FencingCorvetteTrooper

OK great. Agreed, nothing drastic though! Been a busy week and weekend, but managed to get in a few things. Hoping by the end of the coming week, we have our thighs all wrapped up. Since the first step on the thigh assembly was cutting the cover strips, figured we'd have a little mindless entertainment in the background to get us through the task (cutting covers strips has been the least enjoyable part of the build)... Once the strips were done, it was time to attach them to one side. Once those cure, then we'll attach the other side, completing the piece, and focus on the ammo pack for the right thigh. In the spirit of keeping things moving, we also went ahead and attached the ab button plates to the abs.

By the way - after fittings we are definitely going to need to do some small measure of cutaway on the back of the thigh bottoms so that we can walk with a little more freedom of movement. Would that impact our ability to get approved at any level?

LOL, no worries, we're good! Mark labeled the left and right shin parts so it helped with keeping things straight. If we had slapped it on the wrong shin though, I doubt we would have been the first to go through that fun little adventure.

OK, just a little update. And by little I mean just that. While we can't always get to do some meaningful sized work, it's always good to do something, no matter how trivial! Ab plate buttons done... And, I went ahead and thinned out the rank bar on the ears as recommended earlier (thanks for the catch David!). Hopefully later this week, we get to make some serious progress on the thighs after completing our fittings this past weekend. Once those are done, then the final push starts on the torso pieces, belts and strapping!

Thanks Brad! Yes, we've definitely done final fittings with the undersuit; initial attempts (which I realize now are usually the ones I post) are as seen with whatever we're wearing or not wearing at the time just to get a general idea, primarily on length vs. width. As for his arms, his are pretty much sized the same as mine so they have a bit of room but without being too oversized. Seeing as he is still growing and working out (he's put on 10 pounds since summer started), I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be tearing them apart to resize them as soon as we finish the complete build. We can also use a little foam if needed as I've seen on threads for slimmer troopers.

Looking good! Hang on to some of those scraps. They come in handy for experimenting with things like a hot water bath and reshaping. I also got more comfortable using my Dremel by practicing my sanding and cutting on a couple of pieces of extra cover strip material we had. Keep it up - as they say, the easiest way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. Just setup and tackle small steps at a time and before you know it, you'll have more pieces finished and outside of the box than sitting inside the box!

Thanks Gary (great name BTW ). The velcro is something we'll definitely keep as a backup for now - once we start trooping, we're bound to see how things will work and/or benefit from additional "behind the scenes magic" as needed. So far so good with the chair foam and it actually makes for a nicer feel to the fit of the shin piece along with stopping the creep. And being a little OCD, I would rather avoid sticking Velcro tape on my brand new boots although I'll likely change my tune after the first few scuffs and scratches take hold .

Almost forgot, as I mentioned last week, we were going to attend Florida Supercon this year. While we would have loved to have our builds done and approved for the event, we've still got a bit to go, but we still made sure to have some fun with a TK theme. Presenting the Hollywood Troopers - Dr. Who Trooper, Negan Trooper and Braveheart Trooper! Needless to say, we were able to break in our TK boots, as well as work out some kinks with our bucket fitting, so it was a worthwhile effort. We had a blast walking around and got stopped for pictures more times than we could count. And we of course had to stop by our Squad's booth to say hello and pose for a few pictures.

Now for the tip - most folks have run into an issue where one or both of the shins creep to one side or the other while walking. Sure enough, that was happening to us, but only with the left leg. I posted a call for help, as I wasn't too keen yet on going the route of slapping some velcro on the front of our boots and the bottom of the shin to help keep it together, and got back a really simple and effective solution from justjoseph63. We went ahead and got some seat foam, cut a roughly 1" x 1" x 8" strip (I actually went with 1.5" to provide some more stability) and then velcro'ed that to the front inner cover strip. Voila! no more shin creep!

OK, update time! So as we had shown, this past week was all about finishing our shins. Once our front inner and outer strips were on, it was time to tackle the back strip, the velcro and the oh so hated sniper plate. Have to admit, it went a lot smoother than expected and we're happy with the results. Here are a few shots of the work and another great tip received here on the forums, this time to handle the common problem of the slowly shifting shin. After cutting the rear outer strip (went with just under 25mm instead of 20mm in order to give a little bit more surface area for the velcro and a stronger grip), it was time to glue them on. Once that dried, then it was time to cut the velcro and attach it to the rear strip and the opposite side of the shin. We made sure that the closure was always to the inside. After that was done, we moved on to the dreaded sniper plate. After doing a preliminary fit, we realized we really didn't need that much massaging of the piece, but went ahead and did a quick hot water bath and started to bend the right side in and up a little bit. That helped us get a better fit along the lines on the top of the shin piece. We decided to not obsess over getting it perfectly straight in the spirit of being a little more accurate, but rather just ensure the sides lined up properly with the shin's top molding. First we fit and glued down the middle We made sure that the sides lined up as closely as possible. Once the middle was done, the glue and clamping we placed on the sides helped bring those edges in closer (I also did a little trimming on the sniper plate sides so things like that sharp edge were eliminated). I think at the end of the day, they came out pretty nice.

Yeah, was tempted (at least for me) to wear the shins since the kilt afforded me the luxury of wearing them, but I figured I'd hold off. Thanks for the tip on the rank stripes, I probably should fix that one side and that's easy to do (looks like the brush got away from me). I checked my son's and my brother's and they're a little thinner. That tends to be the pattern - I work on stuff on my armor first and wind up being the guinea pig. So when it comes time to theirs, they benefit from the experience I picked up on mine

Wait, what do you mean? I thought being in South Florida, we got a more relaxed dress code to deal with the humidity Just got the chair foam today so will give that a whirl and then it's on to the thighs!

Sweating? Inside a TK suit? Say it isn't so! LOL Thanks so much for the tip! Will definitely give that a try. I had heard of the velcro on the front of the boot as well (which was more to keep the shin from riding up), but I really didn't like the idea of sticking that stuff on my new boots. Fortunately, a test run last night around the house for 30 minutes only resulted in the left shin creep. Other than that, the fit and performance was great!

Trying to figure out a) if anyone else with AP armor (unless other armors have the same issue) has experienced their left shins shifting to the side as they walk? and b ) how did you resolve it? Was thinking of placing some velcro on the front of my boot where the shin rests, but also if maybe strategically placed foam would help? Just trying to get feedback before deciding to slap some velcro tape on my brand new boots or taking any other corrective measures. Thanks in advance!!

Well, unfortunately that good head of steam we had going for those first two weeks took a little bit of a break as work and a busy birthday weekend for me put the build on a minor hold. But we got back into it this week and so far, so good. We decided to tackle the shins, after which we'll move onto the thighs. Looks like we'll be leaving the torso pieces for last, which is a good thing as I am getting way more comfortable with hacking into the armor for minor sizing adjustments, and by the time I finish with the legs, the torso adjustments shouldn't be as intimidating. Here's a few shots of the work on the shins. First we strapped them on with the boots to get an idea for where we might need to tweak the pieces (here's my son modeling his) After we each tried the shins on and walked around a bit, we realized we'd need to take a little off the bottoms so that they sit nicely on the boot and in the right spot around the knee, giving us a good range of movement. We might need to take a small piece off of the top back part, but we'll leave that determination for later once we've actually got the thighs done and we go into final fittings with the entire suit. Here's a shot of the amount we took off the bottom. Like I said, the first cut was nerve wracking, but once that was done, the fear was gone and onward we went. My brother's will likely need about twice as much, but after the experience with these four shins, I'm not worried about it. Seems I've become the designated ABS cutter... From there, it was time to cut some inner and outer cover strips and start assembly! One little thing I discovered as part of my research into assembling the AP shins - for the left side, it was best to leave a minor offset between the two halves at the top (see below). This helps a lot with the sniper knee plate placement as it eliminates some of the "tilting" when trying to line it all up. Will definitely need to also do some massaging via a hot water bath to that piece, but it should be much easier with the offset. I'll also likely place a shim at the top to help with placing the center part of the sniper plate. Kudos to supernaut11 for noting this helpful tip in his build thread (supernaut11's ANH stunt build thread [AP]) and my fellow Everglades squad member David (illusionz_09) for his post in the same build thread that pointed to a great shin build video! Gotta love the wealth of information out here!! So while those are curing, I'm off to work on the rear shin cover strips. Hopefully some more progress later in the week, but we'll be attending the Florida Supercon this weekend. While obviously not able to go in full TK armor just yet, we'll definitely be doing a little cosplay with a TK theme (pics to follow next week).

Guess it all depends on your size. Mark's kit leaves room for varying body types; we ordered our kit already trimmed so for my son and I we seem to be ok, but my brother is thinner so we're going to need some more removed from his. Would recommend after you trim all the parts, try to do a full fitment (using good old painters tape and an extra pair of hands). That will give you an idea of where you might need to make some adjustments. Check out my build thread and you can see the comparisons across our three suits when we tried it. There's plenty of AP builds out there to reference and if you need to reach out to Mark, he's really good about responding.

OK, time for another update! Well, I have to admit, considering we're building 3 TK's at once, we have actually accomplished a great deal in just two weeks! Helmets - Done Thermal Detonators - Done Biceps & Forearms - Done Gloves - Done At this point, from a high level, we just have to complete the overall body armor, legs and belt. Granted, that includes some serious size trimming we're going to need to do for my brother's armor, and likely some minor adjustments for my son and I, but I'm really thinking we can get this done before the end of September so we can get our TK numbers, and then officially troop with our Everglades Squad brethren at a big event at the Florida Marlins game. If we wind up and missing it, it's OK as we'd rather not sacrifice quality for time (can you tell I'm a Project Manager?), but at least that's our target goal. So now for a few pictures.... Getting our biceps finished... We also added the bicep hooks afterwards (not pictured). My son and I had to go with some inner cover strips so we could extend the width of the biceps - For me because I work out, and for him because he will likely continue to grow! After a little more fit testing, then it's on to the forearms... The finished product... My son modeling his new arms... And today, we set up a trooper glove assembly line... Aiming for Centurion from the get go... Now to see what the next week brings!!

Finally, a little more excitement for the week as our blasters arrived!! Really happy with the quality on these. They are resin, so a little more fragile, but beautiful pieces nonetheless. Later on we'll try to pick up some inexpensive B grade rubber ones for those troops where it might be better to have something that can withstand a drop or two. Pew-pew!! As with the rest of the build, we've got EIB and eventually Centurion in mind, so we made sure these had the D-Ring and all the other requirements on the CRL.

So Monday and today, I couldn't let time pass by without being productive, so we jumped on the thermal detonators. Figure these little victories help make things easier on the long road that is the armor build. This weekend, we'll likely take some time to take care of the gloves and hand armor (rubber pieces for Centurion), and then maybe the belts in a week or two. Have to admit, I think they came out really nice and dead on with the sizing requirements (between 7.25" and 7.5")!

OK, so finally figured out how to get pictures back into the posts from imgur. Have no idea what happened that changed the way it was working before, but at least I got a work around and can continue posting. So we made some progress over the weekend; Saturday morning I actually completed my second troop as a handler, so I was naturally a bit more pumped up after that. On Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, we decided to dive into the armor by first attacking the biceps, but not before doing the obligatory painter's tape fitment tests. Here's me.... Here's my son... And here's my brother, who is the smaller of the three of us, and looks like will need to do some trimming here and there to get the suit to fit a little better (he was missing the padding in his helmet, thus the scrunched look). After we all calmed down from the high of somewhat looking like stormtroopers, we got to work and created our bicep cover strips (inner ones as well for my son and I as we needed a little shimming to create extra space) and proceeded to get to gluing! The cool thing is that after breaking the ice with these pieces, I definitely feel more comfortable about attacking the rest of the armor. The big challenge will be my brother's suit that will take some serious tailoring (so he is off researching build threads for thin build troopers).

OK, nevermind, I think I found the issue! Again, not sure what caused the change, but at least now I can link back out to my pictures. I basically can't use that handy Copy feature they have on each image like I did last week. For the bucket image below, I hit right click, selected Copy Image Address, pasted that into a new window's address bar, then copy and pasted that resulting URL into my post and it worked! If I just right click, then Copy Image Address and paste that directly into my post, I get the below and it won't work. n2l4RB2.jpg Go figure. Gotta love technology....

Hi Q - thanks for the reply. Just not sure I'm following and my apologies in advance. If you are referring to right clicking my image within my IMGUR album, when I do that, I do not get a Properties option (for what it's worth, I am running Safari on a Mac). I do get a Copy Image Address option, however, that results in the exact same URL that I am given by IMGUR using their Copy button that's on each image. The odd thing is how last week, I simply clicked on the Copy button on each image, then pasted the URL here in my thread. After hitting enter, the image would just show up. Somehow that behavior stopped over the weekend and I hadn't made any changes to settings or permissions. I've read where other folks have moved to imgur after the Photobucket issues, but haven't seen where others ran into this problem.

Posted in a couple of different places and unfortunately, haven't gotten any replies. I was adding to my build thread last week with no issues, hosting my images on imgur. Sometime after Friday(?) I suddenly saw that my pictures in the thread that came from imgur were no longer visible! And when I try to link any new picture in a thread, I get "The link could not be embedded because there is no image at that URL." Below is a sample URL to one of my images. http://imgur.com/tonuDId I've combed through every possible setting both here and on imgur and everything seems to be fine. I went to the fl501st.com forum and tried to enter a URL in a new thread and everything worked just fine. So wondering if something happened here that's preventing the embedded pictures?? Or am I the only one with the issue? Any help appreciated as I found imgur to be a great and easy option for hosting pics and adding them to build threads. Thanks!

Anyone using IMGUR and now having an issue with both previously posted photos and trying to add new ones? Nothing has changed that I can see since it was working late last week - my album on the IMGUR site is still there, the URL links for the pictures work fine when I type them into a new browser. Could there be a glitch here on FISD? I saw the same issue on a couple of other posts that were using IMGUR to host.

So am I the only one who suddenly lost all their pictures from IMGUR (my last two posts show up blank and the pictures are still in my IMGUR album)?? Had some fun progress this weekend, but no way to show it!