hupspring's ANOVOS build

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

Avoid gaps between the back and kidney, and chest and abdominal plates first. The increased gap around the neck should be hidden when you have the helmet on.

 

 It's off by 1 or 2 millimeters

1 or 2 millimeters? Man, this is the end of the world!!

More seriously, there's nothing to worry about.

Edited February 13, 2016 by The5thHorseman

[hupspring[TK]]

I was able to make it to an armor party yesterday and met some cool people. I also got some good advice and feel much more confident in what I need to do. My wife and I will probably be going to the next armor party in a couple of weeks as well.

 

Aside from the arms and legs, I wanted to start doing some torso work. Some of the advice I got yesterday was concerning torso fitment (similar to Germain's advice above), and I've started with the ab/kidney connection. I used ukswrath's tutorial for measurements and drilled the holes. 

 

 

I haven't decided yet if I'm going to add an additional piece of ABS for support, and if I'm going to use nylon webbing or elastic to connect the two sides. I may wait for ukswrath to get to that part before I do it.

 

I also trimmed the ab button plates, removing the return edges.

 

 

I didn't realize that the spot for the larger plate on the ab is tapered - it's about 5mm wider on the bottom than the top. I left 1/4" trim all around the larger plate, so I will probably need to taper it to match the spot where it is glued to. Or should I bring in the trim to maybe 1/8" or a little larger?

 

And of course it's not a real update without some actual gluing! I finished one thigh with inner cover strips, and glued one side of the two halves together on the other thigh. I also have a calf with both inner cover strips in place. I figure at my current pace I should be done with the legs maybe around this time next week give or take a couple days (not counting the backs of the calves).

 

I was also able to start gluing the black elastic band that goes over the biceps onto the shoulder bells. One side on each shoulder so far.

 

 

I think I will start hammering the snaps into the nylon snap plates when I have a few minutes to spare each night just to get something more done.

[hupspring[TK]]

Hah right after I posted my update I looked at the last picture and noticed that the inner cover strip on the thigh that was gluing is on the rear...which shouldn't have an inner cover strip. Thinking back, when I put that cover strip on I had to cut it shorter and thought that was weird but didn't think any more of it. The reason I had to cut it short was because it was sized for the front of the other calf! So I ran to the garage and pulled off that strip. I need measure and cut a new one and glue that in. Maybe I'll be able to do that after dinner.

[hupspring[TK]]

Well I was able to measure and cut a new inner cover strip for the front of the second calf and get that glued on. I'm glad I was able to catch that and not waste a day of gluing the wrong thing!

[kman[TK]]

Aren't you glad you used E6000 and not CA glue?

[hupspring[TK]]

Aren't you glad you used E6000 and not CA glue?

 

Although the drying time sucks, I'm so glad I'm using E6000! I'm prone to making mistakes, so no CA glue for me!

[hupspring[TK]]

Question on my ab button plate: since the spot where the ab button plate goes tapers (it gets wider towards the bottom) should I taper the button plate as well? Right now my button plate has about a quarter inch of trim all around, but when placed on the ab, it doesn't line up well.

 

 

You can see how much extra space there is at the bottom (left and right sides), and the top is right at the edge. Should I trim more?

 

Also, has anyone else noticed random spots of colors in their armor? I just noticed a few spots of blue and red on my ab piece. If you look at the picture below I marked two of the most noticeable spots, but there are a few other blue spots as well.

 

 

I already peeled off the plastic sheet and rubbed at the spots with a wet paper towel which did nothing. Most of these spots will be hidden anyways (that blue one will be under the belt and the red one is behind the four button plate) and the ones that aren't are fairly small, but I was wondering if this is on anyone else's Anovos armor.

[BTJepson]

I found a tiny red spot just like yours in my front ab piece. Tiny, but it seems to be embedded in the plastic. Most likely dust from some other plastic project when the ABS was made.

[kman[TK]]

Question on my ab button plate: since the spot where the ab button plate goes tapers (it gets wider towards the bottom) should I taper the button plate as well? Right now my button plate has about a quarter inch of trim all around, but when placed on the ab, it doesn't line up well.

 

 

You can see how much extra space there is at the bottom (left and right sides), and the top is right at the edge. Should I trim more?

I'd trim the plate to match the lines of the spot it's going in, which definitely nowhere near square.

[hupspring[TK]]

I'd trim the plate to match the lines of the spot it's going in, which definitely nowhere near square.

 

I ended up trimming the button plate to match the tapering of the spot where it will go. Looks a lot better.

[hupspring[TK]]

So I heard about the mismatch issue with Anovos' instructions on the calves. I checked mine, and I have the same issue others are reporting. The left calf stays closed and the bottom overlaps about a quarter inch. If I take the blue tape off the right calf, it will open up and have a 2 inch gap.

 

 

My problem is that when I was trimming the calves, I didn't trim evenly on the left, especially the left inside piece (which is actually supposed to be the right outer now). So I'm not sure how big the right calf will be if I do the switch - it will most likely be smaller than it is now. I'm going to put the calves on the back burner for now and move on with everything else while I think about what I'm going to do.

 

With the calves on hold for now, I just need to glue the cover strips onto the thighs to be done with the legs. But before doing that, since I'm eager to start on the strapping, I made all of my snap plates (using nylon pieces from Redforce) and arranged them on the torso to see how I want them laid out.

 

 

Once I decided where they would go, I set out to glue some of them down. I used all of my clamps and quite a few magnets but was only able to get seven snap plates gluing at once. I could do a few more using just magnets, but I like how the clamps hold the nylon down better.

 

 

I think I'm going to use nylon straps for the torso since everything fits pretty well if not slightly too large. And for the wrist to bicep connection I might scavenge some of the elastic from the ones supplied in the kit and use the snaps with those.

[hupspring[TK]]

Not much to update as I'm still gluing on snap plates. I ended up ordering a few more clamps, and I also got a package from Trooperbay today with the Humbrol paints and flexible hand guards. I'm going to attach the hand guards to the rubber gloves from Anovos whenever they arrive, but I also bought some Nomex gloves that I'll probably use for trooping.

 

I trimmed the plastic hand guards more since the trim line still made them pretty thick. I also used the supplied velcro and loop for the hand that came with the kit. In the future I may get another set of flexible hand guards and glue them to the Nomex gloves. I might cut more on the plastic hand guards too - they still seem a little thick, especially compared to the flexible ones.

 

 

Back to the torso parts, I decided for the connection between the ab/kidney that I'm going to use a piece of plastic under the split rivets for support. I measured and cut out a piece from the no parking sign then sanded it down to avoid sharp edges. Then I glued it into place - one on the ab side and one on the kidney side. After the glue sets I'll use the existing holes that I already drilled in the ab and kidney to drill out the support pieces. I had to go all magnets on these since the clamps were busy holding down snap plates.

 

 

So far the butt and back have their snap plates glued on. The middle one on the back kind of got moved a bit and somehow I didn't notice until after I took off the clamps. I just re-positioned the middle snap plate on the kidney to line up with it.

 

 

I still need to get the outer cover strips on the thighs and then the ammo pack on the right thigh. And since I got the correct paint colors now, I want to get the ab button plates painted then get those glued onto the ab. And build the thermal detonator. And fix the belt. And figure out the calves. And work on the helmet. So much to do still!

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

With all the pollava over the shins it must be nice to get one with the snaps!  I'm ordering my snaps soon and am really looking forward to it.  The shins have sat for a day or so now as I can't face them at the moment!

[hupspring[TK]]

With all the pollava over the shins it must be nice to get one with the snaps!  I'm ordering my snaps soon and am really looking forward to it.  The shins have sat for a day or so now as I can't face them at the moment!

 

Yeah I'm just going to work on everything else and then revisit the shins when I'm close to finishing. I don't even want to think about them right now

[hupspring[TK]]

My support pieces for the split rivets between the ab and kidney are glued in now, so I drilled out the supports. Once the rest of the snap plates are done drying on the kidney I'll get to work on measuring the strips and getting them riveted in! I might use some of the elastic supplied with the Anovos kit.

 

 

After getting the remaining snap plates clamped on, I decided to make some bicep hooks to hold the strap on the shoulder. After reading various methods to make the bends, I decided to use the gas stove top to heat the pieces - I based this method on Navajo Bro's thread where he used a lighter for 3 seconds. I marked the spots on each strip where the bends were going, put the piece over the flame of the stove for 2-3 seconds, then used a metal ruler to bend the piece on the first line 90 degrees. I did the same for the rest of the bends, but going the correct direction and angle (more or less).

 

They came out pretty well minus a couple spots where I put the strip too far into the flame so the sides melted a bit (fixed with sandpaper). I glued them onto the biceps and I'll see if they work tomorrow after they dry. I didn't actually use the size that others suggest - it seems like 20mm+ is suggested, but I had two strips ready at about 15mm so I used those.

 

 

My bends aren't the best (especially the first one I did), but they get the job done.

 

Also accomplished today: I glued the snap plates onto the tops of the thighs from the Thigh Garter System I recently picked up, which is pretty awesome I might add. After doing all this snap plate gluing, I really want to put this armor on! It'll look so much better without all that blue tape holding things together!

[hupspring[TK]]

I was going to start gluing the outer cover strips on the thighs today and was able to put the rear one on the left thigh, but the rear right one wouldn't sit flush. It wanted to sit on either the inner or outer half, which meant half of the cover strip would be sticking up a little. I ended up pulling off one of the thigh halves from the inner cover strip and re-gluing it. I think when I glued it previously, it wasn't seated properly causing the issue. Hopefully re-gluing it will fix that. I'll find out tomorrow.

 

The bicep hooks turned out pretty nice and I'm happy with them. I still need to decide if I'm going to leave the tops of the biceps how they are or trim them so it's more flush. I've seen pictures of the biceps both ways, so I'm guessing it's personal preference.

 

 

I was going to save the helmet modifications until the very end, but I've been jumping all over the place and decided to disassemble it today. I'm going to use the four ear screws for the thermal detonator as suggested by gazmosis in his helmet rebuild post, so I had to find the correct ear screws. I ended up buying a pack of 100 screws from Amazon...I think they are the correct ones! 

 

 

Since a lot of the visible screw and rivet heads on the armor are painted, I put them on a piece of styrofoam, labelled where they are going and what color they need to be, and painted the heads. I used the white gloss and black gloss Humbrol paints that I got from trooperbay. 

 

 

This is just one coat of paint, I will probably put another coat on tomorrow.

 

When I took everything out of my helmet, I tried to remove both ears. One was easy to take out, but the other (the right ear) was glued in at the bottom and there is a small crack in the ear.

 

 

I don't know if they added the glue because of the crack, or if the crack happened after the ear was already glued in. I don't want to try prying the ear up since the crack might get worse or even snap off the bottom portion of the ear. Which is unfortunate because I wanted to try reducing that ear gap a little bit. I know gaps are fine, but that gap looks too big to me.

 

I may work on the helmet this week, and I definitely want to get the outer cover strips done on the thighs. But I'll likely do some more jumping around and surprise myself by working on something completely different.

[hupspring[TK]]

I didn't get much done tonight but I did manage to get another outer cover strip glued. This time to the rear of the right thigh. I had to use a bungee cord to help keep the thigh rounded which helped the cover strip glue evenly to both sides of the thigh. The bungee cord is just adding a small amount of pressure - I would have put a couple of books on top, but I couldn't get them to stay in place.

 

 

And since I'm done gluing the snap plates to the inside of the armor, I cut a few lengths of nylon for the butt/kidney connection. I used the stove top to singe the edges and probably this weekend I will break out the soldering iron to burn in some holes for the snaps. This week will probably be gluing the front cover strips on the thighs, and maybe painting the ab buttons.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

What size are the brass helmet screws? I need to get those too.

[hupspring[TK]]

What size are the brass helmet screws? I need to get those too.

 

The ones I got are "Brass Machine Screw, Plain Finish, Flat Head, Slotted Drive, 3/4" Length, #4-40 Threads". I don't know what the correct length is supposed to be, but 3/4" looks like it will work. I also got brass #4-40 nuts and washers as well since I don't have any.

[hupspring[TK]]

It's been a pretty slow week for me, but I was able to finish gluing on both cover strips on the right thigh, and I have the second cover strip clamped on the left thigh. So tomorrow I'll be done with the thighs except putting on the ammo pack on the right thigh. 

 

Question on the ammo pack - will using the rivets supplied with the Anovos kit be Centurion approved for the thigh ammo pack? That's what I was going to use, but I read they might be too big.

 

Anyways, since I had one of the ears off the helmet, I decided to clean it up a little by sanding the sides so they weren't so jaggedy. I tried to do the same with the ear that is glued to the helmet but was only able to sand down a little from the top. It looks a little better than it did so I guess that's something.

 

The screws I bought work great - 3/4" is long enough to get through the pieces of ABS and not be too long once the washer and nut are on.

 

 

[kman[TK]]

Anovos split rivets are a-ok for Centurion, per ukswrath.

[hupspring[TK]]

Anovos split rivets are a-ok for Centurion, per ukswrath.

Good to hear! Now I can get that ammo pack on this weekend!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[hupspring[TK]]

I already had several nylon pieces cut for the torso strapping, so I decided to spend a bit of tonight with the soldering iron to burn holes in them for the snaps. The first ones I did were for the ab/kidney split rivets. My measurements on the bottom one were a little off so the bottom isn't as snug as I want, but the belt should help in that area.

 

 

This was my first time setting split rivets. I started on the bottom set and put the armor on a towel so it wouldn't get scratched up on the garage floor. After hammering the split rivet in and picking the armor up off the floor, the towel came with it. Apparently a small piece of the towel got stuck between the rivet head and the armor, leaving a tiny bit when I pulled the towel away. 

 

 

I'll have to clean that up. If you've been following my build, you may have noticed that the first picture above is missing the two pieces of support that I added for the split rivets. I had to pull them out because after putting the nylon and washers on top of them, the split rivets barely had any length left to fold over. Maybe a thinner piece of plastic would have worked, but I didn't have any on hand so I just went without it. It shouldn't be a big deal since I've seen a lot of other builds not doing that.

 

After that I finished up soldering holes in the remaining nylon that I cut up and proceeded to hammer in the female snaps. The first two snaps were a total loss. I must have been hitting at an angle because the post barely held onto the snap part, and both came apart with a little pressure. After that I did my best to hold the setting tool as perpendicular as I could and tried to make sure the hammer wasn't coming in at an angle.

 

That seemed to work much better for a good amount of snaps until another one got an angled hit. The male snaps are much easier to set in my opinion (I didn't mess up any of those!). I was able to get the butt, kidney and ab all connected. 

 

 

I can actually just step into this and pull it up which is a lot easier to do than closing the two halves around me and getting the two snaps in on the right side.

 

I also drilled the hole in the cod for the rivet that goes there. Now I need to get to work on the back and chest. I think I will do the shoulder straps before connecting the back and chest though.

Edited February 27, 2016 by hupspring

[troopermaster]

Webbing is not the best material to use on armour. It does not allow the armour to move on your body so when you stretch, expect the snaps to pop or worst 'crack'. Elastic is the best material to use

[hupspring[TK]]

Webbing is not the best material to use on armour. It does not allow the armour to move on your body so when you stretch, expect the snaps to pop or worst 'crack'. Elastic is the best material to use

 

I've been debating back and forth and keep see recommendations for both. I was going to use elastic and at the last second went with nylon mostly because I figured the armor has a quite a bit of room on me (I'm pretty skinny) so it wouldn't need to be stretching. Is this faulty logic?

 

I have plenty of elastic, so I can switch it out if the elastic would work better (I already have some elastic strips cut since I was going to use it first).