Fritzthfox's ANH Stunt build (T/MC)

[fritzthefox]

I thought I would chronicle my build here on the FISD forum, in hopes of lighting the way for other troopers or, more likely, to serve as an object lesson in what NOT to do. I was fortunate enough to start shopping for my armor around the time T/MC offered a batch of their excellent kits, and so I was not forced to endure more than a few weeks of nail biting before the big brown box arrived on my doorstep. I wish I had had the foresight to photograph everything in it, because the kit is remarkably complete, even including an instructional CD full of photos and tips to aid in assembly.

 

I spent my first evening with our local garrison painstakingly trimming and sanding a hand plate for nearly three hours (narrowly avoided the nickname "handjob"). Eventually, my initial terror faded and I was soon making real headway. Several days, a pound of inhaled ABS dust and new dremel later, I had trimmed my armor. I thought the hard part was over.

 

Ha.

 

(The old PC case in the photo below served as a makeshift chair in my workshop while I whittled away at my plastic. It is as uncomfortable as it looks, although this is probably the most useful it has ever been.)

 

 

 

The tedious process of gluing stuff together began. Before I could truly put glue to armor, though, I needed to make up my mind if I would be using overlap construction or the cover strip method. The majority of people in my local garrison have gone the overlap route, and it certainly seemed easier. But I am built like Ichabod Crane, so I knew I would need to do some trimming in order to walk without sounding like a tupperware salesman falling off a porch, and the cover strip method seemed more amenable to resizing. My kit also included plenty of spare ABS strips, should I choose to do so.

 

It also seemed terrifying. Cut my laboriously sanded armor, the beautiful shiny white plastic that had me sitting by the mailbox with all the patience of a ten-year-old waiting four to six weeks for his sea monkeys? I just learned to use a Dremel! What kind of fool would do something so ambitious? I waffled over the decision forever, but over time I gained confidence with the score and curse method of cutting ABS and read more and more FISD posts until I, too, drank of the cover strip koolaid.

 

A month ago, Brian Muir could have handed me a helmet and I would not have known it from a Rubies costume. Now I won't be complete unless I am ANH screen accurate.

 

So I hacked into my forearms like an emo schoolgirl and glued on a coverstrip. So far, so good. Well, mostly. The E6000 lived up to its reputation as being both strong and forgiving to work with. What every glowing online testimonial to its virtues neglects to mention is that it smells like an unwashed yak, and now my house does, too. It is an odor that lingers throughout the curing time of the glue, which may be 20 to 30 years, judging from the rate of dissipation. On the bright side, most of the toxins have probably been absorbed by all the ABS dust embedded in my lungs, so I think I'll be OK.

 

 

As you can see, the forearm is shaping up nicely. That is, it was, until I tried to give it an actual shape. As soon as I tried to close it, THIS happened:

 

 

I tried clamping the armor and (carefully!) hitting it with a heat gun to take some of the stress out of the curve, and it helped a little, but it still will not lay flush. I bought some plastic weld and may try to bully the cover strip into place, but I decided to work on something less stressful while I mulled the problem over. Like the helmet.

 

The helmet has actually been going very smoothly. I really like the eye pieces that T/MC supplied, which are nice and dark from the outside, but provide great visibility from within. I used the heat gun to gently shape them and stuck them in using the appropriately named "Sticky Black Stuff", a tire balancing putty. It works great, but is a little messy, and I spent more time wiping black fingerprints off of my helmet than I did sticking the lenses in. A note to those of you brave enough to try to heat shape anything: plastic under a heat gun goes from "Why isn't this working?" to "My god, what have I done?!?" in about .00001 seconds, so be very careful.

 

 

More to come as the saga continues...

Edited December 9, 2012 by fritzthefox

[Tray[TK]]

Nice. Jason Romanoff used a can of soup when he was reshaping the forearms to be more rounded. He used the heat gun and put the can into it until it slipped through no problem. He said he went very slowly to not overheat it but worked out well.

 

You have a nice start going Barry. Keep it up.

[jnnfr72[TK]]

You can do it Barry! Glad you went with the cover strips, too. Your story was cracking me up. "EMO Schoolgirl"... teee heeeee heeeeeee

[Rezablad3[TK]]

Off to great start....keep up the good work trooper..

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, hey looks pretty much the same as my floor did (but mine was on a rug)

[Potty Meister]

Duuuuude that's a lot of trimming! That's the first big hurdle. After that it's really not too bad. Or maybe that's because my hands weren't so sore anymore. Nice computer too! What is that, a pentium 2? Takes me back...

[eloquentXI]

Looks great so far! The commentary made me giggle for sure, I'll have to check back in soon to see what's next in the great TK building saga...

[fritzthefox]

Well, after a great deal of teeth gnashing and price checking for replacement parts, I finally managed to get my forearm to stay closed. This involved copious amounts of glue and swearing. Along the way, I discovered a new form of torture involving palms and rare earth magnets, which is best performed very slowly.

 

I used so much glue that the final result resembled some of the models I built when I was eight years old (or my caulking jobs as an adult), but thanks to the forgiving qualities of the E6000 glue, it cleaned up well enough. Here is a shot of the completed forearm, which I took for posterity since I am still not entirely convinced it will not spring open unexpectedly some day and fling itself beneath a passing bus. It hates me that much.

 

 

 

Here is a shot of the same forearm after a little scrubbing and picking at it with a razor blade. A little armor polish and it should look just fine.

 

 

In retrospect, I think one reason the arm gave me so much grief was my decision to trim the overlap on the inner half. The overlap itself was a simple shape that mirrored the curve of the overlap it mated to on the outer piece, but once removed it left an edge with a less cooperative compound curve. I did this for the sake of symmetry, but I think for the other arm I will trim from the outer piece, which should leave a flatter and more docile edge.

 

I also have managed to complete my helmet, save for the headliner and a little polish. I used Testors spray enamel (Testors Grey 1138, or 1238 in the can, matches the decals very well) on vocoder and hand painted the ears and teeth. The kit came with some helpful vinyl masking, although my spray job managed to leech under it a little despite my efforts. An exacto knife and some fine grain sandpaper fixed that. For the rest, I used the kit supplied decals. I know hand-painting them would be more accurate, but I found painting the ABS with the enamel exasperating, and I have more faith in the durability and adhesion of the vinyl decals than I do the paint. The kit supplies some nice Hovi's, and the only problem I had installing them was trying to locate one of the screens that popped out of a mike tip and vanished into the clutter on my workshop floor. The decals were a breeze. Installing the neck liner made me want to cry. But, as I have learned so often working on this project, sometimes getting mad at it is the best way to make it work. Plastic seems to yield to brute force more often than my efforts at precision. (Unless it breaks, in which case it needed replacing, anyway)

 

Here is a needlessly dramatic photo of my finished helmet, because I like my new camera.

 

Edited December 15, 2012 by fritzthefox

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good but seems like you have added you're tube stripes on backwards, the curves should face forwards, they also look are a little low on too. Nice job on the ears, most of the screen lids had terrible gaps on their lids, I found the ears the worst thing to attach. Also make sure you rough the surfaces with sandpaper of the abs on the parts you are going to glue, helps them to bond better. Glad you got over the initial shock of cutting the first pieces, I know I had the same trouble, keep up the good work

[Tray[TK]]

It is looking great Barry. As pointed out though, you mounted the tube stripes on backwards.

[fritzthefox]

Oh, for pete's sake.

Edited December 15, 2012 by fritzthefox

[Horrendous]

Oh, for pete's sake.

. * face palm *

 

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk 2

[fritzthefox]

OK, while I'm waiting for my replacement decals to arrive, I thought I would take a moment to share with you the Most Useful Tool in my workshop thus far, aside from the versatile and occasionally scary Dremel. The MVP of my tabletop is this handy little thingamajig:

 

 

I picked it up at Hobby Lobby for a few shekels intending to use it for its advertised function, which is sculpting clay. I rapidly learned that I am no better at sculpting than I am at applying decals, so it had been sitting unused until I began my armor project. Now it seems that there is no task for which it is not ideally suited. Want to shave a little ABS off of that cut? Works great. Need to scrape off some E6000 from a sloppy join? Easy. Need to peel off some stubborn vinyl decals that some idiot has put on backwards? Piece of cake. The thing is like an exacto knife and giant metal fingernail all rolled into one handy package. I can't recommend it enough. Whatever it's called.

[Ravenwood[TK]]

I feel your pain. My forearms fighting with me too I had one side of them glued and left them for 24 hours then fought with the other side and finally got them (so I thought) This morning I check them and they have pulled apart about 1/4" so now I have to pull them apart, clean them up and redo them. Any suggestions on a better way to do this would be great. I have thick ABS and the magnets just are not doing it for me. HELP!

[fritzthefox]

I found that a combination of clamps, magnets and duct tape works pretty well. (The duct tape is surprising efficient if you wrap a piece it around the arm). One of the pieces I use the heat gun (very sparingly) to bend a little bit inward, but I don't really think it did much. I think the biggest difference between success and failure for me was brute force...I have inner and outer cover strips on each join and I used LOTS of glue. It's pretty easy to remove excess E6000, even if it dries. For the closing seam, I glued one side of the strip down and let it dry before gluing it to the other side.

 

I'm at a bit of a low point right now, too...I just trashed an inner bicep with a hasty cut. I'm so mad I really don't want to be in the same room with myself right now.

Edited December 20, 2012 by fritzthefox

[Ravenwood[TK]]

I found that a combination of clamps, magnets and duct tape works pretty well. (The duct tape is surprising efficient if you wrap a piece it around the arm). One of the pieces I use the heat gun (very sparingly) to bend a little bit inward, but I don't really think it did much. I think the biggest difference between success and failure for me was brute force...I have inner and outer cover strips on each join and I used LOTS of glue. It's pretty easy to remove excess E6000, even if it dries. For the closing seam, I glued one side of the strip down and let it dry before gluing it to the other side.

 

I'm at a bit of a low point right now, too...I just trashed an inner bicep with a hasty cut. I'm so mad I really don't want to be in the same room with myself right now.

 

OHHH NO... can you selvage the bicep? where is the mis-cut?

 

I think the wrapping the duct tape all the way around will be my next attempt the magnets are doing nothing. I am not looking forward to pulling it apart and cleaning off all that glue tonight

The other pieces glued great just these damn forearms.... I hate them lol

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I also glued one side of each piece at a time, slow going but worth it in the end. Heat does work but test on some scraps first, there is a point where you can go too far and it will just spread like butter, ok maybe not tha bad but it does get soft. I had great succes with heating and squashing in the forearms a little. Depending where the mis-cut is you may be ok, you will have the cover strips, hope that is enough to cover what is wrong, let us see a photo. The maganets I use a very strong and work well, they are 3/4 inch, downfall is when you get a finger stuck between too. Don't stress we all make little mistakes along the way, good luck

[fritzthefox]

Unfortunately, my inner bicep is now so much scrap plastic. I mismeasured and cut off about 20mm too much. I'm hoping T/MC can sell me a replacement piece.

 

It has become obvious to me through the course of my life that there are some days it is just best to not get out of bed, let alone attempt to make a meaningful decision or operate machinery. Unfortunately, the puritan work ethic that has been hammered into my head since childhood and my own impatience often get the better of me and I attempt to do things, anyway...always with predictably tragic results. I really think it would be a good idea to train a small parrot to sit on my shoulder and squawk, "Are you sure?" every time it sees me pick up a power tool. I would rather have bird poop all over my back than be full of self-loathing.

Edited December 20, 2012 by fritzthefox

[Ravenwood[TK]]

Is the 20mm on the join? if so can you split the difference between the two joins? the cover strip should cover up the gap, and the only way you would see it if from the inside?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Unfortunately, my inner bicep is now so much scrap plastic. I mismeasured and cut off about 20mm too much. I'm hoping T/MC can sell me a replacement piece.

 

It has become obvious to me through the course of my life that there are some days it is just best to not get out of bed, let alone attempt to make a meaningful decision or operate machinery. Unfortunately, the puritan work ethic that has been hammered into my head since childhood and my own impatience often get the better of me and I attempt to do things, anyway...always with predictably tragic results. I really think it would be a good idea to train a small parrot to sit on my shoulder and squawk, "Are you sure?" every time it sees me pick up a power tool. I would rather have bird poop all over my back than be full of self-loathing.

Don't get too down, happens to all of us at some time or another. I have the 3am curse at the moment just can't get any sleep. Any chance of a photo, may have a fix in mind

 

Too late, Jeremy beat me too it LOL

Edited December 20, 2012 by gmrhodes13

[fritzthefox]

Sorry, no photos just yet. I have temporarily sworn off all attempts to use tools of any kind (Except this computer, which never does what it is supposed to do, anyway). I have recently proven incapable of using even the simplest of tools...even my trusty clay-sculpting thingamajigger, which recently added insult to injury by flicking a small glue ball up my nose. E6000 somehow smells even worse when it is lodged in your nasal cavity, yet still retains all of its legendary adhesive properties, so I am interpreting this as a sign that I need to make some sort of sacrifice to the gods before resuming work on my armor. And probably buy a face mask.

 

Anyone have a small goat they are not using?

Edited December 22, 2012 by fritzthefox

[fritzthefox]

Well, while I have been waiting for my replacement bicep piece to arrive, I have kept busy be destroying other parts of my armor. Here is a minor crisis I created while working with the cover strips on my thighs. I mistakenly ran one strip all the way to the knee, and when I attempted to score and snap off of the excess plastic, it tore. Since I was low on ABS, I decided to replace the missing piece. This is how it looked:

 

 

This was, by the way, my very first act of the New Year, so I am already feeling very good about the thirteenth year of the new millenium. After the obligatory grumbling, I marched off to the local store and picked up some acetone (readily available in the cosmetic department, along with a wide variety of other toxic chemicals women can put on their bodies. No wonder they buy so much perfume!) and a small glass cup. Combined with my plentiful supply of scrap ABS, I now had all the ingredients required to mix up some ABS paste, which I did. It only takes a matter of minutes for small shavings of ABS to dissolve in the liquid, turning it milky white. If you are patient and wait for some of the acetone to evaporate, it becomes a thick goo. It can also grow little strings (like the fiberglass paste used for auto body repair, appropriately called "Kitty Hair") and form squishy lumps and lord knows what else. It is just the sort of thing to bring out the mad scientist in you, and perhaps turn you into one permanently after enough exposure to the fumes. Anyway, don't use your good brush.

 

Here's the same booboo after patching and sanding. Not perfect, but much improved, and will probably be undetectable after some plastic polish...

 

 

The rest of my armor pieces have gone together without incident. One thing I have learned along the way is that it is best to ignore the E6000 that oozes out from beneath the cover strips until it dries, when it is much easier to remove. You can then simply slice along the edge of the strip with an exacto knife and peel off the rubbery glue in long strips. Here's my strip collection from the greaves. I would not be surprised if it made good catfish bait. Catfish love smelly stuff, and it is toxic enough they would probably not be fighting long.

 

Edited January 4, 2013 by fritzthefox

[Ravenwood[TK]]

Great repair I have a hole to fill and will try this. The hole is covered by the belt, but I know it's there and it bugs me lol. Keep up the good work mate

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Your fix looks great, most leave the little gap in the ends of their joins. Keep up the good work I am sure 2013 only inprove

[8BitBry]

Sorry, no photos just yet. I have temporarily sworn off all attempts to use tools of any kind (Except this computer, which never does what it is supposed to do, anyway). I have recently proven incapable of using even the simplest of tools...even my trusty clay-sculpting thingamajigger, which recently added insult to injury by flicking a small glue ball up my nose. E6000 somehow smells even worse when it is lodged in your nasal cavity, yet still retains all of its legendary adhesive properties, so I am interpreting this as a sign that I need to make some sort of sacrifice to the gods before resuming work on my armor. And probably buy a face mask.

 

Anyone have a small goat they are not using?

 

Omg Barry, this cracked me up so much but felt your pain tremendously at the same time. I must say, I love reading your updates and I'll be sending good production vibes your way.

 

I think the most painful thing I realized after reading most of the build threads after I got my pre-assembled armor (mistake #1) is that perfection can't be created overnight but can be modified with time. I think what you're learning via the small fitting pieces, like biceps, is saving you from more devastating results. Great fix on the cover strip.

 

Since my dive into the crazy amount of knowledge here, I try to read and keep reading the FISD and reach out in the various sections of the forum and illustrate my questions with photos when I can. There's a lot of great, caring people here that have a passion to pass down experience. The other difficult thing I'm personally tasked with is looking at my armor and going OMG I WANT TO PUT ALL THIS ON RIGHT MEOW but alas that doesn't and can't happen yet. Focus, focus and focus and you'll get there eventually like we all will and have.

 

You did an awesome cut job on the bucket - don't concern yourself with easy fixes, they just take time (ordering, waiting for delivery).

Edited January 4, 2013 by 8BitBry