New NE build Tampa Fl

[maxsteele[TK]]

I think the butt plate looks *great*.  Much better than the flare-out mine has.

Edited April 27, 2014 by maxsteele

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

if you ever considerate going for Centurion, your buttplate will need to show two male snap at the crotch tab like on the armors below:

 

The buttplate sitting regarding the kydney plate is good. It's hard to get better with snap plates.

 

As for the shoulder bells, if you shorten the straps which go from the bells to the shoulder bridges it will help closing the front gaps.

Edited April 27, 2014 by The5thHorseman

[Pencap510]

Good feedback- and it does show to male snaps- I just didn't want to put the stress of the connecting piece on the plastic. I made a snap plate that put over my snaps - you'll see in the pics below. I'm starting to measure up before staring to cone in and trip my thighs for the back cover strip. How does the positioning look from the front. (On the pic from the rear you can see some very faint pencil lines where I'm thinking I should trim to get my butt join going <br /><br />Thoughts?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Clonecollector[TK]]

I would narrow down your thighs. They are very wide at the knees. Play around with them so that they taper down.

 

I spent a couple of hours doing mine. If you look at some screen caps you can see how tightly fitted the thighs are around the knees.

 

Hope this helps!

[Pencap510]

Thanks - agreed. It's really kinda hard to work with (the NE armor has a ton of extra material to work with.) i didn't have any pressure on the bottoms when that pic was taken. Gonna take some of the material I know I won't need away, then snap a few more pics

 

 

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[maxsteele[TK]]

Ah yes, fitting the thighs. I used a second person for this process. Once I had the front cut and taped down (I didn't glue until everything was cut) I had someone wrap the thigh pieces around my leg. They pushed in on all parts of my thigh, getting the fit from the top to the bottom. Once they felt fitted but not too tight, they taped the thighs off.

 

Next, I took the thighs off and used a ruler to line up the cut in the front with the back area. I then made a mark on both pieces of the rear parts at the top and bottom. Then I connected the two marks together vertically down each piece with a line. What this does is make a straight cut down, but each side will be tapered to fit.

 

Then, I cut each piece cleanly and it made a nice join of the two pieces in the back.

 

After that. I did another tape fit with the pieces joined, and if there was a part that wasn't fitting close enough, I got that fitted, found my overlap, marked the cut lines again, and cut. When I was happy with the fit, that's when I glued the thighs together.

 

Now, I then ran into the issue of the thigh tops catching on the cod, and having to do the modifications I'm doing now. You may or may not have to do that.

[Pencap510]

I'm hoping to have some time to work on my thighs tonight and post so precut pics- HOPING!! Lol<br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pencap510]

Afraid to make that first trim in the back of the thigh to "finalize" them.. In the pic with the green tape suspending them, does that look like the correct position from the front?

 

 

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[Pencap510]

These thighs are a pain in the butt - but I think I got them kinda where I want them. Test fitting in a few minutes <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pencap510]

And here is test fitting, I know the top of the back thigh needs to be cleaned up and shaped a little- but how is overall fit? Feels pretty good <br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maxsteele[TK]]

Can you pull the thighs up any more?  I know that our NE thighs have to be worn lower because of their shape, but since you've taken off the return edge from the top, it's no big deal to cut them to make sure they don't catch on the cod.

[Pencap510]

I can pull them up a little more, I just don't want to leave to much room above the knee. I'm thinking I might have taken too much off the top, because I was considering adding a return back on the top.. But once tried them on I think I might have taken too much?

 

 

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[maxsteele[TK]]

If you have a moment to - take a pic with the thighs pulled up more and the shins on, and then a pic with the thighs where you have them in your previous pic here and the shins on.  Then we can see what it looks like with the different positions.

[Pencap510]

I should be able to get these trial pics done tomorrow. Also relieved some feedback that my COD might be sitting a little to high? That would help with the gap between the thighs and the cod- <br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pencap510]

So I started by added a new row of snaps to the shoulder straps to let the cod hang just a little bit lower. I also tightened up the shoulder bell strap to bring the bells in a little closer. I'm happy with the way it's hanging, but I'm going to have to use some sturdier connection between the ab plate and be kidney because the elastic I'm using now isn't holding he two halves close enough together. <br /><br />I'm not really pleased with my thighs to this point yet, but I think that lowering the cod helped a little with the gap between the cod and the thighs. <br /><br />(I've finished my shins yet, cuz I don't have boots- but this IS the first time I've put it all on, including arms. )<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maxsteele[TK]]

What method did you use for bending the ammo belt?

[Pencap510]

Heat gun and paint sticks- I need to spend a little more time with it- it's still REALLY tight , but I wanted to see what it would look like <br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maxsteele[TK]]

Don't own a heat gun.  I'm going to try using the boiling method for the thigh pack bending.

[Pencap510]

Any other feedback?<br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maxsteele[TK]]

From what I've seen so far, I think it looks good, but I can't tell how high you have your thighs because I can't make out where your knees are.  Do you have the shins done at a point you can wear them?  Then we can see what the space looks like between the bottom of your thighs and the top of your shins.

[Pencap510]

.

Edited May 14, 2014 by Pencap510

[Pencap510]

I'm in progress on the shins. Researching som threads. I'm good with cutting to the 10mm spacing per side for a 20mm cover strip in the front then fitting the back- but height is gonna be an issue right now because I haven't purchased boots yet. It's the 1 piece I don't have to complete my kit. <br /><br />So I'm stuck in 2 parts - <br /><br />1) how much return did you cut off the top of the thighs <br /><br />And 2). Based on my ammo pack pictures above, should I rotate the pack left to help with the overlap on the back of the right thigh? Where it joins? I was originally trying to line up the center ammo pack- but did notice it doesn't have to be centered <br /><br /><br />Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maxsteele[TK]]

Aah, no boots yet.  Yeah, you can't really do the fitting of the shins until you get your boots.  You can absolutely do the 10mm / 10mm cut in the front.  But don't cut to fit the back yet, because you have to take into account wrapping around the boots at the bottom.  You can also take off the return edge at the bottom of the shins completely.  You don't need your boots for that.

 

As for the return on the top of my thighs, I took the return edge completely off on the inside of both thighs, because that's the parts I had to trim down to keep it from rubbing against my cod.  I left the return edge on the outer parts, but I trimmed down the return edge to about half of what it was.

 

As for rotating the pack to help with the overlap on the back of the thigh - I'm not sure what you mean.  There shouldn't be any overlap in the back of the thighs.  All pieces should be butt-joined and then a finishing strip placed to cover up the join.  I'm going to post this reply, but I'm going to look back at your pics to see if I can tell what you're referring to.  I'll edit this post with more info.

 

EDIT:

 

Yeah, I don't see what you mean by overlap.  The way you have the ammo pack wrapped around the bottom of the thigh is the way it should be.  There is some extra that you have, just like I do.  What I was thinking about doing was finding where I'm going to drill the holes, doing so, and then cutting off the excess after the holes.

Edited May 9, 2014 by maxsteele

[JLight[TK]]

Not symmetrical. 3 ammo boxes on the inside of your leg and 2 on the outside. Should even up the excess you are referring to.

 

 

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[gazmosis[501st]]

The thigh pack does not heed to centered.