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Posted

David, thanks for the info. Which areas did you sand? I ended up using a small riser to slightly increase the angle to align the angle of the sides of the plate with the top of the shin (build thread linked in my sig). The counter-effect was the slightly offset left side visible in the photos. While I certainly will continue to strive to have my suit be "perfect", I'm curious if this is an official blocker at this point. If it's not desired to sit this way I can remove the shim and fit it more in the fashion I see in your thread (another excellent AP build which I referenced during my process).

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Also, semi-flat black paint in on the way for the blaster scope touch up.

Posted

I don't really see any specific "blockers" here, but there are some very valid points that have been brought up and for the sake of future-proofing I'm curious to see what comes out when these have been addressed.

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Also, the belt could sit a bit higher than right at the edge of the kidney plate if that's an easy fix for you.

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And yes, the knee plate should have vertical edges at its ends. Not tapered.

Posted (edited)

Thanks Mathias. Raising the belt is an easy one. Could you elaborate on which points? I have the following:

  • knee plate alignment (going to take my time here as I had slathered the E6000 on)
  • blaster scope weathering (in progress)
  • blaster seam line sanding (in progress)
  • raise belt in the back
  • smooth the transition between armour and shim with putty or caulk (in progress)

Was there anything else of note?

Ā 

Is this a good cut line for the knee plate?

Ā 

2013-02-06_17-11-16_588_zps2c4cb78d.jpg

Edited by Jancelot
Posted

If you can you could also try to make the transition between armour and shim smoother. Try to make it seamless if you can. Maybe some kind of putty or filler (I've speculated on silicone caulk)?

Ā 

Otherwise I think the points you have there will do nicely and the cut line on the knee plate looks good too. :)

Posted

Excellent. It might take me a week or two to get through these as my time is tight and I want to get them right. But I'll update when complete. Cheers.

Posted

Congrats!

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Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

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  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

Update: I took a breather for a bit on this project to research and put together a staff officer as well as redoing a table for the nursery. I'll be back on this one by Wednesday and start chipping away. I've already sanded the seams on the blaster, made the vertical cuts on the knee, acquired the paint for the blaster and the caulk for the shim seam.

Edited by Jancelot
Posted

Update: I took a breather for a bit on this project to research and put together a staff officer as well as redoing a table for the nursery.

Those side projects can keep us busy lol. Now hurry up and get back to work, I am waiting to congratulate you :laugh1:

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

I'm still chipping away at these updates, but progress has been made. Removing the knee plate is proving most challenging as, apparently, my gluing is highly effective. I don't want to crack anything so I've been working on it slowly as I've had patience. I've made several passes at the kindey/shim seam line. I started with polyseamseal but didn't like the color. I then made some ABS paste and sanded it down with 3 levels of grit. Let me know what you think. Cheers.

  • blaster scope - reduce weathering

  • blaster seam line sanding

  • blaster handle - remove weathering

  • blaster t-tracks - remove weatering

  • smooth the transition between armour and shim with putty or caulk

IMG_2977Medium_zps7a6c8399.jpg

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IMG_2976Medium_zps62b21852.jpg

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IMG_2978Medium_zps7612dfb1.jpg

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IMG_2981Medium_zps3db92de5.jpg

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IMG_2982Medium_zpsf08fa431.jpg

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IMG_2983Medium_zpsd05f312c.jpg

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IMG_2984Medium_zpsf8ebe905.jpg

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IMG_2985Medium_zps67cfd12d.jpg

Edited by Jancelot
Posted

Looking forward to a set of suited up pictures when you think you're ready for it. :)

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The blaster weathering turned out great!

Posted

NOTE: below picture is not my sniper plate, but a reference for the following question.

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I was able to remove the sniper plate and am ready to re-position. For reference, aligning it per David's (TK-8453) Centurion thread is still good?

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http://www.whitearmo...on-status-ap76/

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sniper_tk8453_zps32b8f0cb.jpg

Posted

I raise your fan made reference and give you LFL archives:

gallery_12157_16_39566.jpg

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Of course you might not be able to mount your knee plate the same way since it is different in size and shape than the real deal, but I can't encourage using replicas as reference. Look at the real stuff and do what you can or need to make it look the same.

Posted

Heh, noted, and in good faith I have been attempting to do all along. ANH screen caps as guides are a bit nebulous given the irregularity from the hasty way props were assembled. I took a baker's dozen blu-ray screen caps to study and it appears that "at or slightly below below the shin-line" was "standard". I don't think I'll try to melt it on per the one in that pic, though. :)

Ā 

Had a go with the heat gun this morning and was able to bend the sides a bit further. Then I went at the connection points to mold them to the shin. I feel this looks very close to several of the suits in my screen shots. While the crack certainly is in the spirit of the movie suits, I plan on smoothing it with ABS paste and sanding after gluing.

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sniper_plate_take_4_zps541ed7c8.jpg

Posted

I'm working on ab shims right now.Ā  The way I did it was to layer and glue 2 pieces of ABS.Ā  The top pieces equals the length of the shim needed to cover the gap (in my case 5.5").Ā  The lower piece of ABS is 2" longer (1" on each side of the shim).Ā  I glued the 1" excess to the kidney plate (since it is 2 layers of ABS, the second layer of ABS lies flush with the actual ab plate.Ā  I used ABS paste to fill the crack, and sanded it with 3 different grits.Ā  The remaining 1" of excess has a piece of velcro on it, which will attach to the ab plate.Ā  I'm in the process of heat bending the shims now for a more fluent fit.Ā 

Ā 

Here's one shim.Ā  It needs some touch-up, but you can see how it is perfectly flush with the kidney plate.

LeftShim1_zps35fc05cb.jpg

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Here's the other shim after being glued in, with no ABS paste applied yet.

RightShimPrePaste_zps0b8aed4a.jpg

  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

First of all, my apologies for how long it has taken for me to reply here. Ā I've had these mods complete for a couple months but just haven't taken pictures. Ā Adjustming to new parenthood was my sole focus for the past few months. :) Ā I have had Ā several opportunities to troop in this suit and it fits great!

  • knee plate alignment
  • smooth the transition between armor and shim with putty or caulk
  • raise belt in the back
  • blaster scope weathering
  • blaster seam line sanding

Ā 

Knee Plate Alignment

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knee_right_zpsfdc99e11.jpg

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knee_left_zpsd3690a12.jpg

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Side Shim Seam Lines

NOTE: ABS paste used

IMG_2984Medium_zpsf8ebe905.jpg

IMG_2985Medium_zps67cfd12d.jpg

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armor_left_side_zps1dac1e1b.jpg

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armor_right_side_zps89b54caf.jpg

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Belt Placement

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armor_back_belt_zpsb0158206.jpg

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armor_back_zpsc9c36b73.jpg

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Blaster Mods

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IMG_2977Medium_zps7a6c8399.jpg

IMG_2976Medium_zps62b21852.jpg

IMG_2978Medium_zps7612dfb1.jpg

IMG_2981Medium_zps3db92de5.jpg

IMG_2982Medium_zpsf08fa431.jpg

IMG_2983Medium_zpsd05f312c.jpg
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Edited by Jancelot
Posted

Thanks Phil. Ā I overlooked the "In Progress" label on the side shims. Ā I removed it and updated the section title to "Side Shim Seam Lines". Ā I'm ready for feedback. Ā Cheers.

Posted

Looking good, fingers crossed

Posted

Your left rear shin overlap ...

Which way is it going?

Ā 

It looks wrong in the above submission pic, but you can take a pic of it on its own to show how it opens.

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