Kredal's ANH Hero build [AM2]

[ukswrath[Staff]]

SWEET! Congrats Josh

[Kredal[TK]]

Here's a picture from the shoot that the photographer may have manipulated a tiny little bit.

 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

haha awesome, EVIL kitty 

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

What a speedy build! Congratulations and your GML is super fast! 

[Kredal[TK]]

Fitment changes to make it better:

 

Internal chest-ab strap.  Here it is unstretched, and you can see where I put the snaps on.

 

 

And attached, pulling the chest down significantly (really, applying pressure against the other strap inside.  I wonder how far down it would go if I took off that strap? Hmm...)

 

 

And here it is being worn.  Full range of motion without exposing my midsection, unless I reach up to the sky, and even then, it's just a tiny little bit.

 

 

I also SIGNIFICANTLY shortened the strap between forearm and bicep.  I noticed on almost every picture, this strap was loose and it did nothing to hold my forearm up when my hands were down.

 

Before and after.  (I just added another snap to the strap, so it's movable, just in case)

 

The black marks on my right arm are from the tail end of the blaster.  Need to give the end cap a good layer of clearcoat.

 

Another thing I need to fix, once I figure out how... The neckseal bib keeps riding up and getting trapped between my neck and the shoulder straps.  I may need to add velcro or snaps to the bottom of the neckseal bib and my duty belt that holds up my thighs.  That would keep the belt up, and the bib down, hopefully.  Thoughts?

 

I also took my first completely-suited-up test of the iComm and Aker box with my throat mic.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An11Lv1D33M

 

I really can't tell how much audio is coming from the Aker other than the clicks.  Need someone else here to help.  (:

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Great job Josh. Armor is looking awesome 

[Kredal[TK]]

Thanks!  Couldn't have done it without your help!

[Chills[TK]]

The armor really does look fantastic. Nice work, Josh.

 

You should get your TK number in no time.

[Kredal[TK]]

TK 44678 reporting for duty!  (:  Thanks again for all your help, everyone!  

 

http://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=19211&costumeID=125

 

Now I just have to figure out how to get pictures there...

 

I've request 501st access here, as soon as that's granted, I'll be submitting my Expert Infantry pictures.

[rhapsodyred99[TK]]

We get the pictures there Josh!

 

Once they go to me the GML, and I approve you, they then go to the GWL (Garrison Web Liaison) who uploads them, and then the Main Page Web Liason adds them to your profile.

 

That can take some time though so don't worry!

 

Congrats again .

[rhapsodyred99[TK]]

double post...

Edited July 27, 2015 by rhapsodyred99

[Chills[TK]]

Welcome to the 501st, Josh!

[Kredal[TK]]

OK, so I heard back from Gazmosis on my EIB application.  The biggest take-away for me was to not measure elastic pre-stretched when you're going to put it in a place that stretches.  I hit that problem on my shoulders, on my bicep-forearm, and on my side straps.  I've fixed the first two, but I need to fix the last one before I get the spiffy blue badge.

 

Second is filling in the extra teeth on the bucket to get it to look like a hero helmet.  Before I go messing with it, I'm going to test on scrap pieces.  I'll take a decent sized piece of leftover ABS, heat up a section with my heat gun, and stab it with a metal rod to deform it in a tooth-like shape, then let it cool.  I'll make a few of these teeth, then try to fill some of them in with ABS paste, and remold some of them with a sealing iron.  Once I figure out which method is better, and causes less damage to the surrounding plastic, I'll do that to the outer teeth on the helmet.  Pictures will be taken!

 

There are a couple other details about the shape of my butt and back plates, and extra return edges on my calves (that hide my giant legs, so not sure about those)... but the butt and back plates are very fixable.  I followed the lines on the AM2 armor, and didn't cut them down at all.  So now I'll do that.  (:

[Kredal[TK]]

Minor pictureless update:  I've gone ahead and made the extra strap from ab to chest out of non-stretchable strapping to ensure it stays in place.  I cut off the corners of the butt and the back.  I also replaced the two really short elastic straps for the right side closure with slightly longer non-elastic straps, so it's not a battle to get them in place like it is now.  If I'm feeling really froggy at some point, I'll redo the rivets on the left side, and replace those elastic straps with non-elastic too.

 

Also, and this is a Hero thing only, the bib on my neckseal has been tailored by my lovely wife so it lays flat across my shoulders, and won't bunch up between my neck and shoulder straps anymore, hopefully.

 

My first troop is tomorrow at a blood drive!  I'm really looking forward to it, and my armor is crated up until then!

 

After tomorrow, I may take another look at my shins, and see if I can bring them down in size a little bit, at least around the ankles.  We'll see about that.  (:

 

Also made practice teeth on a scrap piece of ABS... need to get some acetone and try making some ABS paste and see if I can fill in the teeth well.

[Chills[TK]]

Sounds like you're on your way to EIB, Josh. 

 

When it comes to the ABS paste, getting the right consistency is tricky. I shimmed my thighs and experimented with different thickness of paste. I found the thicker it was the quicker it dried and hardened... like in seconds. Having it thinned out, like a yogurt, made it easier... vs like mayonnaise. 

 

I also suggest using a paintbrush to apply it. I tried different tools, and paintbrushes worked great. Plus, easy to clean with acetone.

 

Good luck, and have fun trooping tomorrow!

[Kredal[TK]]

Bet you can't tell which one is me!  (:

 

 

Hint: I'm the one with the small Hero frown.  It's a really small detail, but I bet you can pick it out of a lineup.  (:

Edited August 2, 2015 by Kredal

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Bet you can't tell which one is me!  (:

 

 

Hint: I'm the one with the small Hero frown.  It's a really small detail, but I bet you can pick it out of a lineup.  (:

 

Bet you're right,  lol

[Kredal[TK]]

Try that again.  Whoops.  (:

[Kredal[TK]]

OK, so Gazmosis knows what he's talking about.  (gasp!)

 

I took off the return edges of my calves, ripped off the cover strip in the back, and had my wife help me out with giving them a new shape.  Wow, look at how much they overlapped!  I'm a little bit shocked that I failed THAT HARD at making them the right shape!

 

 

So I'll split the difference there, recut and reglue the cover strip, and put new velcro on.  The other leg isn't quite as bad, but still... (:

 

I need to reshape my forearm pieces too.  The front ends of them felt really big and wobbly. 

[Kredal[TK]]

The build thread continues!  I cut down the shins to size, and reglued the cover strips.

 

 

I also noticed that I still had the cover strip going up the top ledge on the backs of the shins, which is a no-no.  So I cut that off while I was at it.

 

 

Then I attacked the forearm pieces.  Pulled apart one side, took off the cover and inside strips on that side, and cut down the inner forearm to where I can get my hand through, and back out, but just barely. Now it's not just a straight tube, it has some forearm shape to it.

 

 

(which this picture doesn't show at all. Oops.)

 

Before yesterday, I hadn't worn the full suit of armor for more than like 15 minutes at a time.  It's amazing what you discover when you're walking around with it for 3 hours instead!  (:  There was really a lot more tailoring I needed to do to get it to fit me perfectly.  The shins and forearms were the worst offenders, so I'm taking care of them first.  I also need to re-attach my plastic shoulder straps so they're back a rung, and angled out about 10 degrees more than they are now.  They don't lay flat on my back, and there's not enough back there to hold down with the small elastic bands.

 

After I get acetone from the store, I'll try filling in my fake teeth, and if that's successful, I'll move on to filling in the REAL teeth on my helmet.

[Chills[TK]]

Looks like some good progress on those parts. You'll have your EIB in no time.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Great job Josh, I know it stinks to have to do over but like you said it will be correct and trust me, you'll love how it fits. 

[Kredal[TK]]

Teeth: So I bought a standard Stunt helmet like 99.9% of troopers out there... but wanted to be different, and go Hero.  The frown was painted right, only the middle 6 teeth were cut out, and that was good enough for 501st acceptance.

 

However, for Centurion at least, I need to make it look more like a Hero helmet, which means getting rid of those outside teeth.  To that end, I made up a batch of ABS paste, and stirred it every once in a while today as it congealed, and added more acetone if it congealed too much.  I ended up with something about the consistency of greek yogurt.  Yum!

 

I used my trusty heat gun, with a 5mm tip, to push out the teeth as much as I could, without melting right through them.  The plastic there is really thin, so I had to be careful.  Once they were out, I used a very small paintbrush to add some ABS paste to the outside.  This is what one side looks like for now.  I'm not going to touch it until tomorrow evening at the earliest.  At that point, I'll add another layer of ABS paste, and then leave it alone again until Wednesday, when I should be able to sand it back down to smooth.

 

 

After I sand it down, I'm pretty sure I'll have to repaint the ends of the frown.  No biggy.  (:

 

Oh, so my fake teeth?  I used ABS paste to fill in two of them, tried my hand at using a sealing iron for two more, and pushed out the last two with a heat gun and bent stick of ABS.  The last option worked the best, so that became my primary method of doing the thing.  The sealing iron was going to be way too big to fit where it needed to for the teeth, and the ABS paste wouldn't fill in the hole all the way without like 7 days worth of layers, since they were too deep.  On another note, don't use a heat gun on un-dried ABS paste.  It evaporates the acetone out of mixture violently, and causes HUGE amounts of bubbling on the surface.  It looks cool, but not something to do with armor you care about.  (:

[ukswrath[Staff]]

[Chills[TK]]

Cool, dude. Looks like you have the technique that works for you. ABS paste isn't fun, lots of layers and sanding and layers and sanding. I think I did 7 layers before I was happy with my thighs.

 

But it'll look great in the end.