A Slightly Disheveled Medium and a Pristine Big Brown Box Arrived Today - Dark's RT-Mod ANH Hero (and Stunt) Build Thread

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Technically, I made two of them. LoL

I seriously thought I might vomit when preparing for those ones.

 

EDIT:  Additionally, the system takes up a surprisingly small amount of space.  It can be reduced even more if you use the installation method used by ukswrath, and install the mics in the actual ears.  Mine is installed as it is, so that it will be easily transferrable between my Hero and Stunt buckets when I get around to making my Stunt belt. 

Edited March 3, 2015 by Dark CMF
Left out some important information

[gunslinger7788]

Tim,  Just got my Suit From Rob and RT-Mod. SO i can finaly start my build.

 

David

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

OMG David!!  So excited for you.  I know that feeling all too well!  

 

Truth be told, I was in the Alabama Garrison forums within the last week or so, looking to see if you'd said anything about receiving your kit yet.  I know that there were some delays for Rob in the past couple of months, but I wanted to see how you were doing.  

Very excited to see your post here today!!  I'm not there locally anymore, but don't hesitate to reach out for help if you need it!  I won't turn my back on a Cadet, and I won't forget where I came from.  

 

Looking forward to your build thread!!!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Hey Tim did you get the warm a fuzzies the first time you took the drill to your helmet...

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Technically, I made two of them. LoL

 

I seriously thought I might vomit when preparing for those ones.

 

EDIT:  Additionally, the system takes up a surprisingly small amount of space.  It can be reduced even more if you use the installation method used by ukswrath, and install the mics in the actual ears.  Mine is installed as it is, so that it will be easily transferrable between my Hero and Stunt buckets when I get around to making my Stunt belt. 

 

To clarify, these EAS units are so cheap I have a few sets so yea the're semi-permanently fix in each helmet. My ROM/FX is the only item transferable.

 

BTW, did those green speakers come with your kit or did you buy them separately? I use ear buds but for the sake of study want to try speakers as well.  

[HansDC[TK]]

I too have an EAS kit but haven't properly installed them yet. But yes, the green speakers come with the kit. I was given an option of bigger or smaller speakers. 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Warm fuzzies is a term that you used, not me.  

 

 

 

Those speakers came with the kit.  

 

Skyminer sells them with two optional sizes for both Microphones, and speakers.  The green ones in my helmet are the "Slim-Line Speakers."  

 

For reference, I have the larger microphones, and the smaller speakers.  People using the smaller microphones typically mount those in the frown from what I've seen.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

I too have an EAS kit but haven't properly installed them yet. But yes, the green speakers come with the kit. I was given an option of bigger or smaller speakers. 

 

Do these speakers appear to be waterproof or moisture proof?

 

Warm fuzzies is a term that you used, not me.  

 

 

 

Those speakers came with the kit.  

 

Skyminer sells them with two optional sizes for both Microphones, and speakers.  The green ones in my helmet are the "Slim-Line Speakers."  

 

For reference, I have the larger microphones, and the smaller speakers.  People using the smaller microphones typically mount those in the frown from what I've seen.

 

Tim you can answer the same question. Also, does he give you a DB max limit on the speakers?

 

So you like my warm and fuzzies joke, more like   

If you don't mind me asking next time you have your mics out could you measure them (across the width). They appear to be the same dimensions as mine, just not sure judging by your pics.

 

 

Pardon all the questions, always looking to improve on my hardware.

 

Thanks guys

Edited March 4, 2015 by ukswrath

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Tony... Here you go:

 

They're about 3/8" across.

 

As for moisture/water proof. They're slim plastic as you see, with a rubberized disc, so they appear to be moistureproofed to an extent. I've had no issues with them acting up after hours of wear and sweat in the bucket. I don't know if I'd feel confident enough to wear my bucket under water, but I expect that they'll hold up for trooping.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Hey Tim thanks a bunch sir. It appears your mics are similar to mine. I know Skyminer uses the Wellmann audio kit as well so I can only assume we probably have the same kit with the exception of the speakers. Going to contact Skyminer and check into these speakers.

 

For future reference if anyone is interested there's another builder of hearing assist devices, It's called the Uproar, custom made by Conner Adenn on the the Mandalorian Mercs website for $25. http://mercs.firespray.net/forum/index.php?topic=76540.0

SHA (Stormtrooper Hearing Assist) system - http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32487-ukswraths-stormtrooper-hearing-assist-system/

 

 

From the reviews on some of the forums it's supposed to be better than the Wellmann. Just a FYI 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

So yeah...

 

Centurion build upgrades. I said that I did them (except for that annoying paint stuff - I'll get to that soon enough), and you know that I took pictures. Here they are:

 

The first order of business in upgrading my armor from EIB to Centurion was to remove the wrist's return edges completely. I originally had return edges in the "rails" of the forearms. I began with the razor knife, and trimmed it down a bit and then just held it level and made circular motions on a sheet of sandpaper until I was happy with them. Then I took some fine sandpaper and cleaned up the edges on the insides of the wrists.

 

I've got to add that it is pretty amazing how much more easily my forearms are to put on, or take off after making that little change. It also makes putting my gloves on much easier, too.

 

The single biggest reason for the delay in my upgrade to Centurion. Two words: The Notch.

 

Here, you can see that I have cut the notch out of the left hand side of my armor for starters. When I did so, I lost the location of a split rivet. You can see the hole in the cut-out piece of the armor. Now, the notch is supposed to be 22MM x 22MM. I cut mine at 20 x 20 because I fully intended to add a return edge to the notches, for continuity in my armor.

 

Left notch is cut out, but does not have a return edge on/in it - yet.

 

To put the return edge into the notch, I took the heat-sealing iron (visible in the forearm return edge picture) and set it to medium-high heat. When it was warmed sufficiently, I began applying light pressure on the edge of the notch, until it folded in about 2MM. Then I moved to the other side of the notch and did the same thing. I made sure to get the corner lined up when I did this for a smooth edge throughout. Here, it is unsanded.

 

The same return edge, after sanding.

 

Right side notch, cut to 20MM x 20MM, no return edge applied.

 

Return edge applied and cleaned up. While working on this one, I didn't realize that I'd accidentally turned up the heat on the iron. That resulted in the inconsistent edge if you look around the corner. A part heated a bit too much and simply fell away. I did what I could to shape it properly, but once the plastic is gone, it is gone. It still turned out alright.

 

The Abdominal Plate, with all of the rivet holes drilled (old ones, and new ones).

 

The Kidney Plate with the two new holes drilled, and the old center hole covered with blue painter's tape so it can be filled with ABS paste.

 

That's all of the physical armor work. I'll begin the ABS paste experience in the next post.

[Sly11[Admin]]

Finally underway, awesome Tim, wish I had thought a little more when modding my kidney plate to include a slight return edge. Will be good to see that Centurion badge under your Avi.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Moving on to the ABS paste experiment.

 

I look back and realize that I've got some different sized pictures. This has never happened before. The difference: I was using my iPad to take a bunch of the pictures. Those ones are smaller than the normal pictures I take with our camera.

 

Anyway: ABS paste...

 

So, here we see a baby food jar with some ABS scraps cut up into relatively uniformly sized pieces to ensure even melting, and some more scrap ABS waiting to be sacrificed for the greater good.

 

This is the jar with all of the ABS cut up into pieces and placed inside of it. I have the bottle of pure acetone standing to the right, and a pair of wooden chopsticks that will be used for stirring and applying the ABS paste to the armor. I made sure to use a material that would not be melted down by the Acetone, for stirring and applying. The color variation caused by that would completely ruin my ABS paste, as I couldn't use green paste on my armor.

 

I initially used just enough Acetone to cover the scrap pieces. Ultimately, I would wind up adding about half as much again later, as it was just too thick to use. However, it is probably simpler to add a little bit of Acetone until you have a good blend as opposed to cutting up more ABS.

 

Within minutes (literally) you can see the ABS is beginning to break down.

 

After 30 minutes, the ABS is nearly completely dissolved in the Acetone, but there are some chunks in the bottom of the jar.

 

One and a half hours later, the ABS is completely dissolved, but my paste has the consistency of marshmallow fluff. It is just too thick to use, so I put in the additional Acetone at this point. Rather than make my first attempts at this on my actual armor, I choose to use the two rivet retaining strips that I use in the left side of my armor.

 

So, I filled the holes and very clearly in this picture, I filled one of them incorrectly. Thankfully I caught that about an hour or two later and was able to correct it with relative ease.

 

If you've never worked with ABS paste before, it isn't that difficult. I'd never done so before this particular work had to be done - hence my use of the term "experiment." You can look it up on YouTube, and find several videos that show how to do it, but I've explained it pretty clearly here. Put the ABS in a non-plastic jar, pour the Acetone on it. Wait. That's pretty much all there is to it. You'll just have to find the right amount to add to it to get the consistency that you want. I used the blue painter's tape to cover one side of the hole and then used the end of the chopstick to fill the hole as needed.

 

Back to the work du jour!

 

So, as some of you might expect, and I did not, the blue painter's tape did a decent job, but the weight of the paste started to cause it to sag just a little bit which was causing the tops of the armor to have tiny divots in it as it was drying. To alleviate this, I took cotton balls, and taped them to the back of the armor, under the filled holes. This kept good consistent pressure on the blue painter's tape at the bottom of each of the repair areas.

 

Fast forward about 30 hours, and I'm prepared to begin sanding and repairing the surface with the Novus 1,2,3 polish system.

 

The Kidney Plate, with the tape and cotton balls removed, prior to sanding it.

 

The Abdomen Plate, prior to sanding and polishing.

 

Abdomen Plate, after sanding and polishing. There really isn't any need for the Novus 1 in this process. Depending on how heavily you sand the armor you're going to need a lot of Novus 3, and even more Novus 2 to get the fine scratches out, and get it to shine. When you sand the armor, sand in one direction only. Either go up/down, or left/right. This is because of how you apply the Novus 3, which is at right angles to the scratches. You'll be happy that you chose to go in one direction only when it comes time to use the Novus.

 

That's the ABS paste work... I'll post this, and move up to reassembling the armor with the new Split Rivets momentarily.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Putting the armor back together.

 

You've pretty much seen this before, but I did the work (and this WAS the annoying part - let me tell you, Split Rivets are easier to install than they are to remove, that's saying something. ) so I'm going to share it with you here. That's what I do. LoL

 

Three new Split Rivets installed in the left side of the Kidney Plate.

 

Next, the elastic bands are placed on the split rivet posts/arms.

 

Then, place the rivet retaining strip over the rivet, followed by the washer.

 

I used a large screwdriver to spread the arms of the rivet and pry them to the sides for flattening.

 

Repeat the process two more times, for the remaining rivets. Note the blue tape to hold the retaining strips in place while I worked on the rivets. Tape (or magnets) is your friend!

 

Here you can see the pliers being used to flatten the rivet arms. This is very easy to do - on the first side that you assemble, and on that side only. Note that I have the elastic folded over twice to prevent damaging the rivet or the armor with the pliers.

 

Completed assembly of the armor's left side hinge. To install the rivets on the other side, I used the same process until the pliers would have been involved. For the other side, I used a hammer and the large screwdriver to place those rivets.

 

Left side of the armor, awaiting paint for the rivets.

 

Right side of the armor with the notch.

 

One last little bit of work to share tonight, and that's coming in my next post...

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

One of the things that I personally noticed both while wearing my armor and especially in pictures of my armor was that my chest plate liked to ride very high and often got stuck on top of my abdominal plate, this also caused the neck of the plate to press against my throat which - even with the neck seal on - wasn't what I'd call "comfortable." So, I set about to fix that. My plan: Lengthen the loops of elastic that hold my armor together with the strapping brackets.

 

The old loops were one inch long (two inches of elastic, looped), and I didn't want to make them too long and have my chest plate sliding all over the place so I opted to start with two inch loops using four inch pieces of elastic, sewn into loops.

 

Nothing exciting really, these are the new two inch loops, sewn together and ready for installation.

 

Fully assembled and ready for wear. While I'm not wearing it, my armor now appears as though it may be coming apart. While I'm wearing it however, the chest plate sits much better. The bottom of the chest plate now sits below the top of the vertical ridge that runs up the center of my abdomen nearly all of the time. If I raise my arm or arms up above my shoulders, it does pull up a little bit but overall, I feel that the longer loops were the ideal, and proper solution to the problem I was having.

 

So that's it for now... All that really is left to do is paint the bucket details on. That's started already, actually. I have rank bars painted on the ears now! One each.

 

Thanks for following along (again) it did feel good to be working on the armor once again!

[Sly11[Admin]]

As always Tim, your thread updates are full of chewy, informative detail.

I love it

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Great mods Tim, looks awesome 

 

BTW, I feel your rebuild pain brother. 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

PAINT!!!

 

I have been painting. Vocoder is complete, all tears and traps are currently grey and drying. Tomorrow the gloss black details go on the appropriate grey areas, and Centurion photos will be taken shortly thereafter.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

And progress pics?

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Probably Sunday evening... Not on Photobucket yet, and feeding the baby right now. LoL

[Artshot]

Excellent work applying the notches.

 

When you polished the paste in the old rivet holes, does it go to the same shine as the surrounding armour ?

 

The reason I ask is that I will have to shim my waist and I worry that a join of paste will be noticeable, if it's just a case of a lot of elbow grease to get rid of any sign, then I can cope with that....I think.

 

Although I have toyed with the idea of either asking if Rob can add the notches and return edge for me on a set and buying an extra set of ab & kidney pieces to shim, that way as (if) I reduce my waist, I can swap the pieces out rather than remove the shim.

[Bone[501st]]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I will be in Florida in April and I am looking for a source where I can buy Novus polish.

Could anyone please tip where this stuff is to be found?

 

Thanks a lot.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Thank you Art, you nailed it. Outside of technique - namely,,sanding in one direction, and polishing in the other - it is a serious application of elbow grease.

 

Bone, I ordered my Novus Polish system via Amazon Smile: www.smile.amazon.com you have to get the three part system to repair scratches, and sanding damage.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

I'm going to chime in here also. I'm all for good ole fashion elbow grease however, if you know you're going to be doing more than 20-30 minutes worth of sanding then polishing, the Headlight Restoration kit from 3M is the only way to go IMHO. This kit and a drill and your set

 

Amazon, normally $20, on sale as I write this for $10. http://www.amazon.com/3M-39008-Headlight-Restoration-System/dp/B001AIZ5HY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426871140&sr=8-1&keywords=3m+restoration.

 

Those that have read my rebuild thread know the nightmare I had to deal with. Sanding and polishing that took me a few hours with the 3M kit, would have taken me a week + with manual labor. I swear buy this kit. I use the Novus polish also for touch ups but for blending areas of repair, 3M Repair kit.   

 

Sorry Tim didn't mean to hijack your thread also. You know you're highly respected in my book sir 

Edited March 20, 2015 by ukswrath

[Bone[501st]]

Last leg of the detour:

Thank you guys ...