themaninthesuitcase Anovos ANH Stunt Build

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Oh also I forgot to mention: First blood.

 

I have a 2nd cheaper snap blade knife for things like cutting sand paper to not dull my good blades. Turns out the snapping on them isn't so good....

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

More progress!

 

Started the night by glueing the 2nd half to the left thigh. Again this looks like it will line up pretty well just a case of checking the fit once the glue's dry.

 

 

After looking at other builds and checking the fit against the biceps I elected to have the elastic near taught. Basically this means it's not stretched but not baggy either.

 

 

I finished up the evening re-trimming the shins to get the correct return edge for the 20mm cover strip.

 

I started with the left. This has well defined return edges and was reasonably easy to mark out and re-trim.

 

 

With both halves trimmed this left the two sides slightly different lengths. I elected to align the top edges and will re-trim at the ankle as needed.

 

With this decided I measured, trimmed, softened the corners and glued the cover strip to one side of the shin.

 

 

The right shin was a much bigger challenge. Again I consulted reference and other builds to try get a decent idea of where the return starts.

 

 

Once both sides were trimmed down I taped them together and checked the fit.

 

 

If you look you can see the two shells are fairly heavily splayed. On the left the rear of the shells overlapped and the fronts were in the correct place in relation to each other giving a flat front. On this side the front have a shallow V profile rather than being flat, especially near the bottom.

 

To address this I needed to trim out some more of the middle of the joining face. I did this by taping the top and bottom of the shin in place and over lapping the middle section. I then aligned the shin as I wanted it and drew a new trim line using the side I wanted to leave alone as a guide. This was then re-trimmed with lexan scissors and smoothed with a file and 180 grit.

 

The result is actually a curve rather than a straight line but it gives a much better looking front. BUT if you look along the edge from the correct angle you see the straight line I was after and which will butt against the other half.

 

I forgot to take a photo of the result but it looks much nicer and matches the other side much better.

[kman[TK]]

FWIW, I had the exact same issue, with one leg being heavily splayed out, and the other overlapping quite a bit.

I've waited to do any sort of resolution, however, because I don't have shoes yet, so I don't know where it's going to need to end up.  I'm hoping it will all work out once trimmed to size.  The velcro should help, too.  And if that's not good enough, the hot water method should help close (or open) up the gap a bit, too.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

My issue was more that the front didn't seem to lie right and just looked wrong. The change i made, I think anyway, gave me a nice result.

 

I'll try remember to take some photos tonight.

[troopermaster]

I had the exact same issue, with one leg being heavily splayed out, and the other overlapping quite a bit.

The reason this is happening is because Anovos has labelled the parts incorrectly. They have two outer halves on one leg and two inner halves on the other which is causing the problem.

Edited February 17, 2016 by troopermaster

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

The reason this is happening is because Anovos has labelled the parts incorrectly. They have two outer halves on one leg and two inner halves on the other which is causing the problem.

That makes all the sense in the world now. Would the side with a more defined "return" be the outer shell? On mine the left would become the outside.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to sort this out this evening with out too much mess. I will have a bit of a gap I suspect but smaller than the cover strip and I can always reinforce from the rear if needed.

[troopermaster]

Looking at your photos I would say the left shin has the two outer halves and the right shin has the two inner halves. Kind of hard to tell exactly because they do not have the original inner halves to begin with (only the modified outers as inners).

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Looking at your photos I would say the left shin has the two outer halves and the right shin has the two inner halves. Kind of hard to tell exactly because they do not have the original inner halves to begin with (only the modified outers as inners).

Thanks l, that's what I thought looking at the pictures. Will move stuff about this evening.

[kman[TK]]

The reason this is happening is because Anovos has labelled the parts incorrectly. They have two outer halves on one leg and two inner halves on the other which is causing the problem.

Ugh. Seriously? I used E6000 (thank goodness!) so technically I could swap the parts, but given how customized the cuts are for each piece, they may not line up correctly. It'd be a miracle if the spacing worked out, too.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Started this evening removing one of the strips I'd glued to the front of a shin to allow me to swap the shells round as suggested by Troopermaster.

 

As I mentioned I'd added a trim to get the shins to get them to sit right when I had them paired wrongly (though following the numbering from Anovos). Here you can see the small gap this has caused. Once this was glued up it ended up being slightly wider but there's still plenty of meat to hold though glue. The trim was taken from the side with the scribble marks on, the cover film is still on and it's chinagraph so just rubs off.

 

 

I also added the 2nd shell to the other shin.

 

 

Once the glue had set enough I added the 2nd side to the shin I had added the cover strip back onto earlier and compared the 2. The result was 2 very similar looking shins rather than the 2 very distinct ones. The rears also are much closer to alignment and don't overlap horribly as before.

 

 

I'd like to thank Troopermaster for pointing this out as it's giving me far better results.

 

Next I taped up the thighs for fitting. I've not done any measuring or trimming yet. I simply butted the edges up and taped them. I don't haven any compression leggings yet so I pinched some of the wives cotton ones :shock: These are very tight fitting and I would say are very representative of what I'll be wearing under my final armour.

 

Test fitting thighs - front by Christopher Pearson, on Flickr

 

Test fitting thighs - rear by Christopher Pearson, on Flickr

 

I've left those as links to the larger versions on Flickr.

 

I feel the fit is generally good and the gaps are about right at the bottom though am close to maxed out at the top. They are also about 1/2-1" too long. I think if I remove the return at the top I'll be able to bring them up a bit higher as well as having more room. I don't believe that these returns are needed and removing them will improve the fit. What's the thoughts on this?

 

I finished up the evening by sizing up the arms.

 

 

I think I'll need to bring in the biceps a bit but I'll wait until I can get some better images of this. I think I'll probably need to remove ~5mm from each side of the back shell of each bicep. However this can wait for now.

 

For the forearms the tops up at the elbow is a pretty decent fit. Not much room but enough. The wrists will need to be pinched down a bit I think.

 

Right:

 

Left:

 

This is as tight as I can go and still be able to get my hand through without forcing things. It rubs a bit putting my hand through but leaves a bit of a gap afterwards.

 

Whats the opinion on the sizing?

[kman[TK]]

Looking good! Glad to hear the shin "fix" seems to have done the trick. I guess I know what I'm doing tonight. And here I thought I was almost done with the gluing... *sigh*

 

Wrist are probably about right. They're bigger (by necessity) so you can get your hand through. Don't forget to size them while wearing a thin glove, however. It may need a smidge more space to get through, or may help slide through making it easier.

[WEllis52421[501st]]

Looks like I'll be doing that shin fix as well. GGGGGGGRRRRR!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[welshchris77[TK]]

Are all the anovos shins marked wrong does anyone know?

[hupspring[TK]]

I'm going to need to take a closer look at mine tonight. Good thing someone noticed this issue!

[kman[TK]]

Are all the anovos shins marked wrong does anyone know?

Considering how many thousands of suits were sold, that would be REALLY tough to determine, unless Anovos acknowledges an error in the process and sends out a mass correction notice.

[welshchris77[TK]]

Considering how many thousands of suits were sold, that would be REALLY tough to determine, unless Anovos acknowledges an error in the process and sends out a mass correction notice.

True!, do you think mine look 'off'?

Think I may have gone too tight at the ankle too  ,

my boots fit but are quite tight against the armor 

 

Edited February 18, 2016 by welshchris77

[troopermaster]

Keep the thighs as loose as possible. They should slide freely up and down your leg without any resistance.

 

The wrist should be big enough to get your bare hand through. Do not worry if you think they look too big. Once you have your gloves on and holding your blaster, they will be fine. Keep the forearms loos too. They will be hanging from your biceps so they do not need to be snug - none of the limbs do.

 

In your photo showing your left arm, you have the left bicep but right forearm

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

So should I loosen up the wrist a little? I can get my bare hand through but at a slight squeeze.

 

I'll trim the returns on the thighs and see how that changes things.

 

I clearly need to re check the sides I've marked on the biceps then. Would explain why they didn't seem to line up too.

[troopermaster]

Only loosen the wrist if you have to. You do not want to make it too hard to get your hands through but it is usually a squeeze.

 

I cannot see if you are using the correct inner half of the left bicep but you definitely have the correct outer half. It is common for none of the parts to match up exactly so do not worry too much. Things get thrown off even more when thinner people have to trim parts down, but this is quite normal.

 

The return edge on all of the limbs should be minimal. I noticed that Anovos has made them huge and they really are not necessary, so just keep a slight edge. If you need to make the thighs (or any other parts wider) trim the front joints wider. I see people stressing over how the joining strips should be 20mm and will I get approved if they are 21mm (which is ridiculous) so use 25mm if you need to add a bit of extra girth or even wider. You can also use a wedge shaped strip in the back if you need even more room, but that is a last resort.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

I started last night by trying to get a proper fitting of the leg parts with my boots on.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at the fit I think I'm pretty good for general fit on both the thighs and the shins. The shins just need the holes for the #4 hooks and the rear cover strips adding. Once that's done I can neaten up the trim on the curved sections and call the, done.

 

For the thighs I am struggling to bend the knee. If I force them up a bit I am fine so probably only need 10-15mm or so but with them forced I am not comfortable at all. Looking at other builds and some reference I will start by trimming the top return.

 

This is an image of a genuine thigh and you can see how it has very little return. I'll start by going this far and see if I can get the thigh up further.

 

 

If more is needed it looks like I'll have to either trim off the return entirely or add a 'notch' behind the knee. I'd rather not do the notch as I think it's ugly but I already have a large gap between the thigh and skin so moving the thigh up even further would make this huge. Though hopefully the return trim I suggested will do the job.

 

Whilst fitting the shins I found that the left pinched a bit on the outside. Looking at the return it was far larger than the rest. To address this I added a strip of 6mm Tamiya masking tape as a cutting guide and cut along the edge. This gave a much nicer edge and hopefully will stop the pinching.

 

 

With the shins sized and sorted I tested the fit of the sniper plate.

 

 

 

 

Whilst this fits it needs a fair amount of force to get into place. Looking at other builds and reference it looks like I can remove the return on the bottom of the plate. This would make the plate easier to flex and so glue into place. Would this be acceptable?

 

I also used the tape trick to thin down the moulded hand guards, I don't plan on using these but figured I may as well do it.

 

 

 

I finished off the evening by starting on the TD.

 

First job was to add a light chamfer to the edge to help fit the end caps.

 

 

With this done I measured the depth of the caps and scored a line this far from the end to help me mark out where the clips will go. I want to use nuts and bolts as I don't trust screws to not strip out. This means I need to fit the clips before the end caps, hence the marking out.

 

 

How big should the gap be? Ive seen anything from 0 to loads. The image in the CRL seems to be right up against the end caps, is this the best bet? If so I'll attach right up against the marks and push the end caps on until they butt up.

 

The more astute of you will notice the screw up in the above. The score lines are at the actual internal depth of the end caps. If they don't fit 100% full down you'd see the score mark. Doh. To fix this I used some 180 grit to lap around 1-1.5mm off each end to give some clearance. This should mean you can't see the mark any more but did make a HUGE mess. I then re did the chamfer again, and did a much better job this time.

 

 

I'm about as far as I can go on the TD until I can get the M4 pan head screws, nuts and some washers. Pay day at the end of the week which lifts the parts ordering embargo. I'll also be ordering the Prym snaps which means I can get on with the body.

[kman[TK]]

There should be NO return at the bottom of the sniper knee. Take it all off so it fits flat. Ukswrath did this as well.

 

I believe the TD straps are supposed to be flush to the caps. Did you shorten the pipe at all? I believe I've read in a couple of places that it's about 1/2" too long.

[troopermaster]

Shins are on the wrong legs.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Shins are on the wrong legs.

I'll swap them.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

There should be NO return at the bottom of the sniper knee. Take it all off so it fits flat. Ukswrath did this as well.

 

I believe the TD straps are supposed to be flush to the caps. Did you shorten the pipe at all? I believe I've read in a couple of places that it's about 1/2" too long.

Must have missed he did the sniper will go find that.

 

CRL said 7.5" off the top of my head. What ever it was it was either fine or 1/8th under, it wasn't cut all that straight.

[welshchris77[TK]]

Looking good Chris