hupspring's ANOVOS build

[lucnak[TK]]

I don't think it will affect basic approval. EIB/Centurion you will be asked to bring them up though, for sure. I've seen so many troopers with some pretty big issues with their armour (in my opinion - the biggest being the chest plate going over the ab plate) and that made me realize that basic isn't too hard to pass.

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Depends on how strict your GML is too. Basic entry for a sandy is fairly easy yet my GML wanted my pouches a certain configuration that I only did for my submission photos. 

[hupspring[TK]]

Last week I ordered my wife a Hyperfirm B-grade DLT-19 for her Sandtrooper and it came in yesterday! (Technically it's for her, but there's no reason I can't play with it too!) It looks awesome for a B-grade, just a couple of minor issues that aren't even noticeable. 

 

I wanted to take a cool picture of it with my armor, but I didn't have time to suit up so instead I propped it up next to the mannequin.

 

 

I also tried to put it on my "blaster wall" but it might be a bit too big. Guess it'll have to sit on the ground next to the E11s.

 

 

As far as updates go (still waiting to hear back on my 501st application), I started creating a bracket made out of styrene that I'm going to mount the iComm, Aker and Memorex wireless receiver to behind the ab plate. I was going to heat bend it, but I accidentally broke it at one of the bends so instead I'm just going to cut out the parts and glue them together, and maybe use ABS paste to strenthen the joints.

 

But since I told my wife that I'd work on her armor, I've been mostly doing that the last few days. I just need to finish up adding snap plates and making the strapping. Then we need to weather her helmet.

[hupspring[TK]]

I had today off from work so I had a lot of time to work on stuff. After working on my wife's armor for most of the morning, I went back to the bracket I'm making for the electronics that will go in the ab plate. I've seen other people do this and it seems like a good way to hold everything.

 

 

The Aker will be clipped to the middle, and the iComm and Memorex receiver will be velcroed to the two wings.

 

 

I haven't glued it on or added velcro yet, but it looks like it will work.

 

I also re-glued the latex handguards from Trooperbay onto my Nomex gloves using CA glue this time. After a couple hours I checked on one and it seemed to be stuck on pretty well. I'll check again tomorrow and see how they are.

 

 

Then I spent the rest of the day working on my Doopydoo's E11 which I haven't touched since....oh....September or October last year? I made some really good progress, but I'll update my Doopydoo's thread in the next couple of days with that.

[hupspring[TK]]

I've been approved and I'm officially TK-17695! Now I need to take some pictures this weekend and submit for EIB!

[kman[TK]]

I've been approved and I'm officially TK-17695! Now I need to take some pictures this weekend and submit for EIB!

Congrats, Richard!!!

 

I look forward to trooping with you soon.

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Congratulations!

[ScaryGuy[TK]]

Congratulations! Now go get that EIB!

[hupspring[TK]]

I checked on the hand guards on the Nomex gloves today, and they seem to be holding. However, I tugged a little on one corner and it peeled up a bit from the glove. I did use a little pressure, but I wanted to make sure that it wouldn't tear off during a troop if I caught it on something. So I'm not sure if that is going to work. But since I got my Anovos gloves, I CA glued the justjoseph hand guards to those. So if I can't get the Trooperbay hand guards to stay put on the Nomex gloves, I can always wear the rubber gloves and get some thinner cloth gloves for lining so my hands don't sweat like crazy. 

 

I also decided to try redoing the bracket for the electronics as one piece with bends rather than gluing pieces together since gluing the parts together didn't seem very strong, especially with electronics strapped to them. So I grabbed a large leftover piece from my armor and cut out a rectangle. This time I used the soldering iron to heat the spots where I would need to bend the plastic to 90 degree angles (I held the soldering iron parallel to the plastic several millimeters above the platic to heat it). I read someone else using this method, and it worked pretty well.

 

I glued the bracket onto the ab plate so that the Aker speaker sits behind the large button plate. Once the glue cures I'll add the vecro to iComm and Memorex box and wire it up.

 

[TK 22686[TK]]

Did you screw the ear screw into the TD yet?  How did those turn out?  

[lucnak[TK]]

Congrats on your approval! Missed this, somehow!

[hupspring[TK]]

Did you screw the ear screw into the TD yet?  How did those turn out?  

 

Yep, I also used the washers and nuts that were on the screws from the helmet. The screws were slightly smaller than the holes in the belt clips, but with the washers and nuts they hold fine. Make sure to put the screws in before putting on the end caps, otherwise you'll have to take the end caps off to get the washers and nuts on the inside. I only made that mistake twice 

 

Here is a picture with them installed:

 

[TK 22686[TK]]

Very nice. I know they're slightly smaller than screen accurate...and will probably get mentioned in the centurion approval process, but I think I can live with that. Nice work!

[hupspring[TK]]

Congrats on your approval! Missed this, somehow!

Thanks! There are so many build threads it's easy to miss. I just got EIB approval this morning too! So happy. Now I need to make a few adjustments and I will apply for Centurion.

[hupspring[TK]]

After taking photos for EIB I realized the left thigh was being pushed in from the holster, and since my legs are skinny and the thighs are pretty loose, a gap was showing on the inner side. I put some padding on the outer half which stopped the thigh from being pushed over.

 

 

A suggestion on my EIB app was to bring in the shoulder bells by trimming the return edge on the bells as well as tightening the straps. I did both - I didn't realize how loose the straps were on the bells. I pulled off one side on each and reglued them tighter, bringing in the sides slightly.

 

 

I also decided to add bicep to shoulder bell straps as this was on my to do list but I never got around to it. 

 

 

I'm using this to experiment with double snaps on elastic since I think I'm going to do something like this on the chest to ab strap. Currently my single chest to ab strap will pop apart if I try to bend over or look down to see in front of me, so adding either a double snap or maybe two straps instead of one will prevent that.

[lucnak[TK]]

I found with the snaps I used at first, they would occasionally pop apart, but once I started using the Tandy ones, they really stay in there! Not sure what you're using, but I think it's worth finding them!

[hupspring[TK]]

After wearing my armor a few times for about 30 or so minutes each, I made a few adjustments. I got the electronics finalized and put in place. Initially I had the Memorex wireless mic, but the one I had was defective so I had to send it back and got the Steren wireless mic in return. It worked okay, but unless it was practically in my mouth, it would cut out a lot, especially if I had the slightest pause between words when talking.

 

I then got the Wireless Trooping Systems blutooth mic and it is awesome. The mic and receiver are both very small, so don't take up much room in the armor. And they both have internal rechargeable batteries so I don't need to carry around extra batteries.

 

Since the blueooth receiver is so much smaller than the Memorex one, there was a lot of extra velcro in the ab section where I mounted the electronics.

 

 

In the helmet I got the mic velcroed in so that I don't need to move it around when putting the helmet on or off. I also have ukswrath's hearing assist setup. I tried using speakers but for some reason, the audio is very low and can't be heard unless the speaker is right on your ear, so I put in earbuds instead.

 

I also have eqdizzle's fans - right now they are velcroed to pieces of foam, which are in turn velcroed to the bucket on either side of the frown. Without the foam, the noise was really loud and the hearing assist was just making the noise even louder. With the foam I can actually hear what's going on outside the helmet.

 

 

 

You can see I kept the Anovos hard hat liner - I actually like the liner instead of just padding all around my head. I did try using padding but it just didn't feel right. The interior of my bucket isn't pretty, but it gets the job done.

 

Since I put the electronics in my ab, I had a lot of space in the chest. I wanted some kind of space to carry my wallet and keys, so I went to the dollar store and got a cheap camera pouch then vecroed it to the chest space.

 

 

I probably should have put it (or a bigger pouch) in the back plate instead, but I already put it on the chest so for now that's good enough. After a few troops I'll see if I need more storage.

[hupspring[TK]]

I haven't been able make it to any troops yet (my first will be in a couple of weeks) but I have suited up a few times, mostly for pictures

 

I ran into a few problems, like the holster screws scratching up the side of the kidney. I fixed this by putting a piece of soft velcro over the screws in the holster.

 

 

I also had to trim some areas like the return edge from the shoulder bridge parts of the back piece as they were digging into my shoulders after 20 minutes or so of wearing the armor. 

 

Before May 4th, my wife wanted to get a family picture of all of us as Stormtroopers. When I was suiting up, one of the pop rivets in my belt broke, so the plastic belt was swiging free from the cloth belt. For the pictures I just used painter's tape to hold it in place as best I could. It worked okay, but you can kind of tell something is wrong in that area.

 

A few days later I was able to fix it using a chicago screw instead of pop rivets. I might change out the other side as well since I'm afraid the other pop rivet might break during a troop and I won't be able to fix it easily at that point.

 

The last thing I did recently was to make shin elastics to keep my shins down. I basically followed this thread.

 

I may have put the velcro a little too high inside the shin, or I need to better adjust my thigh garter, because after we got our photos I noticed a huge gap between my thighs and shins. I probably need to lower my thighs a little and raise the shins a little as well. 

 

 

I'm also still working on my wife's armor when I can. We ordered her new thighs since hers are twisting so much and I had to add shims to the back, but they don't look good. When those arrive we'll have to weather them as well as the helmet my son is wearing to replace the FX bucket.

[hupspring[TK]]

I finally went on my first troop yesterday and it was great! I learned a few things from the other troopers, like not to just stand there with your arms at your sides for pictures. I look like awkward trooper in a lot of pictures as I didn't pose at all. Even just putting your hands on your belt makes a world of difference!

 

 

I'm the trooper just standing there with my arms down at my sides.

 

Overall my armor held up well with no armor bites or issues other than the top of the hard hat liner digging into my head after about 45 minutes. So I need to add a little bit of padding in that area. I also had some issues with the electronics. I didn't turn up the volume on the Aker enough so my voice wasn't coming out of the speaker, but the icomm would still click after I talked.

 

The EAS was also getting some feedback and amplifying the sound of the fans so that I can't hear anything outside the helmet. I think my fans are still touching the bucket which was causing that, so I need to re-evaluate the positioning (I have them sitting on a small piece of hard foam which is velcroed into the bucket). I really want to get one of Echo's brackets and think that will help fix it.

 

The small camera pouch that I added to the chest in a previous update already broke. I shouldn't be surprised since it was only a dollar, but the zipper somehow broke in a way that it doesn't close the pouch when you zip it. My wife said she will just make me a small pouch. Although I may have her size it bigger to fit my phone.

 

I also added a couple of stickers and a label to my Husky bin. I need to get some garrison and squad stickers to add.

 

 

And for the interior my wife got some 1" green foam and sewed some covers for them out of old bed sheets. I just used the leftover 1" industrial strength velcro from my armor build to stick the foam to the inside of the bin. The foam is much nicer than using towels to prevent the armor from rubbing on the sides of the bin.

 

 

I still suck at packing my armor in the bin so I can't fit the helmet in with everything else. I had to get a helmet bag from Trooperbay to carry it separately. I think if I took off the chest and back from the rest of the armor it would fit, but I like not having to dismantle everything when packing the armor.

[lucnak[TK]]

I fit everything except the helmet in a small bin. I always pull the bicep up into the shoulder bell, then the forearm into the shin, then the shin into the thigh. Condenses the limbs nicely Congrats on Centurion btw!

[hupspring[TK]]

I fit everything except the helmet in a small bin. I always pull the bicep up into the shoulder bell, then the forearm into the shin, then the shin into the thigh. Condenses the limbs nicely Congrats on Centurion btw!

 

Thanks! I was excited to get Centurion and now my wife likes to make fun of me.

 

After lugging around the big Husky bin, I kind of wish I got the smaller one since I'm not putting the helmet in it. It would be nice to be able to put the bin in my car's trunk instead of taking up the entire back seat. I have to remove my son's car seat to fit it in the back, which means I wouldn't be able to drop him off if I had to before heading to troop without going back home to get the bin.

 

But I do like having the extra room in the bin so that I don't have to break down all of the armor parts and stack them. Since my forearms and biceps are stuck together with a piece of elastic glued to each, I can't nest those parts.

[hupspring[TK]]

It's been a while since I've updated my build thread (since I'm basically finished building ) but I thought I'd add some notes now that I've done several troops in the armor.

 

1. After my latest troop, the rear cover strip on one of my shins pulled off halfway as I was taking the shin off. It was probably partly due to the shin not being flat where the rear halves met, so the cover strip was at an angle when it was closed (I use the velcro method). So when I got home I pulled the cover strip off the rest of the way and cleaned up the glue residue, then gave the shin a hot water bath to try to make the backs a bit more flush. 
   
   The back of the shin does sit more flush now, but I don't know if the hot water bath loosened the adhesive on the velcro (the part glued onto the shin). I re-attached the cover strip and it closes better, so I'll have to keep an eye on the velcro at my next troop. 
    
2. I've also decided to get rid of the Anovos hard hat liner. The longer I wear the helmet, the less comfortable it becomes as the hard hat liner starts digging into my head. I even added a little padding to the strap but that doesn't really help at all. I have the military style pads and will try positioning those to find a good fit, but I think I will also need something thicker for the sides of my head, otherwise the helmet will swing freely if I move my head side to side.
    
3. I ended up ditching the iComm as well. The static bursts are cool, but for some reason, they would be a lot louder than my voice. So if I turn up the Aker volume so my voice could be heard decently, the static bursts would be really loud. If I turned the volume down so the static bursts weren't too loud, then you couldn't really hear my voice through the speaker. In the end, amplifying my voice won out. Since my wife's sandtrooper is almost finished, I'll probably get her an Aker and see if she wants the iComm.
    
4. I've had problems with the hearing assist at every troop so far. I first tried the little speakers, but couldn't hear anything coming out of them unless I pressed them to my ears, so those were out. I tried corded headphones which work great, but it was a hassle putting the headphones in my ears before putting the helmet on, then tucking the wires out of the way. Finally I tried bluetooth headphones which were great in that I could put them on without worrying about the wires, but I was getting a 1 second delay which was making it hard to follow conversations. It also had a lot of fan noise...I still need to buy a fan bracket from ukswrath which should help with that. So until then, I'm not using the hearing assist and if the bracket doesn't help, I'll probably just remove the hearing assist altogether.

Overall though, the armor has held up well. I was lucky enough to get in a Weird Al troop, and we had to do a brisk walk down to the after party (I think almost a mile away) in our armor, and make the walk back up to the venue to change. I'm happy to say I didn't have any armor bites or problem areas.

 

I also may have gotten a bit obsessed with patch jackets.

 

 

 

My wife only has one patch jacket so I promised I wouldn't get any more (for now!).

[kman[TK]]

Sweet collection!

 

I finally got an 11" Legion patch and started my patch shirt.  While I'd love a jacket, given SoCal temps, I can't see ever being to actually wear a jacket more than once or twice per year, so I'm sticking with short sleeved shirts.

 

I have serious envy for your multi-garrison patch and your original name tag, though...

[hupspring[TK]]

Sweet collection!

 

I finally got an 11" Legion patch and started my patch shirt.  While I'd love a jacket, given SoCal temps, I can't see ever being to actually wear a jacket more than once or twice per year, so I'm sticking with short sleeved shirts.

 

I have serious envy for your multi-garrison patch and your original name tag, though...

 

Thanks! Agreed on the short sleeves vs jackets too. So far I've only been wearing the lighter jean jacket at work since the AC is always on there and I took the hoodie to Colorado last month. I mostly wear the black short sleeve, but hopefully it starts cooling down soon so I can wear the jackets more (once the temps drop below 70 it's jacket weather for me). 

[kman[TK]]

Thanks! Agreed on the short sleeves vs jackets too. So far I've only been wearing the lighter jean jacket at work since the AC is always on there and I took the hoodie to Colorado last month. I mostly wear the black short sleeve, but hopefully it starts cooling down soon so I can wear the jackets more (once the temps drop below 70 it's jacket weather for me). 

 

Sure, let's just hope it drops below 70 this winter.

 

I'll be wearing my patch shirt at LBCC... you going?