MadMax

Thanks for the reply ukswrath. If that's what that patch was for that's pretty pathetic. It's not even placed correctly . Needless to say I didn't bother putting it back on. While I got you I just wanted to say thanks for your build thread and instructions all those years ago now. When I first got the kit I was glued to your build trying to plan out every step of mine. So thank you for that!!!! Just taking me forever to get it done.

So we all know that the Anovos belt is a floppy mess. The popular fix seems to be to strip the hard parts and move them over to a Tkittle belt. However, this comes with some risk of damaging the hard parts in the process. So I thought there must be a good way to reinforce the Anovos canvas. My idea was to slip some flexible reinforcement material into the belt from each end. Hence the "For Rent" sign. So I cut it like this to get the largest strips of white. Got lucky that the width I needed I was able to fit 2 in the large white section. I did a test fit and I could see the color a little bit through the canvas so I sanded it off. So then I ended up with two pieces like this To be able to slip them in all the way in behind the ammo belt I had to slot the ends to fit around the rivets and snaps behind I unstitched the end of the belt and slid it down inside With both sides in it looked like this Not too shabby I think. Then I needed to re-stitch the ends and the velcro pads. For the latter I had to poke holes through the plastic to be able to stich it. Here is one of the ends all done Then I had to punch holes for the belt bolts Here it is with all the stitching done. Next up was to glue the drop boxes in place Last my patches for the upper holes of the holster attachment. I cut a small piece from one end of the belt when I had it apart for inserting the plastic to make the small circles. All done! I know it is not perfect and for the amount of work I could have done it the popular way but I wanted to give this a try and see how it worked. One question for the forum. The Anovos belt has a velcro loop pad on the left inside area near the holster. What is it for?? Cheers

So I bought this to take care of the floppy Anovos belt. Stay tuned.....not only do I have an idea, but I have a plan!

Thanks all for the feedback and encouragement. I appreciate it. Glad to hear the rear strip centered is the way to go. Not doing that would have driven me crazy. Will definitely look into the velcro upgrade. More to come. Cheers

One of the last things I did before my hiatus was to work on the backs of the shins to get them to line up. So I taped them all up to hold them in place while with the intention of giving them the hot water treatment. Well, I got the taping done but never got around to the bath part. And then they sat for 4 years like this. Well, it seems like holding them in that position for so long worked just as well as the bath. I took the tape off and they are almost perfect! I do have a question on the next step that I am hoping another Anovos builder can help with. I am planning to use the velcro for the rear closure of the shins and I am wondering what a good overlap is for the cover strip. The velcro provided is quite wide so I don't think it can be use as is. The cover strip is 25mm wide. The hook side of the velcro is 20mm wide and the loop side is 25mm wide. So obviously some trimming of the velcro is needed to prevent it from being seen once installed. So what is a good overlap? Should I center the cover strip on the back seam of teh shins and trim the velco to suit or is it better to have a bit more overhang of the cover strip to allow for more velcro material? I tried looking up other build but did not find anything definitive. Any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks. Yeah, I remember seeing that but it made me nervous to get on them with enough heat to get them down. I think I tried one and I didn't like how it turned out. I was able to get them pretty flat so I am happy with them for now. Cheers

So here are all the armor sections ready to roll. First up the chest plate. Here you can see how narrow I have my return edges. Should snap plates installed. I haven't done the lower ones yet that connect to the abb section. Still figuring out the best place to put those. Posterior plate next Back plate Kidney plate Abb plate Front pieces Back pieces Figure I am in pretty good shape with these now. Just a few minor things to finish up and I can start the strapping

Hello all, So it has been a very long time since I circled back and posted here. Almost 4 years!!! Sadly my TK project got side lined for almost all of that time. Super busy at work and unfortunately some health problems as well prevented me from making much progress. However, I am now back at it so I figured I would post up with what I have been doing of late to move the project forward. With all the main parts trimmed and edges sanded I figured it was time to make up a bunch of snap plates. I don't intend to use the velcro method as supplied by Anovos. So snaps it is. I took some trimming scraps and made them into long strips to fashion mounting plates for the snaps that can be glued inside the armor. Here are the strips I started with marked out to maximize usage and centering of the snaps (you can see a few special snap plates I made in the corner of the pic) I used a pin vice and a very small drill bit to make the center mark Then of course a drill and the appropriate sized bit to make the hole for he snap I wanted the back plate of the snap to sit down tight so I counter sunk the back side ever so slightly with a quite large drill bit to help it seat. Here is what it look like with a snap installed These strips are all drilled and countersunk and ready to cut the plates First one done! A bunch more. Probably not enough to finish but will get me started. The double ones (4 pcs) are for the shoulder straps I cannot recall the final conclusion but I recall that one issue was that the metal with E6000 could cause issues the plastic material. So to isolate the back of the snap I used a small square of Tuck tape. A bit tedious to do but I want it to be perfect. That's all for those. Next up mounting the plates....

So the first step in TD assembly is to get the tube the right length. So I trimmed down the supplied to to best match the required dimension. Since cutting a hunk of PVC pipe is not so interesting I will spare you from the pictures..this time Up next was to fit the end caps. Following standard procedure I used the hot water method to allow fitment of the caps. Of course one must always follow safety protocols so make sure you have appropriate hand protection (aka: oven mitt). Pressing into the cap Looks good Both ends done Once these cooled off I set to work attaching the control panel followed by the mounting of the clips. Once again the action shots are a little dull so I will only post the result. For the life of me I could not find slotted cap head screws of the right size to use for attaching the clips. So for the time being I am using Robertson type, which will not be so noticeable once painted black and being worn. In the mean time I will continue to look.. That's it for now!

To help along my procrastination with addressing the back of the shins I decided to spend some time on accessories. Specifically the TD! First off, I attempted to follow ukswrath's advice for straightening out the TD clips to match canon. However, when I got the angled portion to just about straight it snapped off! @#$%^&*!!! I tried to clean up the break in a lame attempt to salvage the supplied clips but it was just way too short. So I endeavored to make my own. Off to the hardware store to find the appropriate material, which amazingly I did. Apparently fairly common in the household section. So aluminum strip in hand with some various pliers, clamps and tools I forged my first attempt. Not bad! Not bad at all. In fact I think mine is a fair bit better if I do say so myself However, the even harder part was to make a second one exactly like the first..... Success!!! Next up TD assembly...

So moving on down the body comes the thighs. By this point I had relatively good confidence so things started going a lot easier. Since I figure you have seen enough clamps by now I will just move along to the end result. Outer strips Inner strips and no right thigh is complete without its ammo pack. I opted for the straight look as opposed to the slightly tilted up variation. Given my height I figure I need as much coverage as I can get. I am probably going to put some foam on the inside of the split pin to prevent damage to the soft goods whilst wearing the armor. So all good here I think. More to come...

So to continue with the trend I worked my way down the body from the arms down to those dreaded calves. So up next were the shoulder bells. For this it really came down to fitting and trimming. Not so exciting. Here is how they look after my efforts. After leaving almost no return edges remaining I discovered 2 things 1) They really loose their rigidity without those edges 2) Still not big enough for my pythons....I mean biceps Later on once I get to overall fitting I will give them a hot water bath and reform the shape a bit to give me a smidge extra room. After the bells I moved onto final trimming and edge finishing of all the main body armor plates (chest, abdomen, back, kidney butt). Nothing really to show here unless of course you really want to see my butt One item of note with this armor that I commented on above, once the return edges are gone the main parts really loose a lot of rigidity. So my advice for those of you who are not on the larger size of the spectrum....leave as much as you can after satisfying the appropriate level of requirement and comfort. With all the edges I have removed I am a bit worried about the structural rigidity of the armor. Perhaps once all put together it will be OK, I dunno. Will have to reserve judgement until I am done. Stay tuned...

So the biceps were up next. These went much like the forearms. Fairly easy to handle (maybe even easier given their small size) so I won't belabor explaining the process. However, feeling more confident I decided to do both outer strips at the same time Then on to the inners Final product Up next...I am not sure

So the forearms proved to be a nice little part of the project. Quite easy to handle and they fit together quite well, even with the little bit of extra material I am leaving on to accommodate my size. For this reason I decided to glue the strips to both halves at the same time, a departure from how I started with the calves. Here are a few shots of the LH outer cover strips going on: And the RH: Once these all cured up I moved to the inside and added the inner strips as well. They look like this: As with many other TK builds I have been using cut off scraps from the initial trimming to make the inner cover strips. For the most part I have been able to find pieces big enough to make the strips. I am trying to match the size of the inner to the outer whenever possible but a few have ended up on the thin side (by a mm or 2) but I figure that's OK. They are not seen anyway and are merely for added joint support. So once all done here are my forearms. An additional note on the assembly so far. Sanding! One thing that has not been so clear to me in reading other build threads is just how much sanding people are doing. With that in mind and the fact that I am what some might say "particular" I have been spending a lot of time getting my edges nice and clean and sanding down pretty much everything. - Joint edges of the two halves - All trimmed edges - Edges of cover strips (yes, the finish of the pre-cut cover strips from Anovos just don't "cut" it for me so I have been finishing them as well) All of these I am taking down with progressive levels to 320 grit. Was going to go more but stopped myself and my OCD before I went overboard. So with these done it was time to move up to the next section...my 24" Pythons!...I mean biceps

Well it has been way to long since I updated this thread. A fair bit of progress made but sadly did not make any time to post. So I have dumped all the pics I have taken along the way into my picture hosting account and will update the best that I can. I finished off the front side of the shins with both the outer and inner cover strip. Looks a little like this. On the inside (sorry not so easy to see) After this I decided to leave the back of the shins for a later date. Having picked the worst possible parts to start with I figured I had better move onto something I can finish while also doing a decent job of it. Next up Forearms!