Jakob's RWA ANH stunt build (aiming for centurion)

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

The small bit of return edge on the ends of the TD plate can (and should) be trimmed off, Jakob.

 

[Yacorp[TK]]

Thank you for your time and expert eyes eyeryone!

 

I took care of the thermal detonator, and finished that all up.

The arms are fully finished as well.

The legs are waiting on feedback for the sniper knee before I start glueing that, and my snap setting tool to arrive for the thigh ammo belt (rivets), but other that they are completelly done as well.

Today I finally got started working on the bucket, which appears to be less work than I imagined it to be. Working on the eyes I had the truely revolutionary idea of attatching some sanding paper to the front part of a pencil for the finishing touches. The i turned to the teeth and remembered the set of small files i had bought for this. Duh. Felt kinda stupid XD

Also I prepared the strapping installation, by cuting a pile of small white webbing straps & puching  wholes into them, for the poppers to attatch to. Tomorrow I'll do a full torso suit up with tape, in order to mark where I'll be attatching these.

 

Is the helmet positioned correctely?

 

Cheers

 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Hi Jakob,  great advances mate!!  

 

About the helmet alignment , it would be su helpful to have a complete view of your helmet to give a better feedback. this thread could give you some tips to post photos of the helmet.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Height of the brow looks good, with regards to the sides you want to try to have the same distance on both sides, I find looking at the front corner of the trap's and corner of the eye's is the easiest way to compare.

 

You also want to take note of how the ears will sit, ideally the angle of the ears should resemble the references below

 

       

[Yacorp[TK]]

I've take into account the advice and made some photos of the helmet, for a better view.

 

[Yacorp[TK]]

 

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by Yacorp

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Hi Jakob,

Nice progress. :-)

I’ve built quite a few RWA helmets over the last few years and, personally, I’d be tempted to try angling the faceplate a little more - this will bring the eyes down a little from the brow.

Here’s a little piece talking about this exact subject, and using an RWA helmet for the examples. :-)

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48293-anh-helmet-alignment/

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Hi Jakob,

Nice progress. :-)

I’ve built quite a few RWA helmets over the last few years and, personally, I’d be tempted to try angling the faceplate a little more - this will bring the eyes down a little from the brow.

Here’s a little piece talking about this exact subject, and using an RWA helmet for the examples. :-)

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48293-anh-helmet-alignment/

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Hi Jakob,

Nice progress. :-)

I’ve built quite a few RWA helmets over the last few years and, personally, I’d be tempted to try angling the faceplate a little more - this will bring the eyes down a little from the brow.

Here’s a little piece talking about this subject, and using an RWA helmet for the examples. :-)

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48293-anh-helmet-alignment/

[Yacorp[TK]]

Amazing detail!

I never would have noticed this, but now that you pointed it out for me the version were the face plate is tipped more, and the helmet therefore shorter does look more right to me. I'll definitely apply this tomorrow.

 

 

[Yacorp[TK]]

Big day today!, without much actual progress though.

Wearing that white armour from top to bottom does really look and feel great I must say

I learnend  that I will definitely have to shorten the Kidney plate, otherwise the armor will be way to big around me.

For continuing I think it would be the easyest, to first focus on the three lower torso pieces, and when those are done go on with the chest and back plate. Do you guys think this makes sense, or will I be needing all 5 parts at the same time, for fitting?

The first picture shows the gap around my belly, with the kidney plate attached close to my back. Like this I have like 3-4 cm overlap on the sides.

 

The back and chestplate are nowhere near connecting below my armpits, but I believe this is to be expected and not actually my aim, is it?

 

Edited September 30, 2020 by Yacorp

[Yacorp[TK]]

On the matter of the helmet I used the rivets to attach the two peaces together. I tryd to include your advice Dan, the brow definitely sits a little higher now, so this would have worked.

When drilling holes for the mic tipps I found (too late) that the material on the bottom of these two indentations is not the regular thickness, but instead just paperthin, causing it to crack immediately upon drilling.(pic 1) ABS paste to the rescue?

 

Will there be any other part during the actual build where I will definitely be needing ABS past aside from the little parts on the legs that aren't covered by coverstrips? I don't really know how to call these so it put one in for picture number 2. The tiny bit of ABS covering the gap from the inside is just for stability, I am not satisfied with how this looks, so i will definitely put some ABS paste on these places.

 

But other than that I don't see any uses for ABS paste other than of course fixing further mistakes/cracks that are surely going to happen.

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

The mic tip backs being thin is a common problem, personally I don't use ABS paste as it is really thin there and the paste may disform when drying. I use a washer on each one, I place the washer over a socket then hammer a punch in the middle, this curves the washer which then fits nicely over the back of the thin area, I just add a little E6000 to hold. I've seen others use various different glues, fiberglass resin, sugru, what ever works. 

 

I normally add a few magnets to hold together the sides while trimming the ears, once added the screws in the ears will pull everything together.

 

Normally the only place you will need ABS paste is any gaps in the lower ridges of thighs and some who have to add shims in the sides of the ab/kidney use it to fill the join seam, apart from that I don't use it.

 

Obviously it can be used for other things like any mistakes, teeth cut out too far, holes drilled in wrong place.

[Yacorp[TK]]

Today i finally got back to my armor, and got a lot done

I've built the dropboxes and started with the poppers on the abdomen  and kidney plate. Most importately I've got my left ear finally trimmed to a clean fit, that took me quite a while. There is some material left so that I could still make the entire ear thinner, but honestly I don't thinck that will be necessary.

[Yacorp[TK]]

So I haven't exactely been posting much the last days, but now I'm getting back on track. I've completed the belt and things are all coming together now. The belt and arms that were missing on the last pictures really make a huge difference in making this look like a real stormtrooper. I also did the strapping on the abdomen, kidney and butt plate, so now not everything is dangling loose around my body. I'm gonna have to fixate the chest and back plate for actually stability next.

 

The new suit up has of course brought up some new questions:

1. I don't have a black belt since I'm not that good at karate, can I use a different coulored belt instead to holds the thighs? I don't think anything of this will be visible as it's hidden behind the actual belt.

2. Shall I further trim the chest+back plate and shoulder bells, or are those okay?

3. Also the black gap between the helmet and the back plate seems to big in some of the pictures, but I'm guessing this is merely caused through the backplate dropping out of aligment on those pictures, and actually the matter will dissolve with propper strapping?

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by Yacorp

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good

 

1. I don't have a black belt since I'm not that good at karate, can I use a different coulored belt instead to holds the thighs? I don't think anything of this will be visible as it's hidden behind the actual belt. As long as it is hidden that would be fine

2. Shall I further trim the chest+back plate and shoulder bells, or are those okay? Chest, backplate look fine, shoulder bells fill the whole shoulder area on screen armor, they can have a slight curve 

Some references

 

  

 

Note the elastic around the bottom of the bell, this helps hold the bell against bicep

 

3. Also the black gap between the helmet and the back plate seems to big in some of the pictures, but I'm guessing this is merely caused through the backplate dropping out of aligment on those pictures, and actually the matter will dissolve with propper strapping? Looks ok in this image, do you have a lot of padding in the helmet, if so you may be able to reduce the size

 

 

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Today i finally got back to my armor, and got a lot done
I've built the dropboxes and started with the poppers on the abdomen  and kidney plate. Most importately I've got my left ear finally trimmed to a clean fit, that took me quite a while. There is some material left so that I could still make the entire ear thinner, but honestly I don't thinck that will be necessary.

Hey trooper,

Good work so far!

If your kit came with the usual two sets of ears, you could consider trimming to second set to around half the size you have now. This will be more in keeping with the originals and give your lid a slightly sleeker look :-)

[Yacorp[TK]]

Put some velcro on the shins today

 

Also I trimmed and installed the right ear, I've made it a lot thinner than the other one, to match your instructions. The left one will come off tomorrow and will be redone. It really is great to have that second pair of ears with the kit, helps to calm the nerves when messing around with the first one.

 

Does anyone know what the sew-on-snaps from the RWA strapping kit are for? I don't really know where to put these. My guess would be to connect the white webbing of the chest-back connection with the shoulder bells, but in Ross video and Cableguys build thread it both looks like this is simply done by an ordinary popper and I wouldn't know why such a popper shouldn't be enough for the job.

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

5 minutes ago, Yacorp said:

Does anyone know what the sew-on-snaps from the RWA strapping kit are for? I don't really know where to put these. My guess would be to connect the white webbing of the chest-back connection with the shoulder bells, but in Ross video and Cableguys build thread it both looks like this is simply done by an ordinary popper and I wouldn't know why such a popper shouldn't be enough for the job.

They could be optional, but I would recommend to email Ross, he's a nice guy and fast response.

 

Cheers.  

[Sly11[Admin]]

The snaps could be for a few locations. Shoulder Bell to shoulder bridge snap attachment perhaps. Do you have an image of the type of snap as it may be the giveaway to where it's meant to go.

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Hi Jakob,

Nice work so far. :-)

I don’t remember a sewn on snap with my kit. As Andrew said, do you have a picture, please? We’ll see if we can figure it out. :-)

[Yacorp[TK]]

Here is a picture of the snaps, just for the matter of completion. I e-mailed Ross and he confirmed these to be used for attaching the shoulder bells to the shoulder straps as I suspected. These snaps are relatively new to Ross's straping kit, so he didn't have the back when he made the video and Dan got his kit.

Speaking of shoulders...

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

They are screen accurate.

 

 

 

I prefer double snaps on mine just in case one fails you have a backup  

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Here is a picture of the snaps, just for the matter of completion. I e-mailed Ross and he confirmed these to be used for attaching the shoulder bells to the shoulder straps as I suspected. These snaps are relatively new to Ross's straping kit, so he didn't have the back when he made the video and Dan got his kit.

Speaking of shoulders...

Good stuff. Great to see Ross constantly improving his offering. :-)

[Yacorp[TK]]

Strapping continues

Experiments are made

and begun the paint job has