Darth Voorhees

Of course im going by my AP and VT builds, maybe the FX bucket is different?, not sure. But whichever way it seems to fit/look better id guess would be the correct way.

yea the back portion should def be over the front portion. Did you cut the ears from a formed piece of plastic that was flat with the ear shape in the middle of it, or were they already cut? Looks to me the ears are way over cut. I was told when i did mine not to cut that piece to the line and trim to fit over the tube a little at a time. Thats alot of gap and im not sure how you would fix that. You may be able to get new ears for it though and re-do it. EDIT..whoops you posted that while i was postin my response haha. If the gap is smaller, you can try the caulk thing, they also make it in black

Got mine today Scott! Thanks so much for doing this for us! Your a real swell guy

Somewhere on here someone made a paste with ABS shavings and acetone and was able to fill a deep cut with it. I did a search but couldnt find it...since today i have no life, lol, i may scour around and try n find it. i remember him being specific on using a little acetone at a time. The Rite-Aid store by my house sells "100% pure acetone" in the nail polish remover section. Apparently they use it to remove glue on nail tips n such. So you should be able to find it pretty easily. EDIT: FOUND IT!! ABS REPAIR PASTE

usually people will put a bit of velcro behind (and on)the belt in that area. Im still trying to think of another wayto do this myself. i put my belt on backwards, so i can attach it stright and put on the TD and then turn it around. So if i put velcro it wouldnt slide back around...soooo im still thinking lol. But yea most people just add some celcro there and that holds it up haha bryce you got to it before me!

hahaha that is the best explination ive heard for that one

Smitty up there gave you a good basis to start with, but like was said, its a VERY good idea to read through threads, spend a couple of weeks scouring around on here. I learned ALOT doing that. I read about problems people had with their armor and built mine to avoid those problems. This is def something you dont wanna rush. Re-doin stuff sucks lol Check this thread also: --------- This was an excellent start for me. Hope this helps!

lookin good trooper! Yup, like Lizzeh said, cross the straps, thats what i do, so they "X" in the front and back. I had the same probalem, and that fixed it right up!

yea def try the straps to attach the ab and chest plates. I had to do that to keep the chest from popping up, not from female parts, but from a bit of a tummy heh. Works awesome, if you need pics let me know an ill post em for ya! Your armor looks like its comin along nicely to me, a couple of tweaks and i think you'd be good to go!

yea the thighs are the biggest pain to work with, especially if you have an FX kit. They are pretty huge. Do what Murray said and use tape to test fit. I glued the fronts of mine, then once cured, i kept pulling them in and taping them till i got a good fit. I then marked it with a china marker crayon thing and put velcro on the back. Then i needed to adjust further, but once i was happy with the fit, i riveted it in place. But you can leave the velcro or glue it as well. Best tip is to try and taper them at the bottom. FX thighs have a tendency to look like barrels. I still think i could take mine in a bit more at the bottom but for now it looks pretty good.

This is comin out awesome! cant wait to see further progress!

Ok i Armored up before to give it a test, i really couldnt figure out how to get a pic of it in "action"..lol. But i used the 'ol camode, and didnt have any trouble with the mod working as it should. Had a lil trouble grabbing the elastic strap dngling from the butt plate to re-attach it, but i did it, and all in all i think this works sweet. Because it is kinda a paint to make a pit stop im gonna try to avoid it, but if need be, i know i can without removing my upper armor. My first troop is this weekend at a semi-small con, so ill have a "field report" after that. Thanks again everyone for the kind words on the mod. I was told by someone in my garrison that someone at the rose parade had his cod cut this way, so i may not be the first to do this, which i kinda didnt think i was, but im glad i was the one who shared it with all of you so that some of you can get use of it!

huh, who knew!...thats a pretty awesome pic, thanks for postin that Daetrin, and thanks to Troopermaster for originally positng it.

Yea def scrap the velcro that comes with the kit. I use Clips and snaps, some stuff is just glued into place, and the little velcro i do use is the industrial one.

i hope you dont want to see me use the bathroom! But seriously,sure i can do that, possibly later tonight, or sometime during the week. i just hope the pics look ok in "house lighting" billhag: hahaha thanks...hm maybe lol

Def Deckard for sure...i was going to get a replacement thigh from him but then thought i could work with my slightly messed up one. Ill prolly replace them with AP ones later on..

haha well thanks everyone for the kind words! laspector, 2 yrs ago i was trying to figure out how to get armor lol DoubleDee...i was going to plastic weld it, but i figured it was kind of a pressure point if you sit down, and i didnt want the tabs snapping off if i needed to sit, so since its all under the belt, i went with rivets! Well i armored up just to see how it works out, and it works great. i just have to slide my belt up, unsnap the crotch strap and then i can flip the cod up. Of course i still need to remove my bucket and gloves cuz i cant see a thing in that helmet lol...but it works well without the cod popping out from under the belt, or getting tiny trooper crotch syndrome

No, im not talkin about fileting a fish!.... I know this is basically a straight forward thing, but from what i hear and see, there are sometimes problems that arrise while wearing your armor with a cut cod. We mostly agree its easier to make "pitstops" if the cod is cut, plus it makes it easier to sit down. But ive noticed people mentioning these few things. 1) sometimes the cod will pop out from under the belt, 2) Sometimes the cod can get pulled too far back and make it angled and contribute to the cod popping out from under the belt, and 3) To resolve the forementioned problem some will push the belt down to better cover the cut and end up with tiny trooper crotch. So i decided to do it a little differently. I havent trooped in it yet, so i cant give any field experience reviews yet, but so far it seems it will remedy most of the forementioned problems. I decided i wanted the cut higher up but didnt want to cut the sides of the ab plate to make a straight cut from one end to the other, so i cut it in a diamond shape, like when you see a drawing of a diamond for a jewelry shop or the likes. So it looks like this: I also cut 3 "tabs" out of the ABS i have left over from replacing the belt with a canvas one. These 3 tabs i then riveted onto the ab plate at either end of the cut, and in the center. I figured this is a stress point and cannot be seen with the belt on, so i used rivets. It looks like this: Then i used painters tape and taped the cod back into place. Putting the tape on the outside of the cod. I then flipped it over and glued 2 strips of elastic to hold the cod in place. I used TK 6044's idea of gluing the elastic to the plastic side of industrial stregth velcro that i pre applied to the armor, so it could be removed if need be. I used the plastic welder, but then reinforced it after it cured, with some hot glue. I know its a little messy, but its not going to be seen. It could be done neater im sure lol. So it looks like this: Here it is from the front: Now if everything works as planned, it seems i shouldn't have any of the forementioned problems.

hey guys, i see they metioned this in the announcements heres a quote from there: ...fo course as im posting this i see the date for the post was a few days ago, and this happened yesterday, but im guessin they are on it again! this happened to me yesterday also, for most of the day, i was having FISD withdrawal!

AWESOME! WOOOT!

Thanks, thats impressive bro! Dunno if i can take that on now, but def something to think about in the near future! And congrats man! well done!

Thanks everyone, i couldnt have dont it without everyones help here! i learned so much form reading threads and watching people bujild up thier armor before i even got mine. special thanks to Deckard, Lizzeh, Dave, of "daves garage" fame haha, Gundamzeppelin, Stomper, Vader Dave, AP, and Eric from triktoys. They all had a major parts in helping this come together!

Both of your armor looks sweet!

AWESOME! THANKS! im so happy i could do the happy dance! lol

Ok guys, heres the better pic of the split, and the rivets on the thighs painted. heres a pic where the rivets on the belt are now seen painted. If you need closser shots of the painted rivets, just say so and ill post em up in a few. thanks guys!