Bob's ROTK 850 Armor Works Build Thread

[Teach-]

Worked on the thighs for the last couple of weeks. It took a lot of test fitting, trimming, more test fitting, and several hot water baths to reshape them before I got them finalized. I've glued the front and used white velcro for the back. I bought two 1 inch buckles for attaching the thighs to the body. I sewed 1 inch nylon onto the buckles and added snaps. I also added snaps to the body armor and thigh armor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I trimmed the small ammo belt and cut the bottom outside edges at 45 degrees. I gave the ammo belt a hot water bath. Once I curved the small ammo belt, the return edge caused some buckling along the edge. I sanded those down so they are not as pronounced. Below you can see the large pan I've used for the larger pieces like the thighs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I ordered paints from Trooperbay. I included a white in order to see if it matched the white of the armor. I'm trying to determine if I'll be painting the parts I 3D printed. So far, no white has been an exact enough match. The same is true of the Humbrol gloss white so I'll probably be using the pieces as printed and not painting them.

 

 

 

Below are the newly finished pieces. After walking around for a while, I'll probably make the cuts behind the knee a little wider. I'll also be attaching the small ammo belt to the right thigh tonight.

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, the actual strapping they have on the sides is 2 straps covered with material so you don't see the clips or nylon, I doubt your GML would hold you up for basic approval though

 

  

[Teach-]

Two straps, that's good to know. I didn't catch that as I looked at images. My armor seems light enough that one strap suffices. But I only wore it for a short time. I'm also thinking a second strap will limit any twisting the thigh armor does after wearing it for a while. I'm glad you passed that on. I did know about the material covers and plan to sew those some time in the future. Thanks for sharing the details and thanks for the feedback!

Edited May 8, 2023 by Teach-

[Teach-]

I cut the openings a little wider on the back of the thighs so it's easier to bend my knees. Also attached the small ammo belt to the right thigh. It was trickier than I expected. Had to heat the piece several times to get it the right shape. Because I haven't added the cover strips yet, I taped a placeholder on the thigh so the ammo belt would sit high enough to slip the cover strip under. I also had to glue some shims underneath so the ammo belt had more points of contact to glue to the thigh. I'm mostly satisfied with it.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Teach-

[TerribleBen[TK]]

Looking good!!!

[Sly11[Admin]]

Great work on this build Bob, finish line wont be to far away

[Teach-]

I'm back! The seniors have graduated, final exams are over, the teachers' last day has come and gone, and I now have some time to get back to work!

 

Did a couple small projects in the last few weeks, and I'll start with those. Sewed the cloth covers for the thigh buckles. I used a cotton/poly/spandex cloth (thank you Fruit of the Loom).

 

 

I trimmed and sanded all the ammo boxes for the belt and for the drop boxes. There is not a lot of room for error on the ammo boxes. The ammo boxes will cover the under-boxes on the belt itself, but too much trimming will start to reveal a gap, particularly once the belt is curved. I was careful about not trimming too much. The drop boxes are also finicky. The two pieces that fit on the inside are not quite wide enough but that won't be noticed when they hang from the belt. I cut a slit in the drop boxes for the webbing and then attached black webbing to the inside of the front of the boxes before putting them together.

 

 

 

 

 

Next will be the belt assembly.

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Those strap covers look great, nice work

[Teach-]

In order to prepare for the belt, I first needed to get the abdomen details attached. I sanded and filed the 3D prints. I worked on the back armor cog and bars as well as the thermal detonator holder at the same time. Before sanding and filing them, I was researching ways to reduce print lines. I came across XTC-3D. In the end, I chose to use it not to reduce the print lines (because unless you are painting the print, the lines are still visible through the clear finish), but rather to give the pieces a glossier finish. The original print was a flat white and it stood out against the armor.  In the end , the finish is a little glossier than the armor, but I still think it's better than the flat white. A couple of the pieces need a light, second coat to get the finishes consistent. I also painted the blue, gray, and black on the ab details. Once those are dry, I'll attach them to the abdomen.

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Came out well, nice work

[chanders]

On 6/21/2023 at 6:00 PM, Teach- said:

I'm back! The seniors have graduated, final exams are over, the teachers' last day has come and gone, and I now have some time to get back to work!

 

Did a couple small projects in the last few weeks, and I'll start with those. Sewed the cloth covers for the thigh buckles. I used a cotton/poly/spandex cloth (thank you Fruit of the Loom).

 

 

I trimmed and sanded all the ammo boxes for the belt and for the drop boxes. There is not a lot of room for error on the ammo boxes. The ammo boxes will cover the under-boxes on the belt itself, but too much trimming will start to reveal a gap, particularly once the belt is curved. I was careful about not trimming too much. The drop boxes are also finicky. The two pieces that fit on the inside are not quite wide enough but that won't be noticed when they hang from the belt. I cut a slit in the drop boxes for the webbing and then attached black webbing to the inside of the front of the boxes before putting them together.

 

 

 

 

 

Next will be the belt assembly.

 

 

These look great! Can you tell me what size buckle and snaps you used and size of strapping? Also do you have a link to the suspenders? Thanks!

Edited June 27, 2023 by chanders

[Teach-]

4 hours ago, chanders said:

These look great! Can you tell me what size buckle and snaps you used and size of strapping? Also do you have a link to the suspenders? Thanks!

 

The snaps are from Tandy Leather: Line Snaps (matte black line 20) and I also purchased the Line 20 Snap Setter.

 

The buckles are from Amazon. They are 1 inch buckles and I used 1 inch nylon webbing. I also cut off and sanded the first part of the buckle where normally you'd weave the one inch webbing through. Since I stitched the webbing around the buckle, I only needed one attachment to do that.

 

The suspenders are from Amazon. 

 

If those links don't work, let me know.

[chanders]

35 minutes ago, Teach- said:

 

The snaps are from Tandy Leather: Line Snaps (matte black line 20) and I also purchased the Line 20 Snap Setter.

 

The buckles are from Amazon. They are 1 inch buckles and I used 1 inch nylon webbing. I also cut off and sanded the first part of the buckle where normally you'd weave the one inch webbing through. Since I stitched the webbing around the buckle, I only needed one attachment to do that.

 

The suspenders are from Amazon. 

 

If those links don't work, let me know.

Hi Bob, thanks. the links work. I just ordered them. I really appreciate it.

[Teach-]

I was really happy with the 3D prints for the back and abdomen details and the fact that I didn't have to sand down the resin from 850 AW so I decided to print the cover strips as well.  Things went well for the first batch until there was an overnight printer jam during the second batch 

 

 

 

 

[chanders]

1 hour ago, Teach- said:

I was really happy with the 3D prints for the back and abdomen details and the fact that I didn't have to sand down the resin from 850 AW so I decided to print the cover strips as well.  Things went well for the first batch until there was an overnight printer jam during the second batch 

 

 

 

 

Ouch!.. The prints look great though!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nothing worse waking up to a print gone wrong

[Teach-]

Using the two, long pieces of belt material provided by Armor Works, I started the belt. I doubled up the front of the belt by using one of the strips to raise the level of the ammunition belt so I could create the protruding teeth that nest between the ab details and vertical ribs. Without the bottom layer, the belt would sit too far under the ab armor and the teeth couldn't come up into the gaps. I heated, curved, and cut the front strip to length. I used snaps to hold it in place and decided to use some velcro as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I attached the ab details (and I'm mostly happy how they came out). I curved the ammo belt, marked the teeth, and then used a sander to knock out the bulk of the material. One notch between the front, right detail and rib wasn't depressed enough to put a tooth into the gap. The ab armor just didn't have enough detail at the lower edge to make it happen. All the other gaps were fine. This was a tougher part of the build. I went slow, measured and fitted a lot, and made adjustments as I went. Once the belt had the teeth, I attached the drop boxes and separate ammo boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While things were drying, I heated and curved the back belt. I also noticed the the bottom the the recessed, black ribs on the sides will likely show once the back belt is on. I continued the black angle a little farther down into the belt area.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Teach-

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work

[Teach-]

Getting back to the build! Started the lower legs. Like other parts of the 850 Armor Works kit, the sizes are big for me. I needed to cut down the length and mold them so they were tighter around my leg. I used a large pan on the stove top in order to get the full piece heated at once. It was tricky and took several times of shaping and fitting before I was happy with them.

 

 

 

I decided to use a butt joint rather than overlapping the front joint. I felt that the front cover strips wouldn't cover the joint if I overlapped it. I do worry that taking the lower legs on and off will eventually weaken the butt joint, however, it's reinforced on the back and will eventually have the cover strip on the front. I'm hoping those will make the joint strong enough.

 

 

 

I had to trim the back of the lower leg armor quite a bit in order to duplicate the CRL. Once I sized them for me, the raised detail and the opening of the back of the knee had to be recreated as best I could.

 

I worked on the left leg with the sniper knee plate first. The sniper knee plate also had to be reduced in size to match the size of the leg armor. As I attached it, I taped a cover strip underneath to ensure there was enough space when it comes time to attach one.

 

 

 

 

After a final test fit, I attach a little bit of foam on the inside to bring it off of my leg a little so it was more comfortable and sat more symmetrical along my shin. I also attached velcro at the back bottom of the armor. In the picture below, the inside of the armor is on the outside to show where the velcro was placed.

 

 

 

 

I finished up with the right lower leg and assembled it with a butt joint like the first one. At first, I was overlapping the joint but after I thought about it and did some test fitting, the butt joint made more sense and allowed me to get the front width for the cover strip to be more consistent from top to bottom. I still need to clean the excess glue off the front once it dries more.

 

 

[Teach-]

Did a test fit. I'm going to lengthen the thigh buckles a little bit to give more room around the cod armor and I'd prefer the thigh armor to sit a bit lower on my legs, I also need to shorten the right lower leg armor just a bit. It's longer than the left one. I need to tighten it around my calf and add velcro as well. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Teach-]

On the day before Winter Break, Santa always visits every classroom. I put on the armor, added a Black Series helmet and accompanied Santa on his two-hour tour. Everything held up well. My forearms are definitely too loose and too long, but I suspected that; they were the first thing I built. Everything else seemed good. The Rogue 1 pauldron is from Katarra8 on Etsy.

 

 

[Teach-]

Long ago, I built the majority of the thermal detonator. I sanded and painted the original control panel. The paint was a Rust-Oleum gloss white and there were two things I didn't like about the finished piece: I didn't sand it well enough and the white was not a good match. I printed a new one when I printed some of the cover strips. After the control panel was printed, I sanded the back to get a concave surface to match the detonator itself. For that I used a spindle sander. I then applied a coat of the XTC-3D to get a glossier finish. The gray on the end caps and body of the detonator is Rust-Oleum gloss smoke gray. I neglected to take some pictures during the first part of the build so there's a jump in the images from first to last steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also attached the"O II" design that I had printed a while ago. 

 

 

 

The Rogue One pauldron from Katarra8 worked nicely and looks great. I blackened the edges of the black fabric on the side where it snaps together. The fabric along the cut seam showed a little white. A sharpie took care of that. I'll probably tighten the elastic strap too. I think that will help keep it from riding forward as it did when I wore it last week. 

 

 

 

 

In the above image you can see a little white along the cut seam. It was more pronounced on the neck. This other part isn't noticeable when worn.

 

Edited January 4 by Teach-

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Very nice, one thing to be aware of with the ROTK white pauldron is they are a little different to most others, the section around he neck and closure is actually white, weird but here's a reference.

 

 

Albeit this has not been updated in the ROTK CRL

 

Thread here about new era pauldrons

 

 

[Teach-]

Thanks for letting me know! I'll check it out.

[Teach-]

I resized the forearms with a hot water dip and clamping them to the right size. I removed the old velcro because I needed to realign them once I sized the forearms down. Two of them came off easily. Two needed some Goo Gone and elbow grease. Afterwards I had to recut some of the arm opening. I also cut down the length by about 3/4 of an inch. I did that trimming off the back edge on the elbow side. I added a little bit of open cell foam to the cuff areas to help them stabilize on my arms.