Ximenia

Thanks! And feel free to borrow the idea, I honestly didn't come up with it myself, my tattoo artist did, he's the best.

Just got my TK tattoo today!

So Anime Boston was my first con as a TK, and also the first time I wore the armor outside the house. I trooped in it for 4 hours on Friday and 4 hours on Sunday. Had to take a break on Saturday because I had a nasty armor bite on my left leg behind the knee. Luckily I was able to fix it and not be in pain on Sunday ^^. I've noticed that in almost every picture I've found of me my kidney/cod rides up a bit and none of my buttons show I might have to do the Luke cut that I'm dreading.

I'd have to take off more than just the return edge though, probably at least an inch off the top of the butt plate.

Patrick mentioned that I should try lowering the torso, and after staring at pictures of myself and on screen troopers I'm definitely in agreement, my cod piece seems too high up. My issue with lowering the torso however is I'd have to move the kidney plate with it in order to keep it lined up and not completely redo my strapping system, and therefore the butt plate also will move lower, and if it moves any lower it will look really off and also dig into the back of my thighs when I walk. The best solution I've thought up is cutting the top of the butt plate a bit, it would keep everything in line and allow me to lower the torso, but since the belt isn't supposed to cover the seam, it will be cutting off some of the feature and I'm not sure if that's ok. Any thoughts?

If you can't find anyone to trade you some boots might I suggest trying a shoe insert of some sort. My TK boots are also a size too big and I was able to make them fit with a shoe insert and a little bit of foam tucked in the back behind my ankle.

I used the webbing snap plate system like TK-5492 and I love it, it's very easy to put on/reliable and if you ever need to make adjustments all you need to do is make a new strap. I've had no problems yet with my snaps coming undone, I use the dritz heavy duty snaps found on trooperbay and they work great. Though I must say from my experience, the tandy leather snaps are awful, they take so much effort to get them to actually snap together and snap pliers don't seem to work with them. So if you do go snaps, get the drtiz snaps, they are great.

I finally got my ID number so I can add to this. I chose 81337 and it stands for "B Leet" I grew up with hacker culture, and it has really helped shape who I've become as an adult. I'm now a moderately successful programmer, and hobbyist game designer, and I always strive to be 1337 in everything I do. Some people may think it's silly. But it suits me.

Is it ok to cut the back of the thigh to allow for better movement? I've seen some troopers with it cut, but is it acceptable for my eventual attempt at centurion? As it stands right now I can just barely walk in my armor, more of a waddle.. I don't want to be known as "TK Penguin"

TK-81337 Requesting 501st access http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=15736

Thanks Paul, I think I'm going to try steps 1 & 2 first. I really don't want to do the luke style cut unless I have to. Hopefully I can get these last steps done without injuring myself. ( I took a snap to the eye when suiting up the first time)

That's what I get for putting the hand plates on last

And it's done.. kind of.. I need to tweak some things to make it more comfortable to troop in. And paint the rivets white.. and I forgot to put white elastics over the shoulder straps.. remembered that step after my bucket was on. >< If anyone has any suggestions for making the chest piece not so low on me that would be great. Now, I really need to go clean my living room.

Thanks for the advice Paul. I will start working on the strapping system now and get it all together before making any final adjustments. I'm sure I'll end up getting a new chest piece from you down the road, but this will have to do for now. (have a con in 3 weeks)

Here's some pictures that I promised. Thermal Det And chest/back/ab in it's current situation. The way it is right now I can't fit my head through the opening, so I'll probably have to cut the neck hole bigger. Here's the sides: The right side being the one that got warped.. if anyone has any suggestions on fixing it I'd love to hear it, if not I'll just deal with it.

Yeah, I've been using the heat gun sparingly, but I've also been following some other short female troopers builds, and they also used the heat gun on the chest to make it more form fitting. Even though it's slightly warped, it does fit me waaaay better, doesn't stick out nearly as much as before.

I was able to fix the thigh that was too small, I glued strips of abs across the gap on the inside, then tested it to make sure it fit before gluing the cover strip on. I had to go with 25mm cover strips to cover the gap on the back, but at least it's not ruined. Right now the cover strip is gluing, I will snap pics when that is done. I also finally got around to doing the thermal detonator.. the clips were way easier to drill through and bend then I thought they would be. I was able to use a regular handheld drill and I bent them by hand. I drilled a hole in the center under the faceplate to prevent an airlock, which makes it easy to remove the endcaps and use it to hold my keys. I tried to tackle the chest/back yesterday.. I used a heat gun to try to form the chest more to my body type.. I was extremely careful with it, but it still managed to warp the plastic on one side. It's not terribly noticeable when I'm wearing it, just looks a bit battledamaged. (Still bugs me though) The chest piece is still quite large on me and covers half of the buttons on the ab piece. I'm not sure if I should cut it Luke style, cut the neck out more or leave it the way it is and cut/remount the cod so the ab fits lower. I will snap pics of everything when I get home tonight.

I really didn't want to have to cut the top of the thighs, but it was the only way to get them to fit, without trimming them they went down past my knees no matter how high I attempted to pull them up. It was the only way. But length wise they are fine now, and like I said, the right thigh fits me just fine. I'm confident I can fix the left thigh without too much trouble, it's just super annoying. And thank you very much. Luckily all of my friends were stuck at work during the marathon, as was I. We're a tough city, and everyone is handling it quite well.

So I'm now officially behind schedule because of all the craziness in Boston lately.. (had to miss work cause of the lockdown, and then had to work a lot of overtime to get work projects back on track). But here are the pics of the forearms that I promised.. it's hard to see how much I took off, but it was a lot, about an inch from each side and then formed back into a curve with the heat gun. I still need to clean up the cover strips, but other than that they are done. I've been spending the last couple of days on the %&^@!ng thighs.. those things really do suck. I had to trim about an inch off the top to get them to fit properly, and quite a bit off the back... so I got them on me fitting properly with masking tape. measured/marked cut and glued.. and now the left one is too small.. it fit me perfectly before I glued it, so I'm kinda peeved about that.. going to have to rip it apart and re glue it with a sham now.

So here's what I've been up to since the last update. I trimmed up the forearms and biceps some more, trying to get them to fit my tiny arms lol. Trimming didn't work, as they began to lose shape so I had to go out and buy a heat gun to be able to form them back to shape. Due to having to cut so much off they didn't align properly so in order to glue them I glued a strip of plastic on the inside to help hold it in place. Also, ladies if you find yourself having to use a heat gun to make the armor fit you be realllllllly careful.. I was super cautious and one of my biceps still got a little deformed.. luckily it's not noticeable while it's worn. I forgot to snap pics of the forearms, but they are currently sitting at home with the cover strips gluing.. they were a lot of work but the end result looks very nice on me. I'll snap pics when I get home tonight. And I also started on the shins.. Didn't need to use the heat gun too much on these. Here's pictures of them taped together on me with my tk boots.. I think they look about right, but I'd love any second opinions before I glue. -

And... it's done! I just can't stop smiling when I look at it. The only thing I don't like is the height of the brow.. It was where I wanted it before i put the ears on, but when the ears are on it pushes up a bit. Oh well, it's a minor flaw, and I love it still. Now onto the getting this armor to fit me thing.

I was able to fix the ears, there's still gaps but it's not absurd like it was before. I got the hand painted decals on using the soapy water technique, tube stripes are on and looking perfect! I also fixed the teeth and did the first coat of paint on the vocoder and ears. It's almost done!

You could always ask TK Boots if they have your equivalent in mens sizes, they had mine and I didn't even have to wait. They might be a tad big, but insoles will fix that.

I know it won't be easy, but I'm not going to let my tiny hands keep me from centurion status

Maybe I could wrap my hands and fingers with ace bandage to make them a bit bigger and fit in the gloves I already have XD. That way I could still use the hand guards as well. Has anyone tried something like that?