Ukswrath's FOTK build thread

[eco[501st]]

Great build.<br>

Im watchin very carefully for when i get mine.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Thanks Paul 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Assembly cont..

 

Ab & Kidney cont...

 

Made some final touches the the connection areas and reinforcements prior to complete sanding.

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

Trim and sand lower reinforcement tabs

 

 

EDIT 10/8/15: Ab & Kidney cont....

 

Ab Boxes

 

Match up boxes to ab plate location

 

 

 

Now for the shaping. These are in random order but you'll understand what the object is here.

 

 

 

Finished sanding

 

 

 

 

Mounting the boxes to the ab

 

There's bee several options illustrating how to do this. According to the CRL the boxes are to have a seem not seemless as originally thought. I'll be temporarily mounting nylon machine screws and nylon nuts to the boxes with E6000 until a later date when I'll permanently affix them with Devcon Plastic welder.

 

The Screws are 2" long and can easily be trimmed after installed hence the reason I went with nylon. 

 

First I flattened the oval shaped screw heads.  

 

before...

 

 

after

 

 

 

Afterwards I glued the screws to the inside of the boxes. The large box was the only one to receive two screws for obvious reasons.

 

 

 

 

Let dry for a few days.

 

After the filler & primer is completed the boxes will have a final test fit before painting. After painting, the screws mounted with E6000 will be removed and Devcon Plastic welder applied for the final mounting. I wanted to wait until after the paint job to ensure everything is still positioned correctly. Surely you don't have to do it in this order if you don't want to.

Edited October 26, 2015 by ukswrath

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Assembly cont...

 

Yoke reinforcement cont...

 

After

 

 

 

I'll be trimming the reinforced area a bit more prior to painting.

Edited September 2, 2015 by ukswrath

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Assembly cont..

 

Spats

 

 

 

Starting with the basic assembly.

 

Using Devcon Plastic welder glue rear connecting cover to main body and let dry.

 

 

 

At this point there's two ways you can go from here. Either install velcro between the rear cover and body (similar to calves) which from what I've been reading is very unpredictable and unreliable. Another option is to install snaps as Clint did in his build. From what I've heard so far this option is very reliable.

 

Monte let's go with door #2.

 

BTW this is optional, NOT mandatory or even suggested by ANOVOS. You can skip the rest of this section or continue to follow along.

 

1) Start with positioning a female snap on the body section where you will want the buckle greeblie to sit. I personally positioned my snap 1/16"-1/8" from forward bevel and marked center location of snap on forward section and prepare to drill a hole for the snap.

 

 

 

Dead center of the snap was about 10mm

 

 

The OD (outer diameter) of the snap was about 9mm.

 

 

The largest drill bit I had was 3/8". Drill the hole then dremel the remainder.

 

 

 

Trim as needed then check snap fit

 

 

Now for the buckles and males snaps. Locate and mark location where male snap will be positioned. These are not side specific btw.

 

 

 

Center male snap and and draw a outline.

 

 

 

Using a dremel and circular bit slightly hollow out the buckle about the depth of the snap base. Once you bondo this section it will give the snap a nice clean fit appearing as if the buckle was made that way.

 

 

 

Once cut check snap depth

 

 

 

Set this aside for now and let's talk about a couple issues with this spat design. For starters the rear cover does not mate well with the body due to a manufacturing issue which is most likely the #1 cause for the connection location having issues as seen in the movie clips. 

 

As you can see here the two sections do not sit together naturally.

 

 

 

To resolve this particular issue is simple, give them a hot water bath. 

 

Afterwards it takes very little effort to hold the two sections together as seen here.

 

 

1st concern solved.

 

The other concern, a mfg issue IMO, is the rear cover upper and lower edges are not aligned with the spat body upper and lower edges. 

 

 

 

The only way I found to resolve this issue was to trim the rear cover to match the body. I spent about 30 minutes trying to come up with a way to secure the two sections so they wouldn't move during the trimming, that didn't work. As seen with some other areas I encountered I resorted to doing the impractical. Using E6000 I glued the two sections together.

 

After the trimming is complete I'll separate the two. This is the first time I used E6000 only to assemble an area to only tear apart on purpose later. 

 

I started with assembling the spats and buckles ensuring when complete the buckle and snap would be in the same location after trimming.

 

 

 

I then marked the inside location. Remove the clamp and greeblie and applied small amounts of E6000 then reapply clamp and let dry.

 

 

 

 

Dried and ready to trim.

 

 

 

Using the belt sander trim the two section even.

 

After

 

 

 

Ready to separate. 

 

 

 

To be continued...

Edited October 26, 2015 by ukswrath

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Assembly cont... taking a short break from the spat assembly I went back on the waist belt boxes

 

Waist belt boxes cont... (Standard belt assembly method)

 

After the glue has dried prep the two center most boxes for filler and primer.

 

The other (outer) boxes will be used for storage and will be assembled differently. If you are not using the other boxes as storage, continue to glue them together and prep for sanding and paint. Note: I'll elaborate on the storage box assmebly a bit later.

 

Center boxes before...

 

 

 

After...

 

 

 

to be continued...

Edited December 31, 2015 by ukswrath

[Drummerben]

great post and really nice work!
newbie here, starting to feel very overwhelmed by the process
still deciding who to get my kit from but this will help once I get it.
thank you!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

great post and really nice work!

newbie here, starting to feel very overwhelmed by the process

still deciding who to get my kit from but this will help once I get it.

thank you!

 

 

[SolderMaster]

......wow.......drool.....magnets.....more drool.....measuring......more magnets.......drool....<br><br>

AWESOME BUILD THREAD!!!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

......wow.......drool.....magnets.....more drool.....measuring......more magnets.......drool....<br><br>

AWESOME BUILD THREAD!!!

 

And now you know why I've been so skeptical and critical haha 

[SolderMaster]

And now you know why I've been so skeptical and critical haha

Yup. Understood. Now come over here and help me finish mine! ;-)

[ukswrath[Staff]]

 haha that's awesome. I should show you a picture of the hair in my shower. I'm going bald over a costume haha

[ukswrath[Staff]]

The helmet arrived last week (undamaged) and has graced its TK & TD brothers with its presence.

 

[camprandall]

Awesome Tony!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

I guess I should post some of my progress. I'll see if I can get some stuff up tonight.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

So before we can move forward we need to deal with the flat greeblie issue.

 

Greeblie

 

By now you've discovered the greeblies (resin buckles) are flat yet the armor they are mounted to is curved. To solve this issue you'll need to CAREFULLY soften the greeblie so that it can be formed to the contour of the armor.

 

To heat it you can give it a hot water bath previously discussed, or with a heat gun. In this section I will discuss use the heat gun technique.

 

I'm going to start with the spats because that's where we left off. As mentioned before my spats are being converted to incorporate snaps instead velcro. Either mounting option you choose to use you will still need to heat and shape the buckle.

 

So here we have a nice flat buckle and the curved spat it will need to be mounted to. Do you see the problem here? lol 

 

Spat Greeblie

 

 

 

In this tutorial I will use mixing bowls to shape the buckles.

 

For the spat buckle I'll be using a 5-1/4" mixing bowl. 

 

1) Start by putting on some gloves. Heat resistant is better but leather would be best, I'll be using my cut resistant gloves because they work perfect for me.

 

2) Place the resin buckle on heat resistant material smooth side up. 

 

3) Evenly heat with gun for 20-30 seconds or until you start the plastic slightly discolor.

 

 

 

4) Place heater buckle onto bowl for 15-20 seconds. I rotated it around the bold finding a cooler spot as to cool the resin quicker.

 

 

 

5) Check fit

 

 

 

Shin Greeblie

 

For the Shins I used a 7-3/4" bowl.

 

Before

 

 

 

After

 

 

 

Thigh Greeblies

 

I used a 9-1/2" bowl.

 

After

 

 

 

Finished

Edited October 26, 2015 by ukswrath

[SolderMaster]

You're hired! Now get ur butt over here and get to work! ;-)<br><br>

Great job!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Spats Cont...

 

Now that the greeblies are shaped let's cont with the spats.

 

In this section I will glue the buckle female and male snaps.

 

Starting with the female snaps. We first need to make a pocket for the snap and glue to sit in. Something that will also sit relatively flush.

 

I started with some scrap, using a heat gun and a 3/8" round object (Exacto handle end, not the best choice) I softened up a small section then using the handle indented the area.

 

 

 

After the plastic has cooled cute the section out, approximately 1" square.

 

 

 

Now heat the surrounding edges of your new pocket section, place it over the female snap hole to shape it.

 

It should look like this afterwards.

 

 

 

Notice how close the pocket is to the snap. You'll want this relatively snug.

 

 

 

Remove the pocket and secure snap.

 

 

 

Ready to glue.

 

Using Devcon Plastic welder Fill in pocket and outer edges.

 

 

Place over snap and clamp.

 

 

 

You want a bit of the glue to protrude through snap mounting hole. This will assist the glue in keeping the snap secure. After its dried you can dremel or cut some of the excess back.

 

 

Remove clamps

 

 

 

Now glue the male snaps to the resin buckles.

 

 

 

After drying (45min-1hr) check buckle operation,

 

 

 

Final note. FYI the greeblies are NOT glued to the rear spat section and yet they are holding the two sections together with ease with the snap tension alone.

 

The greeblies will be glued to the rear section after painting to give the area the look the buckle is separate form the painted spat. Similar to that of a door handle on a car.

Edited October 26, 2015 by ukswrath

[ukswrath[Staff]]

You're hired! Now get ur butt over here and get to work! ;-)<br><br>

Great job!

 

Wisconsin, be right there 

[Barcoder[TK]]

Nice work on those spats! I am loving the snaps on mine. Haven't had any issues so far. (Though I am still gentle when unsnapping them.)

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Nice work on those spats! I am loving the snaps on mine. Haven't had any issues so far. (Though I am still gentle when unsnapping them.)

 

Thanks Peter 

[eco[501st]]

Wot make of filler r u using to rid the joints?<br>

Obviously itll need to b flexible to prevent crackin.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

The first layer of fill I'm actually using the Devcon mark 5 glue because it bonds to the plastic, is just as tough, flexible and make for a great filler. The final layer will be with the Poly-flex listed under the paint section on page 1.

Edited September 17, 2015 by ukswrath

[eco[501st]]

Thanx for that.<br>

If in doubt, ask people who know wot theyre doin.<br>

Thats my moto.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Thanx for that.<br>

If in doubt, ask people who know wot theyre doin.<br>

Thats my moto.

 

In deed!

 

I'm about at the point where I'll be posting about the filler portion. This will be mentioned in detail.

 

At this moment I've been a bit sidetracked with to the new accuracy information. 

Edited September 17, 2015 by ukswrath