TK ANH Stunt by CloseTheBlastDoor

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Some WTF EIB approved references to compare with

 

 

 

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

2 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Some WTF EIB approved references to compare with

 

Thanks, Glen! Those all line up so nicely!

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

I did go ahead with the spacer idea (don’t remember where I saw this before). It did also help with giving me more surface area for E-6000 adhesion. I traced out a rough pattern, used my bandsaw to cut some ¼” acrylic, rounded out the top edge of it (just in case it might scratch me), and glued it on.

 

 

But I decided against trimming the sides of the plate any further. Since I can only cut once, I’m being conservative. The photos that Glen provided seem to all show a bit more of the plate cut back, but hopefully this is OK.

 

I then went ahead and glued the shin plate, with the spacer, and made fine adjustments as I could to line things up. The sides are pretty much in line with the shin ridges, and the angle appears correct.
 

 

 

I then glued the cover strip on the back:

 

Whew!

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Spacer worked well, I used just a strip of offcut coverstrip in-between the shin and sniperplate.

 

The twist is very hard to get rid off but not impossible with this armor, clamps, magnets, tape and even more tape under stress can work but definitely leave it all clamped for at least 72 hours, any areas of pressure needs longer for the glue to dry.

 

I'd think you should be fine as you are for basic approval, may get mentioned for EIB L2

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

44 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

definitely leave it all clamped for at least 72 hours, any areas of pressure needs longer for the glue to dry.

Ah, good point! I had already removed the clamps after 24 hours. Putting them back on.

 

I would love to shoot for EIB or Centurion someday. I wasn't planning on having a blaster at first, but I think I'd feel a bit naked without one.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

5 minutes ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

I would love to shoot for EIB or Centurion someday. I wasn't planning on having a blaster at first, but I think I'd feel a bit naked without one.

I also feel naked without a blaster, I try to keep my hands on the belt but there's not much else you can do except of course high five or wave.

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

17 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I also feel naked without a blaster, I try to keep my hands on the belt but there's not much else you can do except of course high five or wave.

Yeah, we were meant to have something to miss targets with 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

Onward to the right shin. After trimming the front, cutting strips, and aligning the tops, there arises the length disparity noted in other WTF kits (outer half is longer). Also, the right shin is more of an oval shape than a round one. So I decided to glue both a front and back cover strip to the front of the shin, which afforded lots of strength against bending, then used a water bath to reshape. Here is a comparison (both shape and length difference on right shin are shown). Right shin is on the left, sorry.
 

 

For the water bath, I had no vertical pot large enough, so I went horizontal with a roasting pan over the stove:

My wife commented that it looked like I was roasting a turkey leg! After all, you can’t spell TurKey without TK! 

 

After getting the water just past 170 degrees, and a 30 second dip and reshape two times, I got the shape I wanted. Since the sides were coming together at an angle, I also found it useful to clamp them together so they would heat-form more aligned:

 

I then fitted and trimmed the back edges, and trimmed off the excess on the bottom of the shin so it was nice and even. Then I glued the back strip and waited.

 

Last thing to do is to decide on whether I want the extra inner backing strip to support the mating Velcro. I am a bit concerned that adding this inner strip only makes me have to open the shin even wider to fit it on (which puts more stress on the ABS), and I’m already opening it pretty wide.
 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I've seen a few add an extra inner strip with more velcro but I haven't needed it so far.

 

Inner strip reference

 

 

 

[dblcross[TK]]

23 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I've seen a few add an extra inner strip with more velcro but I haven't needed it so far.

This is a great idea that I will be adding to my shins.

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

Now, thighs! I had deferred this a bit because I didn’t have the compression pants yet. I trimmed the front edges down to accommodate a 20mm cover strip. The ridge lines are not exactly straight, so there is some allowance for that.

 

How much of the return edge on the top and bottom of the thighs should I remove? I’ve searched around and have seen varying opinions. Some say to trim the inner thighs on the tops all the way down, which for armor bite sounds like a good idea, and to leave 3-5mm on the outer tops. Others say to leave about a 5mm return edge all around for the bottoms. I don't see anything in the CRL about thigh return edges.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Now, thighs! I had deferred this a bit because I didn’t have the compression pants yet. I trimmed the front edges down to accommodate a 20mm cover strip. The ridge lines are not exactly straight, so there is some allowance for that.

 

How much of the return edge on the top and bottom of the thighs should I remove? I’ve searched around and have seen varying opinions. Some say to trim the inner thighs on the tops all the way down, which for armor bite sounds like a good idea, and to leave 3-5mm on the outer tops. Others say to leave about a 5mm return edge all around for the bottoms. I don't see anything in the CRL about thigh return edges.

Really depends on your size, I have skinny legs so left quite a lot of return edge to take up some of that gap, just looks better.

 

Screen references @ 5mm return edge, but you can trim it all off if it's too tight and that will be approved all the way to L3

 

From Joseph's return edge thread

Thigh tops

 

The tops of the thighs are where we see a lot of questions.  I recommend removing all the return edges from the entire upper parts, and here is why:

 

As mentioned above, you will be doing a lot of walking.  If you have the edges (or at least a large portion of them) intact, the friction and inside facing angles can really chafe the heck out of you, especially on the inside of the groin area.  (Ouch).  If there are sharp edges/points on the tops (below) these will poke into you.

When trimming these, just follow the existing line.

 

                                                            

 

Also, if you do your final fitting, glue everything together and find this out afterward, you will have to take the entire thing apart, remove the return edges, trim down the sides and then re-build/glue them back together.  The reason is that afterward the opening will be entirely too large and you will have a giant gap all the way around.  Not a good look.  Easier to do it beforehand, trust me.

 

                                                        As seen below, there were no return edges (or at least minimal ones) used in the films.

 

                                                     

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

14 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Really depends on your size, I have skinny legs so left quite a lot of return edge to take up some of that gap, just looks better.

 

I have pretty skinny legs too! Thanks for providing that info from Joseph!

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

OK, for the top of the thighs, I’ve trimmed out all of the return edge in the inner half, and for appearance have decided to leave about 3-4mm on the outer half. For the bottom, I’ve left 4-5mm all around, since I thought it would look weird removing all of the edge on a ridge that is protruding from the thigh.

 

Top edges:

 

Bottom edges:

 

As for fitting, I have everything taped and have tried them on. As far as trimming to suit my skinny legs, there is quite a bit of material to work with, which is good. Below is one attempt. Should the fit be that close, or should I leave some more room? The bottoms have a good amount of slack. Should I pull the thigh up my leg as far as it can go, to assess the proper fitting?

 

 

Another question I should have asked in the beginning: Can one sit down in this costume? Seems like the highest part of the thigh jabs right into the inside of my hip if I try.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

As for fitting, I have everything taped and have tried them on. As far as trimming to suit my skinny legs, there is quite a bit of material to work with, which is good. Below is one attempt. Should the fit be that close, or should I leave some more room? The bottoms have a good amount of slack. Should I pull the thigh up my leg as far as it can go, to assess the proper fitting?

 

Another question I should have asked in the beginning: Can one sit down in this costume? Seems like the highest part of the thigh jabs right into the inside of my hip if I try.

I have to add some foam inside the thighs to keep them central, even bringing them upward they were still loose. What will be a factor is where your cod will sit, you don't want your thighs hitting it or you posterior so final strapping/fitment once you have your body clamshell strapped and on. Also how much gap will be left between the thighs and shins, there is some adjusting to do will the full suit on. 

 

I can sit down and have done on many occasion, it's just as comfortable just to sit on a corner of a table/desk, getting the weight off your legs does help during a long troop. You do need a little bit of wiggle jiggle to get in the sitting positions, just make sure no circulation get's cut off in certain areas 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

1 hour ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I have to add some foam inside the thighs to keep them central, even bringing them upward they were still loose.

Do you think that what I've shown in the last picture is too tight? It's with the thigh hiked all the way up. I just don't want to cut too much plastic, cuz there's no turning back from that. Is there a rule of thumb for how much space one should leave?

 

I hear ya on the circulation! I have some degree of foot problems, so can't imagine standing for more than an hour at a time.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Do you think that what I've shown in the last picture is too tight? It's with the thigh hiked all the way up. I just don't want to cut too much plastic, cuz there's no turning back from that. Is there a rule of thumb for how much space one should leave?

 

I hear ya on the circulation! I have some degree of foot problems, so can't imagine standing for more than an hour at a time.

Fit can be close and most trim if they need to have a little more room, average would be a fingers width I would say. It just depends how high up your thighs will need to be which will determine how much you can leave or trim.  

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

Quick question on the knee ammo pack: mine has some ridges running in between the boxes, that are from the forming process. Aside from appearance, would this be a problem with approval? Should I try and get a new piece?

 

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

Personally, I would reach out to the armour maker to get a new piece, The ridges are quite obvious and would likely pass basic but not higher levels of approval 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

1 hour ago, Doggydoc said:

Personally, I would reach out to the armour maker to get a new piece, The ridges are quite obvious and would likely pass basic but not higher levels of approval 

Thank you, Gerald! I was thinking the same.

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

I did end up contacting Walt, and he will send me a new ammo pack. While I waited, I thought that I’d run through the rest of the thigh construction.

 

I cut 20mm wide strips for the fronts, and again like for the shins opted for an inner strip as well for strength. On the left thigh, I aligned the lower edges. The upper ones came together pretty close, so that was great.

 

On the right thigh, I aligned the top edges instead. The outer half had a bit of a curve to it, so some of the ridge comes out under the cover strip there.  I glued the front and rear strips on both thighs first before fitting.
 

 

For fitting, I followed @gmrhodes13’s advice of a finger’s width spacing, and will do the refinement later when everything starts coming together.

 

I cut and glued the rear strips at 20mm, but didn’t double that up in case I needed to make adjustments.

 

I also added a small backing strip at the bottom front of the left thigh, to make it look more even. 

 

Lower left thigh, front, with backing strip in place:

 

 

Back view:

 

Then I smoothed all edges and strips of both thighs.

 

I thought I was done.

 

But now looking at the left thigh, there is a glaring issue that I can’t believe I didn’t catch before. The ridges are spread out! I don’t know how I could have measured so poorly, and in all the gluing not have noticed, but it is pretty obvious now! Is this going to be a problem? Now that I have doubled up with front and back strips, it’s going to be even harder to get them off if I indeed need to fix this. If so, any advice on getting the strips off?
 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

The ridges are a tad wide towards the bottom. There can be a little width but normally closer to the top as you can see in this reference

 

Personally I know it's a pain to rework but it will pay off in the end and look much better. Shouldn't be too hard to pry off the cover strips, once you have lifted an edge the pressure of pulling should release them.

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

19 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Personally I know it's a pain to rework but it will pay off in the end and look much better. Shouldn't be too hard to pry off the cover strips, once you have lifted an edge the pressure of pulling should release them.

Thanks. Yeah, I really did it on this one with both front and backing strips!

[Tilheyra[TK]]

As Glen mentioned, lifting the cover strip as you go from one to another should be enough to get it free. If you can't get it started, use an Xacto knife to cut jut enough glue to allow for leverage when lifting. Just be careful to not scratch the surface of visible areas.

 

This is the reason E6000 glue is recommended for a build. You can disassemble the pieces much more easily than with other glues, yet it holds really well under the pressures of trooping!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Coming along nicely Hanson

 

 Looks like you're in good hands