Trogdor's first build (mtk)

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Totally forgot about Echo's, yea those will work fine, heck I could have sold you some as I Baugh a box of 100 on sale

[Trogdor[TK]]

Tony, you do everything: build, electronics, and deployment officer. now I know you also stockpile of rivets.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Tony, you do everything: build, electronics, and deployment officer. now I know you also stockpile of rivets.

 

haha, yea well my mother told me if getting a bargain on something means buying more than one than do it. I literally have enough rivets, snaps every other fastener to build 10 TKs. Ridiculous I know

[toybiz[TK]]

Hahahaha! Tony is our garrison's local go to supplier!

[Trogdor[TK]]

Sorry for the lack of updates. Some to come this weekend. I made some good progress on the belt and some sort of progress on the knee plate. I will have to redo the thighs as the apoxie sculpt doesn't behave as I expected. Thanks again to those following, commenting and sharing info.

[Sabyre]

  Looking forward to the updates.

[Trogdor[TK]]

Belt rivet covers on still have to sew the Velcro.

 

Gluing cover strips. This has to be my least favorite part. Only a couple more to go.

Interior strapping on the body is done. Not pretty but it seems to work.

I didn't upload the pictures of the thighs torn apart and Apoxie sculpt sanded off. It's amazing how it sticks not on the seam and when you decide your taking it off. Dusty mess sanding..

Getting closer I'll start a checklist after the blasted thighs are back together.

 

Why is is the posts from the iPad get all jacked up?

Edited November 16, 2015 by Trogdor

[Darth Havoc[TK]]

Looks great. You are almost there.

[Trogdor[TK]]

Had a good idea to make the "keeper" elastic on the shoulder straps. Simple just make a correct sized loop of elastic (overlapping the shoulder elastic) and sew on to the strap joining the 2 ends.

 

I also had my wife mark the shoulder bell elastics so I can sew on the snaps. So I asked her to grab a couple of photos with the belt on for good measure.

Front

 

Right Arm up

 

 

Back

 

Left Arm up

 

What do you think?  Remember I am building for the higher levels so better to get the issues worked out early.

 

I did notice I need to fix the velcro on the belt so the end is more secured, however my wife pointed out the thermal detonator will do that too.  Thats how you know the process has gone on to long when your wife is giving armor advice...

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Looking good Joe   

[Trogdor[TK]]

Ok so the release of battlefront has slowed the progress a bit. I will get back on it this weekend though. I have the rivets from echo in so no more excuses.<br><br>

Thanks for the feedback Tony.

[toybiz[TK]]

Hi Joe,

 

Looking great. Once the shoulder bridge to shoulder bell straps are connected, the armor will fit slightly differently. The only recommendation I have at this point and looking at the pictures is that you could gain a little bit of comfort around the front of your neck if you lengthen the top chest/back strap slightly and tighten the front AB to Chest white straps slightly

 

This should bring the chest down slightly so to give you neck a little more breathing room and your chest then shouldn't rise over the top of the AB when raising your arms or leaning backwards. 

 

Keep up the work and you'll be there soon!

[Trogdor[TK]]

Adam, Thank you for the tip. I'll pin the shoulder bell elastics to the shoulder bridge elastic and see what happens. I'll move the snap plate as I am not sure I want to remake the elastics until I get all the pieces together. <br><br>

Your awesome eib photos and your build thread have been a huge help.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Hey Joe, I have a concern regarding your waist belt, though it's not mentioned in any CRL the fact that it bunches up near the edge of the ammo belt may be of concern at Centurion. At L3 we want you to look your best and the belt bunching up like that may effect how it looks overall. May I suggest either sewing another layer of heavy fabric to the back side or as some have done insert a plastic strip between the layers of fabric giving the belt some rigidity. 

 

Keep up the good work 

[Trogdor[TK]]

Good catch I missed that but now can't unsee it. Looking at it the drop box elastics seem to be causing it between the snaps and the rivets. I'll see what I can do. Worst case I'll have to pull the rivet covers and drill out the rivets.<br><br>

On another note I did get the cracked Apoxie sculpt removed and re-cut and glued the shim. Looks like abs paste will wait till next week (Tuesday) to make sure the e6000 is good and dry. Plenty of time to rework the belt.

[Trogdor[TK]]

Not much to update yet. Did some work on the arm strapping following Tony's recent TK build modifying it slightly with a snap on one side of each elastic for more portability.<br><br>

Also I decided to take Adam's advice and drop the chest plate down some. I didn't want to remake the elastics so I popped off the snap plates and moved them to give me the extra room with out wasting materials (except e6000).<br><br>

Belt is going to wait a bit after all. Seems the cause of the issue is I made the elastic too short trying to keep the top edge of the drop box in contact with the plastic belt plate. So the fix is separate the inner and out boxes drill out the rivet with the same 1/8 bit I used to drill the holes. Re-cut elastic and re-assemble.<br><br>

Given my style I will probably rebuild a belt with plastic internal reinforcement but I am not putting off the hard work any more... Abs paste on the thighs up next as the glue should be dry.

[Darth Havoc[TK]]

You can always Velcro the drop boxes to the belt. It may save you a lot of headaches. I originally had mine riveted on and a lady tore one off during a photo. (Don't ask).

[Trogdor[TK]]

You can always Velcro the drop boxes to the belt. It may save you a lot of headaches. I originally had mine riveted on and a lady tore one off during a photo. (Don't ask).

Thank you for the tip.  I had already started working on the fix when I say this though.  If mine suffer a similar fate I will go to velcro.  You have basically said enough, she was testing the limits of the elastic.

[Trogdor[TK]]

To all those considering using apoxie sculpt on armor seams, DONT.  It cracks and will eventually fall out of the seam.  It does hold fast to the surface of armor though so you will have to sand a lot to remove it.

 

Second thigh has been sanded clean and rebuilt glue is drying.

I started test fitting the elastics for that arms and discovered I should not have moved the shoulder snap plates as I did previously. The problem wasn't that the elastic was too short but that the chest to ab elastic was too long (doing nothing).  So I remade the elastics for the ab to chest and then, when the arms are snapped in, the shoulder elastic gets pulled out the sides as they are not under tension.  So I moved the snap plates back, the photos below are before moving them back.  Thank goodness for e6000!

 

Any advice on ABS paste? For some reason this batch seems to for lots of tiny bubbles when drying (not during application though as I kind of paint it on).  I have sanded them out as best I could and hope the paint will hide them as they feel smooth to the touch.

 

On to the photos, all feedback will be taken constructively...

 

Some photos:

Turns out there is some truth to metal + e6000 + abs = heat

This is what it looked like removing a snap plate from the back, you can see I used tape. Line at the top is pencil so I could measure how much to move the snap.  It also helped put it back where is was. 

 

The results of the belt fix, please forgive the photo quality

 

My 3rd attempt at the knee plate

 

Shin back with velcro and the correct size cover strip, Thank you Germain.

 

I really did use the abs paste

 

Armor pile picture, but it shows that arm strapping

 

Updated test fitting shots

Edited November 29, 2015 by Trogdor

[Sabyre]

I had the same issue with the abs paste. I found that after a second or even third coat in some spots it helped alot. Also, as you paint it on try and do it in one stroke of the brush. More of a dab on than pulling it across the part.

[Trogdor[TK]]

I had the same issue with the abs paste. I found that after a second or even third coat in some spots it helped alot. Also, as you paint it on try and do it in one stroke of the brush. More of a dab on than pulling it across the part.

Thanks. Based on that I did another coat this evening and just dripped it on. Hopefully that will do it as I'm getting sick of sanding and I am really wanting a TK number. I also did the first coat on the other thigh and started the finishing work on the neck seal.

 

Todo list

Helmet padding

Neck seal

paint thighs

Thigh cover strips

Thigh ammo pack

Paint ab side rivets

Adjust strapping for fit

Fix anything you guys see

[Sabyre]

Fwiw, I was not able make it perfectly smooth, absolutely no pin holes. However, it did knock down the number and size of holes enough that they were easily filled with paint. Looking forward to seeing the finish product, looking good so far.

[Trogdor[TK]]

Alright after so much sanding and painting and novus polish this is what I came out with:

 

I took my photos and submitted for basic approval tonight.  I have more tweaks but the more I look the more I feel I need to change.  Here is what I sent in.  What do you guys think?

 

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think, remember I am trying for the higher levels.  Wish me luck...

[Sabyre]

  Looking good Joe. You did a good job on the shims. You shouldn't have any trouble getting approved. Good luck!

[Trogdor[TK]]

  Looking good Joe. You did a good job on the shims. You shouldn't have any trouble getting approved. Good luck!

Jc, Thank you.  Your thread was very helpful and I really appreciate you sharing the info as we were both trying the apoxie sculpt.

 

I have some more in progress photos and some cautionary tales and thank you to send but I had to get this sent in and get some feedback.