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Drosch's AP Build[*AP]


drosch

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Got my kit earlier today!

 

38 Individual Parts

4 1/2 Hours

1 Sharp knife

And a big pile of scraps

 

And it begins with a marathon trimming session. In 4 and a half hours I got all of the parts "rough" trimmed. Now its a matter of going back piece by piece and starting to get them to fit but I think I got a good start for the first day. I will try to take some pics. You guys seem to like those! :D

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The BEST AP building tutorial, thanks to Pete/Stukatrooper!!!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stukatrooper/...9989481/detail/

 

Go on an tame her, Tim! ;)

 

Yeah I think I've been through that about 10 times in preparation. I was sitting there last night with the laptop right next to me glued to those pics. It really is a good tutorial! Thanks!

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OK. A week in and here's the update. I know you guys like pics but who know when I'm going to get around to that. (I'm on a deadline here!) Anyway. Helmet is trimmed and final assembly is completed. The ears came out tighter my last one which you all thought looked pretty good. I'm really happy with it so far! Still needs paint, decals, lenses (Smitty) and Hovis (Stomper) and a custom interior if I ever get around to it before D day. Ab and Kidney plates are assembled with rivets and snaps along with the necessary side gap covers (You skinny guys suck!) The chest, back and butt pieces are also assembled along with all needed snap points and straps. Shoulder bell snaps are drying as I type and should be ready tomorrow. Biceps have both been final trimmed and assembled with inside strip and after dry time should just need cleaned up and the outside strip applied. Same goes for the thigh pieces. They are drying and should just need final adjustment with model iron and outside strip. Mom is going to start on sewing the belt this weekend so should have it in place by early next week. Mom has been a huge help so far. Still need to do the forearms and the calf pieces but dont forsee any problems there. Biggest issue is I keep running out of clamps and magnets! Back to Harbor Freight tomorrow fo sho!! Up to this point it has been going slow but I'm getting alot of the details upfront. I know that point is coming where everything is just going fall into place nicely.

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One question. Can someone post a closeup or a link to a closeup of the plastic shoulder straps. I know they get glued onto the chest and left free in the back but I'm not sure how close to the ribs to trim them. Is it tight to the ribs or is there some flat area a 1/16 to an 1/8 or so left on there. Or give me an overall width. As usual the help is greatly appreciated!

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OK! I'm a complete moron! I thought I was going to do something new and different and really just ended up wasting alot of time. I tried to use a 2 part epoxy to glue the snaps directly onto my armor. Figured if it held the heads of my golf clubs on it would hold some metal snaps to some plastic. Wrong! Once the straps were applied and pulled on the snaps came right off the epoxy. I should have just done like pretty much everyone else on this board does and use the plastic tabs. So tomorrow I will be making about 20 plastic tabs. My fingers hurt already just thinking about it.

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OK here are some pics. This is my second AP lid and I have the first one sitting right here to compare. Hopefully you guys can look this over and see if there is something I need to change. Something just doesn't feel right. See what you think. Still need to add lenses, screen, aerators, tube stripes, and details to the ear pieces, as well as paint the screws and add the neck trim. But this is pretty much what I got right now. My camera is down right now so I took these with my Crackberry!

 

 

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Good eye on the brow. I actually thought it wasnt that noticeable and you picked it right up. I think I'm just gonna cut the cap a little to adjust the one side up a touch. I really dont want to take it apart and adjust the screw holes again. My hold up seems to be with vocoder. Again it just doesnt feel right and I like the one on my first helmet better. I guess you always like your first one best! Too bad the plastic shades are way off or I could just use that one. Any other opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Alright here are the results of the first fitting of the whole suit. What I like to refer to as fitting 10lbs of crap into a 5lb bag! :o I'm not completely done yet. Still need to paint the rivets. I need a strap from the chest plate to the back plate. Should that be black or white? I didn't include the drop boxes or TD. And I have some pinching behind the knee. I'm just gonna cut the thigh backs. And it pinches really bad at the elbow. I either have to trim the bicep or the forearm for comfort and functionality. I know you guys don't like alot of black at that point but I can barely bend my arms. Enough talk - Here are the pics. Remember I'm 6'2" and 230ish. Let me know what you think.

 

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I need a strap from the chest plate to the back plate. Should that be black or white?

 

If you want to go for a more accurate look and also help keep your chest from rising too high (since you're a tall guy), skip the chest to back strap. Those weren't on the screen armor from what I've seen. Instead, strap the chest to ab and back to kidney.

 

For the chest to ab, you would want the snaps/straps on the ab to start near the very top of the ab. For the chest, you obviously can't put them at the very bottom, since the ab covers that. Instead place them about two inches from where the chest is clear of the ab. Might be right underneath the "pecs".

Do similarly for back to kidney. If there's no overlap, put them closer to the bottom. If the back does overlap the kidney, move the snaps on the back up a little.

 

Do it right and it holds everything in place and keeps either back or chest from rising too much. :D

 

Looking good so far!

Chris

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Looking good man! I would go with black to connect the chest to the back. I used black Velcro and that seems to work really well. You could try and use a snap however the curves on the chest and back might cause a problem for the little abs snap peices to sit flush.

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Just the thigh pieces. 2 inches on the left leg and about 3 inches on the right at the tops and kind of sloping down. They overlapped at the bottom. I have really big thigh muscles. All that sled pushing from football days. Even buying dress pants is a challenge. As soon as i get the cover strips of ABS glued on I will post a pic. Other than that I just didn't trim the seems as tight as you should but with the strips glued on you can barely tell and I'm really happy with how most of them came out. I'm still baffled how at 6'2" the knees are still pinching. I think my big butt is keeping the thighs from going all the way up. But the fronts dig into my groin area when I bend my knees up. I have a pretty broad chest and shoulders. I think that is where the most trouble is. The chest plate is very close to looking too small especially if the shoulders get out of wack. The shoulder bells are pretty tight too. Thanks for all the feedback. Keep it coming.

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Tim-- I think you've done an amazing job adapting the armor to your body type. You look right at home in it, IMO.

 

I would second Chris's suggestion -- ditch the chest-to-back strapping along the sides and instead strap the chest to the ab-plate and the back to the kidney plate.

It'll accomplish what you want -- preventing the chest from creeping up, and the back from flaring out -- and will be a lot more comfortable too.

I used to have straps along the sides from the back to the chest, and I recently removed them and went with the other method. It's been a big improvement-- far less constraining, IMO.

 

Really nice job, bro!

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Those straps chest to ab and back to kidney...make those out of elastic or webbing? Not sure if it all should have give or is it better to give in the back for bending over (that doesn't sound good but you know what I mean) and have less give in the front to keep it from riding up?

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Those straps chest to ab and back to kidney...make those out of elastic or webbing? Not sure if it all should have give or is it better to give in the back for bending over (that doesn't sound good but you know what I mean) and have less give in the front to keep it from riding up?

 

Definitely elastic. Those attachments will need to stretch.

 

If you have to choose, I would suggest making the back connections a little tighter than the front. With the ab and cod being one solid piece, bending over is practically impossible anyway, so you're not going to gain much flexibility by making the back connections longer. You'll just have more undersuit visible. :(;)

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Yeah the elastic did the trick! Thanks so much for suggesting that setup. This thing is really coming together. Its starting to feel solid. My FX always felt like everything was just going to fall off me. But from the tips from this site I feel like I could actually see action in this armor. Very rewarding building it all from scratch. Final fitting is tomorrow. Pics will follow. I even got my PVC blaster looking respectable. Not EIB certifiable but better than my hasbro. Its going to be a good next couple of days. Thanks again!

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Yeah the elastic did the trick! Thanks so much for suggesting that setup. This thing is really coming together. Its starting to feel solid. My FX always felt like everything was just going to fall off me. But from the tips from this site I feel like I could actually see action in this armor. Very rewarding building it all from scratch. Final fitting is tomorrow. Pics will follow. I even got my PVC blaster looking respectable. Not EIB certifiable but better than my hasbro. Its going to be a good next couple of days. Thanks again!

 

 

Looking forward to pics! Good job!

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  • 3 weeks later...

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