DBoz ANOVOS TK Build

[DBoz]

Great shots on the disassembly and full kit, thanks!

 

Question: Is the replacement black edging from the helmet something that's easily sourced?

Thanks. Trooperbay sells the brow trim. That's where I plan on getting a new piece. There's nothing wrong with the one the helmet comes with, it's just a little short for my liking. I measured it and it's about 13". The strip Trooperbay sells s 15", so I can fit it to my liking.

 

Hi Chris and congrats on your armor. I think its great that you are willing to put in the extra effort to make the armor how you want it to be.

Thanks! I just hope I don't screw OT up too bad.

[kman[TK]]

Kalani what black edging are you referring to?

The black edging along the brow line, that slips over the whole front edge of the top+back piece of the helmet, and horizontally across to the top of the ears.

[starsaber25[Admin]]

The black edging along the brow line, that slips over the whole front edge of the top+back piece of the helmet, and horizontally across to the top of the ears.

 

Ok gotcha.  Yeah like Chris mention you can get replacement brow trim from trooperbay.com.  Mike has many items that is kind of like a one stop stormtrooper building store.

[DBoz]

Did a little work on the helmet today.

 

First, I cleaned up the eye holes:

 

Once that was done, I used some CA glue to put in T-Nuts by the eyes. Once I got them placed, I put E6000 over them to get them to really hold in place. Unfortunately, I can only do one at a time because the glue will run all over the inside of the helmet if it doesn't stay flat. If the E6000 ends up not working to my liking, I may switch to JB Weld to hold them in place. I plan to use these to screw in my lenses, as I don't really like the wrap around, velcroed on the side style. Once the T-nuts are secured, I will heat the lens up in boiling water to get it to conform to the nut placement. Then I'll drill it out and screw it in place. Once that is done, I'll trim off the excess so I have a smaller profile lens, and hopefully more space in the helmet.

 

Once I put the face plate aside for the E6000 to cure, I did some clean up on the back/dome section. Truthfully, this was totally superfluous as no one will ever see it when the helmet is put back together, but I had the tools out, so what the heck. Plus it makes me feel better.

 

 

Finally, I wanted to put the thermal detonator together, but when I got all the parts out and really looked at them, I noticed that one of my brackets was poorly bent. It'll work, but it's too wonky for my tastes, so I decided I will order a new set of brackets a little later and use those.

 

Since actually assembling the TD was a bust, I had to settle for doing a little shaping to the ends of the tube. I found it difficult to get the end caps on, as they are extremely tight. Taking down the edge of the tube made it easier. Oh, did I mention the end caps were extremely tight? I would recommend not pushing them all the way in place unless you are ready to never take them off again. Found that out the hard way. At least I still have one end cap off in case I decide to use nuts and bolts instead of the screws provided with the kit.

That's probably it for a while. Back to work tomorrow night, so no time for playing with my plastic spaceman suit.

Edited November 22, 2019 by DBoz

[Astyanax]

Chris, what are you using to do all this edge cleanup and shaping? A dremel? Sander?

[Sly11[Admin]]

Looking good.

 

 

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[Artshot]

Nice work on the helmet, taking the time to fine tune little things is going to make this kit stand out.

[DBoz]

Chris, what are you using to do all this edge cleanup and shaping? A dremel? Sander?

On the eyes, I made a few passes with a dremel on a low speed with a 120 grit sanding drum, being careful to stay out of the tight corners (the dremel will open them up fast if you're not careful). Then I took the rest down with a flat needle file for the straight parts and a round needle file for the corners. Finally, I ran a 1200 grit sanding pad over it to smooth it all out.

 

For the edges on the back of the helmet, I used the dremel and then the sanding pad.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Yeah, the fit over the PVC tube by the end cap should be extremely tight. Don't hesitate to warm the whole end cap before pushing it over the pipe to avoid any crack to happen to it.

[hupspring[TK]]

Nice job on the helmet. I want to do the same with the eyes and redo the interior as well.

[DBoz]

Small update today.  I have decided not to use the ANOVOS canvas belt.  The two biggest issues are, of course, the 4 holes for the holster mount and its lack of stiffness.  I do want to reuse the plastic parts, however.  So, I took a look at it and managed to pop off the square buttons covering the rivets.  They appeared to be attached with CA glue.  It was mostly easy to pry them away, however there were a couple spots on each were the glue bond was pretty strong.  I used a pocket knife and slowly pried at them until they came off.  You can hear the glue bond cracking as you go.  Definitely be careful, though as you can damage the plastic ammo belt.  I had the most trouble with the middle button, and did manage to tear a hole in the ammo belt.  This should be covered once it is reassembled, however.

 

Once the buttons are removed, it will be a simple matter of drilling out the rivets to completely remove the plastic from the belt.

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by DBoz

[BILLSID29]

Awesome job on the belt, I was hoping it would be easy to remove now to order a new stiffer one!

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Good job on the belt. Glad to hear it can come apart.

[kman[TK]]

Small update today.  I have decided not to use the ANOVOS canvas belt.  The two biggest issues are, of course, the 4 holes for the holster mount and its lack of stiffness.  I do want to reuse the plastic parts, however.  So, I took a look at it and managed to pop off the square buttons covering the rivets.  They appeared to be attached with CA glue.  It was mostly easy to pry them away, however there were a couple spots on each were the glue bond was pretty strong.  I used a pocket knife and slowly pried at them until they came off.  You can hear the glue bond cracking as you go.  Definitely be careful, though as you can damage the plastic ammo belt.  I had the most trouble with the middle button, and did manage to tear a hole in the ammo belt.  This should be covered once it is reassembled, however.

 

Once the buttons are removed, it will be a simple matter of drilling out the rivets to completely remove the plastic from the belt.

 

Awesome! Just use E6000 when reassembling so this isn't an issue in the future.

[Mattrendar]

Looking good ! Can't wait to see more progress . Just got my kit too . I will be following this post closely

[yoshix[TK]]

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing

[BlayneFitz[TK]]

Can anyone tell me how reliable or strong the Velcro/hook and loop parts are? Most people are using the strap method but I'm curious how the anovos' method works. It's not all going to come loose and fall apart after an hour of trooping?

 

 

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[Airwolf]

Nice build DBoz.  I noticed the wonky ab plate and gig line as well.  As you are facing the plate, the right side has a tall stand-off between the ab section and the groin section, is this all fairly normal?  and if you look at the entire plate from the top down aspect, it looks like the entire plate is sloping down to the right, again kind of weird. 

[DBoz]

Can anyone tell me how reliable or strong the Velcro/hook and loop parts are? Most people are using the strap method but I'm curious how the anovos' method works. It's not all going to come loose and fall apart after an hour of trooping?

 

 

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Nice build DBoz. I noticed the wonky ab plate and gig line as well. As you are facing the plate, the right side has a tall stand-off between the ab section and the groin section, is this all fairly normal? and if you look at the entire plate from the top down aspect, it looks like the entire plate is sloping down to the right, again kind of weird.

Thanks everyone for all the compliments. Hopefully I won't screw this up too badly. This is my first build.

 

As for the wonkiness of the ab plate, I believe it is accurate to the movie armor, but I am no expert.

 

On the Velcro strapping subject, I really can't say, but personally I wouldn't want to chance it. I think the tried and true snaps will hold up better to trooping. The Velcro would probably be fine for display on a mannequin.

 

For general questions about the kit, I would recommend this thread that ukswrath started. Lots of knowledgable people chiming in there.

 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/35142-ANOVOS-TK-%28discussion-forum%29

Edited February 1, 2016 by DBoz

[DBoz]

So, depending on how you look at it, I either made a whole lot of progress this week, or very little.

 

My armor is now completely rough trimmed. 

 

 

However, I did not do the trimming.  A buddy who just finished trimming his kit offered to trim mine.  I am a bit sad at being deprived of the wonderful experience that is armor trimming... wait... no I'm not.  But I am grateful for the help.

 

So, as for what I actually did, there isn't much.  I had planned on getting some work done on my helmet mods, but I got called in to work some OT, so that didn't happen.  Anyway, I did manage to finish taking apart the belt.

 

 

In my usual fashion, I made this much more difficult than it needed to be.  I had planned on just drilling the rivets out, but was afraid of melting the thin plastic with the heat transfer, so I tried using some end cut dikes to snip off the rivet.  This sort of worked for the first one.  I had to work it a bit, but I got it off.  For the middle rivet, I managed to cut off part of the rivet head, but then pretty much only succeeded in smashing the rest down more.  Being an idiot, I tried to dremel it down the rest of the way (using low speed), but this just heated the whole rivet up and melted the washer to the plastic.  Exactly what I was trying to avoid in the first place (you can see the mark left in the pic above).  So, I ended up drilling it out anyway, which worked quite well, actually.  Should have just done it to begin with.  I then drilled out the final rivet with no troubles.

 

Once I got the belt apart, I decided to try and separate the drop boxes.  These are once again assembled with CA glue, most of which pooled at the bottom, so the bond there is pretty strong.  Be very careful if you decide to try and do this.  I managed to get one box apart fairly easily.  As stated, the bond was strongest at the bottom of the box, but I was able to break it apart by flexing and inserting a small flat head screw diver.  You will hear the glue bond cracking.

 

 

The other box, I was not able to get apart and managed to damage it in my attempts, as seen in the pictures below.  The inner box split in one spot (you can kind of make it out in the first picture).  I decided to just let it be for the time being.

 

 

So, after that, I did manage to get a little bit done on the helmet.  I am using T-nuts as lens mounts and they have four small barbs on them, as they were meant to be hammered down into wood.  My original thought was that these barbs would give extra surface for the E6000 to adhere to, so I left them on.  Unfortunately, the E6000 spread out more than I thought it would and the barbs were sticking out.

 

 

To remedy this, I used the end cut dikes to snip the points off and then went over them with a needle file to knock down any sharp edges.  End result is not real pretty, but it is functional.  It is all going to be covered by plastidip and cheese cloth eventually anyway, though.  I also trimmed out some of the excess E6000

 

 

Oh yeah, one other note on the helmet.  As mentioned before, it is very thin plastic (1mm).  When I originally put my T-nuts in place with CA glue, I was sloppy and they weren't aligned very good.  I decided I wanted to try and fix this, so I tried to pop one of the side ones off to re-position it.  The CA glue held much better than anticipated and I was not able to get it off.  Due to the thinness of the plastic, however, I was able to damage the helmet.    It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the plastic has been misshapen and turned white where it creased.  So, be careful if you take your helmet apart.

 

 

Finally, this week I got a set of Centurion rivets from justjoseph63 (TK10963) and as I was sitting here composing this post, my strapping bracket set from Mr. No Stripes showed up.  So thank you to both of you!

 

 

At this point, I am still undecided as to whether I want to use the bracket set or go with snaps for my strapping.  I would like to use the brackets, but with the thinness of the ANOVOS kit, I am worried that the plastic will not hold up.  I plan on waiting and seeing how ukswrath's build with the brackets turns out before making my final decision.

Edited November 22, 2019 by DBoz

[kman[TK]]

At this point, I am still undecided as to whether I want to use the bracket set or go with snaps for my strapping.  I would like to use the brackets, but with the thinness of the ANOVOS kit, I am worried that the plastic will not hold up.  I plan on waiting and seeing how ukswrath's build with the brackets turns out before making my final decision.

I hear you. I'm in the same boat. I like the IDEA of snaps, but I've heard it's a lot of work, and quite tedious (not difficult, but repetitive and tedious)... and you may need assistance getting suited up, which does not appeal to me. (if that's correct)

 

OTOH, I've been nervous about the thin plastic and those brackets from the first time I saw them (even before knowing how much thinner the Anovos armor is compared to others). The plates that snaps are glued in with definitely distribute the stress on a larger surface area, making it far less likely to tear than two little screw holes.

 

Also, I'm tall, and have been told the brackets make for easier vertical adjustments (with elastic for motion).

 

I should start a thread on this, actually, seeking opinions... after I search a bit.

Edited February 5, 2016 by kman

[DBoz]

Not much progress.  I'm generally lazy, so I only do a little at a time.  Right now I'm focusing on the helmet and I'm waiting on an order from Trooperbay before I can really move on with that.  Anyway, today I installed the lenses.  As shown above, I'm using T-nuts as a base to screw the ANOVOS supplied lens material to the helmet.

 

First, I placed the lens material in the helmet and marked where I needed to drill holes for the screws (the marks, if you can make them out, look off in this picture, but it is because of the angle of the camera):

 

I had originally intended to make the lens a one piece deal, but noticed when I marked the holes that, because I had misaligned my T-nuts, this would have put stress on the lens in order to get it to line up the way I wanted.  So, I split the lens piece in two and with the pieces screwed in place, I drew a rough outline of where I wanted to cut with a sharpie.

 

Next, I did a rough trim using the shears.

 

And then cleaned them up using the Dremel and sanding drum.

 

Cleaned up lenses installed:

 

I also got around to gluing in my scope reticle on my Hyperfirm.

 

My new belt from TKittell should arrive tomorrow, so that will probably be the next thing I tackle.  I just need to pick up some white elastic to replace the stuff supplied on the drop boxes.  I most likely could reuse the stuff already on it, but as I detailed earlier, I had some problems attempting to take apart one of the drop boxes and I would rather not mess with it again, I am just going to cut the elastic off.  Plus, it will be cleaner to use new elastic.

 

I may also make an attempt to clean up the wonky right side of the frown.  Nothing too drastic, just some filing to open up the teeth some.  Once my Trooperbay order arrives with my replacement brow, neck trim, correct ear screws and paint, I can get the helmet reassembled and start on the Plastidip/cheesecloth coating of the interior.

Edited November 22, 2019 by DBoz

[kman[TK]]

Great job on the lenses! I'm gonna try to copy that technique, I think...

[DBoz]

Great job on the lenses! I'm gonna try to copy that technique, I think...

Thanks!  It was really easy.  If you use the same T-nuts I did, just make sure to snip off the spikes before you glue them in place.  It will make things much easier and nicer looking.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Nice job Kalani. Stylish lens you have there