic ability, I was satisfied. They will do until such time I can buy the real deal. Last night I decided to paint the ab plate buttons. Remember, i have no artistic ability, so I had to find a way to cheat. This idea I found in a couple threads, unfortunately I can't remember were I found it to give due credit. I used a geometry figures template and found a circle about the same size as the buttons. This one happened to be 3/8 inch. After many trials and errors, I finally came up with a successful solution of masking the buttons off. I cut off a small piece of tape. I placed the tape over the 3/8 inch hole. I laid the template upside down with the sticky side of the tape facing me through the hole. Then using a craft blade, I carefully cut around the inside of the template. Once the tape was cut all the way around, the center would pull out on the blade. I then flipped the template over and pealed off the tape. The tape can then be centered over the button. Do this a few more time and you have them taped off. I was just about to paint them when I realized I was out of mineral spirits. Had to move them aside till I could get to town to pick some up. Then I decided I would glue in my bicep hooks. The ones I had made a few posts back. Well, I pulled them out of the box and they looked good. Right? Right. Until I decided to test them and see how well they would hold. I barely put any pressure on them and they snapped. All of them broke, worthless. Sooo, back to more research. I found a thread, Bicep Hooks, talking about, well bicep hooks. There are three links in this tread. One of them was Locitus' build thread, were he showed how he made his. Heat the strips of abs, bend the end around a screw driver and form the other end to fit inside the bicep. WOW, sometimes you just have to K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. This was WAY easier than the way I did it originally, took a fraction of the time and made a darn strong hook. Thank you sir for the lesson. New, better and stronger hooks. Hooks glued in and elastic straps glued to the hand guards. That's it for the night. Wasn't real sure what I was going to work on today. No mineral spirits, can't paint till I get to town and pick up more spirits. Glue still setting, can't test the arms with the bicep hooks till the glue dries. Then my phone rings, called in to work. That's ok, I stopped by the store after work, picked up the spirits and time to paint. Here is the after math. Now I'll let the paint dry over night and see how much bleed through I got in the morning, or after I get back from work again. Till next time, Thanks for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2015 Time for an update. I decided to get up a little early this morning to check everything out before my phone rings again and I have to go back to work. All of my paint and glue has had time to dry, so lets see how everything looks and fits. First up is the ab buttons I painted last night. As expected there was a little bleed through on the tape. However, it is still 100 times better than I would have done free hand. A few spots to clean up and a few spots to fill back in. Paint got pealed up in a couple places. Next, it is time to try everything on and see what needs some attention. I can already tell I need to try and widen the shoulder bells a little more. They need to move in a little farther, but were hanging up on my shoulders. I will try and widen them first, if that doesn't solve it I will have to shorten the straps. Not looking forward to trying to sew that snap again. My biceps are twisted and not setting in line. Easy fix. I still have some things I need to work on. Shoulder bridges need to be added, shims need to be hidden, snap needs to be placed on the right side, ab buttons glued on, rivets painted, belt built and snap put in ab for belt. At this point I just wanted to see how everything was lining up and get the pics posted. I can nit pick this thing for the next year and I will never get it finished. If you see something that needs attention or if my wife is right and I need to stop being so critical please let me know. Any and all feed back is greatly appreciated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haribon72[TK] Posted September 29, 2015 Report Share Posted September 29, 2015 Great job so far! At this point, you can start to bondo or apoxy sculpt the shims to the kidney plate. Make sure you make it as smooth as possible so that it is seamless. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted September 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 29, 2015 Walter, Thank you for the encouraging words. I plan on trying my hand at using the ABS paste shortly. I first wanted to get everything built and fit properly and make that one of my last steps. I will have to paste more than just the kidney shims. The back cover strip on the right bicep is not in line, due to the way I trimmed it. I'm going to remove that cover strip, paste the seam and replace the strip in line. Also, I must tackle the every dreaded fitting thigh armor around my Thunder thighs and that will definitely take some shimming and paste. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haribon72[TK] Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 I found that the ABS paste didn't work out smoothly. I would suggest Apoxie Sculpt. Its easier to work with. http://www.amazon.com/Apoxie-Sculpt-1-Lb-White/dp/B0013UDWXI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted October 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 I found that the ABS paste didn't work out smoothly. I would suggest Apoxie Sculpt. Its easier to work with. http://www.amazon.com/Apoxie-Sculpt-1-Lb-White/dp/B0013UDWXI I have debated with going that route. I do have some large areas that will need to be filled and I think that would be easier. My only concern would be it cracking or breaking due to flexing. Have you noticed and of this with yours? One other question if you don't mind. I am about to tackle the thighs and finish my shins, I have read that you should use the rule of thumb with the thighs, how tight did you make the shins? Would the same rule apply? Thank you sir, Jc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted October 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2015 (edited) Time for a weekly update. To start things off, I suited up the torso and with the wife's help marked out where the shoulder bridges would go. I also put the canvas belt on and marked out the center of the belt relative to the button plate. I'll show the belt marked out later. After the bridge locations were marked out, I taped around them in order to rough up the area to be glued. Here the bridges are glued in place ( 5 ridges on the chest plate) and clamped for drying. Now it's time to assemble the belt. I started off with heat forming the belt around the ab plate. To do this, I followed Pandatrooper's tutorial which can be found Here. Here I have three basic tools needed, Heat gun, paint sticks and a rubber band on one end of the sticks. Here is the result. Took a whole 5 minutes. I think this has been one of if not the easiest mod so far. Next, I decided to cut out the rivet covers. Using the 1 inch square on the shape template, I marked out the one inch squares. Here they are marked out and ready to cut. A little scoring and snapping and I had three 1 inch rivet covers. Sanded down the edges and took a blurry picture and they are ready to go. Next step was to drill out the rivet holes in the ammo belt. Here you can see where I marked out the outside edges of the button box while wearing the belt. I marked out the center between the lines and then marked out the center of the belt vertically. I used the soldering iron to burn a hole through the belt. I then placed the canvas belt over the ab plate and set the ammo belt on top of it. After lining everything up I marked the hole locations on the canvas belt through the ammo belt. I didn't take pics of the holes or the locations, but you will see them later on. Once I had them marked out, I burned out the holes for the outside rivets. I then moved on to the drop boxes. This is not the easiest or the "correct way" of attaching the drop boxes. I am making these removable because I want to use this belt for a future HWT build. First I cut a couple pieces of 1 inch elastic 6 inches long. This is too long, but I will cut them down once I have them fitted to the belt. I centered up the elastic on the back of the drop box and set the elastic in two inches. I then marked out two rivet holes 1/2 inch in from each edge. I used the soldering iron to burn the holes through the elastic. I then placed the elastic over the box back to ensure I had the holes lined up. I then drilled the holes for the rivets. Riveted the elastic to the back of the box. And put the boxes together. I was originally going to glue them together, but these things were such a tight fit, no glue was used. In order to get the drop boxes to sit the way I wanted, I put the ammo belt on the canvas belt and held them up holding the elastic to the drop box in pace. I could then move the box up or down as needed to get the desired look. Once I had them were I wanted, I outlined the drop box elastic on to the canvas belt. At this point, I also shortened the elastic to line up just under the top row of stitching on the canvas belt. Once everything was lined up I burned out the holes. You will also notice 2 x's maked out close to the drop box holes. These are the marks I made for the snaps attaching the belt to the torso. They are centered in the last box of the ammo belt. Once the holes for the ab snaps were burned out in the canvas belt, I marked out the location for the snaps on the ab plate. I did this by putting the torso and belt on. I then marked the location of the holes onto the ab plate through the canvas belt. I used the drill bit by hand to start a pilot hole. This will help prevent the drill bit from walking on you, putting the hole in a bad spot. Here is the pilot hole. Then I used the drill to finish the hole. Male snaps placed on the ab. All of the snaps and ammo belt placed on the canvas belt. Before putting the female snaps on the drop box elastic, I cut two pieces of 1 inch webbing 2 inches long. These were placed between the elastic and the snaps. Here it is all assembled. Lastly, I glued the rivet cover on. Here are the ab buttons cleaned up and ready to be cut down. After cutting the return edges off. I found a this thread that had a diagram showing how much return edge to cut off and a Bill o'gram that gives the measurements of the button boxes. The measurements he gave are pretty close, but seeing as every armor is a bit different, I had to trim a little more off to get mine to fit correctly. Once I had them cut down I glued them on. I was unable to get all four corners on the big button box to lie flat. I will get some CA glue to glue them down later. I then moved on to reworking the shins. Once I had the cover strips on and the velcro strip mounts ( I made those in an earlier post) in place the shins did not fit correctly. They felt a little too big. Especially at the ankle, so every thing was removed and I resized both shins. I also decided to forgo the velcro and go with the hook and elastics I had made earlier. Once I got them resized, I replaced the cover strip and put the hooks and elastic in. Thank God for E-6000. I have had to remove and rework a few things that wouldn't have been possible had I not used it. Next task was the ever dreaded thighs. I will be doing some shimming on these bad boys. I went to lowes and found the thickest abs sign I could find. This will be used on the inside of the thighs as an inner strip. I started by cutting a wide strip off. I then placed it inside the thigh and cut down the length. I roughed up the sign and the inside of the thighs. I glued the sign to one half of the thighs. Once dried I can use this to hold the thighs in place as I test fit them. Tape alone has not worked to hold them in place due to the large gap in the back. Now the tape will have something to stick to and hold the shape once I take them off. In an earlier post, I made mention of reworking the right bicep. When I sized the bicep I ended up cutting it crooked, thus making the cover strip crooked and not lining up with the forearm. I started out by removing the cover strip and putting some abs paste over then seam. After the paste dried, I sanded it down using progressively finer paper as I went. After the first attempt I had quit a few bubbles in the seam, so I reapplied the paste. After the second sanding it looked better, however the seam itself was still sowing through. not as bad but it is still there. It looks much better in the pic than it does in person. I went ahead and replaced the cover strip in line with the fore arm. I will probably go over it with some paint when I paint the ab shims and thigh shims. This morning, the thighs were cured and I started the task of sizing them. It was much easier and faster using the inner strips. I got them sized up and glued the inner strips to the other half of the thighs. once curred I will go back and start trimming them and get the shims fit in place. Lastly, you may have noticed that my blue ab buttons were a little dark. While I was looking for the color used for these buttons, I came across a color chart that shows midnight blue ( Humbrol 15). After painting the buttons however, I was looking over some of the Centurion applications and there buttons looked lighter than what I had. I have poor lighting in the basement so I was hoping it was just the light. Today, I came across another thread that shows the blue should be french blue ( humbrol 14), and it howed the chart I found with 15 also. However, 14 was the revised list, so what I had originally used was right to however old that first list was. I need to adhere to the revised list so I went and repainted the buttons with Humbrol 14 French blue. Looks alot more like the Centurion apps now. One thing I have decided after reworking the bicep. I will be taking Walter's advise and using the Apoxie sculpt for the thighs and ab shims. Thank you sir for the heads up. Hopefully I can get mine to come out as well as yours did. That is all for this update. Till next week. Thanks for reading. Edited October 4, 2015 by Sabyre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted October 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2015 This progress report is a bit short and boring. To start off, I ordered the Apoxie Sculpt that will be used to hide the seams on the ab and thighs and I received it in the mail Thursday. After sizing my thighs myself, I found they were way too tight, so I took them apart and had the wife help to resize them. I also moved the sew on snaps on the shoulder bells about a half inch out to pull the bells closer to the shoulder bridges. I also got the Rom-FX temporarily installed in the bucket. I am hoping I can have this done enough to take the kiddos out for Halloween. After that I will pull everything out of the bucket and do a more permanent install following Ukswrath's helmet electronics thread. Had to go in to work for a bit this morning, so I haven't really accomplished much today. After re-sizing the shins and adding the hooks they fit much better. I have just added the sniper plate to the left shin again. I also added some shim pieces to the thighs. I used pieces that were trimmed off of the thighs so I could keep the angled edge on the bottom. I will trim off the excess from the top once the glue has dried and attempt to recreate the return edge missing from the top. Last night I felt the overwhelming need to try everything on after the thighs were done setting up. The left thigh is twisted. Hopefully, I will figure out how to get everything lined up and fitting correctly by the time I put up more pics. I know I don't have the sniper plate or the ammo pack on the thighs yet, and that may fix some of the problem, but it looks to me that there is too much gap between the shins and thighs. I can't pull the shins any higher, they are as high as I can physically get them. I can't really drop the thighs any, if anything I think the thighs need to be higher. Any feedback or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haribon72[TK] Posted October 12, 2015 Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 The apoxie sculpt is strong stuff. You would need to drop a cement block to break it. Great build so far! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haribon72[TK] Posted October 12, 2015 Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 JC, Question: How much did you remove from the top of the thighs? (approximate inches) Here are my thoughts. When you add the sniper knee plate and thigh ammo belt, you might be able to have great clearance to walk smoothly and coverage to hide the black under suit in the knee area. Most builders discover that the plate and belt will hit the lower legs constantly. Now on the back, go ahead and finish up the thighs. You have given yourself a lot of clearance to bend and walk up steps. This is a trooper's dream. Don't worry so much on appearance now. I know a lot of troopers that build their thighs and lower legs to match CRL pictures, but they can't walk smoothly nor climb a few steps. They end up cutting more plastic and eventually looking like your thighs. This is a picture of my back for my Centurion application pictures. I have thunder thighs so I had to work my armor to fit my body type. But I can walk miles, bend, climb up stairs, and put on my own armor. I don't have to cut out the back areas like mine. I did that so I can add more comfort. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted October 12, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2015 Walter,<br> I didn't remove any from the top. These are as they came. I had also thought that the addition of thigh pack and knee plate would help. I was a little concerned, cause to me it looked like the thighs needed to come up making the gap worse. I have since added the sniper plate and apoxie sculpted the thighs and kidney shims. Just need to sand down and paint. I'll get pics up this week. <br><br> Thank you for the reply. It's greatly appreciated. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haribon72[TK] Posted October 13, 2015 Report Share Posted October 13, 2015 We're here to help JC! I've started an ESB build so we'll be working on our side of the world as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabyre Posted October 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2015 As promised here is an update with pics of current progress and major set back. Here is the thigh after the shims had time to dry. I started by cutting off the excess shim leaving enough for creating a return edge. I used the heating iron to make the return edge. I planned on using the Apoxie sculpt to fill in the gaps and make a completed edge. Before putting the Aoxie Sculpt on I decided to cut out the lower part of the thighs. This way the trimming would be done and I wouldn't have to cut through the Apoxie. I held the shin and the thigh together in line and marked the outside edges of the shins onto the thighs. I then outlined the arch for the cut out from each corner to just under the edge of the ridge in the center of the thigh. Used the Lexan scissors and started cutting. Here is the rough cut. I went back with the drimel and smoothed out and finished the cut out. Then I applied the Apoxie sculpt. While I was at it, I Apoxied the kidney shims as well. The parts had a couple days to set and cure while I worked some long night shifts last couple of days. Today I decided to tackle sanding the seams down. I started off with 60 grit to remove all of the excess. At this point I was feeling real good. It was sanding down just the way I wanted, I felt I was getting closer to finishing this up in time for Halloween. All was right with the world. As per my usual luck, Murphy moved in and everything went to hell. After getting the seam to were I wanted with the 60 grit sand paper, I moved on to 400 grit to start feathering it in. This is when I noticed the Apoxie was lifting off of the seam a little on the notch. While investigating the situation, I noticed with the slightest little flex of the kidney shim, the whole seem was separating. I was thinking, maybe I didn't and the seem down good enough before applying the Apoxie. I grabbed one of the thighs to test the seems in it. I applied just a little pressure to the thigh and there it went. The Apoxie not only snapped but started flaking off. In fact, I was able to peel the Apoxie off of both thighs with just my finger nails. The slightest pressure and it would crack, I could then stick my finger nail in it and pop it off. I went ahead and sanded most of the Apoxie off of the kidney shim as well. Back to the drawing board. I'm not real sure what the problem was. My first thought is I didn't get a good enough sanding on the parts before application. This could still be the problem, but the Apoxie was breaking in the middle of the seems (on the thighs anyway) and not the edges were I would expect, if a poor surface bond was the issue. Another thought was maybe I didn't get a good enough mixture. However, I mixed up three different batches for the whole process. Each time I mixed it I made sure to get an equal amount of both parts. At this point I am at a bit of a loss. My time is running out for the goal I set and my frustration is rising. I start a new job on the 26th of this month that will require being gone during the week. That leaves me just the rest of this week and next week to get this done. I have tried a few trial pieces with ABS glue to no avail. I haven't been able to get it to set decently or without bubbles in it, even with a second or third application. I have thought about trying bondo, but I have seen that split, crack and break off of vehicles panels and they don't flex like plastic. I will have to think on this one a bit. Any input of advise will be appreciated. Thanks for reading. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trogdor[TK] Posted October 15, 2015 Report Share Posted October 15, 2015 Unfortunately I can't help as I am just behind you. (Ready to fill the seams). I had made some test pieces and got the Apoxie sculpt to break at large forces but my seams where larger. I wonder if there has to be a certain amount to stay strong and enough bond area to stay adhered? I had pretty lousy luck with abs paste perhaps I should give it another attempt. Thanks for sharing this. I'll let you know if I come up with any thing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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