Jorran's T/MC ANH Stunt Build [*T/MC]

[Jorran]

The box arrived today. Many of you already know the feeling - I was so close to suddenly coming down with the dreaded TK Virus and leaving work early so I could rush home and finally see it. But I stuck it out, was thoroughly unproductive, and then finally got home to see this:

 

 

This was my view after cracking open the box:

 

 

With the T/MC kit, you have the option of having cover strips made at the same time as the rest of the armor. That's the group of pieces you see in the above picture, on top of the rest of the packing material. Everything was pretty securely placed in the box, and all of the pieces were separated by layers of packing material to prevent scratching during transit.

 

One of the first things to come out was the bag o' goodies, which includes parts for the helmet, TD, ab buttons, and more.

 

 

I banished the dog from the living room and laid the kit out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then let one of my assistants back into the room for a photo op:

 

 

Now that all of the fun pictures are taken, another feeling that I'm sure all of you are familiar with has set in: WHERE DO I START!?!?!? AAAAGGGHHHHH!!!! I've set out the biceps to start trimming tomorrow night, as that's the piece I see most often as the easiest starting point. Stay tuned - there will be tons of pictures and even more questions in this thread.

[SolderMaster]

Ahhhhh the smell of shiny white plastic,,,SNIFFFFFFF!!

 

Congrats on your armor!! Now, take your time and hurry up and get that thing built!!

 

We're all here for ya rooting you on! REALLY...TAKE YOUR TIME!...and DO use the finishing strips. Just makes your armor POP IMHO.

[Jorran]

Thanks Brian! I will definitely be taking my time and looking for loads of help both here and in my local garrison forum.

 

One thing I forgot - can someone edit my first post title and add the [*T/MC] tag? I intended on adding that but got caught up in the picture madness!

[pandatrooper[TK]]

Looking forward to it. I just built a TMC and it's great. For those just starting out, they do a great service by labeling almost everything. Very helpful!

[Eric]

you've got an awesome assistant.

 

where to start can be a tough one. you almost just wish you can start on everything all at once. haha

 

good luck to you, and yes especially take your time. the last thing you wanna do is rush and mess something up. lol

[NoVATie[Admin]]

Biceps and forearms are a good starting point

[DarkTrooper[TK]]

Very nice looking kit! + cute dog

[FIVE[501st]]

Awesome looking kit! Congrats!!

 

Now the stupid question... what is "TMC?!"

How have I missed this?!?!

 

I too like the dog... my TM kit "came with" a cat.

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Edited May 2, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[NoVATie[Admin]]

Check the armor link in your sig Noel

[Stormy320]

I'n not following the "link". Sorry

[FIVE[501st]]

Check the armor link in your sig Noel

Oh yeah!

[Jorran]

Looking forward to it. I just built a TMC and it's great. For those just starting out, they do a great service by labeling almost everything. Very helpful!

Terry, did you trim to the pencil markings that they made on the pieces first, and then trim to your specific size second? I tried fitting the bicep parts first, but there's so much excess plastic that I can't get a good starting point.

 

By the way, is there any kit you haven't built!?

 

Also, just a quick shout out to Tray and everyone else involved with T/MC. The communication with him was always clear and fast, and I got my big brown box almost exactly two months to the day that my payment cleared PayPal (someone in the queue in front of me had to drop off, so this might be slightly faster than normal). It's my first kit so I don't have anything to compare to, but I'm extremely happy with the service and the kit from T/MC. Two big thumbs up! :duim:

[TrooperVenger]

I'm in the process of doing my armour and was rather lucky it was pre-trimmed, but it was WAY too big for me. Best thing to do is trim to the lines and then get some masking tape and mark where it fits you. Do this again and again BEFORE you cut to your size. Do this for the main limbs - calves, thighs, bicep and forearm.

You might need help with the torso part. Depends how 'rotund' you are around the waist area.

 

Pandatroopers build is a really good source of information and the lads here are more than happy to answer any questions - believe me, I've asked plenty....Even really 'dumb' ones.

[Jorran]

Thanks for the advice, Ricky!

 

I trimmed one of the biceps down to the lines over the last two nights. It's rough around the edges, but I'm not going to clean that up until after I fit it and trim it to my size.

 

 

I think I need some basic lessons in x-acto knife wielding. I would get a nice straight groove cut, I'd be several passes into scoring the piece, then suddenly there goes the blade scooting off 20° from where I was cutting a second before. I've got two cuts along the surface of the bicep that just made me sit in stunned silence for a while. They won't be visible when the whole suit is on, but I'll know they're there...and it makes me wonder what I need to do differently to ensure I don't make the same mistake on more prominent parts. Some of my thoughts are (1.) go slower, (2.) less pressure, and (3.) smaller distances. Suggestions?

 

The other thing I noticed when I set the two pieces together was that it looked like I'm going to need to twist the piece to get it to line up correctly:

 

 

If you look at the far seam at the top of the image, it gets much wider at the top. Am I going to have to heat these pieces up and twist them, or will it come down to trimming and cover strips?

[FIVE[501st]]

I think I need some basic lessons in x-acto knife wielding.

I had a whole semester of X-ACTO knife cutting at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1991.

 

And yes, you'll have to "make them fit."

That's just the way armoring goes sometimes.

[Jorran]

Ok, I'm done with the basic trimming of both biceps. I haven't sanded yet or rounded any corners - just cut to the trim lines so far (saving all the cleaning up for when I'm done with my fitting and final cuts).

 

Here they are, taped and on my arm. I made sure they were comfortable with the arm flexed.

 

 

1. My first question - I want to make sure I understand the process since I'm doing the butt join/cover strip method. I trim the raised parts so that there's 8mm left on both ends, making room for a 15mm cover strip. Right?

 

2. I should mark the inner bicep and cut off the area where the outer part overlaps it. Still right?

 

If so, that's where I start to get slightly confused. There's a huge amount I'm going to have to cut that inner part (yeah, I've got skinny arms). Here's a top down view:

 

 

As you can see, once I trim down that inner part, the raised ends will be completely trimmed away. Where does the cover strip go at that point?

 

Thanks in advance for any help you all can throw my way. I feel like once I get through this first piece, I'll really start making some good progress.

[pandatrooper[TK]]

I think you can either build it and retain the formed ridge on both halves and have the biceps be a little loose if that the proportional look you want. Remember, just because you have skinny arms doesn't mean you need to build the armor skin tight - it's not going to look right, you'll be like a stick figure! Also, the bicep you are working on is the "bigger" of the two biceps. I don't recall on TMC, but the ROTJ derived suits had 2 different biceps, the left is smaller than the right.

 

I have skinny arms too, and when I built my ATA, I retained the ridges. They are a little loose, but once it's all strapped together it fits fine.

 

You could also retain the ridge on the outer bicep half, and remove the one on the inner half, and place the cover strip on top. Again, depends on how you want it to fit.

 

Also, that ridge on the outer bicep doesn't look like it's 8mm wide, it looks wider?

[Jorran]

It is wider - I haven't trimmed the ridges on any of the parts yet. I just cut to the line, did a test fitting, and was shocked at how much I thought I was going to have to cut. I think my issue is I was reading too much into what some people had said on their builds: that the bicep should still be comfortable when flexed; I was taking that statement and thinking, "Well, I need to trim it down to where it's a little snug when flexed," which, as you can see on me, is a LOT of trimming. Reading what you said about the biceps being OK a little loose definitely puts my mind at ease.

 

I think what I'll do is trim down the ridges on both sides to 8mm each and do another test fit and see how I like it.

 

Thanks for the help, Terry!

[Jorran]

It's been a little slow going as I proceed cautiously through these first pieces. I feel like I'll really pick up some momentum if these biceps turn out the way they're supposed to. Speaking of which:

 

 

I've got my first inner shims gluing now, cut from the trusty "No Parking" sign. I'm using clamps and rare earth magnets to help set the E6000 bond, so we'll see how well this holds together come tomorrow night. I've also now personally experienced the amazing power (and finger-smashing ability) of these crazy magnets. I was shocked at how far apart they start attracting each other, and once they're attached it's a mess to separate them again!

 

In the meantime, I'm trimming down my forearms. I did a quick test fit, and my knuckles scrape a bit going through the wrist opening of the forearm. Does that happen to you guys on your builds as well? My first thought was that I should trim less than I had planned to make the wrist opening a little wider, but my current test fit is set to accommodate the 15mm cover strips.

[FIVE[501st]]

Looking good so far!!

[pandatrooper[TK]]

Make sure you sand the area you are gluing (both surfaces) before spreading the E6000. It will be a much stronger bond.

 

For the forearm you can trim most of the return off the wrist before assembly. Yes its fine if you need to work your hand through.

[Jorran]

Slow but steady progress. I did trim down the returns on the forearms and I'm pretty confident in that area now. The inner shims are curing for the forearms at the moment. I'm sanding down the areas to be glued, then letting the E6000 cure for a few minutes before clamping and magneting (<-- new word!) the parts together. So far, so good.

 

Recent Progress

 

The hand guards are ready to go. As Terry pointed out earlier, T/MC does a nice job of drawing trim lines, labeling, and even putting some tips on the pieces themselves in some of the excess plastic. The suggestion here was to use a belt sander to sand down the hand guards. I looked around my workshop (aka, our dining room) and didn't find a belt sander, so I went with the secondary suggestion of a dremel with the sanding wheel. After taking this picture I cleaned up the last bits of trimming.

 

 

The shoulder bells are trimmed, sanded, and ready for snap tabs and elastic.

 

 

And finally, the biceps are done with the inner shims and outer strips. The perspective looks otherwise, but the outer strips do line up with the top and bottom of the biceps.

 

 

Let me know things look, please! Any and all feedback and critiques are very welcome.

[pandatrooper[TK]]

Looking great! Keep up the good work.

[Jorran]

I spent most of yesterday getting some trimming done (shins, sniper plate, knee boxes, etc.), and I started adding the strapping to the bells, which has worked out well so far.

 

 

I have one half of the snap plates finished, and now I just need to get my soldering iron out and get the other halves finished to make sure everything is correct before I start gluing tabs to the armor.

 

My current problem is one that I don't know how to overcome. Take a look at my forearm:

 

 

That's a mighty big gap to close. I knew it was going to be rough going, but I tried gluing the inner shims first (I had used two clamps in addition to the two pairs of magnets you see here). As usual, I sanded down all the surfaces that were going to take glue, washed away the plastic shavings, then let the glue cure for a couple minutes before securing everything together and letting it sit for 24 hours. Tonight, as soon as I tried to bend the sides together I could see and hear the glue tearing and the seam pulling apart.

 

I'm not sure how to proceed. I could try gluing on the cover strip to add more support, but I fear that won't even be enough to hold this bad boy together with that much stress on the seam. I don't have access to a heat gun, so I'm not sure how to shape the forearms more closed before trying to glue them.

 

Any suggestions?

[Jorran]

While waiting for my forearms to cure (I switched to plastic welder for my forearms to securely close that big gap, thanks to suggestions from the Florida Garrison), I moved on to other pieces. I enlisted the help of The Boss to sew elastic loops, then used an ABS tab to secure them to my hand guards. I can now slide these over my Nomex gloves - this leaves me with two pair of gloves depending on the situation (in addition to Karin's fantastic flexible hand guards!).

 

 

I've also been trimming like a madman the last couple of days. All of the leg pieces, butt and kidney plates, and several other pieces are finished. Then, this afternoon, I pulled the following part out of the box. Despite my 33 years, I giggled like a toddler when I saw this iconic shape.

 

 

More updates to come tomorrow as my first forearm is finished and I move to the strapping for the arms.