thederek

Great cause, Ken. I'll donate a spare TK knee and two inner/outter drop boxes since I'm a TD. If anyone can swing some spare biceps too, that'd be cool too. Not *as* critical, but they've been abused and are velcroed on vs. a cover strip.

I just think it's awesome I snuck in there as a TD amongst all you cleanies in that pic We can coexist! Lol

Cool, glad the top fit! That was my problem. Try the Champion brand at Sports Authority if there's one near you, or whatever the local equivalent is. For the record, Marshalls didn't have anything, and Ross is a bit out of the way.

Thanks Ian & Bill! Good advice. Been busy lately as well. Will research some more when time, and will post pics before questionable cuts.

Ok, so I made some "progress". This is probably the slowest build ever you all have seen, and I also won't be spamming with as many photos as my blaster build. I've finished one of the forearms in terms of the rough trim, and I'm at the part where I"m ready to smooth/sand it and start trying to fit it. Here's some pics on the trimming I did. Feel free to point out anything. All these photos are for the left forearm. Cut off wrist return edges, still need to sand this, and trim a tiny bit more: This is the upper part of the forearm. Per Germain's suggestion, leaving a return at the outside forearm top, and removing the inside return edge (which still needs to be trimmed back more, there's still a little return on it). Do most people still cut the return off on the inside near the elbow crease? I like the return edge look, but not if it pinches me! Finally, this part if someone can help with will help me with all other pieces. So I'm ready to start kind of test-fitting these parts. I noticed when I try and make the forearm piece, it's really a pain in the you know what to get it to form a "forearm piece". I think this is due to all the extra plastic on "flat parts". I haven't trimmed this part yet, and know this can be a crucial step. So before I go make coverstrips, etc, and start trimming away, I want to at first at least know how to fit these together. Since this is Centurion, they can't overlap. So I was wondering, can I start to remove some of the red area before even "precisely" measuring for coverstrips? I just want to even see how tight this needs to be. Right now, the forearm is HUGE on me, even with the overlap method. It's looking more hexagonal, and not quite sure how to fit it before accurately trimming it down. Thinking about cutting some of this away? Anyways, sorry fellow troopers. I don't have all the time in the world to browse the build threads right now, with 60 hour weeks and a securities exam coming up. Trying to do what I can with limited time and a little help from my FISD counterparts. Best!

I dunno man, I'm 6', 205, and I thought an Eastbay XL would be ok and boy, was I wrong. I know it's supposed to be tight somewhat and "compress", but my god I've never looked and felt so horrible at the same time. While I admit this would be funny seeing someone type this on the reverse, I just couldn't wear this that tight. So I actually went IN PERSON to shop (since I really hate shopping clothes online). I went with an Underarmor XXL compression top. While it's -slightly- loose in the forearms for my body type, it gives me much more room in the chest and belly without looking like I'm pregnant. I'd say shop in person, as much of a pain as that will be. I went to Sports Authority, so you're going to pay a bit more there. My Underarmor shirt was like $34 bucks. I live in Florida, so a lot of hot compression gear isn't exactly stylish in mid-July. As far as compression bottoms, I hope this may help some other people. While picking up my Underarmor shirt, I also picked up a Champion brand compression pant that fits really well for 25% off, bringing that down to about $26. So it was about $60 out the door (with tax) for an undersuit, which from what I understand $40-60 is about the norm for this. Kudos to anyone else who gets this way cheaper and it fits; I'm jealous of you. In the meantime, I now have to ship off the Eastbay stuff back to them (the leggings had gray stitching like the above photo, and I didn't catch this on the website) to get my refund and wait about 8-10 days for the money back. That's the only pain with back and forth shipping. Even though the driving-around-factor is frustrating, I'd much rather try something on in person. In fact, this weekend I'll go Ross and Marshalls per your all's suggestion and see if I can find something even CHEAPER, and return the Sports Authority stuff if that happens. I'll be honest - this is the biggest pain in the butt of the whole costume so far, haha. And man, I need to get in shape, compression gear is NOT for me.

Im late to the thread, but started my rough trim on an ATA kit with Lexan scissors, and wow, what a huge help so far. Now only if they were magic and could finish for me. You're doing good on the helmet, give us an update when you can...

Haha, thanks, and it's all good. So, I made my first cuts, and just wanted to update the world. It's nothing crazy, just trying to get my feet wet and getting used to using the scissors and score and snap method. I also made these very conservative cuts. I think I'll take the dremel for the rest and slowly sand them down that way now that the main pieces are scored and snapped away. So here's the bottom of one of the bells. I think I still need to trim all this away. And trim this too: This is the part that I haven't see in a lot of detail. It seems that people just "get" it better than me, haha. Thanks to Ian linking Germain's post, I now know the bottom of the bell should have a slight return. However, It seems people are just making an arbitrary cut using: 1.) whatever looks good, as long as it's a return edge, and 2.) is it comfortable/does it fit well with the bicep. Right? Example: In this photo, the pencil line is the bubbly mold part still, that needs to go. The blue line is where if you cut it, there would be NO return edge. So the red line was arbitrary made by me, to what I saw from other pics and what I thought looked good.

Very nice, clean work! Adds a nice touch. Alles gut!

Haha, thanks Steve. Can this be moved to the Build thread section too? That's a good idea about looking at Centurion submissions. I'm just a bit disappointed, i thought the trimming would be easier for me, and instead of spending 4 days to work on this armor to have it ready in a month for Comic Con, I'm spending 4 days reading and looking at pics. Ah well, the price to pay to avoid mistakes, but the more I read and research, the more questions I have. I think you Vet guys take it for granted. People are born into armor costuming Although knowing myself, once I know what I'm doing I can't wait to build more.

Thanks Ian, I can always count on my favorite Aussie to set me straight. I didn't think of searching for "return edge". I searched for "trimming" and got a crap ton of results with varying levels of "what I want".

I hope this can help other future newbies, as I've never done anything with plastics, costuming, or anything else before other than scale tank models. So I started with a basic "arm layout", once I knew right from left (following threads, tutorials, etc). I'm sorry in advance if I spam with pictures. Let me know if it's too much and I'll delete some or something, or tailor them down in future posts. Are there good threads for trimming? Most people seem to gloss over this other than helmet builds. Have I just not looked enough? Links? This should only be the initial pic-heavy, hand-held part as I'm woefully unsure what I'm doing here. Is it normal to feel like you're going to puke before you start cutting? I've never done this before. The assembling and everything else makes much more sense to me technically, and any fitting, etc will most likely be done in person with my squad. However, I wanted to start trimming before the next armor party. So for the following posts, this is only in regards to the left arm assembly (bicep, forearm, & shoulder bell). My logic is once I feel comfortable on one side, I can duplicate the other within reason (since I know they're slightly different). I'm going to do score and snap, and most likely leave a bit extra on just to be safe (easier to subtract than to add!). I don't trust myself at first. Now for the shoulder bells. On the inside, my eyes "see" two types of mold lines, but I'm not sure where to trim back to? I've included an inside and outside pencil line photo. (Inside) For the outside, I'm thinking the line furthest on the left since my line on the right doesn't "remove" all the mold/bubbly plastic? So here are the forearm lines. I know for Centurion there are no return edges on the forearm bottom opening (closest to the hand). Which to my understanding looks almost like a "cross section", or a flat section. So am I to assume EVERY other piece of armor has return edges? I don't see any other mention of that in the CRL's, and my eyes are too n00b to spot it on other armor. I think most other pieces of armor do, even if slightly, from what I can tell. The inner forearm: inside, top (near bicep) The inner forearm: inside, bottom (near hands). I think on this one, i want to use the line closest to the bottom of the frame, which would cut off the "return edge", for Centurion. The inner forearm: outside, top (near bicep) The inner forearm: outside, bottom (near hands): thinking on this one left-most line since no return edge? Different piece (we're still on the left side of the arm assembly) The outer forearm: inside, top (near bicep) The outer forearm: inside, bottom (near hands) again, needs to be the line closest to the bottom of the frame, to remove return edge? The outer forearm: outside, top (near bicep)....these lines are harder to see, sorry The outer forearm: outside, bottom (near hands) again, thinking highest line, remove return edges. So what do you all think? I didn't post the biceps yet, as I wasn't sure if this format was too confusing to read, or had too many pics. I can edit future posts. I also know that however I cut inside will translate to the outside, but just wanted to mark how I saw the mold lines. Also note, I have not yet trimmed the sides and probably won't until my undersuit is here so I know an EXACT fit, but I know that has to be adjusted for the butt joint/cover strip method for Centurion. I also read sometimes it's easier to see the mold lines from the inside, so perhaps I just need to focus on cutting the inside mold lines which will take care of worrying about the "outside" lines.

Thanks Jonathan.....also, Ian pointed out this is in the wrong area. If this is a bellwether of things to come, then I'm in for a rough, rough ride. I'm going to PM Steve to see if he can move this to the ANH Build threads, but if any mods come across this before that happens, please move this and let me know before I go on posting. Thanks!

Hello everyone. Some of you may recognize me from such threads as "E11 ESB Build Threat" later changed to "E11 ANH Build Thread". You also know I"m spastic, anxious, yet I post a lot of photos of my do's and dont's to help other troopers from crying in the fetal position in bed at night for mistakes you have made. (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/26997-dds-anh-e-11-build-thread-first-timer/) I digress. So while still on a long wait list for ATA, luck shined upon me and I bought a full set of untrimmed ATA armor from a squaddie who had a spare set and needed to get rid of it. I suppose I have to post the obligatory brown box photo. As with everything I do, it was impulsive and non-traditional. Mine was made with the box already open (for the original purchaser to check) and exchanged in a grocery store parking lot like some 80's CIA/Cold War movie. I then beat a hasty retreat out of fear of what this looked like to someone not "in the know". (In the back of my Jeep) Anyways, I'm going to start with the following: I apologize way in advance if I'm asking questions that seem too noobish. I have spent many hours watching assembly videos, reading build threads, etc. After wading through a tough pipe blaster build, the assembly looks challenging for armor, but not as hard as the initial trimming I feel. There are tons of tutorials and how-to's for assembly, but have I just completely missed a good thread or threads about trimming? I can't seem to find any, or a real step-by-step, or line visual reference, etc. If so, you all can point me to some good trimming threads, and everything else I can probably figure out and come back here for tricky sections for help. Thanks again for all you vets who put up with new folks like me. I'm not sure if this is a bad sign that I don't even know where to fully trim yet before diving in, but if I'm going to be manic and overwhelmed, I'm shooting for Centurion. I'm prepared to run the gauntlet of guffaws, criticism, and "dude, you messed that up, needs to be fixed" comments. I'm sure there will be laughs for you all and tears for me along the way. Off to my next post.

Haha noooo Ian! I was more just joking like is anyone reading this? Haha. Bad joke. Thanks tho, and yea, I think the power cylinders are the best part so far. Congrats on getting a pair from Andy. Money well spent for very nice quality. Not to mention I get the feeling he wont be making these forever.