MintImperial

Thank you sir. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Question about the Han snap: Does this position look okay and should it be a ligne 24 or a ligne 20? This placeholder one is 24.

Not possible!

My mistake. You already answered my question before I asked it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow. Thank you for all of that. You’re so right about needing only three snaps, not six. I’m not smart enough to think that through and would’ve gone the whole way! I love the idea of the plastic plate connecting all six snaps. But do you think the stresses on this would be worse than separate straps as the whole plate would have to move together? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks again Glen. I do want it as screen-accurate as possible. At least from the outside. But, at the same time, I’d like to be able to separate the chest and kidney plates completely for easier storage. Did I see a build somewhere where the rivets go through the bottom part of three snaps? Or did I imagine that? Sounds ideal if it could work.

Added the 3 split rivets each to my kidney and ab plates today. 10mm gap from the edge, 20mm from the top and evenly spaced along the length. I reduced the 52mm and 53mm gaps to about 51mm because I previously had to shorten the kidney plates. I reamed the holes using an RC car hole reamer as it’s so easy to accurately position the fine point and gradually increase the size of the hole. Will paint these rivets white once I’ve strapped everything up. If I do it now, I just know I’m going to scratch all the paint off and have to do it again.

For shoulder bridges, I’ve filled the big square hollow and the first three narrow hollows with ABS paste to for more surface area contact when I glue them to the chest plate. Been trying to check references and I think that, in general, four thinner hollow/bumps were positioned over the chest plate tabs with the rest free-floating. Still trying to gauge the measurements for mine. Later I will cut the last square hollow off the back end. I’m not a huge guy. Pretty sure I won’t need it and I do want to be as screen-accurate as possible.

That’s a great idea. Thank you. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The biggest issue I think I’ll have is that the shins are quite short. I received three shorter pieces and one longer in my kit. I’m worried that my knee gap will be too large. I will try to set them slightly higher (without exposing the top of the boots and maybe set the thighs slightly lower to reduce the black. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Taking it for a test fit. Held together with masking tape and gaffer tape only. No strapping. And dressed by myself. (Don’t judge me too harshly!) Shoulders are a bit floaty as they’re held by one piece of tape running across my shoulders and they probably need a slight trim on the width. And gloves are just placeholders with ABS plates while the glue is drying on my rubber gloves with flexi plates. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Amazing. Thank you.

Hi Joseph. I took another look at the Dave M helmet. I feel I’m actually pretty close to it, eye-wise. There are a couple of areas I want to fine-tune but, largely, I’m quite happy. Would you mind taking a look at the images below and see if you stand by your comments? Thank you so much. (Temporarily installed lenses to test the effect.)

]I accidentally painted my helmet at the weekend. What I mean is, I hadn’t really psyched myself up for it and didn’t prep properly. Was just toying with the idea of doing it. Next thing I know I’d painted the frown and so I just kept on going. Still haven’t painted the tube stripes or the ear screws yet. And I have a LOT of cleanup to do on the black pinstripe outlines on the tears, traps, etc., plus some other touch ups. I also inadvertently pressed the vocoder up against my t-shirt while it was still wet, so I now have a great print on my shirt and a furry-looking underside on by bucket, which I will have to totally redo. Hideously wonky lines that are way too thick. I may totally redo this using masking tape. Have already started cleaning up some spills through the mask template, using a toothpick dipped in rubbing alcohol.

Thanks JR. Not hard-planning to do this. Just looking into the possibilities. Never heard of splitting the abdomen before. Very, as you say, interesting!

Awesome. Thank you. I will study again and get to work. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you. I was trying to copy the rough look of the Dave M helmet, which is why I left them a bit jagged. Happy to clean up a bit if you think that’s the better way to go. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Joseph. Here it is, all put together (from a few different angles):

Sorry if I’m coming to this really late. Amazing thread. You’re crazy talented. Not to mention devoted. I kind of stumbled across this as I was interested to see if anyone ever made an EVA foam butt plate to swap out with their, say, ABS plate for troops where there’s a chance to sit down. If you don’t mind me asking: how flexible is your butt?! Can you actually sit down with your armour?

Thank you, justjoseph63. I’ll try to get to that tomorrow. In the meantime, this angle shows the contour of teh visible bottom edge. (Kind of what you’re asking for, just without the kidney.) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

First pass with the clamps was a success. Still a long way to go but I’ve reduced the buckling by one order of magnitude. It may not look like it here but it’s already way better than before.

My build is progressing in fits and starts. In resolving a problem with the left & right sides of my ab plate not being the same length (thread here: I’ve shortened my kidney plate, butt plate and back plate to better fit my 5’8” frame. Shortening the back plate was terrifying as I knew I wanted to keep some return edge on it. I needed to take just over half an inch off it, as indicated in the markings below. The lower pencil line was my cut line. The upper line was where I wanted to create new return edge using a heating iron. Given the extreme curve of this piece, I was expecting a lot of buckling as I folded the material under. And the result was every bit as disastrous as I feared, with pronounced buckling all along the curve. Despite the horror show above, I’m still confident I can save it now that I have the basic shape I wanted. (Btw, the overall fit is so much better now. The straps no longer stick up over my shoulders.) After letting it rest for a day or two, my first approach will be to heat it up again, small portion at a time and try to flatten each part with a clamp before moving along. If that doesn’t work, I will let it rest again and try plan B: making small cuts so that i can fold the layers slightly over each other (like tabs in paper engineering) and again try to flatten them by squishing them together with clamps. Plan C is to fill the hollows with ABS paste and grind it all out for a nice smooth curve. The only thing part I’m really concerned about is the “dent” about 1/4 of the way along from the left, where I folded the material too high up. I’m hoping to correct this very slowly in a few passes, pressing against a round buck that I have.

Thank you, Lord_Potato. I may yet have to straighten the top line of my kidney plate, though for now it seems ok. The issue for me wasn’t so much that the whole assembly was crooked. It was that the left side of the ab plate was simply shorter than the right. By cutting the top off the ab right and shortening the kidney evenly on both sides, it now fits my 5’8” frame better anyway. Next thing I’m shortening is the back plate. The tabs still stick up about half an inch above my shoulders when it’s all put together and the crotch is snug. I’ve already heated and curved them round more but it’s not enough. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No problem at all. Thanks for your attention. Grateful for any input!