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AM Armor 2.0 ANH Build


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Hey everyone and welcome to my build thread. Here comes another AM armor build. This is my first build and I'm really excited to finally start. I got my armor box back in April but responsibilities took priority. I've been reading a lot of build threads and now that I have the extra time...I'm ready to start. I think I'm going to lean towards a ANH hero more than stunt. Anyways, I'm looking forward to this and any advice along the way will be greatly appreciated. Let the journey begin!

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Thanks Artshot. Glad to be here. So I messed up everyone and got my types mixed up. I'm actually doing an ANH stunt with the flat lenses.<br><br>

I've decided to start with the helmet today. It's basically the only thing out of the box at this moment and unwrapped. I've been looking at the top and back for a few days and decided to just go for it. I'm going to match the top and back and glue.

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Well I got my guide holes for the teeth drilled in so far. Since I'm going for stunt the goal is 8 successful cut outs. <br>

post-28581-0-74382500-1467329623_thumb.jpegpost-28581-0-25475400-1467329659_thumb.jpeg<br><br>

I used a 5/64 drill bit for the teeth. Decent size holes without risking damage to any parts that I didn't want touched by drill. I drilled two holes in each of the middle teeth closest to the peak of frown. From there I put one hole in each of the remaining teeth. <br><br>

Here's a picture of what the front looks like with all the guide holes drilled in. <br>

post-28581-0-93078400-1467329944_thumb.jpeg<br><br>

Now it's time to start cutting the teeth out using the holes I made. <br>

Questions:<br>

1) what particular blade should I use for the knife? Particularly pertaining to the teeth.<br>

2) will sandpaper be ok to use to sand down the remaining plastic left after cutting?<br><br>

Any comments or advice is more than welcome.

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Today was a good day in my mind. Any day that has some progress is still something.<br>

So today I worked on the teeth more. Using my dremel, I used a carving piece to get rid of the excess plastic.<br>

post-28581-0-88203800-1467440051_thumb.jpeg<br>

As you can see it doesn't look to pretty yet but it will become more awesome as more progress is made. After cutting out the teeth, I used a sanding piece for my dremel to get a smoother edge. I was sweating during this part because I didn't want it to slip and give my bucket a face lift

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For the teeth, I used the small sanding drum bits for the dremel and sanded the spaces down from the inside. Then I finished the edges with small files and sand paper.

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Looking good so far though!

Thank you. lm going to go back and try to do it with your method and see the difference in results.

By the way, does anyone know how to keep posting pictures in a post. The uploader says I can only upload 9kb left.

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Thank you. lm going to go back and try to do it with your method and see the difference in results.

By the way, does anyone know how to keep posting pictures in a post. The uploader says I can only upload 9kb left.

You need to use an image host such as www.imgur.com and then just add the picture using the "add picture" button on the web interface when posting. It will be with the rest of the buttons that allow you to format your post. When you click on it it will give you a pop up requesting a URL for where the picture is located.

I hope that helps.

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You need to use an image host such as www.imgur.com and then just add the picture using the "add picture" button on the web interface when posting. It will be with the rest of the buttons that allow you to format your post. When you click on it it will give you a pop up requesting a URL for where the picture is located.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice! My only question would be where is the "add picture" icon?
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Are using the mobile website or taptalk app?

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Mobile is tough, and the taptalk app has it kind of hidden.

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You can use the IMG tag and insert them yourself:

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(IMG)URL(/IMG)

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Replace the ('s with ['s and the URL is the http address of your pic on the hosts site

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So I filed down the teeth a bit more. My goal is to achieve a more square look instead of rounded. Here is a picture of what the front looks like now.

9dc36f1b2bc7d2bce304bbdec24c1ab7.jpg

The hardest part so far has been the outer teeth since the hole is so small.

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I then decided to go ahead and glue the top and back of the helmet together. I used E6000, magnets, and clamps. The glue provided in the kit isn't the best from what I read so that's why I decided to just stick with E6000 from the start.

eb365ee6f784d7aea9b1dd48d9db89da.jpg

I wrapped the magnets in masking tape because they were ceremic magnets and can leave a black half circle.

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By doing this, I was able to use the magnets I already had instead of having to order magnets from Amazon and waiting a bit for delivery. They still get a really good pull on them through the tape.

I also put masking tape around the clamps so that it would be easier on the plastic. Now I'm just playing the waiting game for glue to dry. Such a painful process but worth it in the end.

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Im probably going to look at the rest of the armor and come up with a plan of attack for the rest.

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Coming along nicely, I find small hand files a great help for the corners of the teeth.

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So today I took off the magnets and clamps on the helmet. I don't know if this looks right :/

cf52b3b23eb27d1a31fd806b0b772a45.jpg

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I matched up the sides of the helmet and it looked pretty normal.

The only thing that's stumping me is that the back bump of the top has a tiny cap. The gap is just between the back of the top and back of the bottom.

573bd35f9126fb4a1ad661f0d2fb42ac.jpg

It's not super noticeable to the naked eye in my mind but I want everything to be at its best.

Is this right or does anyone have suggestions on what to do?

This is what the helmet looks like from the back.

18853c9e9c0a3973b4374641c674812a.jpg

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Any help or reassurance that I'm on the right track is greatly appreciated.

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Looking good man. and welcome to AM 2.0! As far as the back of the bucket goes, yeah I had the same problem and I think most people do. If I remember correctly, I went back and put a small drop of Zap a gap under that part the used my magnets to hold it together till it dried. It helped quite a bit, however there is still a small "bubble" on the back but its not noticeable.Ā 

The only thing about zap a gap is that stuff dries so fast and so permanent that you really gotta be careful. I used e6000 on almost everything so you could use it on the back of the helmet too. just use some strong rare earth magnets to hold it till it dries.

Looking good so far! I totally remember how nervous I was when doing that. The good thing is that the more you do, the more confidence you will gain. If you have any questions at all please feel free to PM me. I can send pics and help you out.

Good luck!

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So I filed down the teeth a bit more. My goal is to achieve a more square look instead of rounded. Here is a picture of what the front looks like now.

9dc36f1b2bc7d2bce304bbdec24c1ab7.jpg

The hardest part so far has been the outer teeth since the hole is so small.

Ā 

I then decided to go ahead and glue the top and back of the helmet together. I used E6000, magnets, and clamps. The glue provided in the kit isn't the best from what I read so that's why I decided to just stick with E6000 from the start.

eb365ee6f784d7aea9b1dd48d9db89da.jpg

I wrapped the magnets in masking tape because they were ceremic magnets and can leave a black half circle.

Ā 

By doing this, I was able to use the magnets I already had instead of having to order magnets from Amazon and waiting a bit for delivery. They still get a really good pull on them through the tape.

I also put masking tape around the clamps so that it would be easier on the plastic. Now I'm just playing the waiting game for glue to dry. Such a painful process but worth it in the end.

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Im probably going to look at the rest of the armor and come up with a plan of attack for the rest.

Ā 

Ā 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

for me, when I had the teeth cut out to that point, I didn't have a file but what I did was fold a small piece of sand paper and "flossed" it back and forth in there till I had it the way I wanted. It worked VERY well and I didn't have to buy a file.

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So I'm not screwing the helmet together until both sections are fully ready. I did a test fit of the front with the back pieces and they don't really match up. I heard somewhere that this can be common in the AM helmet. Is this true?

Will I need to trim the tubes on the front a little bit to get the pieces to fit together?

Lastly when looking at both sections, the front and the back pieces i noticed that they aren't even. One side seems to be longer then the other.

Can any of my other imperial friends or AM builders help me out with this dilemma? Thanks!

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the helmet build is the hardest part. Yes the front and back do not match up perfectly. Its gonna take some work to get it to all screw together. It did for me and i struggled for a while with it. I took comfort in following navajo bros AM 2.0 build thread. In that head he mentioned how putting the front and back together was a pain in the butt. Just know that once that is done, the rest of it is much easier. I would follow his thread for sure. It is very well documented and easy to follow.

I will look it up and send you a link.

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So today was a little nerve racking. I went ahead and worked on the black coating for the front interior of helmet. Reading through threads I decided to use plasti dip. It gives a nice rubber like coating to the interior.

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So first I went ahead and taped the eyes and mouth like so

cab003862f3f0b7ed6fe3f6a80a34d41.jpg

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From there I took half a plastic Walmart bag I had lying around on the table. This was where it got tricky because the masking tape was refusing to stick to the plastic. This is what it looked like after taping back to front.

02bc6885255edafda50f81687decd24d.jpg

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Had to tape more on the interior due to masking tape issues. You can never have enough of it I guess.

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From there I went ahead and spread very carefully. About 6" away like the can instructions imply. I had an issue and some of it leaked to the front top mask. I was able to get rid of it with water, paper towels, and a lot of elbow grease.

This is what it looks like after the spray.

642351f2e696f152535d04143a6b9256.jpg

I'm going to paint the sections I wasn't able to spray due to the risk of leakage.

Probably will use the recommended humbrol black paint for the extra white spots inside.

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Words of advice if using plasti dip, the stuff starts drying quickly so if you make a mistake, make sure you fix it ASAP. It comes off pretty easy if it's still drying.

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Will be spraying the back helmet tonight or tomorrow morning. Hopefully will be better then my first attempt.

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So I didn't have a lot of time before work today, so I decided to coat the last of helmet. This time though I decided to use the paint on version of plasti dip.

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So first off, I went ahead and taped around the hedges.

1057df23c83fc33cef2484acfe23c1dd.jpg

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I then went ahead and started brushing the plasti dip on the inside. Due to the nature of how quickly it can start trying I had to go over a few times.

Tip: make sure to have an open window next to you because this stuff is strong.

Luckily I have more then one brush because it will kind of ruin any further use of your using the same one. Unless you use a very strong dissolver. I don't have that lying around though so I just bought brushes in bulk.

Here is the helmet after the first coat.

725e03ab406fd2b3e2725bcc5a92820d.jpg

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I'm going to have to use a smaller brush to get under the two pieces so that I don't have any leakage to the outside.

fef95673b81013debc5963bd57755cbd.jpg

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Will probably be doing the second coat tonight after it fully dries and when I'm off work.

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Does anyone have any tips on better ways to fully coat the inside fully?

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Looking good. I'm in the middle of an AM build myself. Did someone recommend that kind of paint..or just what ya had?

I moved my thread to the actual build thread since I put it in wrong place. For the paints I ordered humbrol which is the most common used I've read. While waiting for the order I looked at this conversion chart for humbrol to Testors paint.

Here is the link for the conversion chart.

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http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/21569-paints-for-anh-stunt-helmet/

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For the inside of the helmet I used plasti dip which some people use when I was reading through threads. Good luck on your build man. I'll follow your thread if you have one so I can see how your building yours. Good luck!

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