AM 2.0 build (ANH Stunt) by Rystan

[Rystan]

Like the new pic Mike!

It's been my desktop background at work since I decided to build armor. Great minds.

 

Thanks for the updated shots. Nesting the sides together clinches it I think.

 

Nick gave me the suggestion to try again after trimming the front for cover strips and seeing if it makes a difference.

[Rystan]

Hey Tim/PGHtoolman, I saw in your build thread that you already trimmed your ankles. Was that just the return edges or did you trim for fit/cover strips? If you trimmed for cover strips can you post some pics here to see if the differences are more noticeable after trimming?

[SCTrooper[TK]]

You guys are right, looks like 2 left shins. The way the pieces fit perfectly inside each other in that one pic, gotta be the same part. 

[SCTrooper[TK]]

The right outer should look like this.

[TriumphTrooper8[501st]]

I am having the same issue: two left shin assemblies. I have emailed TK about it and he is trying to get it straightened out. I wonder if some one has two right shins?

[Rystan]

I just got a response from TG, he's been investigating what happened and will be weighing in shortly.

[MightyTank[501st]]

Hello everyone.  The issue with the shins has been brought to my attention and it seems there has been some mistake at the shop when packing.  I do not think it was every kit, but i am not sure which ones got the mistake.  If you are having an issue with two left shins, shoot me an email at troopergear@gmail.com with pictures of the shins that you received (please don't PM me here, i don't check it often) and i am making a list and contacting the shop to see if they can shed some light on to what in the world happened.   I am very sorry for this inconvenience, but we will get it sorted.

Edited August 5, 2014 by MightyTank

[Starfox2010]

Mighty Tank to the rescue!!

[Shank_O_Potomus]

Thanks Tank!

[Shank_O_Potomus]

And hallelujah I'm not crazy!!! 

[Manzilla]

Your definitely not crazy. I received the same thing (2 left shin pieces). Mighty Tank replied almost immediately to my e-mail, so I am confident we will be taken care of and this will get fixed ASAP. Just curious, has anyone out there received 2 right shins? 

Also, I am a little confused on the forearms. The way they clearly line up is the curved back with the 12 dimpled right front and the straighter back with the 11 dimpled left front. Is this correct? I thought the curved one was supposed to be on the left. 

[Rystan]

Your definitely not crazy. I received the same thing (2 left shin pieces). Mighty Tank replied almost immediately to my e-mail, so I am confident we will be taken care of and this will get fixed ASAP. Just curious, has anyone out there received 2 right shins? 

Also, I am a little confused on the forearms. The way they clearly line up is the curved back with the 12 dimpled right front and the straighter back with the 11 dimpled left front. Is this correct? I thought the curved one was supposed to be on the left. 

 Hi Bryan,

 

I was confused by the same thing initially too.

 

Like you, I originally thought the curved vs. straight was the elbow opening curve line.  But if you look at this picture from the FISD arm tutorial (http://www.whitearmor.net/fisd/Tutorial-arms), it's really referring to the curve down the length of the forearm.   On the current AM molds, there isn't really a striking distinction that I could find.  Like you I found that the inner & outer pieces married together better with the curved elbow opening matching up with the 12 dimpled right outer and the straighter elbow opening pairing up with the 11 dimpled left outer shell.   Lots of troopers, for comfort and flexibility will flare both arms at the elbows to avoid pinching and being able to reach your own head.

 

[cm325i]

Following this topic as I've put a deposit on the same kit.

[BRIZK]

i wonder if i have the same problem, i haven't check them i will check then as soon as i get home   i will posts some pictures to see if i got them wrong 

Edited August 5, 2014 by BRIZK

[Starfox2010]

Ok Mike, 

 

since everything about the shins is in process of being taken care of, how are you doing with your shoes?  I bought mine through tkboots but might do a project like this if my wife or daughter decide to join the troops.

[Rystan]

Ok Mike, 

 

since everything about the shins is in process of being taken care of, how are you doing with your shoes?  I bought mine through tkboots but might do a project like this if my wife or daughter decide to join the troops.

 

Hi Rick,  Thanks for checking on me

 

The boots are currently on hold waiting for me to pick up more acetone and the rain to stop here in not so sunny western New York.

 

The build progress has been continuing on other fronts and I've got a bunch of pictures queued up for build updates shortly.

 

 

 

How is yours coming along?

Edited August 6, 2014 by Rystan

[BRIZK]

i think mine are the same as yours

[Rystan]

i wonder if i have the same problem, i haven't check them i will check then as soon as i get home   i will posts some pictures to see if i got them wrong 

 

Hi Erick, are you referring to the shins or the forearms?  I've seen your thread and the issues you've encountered there.  I think matching the inner to the outer forearms aren't too problematic if you get it wrong...as long as you're using E6000 to glue, they should come apart easily enough.   If you're talking about the shins, check them and if they're both the same, let TG know (include pictures) and I'm sure he'll get the issue straightened out.  (I haven't heard of anyone yet who received a left and right pair, but that might just because the people who got correct sets had not reason to complain?)

[BRIZK]

Yea I was referring to the shins I think mine are both right shins

[Rystan]

Okay, time for some updates, and hopefully take some of the pressure off the shin situation while waiting for TG to resolve it.

 

I'd been holding off on messing with the helmet until I felt confident enough to tackle it, but seeing everyone else making such great progress, I decided to at least get my feet wet gluing the cap and back together since it doesn't involve any trimming.

 

Finding the right place for the two pieces to fit together was pretty simple in my opinion.   I just lined the ear/dimple curved section up so that it touches the cap directly at the back of the front trapezoid/vent.  There's a little side to side movement, but it lined up pretty easily so that it was in the same place on both sides.

 

The curved section described above: (I forgot to take a picture of them test fit together with tape)

 

Per the best practices for using E6000, I put glue on both pieces and let it sit for 5 minutes or so.  While it was getting tacky I prepped some of my rare-earth magnets for helping to hold the pieces in place while the glue dries over the next 24 hours.

 

The magnets I got a really strong and not very pleasant to pull apart.  I'd seen a few tricks involving using masking tape to create tabs to assist with pulling them apart.  

 

 

Rookie mistake magnet tip:  check to make sure the "flat" side you're going to designate on the magnets is correctly polarity paired with the magnet it's going to face on the other side of the plastic.  With the first set I taped (doubling some of the magnets up to increase the pull strength) I just randomly taped two more magnets together and when I went to test attach the set together they repelled each other and I had to do it again.  So I settled on taping one set, and then checking for attraction with the next set before taping them using my finger to keep them apart.     The other side benefit of taping the magnets is that they are very fragile.  I broke one into three pieces trying to pry it from the stack when it slipped out of my fingers and shot back to the stack from the attractive forces.  (Note: sharp magnet pieces are not fun to try and pull off the stack)

 

The metal ruler helps keep the magnet pairs aligned.  I plan to sharpie numbers on the tape as I pull them off for each pair to keep from having to deal with the whole repelling issue for further uses.

 

In addition to the magnets (to keep the two pieces in contact), I used clamps at the open ends (to prevent sliding from side to side) and vertical taping both inside and out (to keep the pieces from separating vertically).

 

 

Next steps on the cap and back:

1) mix up some ABS paste to make the seam between the two pieces disappear.

2) spray paint the inside flat black

3) drill holes for connecting the face plate. (I'm going to leave the the ear dimples un-drilled until I see how they fit to avoid needing to drill multiple holes.)

[Rystan]

Yea I was referring to the shins I think mine are both right shins

 

Sorry didn't see your picture before responding.

 

If you check yours, if the lower indent/deeper V is on the left (see the circled below) when looking at them from behind, like my pic below, then yours are both left.  If they're on the right, they'd be right shins.

 

[BRIZK]

I just check and their earphone ur picture. I was thinking they where both right shins

[Rystan]

Next up was the (partially finished) project to turn this:

 

into these:

 

The idea for these is by no means mine and the measurements for the tabs is taken from here  (another great billhag "bill-o-grams"):

 

For the measurements and drawing of lines, I found clamping the sign to old cutting board, worked well to keep everything nice and consistent:

 

Long wise I made a mark on the edges every 2.5 cm and every 1 cm on the other side.

 

Every other mark got a full line across the sign, on the others, I drew a dash to help find the center of the tab for drilling.  Since these tabs are going to be visible when the armor isn't on, wanted to make sure the snaps were as centered as possible.

 

Using the 20 mm by 50 mm measurements I was able to fit 7 tabs per row, and using the total tab quantity of 44, made for 7 full rows with a few extras just in case.

 

 

Now, what about the smaller bottom rectangles you ask?

 

There's been the occasional issue with the female snaps coming off from the elastic straps (See here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/25309-snaps-nothing-i-do-seems-to-work/#entry318526)

 

Since having the plate visible on the strap "offends my sensibilities", the plan is to double the ends of the elastic on the strap with the ABS sandwiched between the folded strap (rather than the proposed solution).  Since the piece isn't going to be visible, I opted to make them smaller to fit everything on one sheet.

 

Next up, drilling:

 

I used a 5/32 drill bit and that seems to fit the post from the male snaps perfectly.  After cutting it came time to cut out lots of little rectangles using the Fiskar package opening scissors described earlier.  (Note: not going to probably be a great tool for long cuts as the nut and bolt on the scissors gets in the way a lot when cutting the ABS.

 

Next up, crimping the snaps, 1 down, 40+ to go:

 

I bought the Dritz Heavy Duty Snap pliers (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005BB5GYS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

 

At this point, I'm about half way done with the snap plates (which means about 25% of the way to the finish when you count the female snaps).  So far, I don't particularly care for the effort required to get the snaps crimped without the snap ending off center due to the length of the Tandy Line 24 snap posts.   Might have to look into pick up a snap anvil before proceeding much further.  I've also been cutting and then rounding via sanding the corners of the snap plates to hopefully avoid them getting snagged on the under suit or anything else during normal wear and tear.

[Rystan]

Couple misc items/questions:

 

First up, my Centurion level rivets and washers arrived from Echo:

 

 

Second, a random picture of my project assistant hard at work:

 

On a more build related note:

 

So I picked these rubber chemical gloves up for about $10 at the local Army/Navy surplus store.  When I put them on, they extend up onto my forearms.  

 

Given that we've got forearm armor to wear, the options as I see it are either:

    A) cut the gloves off (and if so how far up the glove?) or

    make sure I leave enough extra room in the forearm armor for the gloves to slide through already on my hands when putting the forearms on, or

    C) leave the gloves inside the forearm when not being worn and just slip my hands into both at the same time when putting them on.   

 

Seems like each option would differently affect the needed circumference of the wrist end of the gloves.

 

Anybody have any thoughts?  (For now, Not going to cut.  Rubber gloves are rather thick so might just leave in forearm armor rather than leaving wrist opening too large.)

 

Build question round 2:

The AM kit comes with two separate belt types (and now that I understand it correctly, three types of belt rivet covers)

 

From a ANH Stunt perspective, which is the correct belt and rivet cover to use? (Bottom belt and rivet covers, thanks Ron)  

Edited August 6, 2014 by Rystan

[maxsteele[TK]]

I bought a pair of these from Home Depot:

 

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Grease-Monkey-Neoprene-Large-Long-Cuff-Gloves-23403/202188317?N=5yc1vZc5r1Z12kx

 

They come about half-way up my forearms.  I just tuck the extra underneath my undersuit sleeve.  I also put my gloves on first, then pull my forearms over them.  I find this better for me because otherwise I'm having to stuff my gloves underneath the forearms, which never works out well.

 

For your belt, it's the bottom belt type with the bottom rivet covers that you do not have cut out yet.