Red_2's NE ANH TK build ...

[Red_2[TK]]

Thanks, Andrew!

[Red_2[TK]]

Shins continued ...

 

After trimming the fronts down yesterday, I test fitted the right shin first. I decided not to glue the front inner shims down since I wasn't sure how the fit/adjustment around the boots would go, so taped it just to be safe.

 

The full return edge at the ankles is still present in this pic. They would eventually get trimmed down.

 

The upper half of my knee cap clears the top of the shin. Plenty of movement.

 

 

Yeeeaaaahh ... skinny legs. There's the trim line.

 

 

Taking off most of the return edge at the ankles. Not all.

 

 

Back trimmed and return edges at the ankle minimized. I walked around a bit and it kinda felt like they were gonna ride up but they never did. Was curious if anyone has ever put in stirrups. I might feel like they were more secure that way.

 

 

The left side, same process.

 

 

Back of left shin. (A little misaligned when taped down, but fits great.)

 

Hopefully I get to attack the thighs tomorrow and get them fitted.

In the meantime I'll glue the inner shims in on the shins.

 

After that I think everything will have been fitted except the hand plates. Boom.

 

Progress!

 

[Red_2[TK]]

Thighs getting sized down!

 

Inner shims glue is dry so I started with the left thigh and squeezed that bad boy as best I could around my leg and taped it up.

It's definitely gonna need to be trimmed on the inside where it meets the cod, and on the backside where it meets the ... backside.

Because of the extra material I could only wrap them around my leg so much that I bet after the first trim I'll be taking a little more off.

 

 

Trim line marked. Was a little hard to tell where the middle line for the back is supposed to be.

 

After trim test fit. Still some overlap at the back of my knee, like I suspected. I positioned it so I could bend my knee freely and tried to get a close fit up and down the thigh. Plenty of room to maneuver. I am concerned about that gap at the knee. It wasn't there when gluing the inner shim down but as soon as I wrapped that thigh around, it showed itself. Me no likey.

 

 

Still more to trim at the knee.

 

Here was my proposed trim line for the back compared to the butt. I'm going to have to test fit again and try to get a more matching line.

 

Result of the same process for the right side.

 

 

I've cut a crap ton ABS off this kit so far. (Cue Leia quote ... )

[maxsteele[TK]]

Definitely take off all the return edge at the ankle side of the shins.  Otherwise, it'll cut grooves into your boots.

 

Yep, there is a ton of plastic to cut off these NE kits.  Save it all in case you need to mix up some ABS paste or make some backup cover strips.

 

I also trimmed down the return edges on my shins and thighs quite a bit.  Here's a comparison of two parts of one of my shins.  Untrimmed return edge on the left, trimmed return edge on the right.  I trimmed them all down to 5mm:

 

 

 

Here's the bottoms of the thighs - left is untrimmed, right is trimmed:

 

[Red_2[TK]]

Ten four, Ron!

 

I'll clean up the return edges too once I make sure fit is okay.

[Red_2[TK]]

Got the back of the thighs cut.

The seam at the back of the knee is weird. Large gap and they don't line up very well.

But I'll worry about that later.

 

With them on the bottom of the thigh hits about mid knee and I can't really bend my leg.

It's also pushing the thighs out ward a bit so the centerline is less centered. Noticeable in the back pics too.

Seems like it needs to raise up about an inch, maybe less. I marked below where I'll start to trim so I can match the cod line. Between the dots is where they're hitting the cod mostly.

 

On the butt, I'm still curious as to how to trim the back of the thighs.

I'll have to reference screen shots to see how best to trim them to match the butt line.

Note gap at the bottom of the thigh at the squared off portion. How to fix that?

edit: Nevermind, I just realized we trim that back portion to help the knee bend back.

 

Profiles

 

 

Gonna practice with the heating iron tonight/tomorrow.

But I'll strategize the trim lines before bed tonight.

 

- I have the cover strip curing on the front of the shins.

- Got detonator clips and canvas belt coming in the mail.

- Need to start strapping by mid week.

- Started the acetone process on the boots.

- Need to get a better foam set up for my helmet.

 

Lots to do ...

Edited October 21, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

Reference pic for top of thighs in the front:

 

Butt and thigh seam (side profile-ish):

 

More butts. Kinda varies trooper to trooper here. Also check back of knees on the right most troopers.

Trimmed away to help with mobility. That will fix my weird gap problem.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

I'm wondering if I should think about trimming the bottom of the butt to help the thighs come up.

Maybe that will help that gap between the cod and the butt. That will be partially covered by the

drop boxes but I see in some screen shots, some troopers barely have that gap.

[maxsteele[TK]]

Have you trimmed any of the butt plate?  I did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also heat-bent the tab at the bottom of the butt plate so it tucked underneath between my legs better.  I boiled a pot of water, dunked it in for 15-20 seconds, then held it in a bend until it cooled off.  Much safer than using a heat gun.

 

As for your thighs, I highly recommend to not do any cutting on the tops of the thighs until after you have the entire upper-half of your armor in place.  And by “in placeâ€, I mean the butt / ab / kidney / belt / chest / back all strapped and snapped up and fitting the way you want it.  That includes the shoulder elastics between the chest and back.

 

After that is done, then you can truly see how your thighs will interact with the cod and the butt plate.

Edited October 21, 2014 by maxsteele

[Red_2[TK]]

Did you trim from the top of the butt, Ron?

Maybe if I took about a half inch from the top where it meets the kidney.

[maxsteele[TK]]

I do not recall if I trimmed the top of the butt plate.  I can get a measurement for you on the size of it tonight.

[Red_2[TK]]

Started measuring and gluing down snap plates the past couple nights. Tonight I tried the right side ab/kidne snaps to see how they hold and it was kind of a disaster. Realization was that when fitting the armor to my body, especially the kidney and ab, the masking tape was what was holding it to shape against my body. The strapping doesn't do that so it exposed the differences in how the kidney lays and the ab plate lays and how their edges don't match up.

 

So I had to do more adjusting here and there. Super frustrating. But I think I've got it to where they sit right.

 

The strapping on the back plate looks and feels good.

 

Photobucket sucking tonight, so hopefully pics get up tomorrow.

Gluing down more snaps tonight.

 

Going to bed frustrated for now. Boo.

 

[Red_2[TK]]

I think my solution to the right side alignment will be  a wide inner shim with velcro to secure it closed. The left side lines up almost perfect, so I'll seal up that side with the split rivets and strapping.

 

Front looks good so far.

 

 

2mm overlap in this pic due to misalignment I was talking about.

 

Edited October 24, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

Some progress made ...

 

Velcro at the shoulders on the chest, and on the inside of the shoulder bells for now. Once I get the positioning right, I'll permanently glue them down. But thankfully I don't need tape anymore.

 

I'll do the left side rivets tonight, and try the thighs on again. 

 

 

 

 

No strapping brackets on the back plate cause I cut the return edge down to small by accident. Yay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

I don't know if you have put webbing around your brackets like at the crotch, but if so, i would advise you to change it for elastic. When put under stress the webbing won't stretch at all, which means all the stress will be transferred to the brackets and the ABS, leading to high risks of cracks.

 

And not having a return edge doesn't prevent you from using brackets. Have a look at the right/hand bracket on the kydney plate below for example:

[Red_2[TK]]

Oh yeah, Germain, it's all webbing except for the cod strap (Mr. No Stripes kit). There's only a 2.5 inch gap there and I will bend it forward a bit on the butt.

 

I don't mind the screws showing so It would show similar to that on the back plate. My kidney has plenty of return edge.

Actually, it would be slightly angled outwards.

 

Think I should go for it?

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

I would personally go for the brackets all the way but do whatever you prefer. In the end, if you'd like to make a test before deciding which way to go you can always stick with the snap plates and change for brackets later on.

[Red_2[TK]]

I'll take a pic of the return edge.

 

I'm undecided, but leaning towards doing it.

[Red_2[TK]]

Things left to do ...

 

- install helmet liner and chin strap

- pad forearms a little

- glue hand guards to gloves, need to be trimmed to size

- curve belt, attach and install drop boxes and holster

- trim and attach battery pack/knee ammo

- attach clips to detonator

- trim rear thighs, attach rear cover strips - 90% done

- attach thighs to waist harness

- add closure elastic and hooks to shins - 50% done

- glue knee plate

- paint boots

 

Three nights left to get to Halloween ready ... I'm taking pics but may forego posting progress till the weekend when I've got it done, due to time constraints.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Red_2

[Red_2[TK]]

Little help. the knee plate looks like it only meets up flush at the center where it touches the cover strip and along the right side.

 

It barely touches on the left. Do I just glue where it will be most secure, or is there a way to get it to sit more flush.

By the looks of some of the other NE builds it doesn't necessarily have to.

 

I'm gonna just glue the strong points and tape that ish down tight along the spikes/studs.

Edited October 29, 2014 by Red_2

[maxsteele[TK]]

My sniper plate made contact on the left edge, right edge, and the center.  I glued those sections, then clamped the hell out of it.  I used my magnets to build up a surface, then clamped the magnets together on each side.  The middle clamp was a bit easier.  That was one part of my build I didn't really document.  I took left and right shots of the sniper for my EIB cert.  I trimmed down the return edge at the top on the left side a bit more to match the return edge on the shin after this shot:

 

 

 

[Red_2[TK]]

Thanks Ron!

 

That helps. Once again my skinny-ness makes the shin thinner than the knee plate so I suspect that's why mine doesn't

fit as well. My plan is to get it on there securely and flush along the bottom edge and then trim if necessary from the top.

 

I'm just getting her sorted enough to wear around on Friday, then I can go back to the small details for approval once Halloween

is over.

[Red_2[TK]]

Happy Halloween!

 

Literally, was putting it together minutes before walking out the door.

 

Lots of stuff to obviously go back and work on, but was able to get it 92% done to walk out the door.

And it was a great test fit. 

 

- holster missing

- detonator clips didn't make it in time so I just heat bent some abs to clip it on temporarily

- need to trim the return edge a bit on the shins at the knee, some pinching there.

- knee ammo need to be shortened a bit. It hits the top of the shin.

- I think the inner tops of the thighs need to be trimmed a tad, 1/4" to 3/8" may be enough.

- need to trim return edge on the butt a bit.

- need to angle the corners on the belt. Also may need to trim a tad bit more off the top and bottom      edges.

- reinforce the knee plate.

- the boots pop out if I angle my foot too far. Was fine during normal walking but a high curb or if I flinched at a pinch it pops out. I actually made stirrups but they ended up being too loose. I'll try tightening them.

 

And on and on ... but. it felt awesome to walk around in. The neighbors loved it.

 

And they loved my mini-trooper walking with me.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dougal[501st]]

Awesome pictures!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Red_2[TK]]

Thanks Carl! Was exciting to finally get it on a walk about with it.