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Doomsdale's TK Stunt Build [WTF]


Doomsdale

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You don't need to use rivets, using bolts is fine and good if you ever need to make any adjustments and yes just cut the excess off, I normally use side snippers.

 

Nice work, you have survived ear trimming, the rest should be a breeze 

 

 

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And now the right ears. I cut one of the ears provided, but wasn't satisfied and started over on the backup pair. Got a better fit. 

 

TThImPn.jpg4ZEe3l2.jpgNyDak5v.jpgctSJ6hH.jpg

 

I drilled the bottom screw hole at an odd angle. I'm going to use the hole in the underside, and drill outward from there to get a screw hole slightly higher on the ear so it can actually screw tight and bring the ear close to the helmet. Afterwards, I can fill the old hole with ABS paste and it will probably be hidden by the S rubber seal anyways.

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Nice work, you do have a quite a bit of material still there which you could trim if you wanted too.

 

TThImPn.jpg.b21cf352cf8e6c819a792adc9d3a1812.jpgDaveMANH08.jpg.b4c923ccf701bbdfa43b3292667877c3.jpg

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1 hour ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Nice work, you do have a quite a bit of material still there which you could trim if you wanted too.

 

TThImPn.jpg.b21cf352cf8e6c819a792adc9d3a1812.jpgDaveMANH08.jpg.b4c923ccf701bbdfa43b3292667877c3.jpg

 

Ah that's a good point! I'll have to do that before I drill any more holes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Okay, I've squared away the ears. Still need to just make the ABS paste to fill the hole. I've done painting in the mean time.

 

wEddfZn.jpg6bNOzw4.jpgBdHmRhB.jpgZNugOzR.jpg0VJZBdP.jpgsAXydtt.jpg

 

The black vents got a bit out of hand, so I'm going to go back an clean them up with some grey paint. Not pictured, are the ears and hovi mic tips that I painted also.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update of several things.

 

1)

 

I drilled a few new holes on the right ear and filled the old one with ABS paste. The screw still didn't sit the way I liked because of the interior angle of the helmet. To fix this, I took a small scrap of cover strip and sanded it into a wedge. Then glued it on the inside and drilled through. It helped a lot!

 

s6LJWUG.jpgpytbJHv.jpg

 

2)

 

I decided to start over with the back vents, because the masking tape just left weird raised bits when I tried to extend the lines. I sanded the bumps down and then will repaint gray.

 

Yj0lEBI.jpg

 

3)

 

Cleaned up paint edges, especially the tube stripes. I also attached the HOVI mic tips. Oh yeah, it's all coming together. In the next day, I think I will spray some black rubber on the inside. I liked how this looked in other builds, but it shouldn't affect Centurion should it?

 

U3bgQKE.jpg6e0kmw6.jpg

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17 hours ago, Doomsdale said:

Update of several things.

 

1)

 

I drilled a few new holes on the right ear and filled the old one with ABS paste. The screw still didn't sit the way I liked because of the interior angle of the helmet. To fix this, I took a small scrap of cover strip and sanded it into a wedge. Then glued it on the inside and drilled through. It helped a lot!

 

2)

 

I decided to start over with the back vents, because the masking tape just left weird raised bits when I tried to extend the lines. I sanded the bumps down and then will repaint gray.

 

3)

 

Cleaned up paint edges, especially the tube stripes. I also attached the HOVI mic tips. Oh yeah, it's all coming together. In the next day, I think I will spray some black rubber on the inside. I liked how this looked in other builds, but it shouldn't affect Centurion should it?

No, spraying black rubber on the inside should not affect approval or centurion. If you look at centurion approval requests, and build threads, many have black sprayed on the inside of the helmet. If you prefer how it looks, go for it, and it should be approvable so long as it doesn't affect the outside of the helmet. Same as how many people have fans and microphones in their helmets.

Edited by PhilBobTheFish
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I have black satin acrylic spray in mine, doesn't stop approval at any level, it does help reduce any light reflection and makes the inside a lot darker so you can't be seen through the lenses.

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Okay! I think I'm done with the helmet for now! So excited to see this come together.

 

XekrP7m.jpgT8ayrNt.jpg2Mnbpx4.jpgxHHJqhq.jpgjeds2PW.jpg

 

On a side note, when I first go the helmet out of the box, I noticed a couple small flecks of red and blue color that I assumed were paint. So it wasn't until I started cleaning up my own paint that I realized mineral spirits wasn't removing them. Any idea what they are and how to remove it?

 

Sa8J9tl.jpg

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Nice work on the helmet, trooper.

If I may, just a couple of things that you could consider.

1: the “tears” are currently quite small. Personally, I’d consider making them fill the moulded area a little better.

Suggestion below;

e5db7342473259562dbff6117e07b5d4.png

e580e1b534570d3db19861f45745450a.jpg

Secondly, you could consider filling out the vocoder paint a little more (the 2nd and 6th vertical bars). As per this link, the vast majority of ANH stunt helmet seen on screen had a slightly “fuller” vocoder;

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48252-anh-tk-vocoder-examples/

Here’s an example of what could be done, if you wanted to.

8e477ea2a377d426cb4dc58f0ecdb196.png

55db166ac6a601add74c57dabf058a52.png

Keep up the good work. :-)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you CableGuy! I appreciate those call outs, as I've started those changes to approximate those reference photos and others I've seen posted.

 

Today I tightened my belt, pulled up the bootstraps, and jumped into the hot water. Bathing that is. 

 

I knew that I was going to have to adjust my calves/shins. So along with the shoulder straps that had to be curved, I grabbed the legs and also the ab buttons that I wanted to flatten out just a bit.

 

TcyQhwt.jpgyukH7jS.jpgPWKoHza.jpg

 

My neighbor kindly lent his stockpot to do the boiling in. I heated up the water until it was boiling and began doing test pieces of scrap ABS. TESTING MADE THE WORLD OF DIFFERENCE WITH THIS. I can't reiterate that enough. The first few scraps I completed destroyed and warped. Okay, so I adjusted my timing.

 

About 10 Mississippi's in the hot water, and then quickly into the cold sink water worked, while holding the new shape with my hands in between.

 

The legs would prove more tricky, due to their size. I taped them up and submerged them one side at a time, flipping and rolling to get them even. Bath, sink. Bath, sink. Over and over until I felt the plastic no longer "stressing." (This step should have been done BEFORE I attached the sniper plate. Hindsight yo.)

 

wrVEjp7.jpgWsrURjF.jpg

 

Then I removed the tape to assess. They were pretty darn close with tape alone. I continued just to fine mold them to clasp together naturally. Below is the before and after.

 

Left:

7xUbGN3.jpg1EuQS1y.jpg

 

Right:

ZZmCrkT.jpgBwIMbYC.jpg

 

The left leg has some wonky curved cut still I forgot to remove first. I'll need to tackle that before I get to the cover strip and possible second bath.

 

Woo hoo! Hot water bath complete.

 

dDEaPnq.jpg

 

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Since I already had my paint stuff out from the helmet, I went ahead and finished the buttons.

 

O2WKOKU.jpg

 

Now at last I've added the cover strips and velcro to the shins. I noticed when opening one of the clamshells, the velcro worked a little to well and got pulled off the back of the coverstrip. I'll either have to be careful opening them, or find a workaround in the future. Maybe its as simple are reapplying the velcro after roughing up the back side of the cover strip first.

 

(Images flipped from mirror)

 

VDelZtU.jpgzwcCZYV.jpg

 

And here's the test fit of the shins on my legs! A snug fit, but allays my initial fears. I noticed walking around that any hyperextension of my knee collides with the sniper plate a lot unless I hold up the whole shin slightly.

 

n49dObh.jpgNoOs5iK.jpgsOfTOkY.jpg

 

Regarding the bottom of the cover strips, is there any criteria for if they can be squared off overhanging versus trimmed to the contour of the legs? 

 

It seems like the original armor had them squared off overhanging. 

 

A6gr4vO.jpg?1

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The coverstrips should be fine squared off at the bottom of the shins. But you could always trim a slight angle to have it mesh the two halves together better.

 

Take a look at some centurion requests and see how their shins were assembled. This will also let you see how WTF armor can be assembled.

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Looks like you may have overdone the trimming of your larger ab plate, should be ok for basic but will be picked for higher levels.

 

O2WKOKU.jpg

 

Two work arounds is either get a new one from the supplier, or glue a piece of ABS behind and fill the join seam with ABS paste.

 

 LSuei4K.jpg?1   JViLwBX.jpg?1

 

 

The velcro on the shims won't stay completely flat and you will end up with a gap because of the thickness of the velcro.

 

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1 hour ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Looks like you may have overdone the trimming of your larger ab plate, should be ok for basic but will be picked for higher levels.

 

 

Yeah, I should have took a picture before I trimmed. The WTF ab plate did not have much extra to create the sides of the plate, and had large dimples going into the sides of it, so I cut it all off. From other WTF threads, this seems to be the norm. I'm definitely going to try put some ABS behind and filling the seams.

 

Edited by Doomsdale
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You are doing a fine job with the helmet. Ears are trimmed very nicely just those tears to fix up and you should be good.

Keep up the great work.

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On 4/2/2021 at 4:39 AM, CableGuy said:

Nice work on the helmet, trooper.

If I may, just a couple of things that you could consider.

1: the “tears” are currently quite small. Personally, I’d consider making them fill the moulded area a little better.





Secondly, you could consider filling out the vocoder paint a little more (the 2nd and 6th vertical bars). As per this link, the vast majority of ANH stunt helmet seen on screen had a slightly “fuller” vocoder;

 

18 hours ago, Sly11 said:

You are doing a fine job with the helmet. Ears are trimmed very nicely just those tears to fix up and you should be good.

Keep up the great work.

 

Thanks guys! I've made some of those fixes now:

 

yh5l6N7.jpgG8jIu5T.jpgQi3JyV0.jpg

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On 4/16/2021 at 7:43 PM, Doomsdale said:

 

Yeah, I should have took a picture before I trimmed. The WTF ab plate did not have much extra to create the sides of the plate, and had large dimples going into the sides of it, so I cut it all off. From other WTF threads, this seems to be the norm.

 

 

To be honest, gluing a backing plate to the large ab-button plate, making ABS paste to fill the transitions and then sanding it down smooth will be quite a task, Mitch.  Can it be done?  Absolutely, but I would consider getting in touch with Walt about getting a new one.  He is a great guy, a phenomenal armorer and would more than likely hook you up with a replacement.

 

You don't need a large edge on them, but you will need some sort of edge for Centurion. ;)

 

P.S.  NICE job on painting those buttons!  :jc_doublethumbup:

 

                                                             Reference image               One of Walt's showing edge intact

Gmhni5f.jpg    CWlAppJ.jpg?1         cv1GjxD.jpg?1

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7 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

 

To be honest, gluing a backing plate to the large ab-button plate, making ABS paste to fill the transitions and then sanding it down smooth will be quite a task, Mitch.  Can it be done?  Absolutely, but I would consider getting in touch with Walt about getting a new one.  He is a great guy, a phenomenal armorer and would more than likely hook you up with a replacement.

 

You don't need a large edge on them, but you will need some sort of edge for Centurion. ;)

 

P.S.  NICE job on painting those buttons!  :jc_doublethumbup:

 

                                                             Reference image               One of Walt's showing edge intact

Gmhni5f.jpg    CWlAppJ.jpg?1         cv1GjxD.jpg?1

 

Maybe the Walt pulls vary slightly from armor to armor. I got in contact and they didn't seem to be aware of this requirement and suggested a similar process. I'm not too bothered by the described process if I can just find some big enough scrap ABS for the plate.

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I'm jumping around a bit since I feel I want to move to another piece when I reach a slight obstacle impasse. 

 

Here's the left ab/kidney plate juncture where I measured out the rivet holes.

 

Reference:

ILNmZFM.jpg?1

 

Marked, drilled and test fit:

 

KwhTSrN.jpg0zFOwKH.jpg

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Nice work, if you use a block of wood with some sandpaper wrapped around you can sand the pieces straight so they meet a little better, at the moment they are a little jagged.

 

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Well, further work on the ab's right side is postponed until I can get new snap pliers. Heads up, stay away from Hobby Lobby's heavy duty snap pliers. They have poor instructions that also refer to vague non-included attachments. They also break the snaps.

 

So until amazon delivers me a new one, getting started on the belt will get me closer to finishing the ab plate anyway.

 

yamVrUL.jpg

 

I found it easier to score the ammo belt from its backside by following the edge of the holes' cusps. 

 

bySzf2Y.jpg

 

I found this nice diagram for reference:

 

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160510/2146e2d88bd088c1ee23e84b539089bc.jpg

 

Using my pre-built canvas belt from Steph's Imperial Outfitters (forgot to include in pic! But really nice. She also supplied my neck seal) I cut the corners off to match the edges. Finally, I marked where I will drill for the rivets/buttons.

 

7DhdrkY.jpg

 

Ab button placement looks good. I'll be sanding the edges down flatter so it sits flush when time comes to glue.

 

PCmcDt2.jpg

 

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