Kidney plate sticking out too far

[Faolain]

I've been having some trouble with my kidney plate.  In my previous thread, I thought it was upside down but it wasn't.  Now it sticks out too far.  Here's what I have:

 

 

When I push the belly plate forward, so the chest plate sits perfectly, I have a huge gap in the back as you can see above.

 

 

When I balance it out, putting the ab and kidney plates equally spaced the plate still sticks out quite a bit compared to the back plate.

 

 

And when I push the kidney plate flush with my back, it makes the chest stick out something awful.

 

Do I need to trim the kidney plate down so it fits more snug on my body, something like this?

 

 

Obviously, not trim that much off, but it would bring the gap down.  Is that the right thing to do or is there another solution?

[TK 2759[501st]]

Looks like the sides are bumping together ... Kidney and ab plate are snug together... Trim the sides so the ab and kidney have a little space would be my suggestion, but you may wish to here from sone who is EIB or Centurion...

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

IMHO, I would say that the kidney is definitely going to have to be trimmed, as this is causing your chest plate to stick out way too far.  I would suggest going ahead and attaching the snaps to the bottom of the back and the top of the kidney to keep it in place while you do your trimming, and only do a little at a time until it fits correctly.  I was having the same problem, and after using the double snap method, it worked out great.  Looking at photo # 3, it appears that the kidney is a bit wider than the ab, so you should have enough to work with to match them up correctly.  I noticed the snap on the ab, and hope this means you are shooting for EIB and Centurion, (awesome), but remember you will still need to cut out the 22mm x 22mm squares on the front of each side, so this may give you a little extra "wiggle room".

 

[Locitus[Admin]]

I say you should wait with mods until you have tried to wear it with proper strapping in place.

[Faolain]

I forgot to mention I'm making a Sandtrooper, so they don't have the notch at the bottom of the kidney plate.

 

I'll go ahead and build the strapping now, and then see how it fits and trim from there.

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

I'm a sandtrooper and I have notches on my kidney plate. Look at a few of the SWAT submissions on MEPD and they all have them. Don't add the notches until you get your kidney situation sorted out though. Do the strapping first as suggested above. If you need to make cuts, do so EQUALLY on both sides of the kidney a little at a time. It'll be easier to have a friend help tape it in place on the sides. Once you get that done, you'll more than likely have to redo the rivet holes on the kidney on the left side again too. Much easier to take away than to add back on. 

[Locitus[Admin]]

All Santroopers have kidney notches. It's the same armour as stormtroopers's in ANH.

 

Here's a picture of the original sandtrooper armour that Simon of RS Props owns, before it was cleaned up.

[Faolain]

I did not know that!  It's not in the CRL for Sandtroopers, but I will add it after I get the strapping set.

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

It's kind of a mess right now, but check MEPD for the 2015 official CRL updates.

[Faolain]

While lining things up, I noticed the right side of the kidney plate is bigger than the left.  When I line up the central rectangular area of the butt and kidney plates, the right side of the kidney is about .5" bigger than the left.  

 

 

It's not like this on the other side, on the other side it lines up perfect.  Should I trim this off so that it's even?

 

Edit:  Maybe the picture isn't clear, on this image the left side of this picture is the butt plate, the right side is the kidney plate.