FN1313’s ANH Stunt Build thread

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

43 minutes ago, FN1313 said:

Question on the holster location.

Is there a set distance it needs to be from the side of the plastic or can it go back a little further. I ask because if you look at my belt placement if I had it close to the return edge it seems like it might actually sit a little too far forward in my opinion.



If there’s some leeway on that I could have it attached like this




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Aprox measures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A helpful thread  

 

[FN1313[TK]]

Had a quick question on trimming the shoulder bridge area.

I’ve noticed there’s a lot more length on these pieces and I almost have them touching each other when wearing. I plan on better sizing and checking before I trim, but assuming that things remain as is, would I be safe to trim this length?





Also before I start strapping the inside of parts, what is the better material to hold the snaps to the armor, nylon webbing or abs pieces? I’ve seen both and am curious what would be the better/stronger/longer lasting material?

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[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Should be ok but I've not seen them on you.

 

Some references

     

 

Also note the amount of ridges on the front of the shoulder strap, 4 and 1/2 small ridges and 1 large, this can vary but ideally that's what you would glue onto the chest

 

You can also remove the large tab on the rear of the shoulder straps  Elastic on the rear will help hold the backs down.

[FN1313[TK]]

THERMAL DETONATOR

After researching I found the TD should be 7.5 inches wide roughly when complete. Each of the end caps should be about 0.75 inch wide. The middle panel should be 4.75 inches wide.

With that being noted I knew I needed to do some trimming. So I marked the widths first.

Make sure to mark from the right side and trim off the left side of the panel.


Obvious, but still just in case mark from the outside and trim from the inside.


The curvature of the pieces was way to much for me to bother doing score and snap. I mean it’s not impossible, but I’d rather be a beach trooper hoofing it on Hoth during a snowstorm with no Tauntaun for shelter than try score and snap method when I have a Dremel tool with a cutting blade. So I used that to trim

After sanding here’s the pieces and measurements.






At this point I then marked the midway point of the grey tube (3.75 inches) and then marked the middle point of the panel (2.375 inches or easier to find with mm than inches so 60mm). I then lined up the mid points. Marked the area around the panel on the tube and sanded the area as well as the inside of the panel for better paint grip.




Using e6000 I coated the inner panel and lined it up with the midway marks I put. I used double magnets on inside of tube and outside of panel as well as blue tape to hold the panel in place while it sets.



To be continued.


Now that the panel is glued in place I glued the end caps on. The air pressure inside wanted to push the caps outward so plenty of blue tape to hold the caps tight.

https://i.imgur.com/g3LzpKL.jpg

 

Once the caps were cured I then marked the drill holes for the metal mounting brackets. I did this by placing the edge next to the bottom of the panel and against the cap. Marked the holes. I then drilled a 3/32 drill hole into each one and used the provided screws to screw the brackets into place.

 

 

thermal detonator is complete (minus painting the screws black.)

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Edited April 5, 2023 by FN1313

[FN1313[TK]]

Updates for today (links to sections have been updated in the opening post of my build thread to make it easier to find them.

 

I mounted the holster to the belt.

 

finished the rear cover strips of the shins

 

got the thighs pretty much ready for rigging

 

And as you can see above I got the Thermal Detonator in the works.

I’ve also made progress on the abdomen, the button panels are done curing to the abdomen and the Han snap and bottom split rivet are in place. I’ve added the two male snaps to the posterior armor. 

 

Busy day, but good work.

[FN1313[TK]]

Added some black abs strips 20mm wide on the inside edges of the abdomen for strength reinforcement as well as strength for the split rivets that will go there. I’ll do the same on the kidney edges as well after I’ve measured again to know how much to trim off.
 

[FN1313[TK]]

I know it’s likely overkill to ask considering this thread indicates there’s little to no return edge on armor.

Return Edges 101 (OTTK)
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=44557&share_tid=48166&url=https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/48166-Return-Edges-101-%28OTTK%29&share_type=t&link_source=app

But before I trim anything, should I and how much return edge is okay to remove from the back and chest?

 

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Edited April 4, 2023 by FN1313

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Reference gallery may be of help

 

      

[FN1313[TK]]

CHEST AND BACK

Being as both of these pieces are part of each other and don’t have as much work as other pieces I figured I’d combine the build section for them.

First I did some return edge trimming. The chest didn’t have tons of return edge needing lots of trimming, but I do do some better return edge cleanup around the shoulders and neckline

before

after

 

I will do more once I can get some of the rigging together so I can figure out where things line up for the shoulder bridges later.

 

To add some support for the shoulder bridges I’ve trimmed out two pieces of plastic the same size as the bridges. I used a heat gun to then bend at the point the bridges aren’t connected to the chest piece. Then I heated up the rest to bend into a curve like the shoulder bridge.

 

 

I then glued the strips around the curved areas to the shoulder bridges and didn’t glue the bent part as that will be glued after to the chest armor.

 

 

I have clamps holding the curved parts together while they cure. I will then glue the rest to the chest tomorrow.

Edited April 19, 2023 by FN1313

[FN1313[TK]]

I marked out the abdomen side holes for the split rivets.

 

20mm from top and bottom edge and 10mm in, then the midway point between the two was about 64.5mm

 

how do these marks look before I drill holes?

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

12 hours ago, FN1313 said:

I marked out the abdomen side holes for the split rivets.

 

20mm from top and bottom edge and 10mm in, then the midway point between the two was about 64.5mm

 

how do these marks look before I drill holes?

 

 

Looking good.  

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You could take a little more from around your neck if you wanted to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[FN1313[TK]]

3 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

You could take a little more from around your neck if you wanted to.

 

 

 
 
 
 

That’s actually the before picture I did take more from around the neck.


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Edited April 6, 2023 by FN1313

[FN1313[TK]]

Here’s a general idea of my leg armor. The shins done have rear closure method done yet as I need a sewing machine for the elastic to not fray, but I will work on that tonight along with belt drop box elastic. That’s why the shins look larger because they are loose in the back.

 

 

[dblcross[TK]]

Here’s a general idea of my leg armor. The shins done have rear closure method done yet as I need a sewing machine for the elastic to not fray, but I will work on that tonight along with belt drop box elastic. That’s why the shins look larger because they are loose in the back.
 

 

Looks great! I see you also have a supervisor.

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[FN1313[TK]]

14 hours ago, dblcross said:

Looks great! I see you also have a supervisor.

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I have two supervisors, the one you see is the lazy one.

[FN1313[TK]]

STRAPPING AND RIGGING

 

Now that everything is pretty much trimmed and setup ready to go I’m starting the strapping and rigging process. First I’m doing the bicep retention strap on the shoulder bells.

I took a 3/4 inch wide elastic and measured two 240mm length strips. This gave me an inch or so on each side to glue down into place at the bottom of the shoulder bell.

 

 

Next I’ll start working on the biceps to the arms.

 

I also have started the gluing of the 3/4 inch straps to the inner forearms.

 

Took a bit for me to get some more e6000 but I glued the biceps to the forearms with the elastic

 

 

I also added the male snap nylon to the internals of the thighs in prep for the elastic to hold to the belt.

 

 

I then added the first nylon snap to the posterior.

 

For the abdomen and kidney I’ve got the male snaps on the interior installed to both sides of the abdomen:

 

 

And started on the kidney to match up to the abdomen.

 

 

From here I will attach the snaps to the other side of the kidney and then start working the snaps to the posterior.

I’ve attached the snaps to the other side of the kidney and built the interior elastic strapping.

As you see on the right side I only used on snap on the front, this because It’s more difficult to pull apart and put together two snaps, where this is the side that I will be using to get in and out I found one snap was sufficient.

 

On the left hand side though I have the double snaps for the strong longevity

 

I also rigged up the elastic for the thighs to the belt. The belt I got was a nylon belt with one of those toothy buckles off amazon. Those tend to hold really well and it was pretty heavy duty.

 

The belt holds up great and the thighs are staying set pretty effectively. I still might consider some heavy duty suspenders to use with the belt, but for now I think it’s pretty solid.

 

Finally I started the male snaps on the right side of the posterior.

 

 

I’ve now up to this point finished the male posterior snaps on the posterior and the corresponding snaps on the kidney.

 

 

 

On the kidney I had the male snaps up about 1-2cm for the purpose of not fighting the curve near the bottom and giving a little extra elastic mobility room.

 

 

I then attached the male snap nylon to the top of the kidney in prep to connect the back armor plate.

 

 

The back armor plate also had corresponding snaps glued into place

 

Tomorrow I will be able to get the elastic rigging for that part of the clamshell done.

 

At the same time as all of this I glued the bicep to shoulder bell elastic into place

 

 

So the only part remaining for the arms is the elastic from the shoulder to the under shoulder bridge connection.

 

updates coming

Edited April 16, 2023 by FN1313

[FN1313[TK]]

KIDNEY
 

I forgot the kidney section. There’s not a ton I needed to do for the Kidney, but I did trim about 1/2 inch off each side for fitting first. I also trimmed a 20mm X 20mm square at the bottom

 

 

After that notch cut out I needed to trim the posterior to match up with that edge.

 

The posterior also looks better after this trimming.

I added some strengthening ABS on the interior edges like I did the abdomen and matched up the 3 split rivets that are on the left hand side.

 

You can also see my initial rigging snaps being installed

 

 

At this point the armor should be ready. I’m going to detail the rigging part in the previous rigging section.

 

Male snaps have been added to the opposite side now and the strapping done.

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by FN1313

[FN1313[TK]]

Updates for today.

 

Shin hook elastic

 

 

abdomen left side snaps

 

inner forearm elastic

 

drop boxes gluing

 

Shoulder bell bicep retaining strap

 

Each of the build areas has been updated with progress as well.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

If you run a lighter or soldering iron across the ends of the elastic it will stop it from fraying  

[FN1313[TK]]

If you run a lighter or soldering iron across the ends of the elastic it will stop it from fraying  

I’ll definitely do that, just wanted to see for the extra help there.


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[dblcross[TK]]

I didn't like how my forearms hung with 1" elastic. So I glued 2" nylon with snaps for the bells.

[FN1313[TK]]

I’ve also added the drop boxes to the belt today

 

[FN1313[TK]]

Today’s updates (relevant sections updated with details)

 

Shins elastic and hooks

 

Abdomen male snaps with nylon mounts

Kidney male snaps (one side)

 

Forearm/bicep elastic connection

 

Thigh male snap mounting

 

Posterior male snap mount beginning