ticopowell

Hey Look! It's a blind TK! I was fitting the shoulder bells and I figured I might as well put the legs on too... and they helmet, why not? I'm good to submit to the GML right? hahahahahaha Here are a few more pictures, I think they are ready to mount, I will shave the edge by the elbow near the chest on both sides, it cuts in behind the chest plate and should be curved, it's currently straight. The pictures also have my left bell slightly under the shoulder bridge so I bet I could trim that extra half inch off and it would be fine. With tweaking I bet both could go without that half inch at the top, curve them a little front and back, and then I wouldn't have the corners poking into me as much. It should make the overlap less, and less noticable. and some closeups I also have the shoulder elastics glueing, so those should be ready tomorrow. Now I get to research more! Helmet, shin straps, and bicep to shoulder bell connections are up next

So... I think I figured out the snap issue I'm having. I've killed probably 4-5 snaps because the pin bends... and I think it happens early on when I first hit it. I did have a successful snap placement, here it is. The left one I did first, after the first hit with the Phillips I noticed that it was slightly bent over, so I fixed it with pliers, then finished. The second one looked straight until I had it mostly down. I assume it was bent on the first hit and I didn't notice. So.... I guess I split the tips, then straighten them, then finish riveting them.

Thanks! I don't think I would have done it near as well without the mold I used. A can of paint or a thermos or something else like that could work for those that didn't have a few feet of roof flashing just sitting in their office.

Forgot to mention that I have the holster now. I need to install the snap and attach it to the belt, but that should be easy enough.

Did some more rough cuts, Rob is right, there is a lot more material that I can cut off. Here are the helmet and ears with a little more trimming. I will definitely trim the top of the ears to be a lot thinner, the left ear is probably more than double what it will be when it's finished. Ill keep tweaking the ears down, but they are close enough to get the helmet more trimmed and finished. I don't think it's quite ready to be screwed together, but it's getting there.

Thanks for all the help guys, I really didn't want to try and at nope material back so i trimmed as little as possible around the ear areas. I know that can be tricky and I only have one set of ears, and one helmet I'll do a little more timing, getting closer to the line, and get some ear trimming done. The ears came with some flat checkerboard attached from the vacuum really, so I've removed that but nothing else.

I did some very rough trimming of the helmet, here is where it sits. That's it for now.

True, RS shoulder bridges are 2 separate pieces, and mine were almost all the way trimmed to final.

That sounds like a great idea, Ill try that next time.

Thanks Joseph, Yesterday I shortened the chicago screws, I think they hold the belt better now. I still need to cut the 45* angles on the abs, but that's easy enough. I saw someone did something like 12mm off each side, I think Ill make it easier and measure the distance between the belt and the plastic edge on all 4 corners, get an average, and cut that much off so it matches nicely. My shins are now sized, cut, and glued, so all that's left is the bra straps and holes. That won't be too difficult, Ill do what RS did and drill the holes first, then glue the elastic so it's pulling when hooked up, that should keep the backs closed enough. I did bathe the shins a little to get the wonky left vs right taken care of. it's almost perfect, once I get the bra straps installed I can see how well they line up, if they still need tweaking I can do it again then. Here they are before cover strips. I decided I wanted snaps on both sides of the shoulder elastics, and Ill do snaps on the kidney/ab sections. That way I can have 2 armor halves, I think it would be easier for transport and storage. Speaking of snaps. Mine suck. The pin keeps bending while hammering instead of curling. Am I hitting it too hard? not hard enough? any tutorials on how to snap properly that I missed? I read this one, but it doesn't really address my issue. My thoughts are that my tandy snaps might have too long of shaft, so to speak, so either cutting that down, or snipping it vertically might help keep it straight. Mine look like double the length as the tutorial snaps, maybe more. I did get the 2 snaps I needed set correctly, but I bent 3 sets in doing so haha. I have the snaps on the front chest plate, in ABS, and currently they are curing with e6000. I did measure my thighs for elastics, there is a 2" and a 2.5" gap between the belt and the top of the thigh, so once I get loops sewn in the belt I can get those straps glued on. If I have time today I am going to get the armor back on to measure the shoulder bells. Then you guys can let me know if they are too big and need more trimming, I did leave them big on purpose, but only by a half inch to an inch. I figured that would help close the gaps between the chest/back plates and the bells. They so seem to fit my arms better already, but I didn't have the torso on. I also glued the crotch strap on. I am test fitting it to size, once I like it I will install the split rivet, but i'd rather make sure it fits first :). That's it for now, maybe more tonight.

Ok, one more question. Do these shoulder strap female snaps look out of place? I feel like they should be more centered. They look simple to move, and I'm thinking I should remove them, and then once my elastic shoulder straps are installed I can reinstall these snaps in the correct location so the shoulder bell fits as nice as possible. Here is a pic of the right one as centered between the front and back plates as I could get. I guess I'm not sure where the snap goes, but if its on the front or back it doesn't make a difference, the female snap on the shoulder isn't centered or even close to it. Unless I'm wrong, which isn't unheard of, the bells should be centered between the front and back armor pieces, and if the snap is all the way back I don't think it will be centered very well. Well, it's late, I caught up on the RS youtube series, and now I'm going to bed.

Alright, I did some more today with the wife's help. I'm not done yet either... I just started boiling a pot of water . I did set a timer so I don't burn the house down. First question, On the back of the thighs, I feel like I can't bend my leg. I marked where I plan to cut, that isn't too much right? I got partially suited up again to get things better situated before bathing my shoulder bells, I wanted to make sure I had them where they needed to go and that I was making them the correct shape. I also put the thighs on to see how high they needed to go and marked it. My wife helped mark some areas that will rub a little bit on the thighs... and they were all return edges that hadn't been fully removed hahaha. So I have now removed those and they fit better. We did realize that the thigh cover strips aren't vertical, they actually point to the shoulders. Makes sense, but not something you think about until you study the costumes really hard. Going to check on the water. BRB. Back, it isn't boiling yet so Ill wait another 3-5 minutes. Here are the front and back pictures, mainly of the thighs. Ok I'm back, one shoulder bell has taken it's bath, it looks a lot better! Ill post pics after I get both of them done. Reheating the water now, I turned off the stove when I pulled the first bell out because I only have one mold for both of them so why waste the energy and water So... thinking about it. It might actually be easier in the long run to not aim directly for centurion. Mainly because if you just build it you will understand the little things faster vs worrying about so many tiny details. I feel like I've been focused on the details without actually looking at the project as a whole. Ill do what I can to get centurion, and I know I'm fairly close as it is (got a lot of helmet work first haha), but I'm going to just get it built at this point with as much easy things as I can do. I still am going to add the ab/kidney shim before finishing the rest, but the rest should consist of just tweaking what I have already built. Ok, back to the water. SUCCESS!!! They both look so much better. Here is the before picture And the after picture! Here is how I taped them, I used mainly tape, but also 4 magnets for the tips, I didn't want them to curl up. The first dip into the water had one tip curl a little bit, so I went and got the magnets and dipped it again. And it took the tallest pot we have. The only other question for tonight is about the but to kidney plate connections. The butt seems to be slightly off centered with the current screw setup. But is it worth changing? Here it is with the screws mostly lined up. The right side actually lines up with the notch at this point. When I center the butt plate this is how it looks. So I can either leave it, it clearly aligns itself to be centered when wearing, as you can see from the misaligned screws on this picture. Or I can recenter it and drill and fill some holes. Or I can trim it so when it sits how it likes the left and right line up correctly. Or I can remove the notch (it's optional from what I've read) and just have a slightly larger shim, and have it shim the whole way to the ab plate. I did notice that I need to give the butt plate (and possibly the kidney plate) a hot bath as well to better form to my body, I'm not skinny but I'm not near as fat as that posterior plate wants me to be hahaha. Well, I think that's it for now, I hope yall have a good day/night/morning/whatever.

Thanks, Ill just use the included one for now.

oh and based on Jeklynhyde's hardware post, I need 4 screws instead of the 2 rivets that were provided with my helmet kit. I have a bunch of M3 bolts and nylock nuts hanging around so I plan on using those to hold the front and rear helmet pieces together. I know they aren't screen accurate, but they are under the ears so I'm not worried about that.

Well, I guess it's been 2 days since I've updated the build. I've done a few things armor related, but not much. I fried a hard drive (new power supply, old power cable, they weren't wired the same....... guess I'm getting a new hard drive ), went to a sunflower farm, and helped my wife sew a few more face masks for friends ($1.50 each if anyone needs a mask. pm please), and Ive been working hard at printing a clanker head for a few clones in the squad. Back to TK stuff The thighs are done except straps. I'm debating on how to strap them, and how high to put them. The kit came with 2 3x16" elastic pieces for the thighs, seems like a lot but I wouldn't know. I'm thinking of either sewing loops in the end, or using velcro to attach them to the provided nylon belt. Once I get the torso finished I can get the length figured out on those. I haven't paid too much attention to this specific point, but what kind of belt do most people use to hold the thighs up? I have the biceps and forearms glued together, I don't have the shoulder bells fixed yet, I was waiting for everything else to be ready to size. I think Ill use magnets or tape to make sure they are 100% in the right spot before cutting or shaping any more. The shins are still in the same spot, I haven't looked at them since the pictures I took. I'm not sure if a hot water bath will help or not but Ill look into it for sure. I haven't gotten the holster yet, I just need to go pick it up. I did poke holes in the belt and semi-attach it as you can see above. It fits to the armor, but I think the chicago screws are a bit long so I plan on sanding those down on the belt sander by maybe 1/8th of an inch. about 3mm for @TKSpartan . I want them tight so the belt doesn't sag. The positioning looks good to me. I think Ill remove a tiny bit of return edge on the large button panel to make it match a little better, but I'm waiting to glue that until I get the shims done. Haven't touched the helmet, hopefully I can start that this week sometime. I talked a little to @Jeklynhyde about her helmet and she took some good pictures on her trim lines. I'm definitely studying the RS helmet pictures and whatever else I can look at to get a bit more confidence in the helmet trim. I don't want it perfect, but I do want it correct. For the belt boxes I plan on using chicago screws, Ill E6000 the inside one so it stays put just in case my elastic sags over time. Well, that's it for now. sorry, no pictures to post at the moment unless you want to see my ugly mug or my magnet collection again haha

Fixed!

Thanks, I'll fix them once I'm back on the computer

I hope this works, I'm pushing from my phone. The wifey is using the computer at the moment. Belt is now partially compete. What do you think? Here it is while wearing it. I used these Chicago screws to mount the belt to the canvas. They are a little long, so I think Ill try sanding them down a little bit. I got the right thigh ammo box attached. Well, that's it for now Any advice on the shin rear cover strip placement? I still haven't finished that one.

That helmet definitely has 2 rivets, I wonder if it was put in because it's missing ears? Guess I was wrong, good thing I have 2 other rivets hanging around... but Ill use screws if I can.

not sure what you mean by 5.84 on height. 5.84 feet? so about 5' 10" Either way pretty close to me so that's a helpful measurement. about 4 3/8"ish for those that haven't converted 11 cm.

uhh.... you got a lot of hardware there. You sure it's for just one helmet? Here is what was included with my helmet. 2 Hovi Mics (needs painting) 2 pop rivets mesh for hovi mic lens material chin strap 6 nuts 6 washers 4 long scres 2 short screws I plan on getting other screws instead of rivets for the helmet. 2 reasons, 1, I don't have a rivet gun, 2, I can make a mistake and readjust the helmet if needed. The helmet builds Ive watched/followed usually only have 1 rivet per side and the 3 screws in each ear. Also I know to not go by the bumps that are already in the helmet, they are incorrect. I think your extra parts are just extra. I don't have any other rivets in my kit at all. They could be for the belt since you have 3 extras. The extra washers might be for the back side of the rivet, in case the plastic is thinner than desired. other than that I dont see any need for all those. The extra screws are possibly in case you don't want to rivet the helmet, now you can just screw it and call it good. Hope that helps!

I figured as much, any recommendations?

Another question I haven't really seen mentioned yet. What's the length you used on the cod to posterior strap? I'm assuming that longer isn't necessarily better for looks, but for comfort I'd rather have it longer for obvious reasons. Any tips on that?

Speaking of drop boxes.... They are sanded down to size. Next Ill need the belt ready so I can attach them to the elastic straps at the right spot. I did start the forearm to bicep glueing. I decided to do one half of the elastic at once, I figure I will have a lesser chance of making mistakes if I do it one part at a time. I just used some good old E6000 to glue them, and the tube I opened when I started this is almost empty. Good thing I have extras on hand

Oh yeah, drop boxes. Thanks!