Please help me ! AP Armor Build

[Spycee[TK]]

Hmmm ... the left ear is tougher to place than on my first helmet :

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I tried the pieces with green tape to see how it fits.  I won't have to trim a lot, it fits relatively well.

 

The legs :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The arms :

 

 

 

The upper arm is loose but when I force it is just correct.  Is it normal to have a lot of loose in this place ?

 

  

 

 

I'll have to trim a bit here to even the 2 pieces :

 

 

 

 

And the body ! :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sly11[Admin]]

With the biceps, just make sure you can flex the muscle, it should touch the sides when arm bent or flexed. They will be a little loose when your arm is straight, you can put some foam inside if you are worried they will move around too much.

 

 

 

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[Spycee[TK]]

It's exactly like that. Hey, so no size trimming for me, yay ! I just have to shim the shins and thighs a little bit.

[Spycee[TK]]

I have a question : the ABS stripes that I got with the armor are thick !  Like 1.5mm ...  Is it too thick for that ?  It seems that it is very visible (not sure how to say that) ...

[Spycee[TK]]

Well, I glued a stripe on the right arm and it was ok 

 

But for the upper arm, does the space is too much ?  It feel a bit too loose, but on this picture it doesn't seem so bad ...

 

[Spycee[TK]]

I bought foam to put around the biceps, in case there's a gap after a little trimming.  And the foam will be used in the helmet, to see if it fits correctly.

 

I glued forearms, but the E6000 seems to not stick correctly, maybe I took too much time placing clamps and magnets and it dried a bit before ?

 

I knew I should have taken more than 1 tube of E6000 !  I'll have to hunt for another one, the store closest to me lost all their inventory somewhere in the backstore 

 

For the thighs : how much should I be able to lift the leg ?  You know, like climbing stairs ...  I can climb stairs, but the top of the thigh seems too high when the leg is bending, and correct when the leg is straight ... Not sure how to say it.  "La partie du haut me rentre dans la peau quand je lève la jambe"

 

And I'm not sure how the shins will work : my legs are BIG, and when I'll put on the shins I will be forced to open them wide, and I fear that doing that will just "break" the front, that the glue will not be enough.  I will maybe put stripes inside, like I'm currently doing for the thighs.

 

Pictures soon !  I just don't have a lot of time during the week.

[Tusken RTT]

It looks great so far!  Sorry no answers from me just watching and learning.  Excited while waiting on my kit to ship!

[Sly11[Admin]]

If you can walk up stairs in TK armour, you are doing well my friend, stairs are a challenge for many, myself included. The top of the thighs digs in to my hip area.

As to your shins, I too must open mine fairly wide, so I put extra strip on the inside front to reinforce it and have had no problems so far

 

 

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[Clamps[TK]]

e6000 you should have a few minutes of play before clamping shut. It should be allowed to cure for 24 hours.

 

 

Mine has held on my shins for 2+ years of heavy trooping and large calves, So it is strong and flexible enough.

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks for your comments 

 

@Scott : I understand very well, the waiting was killing me !

 

"The top of the thighs digs in to my hip area", that's exactly what I meant !  Well, I'm not exactly able to climb stairs "with the armor" since I hadn't all the part on me, but with the thighs on it was ... ok.  I wil have to shim larger on the top than on the bottom.  I have pretty big thighs 

 

For the E6000, I found a way to tape the parts before gluing them, it is easier.  For the first pieces it was a mess with glue everywhere and me swearing !  Now it should be faster, so the glue will not have time to dry.  And of course I let it cure 24h, don't want to redo the gluing for something that easily avoidable.  But I should have bought more good magnets to glue more parts at the same time !  The clamps I have are not long enough to go in the middle.

 

For the thermal detonator, must it be exactly the same grey than on the helmet ?  I have a grey spray that I used on another costume that is a bit darker ...  I didn't find the same grey in spray.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Spycee

[Spycee[TK]]

Helmet almost completed    Here it is with my son's helmet (mine is on the left) :

 

 

Armor building goes well, almost all snaps are glued on the body, the next thing I have to check is how to do the side shimming.

 

[Tusken RTT]

Looking good- you are getting after it! 

[Spycee[TK]]

Ok, I have a problem :  My thigh is very uneven !  The top is big enough to not let the 2 pieces to join, but the bottom has a big overlap.  I took a picture of 2 options that I can see :

 

With the "diagonal" stripe following the ridge :

 

Or with the straight vertical stripe (the bottom right part would be cut to follow the stripe) :

 

 

First option can look weird, if all the other stripes are completely vertical.  And the second option is weird with the stripe not following the ridge.  I prefer the first option.

 

There is a third option, where I completely cut the ridge and use a shim under, but I don't like this idea, the shim will surely be too visible.

 

Any idea ?

[fuumantroop[TK]]

At this point, i am thinking the ridge needs to completely go. Then shim the rest of the thigh and straighten it out. What you can do after you get that done, is perhaps place some thinner ABS over your shim(make sure its the same size as your other ridge), glue that on top, and use some ABS paste to fill the gaps on the sides. That way you can basically remake your ridge from scratch.

 

Without buying a brand new set of thighs, its going to be a process to get yours straightened out. BUT it CAN be done!

[Sly11[Admin]]

As a suggestion, perhaps don't trim quite as much off the bottom, make the tapper of the thigh more gradual rather than so steep as it is in your picture.

Then reassess, take another shot and post it up as you have done here.

I think it won't look as bad.

Is the top tight against your thigh or is there movement?

 

 

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[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Don't be afraid to remove these back ridges if needed, on the original armors there was none. The only reason why there are some on the AP kit is because it's based on a ROTJ armor which is assembled by overlapping instead of using cover stripes.

Edited October 28, 2014 by The5thHorseman

[Sly11[Admin]]

For the record, I took all the ridge off one half and most off the other.

 

 

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[Spycee[TK]]

I'm not sure I want to remove the ridge, I kind of like it :-) It gives a nice "3D" effect. But I think the problem was resolved easily : the bottom part of the thigh was too tight for me (a lot too tight in fact, when I used the thigh muscles I had a bit of trouble trying to walk !), so I just opened it larger at the bottom, with almost no overlap. And since it is larger like in the top part it fits a lot better when joining the 2 parts. I'll post pictures of the result tonight. I have pretty big thighs :-(

Edited October 29, 2014 by Spycee

[Sly11[Admin]]

I thought that may have been the case, based on your photo.

Looking forward to seeing the new shot.

 

 

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[Spycee[TK]]

Hmmm ...  My tube stripes are too low ...  See on the top of the page (8 messages above here).  On my first helmet I think I put them too high, but on the second I think I put them too low, I just realized that.  Well, I'ill buy another set of sticker someday, or maybe try to paint them.  For the moment I'll concentrate on finishing the armor.

[Spycee[TK]]

Here is a picture of the thigh :

 

 

[Tusken RTT]

Looks great- good save! 

[Tolo[TK]]

C'est bon comme ça!

 

 

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[Spycee[TK]]

My first pics where I look vaguely like a stormtrooper ...  I was about to write "guys you can't possibly know how I feel right now", but hey, I'm sure you all understand that feeling very well 

 

The right shoulder (on the picture) is done, the other is just snapped to the chest.

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, my mirror is dirty, I saw it too late 

Edited October 30, 2014 by Spycee

[Sly11[Admin]]

That thigh is looking much, much better I did think it looked too tight at the bottom.

 

 

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