TK Medica AM build[*AM]

[TK Medic]

I have been lurking on here for a while, basically just learning what I can. I have always been a Star Wars, fan, and have been in awe of what the 501st does. I finally decided to jump in and have some fun too! I am pretty mechanical, always tinkering with hot rods, and have done a lot of drag racing, but I just am not artistic at all.

 

Luckily, the AM build is pretty straight forward, and where an artistic touch is needed, I have been lucky enough to find the Pacific outpost.

 

I have an FX helmet already, but am looking to upgrade very soon. That will get me legal for now, and then I can try for expert.

 

I already had TKboots (AMAZING!), a cloth belt from here, mil-issue nomex gloves, and black under armor.

 

My AM lite kit showed up this week. I want it to look good, but the main goal is a aolid trooping set, and AM fit the bill.

 

The outpost guys were kind enough to invite me over to start helping me with my build. I mainly just watched in awe as plastic flew.

 

I also got to play with their HALO gear while we waited for the resident TK expert to show up.

 

 

 

 

We mainly trimmed up stuff to size it, and assembled the fronts of the forearms and thighs. The biceps are all together. This will be a simple overlap build, with a finish trim strip for looks.

 

I am a bigger guy (6'0", 195, so I also wanted the bigger AM kit for my frame. It looks like the chest and torso pieces will be almost a perfect fit out of the box.

 

 

I can not say enough kind words about the Pacific Outpost. They are true experts! The best advice I can give any newbie is find you local garrison!

 

I certainly found a group of TK Senseis!

 

There were even more people than these pics show, but everyone was all over the place!

 

Ed

Edited October 10, 2010 by TK Medic

[pandatrooper[TK]]

Nice to see troopers helping troopers in full effect! Welcome aboard as well!

[Sgt Steve]

What ???? You got a "work gang" do'in your kit??? Not Fair!!!!! Hope it works out.

[Plastic Fury[TK]]

Looks like you are in good hands. I recognized the back of one head there, one Charlie "Dutch" Masella. He was an Everglades Squad member and is a great friend that moved to Hawaii a few months back, we sure do miss him (and his wife), both great people. Good luck on your build, don't think it will be long before you are trooping in it.

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

Wow! Looks like a great start!

Edited October 10, 2010 by Femtrooper Julie

[TK Medic]

Yep, that is Dutch! AMAZING guy, what an inspiration to be able to talk to someone like that on my first night building. He has a ton of respect for you Plastic, he said to look you up if I needed any tips at all.

 

I did go ahead and get on the waiting list for an AP helmet. If I am going to do it, I may as well do it right, and with all these pros, I am sure I can over come any obstacle I meet!

 

I could not find the right Testors blue here on Island, so I ordered that. When I unloaded the chest out of my car I dropped it and scuffed it a bi. So I also ordered the polish, I am sure I would have needed it soon anyway!

 

The outpost gathers every Friday to work on builds, so more updates late this week. I am REALLY looking forward to the next step!

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

I am helping out TK medic, he is having login issues.

 

He has concerns on the AM kit. The outpost is mainly Clone trooepr focused, and have not built a TK in a while. When the thinghs and shins were assembled, they just overlapped them, and then wrapped the back with some trimming. So the overlap on the thigh is about 70mm, and the shins are wide too. The plan was to run a 30mm strip down the center to balance the seam, but is this going to look to funny?

 

He was trying to do an expert style build, and really wanted to do it right.

 

The front could be spilt, then glued butt style to a strip after trimming, but it the backs will have to be taken apart to give more room. They used CA glue, and trying to undo the seam with a box cutter is pretty hard!

 

 

So will this work for expert with a cover strip?

 

Thanks for the advice!

[pandatrooper[TK]]

I would try and use the narrowest cover strip possible on the front, and have a much wider shim at the back of the thighs.

 

Eg; most people use 20mm up front, but maybe try a 30mm strip withe the front ridge lines just outside of that, then in the back of uou need something big like a 70mm cover strip, then thats fine. The front will look closer to screen accurate than the back.

 

Theres no guideline for EIB stating that cover strips need to be a certain width. You could even do overlap with no strip and it would pass, but butt join seams and a cover strip look better.

 

Also, please taper the thighs so that they are narrower / more close fitting around the knee. A lot of people make the thighs fitted at the top, and the area around the knee has this giant diameter thigh swinging loosely. Tailor them to fit!

 

Hope that helps!

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

Thanks Panda! They really tried to taper the thighs, I think they looked pretty good, just too wide on the overlap.

 

So long story, Medic was using a box cutter to cut the seams, and it was working pretty well. Then he slipped, and put it into the top of his thigh! BIG gash! He was a military medic, and had a big first aid kit, he numbed it and put 3 stitches in right here! GEESH! BE CAREFUL guys!

 

After that, he went back to work. He got them apart, and trimmed the front bevel down to 15mm each side, with a 30mm cover strip. It will look MUCH better!

[WetOkole[TK]]

Ya, the thighs were a bit to much for me but I had to taper alot and that is what we were mostly talking about when we were sizing up Edwin!!

 

All in all we got majority of the parts done and the chest will be one of the last pieces we put on just because of his size!!!

 

Oh Julie it was nice that we all finally got to meet the Fem Trooper!! Now with all of the info Ed is getting off of us, he can help update your armor!!

[tkrestonva[TK]]

So long story, Medic was using a box cutter to cut the seams, and it was working pretty well. Then he slipped, and put it into the top of his thigh! BIG gash! He was a military medic, and had a big first aid kit, he numbed it and put 3 stitches in right here! GEESH! BE CAREFUL guys!

 

After that, he went back to work. He got them apart, and trimmed the front bevel down to 15mm each side, with a 30mm cover strip. It will look MUCH better!

 

Wow. That's the guy I want with me at troops.

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

That is true, we are both learning alot! Femtrooper is going to be 800X better! Also nice meeting you guys! Look forward to more armor build nights, the whole outpost cracks me up!

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

 

Here is the update! Looks pretty good to me! Now I want finish strips on my femtrooper!

[TK5707[501st]]

Last night we made alot of progress on the assembly. It is really close now, just needs the finishing touches! I sewed up a set of suspenders based on the tips from Wet Okole and did a little work like installing the battery pack and sinper plate.

 

We started by installing the 6 rivets on the abd and back plates. I am a big guy, and the sides just met with no trimming needed. Velcro was used on the right.

 

We then started on the shoulder bell suspension straps using snaps and the regular method. The over sized chest really took some work to get it lined up right, but so far, we did not trim the bottom, just the shoulder attachments were cut off.

 

After that, straps were made to secure the thighs. The thighs seems to be just a bot on the long side, so later they will be trimmed back 1".

 

We then tried the first test fit with the full set. The greaves are somewhat "oblong", wider on the lateral aspect, and the quickly rotated 90 degrees. They may need recut and oulled in closer, but I was going to try foam padding first.

 

So here is my "to-do" list:

 

- Assemble belt/thermal det/holster

- Attach hand plates to gloves

- trim the thighs 1"

- some minor strap adjustments

- minor edge cleaning up

- The helmet needs padding or a suspension system

 

and then it should be wearable!

 

here are the pics so far, any feedback/tips/comments are more than welcome!

 

And oh, my leg laceration is healing well!

 

pics:

[TK5707[501st]]

whew! What a long weekend! OK, here is my first try! I have done so much the last few days, but I would never be here without the incredible talent of the Pacific Outpost. Mahalos!

 

One shoulder strap popped off when I tried it on, it was put on with CA instead of E-6000, so I will fix it. Also, the belt was sliding down some, I could not get it tight enough. Do some people velcro it in the back?

 

Please give me some feedback guys, looking for pure honesty!

 

[tkrestonva[TK]]

Off the top, I see the following:

 

1. The positioning of the ribbed plastic shoulder bridges needs to be adjusted. You already mentioned the right side had popped off. Can you bring both of them further down the chest plate?

 

2. The shoulder bells need to be brought forward and up closer in towards your body. That is basically a internal strapping adjustment.

 

3. The upper back needs to be raised higher on your body. That will also help with both the shoulder bells and the positioning of the ribbed shoulder bridges (allows them to be positioned further down the chest).

 

4. The utility belt should be fixed to the ab piece, snaps are the screen-accurate way to do this. If you want a picture, take a look at my build thread.

 

5. Trim the corners off the belt, so that you have 45 degree angles as opposed to the squared-off corners you have now. An easy fix.

 

6. The belt should be positioned above the gap between the kidney and butt armor as seen from the back.

 

A good initial attempt, basically you need to tune the fitting.

[TK5707[501st]]

Thanks so much for the help! I got the belt velco'd up in the back now, it looks better.

 

I need to get with the outpost guys, they have not tweaked it since it was finished, but I am sure they can help. Sounds like I need the straps dialed in better. To get the back up it'll need the support straps shortened I guess? Part of the issues may well have been a newbie not knowing how to align it as I put it on too.

[TK5707[501st]]

Just reread your build thread Tkrestonva, I had read it several times before in my research, but good to refresh. The RT mod is a good idea, my outpost here really disliked the AM chest pieces. I saw that your whole torso clam shells in, mine is T-shirt style on the top, but I do think it can be tweaked some to get in line with what you are saying.

 

Ed

[TK5707[501st]]

Spent some time looking at photos and figuring out what I needed to adjust to get it dialed in a bit better. All of the AM pieces are oblonged and over-sized. Being the first time the outpost had seen the AM stuff, I think we were reluctant to overtrim anything. I think the problem is that my biceps were about 2"-3" bigger than my arms, so when standing they pushed the bells out. I recut and closed them tighter tonight, waiting for the E-6000 to dry. I also moved the shoulder straps down. Velcro in the back held up the TD< but looking at photos, I also need velcro to the ABD plate in the front like Panda said. Trimming the belt was easy

 

After Halloween, I will rework the shins, they are also to wide.

 

I wore the armor out Monday night to an event and the Force Unleased II release. That was fun!

 

Here is a shot with a certain femtrooper before the tweaks, will take some in the morning and see how it looks.

 

[TK5707[501st]]

*** DUPLICATE ***

Edited October 29, 2010 by TK Medical

[TK5707[501st]]

Made some tweaks, shoulder bells look much better to me. Also dropped the shoulder straps onto the chest more and trimmed the bealt ends

 

I am seeing the importance of having a helper who knows what they are doing! I gotta get my 13 year old son trained up on being a handler! On these shots, I can see that the cod is loose (strap came on done), left side belt is a bit low, and the chest plate is to high.

 

 

 

Fellow troopers please help me out and give me your feedback!

Edited October 29, 2010 by TK Medical