FN1313

Last pictures didn't show how I did the snaps, I will get more detailed photos later.

Did some more work last night now that the marine grade snaps I ordered came in. I setup the snaps for the shoulders and the back of the ab plate to hold it closed. I've got the connector snaps set for the codpiece, just need to get the strap snaps setup to hold it on. The butt plate will be installed soon and then the thigh straps will have their snaps set for the thighs soon as well. I got a hard hat liner for a welders mask from amazon. It was this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RIFGE6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It sits really well and holds well. I'm going to need to get some additional foam padding to add some distance between the top of the helmet and the top of my head as well as pad the surrounding areas of the top of the helmet around the hard hat liner just for more accurate look when wearing and padding. The shoulder supports hold the shoulder pieces at perfect height. Looking forward to getting my gaskets finished in sizing up and then I can do a full armor test fit. Forgive my sweat soaked shirt, it was easily 100 degrees here and those marine snaps take a lot to get set even with snap pliers.

Here's the Helmet process pics: Post Initial sanding down to 320 grit. These show how I marked the little holes after priming. Those holes I fixed with bondo filler. And the Bondo filler Sanded down the bondo with 320 grit Then primed again: Here's the trimmed leg pieces. I further got the sewing done to fit the gaskets right. Arms still in progress sewing.

Huge update: I’ve done a lot over the past week in progressing the armor. Still waiting on the marine snaps I ordered to put the shoulders, cod piece, butt plate and all together. So, in the meantime I’ve got to find other parts to work on. First off I sized up my leg pieces and made the necessary cuts to shape them more screen accurate as well as have them sit on my legs much more correctly/comfortably. After this I spent a bunch of time working on the back plate and extending the underarm section so it sits flush with the chest piece when wearing the TD and ab plate. I ran out of Apoxie Sculpt part way through this so I’ve got more on order to fill in the remainder then be able to sand/cut it down. At this point it’s just a waiting game for the final pieces I need so I went ahead in the process with the helmet. I sanded it down using 100 grit, 220 grit, and finally 320 grit sandpaper. After this I used some Rustoleum Sandable Primer Filler to spray it up. Once sprayed I marked all the little holes I found with a pen and then with bondo filler I covered all the little holes. Note: Bondo hardens a lot faster than Apoxie Sculpt. So when you use it, only do small bits of bondo/hardener at a time. Otherwise you will end up having a lot go to waste. Once all the holes were filled I had to sand again to get the smooth finish for another round of priming. I used the 320 grit sandpaper and wet sanding to get the excess bondo sanded up. It takes a good deal of sanding to get down, but once done those holes are filled and I’m ready to prime again. I did another final coat of primer after I had washed off the helmet from the wet sanding and let it dry. At this point it’s ready for some polish sanding with a much finer grit sandpaper. I’ve seen others use anything from 1200 to 3000 grit on this. I think I used something near 3000 for my blasters. This I will do later once I’ve got all the other pieces to the same point. Pictures incoming.

Yeah! Jim’s V5 kit is probably the most completely built kit with details I’ve seen. In fact we’re I normal sized I wouldn’t have even had to have cut parts to expand.

That's awesome. I'm getting close, at least I'm on the last bits of assembly/fine tuning, from there I can move on to the paint stuff. Luckily I'm in Utah so it's crazy warm right now and decent painting temperature (If I'm in a garage)

For added detail here's how I attached the containers on the left leg: And for the Jim kit I noticed I couldn't get the small greeblies to fit in the rectangle openings provided, so I trimmed out a groove using my dremel and cutting bit. With that little groove I was able to fit the pieces no problem. I expect a little detail sanding for the greeblie pieces, but so far things are going well. For those following this thread for their own builds, Notice that I used a long strip of masking tape to hold the greeblies in place with glue. This was to keep the forced bend as the glue dried and cured. It worked out quite well. Just make sure there's enough pull on the tape that it keeps a tight hold on the greeblie in the bent positions.

Updates and images: Did the greeblies and some more Apoxie Sculpt. Also expanded the spats to make openings for having to expand the calves. I'm going to be keeping them open up so I can use either velcro or snaps to close them. Next areas of work: Add more to the chest piece underarm wings So it connects to the back piece with the TD and ab plate on, fill in with some plastidip the upper body/helmet. Get the snap system finished up. (Waiting on snaps) and then it's finally to a point that I can start detail sanding/priming.

I just noticed your comment. Yeah I hope that I can provide some solid details on this build thread. I will also be glad to answer any questions you might have if you want. One thing I can tell you for sure is like in my last comment. I recommend cutting the wing tips off the inner yoke's front part that's the only thing that created a crack in my armor and it was as I was trying to take the yoke off. I will do this and post before/after pictures. Most likely tonight.

Thanks! It's definitely a new kind of hobby, but I'm looking forward to join my armored brothers!

That was my original worry, Luckily enough there are multiple magnets that are holding strong enough. These things are strong enough I've actually broken skin trying to separate them. My bigger worry was actually that they were going to be too strong and break the armor. Luckily the armor is just thick enough to allow them to hold in place, but not have them too strong that I can't get pieces on and off without damage. It would need to take a pretty good bump (something that would most likely scratch or knick the armor in unflattering ways) to move them. I will also be testing this more once I've got more rigging going on. If they don't hold up as much I will throw some velcro in for added measure.

So did more work last night on the upper body armor. I got the magnet mountings for the chest piece to the yoke setup. I also attached snaps to the ab plate for my Geeky Pink's harness. In testing the fitting I found that the only downside to the front on the yoke is that with the wing tips going under the arms to the back they get in the way of taking it on and off, so you have to stretch it out. This led to a crack in the yoke on the left shoulder (small one that I've filled with Epoxy glue and covered with Apoxie Sculpt). I will be also reinforcing the yoke much more with fiberglass as it's going to be the most tampered with part I feel and I don't want to find more cracks over time with it if I can prevent it. Luckily it's a piece that doesn't need to be bending much at all. to remedy the stretching I'm going to be slicing the wing tips off (they aren't needed as the chest piece goes to the back plate fine). I'm also going to trim the bottom 1-2 inches off just for better fit/removability. Something like the red lines. Otherwise here's the updated images of what I've got going. And a video showing the magnet chest working: https://i.imgur.com/d6EKBXT.mp4 Chugging along here. Tonight I'm going to reinforce the fiberglass on the yoke and then work on getting the TD magnets to the Ab piece mounted. I have ordered some heavier duty snaps for this and they should be in soon. Once those come in I will be doing some more snap setup on the back of the ab piece and then the chest piece to the back. Plus the strapping for the thighs. After that there's only a few things to do before sanding/filling/priming/painting.

@Ensi The V5 kit is so nice. I can tell Jim has made adjustments to a number of areas. I think the helmet too is a little more correct in it's build than it used to be. I do like the added parts to the front of the yoke, that will allow me some good contact points for a magnetic style attachment system. I think he's had a lot of improvements in material as well. I didn't have any cracks or bad spots with my armor at all. This is something I know has been noted in previous build threads. I highly recommend this V5 kit.

Thanks for the detailed info. Yeah I will be sizing things out before plastidip on mostly everything. I've got ukswrath fans so I just need to figure out where to place the velcro. Also thanks for the info on the inner thighs. I will have to adjust how those are shaped once I've got the cod piece attached to the ab plate and can actually measture and see how things fit. For the itch I've been sanding the interiors with a 100 grit sanding sponge, but will also sand most all part. I only intent to plastidip the chest and yoke and ab pieces just to help so they aren't scratching really nasty on each other as that's what I've read from many parties. The other option would be to line the sides that would be rubbing with some thin and smooth foam or fabric material.

Excellent. That's what I was seeing as well, but figured in asking around before cutting because it's hard to fix after the fact.

So again for anyone following this I moved to a Jim kit and have changed my build thread. I did get the armor and have done lots of work. So check out the link in a previous post if you want to see!

@ukswrathAbsolutely. I don't think I specified. Thanks for the encouragement as always. Do you know the answer on whether or not I would be good to cut out the marks on the thighs for knee mobility? thanks,

Alright, Today's update. Was busy with the legs this weekend and came out successful in resizing them! I used the Sintra I purchased and heated it up in the oven. I did this because I found out that using hot water melts it too much too fast so my first attempt turned the Sintra into a glob of plastic. So I removed the racks from my oven and turned it on to 450 degrees. After this I held each slice of Sintra under the heating coils for a minute or so. Enough to see it start bending, but not to the point that it melted. This allowed me to place it along the back of my thighs and calves to shape with the armor. Once shaped I measured (with my wife's help) the distance between the top of my thighs and bottom of my thighs, the opening of the armor to know what to mark off for gluing and what would be in the opening. After this I let the Sintra cool and then sanded it down with 100 grit sandpaper (to roughen it up for glue and holding the Apoxie Sculpt) After cooling and marking where to glue I took some Loctite (well different brand same material) Epoxy Glue and then spread that over the glue area. I used clamps on the ends to hold in place and magnets in between to press the pieces together for maximum effectiveness. I let this glue set and harden overnight. Ended up going to the In-law's place this weekend, but had to keep working on this. So I took the legs with me. I worked on the Apoxie Sculpt part up there. Simple enough. Follow the instructions on the containers and then just fill in the openings for seamless connection. / Want a general video? Here you go! https://i.imgur.com/NJWBG9P.mp4 Let all the parts sit for 24 hours and then sanded using 100 grit on my Dremel tool. Now take note that the dremel is super crazy and can be easily uncontrollable and you could knick other areas and leave nasty scuffs. I learned this with the visor area of my helmet and had to Apoxie Sculpt spots as well. But thankfully I learned and this time I sanded down most all the bumps and areas so now I will just need to manauly sand the entire pieces with 100 grit, 220 grit and 320 grit. I today spent time doing that and then filling in the areas of most flex and risk with fiberglass. For those who haven't worked with fiberglass, I hadn't either lol. But it was simple enough. Mix the fiberglass resin with some drops of the hardener (see the container instructions) and then spread over the area you will be using it on. After that dab your pre-cut strips of fiberglass cloth over the resin. Use a dabbing motion with the brush as that will push air pockets out and soak the fiberglass. If you need you can dip and add more resin where needed. Finally now that this is done I was with a more solid yoke and was able to strengthen the aerator port on the helmet as well. Finally I sanded down the areas needing it on the helmet, the apoxie sculpt parts. Final work: Washing off the residue of sanding: When I returned home I figured what the heck. I should get the tee nuts in place for the visor so I can soon get the Plastidip going. I had to use my Dremel cutting bit to cut the side of one of them off to fit above where the visor will sit. Using more Epoxie glue I placed them in the best locations i could find and then held the side ones on for the night with magnets: Tomorrow I should be able to find mark on the visor where to screw, drill those holes, test fit, and then get ready to plastidip the helmet and upper body parts. Of course I'm going to have to fit magnets to the ab plate for the TD and then to the chest plate. and test fit things prior to plastidip on those parts. Big update. but it was also a big weekend to knock out some of the craziest parts of the build. So glad I finished the shimming of the leg pieces as that was the scariest part for me never having done this before. They fit perfect now and I'm much relieved that's past me.

Question time: I noticed in some images and some armors I've seen built that people have been cutting some more space in the thigh armor for knee movement. I've marked up on my thigh armor the areas I'm going to be cutting down. Does this seem reasonable to do and still be approved? I also plan on doing similar along the back once I've got the sizing correct again. Holding off on following through until I've got an idea on this.

Pic dump. Cut out openings and sanded with 100 grit the upper body parts. One thing I can say is this armor is very smooth already, so the sanding process is quite reasonable.

Update: Last night I finished filing out all of the openings in the chest and arms. I will have to mark on the shins where the openings are, but need to do so after resizing and gluing and fitting the spats. I then adjusted the shoulder bell supports to the armor. They fit different and handle different on the Jim kit than they do on an abs pulled kit. (Pics coming) I also sliced the back of my thighs to size up. I don't plan on using velcro with them so I figured I'd do the back of them and size them up then fill with bondo. After attempting this with the ABS I got I realized it was the wrong kind of material and it doesn't mold with heat. Thanks to a facebook comment though I've got some Sintra coming in and even opted to go with Apoxie Sculpt for the area that will be needing to be filled instead of bondo. It sounded like it will be better for sculpting a large area than bondo. I will use the bondo for filling/sanding the rest of the armor. Over the next few days I will work on getting the legs sized up right and the Apoxie sculpt put in, then from there I will be filling in the thin areas with fiberglass (I will likely do this where I size up the legs too for added strength. Finally after that I will start applying snaps to the armor for the harnessing and build then get some initial wear pictures. Crazy me for doing an FOTK as my first kit, but I think it will work out just fine.

I got some of these things as well, they seem solid. I'm actually looking to use them in holding my FOTK TD on and things like that. Crossing my fingers this works.

They were sending those out to anyone in their newsletter group too.

That was even before I was working to get armor and I remember that lol

For the sizing up of armor pieces, I'm not sure on the plastic armors per say, but I am going to cut some strips of ABS for my legs and heat them in boiling water, then bend them to the curves of the interior of my current armor. I will then use a dremel to cut down the back of those armor pieces and then glue the sides of the strip to the openings to expand it by an inch or so. After that I will fill the gap with bondo so it's got a smooth seamless look. For added durability if needed I will then use some fiberglass resin and fiberglass cloth on the inside around the strip. (Note my armor is a Jim kit made out of fiberglass.)