jmm7375's ANH Stunt RT-MOD Build

[TK-42779[501st]]

Awesome build so far. I'm sweating my RT forearms a bit too, I am following another build thread on using overlap/cover strips on one side and butt/cover strips on the other. If I try and male the opening for my hands any bigger I think it makes the opening for the too or the forearm too big. *sigh* There should be a special award for RT builds.

[jmm7375[TK]]

Biceps complete with hooks.  I've got the second cover strip on the first forearm and I was wondering if I should remove the return edge where the butt joint meets.  It is easy to see on the right side where the clamp isn't.  I've been trying to find pics of approved armor to confirm removal or let it stay.  Just not sure how many are using cover strips with RT-MOD out there.  I have to look closer at BIDS thread, I think he was doing this.  

 

Thanks for all the positive feedback, this is fun!

[TrooperJesse[TK]]

Dang, You got me all motivated now. Nice Post man . I am definitely going to sand and glue my biceps tomorrow.

Keep up the good work. Take a lot of pics! so I could use as reference. Keep it up Lee, your doing GREAT!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

very nice keep up the good work

[SIMpixels]

Great stuff! Keep it up.

[jmm7375[TK]]

Thanks for all the encouragement.  Trying to do a little each day, but sometimes I get off track.  Today was my first experience with jumping magnets breaking.  I've been doubling up to keep the cover strips in place.  When I was disassembling, the magnets underneath jumped and broke.  Tried to salvage a few by keeping them doubled and  placing blue tape around the broken piece (two left in pic).   Might have to place an order for more magnets.  We shall see.  Trimmed the second forearm and inner shim is in place.

[Echo[TK]]

Little trick that worked for me... I put a piece of tape around each magnet with about a half inch tail on it to be able to pull them apart more easily. This also happened to help to keep pieces together if it shattered from slamming together to quickly...

[jmm7375[TK]]

Thanks for the tip Echo.  I may have to try that if I break a few more.

 

 Nothing too exciting today.  Another shim in place and I keep scraping the hell out of my right hand each time I take it out of the forearm.  I'm hoping when I start trooping the sweat will help me slide out more easily.  Otherwise I may have to try some KY

[Echo[TK]]

TK-KY ... Haha. ...Scrub eyes... TMI

[BIDS[TK]]

Hey Lee,

                Great build so far mate, very neat.

 

I remember the lack of skin on the wrist with "fond" memories during forearm test fits.  I left just enough return edge in the forearm wrist mold for the inner shim to butt up against.  I found once I had the inner shim fitted, the return edge removed, and I'd sanded a nice smooth bevel around the inside edge the comfort level was much improved.

Just make sure you don't go too tight at the elbow end.  I only trimmed enough overlap to allow me to fit the cover strips and my forearms still ended up tight.  Not too bad in an A/C area and for short periods, but I did a 4km walk the other day for a Melanoma awareness troop and when I got back to de-armor I was flat out getting my forearms off.  I didn't realise how much your body swells in the heat, ended up with a huge bruise up the inside of my forearm so I'll need to trim some more out of the inside to avoid this in future.

 

Great job on the bicep hooks, they look super neat and I'm a little jealous, might have to go back and revisit those.

 

Looking forward to seeing your build progress.

 

Cheers

Craig

[jmm7375[TK]]

Hey Craig,

 

Thanks for the advice.  I kind of figured I'll go back and make some adjustments once I'm wearing the armor more regularly.  I just don't want to make any "comfort" adjustments that compromise the appearance of the suit until I've got the majority of the work done.

 

I love what you've done in your build thread, and enjoy referring to it since we've got the same RT-MOD suit.  I plan on picking your brain about making adjustments to the belt when I get to it.  I know you had some issues, but I have some ideas I want to run by you when the time comes.  Trying to make the RT-MOD as accurate as possible has it challenges for the larger/taller trooper   Together we can do it, and slowly take over...

 

Cheers!

[BIDS[TK]]

Sounds good, happy to help out with anything I can.  I love my RT-Mod and I'm still working on the last 2 things I need to do for EIB/Centurion, so as you said together we can take over, and to borrow from our illustrious leader "1 giant sized trooper at a time".

 

Talk soon mate.

[swmand4]

One of these days, I'll start building my RT-MOD suit. Until then, I'll watch to see how your build turns out, Lee. I'll jump over to Craig's build thread for some ideas, too.

[TrooperJesse[TK]]

Can you show a pic of inside your forearm? I want to see inner shim

[jmm7375[TK]]

Ask and you shall receive...Here is a pic of the inner shim I used for the forearm.  Basically the small piece that I cut off of the overlap was used after trimming the ends.  May not look pretty, but it works.  I included a bicep shot too.  These were larger shims since I trimmed more bicep to fit my body.

 

 

[jmm7375[TK]]

Final cover strip in place for the forearm.  I am debating in my head what to tackle next...I'm leaning towards shins and thighs.  I'll wait on snaps and elastic for now.  I feel like I'm in a bit of a groove now.

[jmm7375[TK]]

SHINS

 

Let it begin.  I did not officially test fit yet since I will do so after I cut approximately 10mm from each front overlap piece, create my but joint and then use an inner shim for support.  The front cover strip is about 20mm, so it will look good in front.  Any extra trimming I plan on doing will take place in the back.  I plan on going with elastic and hooks for the back rather than velcro.  On to the pics...

 

Initial cut lines

 

First cut, oh and I like to recycle, so the 10mm excess I use for my inner shim  Plus, they are the entire length of the shin already, so it makes things easy.

 

Two halves with sanded smooth edges ready to be taped and shimmed

 

Taped up with lots of magnets doubled up and a few clamps over magnets on the ends.  I'm finding I prefer the magnets more than the clamps especially these 3/4" ones for the shins.  I wish I had some 1/2" ones for the forearms and biceps just so they fit a bit more flush.  Oh well, I'm past that and these are serving me well from here on forward.

 

The inner shim in place inside the shim

 

I will more than likely repeat this process for the other shin, then do some serious test fitting.  Maybe I'll put cover strips in place first, but I'm thinking that might be the last step.  I know I have a sniper plate to deal with, and some holes to punch when I'm ready for hooks and elastic.

[jmm7375[TK]]

I found it a lot more difficult to cut the shins in the back once the front was glued together, but I got it done.  I sanded the rough cuts down since it was difficult to cut straight all the way through.

 

 

I decided to put the cover strips on the front, then did another test fitting.  My lower legs are thin, so I had to trim a bit more than I anticipated (cut the entire overlap off on one side).  I may have to heat them to close properly.  I'm not sure how much pull the elastic and hooks will have to close things up, we shall see

 

What can you do while you wait for cover strips to cure...SEW!  Got my hooks on the elastic so I'll be ready for that step soon.

 

One cover strip done and ready, the other curing.  Next steps will be to trim a little off the overlap in the back and get the back cover strips in place.  After that, drill holes, glue elastic (debating which way I should have the hooks face), then on to the sniper plate

[jmm7375[TK]]

Part of me wishes that I hadn't cut any excess off the overlap where I placed these cover strips in the back.  It was a pain in the neck to get it clamped on right with only half of the surface to work with.  Plus I felt it was difficult to ensure it was straight.  Live and learn.

 

 

[jmm7375[TK]]

After a little heat bending to get the shins a little closer together in the back I started to install the elastic and hooks.  I had some spare 1mm styrene, so I used it  to get some pressure on the elastic along with the magnets.  I hope the e6000 doesn't come through and attach to it, but I tried to leave some space so I could pry the styrene off if necessary.  I didn't like the idea of using velcro, and this is a bit more screen accurate.  RT-MOD armor isn't as accurate as some of the other armor out there, but I figured I'd try and do the best I can with what I got.  That includes my body and the armor 

 

 

[jmm7375[TK]]

Ok, so styrene on top of the elastic worked, but it was a bit of a pain in the @ss to remove.  I was surprised to see that the e6000 had melted and attached to the styrene.  Ultimately my idea worked, but I'm not sure what to recommend otherwise.  Perhaps if I went a little lighter on the e6000 it wouldn't have bled through so much and stuck.

 

Now that I had the elastic and hooks in place, I did some test fitting and everything looked good and fit well.  The shins close in the back and you can only see a gap if you're looking for it from the side. I will take some pictures of a test fitting after I finish the thighs.

 

On to the sniper plate...

 

 

 

 

 

With so much weight added to keep the sniper plate in place I had to think of a good way to support it for the full 48 hrs I plan on letting it cure

 

 

THIGHS

Since I have some time I decided to measure and cut the front of my thighs.  I took off enough excess to leave me 11mm of overlap on each half since the cover strips I have are about 23mm wide.  I thought they were 25mm, when I first got them (got to get my eyes checked), and I have to let swmand4 know too!  

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good Lee, keep up the excelent work

[jmm7375[TK]]

Thanks for the encouragement Glen!  Much appreciated

 

I think I did a pretty good job with the sniper plate.  I may have to heat bend a little more in the back to close things up, the pressure from attaching the sniper plate may have pulled the halves apart a bit more than I would have liked.  Easy fix though.

 

 

 

Here is a couple of pics of the thighs.  Shims inside from the cut off excess and the butt joint shown in front.  Next I will test fit to get the back done.  More pics to come...

 

[jmm7375[TK]]

Spent some time the past few days sizing up, test fitting the thighs.  Not sure if this applies to other kits, but the left thigh is definitely smaller than the right.  At first I thought it was me, but the difference was very noticeable in the amount I had to trim.  I decided to cut off the entire overlap on both thighs, and the long dotted lines represent how much they overlapped when I test fit the thighs.  I tried to trim small amounts at a time, test fit, and repeat until I found a happy medium between sizing and appearance.

 

 

 

 

After I was happy with the sizing I glued the inner shims in place.  I had some time to kill, so I got the thigh ammo pack ready with some heat bending.

 

 

Since I had enough clamps and magnets I glued both cover strips for the back thighs in place.  I have a strong feeling I'll have to do the front cover strips one day at a time.  No biggie, I like to look at other threads and tutorials for the upcoming steps

 

 

Edited May 4, 2013 by jmm7375

[jmm7375[TK]]

So I finally got around to posting some progress this week.  Cover strips on the front of the thighs are done...

 

 

 

After some heavy contemplating I got around to drilling some holes in the shiny white plastic for the thigh battery/ammo pack.  I decided to drill holes in the thigh pack first.  I used a 1/8" bit which is a little smaller than the 3.5mm hole needed for the screen accurate cap rivets I got from seantrooper.  So I drilled, then wiggled the bit until the hole was big enough.

 

I forgot to take a pic of it, but after I orientated the thigh pack where I thought it would look best, I marked and drilled holes with the 1/8" bit, then used a slightly larger bit, to create a countersunk hole so the cap seated properly.  Then I smacked away on the interior side to set the cap, then marked and repeated on the process on the other side.

 

 

I'll post a pic of the finished  thigh pack and maybe some pics of a test fitting for the legs.  B-day weekend for me and mother's day so not going to get much accomplished this weekend.