W.I.P ANH Stunt AM TK[*AM]

[Spectre]

Here's how it looks. As you can see the edges won't allow the cover strip to go over them and connect the parts.

 

'

 

I tried making it connect with masking tape but it looks all warped and won't stay together. :S

 

 

[tkrestonva[TK]]

Can you take more off of the undertrimmed side to make it more symmetric and still be able to fit the forearm? If it helps, you could trim away the return edge in that last pic completely to give yourself more room.

[Spectre]

Ummm, I don't think I could, my hand just gets through the wrist end as it is. i don't think I could take enough off to make it symmetrical anyway.

At the moment the pieces pretty much have to connect like this (gray line is the cover strip, top line is outer piece of forearm, bottom line is inner piece):

and if I cut more off the other side they'll end up like this:

[Spectre]

Ok, problem solved! Thanks heaps to Wayne from the TAG forums for suggesting the obvious that eluded me! I did as he recommended and removed the inner strip from the forearm. The outer strip was enough to hold the join, and I now have both sides joined by outer cover strips!

I am about to reshape it a bit using the boiling water method as the shape is sort of weird haha but it will soon be rounded.

I also glued the two cover strips onto the left bicep, and will reshape that some time tomorrow or if not the day after.

 

 

[Spectre]

Well after about 10 attempts at reshaping the forearm all I've done is make the glue on one side half come off. :/ and the shape is the same, if not a little worse, than before. :S

 

I think I'll leave the forearms aside to do at an armour party or something..

Edited December 24, 2011 by Spectre

[Spectre]

haha aaaaaaand pop goes the weasel. the cover strip on the second side I did just gave out. I'll have to reglue it but I'd like to shape it first to make sure it won't give me any more trouble when it is done.

[Star Raider[TK]]

White armor has a whole bunch of tutorials!!

http://whitearmor.net/fisd/Tutorials

 

Check out the arms one, this is how I did mine! Gives lots of pictures and details... http://whitearmor.ne...d/Tutorial-arms

 

Edit: Also when you glue, glue the one side of the bicep then let it sit for a good 4 hours... (Maybe even 24) Then glue the other side... Sometimes people use Velcro on the back part of the bicep, and glue the front so you can get it on and off easier.

Check out the Incinerator Build Thread, I am showing how I'm building my armor there. ---> http://forum.whitear...showtopic=18060 BIG DIFFERENCE IN ANH AND ROTJ Please dont copy everything, just look at biceps.... the armour is considerably different then ANH..

Edited December 24, 2011 by Star Raider

[tkrestonva[TK]]

I'm glad you got it sorted.

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

in fitting an ANH butt join, you cut off both halves of the overlap so that they meet in the middle.

 

when fitting just cut off enough overlap so that it fits your body, but not too tight. you need to be able to move!

 

when the overlaps are cut evenly and balanced then with the finishing strip top it off!

 

it can also be a little easier if you put a small strip inside to help keep it lined up.

 

from the photo shown of your forearm part the top seems to have had a lot trimmed off

 

and the lower portion still has quite a bit left on. the top part from your photo shows that you might

 

have completely trimmed off the upper overlap, and now you're into the armor itself and

 

trying to line it up?

 

to get a balanced look you simply have to take the same amounts of overlap on each side

 

this might explain why you're arms are not lining up the way you want.

 

and the AM kit is not screen lineage so making shape adjustments to the overall

 

to resemble screen used, such as boiling water and the like might make things more difficult

 

than they need to be.

Edited December 25, 2011 by TK Bondservnt 2392

[Spectre]

Yeah I've trimmed far too much off of the upper piece. Because of that I can't get the cover strip to have any surface to attach to.

The lower piece can't be trimmed anymore either or my hands won't fit through the ends if I do.

I was trying to reshape the pieces because if I don't the forearm holes won't be round, they'll be some weird lopsided shape. So I was trying to make them round, but all it did was make the glue come off. :/

Edited December 26, 2011 by Spectre

[Spectre]

I decided I wasn't happy with how my bicep glued together, as I stuffed it up and there was a lot more of the cover strip on one side than the other. So I'm going to reglue it before I heat it up and reshape it into more of a circle.

I've also taken apart the forearm that I did, and I am going to reshape the parts seperately (as I seem to have warped them both out of shape :/) and then I'll glue them together again.

Last night I trimmed the shins and glued the fronts together. Once the glue has cured I will be glueing both biceps together, then working on the shoulder bells. I don't think I need to cut anything off of the shoulder bells, but I'll see.

I'm planning to glue the forearms after the biceps, and by then I should have the velcro and snap plates made up for the strapping.

Once the forearms, biceps and shoulder bells are all together I am going to glue the back cover strip on the shins and attach the velcro.

THEN!! I have no idea what I am going to do. o_o Hopefully I'll have the confidence and experience to start on the thighs, but we'll see.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

It goes without saying, but be sure to take photos during the entire process.

[Spectre]

Yeah, I did some stuff late last night but I was too tired to upload anything.

The front of the shins has cured, and when I have magnets available again I will glue the back cover strips on and attach the velcro.

I've trimmed the front of both thighs, glued the last cover strip on the second bicep, and glued two small cover strips inside one of the thighs to make it easier to keep it together when I glue the front cover strip. The second one will be done when I have magnets off the other pieces again (I'm gonna order more, I wanna do more pieces at once. )

On Tuesday I am going to a mate's place and he's gonna help me with my armour, so I'll probably get a lot done then too. Hoping to get the forearms, thighs, shins, and torso finished.

Anyway, pictures time.

 

The shins, cover strips cured, and the backs are just waiting on cover strips and velcro.

The one on the left is the right leg, and the one of the right is the left leg (a bit confusing, sorry. )

 

In this one the left piece is the left leg and the right piece is the right leg. The cuts never go the way I want them to. :/

 

The front of both thighs trimmed, one masking taped together with two small cover strips curing on the inside (top and bottom) and the other waiting on sanding.

 

Top cover strip on the inside of the thigh

 

Bottom cover strip on the inside of the thigh. (this one took so long to get in..silly me forgot to use clamps. They made it infinitely easier.)

 

The bicep, sorta went overkill with the magnets.

 

[tkrestonva[TK]]

I would highly recommend using inside cover strips on the shins. That joint in particular sees a lot of stress since you have to clamshell it open to put it on, and the extra joint strength an interior cover strip provides will be of great benefit.

[Spectre]

Alright, will do. One of the thighs is curing at the moment, and as soon as both thghs are done I'll chuck some inner strips into the shins.

Ok, so today I'm going round to a mate's place, and the goal is to get the forearms done, maybe organise where the strapping is gonna go, hopefully trim or at least mark where to trim the torso/back pieces.

WIll update later tonight.

[Spectre]

Ok so the thighs are almost finished, one has the front and inner cover strips all done, just waiting on magnets to get the back done. The other thigh has the front and the front inner strips done, again waiting on the magnets to do the back outer and inner strips.

Today at my mate's we got the torso figured out, only needed a few cuts and bam the whole thing fitted. The only cuts that needed to be made were to the upper chest and back plate 'strap' parts. Also gotta trim the cod piece and butt plate where it goes under your...stuff. It pretty much fitted out of the box, it's amazing.

 

Cutting up snap plates now, getting ready to do all of the strapping. I've just gotta cut a few small things and I'll have no more cutting left to do! SO close!

Pics to come.

[Spectre]

Ok, so I've almost done the thighs! Both have front cover strips now. One thigh is about to have the back cover strip glued on, and the other is about to have the back trimmed and the back inner strips put in.

 

 

My snap plates that I've done, probably gonna need more. (Also Heart of an Empire at the top of the shot. So good.)

 

I find it both ironic and amusing that the only pieces that I really have left to glue are the forearms, which are what everyone starts with because they are easy and all that. Sorta ironic that I will probably be finishing with them.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Spectre

[Spectre]

One thigh is 24 hours from completion! Back cover strip on, magneted and clamped. Tomorrow night I'll do the other one.

 

[xaoslord]

Looking good so far! I keep soaking up these build threads for when it's my turn.

[Spectre]

Hmm...I've tried to make some snap plates...and failed. >.> This is a lot harder than people make it look. The bit of metal that is supplied with the snaps doesn't actually flatten the inside part enough, so they can't engage properly.

I'm going to buy a pair of vario pliers off of the internet right now, because this is sh**ting me to tears lol I'll post an update when I have one.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Are you using dritz snaps? If not... I suggest skipping the vario pliers. In general they suck (I bent mine from overuse) and they're unusable with anything but dritz.

 

Even if you're not using tandy snaps... I highly suggest the tandy snap setting tool (on sale for $2.94 right now) and anvil ($1.99!) or even the sucky tool that comes with the dritz snaps.... just pound the crap out of it.

 

Check out my build thread for my personal snap related whining.... or Jorran's snap thread of woe.

 

-DarthAloha of the First Imperial Snap Detachment

[Spectre]

I don't even know what dritz snaps are. A certain brand, I'm assuming?

I've got two different types of snaps, one from Bunnings (hardware store) and one from Spotlight (sewing/craft store). The brands are Zenith and Birch.

The Zenith male ones seem to have more of a grip on them, and the Birch male ones don't really have a lip on them at all.

I tried using the setting tool thingy and the anvil thingy that came with the snaps, but I can't get it to flatten the inside part anywhere near enough.

Also PM sent Eric.

[Spectre]

Hmmm...just looking over the CRLs, and I think I could go for Centurion. I haven't done anything that would stop me from applying for it, and it would be a very small amount of extra work to do the things required.

I'm totally gonna work towards that.

[Spectre]

I have another question: can I trim the whole return edge off at the top of the forearm?

It's just that I botched up the cut by taking off the whole overlap from the outer piece (as I've lamented about heaps before this. ) and I need to reshape the forearm pieces to line up so the cover strip can attach with a good amount of flat surface on each piece to attach to.

As it stands, I can't reshape the outer piece because of the return edge, it wouldn't let it bend properly.

 

I can make these pieces line up BUT I cannot get enough surface area on each piece for the cover strip to attach to.

 

This edge will stop the piece from bending into a new shape, can I remove that?

Edited January 14, 2012 by Spectre

[Spectre]

Glued the shoulder straps onto the chest piece. I am trimming the cover strips for the forearms and backs of the shins to have rounded edges (really should have done that for all of the strips before glueing them but oh well, Dremel time! ).

I'll be glueing the cover strips onto the back of the shins one at a time probably, I haven't got enough magnets to do both at once. >.< Ah well, anyway then I'll add on the velcro and they'll be done! Yay!

 

Also!! I managed to make my snaps work. I am using the male part of the Zenith (Bunnings) snaps with the flat backing from the Birch (Spotlight) snaps to make the plates.

The reason I am mixing and matching them like that is because the Birch snaps have a really bad lip on the male component, basically they have a weak grip.

The Zenith snaps have a good male piece, but they are backed by the silver button part, and that'll stop them from having a flat surface to attach to the armour, so I am using the backing from the male part of the Birch ones.

I know that I could have just switched the Zenith backings around...but I only just realised that now hahaha so it's a bit late.

Anyway, I made mine by drilling the hole in the plate with my dremel and then making it bigger using my scalpel. I insert the blade into the hole and twist it, which makes the hole bigger evenly. Like so:

 

 

 

 

 

You can never have enough clamps. Magnets wouldn't have been as effective I reckon, clamps were the way to go.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Spectre