TheLorelei

Ok, troops. Rally 'round, if you would be so kind. Today, the tissues and I (we're inseparable at this point) attacked Smudge's torso. Of all the prospective resizing, I've been most afraid of the kidney. I trimmed the rear torso pieces to the pull lines and taped them together to get a feel for the size and honestly, y'all, it's not a total travesty beyond the width which seems absurd even in comparison to the back plate. I'll try to get a pic of me in it today but depending on where the butt is supposed to sit (haha), which I need a second set of eyes on, I don't see myself having to do much besides serious slimming down. Here's where I need the advice, though. IF I DO have to trim the kidney down (which I fully recognize I probably will, just let my optimism soar for a few more hours), would it be Centurion-approvable to trim the bottom of the kidney, and attach it permanently to the buttplate? That would save me from having to reconstruct that return edge, at least. Just a thought, idle question, etc., but anyway my water is boiling so I'd best go do some reshaping.

Those traps look amazing!! Great work! I'm also impressed by how well you can clean up that bleeding around the stencil edges. That would scare me stiff. Gives me hope!

I started with all the cutlines molded in, as Daniel said. They were pretty apparent on all my pieces - if not on the outside, then on the inside. Basically where it starts getting real bumpy and wrinkly, I sketched along that border with a pencil, made sure THAT line made sense, and cut there. Also, my shins look the same as yours. (Flipped, as yours are: ) As far as I'm aware, it's just part of the beautiful ATA wonkiness. Really are some beautiful shins.

For sure

Scrap ABS! I tried wrapping the tips in tape but the teeth kept biting through. Thank you!!

My blaster appears to be stuck in customs. I'm choosing to believe that USPS is being characteristically bad at updating tracking information, instead... I'll worry more about it in another week. I can't wait to get it, though, so I can finalize sizing on - and make - my holster! Today I left work bit early due to having come down with what is no doubt the plague, but I mustered enough energy to sit on the floor and score and snap and score and snap and score and snap for 5 hours or so. Fortunately I had marked my front seam lines and sketched my return edge cut lines when I had more mental clarity so it wasn't too taxing, just tedious. Leaning back and admiring all those smoothed out pieces, I thought, "Wow! I must be almost done with the rough trimming! This isn't so bad after all." ...then I leaned over and looked into my BBB... ...and a moderate wave of disheartenment washed over me. However, Vader came to help me clean up all those little ABS curls, and all was right with the world once more. (Yes, I do find it a bit off that Lord Vader cleaned up after a TK's mess. I figure he's just a real stand-up guy.) Looking forward to getting my strength back so I can forge ahead. Prime weekend crafting days are ahead of me - won't do to waste them! But to end on a high note, and a surprise, I held up my freshly trimmed thigh pieces and they might actually fit me pretty great with minimal trimming. I was blown away. I expected to be able to keep them at standard length (I may be fun-sized, but my legs are stupid long), but definitely expected to have to slim them down. Small [potential] victories! Yay!

Two! Lucky.

I can't snap it at all without a pair of pliers. That's fine for the scrap edges of the armor that you won't need to keep nice, but of course presents a problem for the outer cover strips. I think I will end up just scoring more heavily on those, then using the edge of a table as recommended.

My goodness yes, awful, I've even been advised to carry in the left hand all the time so the Hengstler doesn't knock into my armor. Kills me. But if it results in my learning to sight with my left eye, maybe it'll be worth it. Haha I literally *just* got done the preliminary trim of my thighs and held them together for an idea of size and was absolutely shocked that they very well might fit me exactly as is. So yes. They are small. Very small, if you ask me. Or maybe I just have glorious rugby thighs and don't know it.

I *think* they are a bit small. Reviewing references and other commended builds, like you said, they all seem to be bigger, and go all the way to the edge of the indented area. It is tough since it's a soft pull. (Also weird, because mine has a fairly distinct ridge. I guess pulls vary even with the same maker.) I'd paint to where it begins to really ramp up at the edge - your brush may even want to find that groove if you let it. Speaking of brushes, you mentioned your hands shaking. Mine aren't terribly steady either, so what I usually do (material allowing) is rest my forearm/wrist on the surface I'm painting on, then drag the brush along using just the bending of my fingers. Makes for some pretty smooth lines. (Or maybe everybody does this... sorry for being obvious, if so!)

That's exactly what I was concerned about - and it just now "clicked" as to how I avoid that while only sizing along the back seam, as per your post. Thank you! I was thinking you only trim the piece with the swoop on it, so you'd have to trim both sides of the swoop to maintain symmetry - but really I'll be trimming both the front and back along only the rear joining seam to just trim less of the swoop. Think I've got it now. Thanks again.

Exciting times! Looking forward to your BBB!

Thanks and you're welcome, Adi! ALRIGHT. So. My free time was rather taken up since I last posted by a) a side project for my honorary nephew's first birthday and b) my first 501st event, squiring for Garrison Carida both of which were incredibly fun and worthwhile. Amid the fun, I did steal a few hours to mark out my front seam widths and trim most of those down, since they won't be changing size on my leg armor pieces. I also trimmed my return edges to where they MAY end up, though I recognize that many of those may go away. I erred on the side of leaving too much on, just to be safe. One question, before I proceed with applying inner cover strips on my unmoving seams. Particularly @Cricket because I can't quite tell from your WTF build. Should I be gluing the top seam of the forearms as-is, and cutting only the bottom/back, or should I remove the ridge on both sides (as with the biceps) and size it down from both directions?

Hi Adi! Honored to be asked. Tony has given great instructions; sorry I only just now saw your question! (Who ever thought I'd give advice on my thread?!) If you're still curious what I did, here's my experience with hot water bathing. When learning to reshape my pieces, I first tried pouring the boiling water into another container and placing the armor in the new container for 30 seconds. It hardly did anything to soften it, even when I left it in for longer. I think it just cooled down too fast in a new container. What ended up working for me was putting on protective gloves and bringing water to a rolling boil, then holding the piece I wanted to shape with a pair of tongs and submerging it in the pot only to a little past the point I wanted to bend. For instance, I knew I didn't want to risk messing up the clean line of the ridge along the outside of the bicep, so I only submerged the bicep edge horizontally until the ridge. You'll want to grab the part that's above water with the tongs. I held the piece partially underwater for 30 seconds then pulled it out, shook the water off, and pushed it into shape with my palm and the heel of my gloved hand while I turned to the sink. I pushed the cold water on with my wrist while holding the new curve in place (if that won't be possible for you I recommend filling the sink with cold water before you start so you can dunk the pieces in that instead), and let the water run over the plastic until it started cooling off. My gloves were thin enough that I could feel it cooling off - it took about 10 seconds to be past the point of easy damage. 30 seconds in boiling water was just enough time to get it to bend - I only had a little bending time when it came out - but not enough time for it to be floppy, or make me concerned about leaving dents with my fingers. It will feel stiff, but it does move. Bend a little, cool it, check, and repeat if you need to. It's better to have it in the water for too short an amount of time than too much! You should get a feel for things pretty quickly. At first it felt like nothing was happening but then I held the pieces up to each other and was happily surprised by the progress. I will have to reinvestigate options when it's time to reshape pieces too large for a pot, but I've heard of people filling their sink with boiling water and adding new water to keep it hot occasionally as they worked, which is what I'll try. Be safe, and let me know how it goes, please! ATA ABS is thick, but workable.

I'm quite fond of this thread for teeth/frown references. Good stuff. Standing by for answers on the glasses - I have hopes of mounting a pair of prescription lenses behind my green lenses as I heard somebody else did (once, maybe, somewhere), but also maybe it doesn't matter since you can't see anyway?...

Hey Craig! Hopping over to your thread. I was hugely indecisive over the undersuit and ended up trying a couple options before I found one that worked for me. I ended up with a one piece, mostly because it fit my skinny limbs the best, but I will say that while fitting your armor, it is a lot more convenient to be able to put on only the part you need. I have to go put on my full unitard, and it's a bit of a pain. But I DO like not worrying about my shirt riding. Regardless I think you'll want to get your undersuit sooner rather than later so you can begin working on your armor as soon as possible since you'll need it for fittings! As far as comms, I'm planning on using an old iPhone with TrooperTalk. I have yet to truly figure out the amp and mic situation, though. Back to that when the glory of my new armor wears off!

I feel ya! I was practically useless the day my box was supposed to arrive, could hardly think straight. ATA hits a sweet spot between instant gratification - ordering your armor and them shipping it out then - and the sheer mind-numbing year+ waits that other kits can run to. Or so I think. But anyway. From what I've seen, you should be able to make the torso look right with careful strapping. It's gaps like the elbows and (to a lesser extent) the knees that tall folks seem to run into situations with. I'm sure you'll do just fine, though. Do you have a goal completion date in mind?

Thanks, Craig! You must've been just a name or two behind me on the ATA list. Terrell makes good stuff - you should be excited. I have yet to hit your build thread but if you haven't seen it mentioned anywhere yet, ATA is one of the kits in which all the left side pieces are appreciably smaller than the right side pieces. It's handy for figuring out which limb pieces go where, but makes sizing a bit of a pain. Of course you'll be on the other side of the spectrum, probably shimming more than hot water bathing... gotta say I'm jealous! (or is it envious? either way.) But not as jealous as I am that you're in the SoCal garrison. I used to live down there before I had an appreciation for the finer (Star Wars) side of life.

For sure! I'll likely need to take an entire bump off the forearms anyway. I'm quite glad I don't have to recreate those return edges.

Thanks, Luc! It's pretty daunting but I keep reminding myself it's just plastic and I can either fix it with shims and ABS paste or just get a few new pieces. This brand of low-stress thinking is brand new for me.

Well, you've all convinced me to at least give nylon snap attachments a try. Still have a while til I get to that stage though I'm afraid, as I found out yesterday while learning to put my armor together(!). As it turns out, a fellow Garrison Carida cadet got his BBB two days before I did last week, and we managed to coordinate a time to get together yesterday and take our first steps down the long path ahead. A few Carida vets were free and came by to help us learn how to properly fit things (and form pieces with a hot water bath, in my case), which was so (so) helpful. I got less done yesterday than expected, but came away from our build time much more confident than expected. For good or ill, I believe I have a shot at putting together much of my armor now. I'll need a hand, literally and figuratively, fitting pieces, but I can get things to that point now which is pretty thrilling. I totally forgot to take pictures of my biceps before all the work I did on them, but here they are as they stand now! It was crazy how bad the shape was for me before the hot water bath. Which, by the way, requires water at a rolling boil, no less, for at LEAST 30 seconds to soften that thick ATA ABS. Looks like a pretty respectable shape, right? At least the cover strips will go on! I ended up having to take off much more of the return edges all over than (I guess) ideal in order to bend the curves right. I suspect that will be a theme for this build... This one (right) looks a lot wider but is actually much more comfortable. I will likely reshape the left to be more similar to the right. I was reminded yesterday to check Cricket's build thread religiously. Boy is that a good idea. Especially moving on to the forearms, and trimming the wrists which is totally nerve wracking... confident about this build?? Who, where??

Oh wow, that's a lot shorter than I expected.

Thanks, all! It was fun to make. Ooh... good point, Jeff. My main concern with the magnetic closure was the part that will stick up into the helmet (general misgivings about magnets next to electrical bits), but I didn't even think of the wires running up the neck... the force doesn't seem too strong since they're insulated by the tubing already but I'd be able to attach a strip of rubber gasket along the seam to help mitigate the magnets' effect even further if need be. Definitely something to keep an eye out for. A.J. - - but really, I got a tabletop snap press finally, and it's *soo* cool. I'm still thinking ABS snap plates due to perceived durability and "clean" look if nothing else. Thanks for the recommendations, @gmrhodes13 ! I'm going to put double snaps in as many spots as I can. I've gotten some of my elastic. Most impressive, I know. I also trimmed a few things today... pics tomorrow! One final thing. Anybody have any tips and tricks for hot water bathing my armor pieces? I've read about others' exploits, but I'd love any extra wisdom y'all can throw at me. Can I use a pot I'd use for cooking if I plan to submerge pieces? Is pouring the water over the pieces close to as effective as submersion, if not? Etc, etc. Thanks!

Thanks, guys! I'm honored! I'd happily make them for others. Let me just fully finish this one first so here's (roughly) how I made it, if anyone's nuts enough to try to follow. Supplies used for V1 of The Seal: 6mm rubber tubing (from FusionBeads) Necklace memory wire (Be aware that the wire is made for different neck circumferences. You have leeway, but it's unhappy when forced into a circle much bigger than it's made for.) 5/32" x 5/32" neodymium magnets (fit FusionBeads' 6mm tubing perfectly) Shoe Goo CA glue with accelerator Needle nose pliers Binder clips Toothpicks I semi-scientifically cut one length of tubing based on my fabric neck seal plus a bit and put it around my neck to get a feel for the size. I knew bigger would be better because this thing will NOT stretch. I cut each subsequent piece 1/8" longer than the previous one to create a slightly tapered shape.For each ring I fed the memory wire through, bent the end into a loop to keep it from poking anywhere, cut it to length, bent the other end into a loop, and had fun with binder clips. Basically I pushed each looped wire end back into the tube by the length of a magnet plus a bit and clamped it in that spot with a binder clip so it wouldn't spring out on me while the glue was curing. Then I stuffed some shoe goo into the open ends with a toothpick and capped them with magnets. Yes, getting the wire the right length is tough. Yes, stuffing shoe goo into a 3/16" hole is tough. Yes, keeping 18 tiny magnets in their proper orientations (WITH alternating polarities from ring to ring/pair to pair so that the whole stack stays together instead of repelling each other along the seam) is tough. Yes, countersinking the magnets a bit and smoothing the ends over with shoe goo is tough. The easiest bit was attaching the stack together, which I did by taping them securely to prevent seepage and "spot welding" columns with CA glue and accelerator. It's incredibly secure, and the rigidity of the CA glue doesn't matter since the rubber between the welds is able to flex. What would I do differently next time? I'd try to set the magnets with CA glue. It is SO much easier to work with than shoe goo. It would also speed up the process considerably. Other than that everything was quite necessary, as I discovered through trial and error. Here's a longer video of me messing with it. https://i.imgur.com/hUIfBDc.mp4 ------ Today, after elastic shopping, I cut a few cover strips to get a feel for working with the super thick ATA ABS. It's tough! I need a good wide set of pliers to help me snap my scores.

Thanks, all! Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Backtracking, most exciting news first, regarding the... NECK SEAL The first one I made looked great from the front and was nice and squishy but also it was tight and the seam in the back was much too wide and visible due to closure issues. A no go, overall. In my quest for deep, rubbery ridges, I did not rule out actual rubber as some do (citing sweat concerns). I figure my neck is small enough that I'll have ventilation space inside. Brainstorming with my boyfriend led to an idea for a system of magnetized rubber tubes. It was a crazy process and I didn't have enough hands to take pictures while I worked (yes, I would take a spare arm or two if they were giving them out) so I'll just describe it as best I can in the next post. This is where it stands. Front and back Video of closure here. It truly becomes nearly invisible when closed. https://i.imgur.com/u3nJ5BU.mp4 I am quite fond of this little guy. I'll be putting the upper rows on (the ones that taper off before the front) later. I'll have to wear a balaclava under it. I will likely attach the bib to the balaclava. Though I have some sport fabric that I may make the whole thing out of... we shall see. MISCELLANEOUS In other news, I have half-made my canvas belt (pending sizing of my armored torso), have all supplies at the ready to make my holster (thanks, Darman!), have my silicone hand guards awaiting gluing (thanks, Joseph!), got a super nifty tabletop snap press (you're going down, snaps), and will be getting together with a few garrison-mates on Labor Day to continue the armor side of my TK adventure. TO DO Top of my list is purchasing elastic and nylon strapping. Just have to actually DO it which is SO much harder now that my helmet is sitting in a box in the living room, begging to be held. :p