swmand4's RT-Mod ANH Stunt Build

[jmm7375[TK]]

Just be careful when you start using them on your build.  I've gotten a few pinches and it is not fun at all.  Still have some spots on my fingers that remind me what happened several weeks ago.  Looking forward to some pics.

[swmand4]

Finally took the plunge and started assembling this thing!

 

I started with the shins since they are fairly isolated from the rest of the armor - their fit and positioning do not depend on another piece of armor. I'm also fairly certain I will not need to trim them very much.

 

Cut my cover strips - 15mm for forearms and biceps, 23mm for thighs, and 20mm for shins. It now dawns on me I forgot to cut the strips for the biceps... The rounded/angled edges will be done later.

 

 

Drew the cut line:

 

 

Cutting was easier than I expected. The first shin half was a bit shaky and will need a lot of sanding to make it right, but the rest were pretty straight.

 

 

 

A test fit with the 20mm coverstrip. I think I could have taken a bit more off the overlap... I'll post another picture without tape before I glue anything.

 

 

After seeing for myself how thin the 10mm excess material is, I don't think it will be sturdy enough to use as inner strips. I'm going to see if a local hardware store has sheets of white ABS for the inner coverstrips.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I would use the 10mm strips on the inside it will be strong enough as it is just for extra strength, you don't really need them and some don't even add them.

[swmand4]

Okay, I started gluing with the 10mm excess strips. I'm doing the inside strip first then the cover strip 24 hours later. Those magnets really do jump around! I learned a very important (and painful) lesson: apply magnets from the middle of the armor out.

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

And tip don't get fingers caught between magnets lol

[swmand4]

Glued the coverstrip on the first shin this morning. Looks like a bit more of the overlap could have been take away, but I'm okay with how it looks.

 

 

 

Guess I used a touch too much E-6000. I think I can clean up whatever squeezed out the sides relatively easy, as the glue is gummy even when dry. Anyone else had this happen or am I just glue happy?

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

You used a bit too much of glue but it's fine, you wiil be able to easily remove it with the your thumb pulp Also, if small bubbles of glue have been formed near the edges due to an excess of glue, just gently score it with your x'acto and then rubbed it away with tweezers. I found this way very efficient.

 

And you're right to begin with shins, up to now they have been the easiest parts for me to glue together

Edited May 20, 2013 by The5thHorseman

[BIDS[TK]]

Looking good Sean.

 

I struggled a little with room in my Forearms & Calves so I've used bigger Cover Strips than some of yours.  Basically as long as you keep the sizing consistent your OK.  By that I mean if you run 15mm Fronts on the Bicep use 15mm Fronts on the Forearm, if you run 20mm Rear on the Bicep use the same on the Forearm.

 

Try to keep the Fronts to the recommended sizes, and if you need wiggle room go bigger on the Rears.

 

For mine I ended up with the following  :-

 

* Forearm  -  Front 20mm  /  Rear 30mm

* Bicep  -  Front 20mm  /  Rear 30mm

* Thigh  -  Front 20mm  /  Rear 35mm

* Shin  -  Front 20mm  /  Rear 35mm

 

I could have gotten away with narrower on the Thigh Rears, but stuck with 35mm so they matched the Shins.

 

Nice work mate, keep it up.

[swmand4]

Craig, I'm using the coverstrip sizes that Lee claims Rob himself recommended. If the coverstrips are suppose to be the same size on every armor part, it might be a bit late now that I've cut all the strips. I don't think I will have any trouble getting into the armor - if anything, I'll be cutting parts down.

 

Time to start the biceps! I did a bit of test fitting while wearing the compression top and the biceps look big. I couldn't take a picture as I was holding up the armor piece at the time. I did, however, mark a line where I'm thinking of cutting the left bicep. It's apporximatly the width of two coverstrips/overlaps. If I take off the overlap raised portions of both sides and butt the edges together and coverstrip the seam I think it'll be real nice.

 

Edited May 24, 2013 by swmand4

[jmm7375[TK]]

Cut off less than you think and I'd suggest cutting half of the overlap on the outside piece and the rest needed off the inner section.  I made many test fit lines that I ignored, and trimmed only a small amount first before making a final cut.   it is a different fit once the pieces are butted up against each other compared to the overlap being present.  Cut a little then use some tape to butt them up, test fit then repeat.  It takes a bit more time, but it is a heck of a lot better to cut twice than cut once and regret it.   I would have looked like a 7 pound sausage in a 5 pound casing if I cut along my test fit lines for the ab/kidney sections.

 

Keep up the good work!

[swmand4]

I should have mentioned that the picture in my last post is the backside of the left bicep. I plan to repeat the shin armor process, cut half the overlap from each side on the front and butt joint them, then cut whatever else is required from the back.

[swmand4]

For closing the shins in the back, I'm thinking of keeping the RT-MOD overlap and putting white velcro between the raised sections... would this be acceptable for EIB/Cent.? I'm not sure how else I would keep the same sizing... I suppose I could again cut about half of each overlap off and glue the coverstrip to one side only (outside, I think), then apply half velcro to unglued side. Would this look and work better?

 

[jmm7375[TK]]

I didn't use velcro in the backs but I did use a coverstrip.  I think you'll like the consistency of coverstrips if you use them for your entire build rather than use it some places and not others.  The overlap won't be seen if you are placing the velcro over it, so that shouldn't be an issue.  Coverstrip on the outside will look better and you can maintain the sizing you need. 

 

I made the mistake of cutting my outside overlap then applying the coverstrip.  It was a pain in the neck to get the coverstrip to line up correctly on half the plastic.  So, if you decide to trim, don't trim a lot.

 

Whatever you decide I don't think it will impact EIB or Centurion applications.

[swmand4]

I made the mistake of cutting my outside overlap then applying the coverstrip.  It was a pain in the neck to get the coverstrip to line up correctly on half the plastic.  So, if you decide to trim, don't trim a lot.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this, Lee. I'm actually quite confused as to how to close up the shins. Do I cut half the overlap off each side like the front, and glue a coverstrip on to only one side (the outside "flap")? How do the velcro hooks work? I saw something like it in the costume reference photos, and have seen references to them in other threads, but don't know much...

 

As for forearms, here is a pre-trim photo. The overlaps have not been cut down yet.

 

 

I'm not sure how much of the return edge needs to be taken off, but all of the screen used costume photos I can find show it to "about" where I've drawn a line in pencil. This is just to the edge of the raised portion.

 

 

Thoughts on trimming it that far back?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Some nice pics from Spectre's thread on the calf velcro just to give you an example

 

Strips added


Velcro:


Result:

[swmand4]

I opted to cut a little at a time off the forearms, starting with just the return edge. I trimmed a bit more each time until I could squeeze my hand through with relative ease and still get the glove on. Looks like the forearm goes on first, followed by the glove on account of the hand guard. As it turns out, I didn't need to trim as much as I thought. And it looks alright, so I hope it's EIB/Centurion acceptable.

 

 

More pictures to come once the other inner strip and cover strips have been glued.

[swmand4]

While the forearms are drying, I shaped the bicep hooks from a piece of scrap material. I will attach them once I've done some more test fitting and strapping.

 

Charred and crispy

 

Final after sanding and shaping

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

When you heat a piece of ABS with a lighter, just don't put the flame in contact with the ABS. This way you should avoid the piece to blacken (even if with all your sanding it looks white again )

 

[swmand4]

When you heat a piece of ABS with a lighter, just don't put the flame in contact with the ABS. This way you should avoid the piece to blacken (even if with all your sanding it looks white again )

 

Thanks for the tip. I didn't think a quick wave of a lighter would char it that much. You can also tell the one in the foreground is my second attempt as the bends are sharper and less plastic is melted on the edges. I have more scrap so I might give it another go.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Don't bother too much redoing them, they look perfect to me !

[jmm7375[TK]]

Nice job on the bicep hooks Sean.  It is difficult to get a "perfect" pair.  I liked the first one I made better than the second.  One of them caught on fire I got so close with the lighter, but as you point out, a good sanding takes care of that.  Nice work!

[TrooperJesse[TK]]

I opted to cut a little at a time off the forearms, starting with just the return edge. I trimmed a bit more each time until I could squeeze my hand through with relative ease and still get the glove on. Looks like the forearm goes on first, followed by the glove on account of the hand guard. As it turns out, I didn't need to trim as much as I thought. And it looks alright, so I hope it's EIB/Centurion acceptable.

 

 

More pictures to come once the other inner strip and cover strips have been glued.

 

I am currently working on RT-Mod's Armor as well and I was wondering how your finished return edge on your forearms looks mind showing me the wrist's part? Thanks Swmand4

[swmand4]

Sure thing, Jesse. From what I've been able to tell from screen captures, I probably should have trimmed it back even more to be screen accurate. However, where it is now I can get my hand through and it comes back just the right amount to my elbow. Unfortunately, I did not account for my right hand being larger than my left so it's a bit tight on that side. I may have to sand the whole right wrist down to make it comfortable. The left side is perfect, though Hope that helps!

 

[swmand4]

I haven't posted any updates in a while, so this one will cover multiple things I've completed.

 

First up: snap plates! I decided to use canvas backing for all of my plates. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of the process of making them. Probably for the best, since I screwed up about half of them by hammering too hard. Oh yeah, I used a hammer, setting tool, and anvil to finish the snaps. If I could go back, I would use the crimp tool thing.

 

Double snaps for chest armor:

 

 

 

 

Elastic strap for holding the bicep. I just glued the elastic directly to the shoulder bell:

 

Starting to attach the should bridge. I created the straps to connect the chest and back pieces together (no pictures, sorry) and then tested how many "bumps" should be glued to the chest to allow tying to the back. For me, it was three plus the big one. So I put it in place and drew the outline with pencil. This way, I know where to scuff it up and where to apply E-6000. I'll go back and erase the lines during clean up.

 

 

Since there is little to no contact for glue to stick to, I used a method hinted at in Darth Aloha's thread: glue canvas under the bridge and then glue the canvas to the chest. I made sure it would all fit and not be visible. I used one longer piece to go up to the large bump and a smaller piece that stopped short of it. Here's the canvas drying to the bridges:

 

 

 

 

When I was making some straps, I couldn't wait to see the whole thing come together. So I put on what I had finished! The shoulder bell needs to be adjusted and I'm holding the ab armor in place which slightly rotates the chest, but it seems to be coming along well.

 

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

I remember my first test, it was so... enjoyable! And it gives you so much envy to continue further!

 

And you're are looking very well, you were just keeping your ab plate upside down ^^