Ab/Kidney Shims....huh?

[TKRobert]

Hello Fellow Troopers,

I am pretty close to finishing up my armour build (been working on it since October)and have a question...

 

In the EIB requirements concerning side gaps it says the following:

 

"Armor side gaps should be closed. This should be done by adding a shim or shims of material that must be of similar material and color as the ab and back plate. Shims should fit flush and may have seams. Ideally they will be seamless if possible to the ab and/or back plate, resulting in a single seam between the ab/back rather than extra seams for where the shims are joined."

 

First, what does it mean that the shims should fit flush?

 

Second, how can they possibly be seamless? What does that mean?

 

Finally, if you are adding a shim between two pieces (ab and kidney plate) how can you have a "single" seam?

 

Does anyone have some decent photos of what this looks like inside and out?

 

Thanks.

[pandatrooper[TK]]

Ideally, you would find some plastic that matches your armor to fill the gap created by the Ab and Kidney sections (depends on your body type).

 

What you want to do is make the shim as flush as possible if you can. Meaning you ideally don't want:

- AB armor / a black gap where velcro or undersuit is visible, white shim, another black gap, then the kidney armor

 

A better solution would be to glue the shim on one side (eg: the kidney) and use velcro as a closure (for the AB).

 

Seamless means there can be a seam there, but not major. The plastic should be butted up together so that you can't see anything underneath.

 

Also, in terms of "flushness". I think that refers to when some troopers veclro a piece of plastic / shim under the AB and kidney. This means this shim is sitting "under" the level of your AB and kidney. You can easily fix this by making sure that your shim is built up in thickness to be flush.

 

There's a little more info here:

 

----

 

These are all smaller / fine details in regards to shims. If you have a shim (and no black showing) you'll pass, but it will look better if it's seamless / flush. Does that make sense?

Edited December 5, 2020 by gmrhodes13
link not working, removed gmrhodes13 2020

[TKRobert]

Ahhhh, yes it does make sense now. So seamless just means no undersuit showing in between. Great, I think know how I will proceed to fill those gaps. Thanks Panda, as always, you are a wealth of knowledge.

[TKRobert]

Nice, this explains it perfectly.

[Darth Voorhees[501st]]

That is some great describing and diagramming Terry... well done as usual..couldn't have explained it better myself!

 

PS hope Darth Stewie is still doing well Terry! haha

[pandatrooper[TK]]

That is some great describing and diagramming Terry... well done as usual..couldn't have explained it better myself!

 

PS hope Darth Stewie is still doing well Terry! haha

 

Thanks Lou! Darth Stewie got packed in a box, since I was laid off a few weeks ago. Fear not, he will "strike back".

[Daetrin[Admin]]

There is also option C, which is to shim the front/back, fill the seams with putty or similar, sand smooth, and then paint. This is pretty much unheard of in TK land as most armor does not need painting, but not uncommon in clone land where since all armor is painted anyway, having seamless shims is normal.

[Flash1336]

Hummmm. Ok how would you do it if you wanted to install the 6 rivets Left side and the 1 snap top left.

My thought was to do it likt the ANH thighs Glue the 1/2 shim say you have a total of 3" gap use a 1-1/2" shim glue to the AB plate butt it up use a 20mm strip on the inside for strenth of cource make an ABS paste apply then once dry sand it down with med and the very 800 gritt fine sandpaper then rubbing compoung and then #2 Polish Do the same for the kidney plate. So then you extrnded the sides of Both the AB plate, Kidney plate and install the 6 rivets there.

Now not sure about a Stormtrooper but a Sandtrooper this may woork better.I will let you know that is what I am doing very soon.