My TM Build begins..

[Ximenia]

Yeah I never even thought to try it with the screws first. The helmet tutorial I was following just went straight to the rivets and the thought never crossed my mind. >< Oh well, how hard is it to drill out a rivet without hurting the helmet?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You will have to hold them at the back with pliers to stop them from spinning and use a really slow drill bit or you will heat up the rivet and the abs will melt, slow and steady

[DudeSidious]

like Glen said they will heat up end melt the plastic if your not careful .

What I did (I know it sounds gross)was spit on the rivet to keep it cool.

Edited March 9, 2013 by DudeSidious

[DudeSidious]

Rare earth magnets are a good tool to help you line things up.

 

 

[Ximenia]

Thanks for all the help everyone, I got the rivet out safely, going to try what you said Paul. I will post pictures before I rivet anything else.

[Ximenia]

Ok, here is the now fixed side. I think it looks right, I'll just probably need to trim some off the brow like Paul suggested.

 

[DudeSidious]

Looks good I don't think you need to trim the brow

[Ximenia]

I put in the second set of screws and got it positioned how I want it.

 

 

Next I'm going to attempt the ears.

[Geaux Saints[TK]]

I did what Wayne did and used rare earth magnets to hold it together until I got it positioned how I wanted. I think your correction looks very good. Keep it up!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good be finished in no time

[Ximenia]

Ears are done.. not perfect that's for sure. Seems like no matter how hard I tried I couldn't get rid of the gaps, so this is the best I could get it.

 

I might sometime down the road get some replacement ears and give them another shot, but this will do for now.

 

I also did a coat of paint on the frown, I'm going to do a second coat tonight and paint the vocoder.

 

 

 

 

[SW1]

The Ear's they are the bane of my life Nicole I think you can still retrieve them and maybe moving them down slightly and pencil the shape of the tube on to the ears please send some more clearer pics in so we can see ; ) , also it looks like you have your gaps on the theeth all joined with the grey, each tooth should be painted grey and not joined

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

 

[Ximenia]

Any suggestions on how to fix the teeth? Rubbing alcohol maybe?

[SW1]

Some Paint thinner's / white spirit

[Ximenia]

What kind of paint thinner is safe to use on ABS?

[SW1]

I get mine from my local Hardware store under the house hold paint decorators section and it's safe as houses on the abs just need to make sure when you use it that the area is well ventalated strong fumes my make of thinner's that i use will be differant to what you have in the USA but go for your eqivelant of mine decorators paint thinners and it should say on the lable what it is suitable for

[Ximenia]

Thanks for the advice, I will grab some paint thinner on my way home from work today and fix that.

[Ximenia]

Here are some better shots of the ears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SW1]

Ok Nicole , what you can do is drop both ear's down by a couple of mm just make the screw holes slightly bigger in the lid which will drop the ears by a couple of mm , also i think you could lose ONLY a couple of mm around the round ear part, this will pull the curved part of the ear in towards the tube's , i dont think you should trimm any more of the curved parts of the ears just see what they are like when you have taken a couple of mm of the round parts , then you can try and get your desired curve around the tubes do a little at a time and test fit untill you are happy , But you do relize that the origianls were trimmed all over the place and far from neat

[Ximenia]

I was able to fix the ears, there's still gaps but it's not absurd like it was before.

 

I got the hand painted decals on using the soapy water technique, tube stripes are on and looking perfect!

 

I also fixed the teeth and did the first coat of paint on the vocoder and ears.

 

It's almost done!

 

 

[Ximenia]

And... it's done!

 

 

 

I just can't stop smiling when I look at it.

 

The only thing I don't like is the height of the brow.. It was where I wanted it before i put the ears on, but when the ears are on it pushes up a bit. Oh well, it's a minor flaw, and I love it still.

 

Now onto the getting this armor to fit me thing.

[DarthChandler]

This is super awesome, I am definitely going to be following your build thread as I will be receiving my TM armor in a few weeks I look forward to seeing you kick butt at the rest of the armor and I hope mine looks that good as I progress!

[Ximenia]

So here's what I've been up to since the last update. 

 

I trimmed up the forearms and biceps some more, trying to get them to fit my tiny arms lol. Trimming didn't work, as they began to lose shape so I had to go out and buy a heat gun to be able to form them back to shape.

 

Due to having to cut so much off they didn't align properly so in order to glue them I glued a strip of plastic on the inside to help hold it in place.

 

 

 

Also, ladies if you find yourself having to use a heat gun to make the armor fit you be realllllllly careful.. I was super cautious and one of my biceps still got a little deformed.. luckily it's not noticeable while it's worn.

 

 

 

I forgot to snap pics of the forearms, but they are currently sitting at home with the cover strips gluing.. they were a lot of work but the end result looks very nice on me. I'll snap pics when I get home tonight.

 

And I also started on the shins.. Didn't need to use the heat gun too much on these. Here's pictures of them taped together on me with my tk boots.. I think they look about right, but I'd love any second opinions before I glue.

 

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[Ximenia]

So I'm now officially behind schedule because of all the craziness in Boston lately.. (had to miss work cause of the lockdown, and then had to work a lot of overtime to get work projects back on track). But here are the pics of the forearms that I promised.. it's hard to see how much I took off, but it was a lot, about an inch from each side and then formed back into a curve with the heat gun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to clean up the cover strips, but other than that they are done.

 

I've been spending the last couple of days on the %&^@!ng thighs.. those things really do suck. I had to trim about an inch off the top to get them to fit properly, and quite a bit off the back... so I got them on me fitting properly with masking tape. measured/marked cut and glued.. and now the left one is too small.. it fit me perfectly before I glued it, so I'm kinda peeved about that.. going to have to rip it apart and re glue it with a sham now.

 

 

 

 

[SW1]

Hi Nicole i am glad you are ok , with what happend in Boston , i cant understand why you would have to cut so much out on the TM parts ?, i have built 3 TM suits to date plus others, and to your size and  body frame to , i wish you could have posted pics before you cut so we could have helped each other , the thing is you do not want the parts to hug you tight , you need about 1cm all the way round on the inside of certain parts to allow for movement

 

The shins look ok from the front i can see you have trimmed them at the bottom which is good for us little troopers me included but i have never had to trim the tops of TM thighs , trimming the bottom of the shins sorts the out , please post some pics of the the thighs so i can have a look with you wearing them how they are at the moment !