Andrea's Build Thread [*AM]

[Pickles[TK]]

Bear with me as this will most likely be a slower build thread as I don't have a ton of time to work on my kit. Just little bits here and there as I can.

 

I got the AM lite kit (AP bucket to follow).

 

So far I've trimmed and fit: forearms, biceps and thighs. I'd love the input from the people here as I make the armor.

 

Obligatory unboxing shot

 

 

 

So shiny!

 

 

 

After working on the thighs. They feel comfortable but I am wondering if I should taper them in a bit more at the knees.

 

 

 

Side View. (I've done nothing to the ab/kidney/butt plates. I just put them on to get and idea of how it would look.

 

 

 

Back View

 

I'll put up more pics soon

[Sgt_Mac_1]

Looking good Andrea. Very jealous here. One you have a basement to work in and two you have armour to work on.

[Turtle84]

Right. I'm stuck with an apartment and nosey neighbors.

 

Might borrow your taping idea for fitting

Edited May 29, 2012 by Turtle84

[tkrestonva[TK]]

Nice start.

 

Always tape the parts together and do a fit check before gluing anything. Also, *please* use E6000 as your adhesive. I have a prospective member of my garrison who assembled his AM thighs and shins incorrectly, and he used Plastic Weld. If he had used E6000, we could have pulled the pieces apart and reassembled it. But since he didn't, he will have to basically throw away those parts and start over.

 

If you can pull up your thighs any more, definitely do so. If not, I see you having to do a 'scoop cut' to the backs of the thighs and calves at the knees in order to have any sort of mobility.

 

Oh, and that assembly guide at your feet? You can toss that in the trash now.

[Hbrika[TK]]

Looking good!

 

Agreed, always tape it up and try it on first.

 

The ability to pull glued armor apart is a life saver. I had to do that with Marine Goop which luckily for me can be pulled apart if you have to.

[silverBoyd[501st]]

Looks good sp far. I'm finishing up my AM build. Measure and fit 2-3 times and cut once. Or do small trimmings and fit it as you trim. In my experience, make sure you get the top return edges of the thighs taken off as much as possible to make them fit better and also to make them come up as high on your leg as possible. Pick up some curved Lexan scissors....they were a blessing when trimming return edges. I have assembled my armor with the butt-joint method. It's pretty easy and fits and looks better in my opinion. E-6000 is your friend. I've used about 1 1/2 tubes to assemble the armor and snap plates. Also....research, research, research and doesn't hurt to check out the BluRay Screen captures for reference.

 

Also, with the AM kits....the shins should be paired up a certain way to get the best look and fit.

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=16608

Edited May 29, 2012 by silverBoyd

[Hedjii72]

Ahh, the days of blue tape. Memories...

 

Looks like you're off to a good start. Not that I'm an expert, but I noticed you are going for the same kit and helmet combo that I did, so I'll offer my build thread:

 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=16446&hl=hedji%26%2339%3Bs&fromsearch=1

[TK-4902[TK]]

Looking good Andrea... I agree with what the others have said so far. But one thing I noticed.. check your kidney plate, it looks like it might be upside down. Of course, it may be just the way the light is hitting it. Best of luck with your build, AM is a great armor, I love mine.

 

~Brian TK-4902

[Femtrooper Julie[501st]]

Looking really good!

[Pickles[TK]]

Thanks so much guys for the very helpful tips! I haven't even purchased any glue yet for fear of the temptation of gluing it before it fits perfectly, heh. But I will most definitely get E6000 as opposed to cement.

 

I will trim the top thigh return edges because those suckers wont go up any further than shown in the pic at the moment. I will probably need a strong snap/belt/velcro system to keep them up I think.

 

Do the bottoms of the thighs look like they are tight enough?

 

As for the kidney plate, one end seems to 'flare out' slightly more than another. Is that the top or bottom?

 

Thanks again guys, your help is very much appreciated.

[GnrlGrievous]

Looks like a great start! I also have AM armor and it is a great set.

 

Your kidney plate might be upside down based on the photo, I turned mine over and over about 20 times before I figured it out. Trimmig some of the return edge off the top of the thighs will help pull them up more, I ended up taking about half or more.

 

Take your time and it will turn out great.

[theisaac]

Welcome to the AM build club!

 

You'll need to have your photographer take pics of the thighs a little closer to the ground to see how open they are at the bottom by the knee. They look pretty good from a standing position but you'll know when you walk in them if they are narrow enough. You want to avoid the "bell ringing" motion when you walk. I have thick thighs and I ended up leaving about 1/2 inch gap at the top and then cutting about 3 inches from the bottom so they taper. I had to butt joint everything to make it fit me better. I also had to trim the tops of the thighs around the back side of them to pull them up higher as my butt cheeks prevented them from coming up any more.

 

Have a spotter / fitter with you when you size them and it will help you a ton. They can eyeball where things are sitting and where you need to trim while the pieces are on your body. I think I spent about 4 hours trimming the tops off my thighs. Trim.... test fit... trim more.. test fit.

 

The kidney is upside down in your pics. The curve goes at the bottom to fit the "small of your back". Hope that makes sense.

 

Good luck and ask a ton of questions and post a ton of pictures and people will be here to help along the way.

 

Isaac

[jnnfr72[TK]]

Nice pics Andrea! You are coming along very nicely.

My 2 cents... I trimmed my knees TOO much, and they pinched the crap out of my knees - mostly inner, but also outer.

After 1 painful and bruise inducing troop at a movie theater, I added the outdoor air conditioning sticky foam cushion all

over the knees, and also trimmed A LOT around the knees until I was able to walk up and down stairs with no armor bites.

 

I had to work about 10 different times on my strapping method for the thighs, and ended up with some lovely Wal Mart

suspenders and industrial strength velcro. I don't know what the best method is for keeping thighs up for most troopers.

I think it's trial and error... ? Just keep using E6000 so you can pull apart what you don't like. Buy lots and lots of the N

rated magnets!

 

 

 

[silverBoyd[501st]]

Isaac is right. The AM thighs need lots of trimming and test fitting. I've been working on my thighs for 2 weeks now and that's the reason I left them to do last. I had a feeling they would be a pain

[Pickles[TK]]

Got to fix those biceps. the are too loose still.

 

 

 

Bue tape on the bottom of the chest and back are where I am thinking of trimming.

 

 

Tried heating the butt plate and making it "hug" more but I don't know how well it went. =/

 

 

Cod too high? SHins correct? I hope so, I went over the thread a bunch of times to make sure I got it right.

 

 

 

Thighs won't stay up alone, but they do go up pretty high.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jnnfr72[TK]]

Looking good! I bet when you get the strap between the butt plate and cod attached, it should help the butt plate to hug more. Also, things will fit a bit differently when you have your belt on.

My belt helps hold everything in place. You might need some kind of snap plate or industrial strength velcro to keep the chest piece down. It does look a bit long, but don't cut until you get

some more opinions. Oh, and the shins fit a bit tighter with boots under them, and after you shove the gloves under the forearms, they get a little snugger. Your armor is looking really

good. I bet it wouldn't be too much more work to go for your expert infantryman badge. YOU CAN DOOOO EHT!!!!!

[bigironvault]

Go EIB Andrea, you're our pathfinder!

[Arnie_DK[TK]]

The knee plate seems to be sticking out. Maybe trim a bit of the return edge, so you can get it to sit more flush with the shin, and you may want to consider trimming a bit around the neck of the chest plate. That thing have the potential of strangling you

 

But looking good

[Pickles[TK]]

Thanks Arnie!

 

I just want to throw in that I slapped on the knee plate last minute with some tape as a good-natured jab to a buddy of mine who's trying to get me to go sandy!

[Arnie_DK[TK]]

Hehe, okay then. Just tell him to go play in the sand

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

Andrea, lookin' great! Love your smile, too!

 

Thighs are my enemy. Here are a couple tips from me as a lady, not an expert builder/TK:

1. Removable glue (e6000) is your friend. You never have to feel like you're making something permanent in case you have to fix it.
   
2. What Jenny said. And I like Jenny's rig with the velcro. Mine is similar but with buttons. (it's a hockey thing) I don't trust velcro.
   
3. Thighs: Get them to go as high as you can, but not clashing with the cod.
   
4. The cod is a pain, it kind of goes where it goes. For me, that's usually biting right into my inner thighs on some days, but perfect on others. (??)
   
5. Your butt plate looks like it's hugging fine. And possibly tapping against the top backs of your thighs. I suggest trimming the back of the thighs a bit so you don't pinch yourself between them, esp. when the butt plate tucks under properly. If you look at some good butt shots, you'll see how the contours of the tops of the thighs follow the contours of the bottom/sides of the butt plate. By the way, it's never gonna sit right on your bum, so don't stress it.
   
6. Definitely trim a little more from the neck on the chest piece. That thing will choke the crap out of you that high up!
   
7. You asked about tapering the bottom of the thighs more: well I had to do this three frickin times, so you might do what's comfortable, troop a couple times, and then adjust. Rinse repeat. They do look like they're a little wide. We gals have a more conical shape to our thighs than the gents.
   
8. Your sniper plate looks like it might jam up against the thigh, which means your ammo boxes on the right might also be in the way... I would trim about 1/4 to 1/2" off the bottom of your shins. They'll sit a little higher on you when your boots are on, too.
   

I believe trimming the AM chest is one of the "to dos" in making it more accurate, right? So where you have it looks fine (others who are better at judging this might give better opinion!), just be sure that bottom is going to still cover the top of the ab. I also trimmed a lot off the top of my ab to account for the "underwire" effect, so I had to be careful about that and it was too little coverage for a while (ab kept popping up over the chest).

 

Whew! I am supposed to be in bed, but a girl's gotta help a girl out. Great work and keep it going!

Edited June 2, 2012 by LadyInWhite

[DudeSidious]

It looks like your chest armor is sitting high but I dont think trimming the neck line will help . When you put on your helmet it looks like it will sit on your chest plate and you wont be able to turn your head.Maybe you could try and lower the chest plate.I'm no expert either but try everything else before cutting anything.

Edited June 2, 2012 by DudeSidious

[theisaac]

You can check out my AM thread to see how I made the chest sit lower. I had to trim the tops of the shoulder and back. This allows the chest to sit lower on your upper body. When you turn sideways you'll notice with the flaps attatched it makes the chest float out and ride high. Its because the mould AM uses makes those flaps stick straight back instead of up and at an angle like it should sit.

 

To keep it sitting low I used webbing with snaps attatched to the pecks of the chest and connected to the inside of the ab piece. This stops the chest from trying to ride up too high like it wants to because of the way it was moulded.

 

Isaac

[silverBoyd[501st]]

Thanks Arnie!

 

I just want to throw in that I slapped on the knee plate last minute with some tape as a good-natured jab to a buddy of mine who's trying to get me to go sandy!

 

I'm going as a Sandy...can't wait. I already have my pouches, helmet built, pauldron, backpack and T21 blaster built. Just need to finish up my thigh builds and dirty the armor then I can go for approval.

 

Isaac is right by the way....trim the molded shoulder pieces on the chest / back. Trim...test fit....trim...test fit. It will def. make the chest sit lower and not be all up in your face. Allowing your helmet to be able to turn comfortably.

Edited June 3, 2012 by silverBoyd

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

I concede to the gents. If you can lower it instead of cutting, always do that!