Elleerre's ATA build

[elleerre]

Hi everyone, following you'll find the next step of the build... as usual comments are warmly encouraged and welcome.

Once decided the height of the brow, I've made the rivet holes, from now on no regrets...

 

 

 

And here it is after the first rough assembly, how am I proceeding?

 

 

 

A little check at the alignments...

 

 

Then I removed the brow rubber and refined the borders where necessary.

 

 

 

After this I provided to mark the borders of the rear shell on the mask. From the beginning I left all the ABS borders on mask's sides, now it's time to cut the excess plastic away.

 

 

So, I drilled away the rivets...

 

 

And cutted away all the exceeding ABS. This will guarantee that the two shells have enough (not too much) overlapping.

 

 

The result after re-riveting sides and adding the rivets on the bottom.

 

 

 

Ok, now the going gets tough... my first ear attempt ever. Please feel free to be honest with comments.

First check after rough trimming.

 

 

 

 

And trimming...

 

 

And trimming...

 

 

And trimming...

 

 

And trimming...

 

 

[Lots of wary trimming here]

 

Finally I become to a quite satisfying result. I need some advice now, to know if/where there's something to modify. I'm not completely satisfied with the front gap, that is too wide in my opinion. But I don't know if it could be left as is. The curvature is quite good, is there any way to make the ear tight to the helmet?

 

 

 

Last thing: has the bottom screw to be visible or not? I've found it half way after installing the bottom rubber seal (don't ask me how did I made it...)

 

 

I've paused the build for now so I can get some advices and avoid further mistakes with the right ear trimming.

 

Thanks in advance to everybody.

 

Lorenzo

Edited October 24, 2014 by elleerre

[elleerre]

And.... what are these screws for?

 

Edited October 24, 2014 by elleerre

[gazmosis[501st]]

The larger screws are for mounting the face to the cap in case you don't have a rivet gun. Btw....I would probably hit the edges of your teeth a bit more to square them off. They look a little Twinkie like when should be square.

[elleerre]

Ok, thanks.

 

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Ear looks good to me. IMO the only way to close the front gap would be to drop down a little the ear, or perhaps by tightening harder the bottom screw.

 

Your bottom screw localizationis good, no worries to have on this matter.

 

And i guess the screw is provided to fasten the two halves of the helmet together, but i think we all use pop rivets for this purpose now.

Edit: Steve beat me on that

Edited March 24, 2014 by The5thHorseman

[elleerre]

Thanks Germain!

[elleerre]

Btw....I would probably hit the edges of your teeth a bit more to square them off. They look a little Twinkie like when should be square.

 

Thanks for the advice, Steve. I was following pandatrooper's tutorial, that made the "twinkie" shape, hence the shape of mine.

Is the squared shape more correct ?

Edited March 24, 2014 by elleerre

[Cantina Security[501st]]

You can do either shape. Some of us prefer the straighter, sharper teeth, ( more menacing ) others prefer the softer curved ( Twinkie ) shaped teeth, all a matter of preference.

[elleerre]

Thanks Jason, I think I'll choose the menacing version...

 

[maxsteele[TK]]

When I was shaping my ears, and had that gap like you have in the front, I picked up and set down the ear on the helmet to see which parts of the ear hit the helmet first.  Those were the areas I sanded down more to get out of the way so the rest of it could sit better.

 

In your instance, I believe the bottom part of the ear where it curves to go underneath the helmet is what is preventing the rest of the ear from sitting down more onto the helmet.  You could try sanding off just a little of that bottom edge and see if the gap closes.  What I think will happen is the screw at the bottom will let you sit that part down more, which will pull downward at the top, and it could start closing that gap up.

[elleerre]

Thanks Max, I'll try that way and post some pictures of the result.

 

Edited March 25, 2014 by elleerre

[Snaps[TK]]

Why did you paint the inside of the helmet black?

[Tehcaveman]

Why did you paint the inside of the helmet black?

 

I painted mine black for looks, also helps on sunny days from ppl seeing inside, also when little kids look up my helmet it's just a black hole

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited March 27, 2014 by Tehcaveman

[elleerre]

Why did you paint the inside of the helmet black?

 

For now simply for the look. My goal is to idealize the internals as a "real" helmet, adding accessories, padding etc. I started with a plain, dark color as first step.

As others said there are some benefits during trooping, but as long I've not trooped again, I haven't tried that.

[Snaps[TK]]

I never thought about sunny days and stuff. I'm doing my first armor build and except putting the fans in, I have my bucket done. Wish I had seen this before hand. Will think about still doing it. Thanks for idea :-)

[elleerre]

You're welcome.

By the way the idea it's not mine, others have done it before me, I've only taken inspiration from other's builds too.

[elleerre]

Damn right ear...

 

[Tehcaveman]

I never thought about sunny days and stuff. I'm doing my first armor build and except putting the fans in, I have my bucket done. Wish I had seen this before hand. Will think about still doing it. Thanks for idea :-)

 

I highly endorse and recommend echo fan system..

Not trying to hijack your thread just showing you what teh fan setup and black interior looks like..

[elleerre]

You're welcome Manny, no problem. Any advice is good.

I've put an eye on Echo fan system since the first days here... that's a wonderful peice of kit

 

[Tehcaveman]

You're welcome Manny, no problem. Any advice is good.

I've put an eye on Echo fan system since the first days here... that's a wonderful peice of kit

 

 

Ok cool lol.. It's amazing I don't know how I trooped with out it.. And I love how it hides all the wires and batteries.. Also have the option of running both or just one. Ordering a second one soon for my hero bucket..

[elleerre]

I'm in doubt because some days ago I bought a metalized vacuum hose at the warehouse, I would like a lot the appearance of it inside the back helmet trim. On another side I'm very sensible to hot weather (and here it's HOT and WET when it's hot ) and I know that Echo's device will be very useful for me when trooping...

I'm wondering if it's possible to combine both without loosing on performance

[Tehcaveman]

I troop in south Florida don't know how much hotter and wetter you can get lol.. Not sure on using both and how it would work

[elleerre]

Pretty hot indeed. Here in the Venice hinterland we have, in July/August, often more than 30/35 °C during the day, sometimes we arrive about to 38 °C and humidity from 55 to 75%. We have mosquitos too, but no crocodiles

Hope I'll never troop in such conditions, but... who knows. BTW that fan system will be useful for sure even in warm spring/fall days.

 

Edited March 28, 2014 by elleerre

[elleerre]

Update

 

After a bit of curses to fit the right ear I have achieved a result that I define "less disgusting". I messed around a bit with the shells to attach the lower screw of the left ear, so later I'll try to do a some ABS paste to close the holes and give more grip to the screw.

 

I hope that the result, however, go well.

Please feel free to give any kind of feedback.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've shortened the screws inside, as next job I plan to apply double sided velcro and insert padding and accessories (more or less functional or haestetic).

I'm happy with the strength of the black paint inside. I did'n care to avoid scratches, and despite this the coat has held up well. I highly reccommend this "bumper paint" to those that want a dark side of the bucket.

I have a question: is it possible to change the HOVIs in a way they have a hole passing through, to increase the air circulation inside the helmet, or is a modification that can give certification issues?

Just guessing, not sure to do it.

 

Thanks,

Lorenzo

Edited October 24, 2014 by elleerre

[elleerre]

Anyone? How about the teeths now?