TK ANH Stunt by CloseTheBlastDoor

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

4 minutes ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Question: Is it OK to leave this part of the bicep trimmed as shown, or should I remove what's shown in red? This is the outside half, if it's not clear.

Either is fine for biceps, albeit it's screen accurate to remove

 

 

It's just the front of the forearms you have to remove that area and all return edge  

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

I told myself I wouldn’t post again until I made some progress! A few things I discovered:

1. My photos before were of me putting the left bicep on my right arm (as evidenced by the “thumbprint”)
2. The left bicep assembly has an oval opening on the bottom, while the right bicep is much more circular. I don’t know why this is so, but in the WTF forum on FB, this was also pointed out. It’s something everyone is aware of, including Walt, and it needs to be rectified. More on this later.
    

 

So because when I was fitting the left bicep on my arm, I felt the squeeze on the short axis of the oval against my arm, and thought that that was as far as I should go. Much too big. So I need to work on that.

 

I took to focusing on the right bicep. Per Mario’s advice, I got to roughly 7.5mm on each side on the front of the bicep. I also decided to further sand down the return edges on the bottom. I tried to test fit everything before committing to gluing.

 

Not glued yet, just practicing with clamps and magnets:

 

At the top, the two halves kinda peak, instead of making a straight, continuous edge profile. I hope that’s OK, and that since it’s under the shoulder bell, it should not be an issue.

 

After gluing, waiting, and peeling, I got the first cover strip in place! PandaProps was also very helpful here.

 

Feeling a bit more confident, I glued the backside strip as well. I don’t have massive biceps by any standard, but I did go wide of the 15mm a bit.

For the left bicep, since it was needing to be reshaped, I was concerned about the return edges getting some stress. So I knocked down the remaining piece of return edge.

 

I then got a piece of scrap 4.5” pipe I had lying around in the workshop, and rubber banded each half to it.

 

And here’s where it gets weird… I didn’t have a pot tall enough to get full immersion, so I pulled out the sous vide gadget, filled it with very hot water, and set the target temperature to 200F. 

 

Pipe end. Bicep strapped with rubber band(s):

 

The dunk!

 

This turned out to work quite well. Immersion time was 30-40 seconds, and I did each half at least twice. The left and right biceps look a lot more similar now:

 

I then got the edges cut and sanded down and started gluing. Since the left bicep was stretched out, the edges didn’t quite meet in a straight line, and I”m hoping that the glue and cover strip will provide a little bit of assistance here:

 

I have glued each strip one by one in the hope of learning and refining my technique. I’m pretty close, although there is still some sloppiness in the form of glue residue, scratches, and dull spots right along the edge of the cover strips that I’m not sure are OK.

 

 

Once everything was glued, the final step was to even out all the return edges.

 

I learned a lot on this, hopefully it makes everything else go smoother.

 

I hope this is all good enough! Thanks to everyone thus far for all the great advice!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Pretty common the have round/oval biceps, same with the forearms.

 

With the sides of the coverstrips this is normal as you are seeing the inside of the plastic not the gloss outside.

 

Some trim the ends of the coverstrips to match the armor, some trim before the ends, you can also angle cut.

 

 

You can also trim the corners with small angle cuts

 

Looking good so far

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

22 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Looking good so far

 

Thanks, Glen!

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

I decided that I couldn’t wait until warmer Spring weather to make progress on the thermal detonator, and because I had a number of other paint projects pending, I constructed a little spray booth.
 

 

The walls are 10 mil vinyl, which have miniscule thermal mass, but it’s enough to contain a small space, and not have the heater running for hours to get up to temperature. In about 20 minutes, I got from 55F to 70F. 70F is the minimum temperature specified by Testors.

 

I kept the spray can and the tube in there to warm up a bit longer, then got to painting with two coats of Testors 1237 spray primer:
 

 

 

Looks like I also primed the thermometer! I was going to leave the heater on for a while after this, but then started to get paranoid that volatile fumes + electric spark = no more workshop. So I turned it off.

 

I let this dry for ~24 hours, then applied 3-4 coats of the Testors 1260 Dullcoat. Here’s hoping it’s good enough!

 

While waiting for the paint to dry (haha), I think I’ll work on shaping the bars using the other piece of sacrificial PVC that I had bought earlier. This way, I could get the curves right without risking scratching the paint off of the real thing.

 

Hi @MaskedVengeance, I had another look at the TD part of your build thread - which choice between ‘2” raised’ and ‘2” lowered’ did you end up going with?

 

 

 

[dblcross[TK]]

1 hour ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

I decided that I couldn’t wait until warmer Spring weather to make progress on the thermal detonator, and because I had a number of other paint projects pending, I constructed a little spray booth.
 

 

The walls are 10 mil vinyl, which have miniscule thermal mass, but it’s enough to contain a small space, and not have the heater running for hours to get up to temperature. In about 20 minutes, I got from 55F to 70F. 70F is the minimum temperature specified by Testors.

 

I kept the spray can and the tube in there to warm up a bit longer, then got to painting with two coats of Testors 1237 spray primer:
 

 

 

Looks like I also primed the thermometer! I was going to leave the heater on for a while after this, but then started to get paranoid that volatile fumes + electric spark = no more workshop. So I turned it off.

 

I let this dry for ~24 hours, then applied 3-4 coats of the Testors 1260 Dullcoat. Here’s hoping it’s good enough!

 

While waiting for the paint to dry (haha), I think I’ll work on shaping the bars using the other piece of sacrificial PVC that I had bought earlier. This way, I could get the curves right without risking scratching the paint off of the real thing.

 

Hi @MaskedVengeance, I had another look at the TD part of your build thread - which choice between ‘2” raised’ and ‘2” lowered’ did you end up going with?

 

 

 

 

I used @ukswrath build on the Detonator where he lays out how to bend the clips for it. It worked wonders. 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

1 hour ago, dblcross said:

I used @ukswrath build on the Detonator where he lays out how to bend the clips for it. It worked wonders. 

Ooh, I missed that one, thanks for pointing it out!!

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

13 hours ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Hi @MaskedVengeance, I had another look at the TD part of your build thread - which choice between ‘2” raised’ and ‘2” lowered’ did you end up going with?

 

So if you're shaping your own TD clips then you don't need to worry about the dilemma I had about the raised or lowered option because you can size/trim the clips to your needs. "Raised" vs "lowered" was relevant to me at the time because I had prefabricated clips that were designed for the larger diameter tubes. Basically you should aim for what is technically the "lower" posture of the tube as it related to how the panel is pointing back (you don't want to knob aimed too high), but the "raised" placement of the tube relative to your canvas belt. For those of you reading, here is the image for context:

 

 

And by the way, my final thermal detonator is a larger 68mm diameter one from AM, versus the smaller 2" diameter ATA one from my build thread.

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

15 hours ago, MaskedVengeance said:

 

So if you're shaping your own TD clips then you don't need to worry about the dilemma I had about the raised or lowered option because you can size/trim the clips to your needs. "Raised" vs "lowered" was relevant to me at the time because I had prefabricated clips that were designed for the larger diameter tubes. Basically you should aim for what is technically the "lower" posture of the tube as it related to how the panel is pointing back (you don't want to knob aimed too high), but the "raised" placement of the tube relative to your canvas belt. For those of you reading, here is the image for context:

 

 

And by the way, my final thermal detonator is a larger 68mm diameter one from AM, versus the smaller 2" diameter ATA one from my build thread.

 

 

Ah, OK, that makes a lot of sense.

 

I also see the Velcro on the clips. Is this because the TD has a tendency to come off the belt?

 

Thanks again for all your info!

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

I also see the Velcro on the clips. Is this because the TD has a tendency to come off the belt?

Sorta. The fuzzy Velcro on the outside of the clips is to protect your kidney armor plate, since it will be in direct contact. However, if you look closely you’ll notice I also put some scratchy/hook Velcro on the INSIDE of the clips, which is to add friction to the canvas belt when installed, which is a retention measure. You should definitely do the fuzz Velcro to protect your armor, but test out the tightness of your fitment on the belt before doing the inner hook velcro. You may not need it, and your clip opening may be too tight to fit it anyway. Keep in mind that your canvas belt will be doubled over where your detonator is installed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I’ve been hard at work when time allowed.

 

Bending the clips properly was indeed the next challenge for me. In one of my earliest posts, I had pre-drilled the screw holes in the strips before bending, and those points proved to be the weak points in the curve. You can see that the arc is sharper at those points:

 

This strip, I screwed onto the sacrificial PVC pipe I used earlier, first with one screw at the end to hold it, then attempted to bend it by hand. This didn’t work great. Trying to keep it all square, plus having enough hand, or even clamp strength to get the bend, plus not knowing exactly how much arc to impose overall made all of the process awkward. The aluminum bar that I used was pretty stiff, maybe stiffer than typical for this?
 

 

So after some noodling, I thought I’d make a jig that better imposed the required shape. I broke out the hole saw set and cut a semicircle in the edge of a 2x4. This would be the outer side of the arc. For the inner side, I cut off some of the PVC. Since the PVC is 2” inner diameter, 2.375” outer diameter, and the biggest hole saw in my set is 2.5,” this left 1/16” of radius for the strip - perfect! 
 

 

I had not initially seen @ukswrath's build thread. Looking through it, I was so impressed with the amount of detail and clear images. The approach to the TD build was easy for me to follow, so I decided to back up a bit and start over with the strips. Here is that post:

 

 

 

I got the bars to length, drilled holes and rounded the corners on one end:
 

 

Then worked each bar into the jig a little bit at a time until I got the angle I wanted:

 

 

The curve is a bit smoother:

 

Now to drill the holes in the tube. I marked everything as carefully as I could. The hole closest to the control panel, I drilled to 9/64”, which is what is recommended for #6 screws. For the other set of holes, I wanted to have a little bit of play just in case my marks were off, so I drilled those to 11/64”. 

 

The screws I got were not black. It was hard enough to find the right size to begin with. So I needed to hit the heads with black.

 

After screwing them in, they will need a bit of touch-up where the screwdriver was in contact.

 

Next was doing the rest of the bending on the clips.

Tried to get a square bend on the first one. Then I flipped it over and increased the angle.
 

 

A bit of bending by hand with spacer in place followed this, so I got to close to 180 degrees:

 

Then on to a vice to take it the rest of the way:

 

 

Fitting the clips and caps onto the tube was next:

 

I think it turned out pretty well! Now, all I need to do is glue the cover on.

[dblcross[TK]]

6 hours ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

I had not initially seen @ukswrath's build thread. Looking through it, I was so impressed with the amount of detail and clear images. The approach to the TD build was easy for me to follow, so I decided to back up a bit and start over with the strips

Looks great!

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Love your persistence and ingenuity! Tony (Ukswrath) produces the best TD clips on the market, so I'd expect his directions to be good too. =) Forgive me for asking, since I forget if you addressed this previously, but are your end caps about 19-20mm in width?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

6 hours ago, MaskedVengeance said:

Forgive me for asking, since I forget if you addressed this previously, but are your end caps about 19-20mm in width?

Addressed page 2  

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

5 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Addressed page 2  

Thanks! Even *I* forgot! I had to go back and look in a slight panic 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

I started on the forearms next, still mainly following @ukswrath's build thread. There are a few differences between the WTF suit and the others, such as the back edge on the outer pieces just being rounded versus having an edge.

 

Left and right forearms are distinct from each other as well:

 

According to Walt, the curved side is the one that gets cut. But I think both edges will need to be cut to some extent, because the ridged side has some sloppiness to it from the vacu-form. So I cut off a bit of that just to get a clean edge, but how much of the ridged side can/should be cut?
 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

11 hours ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

I started on the forearms next, still mainly following @ukswrath's build thread. There are a few differences between the WTF suit and the others, such as the back edge on the outer pieces just being rounded versus having an edge.

 

Left and right forearms are distinct from each other as well:

 

According to Walt, the curved side is the one that gets cut. But I think both edges will need to be cut to some extent, because the ridged side has some sloppiness to it from the vacu-form. So I cut off a bit of that just to get a clean edge, but how much of the ridged side can/should be cut?
 

 

 

 

 

You can leave 0.75mm of ridge (the cover strip is about 1.5cm) and make the fit adjustment later by trimming the curved side.

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

1 hour ago, TKSpartan said:

You can leave 0.75mm of ridge (the cover strip is about 1.5cm) and make the fit adjustment later by trimming the curved side.

 

Perfect, thanks Mario! Although I'm sure you meant 0.75cm/7.5mm. It totally makes sense to cut it so it lines up with the cover strip on-center.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

53 minutes ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Perfect, thanks Mario! Although I'm sure you meant 0.75cm/7.5mm. It totally makes sense to cut it so it lines up with the cover strip on-center.

 oh  Yes! , I'm sorry I didn't update the "mm" to cm  

[ukswrath[Staff]]

On 2/26/2024 at 8:10 PM, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but I’ve been hard at work when time allowed.

 

Bending the clips properly was indeed the next challenge for me. In one of my earliest posts, I had pre-drilled the screw holes in the strips before bending, and those points proved to be the weak points in the curve. You can see that the arc is sharper at those points:

 

This strip, I screwed onto the sacrificial PVC pipe I used earlier, first with one screw at the end to hold it, then attempted to bend it by hand. This didn’t work great. Trying to keep it all square, plus having enough hand, or even clamp strength to get the bend, plus not knowing exactly how much arc to impose overall made all of the process awkward. The aluminum bar that I used was pretty stiff, maybe stiffer than typical for this?
 

 

So after some noodling, I thought I’d make a jig that better imposed the required shape. I broke out the hole saw set and cut a semicircle in the edge of a 2x4. This would be the outer side of the arc. For the inner side, I cut off some of the PVC. Since the PVC is 2” inner diameter, 2.375” outer diameter, and the biggest hole saw in my set is 2.5,” this left 1/16” of radius for the strip - perfect! 
 

 

I had not initially seen @ukswrath's build thread. Looking through it, I was so impressed with the amount of detail and clear images. The approach to the TD build was easy for me to follow, so I decided to back up a bit and start over with the strips. Here is that post:

 

 

 

I got the bars to length, drilled holes and rounded the corners on one end:
 

 

Then worked each bar into the jig a little bit at a time until I got the angle I wanted:

 

 

The curve is a bit smoother:

 

Now to drill the holes in the tube. I marked everything as carefully as I could. The hole closest to the control panel, I drilled to 9/64”, which is what is recommended for #6 screws. For the other set of holes, I wanted to have a little bit of play just in case my marks were off, so I drilled those to 11/64”. 

 

The screws I got were not black. It was hard enough to find the right size to begin with. So I needed to hit the heads with black.

 

After screwing them in, they will need a bit of touch-up where the screwdriver was in contact.

 

Next was doing the rest of the bending on the clips.

Tried to get a square bend on the first one. Then I flipped it over and increased the angle.
 

 

A bit of bending by hand with spacer in place followed this, so I got to close to 180 degrees:

 

Then on to a vice to take it the rest of the way:

 

 

Fitting the clips and caps onto the tube was next:

 

I think it turned out pretty well! Now, all I need to do is glue the cover on.

Awesome. Great job!

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

11 hours ago, ukswrath said:

Awesome. Great job!

Much credit goes to you, Tony! I was quite lost until someone pointed me to your build thread. 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

17 minutes ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Much credit goes to you, Tony! I was quite lost until someone pointed me to your build thread. 

Thank you. After all these years I just glad to still be of assistance. Keep up the great work

[dblcross[TK]]

8 hours ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Much credit goes to you, Tony! I was quite lost until someone pointed me to your build thread. 

You think his build thread is great, you should check out his website!

[CloseTheBlastDoor]

Continuing with the forearms, I removed all the return edges at the wrist ends of each side, then cut the front edges down so they could accommodate the 15mm cover strip. Then I taped the front sides and attempted some sizing.

 

Since I wasn’t keen on the strength of the boundary between the curved and ridged edges, I opted to cut and install some inside strips as well:

 

 

After 24 hours, the inside strip:

 

Now I get to the HELP moment! The WTF forearm parts are not exactly the same length on the left side, so they don’t align. I had read several other threads, and asked the WTF FB group, and the advice was to line up the top (elbow) sides of the forearms, not the wrist side. Then trim at the wrist side. So I followed that. But somehow I guess the strip upon gluing slid up a bit, and now I’m left with an even larger alignment problem, as seen here:

 

Is it OK to trim roughly where the pencil mark is? I am worried that trimming will make the outer side’s edge look bad. I hope this is not an irreversible mistake!

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I doubt anyone would notice if you trimmed the front of the forearm. Albeit you could just remove the cover strip and reglue, they will come off with a little force

 

Reference