drunken hutt's AP ANH Stunt TK build

[drunken hutt[TK]]

So after 4+ months of waiting for AP's TK armour to be built with his new molds I finally received it late this week in the mail

 

Big Brown Box Day:

 

 

And here is everything unpackaged:

 

Under the advice of the local garrison I bought an Ozito rotary tool (an Australian competitor to the Dremel) to trim the plastic.

 

Because I'm new to the whole assembling/ constructing business I'm going to be taking big baby steps and start with trimming the smaller pieces first, like the ears and shoulder straps.

 

To avoid any nasty mistakes I'll bring the larger pieces to the local armour parties/ shed nights to get the experienced troopers to help me work on them.

 

I'm just about to start trimming the AB buttons and I noticed that there are three large buttons contained in squares:

 

Does anyone know what these three buttons are used for? I haven't been able to find them in the CRL. Cheers.

[ABS80]

those are the 3 cover caps that go on main belt, IMPORTANT!!! don't do the same mistake many do when trimming the 5 button panel,  leave approx. 1/8"  lip all around, same for the shoulder straps.  

 

Have fun building!

 

Mark (AP)

Edited February 14, 2016 by ABS80

[drunken hutt[TK]]

Thanks Mark, now when I think about it, I should find out exactly how much space to leave around the other parts too. I'm sure there's a page somewhere on the forums with the info.

[welshchris77[TK]]

Good luck with your build Kieren 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Good call by Mark there, Kieren.  Here is an ab plate detail photo of one of the best AP builds I have seen.  James (JDTrooper) did an AWESOME job on this!!

 

[Pyrates[TK]]

How's the progress going?

[drunken hutt[TK]]

Apologies for the lack of updates. I have not made as much progress as I would have hoped due to committments and study eating into my free time, but here is what I've done so far:

 

The AB panel piece is trimmed and sanded using sanding belt (leaving 1/8" i.e 3mm around the edge)

 

 

Trimmed and mostly sanded the knee ammo piece and ammo belt

 

 

 

Rough trim of the forearms, lower leg, bicep and shoulder armour

 

 

Forearm armour further trimmed and rough fitted. Due to my scrawny arms, I have a lot more plastic to remove!

 

 

And that's where I'm up to One step at a time with no time frame for estimated completion.

 

Because the forearm pieces are quite big relative to my arms, does this mean attempting to use the butt-joint method would be impractical, even after trimming more and getting rid of the extended corners?

Edited March 2, 2016 by drunken hutt

[Pyrates[TK]]

You don't look like you have a lot of space by the elbows which may bite while trooping. There should be approximately a 1/2" gap between your armor and your body. This will make the space in the wrist a bit larger but will be filled in and less noticeable when you have your gloves on - hope that helps mate

[Sentry71[TK]]

Be sure to take off ALL of the return at the wrist. Helps with getting parts on and off, as well as meeting CRL.

[drunken hutt[TK]]

Before I trim off the returns around the wrists and elbows, can I confirm the forearm pieces are even on the correct arms? I don't believe they were labelled left or right before I started cutting them unlike the lower leg armour.

[Pyrates[TK]]

Both arms are identical- I asked Mark a few weeks ago

[Haso[TK]]

I was wondering the same thing...about identical arms. Answers that one then. There is apparently a difference with the screen ones, with the left being curvier on one side.

 

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[Pyrates[TK]]

Just checking up mate - how are things going?

[drunken hutt[TK]]

Forearms have been assembled using the cover strip and butt joint method. I personally preferred the look of it over clamshelling. Cover strips have also been placed along the inside for extra support. Super glue was used with clamps and 10mm rare earth magnets to fasten the adhesive drying. 1200 wet grit was used to smooth the pieces after foolishly getting super glue stains all over them.

 

 

 

 

 

I will need to trim the forearms a bit more once I finish and fit the biceps on, as that will tell me how well both sets of pieces fit together.

 

 

Here's your's truly with the forearms on:

 

 

Obvisouly they look big, but I plan to make the forearms tighter fitting by placing foam inserts inside, plus I'll be wearing the gloves when the trooping happens. And you never know if I'll decide to do some weights and beefen these arms

 

One issue while glueing one of the outer cover strips on the below forearm was that as I was applying the strip one of the forearm sides slightly overlapped the other one, meaning the strip was glued downwards at an angle. This has created a gap beneath the bottom half of the strip, as circled below. My attempts to glue the strip down have failed, so I have asked the local garrison for their advice and it has been suggested that I use either silicon sealer, white acrylic or white bog filler. My only concern is that these fillers will be a different tone of white than that of the armour itself, which has a grey tone to it. I do not want the filler to become too noticeable, where it may be evident some patchwork has been made. I was thinking I could perhaps heat the scraps of ABS i have into a putty like substance to fill in the gap, but I know it wouldn't be as strong as the commercial grade sealants.

 

Any thoughts on what to do?

 

Edited April 11, 2016 by drunken hutt

[Sentry71[TK]]

You CAN fill the void with ABS paste, but in all actuality, I bet it won't be that noticeable when you get everything together. I would go ahead and work on other parts of the armor, and if you still want to fill it later, you can always do so.

[Pyrates[TK]]

Forearms have been assembled using the cover strip and butt joint method. I personally preferred the look of it over clamshelling. Cover strips have also been placed along the inside for extra support. Super glue was used with clamps and 10mm rare earth magnets to fasten the adhesive drying. 1200 wet grit was used to smooth the pieces after foolishly getting super glue stains all over them.

 

 

 

 

 

I will need to trim the forearms a bit more once I finish and fit the biceps on, as that will tell me how well both sets of pieces fit together.

 

 

Here's your's truly with the forearms on:

 

 

Obvisouly they look big, but I plan to make the forearms tighter fitting by placing foam inserts inside, plus I'll be wearing the gloves when the trooping happens. And you never know if I'll decide to do some weights and beefen these arms

 

One issue while glueing one of the outer cover strips on the below forearm was that as I was applying the strip one of the forearm sides slightly overlapped the other one, meaning the strip was glued downwards at an angle. This has created a gap beneath the bottom half of the strip, as circled below. My attempts to glue the strip down have failed, so I have asked the local garrison for their advice and it has been suggested that I use either silicon sealer, white acrylic or white bog filler. My only concern is that these fillers will be a different tone of white than that of the armour itself, which has a grey tone to it. I do not want the filler to become too noticeable, where it may be evident some patchwork has been made. I was thinking I could perhaps heat the scraps of ABS i have into a putty like substance to fill in the gap, but I know it wouldn't be as strong as the commercial grade sealants.

 

Any thoughts on what to do?

 

White dap silicone using spit on your finger to wipe away excess also works.

 

Just make sure than when your removing the excess to try and wipe the silicone into the gap.

 

Cheers!

[drunken hutt[TK]]

A caulking gun was used to insert white Silicone filler beneath the cover strips of the forearms. This was the first time I'd used one, so there was much fun to be had

 

 

After this I used a combination of T-Cut, Turtle Wax and Novus grade 2 plastic polisher to bring back the ABS shine after the initial sheen was removed due to wet rubbing with sand paper to remove the glue and Silicone stains.

 

Biceps have been assembled and Silicone also inserted underneath the cover strips due to some small gaps that I couldn't managed to flatten while clamping:

 

 

 

Currently I am working on the shins and going through the process of trimming and cutting coverstrips for the front areas. Like many guys here I will clamshell the back using white velcro, while making sure that each side correctly overlaps the other. Hopefully pics will follow soon.

Edited May 30, 2016 by drunken hutt

[Pyrates[TK]]

Looking great!

[drunken hutt[TK]]

Apologies for neglecting to update this thread in almost a year. I was placing all my attention into the local garrison thread where the bulk of my updates where being posted.

 

Well, I am happy to say that as of 22 February 2017 I was officially approved by the 501st Southern Dewback Garrison in South Australia as a TK ANH Stunt. My ID is TK26173. I've done one troop so far (at a shopping centre supporting a charity) and it was a very enjoyable experience getting to put smiles on peoples' faces and high-fiving kids who were ecstatic to see Star Wars characters in real life! 

 

        

[Pyrates[TK]]

Apologies for neglecting to update this thread in almost a year. I was placing all my attention into the local garrison thread where the bulk of my updates where being posted.

 

Well, I am happy to say that as of 22 February 2017 I was officially approved by the 501st Southern Dewback Garrison in South Australia as a TK ANH Stunt. My ID is TK26173. I've done one troop so far (at a shopping centre supporting a charity) and it was a very enjoyable experience getting to put smiles on peoples' faces and high-fiving kids who were ecstatic to see Star Wars characters in real life!

 

Congratulations brother! Great to finally see you join the ranks - sweet job on that armour

 

 

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