TKuper05's AP Build

[Dr.Senf]

Gaps and ears come together and dint worry gaps are accurate and wanted.

I would slice of a little bit of the sides on your backplate there is still some funny returnedgethingy visible.

What about the right side picture...

Did the button wich connects ab and kidneyplate just opened?

It doesnt look alligned very well.

Other than that i think it looks fine.

Try to get a mini gab between back and kidneyplate so you prevent unwanted overlapping.

I can strongly recomment to get a belt from RS or clothear ( wich is the same )

Since its copied to the last fibre from the original belt and just looks awesum.

 

 

 

Tapatalk.

[Dr.Senf]

And you could take of a little bit of the flashing in the teetharea.

There is in my opinion a bit too much.

I hope that helps.

 

 

Tapatalk.

[kupertrooper]

Thanks for the feedback. I trimmed most of that return on my biceps off. I went with decals on this because my nerves are shot from this build and I'm startting to lose my patience lol. I think that thing is called a contour gauge.

 

The sides of my ab/kidney are attached with elastic. I think that it was attached in that picture. Looks like the top is a lot shorter. I may try strapping instead of elastic and test that out to reduce my gap. Already have my belt made. Bought it from TKittel, looks really nice.

 

I removed more area from the teeth:

[Geaux Saints[TK]]

Looks really good.

[kupertrooper]

Update

 

I've decided to shim my sides. I thought that I didn't have enough tension on the elastic so I made nylon straps. It's just too tight and I think the butt and back will fit a little better if I shim it.

 

Thigh ammo pack. I see on a lot of build/EI threads where staff members have said that the ammoo pack is wrong. I can't ever tell what's wrong with it so I'm afraid I will mess mine up and I can't redrill it since I'm using Centurion approved cap riviets and I only have two of them. What's some common mistakes people make when attaching it?

 

What I have left:

paint the black on my ears

shim sides

strap everything up

finish glueing dang sniper plate

attach thigh belt

attach chest bridges (5 little ribs and 1 big rib on the chest)

finish my doopy E-11 (electronics/paint)

[LadyInWhite[TK]]

It's a little too late to ask this now but, how tall is too tall for AP armor, I'm 5' 11". I did a very rough test of the torso last night and with no gap in the butt/kidney/back, it seemed like the back was too far down. Also, my butt plate sticks out and the sides of it flare out. I know pics would be nice but I dont have any at the moment.

 

I'm 5'11" and it's perfect.

[kupertrooper]

Here it is! I don't have my lenses in yet. I'm waiting on some from Smitty. I still need to put my side rivets in and put on my TD but other than that I think it's done. I would like to remove some of the shoulder gap but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Let me know what you think. Be gentle lol.

 

[Dr.Senf]

Hey great build !

Fits you well!

And the helmet looks much better!

How did you get on with ap's sniperplate?

Looks good what i can see.

 

 

Tapatalk.

[kupertrooper]

That's a big complement coming from you Sven, thanks.

 

I glued the middle down and then used my heat iron on one side and the other side went on without too much fuss.

[Dr.Senf]

Well done!

 

 

Tapatalk.

[FunkyTrigger[TK]]

Hi Travis

As requested, you have PM'd me to give your latest armour build pics a once over and pass honest feedback.

I have read your entire build thread before posting.

 

To start with, you have brought two good ideas to the build table here.

1. The first is your contour gauge for judging the ear shape. This is a simple and brilliant idea.
   
2. You have researched and found a sticky pad to apply to that back of your snap poppers before applying the glue.
   

In your first pic, the full frontal pic, we can see the overall shape and fit of your armour on you.

This is form fitted to your frame and looks very good.

You actually look like a stormtrooper!.

 

I think that you may need a tighter fitting under suit for your top half eventually as it looks a bit baggy in the shoulder area.

I can see that your top shoulder bells are nice and close to your shoulder straps.

A straight down arms pic will assess if they are close enough to your chest plate.

I am sure that they will be.

The large gap that we see at present is due to your proud to be in armour pose.

 

I think that the AB and Kidney shims that you have added are good and will get you an EIB pass.

For centurion, you will need the 6 side rivets and to try and blend the shim seam in a bit better as the new rules require to see a single seam line rather than the two that you have there.

 

Your Front AB belt corners , I think maybe have been trimmed too much for centurion.

You need Mathias to comment on this.

It looks OK for EIB

It may be salvageable, if you trim the end of the belt up to the edge of the ab buttons.

The ab buttons are supposed to be at the belt edge.

If this is done, then maybe the corner cuts that you have made won’t appear to be such large triangles.

 

Your back view picture looks perfect in respect to the armour.

The Shoulders, backplate, kidney and butt plate all spot on.

 

I presume that you know that your Thermal detonator is missing from the back of the belt.

 

Your rear shoulder straps are missing the white tie down elastics to hold them down and in place.

If they are there, as I think I can see one in your LEFT side facing pics, then you may need to slightly heat and re bend the back shoulder straps so that they sit better on the back plate.

I cannot see a tie down strap on your RIGHT hand facing side view shot.

This strap is lifted too high at the back.

 

Your right rear shin, was not closed properly for the picture.

 

How much helmet padding do you have in the top of your helmet?

It seems to be very high up from your neck in the rear shots.

I suspect that as you are still building the helmet, that perhaps it is balancing on your head at present with no padding to help keep it in the right place.

 

So, overall its very good.

You’re nearly there to finish and a good quality build, with only a few tweaks required.

 

I hope this helps and is the kind of review that you wanted.

[FunkyTrigger[TK]]

Hi Travis, with reference to what I said about your AB belt corners, may I ask how wide your canvas belt is?

This may be the problem.

The canvas belt is supposed to be slightly thinner is diameter than the width of the front ammo belt.

[kupertrooper]

Phil,

 

This is exactly the review I was looking for. I appreciate you taking the time to look this over.

 

 

The suit I had on there was a 'cold weather' suit that I was trying out. I have a much tighter one on my mannequin at the moment.

 

The shoulder bell gap is something I'm working on. I have snap plates gluing as I type this. I put them more toward the front to prevent them from rotating back.

 

I plan on installing rivets and working on that seam. I already have the rivets and have pre-painted them.

 

That's disconcerting about the belt corners. I'll check with Mathias.

 

TD was missing. I'll try to post a pic of it later today.

 

The elastic ties are there and I will work on the chest straps so they look better.

 

I noticed that my shin wasn't closed on that pic too. It was my first time to suit up lol so I'll double check that next time.

 

I do have padding on the top of my helmet but no where else in the helmet, I'm still trying to find the sweet spot. I kept wanting to tilt my head down to see better, I think I was doing it in that pic. I'll look into this.

 

The belt was purchased from TKittell (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19803-fs-white-canvas-belts/). It's supposed to be roughly 3.25 inches (82.55 mm) wide. Here's a repost of the completed belt:

 

[troopermaster]

Your belt corners are trimmed too much and the belt should be just less than 3" wide. The canister clips are bent the wrong way on the bottom and are facing towards the canister instead of away from it. The holster looks huge too.

 

This is comparing your stuff to the original ANH kit and just an FYI for anyone interested.

[kupertrooper]

I guess I'll contact Mark and try to obtain a new belt.

 

When you say the belt should be less than 3 inches wide are you referring to the canvas belt?

 

The holster was purchased from Darman. Is it too long, or just too big in general?

[FunkyTrigger[TK]]

Yes we are referring to the width of the canvas belt.

 

Those Darmann holsters are too long, we've seen loads recently in EIB requests.

 

The holster shouldn't really be longer than your thigh.

Our common recommendation is to holster your gun, then cut the excess from the bottom of the holster.

 

These wont affect your EIB app, but we try to make you look as best you can for Centurion so it's up to you if you wish to improve your look.

 

If you could run your canvas belt through a sewing machine and get it to the narrower width, then trim the end of your AB belt to the AB buttons, then your AB belt may be salvageable for centurion.

 

I would have a go, there's nothing to loose.

 

 

[kupertrooper]

I want to be at Centurion level soon, that is why I welcome these criticisms. I'm a little disappointed that members are selling inaccurate products but I guess that it's not their fault if they never claim it to be 'Centurion ready'.

 

Here are some pics of the armor on my mannequin.

 

Chest straps and bells adjusted:

 

TD:

[kupertrooper]

Paul,

 

I read a post where you recently corrected someone on the way the TD clips so be bent. I think it's great how you contribute to these forums and share your knowledge. That being said, I prefer the functionality of the way mine are built. Kinda like how I'm using snaps instead of the accurate strapping you provide with your kits (I know that my armor probably couldn't handle the accurate strapping due to the ABS).

[troopermaster]

Like I said, I am comparing everything to the original ANH kit. Having the clips bent the opposite way is no better or worse, they just look odd to me. I know it's not everyones intention to have their kit look like a screen used Stormtrooper, but if you are going for these EIB and Centurion awards then I think you should be preparred to up the ante a bit. Just my thoughts

[kupertrooper]

I contacted Mark at AP and I'm going to replace my belt.

[kupertrooper]

I contacted TKittell and he made a good point. The CRL clearly states the width of the belt should be 3-3.5" wide. Mine is 3 3/8".

 

Belt

For 501st approval:

• Belt face is made of plastic (TK ammo belt).
  
• Belt proper is made of canvas, canvas covered material, leather, or vinyl, 3â€(75mm) to 3.5â€(90mm) wide. The color is be white to off-white.
  
• The drop boxes dangle from the sides of the front plastic belt (ammo belt) via white straps and are aligned under the plastic tabs of the ammo belt.
   
  

For level two certification (if applicable):

• Belt shall be canvas or canvas covered, leather and vinyl are not acceptable.
  
• There shall be three square buttons, one centered in the middle and one on each end of the plastic ammo belt..
   
  

For level three certification (if applicable):

• Drop boxes are closed in the back.
  
• The corners of the plastic ammo belt shall be trimmed at a 45 degree angle.
   
  

[FunkyTrigger[TK]]

Re: the CRL

Both your current canvas belt and ammo AB belt are fine for basic 501st approval.

 

You are covered if basic is all thy you want.

[kupertrooper]

I want to go farther than basic. I guess I'll replace the canvas belt too.