Xus Kenobi · ATA Works · ANH Stunt build

[Xus Kenobi]

Hello there!

 

My name is Xus Kenobi, and I'm from Madrid, Spain. Long story short, I've had my ATA armor kit for a really long time and I have worked on it on and off since I got it, which means I worked on it for a month or two and then put it in the closet for a year or two for several reasons before coming back to it. 

 

I recently picked the project up again thanks to an armor party held in my area and realised I'm not that far from completing my suit, so I'm determined to finish it off once and for all! I'll use this thread to show my progress and use this first post to keep a record of my gear and accesories for reference.

 

TROOPER STATS:

 

Height: 1.83 m · 6 ft

Weight: 92.3 kg · 203.5 lb

 

GEAR AND ACCESORIES LIST

 

Helmet: ATA

Armor: ATA

Undersuit: Decathlon · Two piece undersuit

Boots: Corsairs Kids

Gloves: Corsairs Kids · Rubber chemical gloves

Strapping: Appropriately coloured elastic and non-elastic webbing with double snaps 

Blaster:

Holster:

Neck seal: Corsairs Kids

Canvas Belt: Corsairs Kids

 

My main goal is to complete my build and get my suit approved by the 501st, although I am trying to keep in mind Centurion rank requirements so I can request said status without having to undergo major modifications, so I would greatly appreciate it if you guys could keep this in mind when helping me out with my build!

 

Thanks in advance for your help and let's hope I can keep my motivation and finish this project in the upcoming months!

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Xus Kenobi
Updated 01-05-2021

[Xus Kenobi]

Ok, let's get cracking!

 

First of all I'm going to work on the torso section since it's the largest part and it's tricky to get right. As you can see, it's almost completely assembled and pre-fitted in order to figure out how the strapping goes. Once the whole thing is completed I will fine tune the fitting to make sure everything falls where it's supposed to.

 

Inside view of the torso with all the straps and double snaps (Some straps are cut long in order to cut them to size when I do my final fit):

 

 

Right now it looks quite nice, but as soon as you take a closer look you can see many areas that need a little tweak to make them look accurate:

 

As you can see, the front looks pretty good, I took great care into making the chest align properly to the ab section (since I'm tall, I need it to sit right at the very edge of the vertical ridge that comes upwards from the button plate). Also the shoulder straps were fitted by fellow troopers from Spanish Garrison to make them sit properly aligned with the neck trim.

 

 

The back and butt plate need some fitting so they don't overlap with the kidney plate. The back will need to come upwards (combination of making the elastic shoulder straps shorter and the back-kidney connection a little longer). The butt plate will need to come down by also combining some tweaking of the kidney-butt straps and the cod strap.

 

 

 

Regarding the sides, y main concern is the seam on the sides since they open a bit at the bottom, specially on the right side where I used elastic strapping. I will replace the elastic strapping with a non elastic version to keep both sides close together and then hope the canvas belt helps me get everything in place!

 

 

So my first goal is to get all of these pieces properly fitted and get the core of the armor finished before moving on to the belt and the arms!

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Xus Kenobi

[Chemi[Staff]]

Hola Jesús. Me alegra que te hayas decidido a abrir este hilo. Seguro que vas a recibir un montón de ayuda. Además, ya se que cuentas con la ayuda de los centuriones de la Spanish . 

Veo que tienes muy claro lo que vas a ir haciendo, así que sigue trabajando así de bien. 

Creo que colocar el cinto, también te ayudará a cerrar un poco esas uniones laterales y asentar un poco todo. 

Esto te puede ayudar con el culete... 

 

 

Hello Jesus. I'm glad you decided to open this thread. I am sure you get a lot of help here. In addition, I already know that you have the help of the Spanish Garrison centurions. I see that you are very sure about what you are going to do, so keep working there well. I think putting on the belt will also help you close those side seams a bit.

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Backplate can come up, also looks like you need an elastic strap between the butt plate and cod, that should pull them together nicely

[Xus Kenobi]

11 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Backplate can come up, also looks like you need an elastic strap between the butt plate and cod, that should pull them together nicely

Yeah the strap is there (visible in the first picture) waiting to be fixed, but I want to fix it to the split rivet in the front once everything is in place to pull the whole thing together! Thanks for your input! 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looking good, Jesus!  I realize you are in the fitting phase, but as Glen mentioned the back plate needs to come up.  The bottom should not overlap the top of the kidney, and you have plenty of room to raise it 2 or 3 cm.  AWESOME to see that you used the "double snap" method on your strapping (you'll be glad that you took the extra time to do that, I promise)!  I have that on all my armor sets and I swear by it.

 

Keep up the great work and keep the photos coming!

 

 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Welcome Jesus, looking great. Looks like you've been given some great advice so far

[Xus Kenobi]

Ok guys, I've been fiddling a bit with my back pieces to try and get some proper alignment and I think I've made a major improvement on it!

 

A fellow trooper suggested that I could use some duct tape to align the back, kidney and butt plates and check if that helped in any way make the whole thing look in place. Indeed it did! Aligning al the back pieces helped make their relative positions correct and properly aligned. In fact, the back plate came up to its place (it sits very comfortably on my back) and the butt place improved its placement very much.

 

Here is a picture of the duct tape inside the armor:

 

 

Now on to see how this fits on my body:

 

 

Front looks just as it did before to me, no major issues to adress here (at least for now)

 

 

The back shows a significant improvement: pieces properly aligned, no overlapping the kidney plate, back sitting higher on my back and butt plate sitting lower.

 

 

The left side view looks WAY better, but here comes the biggest Issue I can see right now: Since I'm 183cm (6ft) tall, the whole thing is a little short for my height which causes half my butt and half my crotch to stick out below the crotch area and the butt plate (you can see it in this picture clearly). ¿Any tips on how to adress this issue?

 

 

The right side also looks better, need to make sure the kidney and ab plates line up properly and use non-elastic webbing to keep them in place. 

 

So I think I am going to get some white duct tape and duct tape the hell out of the back armor plates to make sure they are always perfectly aligned, plus once the duct tape is in place, set all of the straps to the exact length in order to help the whole thing stay in place and not let the duct tape be the only thing holding everything together!

 

What do you guys think?

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Xus Kenobi

[ukswrath[Staff]]

To answer your fitment issue. I have an ATA and I'm 6ft also, ATA is slightly smaller than other armor makers (I mean maybe 3%). With your height you'll be fighting the fitment issue, there's not much you can do about it. That said, the waist belt will cover most gap issues with the kidney and butt plates, other than that just make sure all the straps are tight and you should be fine. I suggest you add the waist belt and post updated photos.

 

 

[Xus Kenobi]

Thanks for the clarification on the fitting issue! Yeah the belt does help but I will also replace the straps, better to make two adjustments rather than relying on the canvas belt!

 

This is how it looks with the belt "thrown" in place:

 

 

From the front I'm concerned about the kidney plate sticking out a bit, I've seen people use ABS connections to align both parts properly so perhaps that will help me further on if the new and tightened straps don't solve it.

 

 

The back looks nice, need some fine tuning on the duct tape and the strapping of the three pieces but I feel I can pull it off easily.

 

 

The left side looks better, but it will still improve by replacing the straps attatched to the lower split rivets and perhaps the middle one too. This will also help keep the top corner from overlapping the ab plate and, if that isn't enough, use some ABS straps to align both pieces.

 

 

The right side also looks better,  but It will also benefit from installing non-elastic straps and making them really tight.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Looks good. To help out even more with those stubborn areas use nylon webbing instead of elastic, if you haven't done so already. 

[Xus Kenobi]

Will do! I currently have elastic on the right side and nylon on the left and this week I'll pick up some more nylon webbing to replace the right side elastics and the left syde nylon connectors with shorter versions! Thanks!