WhiteHammer's RT-Mod ESB TK (WIP)

[WhiteHammer]

The opening of the brown box is a symbol for the adventure to come. It represents arriving at basic training where citizens to the empire become elite soldiers. 

 

[WhiteHammer]

The rainy weekend proved to allow for much gluing and clamping

Edited March 16, 2015 by WhiteHammer

[Raintrooper]

NICE!!!  Looks like you're haulin' a$$ on this build already! 

Edited March 16, 2015 by RainTrooper

[Tolo[TK]]

Keep it up

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Tower Trooper! Tower Trooper!!!

 

I'll be following along. Don't hesitate to ask any questions you come up with. That kit is quite builder friendly!!

[WhiteHammer]

My torso and kidney plates don't have much of a lip around the inside. Throughout the forums, the attachment of these two pieces appear to be mostly by snaps or the metal "U" brackets (I believe the original construction technique in the movie and looks more like a squared u or this |_|  ). Based on the CRL for ESB, I think I am going to end up at Centurion. Although, I cannot be sure until I am farther along. I have seen excepted Centurion builds with both snaps and U-brackets for the inside attachments, but nothing yet with velcro. (possible I haven't reviewed enough requests) Can I use velcro as shown in this photo?  My plan is to use velcro and elastic (where appropriate) and minimize the use of snaps. I am planning on the requisite split rivets and snaps as listed for Level 3 certification on the ESB CRL. Would this be an acceptable approach?

 

 

 

 

and are these pictures too big should I re-size to a smaller resolution?

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Mike,

 

Good question.  Neither EIB or Centurion look at your interior strapping as a determinant for eligibility, even though pictures of the strapping are required.  The items you mentioned, the split-rivets, etc have to be there for approval.

 

Velcro isn't usually seen because it is not very fail-safe while trooping.

[WhiteHammer]

Thanks Dark CMF, I suspected that velcro might not cut it in the heat of battle. I have been lurking on BIDs ANH Hero Build and like the snap plates he made, just as you have. That might suit some of the more stressed attachment locations. Like the torso/ kidney side attachment. I like your reinforcement approach.  I may do that if I have enough extra ABS strips. 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

I have some of my strapping (basically my bicep to forearms, and actually my shoulders) that don't have the snaps installed (yet) and the velcro is starting to become unreliable, so I'd advise that approach.  

[WhiteHammer]

So as the glued limbs dry, I started in on the torso. I drilled three holes in the torso and kidney plate, 10 mm from the edge and evenly spaced. Installed 8 mm split rivets. 

 

I am also going to use this 4 in. wide elastic to join the two halves. Then I placed a finishing strip to add support and hopefully some durability. But only time will tell. It seems like it might be a little weak to me. and with my immense girth putting a bit of dynamic loading to the joint, it just might not hold up in combat. I have yet to see this approach in the forums, how do you all think this might fair over a bit of use. 

 

I have also been researching snap attachment methods, I am trying a strip snap plate (shown below on the right) and a canvas snap plate (shown on the right). I plan on "stressing" each to see which one preforms better. I am going to guess the canvas snap is going to be the winner. I explored the velcro and snap style of snap plate and think this will be more trouble than the added attachment that comes with the velcro. We will see when the armor is battle tested. Perhaps there is a snap plate czar on the forums? 

Edited March 19, 2015 by WhiteHammer

[Tusken RTT]

Be sure to check out the reference pics;  The rivets need to be evenly spaced, yes, but after the notch is cut I believe.  They may need to be moved up.  

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Scott is correct.  

 

You'd be best to address the kidney plate notch before emplacing the rivets.  

 

EDIT:  I do like the idea of the 4 inch elastic though.    

[WhiteHammer]

DOH! was not even aware of the kidney plate cut outs. I see them now on Dark CMF Centurion thread. 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

That's not a difficult fix, but it will potentially slow you down just a bit.

 

No need for any degree of panic just yet.     I know that you said that you want to earn Centurion, so we'll help you to get there.

 

Can you take a picture of the Ab/Kidney left sides, next to each other?  That will help us to see what you've done so far, and what needs to be done to keep you on track.

[WhiteHammer]

Oh this is so great. I really appreciate the help. It seems like an easy fix. I will grab some more pics tonight with progress thus far. 

 

Is there a picture by picture CRL? I see on the legion website the CRL images only shows the whole piece of armor and not pictures of the little details. For example the Level 3 cert. lists items that should included in the armor but a little picture showing what each of the list items should ideally look like appears to be missing. I have to hunt the meaning of the list item through the forums. Not a big deal, but does take a little extra effort. Is there something like this in the forums i am missing? I think it sure would be helpful to me, being more of a visual person. 

Edited March 19, 2015 by WhiteHammer

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Not a problem, but if you don't have any clear acetone in the house, you will likely need that to get this fixed.  

 

We're going to break you in a little rough, I guess.  LoL  

[WhiteHammer]

I'm a solider, I can be handled rough...

 

It's hard not to leave work early and fix this right now! 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

You probably shouldn't have told me that.  LoL.  

I'm a pro when it comes to roughing up Soldiers.  

[WhiteHammer]

What is your MOS? mine was 11B2V, a long, long time ago

[WhiteHammer]

So I made the kidney plate cut outs 22mm square. I marked out the new location for the rivets. As you can see the upper two locations move very little. The lower location needs to be moved, but are the upper two hand grenade close? I will start researching ABS paste / aka Patchy McFixit. My concern is the stability of a rivet right on top of a patched zone. 

[WhiteHammer]

kidney and ab plate together 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

So I made the kidney plate cut outs 22mm square. I marked out the new location for the rivets. As you can see the upper two locations move very little. The lower location needs to be moved, but are the upper two hand grenade close? I will start researching ABS paste / aka Patchy McFixit. My concern is the stability of a rivet right on top of a patched zone. 

I actually don't know that you'll need to move the bottom one, looking at this picture, but I'd recommend that you do.  

 

I would move it down however, not up. 

The CRL says that the rivets should be "evenly spaced."  So what you want to do is measure from the top of the kidney plate to the top of the notch to find the center hole location.  Beyond that, the other two should be evenly spread out.  So come down about 10MM to a 1/2" or so from the top, and the same measurement up from the notch.

 

As for the rivet being right above the repair...  Not an issue.  It will be as strong as "new" ABS.  What will be a potential issue for you is that you're going to have to potentially sand and polish those spots to match the finish.  What I'd recommend is to use painters tape to cover the "outsides" of the holes, and fill it from inside the armor, so that you have a smoother, cleaner finish on the outside, and any sanding/smoothing that needs to be done will be on the inside where nobody will see it except for you.

 

If you look at the notch/rivet area on my Centurion thread, you'll see that they're evenly spaced as I described, and you MIGHT be able to find the "repair" spots in my armor from the old rivet holes.  I can find them because I know exactly where they are.  LoL

 

Anyway, I'm now a 15P, Aviation Operations NCO.  I spent my "working" career as a 15Q - Air Traffic Controller, but was promoted out of the MOS a few years back now.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Also, I just saw your second picture.  You're going to want to line those up at the tops, to match the rivet hole locations, because that is how it will be worn.  

Unfortunately, you're going to have to become quite comfortable with ABS paste early on in your Stormtrooper career, but on the bright side, you're going to become quite comfortable with ABS paste early on in your Stormtrooper career.  

It sounds much scarier than it is, and it is a tremendous "tool" to have in your pocket when working with the armor. 

For your youtube searches, look up both ABS paste, and ABS slurry.  That will probably help you to find a good video to use.  I updated my build thread with those pictures already, so you can have a look at the mess that I was dealing with just a few weeks ago myself for inspiration as I had never used it prior to then either.

[Tusken RTT]

Yea the pic showing the ab and kidney together is not bad!  Tim is giving you some great advice on the ABS paste, will be a snap to fill the holes if you indeed make the adjustment.  Here is the famous pic of the kidney notch and the rivets from the photo references which shows the hole placement really well, being a little more to the top.  

 

[WhiteHammer]

Thanks Tusken RTT, it almost looks as though the "evenly spaced" rivets are based on where the belt sits. Appears to me from the photo you posted that the distance from the top rivet to the edge of the armor is roughly the same distance from the bottom rivet to the top of where the belt would be. 

 

 

Thanks Dark CMF for the ABS paste guidance. and a belated congrats on your promotion.