Scott's NE ANH Stunt build thread

[sekullbe]

So I've been waffling and researching and all that for six months now, and I've finally gotten off my keister and gotten started. I'm going to take my time & try to get something built over the summer. I'm going to build for Centurion, since it seems easier to start with that in mind than try and retrofit later. I'm sure down the road I'll find the point when a three-word phrase in the CRL that looked so simple turns into hours of work

 

Last week my kit arrived, and I've now got most of the parts I need:

• NE ANH Stunt kit (OW's build thread has a great rundown of this kit: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/23895-ows-ne-build-anh-stunt/ )
• TK Boots (first thing I ordered really, when I heard they were running short on supply)
• DVH E-11 kit (very intimidating)
• TKittell white belt
• Echo's Centurion rivet kit
• Hard Hat Liner came with the kit (I may pick up MICH pads if I can get them cheaply)

and a collection of tools & supplies:

• Stanley job box
• Needle files
• Utility knife & exacto knife
• 48 Dritz heavy-duty snaps (50% off at joanns, web site only, right now) with anvil & tool
• Curved Lexan scissors
• 10 1/2" N42 magnets (may not be enough)
• Several small clamps- they're $1 each at the Habitat for Humanity hardware thrift store so once I know what I need I'll get more
• B&D rotary tool & sampling of bits
• E-6000, CA glue, and plastic epoxy
• 1.25yd white 1" elastic
• 2.5yd black 1" non-roll elastic
• 5' roll of black 1" nylon strapping
• 1yd 3/16" white elastic
• several sheets of #400 sandpaper
• power drill
• assorted small and medium pliers & dikes

Still need some parts & tools:

• Neck seal
• Hand plates & gloves
• Undersuit (going to buy Eastbay)
• TD clips (unless I can make my own at work, or talk the machine shop guys into doing it for me)
• Paint- have the Testor 1138 because that's the one I could remember at the art store, need the rest
• Frown screen
• Workbench. If I can't get something cheap I'll have to buy a Keter 'folding work-table' that I can store in my garage. I'm hoping to keep nasty glue stench outside, to avoid both migraines and angry family.
• Helmet electronics -TBD just what I want.

I'm hoping to weasel a soldering iron, rivet gun, and heat gun from work, to avoid buying tools that won't see much repeated use.

 

Local garrison is having an armor party soon, so I'm going to show up with as much done as I can without risking an unrecoverable mistake. Likely that's going to mean a mess of nylon strap 'plates' assembled, maybe the TD, and some cleanup on the E-11. I'm going to need to do some cutting to get it to fit me at 5'10" 180# and that terrifies me; I at least want to see some working armor before I start hacking.

 

Pics as soon as I wrestle google photo into submission and have something to show. I'm tracking my build using a pretty spiffy workflow tool called 'Trello' (http://trello.com)- each component of the armor, object I have to buy or build, or other step in the process has a 'card' that I move between various lists (like 'Purchase', 'Construct', 'In Progress', 'Complete') as I work on it. In each card I have notes like the CRL requirements for the part, tips I read here, links to reference photos, etc.) If I can scrub personal info and the details these forums like to keep vague, I'll make my board public.

Edited May 30, 2013 by sekullbe

[sekullbe]

All the larger pieces, less the fiddly bits that wouldn't show up well anyway:

[pattrooper]

welcome trooper, feel free to ask any questions on your build.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks like you are on the right track, can't wait to see more

[Obey Wann[501st]]

Woohoo!!! Let the fun begin!!!

[sekullbe]

Oh yeah, forgot one tool- kevlar gloves. Fun thing to introduce to the family; "Hey, look what I just got!" *slash across palm with chef's knife* "Kevlar gloves!"

[Brewski[TK]]

Just got my NE armor myself looking forward to see how yours turns out. 

[sekullbe]

Garrison armor party this weekend got me started on my trimming. I trimmed the sides of the ab, kidney, and butt plates, and a couple of inches of extra wraparound length of the cod. I'm going to leave the rest until I'm ready to strap that part, since it's pretty easy to trim. I also didn't have a good means of trimming the cod into a clean symmetrical ellipse so I'm going to print some templates in various radii and see what fits best.

 

I was originally intending to put snaps into the supplied velcro/elastic, but one of the more experienced guys told me to use all webbing since it'll hold its size. A little harder to fit perfectly but once it's done it's done. Maybe I'll split the difference with multiple snaps where the straps are long enough. Right now I've only been building the 2" snap strips to glue inside the armor.

 

I'm having trouble matching up the outer biceps. I've been assuming that the slighter wider end of the raised stripe is the top, but I'm not certain of that. Once I start with that though, there's only one way the curved and flat sides match. But then the heights don't quite match up; maybe they will after trimming; there's going to be a lot of that. I know there a lot of pictures of those here so I'll pore over those as a guide. Once I find a good way to illustrate my problem I'll post my own too.

 

After trimming the sides of the back/butt and kidney I don't think I need to trim the bottom of the kidney or the top of the butt. There are about 7mm return edges there and I'm just going to butt those together and put in three webbing strips. (I'm using TK-1650's snap diagrams at least to start)

[sekullbe]

Been crazy busy over the summer but I'm back to work on this. The arms have been confusing the heck out of me. They seem to line up OK- mostly- if I just mate the edges, but that all falls apart when I start overlapping the edges like it's going to look once I start trimming. (And I'll have to do a lot of trimming- the bicep as is has 2" more diameter than my arm does, and the forearm is 1.5" too wide and 2" too long.

 

So here's what I'm starting with. I'm pretty sure I have the correct outside bits since the curved sides line up better that way. What's the received wisdom on trimming return edges on biceps? I've seen it both ways. I may have to as part of trimming away some of the funky overlap issues- more on that soon.

 

Here's the right bicep, taped with the edges just mated.

Notice how the heights don't quite line up on the front seam, and the back seam has kind of a shape mismatch. Is that something for me to fix with trimming or bending, or am I just off base about which piece is which?

 

Here's the left:

It's got some of the same issues, except here the back is a bit high and the curve is off on the front.

 

When I overlap to fit, the edges start to really collide or the shapes cross over. I'm thinking that I should make the bottoms line up first since they're more visible, and that all the return edges are expendable. I see very slight ones on the reference photos, but it doesn't seem to be a big deal.  Here's an example of the crossover:

 

I plan on just cutting small strips off each side of the join- maybe 1/4" on each side- then joining them flush and seeing how it fits. If I need to trim one or the other for length after one of those cuts, first I'll shave edges off the bottom to get the halves to line up, then the top gets trimmed for length.

 

So, am I making sense? Do I even have the right pieces lined up?

[sekullbe]

On to the forearms- the're making a little more sense, I think.

 

Right side:

The elbow end lines up pretty well but the wrist end inside is 2" longer than the outside. It's not the wrong side- the left outer forearm is the same length as the right, though the left inner isn't as long as the right inner.

 

I know I need to trim the wrist return and an inch or more of the length of the forearm. I'm also going to be trimming up to an inch along each edge- I have skinny arms. (Redforce's build is a lot like I expect mine to be).

 

On to the left:

  

This one doesn't have quite the length issue, but there are some shape mismatches. Again I'll be cutting off quite a bit of each component to get it down to arm size for me. Other builds have cut an arc on the elbow end of the left inside so I'm going to do that too.

 

My understanding is that the elbow end return is optional, so I'll probably end up losing some of that to to make the circumference trim work, but I'm still going to use the elbow end as a basis- line that up then cut the wrist end until it's the length I want.

[gazmosis[501st]]

I am watching this build with great interest!!!! PLEASE CONTINUE WITH YOUR GREAT PICTURES!!!!!

[maxsteele[TK]]

The best way to line up your forearm parts is first, knowing which dimple piece goes to which arm.  The piece with 11 dimples is the left arm, and the piece with 12 dimples is the right arm.

 

Once you determine that, when you look at the dimpled left arm piece, you'll notice a raised molded edge on one side, and no raised molded edge on the other.  That raised molded edge gets matched up with a raised molded edge on an inner forearm piece.  Each inner piece will have a molded edge - so how do you tell which one gets matched up?

 

The main way I used, is you can see on that outer piece there is a clear "elbow end" and "wrist end".  The piece just tapers narrower down to the wrist side.  With the inner pieces, one side of the piece has a rounded opening, which is the elbow side, and the other side has a more straight-across side, which is the wrist end.  when you match up an outer piece with the left inner piece, and get the molded edges lined up, that rounded opening on the inner piece should be matched up with the wider side of the outer piece.  If it isn't, then that's the wrong inner piece.