swmand4's RT-Mod ANH Stunt Build

[swmand4]

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 ^^

 

Ah hell... you're right, the ab plate is upside down. In my defense, it's hard to see in those helmets

[TrooperJesse[TK]]

Sorry for the random comment but whats with all of those popsicle sticks?! hahaha. Other then that man looking good! Using your build and other RT-Mod builds as reference. Looking great! keep it up

[swmand4]

Sorry for the random comment but whats with all of those popsicle sticks?! hahaha. Other then that man looking good! Using your build and other RT-Mod builds as reference. Looking great! keep it up

Thanks, Jesse. I use a new popsicle stick every time I spread E-6000 and guess I'm too lazy to toss it in the trash. Same with the mass of painters tape.

[TrooperJesse[TK]]

Hows your armor coming a long sean? 

[swmand4]

I haven't updated in a while, so this might be a big post with a lot of info...

 

SNAP PLATES

 

First things first: I had to make more snap plates, so I thought I'd share what I did. I opted to use the hammer and anvil instead of the pliers since I've heard it's less likely to fail. I think I ultimately destroyed about 35% of the snaps by doing it this way...

 

 

Put the stem through the hole.

 

 

Put the anvil behind the snap and bang the tool with a hammer. Jut hope the snap's stem doesn't bend funny like it often did for me...

 

NEXT: ADDING SNAP PLATES TO ARMOR

 

When I get a chance, I'll try to take a picture of the armor interior all together.

 

 

I added a couple of adjustable straps to the chest and AB plates to help keep the chest down.

 

 

Even thought I put double snap plates down, I'm only using one of them. I could only find 1" parachute buckles so I can only use 1" canvas, which only has room for one snap. This seem to work really well.

 

 

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER (and make sure the AB plate is right-side-up)

 

 

I didn't take pictures of gluing the bicep hooks, or strapping the biceps to the forearms. I'll add a picture of the whole arm assembly at some point.

 

NEXT UP is adding in the cod piece and trimming the sides of the AB and kidney plates as they overlap a lot. BEFORE doing that, I will post a picture of the sides and my proposed cut lines to get some feedback. I'm also looking into cod piece alignment before gluing any snap plates to the ab. I'm thinking of overlapping the ab on top of the cod by about 1 inch. This looks like it will align the bottom of the cod with the bottom of the butt. I guess I'll post some pictures and see where Lee ends up with his build.

 

Then it's on to the thigh armor. And eventually all the little other details like closing the shins, sniper knee plate, thigh ammo pack, painting, split rivets, etc.

Edited July 8, 2013 by swmand4

[jmm7375[TK]]

You look like a slender guy and if your ab/kidney plates overlapped (I had same issue) then there is a good chance you'll have to trim the sides of the cod piece.  You'll especially need to trim the cod if you modify your belt (shorten the sides) like I did.  I shortened my belt, therefore my drop boxes moved and exposed the sides of the cod.  Your snap plates look like they are far enough from the edge.  Mine were right up against it so I had to pull plates and redo it.  I'll post a pic in my build showing the change I made.  Keep it going, looking good!

[swmand4]

It looks like I don't have to trim the edges of my cod piece - I'm not THAT slim (but thanks for the compliment). What I'm thinking of doing is overlapping it behind the AB plate by ~1 inch. That way I don't have to trim it and it lines up with the height of the butt plate.

 

 

 

Here's what it looks like with the belt overlaid. It covers the seam and sits in the right place. Note that I have not modified it yet to match length requirements. It looks like the swoop will almost come up to the belt... at least the canvas part once the belt plastic is trimmed.

 

 

 

Overlaying the pieces together makes for an awkward snap plate position. I'm thinking of putting it here and using canvas straps to connect the cod and AB instead of elastic.

 

 

As for trimming the AB plate... I'm thinking of lining the bottom of it up with the bottom of the kidney plate then trimming the sides and finally trimming the upper curved part (that sits under the chest piece) to match up with the top of the kidney plate. The the cod piece (with the previously mentioned overlap) will match up with height of the butt piece.

 

 

 

Thoughts and feedback would be greatly appreciated at this point, as I have not cut or glued anything mentioned in this post yet... Thanks!

Edited July 14, 2013 by swmand4

[jmm7375[TK]]

My first concern would be movement or armor bite if you don't trim the top of the cod.  If you have no intention of shortening the waist belt, then you should have no issues with the sides of the cod like I did.

 

I like your idea about trimming the top of the ab plate, but quite honestly I've never seen anyone do that.  Doesn't mean it won't work for you, I've just seen many more examples of the cod being cut from the ab section or shortened which it seems like you can do.  I toyed with the idea of dramatically trimming the top of the cod, but in hindsight I'm glad I didn't.  Being 6'3" I needed the coverage and couldn't go much lower with the ab and kidney plate.  

 

I hope others with more experience chime in here.

[swmand4]

Hmm well I'm 6'2"... hopefully I measured things correctly.

 

Anyway, I got impatient waiting for more feedback and decided to just go for it. So here's how I attached my cod piece to the AB plate. If it doesn't work, I can always add more snap plates below the originals and either leave the top ones or remove them. I'll be doing a full test fit tonight to see how it all looks and maybe do some thigh armor sizing. Exciting!

 

 

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Someday I'm going to lay in some fiberglass cloth or something and bond my ab to my cod (Oh my cod!) Until then... I can sit down. Nyah nyah.

 

Nice progress.

 

-Eric

[Evolver79[TK]]

Great choice on armor! RT-Mod is great quality & he is always available. Congratulations.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

It's coming along really well - keep up the great work

[swmand4]

I did a test fit with the AB plate overlaying the cod piece. Looks like I will need to modify the sides after all. And black out the Eastbay logo. Here's how it turned out:

 

 

Next up I'm going to start working on the thighs.

Edited July 20, 2013 by swmand4

[xaoslord]

Take plenty of pictures.  I have the RT-Mod armor and I'm starting the legs with the butt-joint and cover strip method.  I could use some visual reference, lol.

[jmm7375[TK]]

Your test fitting looks really good.  I like how it looks compared to what I had to do, but that is how my body is and the armor happens to be

 

Don't be so quick to trim your sides unless you plan on shortening the waist belt plastic.  I needed to trim my sides only because I modified the belt to make it more accurate.  The drop boxes, if left as the kit comes, should hide the sides.  I hope I am being clear.

 

I hope the rest of you reading understand I recently completed my build of RT-Mod armor and questions were raised about the fit and look of my cod/belt section.  Everyone's body is different, and the goal is to fit your armor as best as possible to your body, and be as accurate as possible ideally.

[swmand4]

Thanks for the tip, Lee. My plan right now is to finish the basic parts of the armor and deal with certain accuracy details later. Ideally, I want to shorten the belt to the correct length. For now, I plan to leave it and the cod piece alone, and take stock of the situation once the rest of the armor is finished. Then I can decide if I want to modify it further for better accuracy. Same deal with the smaller details (side rivets, ab button paint, vocoder paint, etc); they'll come later.

 

I did notice a problem during my cod piece test fit: if I bend too far forward, the middle snap holding it to the AB plate tends to pop off. I don't think this will be a problem now that I know to put things on from the boots up, but we'll see.

 

Hopefully I can start assembling the left thigh tonight... I'm planning on using 20mm cover strips for the front and 23mm for the back. This will match the strips used on the shins.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

 

I did notice a problem during my cod piece test fit: if I bend too far forward, the middle snap holding it to the AB plate tends to pop off. I don't think this will be a problem now that I know to put things on from the boots up, but we'll see.

 

 

Yeah man. The same thing happens to me too... however bending over is not something you do all that often all kitted up. That's what handlers are for. The snap mostly comes apart when I sit down or if I'm prancing around like an idiot (which happens all too often). The split cod does allow you to pop a squat which is kinda nice.... as much as I want to connect my RT cod to the ab permanently. 

 

-Eric

[Narc[TK]]

Take plenty of pictures.  I have the RT-Mod armor and I'm starting the legs with the butt-joint and cover strip method.  I could use some visual reference, lol.

ME TOO!!!

[swmand4]

Finally finished gluing the thighs. They weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. To fit them, I just taped the halves to together and expected the curved part near my knee to rest on top of my knee cap. That gives me flexibility and brings the tops close to the cod piece. However, being RT-Mod, they were REALLY big around. I trimmed ~6mm off the top of both and ~4.3mm off the bottom. More precisely, I cut 3mm off the overlapped side to remove the overlap. Then I cut 3mm off the top of the other side and 1.3mm off the bottom of the other side. Here's cutting off the entire overlap:

 

 

Trimming different amounts off the tops and bottom makes the armor fit me better, but has the unfortunate side effect of making the seam slanted instead of straight up and down. My solution: slant the cover strip back towards vertical while still covering the seam. Hopefully you can see the pencil lines in the third picture. It turned out well enough. Left is non-corrected, right is corrected.

 

 

 

Some various stages of gluing:

 

 

I'm not sure I like the way the split at the bottom turned out... I guess that's normal looking, though? I might glue a little piece on the inside of the seam to give it a bit more stability and make sure the halves don't get wrenched apart.

 

 

I thought the shape was weird at first, but I remembered the forearms did too and they turned out fine. It fits well so I'm not worried.

 

 

I also glued the snap plates in for the garter connection, but I forgot to take a picture. I can tell you that I placed mine centered on my inner front strip. The center of the snap is 16mm down from the top of the armor. I also forgot to take back facing picture when I put the thighs on for test fitting. I'm sure there will be one in the near future

 

Now, for my latest test-fit pictures! There's obviously still a lot to do, but the bulk of the work is done and it's really taken shape. Surprisingly, the armor is really comfortable, even with open shins and no padding installed. Speaking of which, I hate how the shins look in these pictures. They look too "fat" at the ankles. I think it's because they aren't closed and just flapping free and pulling apart. Hopefully they will look better once closed. I was even able to do a little dance on my balcony. Although, I dropped my gloves when getting dressed and couldn't pick them up. I felt a bit helpless, lol.

 

[BIDS[TK]]

Looking great Sean.

[swmand4]

It's been awhile since I've posted any updates, but that doesn't mean I haven't been hard at work!

 

First up: Thermal Detonator

 

Rob's included ABS pipe was a bit long, so I cut it to about the correct length... actual measurement eludes me right now. The end caps are also a touch small, so I ground down the ends of the pipe at an angle to allow the caps to fit. For paint, I thought the Rust-o-leum gray primer was about right, so I went ahead and applied four coats of that plus three or four coats of gloss clear. Here's what it looks like after doing so.

 

 

Gluing to control plate on

 

 

Finished product with clips.

EDIT: I guess I didn't post anything about making my own clips or take any pictures. I used Jesse's tutorial to do it. Not entirely happy, but they'll do.

 

 

I eventually cleaned up the pencil lines using some Goo-gone. The screws I used were #6-32 X 1/2" pan head combination, painted black. I would have preferred flat head, but those were the best option from my local hardware store. I could have special ordered the correct ones, but that seemed like a huge hassle for such a small detail.

 

Next up: Thigh Ammo Pack

 

Even though the RT-Mod thigh ammo pack already has rounded corners, they aren't quite rounded enough. So I used a can of shaving cream as a guide to fix that.

 

 

Much better. Now for attaching it to the right thigh. I used two small nickel plated cap rivets from Tandy Leather factory with head sizes of ~1/4". Pretty close to the 7mm I think the real suits used. I drilled the holes in the ammo pack first (7mm from top and side edges) and used a 1/8" drill bit. To figure out where to drill my holes in the thigh, I hand lined up the ammo pack and made some pencil marks. Then I held one side of the ammo pack and drilled a 1/8" hole in the thigh using the hole in the ammo pack and the pencil mark as a guide. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

 

With the holes drilled, it was time to set some rivets. I placed the piece with the stem through the ammo pack and then through the thigh and put the cap on from the inside of the armor. I placed a flat anvil on the corner of a desk and placed the cap part of the rivet (inside of thigh) on it. Think so that the desk corner is inside the thigh armor. Then I used the setting tool to hammer the two parts of the cap rivet together. I'm realizing how hard it is to describe a process without adequate pictures... Here's the result:

 

 

Next up: Sniper Knee Plate

 

I've been dreading the knee plate since day one. It doesn't fit all that well and I know it's prone to popping off. My work bench has a couple holes cut in it for some reason, so I made use of them. I fished a broom handle through one of the holes and used it to hold up the shin armor while the knee plate was drying. My first attempt did not go well. The plate didn't sit right and popped off after I tool the clamps off. Take two was better - it sat better and hasn't popped off yet. My suggestion: Place your clamps on the front flat part first, then the sides. Otherwise the side clamps will tilt the whole thing back and screw it up. Also, let it dry for 48 hours. Mas clamps, por favor.

 

 

Next up: Split Rivets

 

I installed all the split rivets I need to close the left side and the crotch area. Step one: drill holes! For the split rivets in the crotch and left side, I drilled a 5/32" hole. The ab and kidney rivets are 10mm from the edge. To get the right spacing, I started with the kidney plate and placed the top and bottom rivets 15mm from the top and bottom edges. Then I simply split the difference for the middle one and copied the hole spacing to the ab plate. I think mine were 8.25mm apart, but don't quote me on that.

 

 

 

I opted to go for the functional split rivet. So I placed the stem of the rivet through the correct part of the snap.. and discovered I needed to cut down the stem of the split rivet because it was too long. Dremel to the rescue! Metal sanding attachment did the trick. Back to splitting the rivets. I placed the head of the split rivet on a fairly stiff piece of wood (phrasing) and started with a Philips screw driver between the legs. That got it started. Then I switched to a flat-head screw driver and finished the splitting. Worked pretty well, but I think the snaps may be a bit misshapen and difficult to use now. Guess the right side opens and the left is perma-closed now. Either way, it looks really good and are pretty secure. The legs are fully below the rim of the snap so there will be no problem there.

 

 

For the cod piece, I used the same method as the ab/kidney rivets. Unfortunately, I used one the softer Dritz snaps and it REALLY deformed under the pressure from the split rivet legs. I may have to replace it to make it useable. I also didn't know to grind down the legs until after I tried to split the rivet, which probably added to the problem. Add on top of that using an anvil instead of wood and you get a slight ding in the armor to go with the bad snap.

 

 

Last up: Butt and Right Side Snaps

 

For the butt plate, I added Dritz heavy duty snaps. I can tell you now, I would have preferred the Tandy 24 Nickel plated snaps. Tandy's are more heavy duty than Dritz's, but the Dritz are easier to set. To start, I drilled a 7/64" pilot hole in the spots I marked in pencil. Then I second guessed myself and drilled the back hole slightly to the side. It was not the right decision, as they are now slightly misaligned. Oh, well. I then drilled the full 11/64" hole for the snap stem.

 

 

Since the Dritz snaps have a slight raised section around the stem, I decided to try and counter-sink the hole slightly using a 3/8" drill bit. This is a picture that shows it done right... and really, really wrong.

 

 

The finished settings are below. Now all I need is the elastic strap to connect the cod and butt.

 

 

The right side snap uses the same method and parts as the butt plate. I also made the same mistake while counter sinking. Whoops. Sorry, no picture of the final thing. I think I placed it 10mm from the edge and 15mm from the top. In hind sight, I would have moved the snap more inward and a touch further down.

 

 

 

That's all or now. I'll be working on the belt in coming weeks and finishing up details like painting and closing the shins.

Edited August 28, 2013 by swmand4

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Some nice updates there, well done

[swmand4]

So... I just discovered something disconcerting. Apparently, RT-Mod shins are NOT identical. There are distinct left and right armor pieces. It's a very subtle difference in that the outside half of each leg has the calf bump slightly higher than the inside bump.

 

I think we all know where this is going: I incorrectly assembled my shins and paired the outer halves together and the inner halves together. I don't think it's worth pulling everything apart and starting over as the error is very subtle and almost imperceptible if you aren't looking for it. This is more of an admission of a mistake and a warning to other RT-Mod owners. Maybe I'll contact Rob and get a replacement set of shins in the future if for no other reason than my own peace of mind. For now though, onward!

[swmand4]

I did a bit of work on the plastic belt today. I decided to shorten the belt and cut the corners to 45 degrees based on this helpful little image guide:

 

 

Step one: cut the excess off. Here is a photo after cutting the first side so you can see a comparison of the two lengths.

 

 

And mid trim. I scored and snapped since it's a flat straight section.

 

 

And here we have the finished product with button covers cut from the old sections and placed in position. They are not glued down yet. I don't really like the look of them, so I may try and make my own from excess ABS I have. We'll see.

 

 

Time for heat bending! This part made me really nervous, but as with all things in this build, it was easy after the first bend. Kind of - I melted a small section along the bottom of the belt. It's not too bad and shouldn't be noticeable enough to fix. The bends aren't perfect, but are good enough.

 

 

I purchased a Novus polish kit (8oz comes with 1, 2, and 3) on Amazon that I plan to use once the armor is finished. Should be nice and shiny! Now I just need to rivet the plastic and canvas belts together, attach the holster, attach the whole belt to the ab plate, paint, make a few more straps and I'm more or less finished. Oh, and foam and stuff for comfort... and helmet interior stuff. And closing the shins. Really, I am very close despite the list that keeps getting longer.

Edited September 5, 2013 by swmand4

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Sean... I dig your attention to the details and sticking with the sometimes ornery RT-MOD

 

Also... even after approval.. and EIB... the list is never completed. But that's half the fun.

 

Rock on my RT brother. 

 

-Eric