Darth Aloha's RT-MOD ANH Stunt Build[*RT]

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Either way, be sure to check the N-rating of the magnets you buy. The magnets' N-number is a representation of the pull-force and the scale goes to N52, those I linked to are N48 and are strong as hell. I couldn't find any superstrong neodymium magnets locally, so I found it a lot easier to buy them from ebay, I didn't find it that expensive either.

[kaptinkaos]

Yep, N rating is a good way to know how strong they are, so is physical size as most neodymium magnets are standardized pull strengths for width and thickness. 3/4" round one's are usually best though as they don't break as often if you're careful due to not being too strong and being round instead of square. Plus, I find that anything larger pulls so strong that I usually end up with a bunch of blood blisters from getting pinched when they snap together, LOL! Made me look like I was playing with fiddler crabs or something, haha!

 

For the most part your clamps will do the heavy work, tape holds everything still and the magnets just add that pressure in the areas that the clamps can't reach. You can also use the wooden tongue depressor size Popsicle/crafting sticks under the clamp jaws on the inside to spread the pressure out a bit further to the joint. I usually break a couple in half and slide them under before clamping hard. This also helps when clamping because it will raise the jaw out of the depression in the back of the piece where the strip goes. That way you're not worried about deforming the plastic because it's clamping an uneven surface.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Thanks all! Before this thread turns into a four page discourse on the merits and properties of various rare earth magnets on the market.... let me say I'm stoked for the Lee Valley suggestion. As I mentioned on the first post here I bought my 0.75"x0.125" magnets on Amazon, but the 6 for $10.39 item is out of stock. But 5 for $6.40 (if you buy 3 or more) from Lee Valley is pretty darn good.

 

And Kaptinkaos... imagine if I did find magnets for sale somewhere on island... it would probably be cheaper for me to fly somewhere and mine my own neodymium.

 

More on nylon webbing snap plates... my snap lament.... taming magnets.... forearm velcro... and gluing biceps in a bit.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

Edited October 3, 2011 by Darth Aloha

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

um, I use my fingers to smear the E-6000 and then just rub it off lol. Sounds like good progress!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Bicep Gluing

 

Nothing spectacular about these photos. Your basic half glued bicep. The only thing to note was that I ended up busting out some bar clamps to help out the magnets. I doubled up on the magnets too. One on each side just wasn't enough. Yes one cracked already. It jumped 2-3 ft across the room into the pile of 4 magnets in my hand.

 

 

 

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Forearm Velcro

 

Velcro applied to the underside of each forearm.

 

 

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Nylon Webbing Snap Plates

 

Kevster's jedi mind trick worked. I've decided to use nylon webbing instead of plastic snap plates. The only drawback I see is that it is going to be one witch mother of a mess in there. I cannot imagine gluing them in cleanly.

 

It turns out that the 1" nylon webbing I swiped from work is much thicker than most. I busted out the two that came with my thigh garter from mightytank and compared. It takes forever to make a hole in the webbing with the exacto and much of the white inner liner comes out in the process. I may bring a cheap soldering iron home from work to poke holes in the webbing tomorrow.

 

Mightytank on the right... mines on the left.

 

 

 

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Snap Lament

 

The ease in which the dritz snaps are installed with the vario pliers makes me wish I had more. The tandy ones are fine but the lack of taking them down to my workbench in the garage and pounding on them with the snap set thingy makes me want to use more of the dritz. The tandy's snap base pin thing is just plain taller than the dritz and requires more pressure from the pliers. I guess I will use a combination of them for this build. I think I will use the pliers for the tandys and just whack them after the fact.

 

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I don't have any questions tonight mostly because Kevster is quick with the PM reply. Tomorrow will be bicep gluing. Once the biceps are done I will likely focus on getting the snap plates installed in the upper body. The legs can wait.

 

Noob Tip: Buy plastic squeeze clamps. I could not find mine in the garage. I bought some metal spring clamps and the magnets are even more annoying because of them. My clamps snagged each magnet at least twice. Harbor Friend's 1" spring clamp for $0.47 is your friend.

 

Mahalo nui,

 

-Eric

[kevster[TK]]

All my nylon snaps went in just fine. I just put on a thin layer of e6000, put them in place and clamped them down. The e6000 will actually absorb into the nylon a little. I rarely had any glue squeeze out of the edges. If e6000 is messy on everything you do, you just haven't gotten use to it yet, but you will pretty quickly. I think you'll be surprised at how well the nylon will go, you'll see =)

[kaptinkaos]

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=52320&cat=1,43838,52320

 

I love these clamps... plastic and pressure adjusting,

[ZacMuleer[TK]]

All my nylon snaps went in just fine. I just put on a thin layer of e6000, put them in place and clamped them down. The e6000 will actually absorb into the nylon a little. I rarely had any glue squeeze out of the edges. If e6000 is messy on everything you do, you just haven't gotten use to it yet, but you will pretty quickly. I think you'll be surprised at how well the nylon will go, you'll see =)

 

Do you have any strapping problems using nylon snap "plates"? It seems like a good alternative to plastic... I would just be worried about either the material fraying from the pulling going on or the snap pulling through the elastic. Is it just a personal preference or is one actually better?

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Snap Factory

 

I was in the shower this morning thinking about how best to put a hole in the thick nylon webbing for snaps. I though "how can I punch a hole through the webbing?" and it struck me... duh... a punch.

 

This morning I practiced some workforce deviance and made a few more webbing snap plate thingies.

 

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I used two of my favorite tools. My craftsman handicut and the crack torch. Both made quick work of the webbing:

 

 

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I tried a few different punches we had laying around. Oddly, the square one seems to do best.

 

 

 

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I pretty much over using the tandy snaps. If I had a snap press or a better setting tool I think I would continue to use them.

 

On one hand they are nice because the larger stem of the snap comes through the fabric proudly:

 

 

On the other hand the tandy snaps fit neither in the dritz vario pliers or the snap setting tool. The base of the snap is just different enough. When I try to use my setting tool the base gets all warped because it doesn't sit well in the indentation.

 

You can sorta see that they don't sit well in the pliers either:

 

 

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For the tandys I did use, I set them with the pliers and then gave them a couple whacks to ensure the stems were smooshed enough.

 

 

 

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I'm bringing these spring clamps home to glue snap plates on tonight:

 

 

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With better tools this process ended up being quick and easy. I would consider making a run of these and selling them if there was a demand.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[kevster[TK]]

 

Do you have any strapping problems using nylon snap "plates"? It seems like a good alternative to plastic... I would just be worried about either the material fraying from the pulling going on or the snap pulling through the elastic. Is it just a personal preference or is one actually better?

 

After you cut the nylon, you heat up the edges and it will melt it together to keep the ends from fraying. I'm not worried about the snaps pulling through the holes in the nylon either because when you get the snaps good and tight, the snap acts as a clamp on the nylon. I actually use this method too as a way to reinforce snaps on elastic straps. For the elastic straps i do, i have the snaps going through the elastic and a bit of nylon, then when i'm going to unhook my snaps, i make sure i'm grabbing the nylon when i pull it off to prevent it tearing the elastic. To me, the adhesion of the nylon to the armor is just as strong and with plastic snap plates, you get the warping that doesn't allow the snap to sit well, but with the nylon it doesn't have that problem so it sits well on any curved surface inside the armor.

 

and darth, i mentioned a punch to you in a PM the other day on how i made holes in my nylon

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

 

 

and darth, i mentioned a punch to you in a PM the other day on how i made holes in my nylon

 

Maybe I'd remember everything you wrote if you weren't so freaking helpful all the time

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[ZacMuleer[TK]]

 

After you cut the nylon, you heat up the edges and it will melt it together to keep the ends from fraying. I'm not worried about the snaps pulling through the holes in the nylon either because when you get the snaps good and tight, the snap acts as a clamp on the nylon. I actually use this method too as a way to reinforce snaps on elastic straps. For the elastic straps i do, i have the snaps going through the elastic and a bit of nylon, then when i'm going to unhook my snaps, i make sure i'm grabbing the nylon when i pull it off to prevent it tearing the elastic. To me, the adhesion of the nylon to the armor is just as strong and with plastic snap plates, you get the warping that doesn't allow the snap to sit well, but with the nylon it doesn't have that problem so it sits well on any curved surface inside the armor.

 

and darth, i mentioned a punch to you in a PM the other day on how i made holes in my nylon

 

 

Absolutely brilliant! Fantastic! This made it really easy (also the fact that I received my anvil and setter from Tandy leather yesterday) but I've already cranked out 30+ snap-webs. Thanks for the tip!!

 

As for punching - I just folded the webbing over twice so I could cut the middle (exposed as a corner) of the web-plates. As you mentioned, kev, the snaps clamp down all around and hold the webbing well outside of the hole.

[TK5707[501st]]

I just use a soldering iron to melt a hole into the straps. Makes it nice and clean, and is fray-proof. Looking good!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

I just use a soldering iron to melt a hole into the straps. Makes it nice and clean, and is fray-proof. Looking good!

 

I got a "look" from the guys at work when I grabbed one of our soldering irons to make holes. We have a distinct lack of extra tips for it Next time I'll grab a crappy one from Radio Shlock.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Question Du Jour

 

I've been gluing snap plates to arm pieces tonight... nothing thrilling to photograph... just a quick question i couldn't answer with a search.

• How much of a gap should I leave between back/kidney/butt and ab/cod? I'm just fitting and cleaning up edges on all these parts and I'm thinking ahead a couple days when I start sizing elastic.
  

Aloha and thanks,

 

 

-Eric

[kevster[TK]]

Between back/kidney most common was a seam, maybe 1/4 - 3/8 inch of space between them. Kidney/butt looks to be maybe 1/8 inch or butted up together. It looks like they had a tendency to make the strap in the back of the kidney/butt really tight which caused the butt piece to ride up ontop of the kidney. To avoid this, make the snap in the back a little loose and the snaps on the edges tighter. For the cod/ab make it as small of a seam line as you can.

 

Just have a look at some of the screens jesse got http://whitear...opic=17033&st=0

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Thanks man. The bit about adjusting by making the outer elastic different length from the inner one is not something I would have thought of. Good tip.

 

It's been tough to get a sense of gaps in the screen captures especially since they're all so different. I was originally wondering how others adjusted their armor.... but I guess I hadn't thought that I would just get it on my body and get the blue tape out and fit the elastic as needed. Duh.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

 

 

 

 

On 5.10.2011 at 9:42 AM, kevster said:

Between back/kidney most common was a seam, maybe 1/4 - 3/8 inch of space between them. Kidney/butt looks to be maybe 1/8 inch or butted up together. It looks like they had a tendency to make the strap in the back of the kidney/butt really tight which caused the butt piece to ride up ontop of the kidney. To avoid this, make the snap in the back a little loose and the snaps on the edges tighter. For the cod/ab make it as small of a seam line as you can.

 

Just have a look at some of the screens jesse got http://whitear...opic=17033&st=0

[senna1rossi[TK]]

"I have never seen so many stamps on a box before."

 

 

haa haa, that's what i was thinking! lol

 

lots of good info on this post!

 

thanks!!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Cruising Along

 

The arms are all strapped up and ready to go. I think the bicep elastic will just about barely go across the bottom of the scoop in the bicep underarm. I wish it were lower but that's life when you have monkey arms.

 

I'm also gluing as many snap plates as I can at once to the torso to start the fitting process.

 

My iComm arrived yesterday and it instantly started driving my wife crazy.... bonus. The dog doesn't like it much either. It's really a sweet product. I don't know how many times I said "the deathstar plans are not in the main computer" last night. Too many times. The imperial march is all loaded onto my ipod and ready to go.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

 

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2011 by Darth Aloha

[kaptinkaos]

Just cruisin' along is right! Makin' some serious progress, I love it!!!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Sanity Check

 

Before I glue snaps to the side of my ab and kidney I want to make sure that I'm not entirely crazy.

 

The edge where my ab and kidney meet are not the same length. See image below:

 

 

I'm assuming that I should line up the top edge (it sorta is on the top photo) and leave the bottom to be covered by the belt? If I don't line up the top it will look like Soldermaster's RT-MOD armor.

 

I'm trying to get as many snaps glued right now before I hop a plane for a week for work. Anyone trooping in Halifax Canada this week?

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[kaptinkaos]

Hmmm, if I assume right, I think you're correct in doing it the way you suggest. My AM is sculpted different than screen derived so I had pretty even seams. Using the belt to cover the difference sounds like a good idea to me though. I did that to cover my cod cut, I'm sure others will chime in though.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

I agree - line them up at the top, and let the belt cover any misalignment at the bottom.

[kaptinkaos]

Btw... Wth are you doing in HALIFAX? Lol...

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Btw... Wth are you doing in HALIFAX? Lol...

 

Besides drinking as much locally brewed beer as possible? And wearing shoes for the longest stretch in years? Work work work I took 3 flights for about 18 hours of travel. Luckily the beer is in fact quite outstanding.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Darth Aloha