Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Hello, Originally posted on my Garrison's forum (Imperial Sands Garrison) and having completed and approved I thought that I would share my build here and on the MEPD forums. And yes, it took me a month and it was my first build! Of course I trolled this and the MEPD forums and I had tons of help from my garrison and Mentor. And with out further preamble...here goes! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 BBB day ( April 1st...US Chief Petty Officer's Birthday)! Kit is an ATA... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 It was quite intimidating, but as Yoda says "Do or do not..." Cutting and Scoring and Snapping! Started with the shoulder bells and hand plates... Abdominal... Butt plate... Kidney... Back... Chest.. Sniper knee plate and ab buttons... Bicepts... Forearms... Shins... Thighs... And of course, I saved all me trimmings for an ABS Paste! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 It's amazing what you can check out from Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) on military bases now-a-days! So...never used one of these before, but gotta love youtube! First time...not too bad. I stitched a piece of nylon webbing onto the elastic. It allows for a more solid base for the snaps to seat and it doesn't tear out from the elastic. Front of the other strap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 While I was waiting for my build items to arrive from Imperial Procurement (read Amazon) I went ahead and scored and snaped my waist and knee ammo packs... I also mixed up some ABS paste for a couple of small tears I made while cutting... Paste was made with Acetone and I filled it up just above the shavings. It turned out the consistancy of white out and filled in my accidents very well... Oh and in case anyone is curious, this was all built in my barracks room on my dining table. I am geographically separated from my wife, and I did all this working a couple of hours each night after work ( I am a Navy Master-at-Arms...Military Police...Chief). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 So my stuff arrived from Procurement... I went with mil-spec webbing the best I could...my Garrison mate's were kidding with me about the fact I am building this thing so I could jump out of an airplane if I had too! LOL I pretty much have worn body armor my whole time in the Military... Pauldron, silicon hand plates, helmet fans and tube stripe templates from TrooperBay. My neck seal was from Imperial Seamstress out of England; great quality and fast shipping! Pouches from Blaster8266 from MEPD; Awesome work! Hyperfirm "Standard" Grade. Nomex flight Gloves from Ebay. The splitter pictured was for the "Trooper Talk" app that I decided not to use; nothing against the app, I just couldn't get it to work well so I eventually went with an "iComm". I still plan on using the loop function of TD Chatter at a later time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 After everything was trimmed (I saved the bucket for last; reason is if you haven't done anything like this, it's easier to mess up on the larger pieces and you gain confidence in your ability to work with the ABS) I gave it a quick dip in the bath to remove any casting residue. All dryed and prepaired for an upcoming Armor Party! Measured and Scored and Snapped all my cover strips and made a lot of snap plates. Resluts from our Armor Party...Another plus is that at the party my Mentor showed me how to "butt join" using the cover strips and CA glue with accelerant! He also made my Canvas belt for me as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 All pieces were "Butt Joined" in the following manner: Thighs (not pictured) and shins sized and trimmed where needed. Inner strips were CA glued one side at a time then glued the front strips one side at a time. Test picture prior to adding outer coverstrips... Coverstrips added... Forearms and Bicepts... Shins...I used velcro for the back closure... Filled in the small gaps at the bottom of the thighs with ABS paste... Added the buttons to the Abdominal plate... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Sniper knee plate install...I went with basically how PandaTrooper showed us... Cut out a cover plate for the back side and added filler plates on the sides... Sanded flush... Added another piece of ABS for reinforcment... Holes drilled with dremel... Rivets placed...Ensure that you use a backing washer... CA glued and...done! Test fitted over my Combat boots...I figured that if they fit over them, that they would fit over my Imperial Boots! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 All my referance information was downloaded from here for the placement of rivets and other things! Thigh ammo belt install... PandaTrooper referance pict... My trim lines (only one side pictured)... Ammo belt was heat bent using a heat gun and paint stir sticks (thanks again to PandaTrooper!)... Holes drilled on both thigh and ammo pack... Tools for bending over the split rivets (provided by TrooperBay)... One side at a time... Started the bending with screwdriver to get it started... Then pounded flat with a hammer and flat punch... Repeat for other side... And done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Assembling kidney and abdominal... Test fit and trim... Measuring and drilling for sides, Han Snap, and codpiece... Split rivet craziness... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Time to start strapping it all together... Added velcro to the sides of the clamshell... Sewed togther a velcro "hook" closure for the sides...small for the closure side with the "Han Snap" and larger for the other side... Test fit... Measuring, drilling and attaching the male and female snaps for the canvas belt... Test fit with the canvas belt... Measuring, drilling and riveting the ammo belt to the canvas belt... Belt, done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Fix for adding the "small spanish pouch" to the canvas belt... Using a heat gun I wrapped an ABS strip to the brass "D-ring"... Trimmed to width of canvas belt and added velcro to both strip and canvas belt... And here is my "Stop that Ship" trooper pouch load-out... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Thigh garter system. Added snap plates... Sewed velcro "hook" to elastic strapping as a back up should I have a snap fail...again I added the nylon webbing to the elastic for strength... Added female snaps and "pile" velcro for added security... Measured for belt loop and triple stitched it... Mil-spec belt to hold them up... And done... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Butt plate, kidney and chest and back strapping... Sewed a lot of elastic webbing and added female snaps... Snapping it all together... Attaching shoulder straps... All strapped... Test fit...its getting real now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Attaching shoulder bells via Sew-on snaps using dental floss... Test fit... Attaching forearms and shoulder straps for the bicepts. Snap plate install... Prepping and Measuring inner elastic... Shoulder to bicept straps... Ams, done... Getting close... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Hand plates; I went ahead and heated them up and formed them around the back of my hand (nomex is heat resistant after all )... Sewed some nylon webbing to the elastic for the CA glue to bond with the plates... Getting really close now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 During this time my boots showed up! So exciting! I had to add a small velcro strip to the front and back of the boots to keep my shins from "rolling" and "pushing up" from walking up stairs... So far so good...fits like a glove! Finish line is in sight! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Added nylon screws along the bottom of the return edge on the chest and painted them and all my rivets... Now...time to dig out one final box... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Hemet build...not going to lie, this was very stressful, but in retrospect, I am glad I saved the helmet for last! Penciled in cut lines... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Cutting and trimming... Punched a hole to prevent tearing... X-acto knife for scoring... Dremeling out the teeth... Broke out the cutting wheel for the eyes...no fear! Whew...after a bit of sanding... Trimming out the teeth...I found these little sanding sticks from Hobby Lobby... Faceplate done... Quick dip in the sink... Measuring for the brow trim a-la "Stop that Ship" helmet... Holes drilled and helmet riveted together... Think I'm doing pretty good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Finishing up the rivets... Rivets, done... Now time for what we all dred and loathe...those ears! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Time to get serious! Ok, so for the ears...I penciled in my cut lines and for the "caps" I used blue tape to get the lines straight... Also, somewhere on this forum I read that you MUST LEAVE a STRAIGHT EDGE coming off the "Cap" before you begin trimming the ear for the curvature of the tubes, since the helmet is still somewhat straight up and down just before the tubes curve out... Deep breath...and using the cutting wheel and a steady hand...with A New Hope playing in the background... I used a cutting tip for the curve of the ear... Sanded the "Cap" flush... And slowly began dremeling off a LITTLE at a time, test fitting to the helmet after each pass... DON'T FORGET TO CHECK THE BACKSIDE OF THE HELMET FOR FIT.... Ok! Got my ears done ( I only used ONE set!)! Drilling out holes for ears... Ears screwed on TIGHT and just like that... Time to put my commercial art degree to use and break out the paint brushes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Painted the teeth, and the "Black" area's first... While waiting for the black to dry I cut and formed my lens as well as painted my Hovi tips... First coat of grey... Installed my wire mesh... Two coats of grey later... Installed green lens... Time to add the damage and ABS paint drips... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koryu1212(Dan D)[501st] Posted July 6, 2018 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2018 Painting in the "Stop that Ship" Trooper helmet details...Using several referance pictures I penciled in the chips and run areas... Blue tube stripes painted in after the cracks were painted... ABS paint runs added... Think I nailed it pretty well... Time to get dirty! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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