KMan's Anovos TK Adventure Build

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Doh! I didn't even notice the ab plate until Tony pointed it out. Definitely put some straps in if this is a constant issue. 

[kman[TK]]

May I suggest pulling in the shoulders in a bit. Also, try to raise the ab if possible, if not install a strap to hold down the chest. Just a thought

Doh! I didn't even notice the ab plate until Tony pointed it out. Definitely put some straps in if this is a constant issue.

Yup, those issues are definitely on my list. They're already listed on the to-do list at the end of that post, in fact:

 

"5. Strapping: Final velcro strap connection of shoulder caps to biceps. (Very simple, I didn't want to do it until I was a LOT closer to a final fitting) DONE, but now I need to make some modifications to the chest plate strapping to stop it from popping up. I'm thinking some popper straps that provide a hard stop just before it can go too far?"

 

And now that it's been specifically pointed out by two experts, it's going to the TOP of my list, LOL. Do you think my added snap plate idea is good? I'm thinking leave the elastic but add two snaps (non stretch nylon) to stop it from going beyond the overlap point?

 

The ab plate is as high as it's going to get unless I want to start singing in another key, and washing things far more frequently after wearing. The chest plate will get able to pull down a bit farther, however, once I get some less elasticy straps added to keep it there.

 

My shoulders are broader than the average British extra, so the shoulder armor is never going to be quite as tight as some lucky others. I'm working on getting them in tighter, but the Anovos strapping isn't helping me much. It should definitely get better when I upgrade to snaps.

Edited March 11, 2016 by kman

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Here's how I did mine. Snaps on the chest with elastic and then I CA glued a piece of industrial strength velcro on the bottom of the elastic. The ab plate I just stuck on the loop side of the velcro with it's provided sticky back. If I ever need to adjust it, it's easy to do so. It didn't move on me once during my troop last weekend. 

 

[kman[TK]]

Here's how I did mine. Snaps on the chest with elastic and then I CA glued a piece of industrial strength velcro on the bottom of the elastic. The ab plate I just stuck on the loop side of the velcro with it's provided sticky back. If I ever need to adjust it, it's easy to do so. It didn't move on me once during my troop last weekend.

I'm not really seeing how that's different from the regular Anovos rigging, except Velcro on both sides instead of the snap on top.

 

 

The Velcro doesn't budge. What happens is the elastic stretches too much when I move, allowing the ab top lip to pop out from under the chest piece.

 

What I need is something that DOESN'T stretch (be it velcro or snaps, it's gotta be a non-stretchy nylon web strap) so I can set a "stop point". That lets the elastic stretch up to a point, as needed for general movement, but stops it before it gets into the danger zone where it pop to the other side.

 

I think if I add three narrow non-stretchy webbing straps, on either side and in the middle of the two existing straps, it would do what I need.

Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

It doesn't hurt to try some nylon webbing. That's what I use for my back to kidney

[kman[TK]]

Busy weekend, socially, between birthdays and weddings and dinner parties, so I didn't get much done.  The one thing I DID get done made me very happy, though: I gave my right shin armor a bath in boiling water.  I just left it all taped up with painters tape, and it worked perfectly!

 

I used a large roasting pan (large turkey-sized) which was big enough (diagonally) but not quite deep enough, but I was still able to submerge just over 1/2 of the shins.  I brought it to boil on the stove, turned off the heat, waited a few beats so the bottom metal would cool to water temp, and then dunked the armor.  I carefully rotated, trying to avoid getting scalded with steam.  After about a minute of slowly turning the armor (keeping it mostly off the bottom), I took it out of the water and ran it under cold water from the tap to set the plastic.

 

Low and behold, I removed the tape, and the plastic now lines up perfectly!  All set to add Velcro and then clean up the bottom edge a bit with a dremel.  I'll also probably add some white felt to help protect my shoes.

 

 

Next up, I need to resolve my button cover issues, and I can probably take some submission pics. I'll still need to adjust some of the internal rigging, but that shouldn't stop my 501st submission.

Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[hupspring[TK]]

I'm going to try the water bath on my right shin sometime this week - good to know that it worked so well. I tried using a hair dryer and as someone mentioned earlier, it didn't get hot enough to do anything. 

[kman[TK]]

I'm going to try the water bath on my right shin sometime this week - good to know that it worked so well. I tried using a hair dryer and as someone mentioned earlier, it didn't get hot enough to do anything.

 

Yeah. It was simpler than I thought, mostly because the painters tape held so well. I did the hairdryer thing, previously. It seemed like maybe[/] it helped, but hard to tell? In TK1636's video, he mentioned needing to do it several times, which I had planned to try, but I don't know how hot my wife's hairdryer is compared to his so it's hard to compare. I decided to try the water, and I'm glad I did.

 

The one bit of advice I'd give is to tape it VERY tight, and do a bunch of tight horizontal runs, pulling it down. (Assuming that's the direction you're trying to go). When the tape came off, it held nicely, and in fact one area I had not tape across (I had tape along the seam, parallel to the strip, but that didn't have as much tension), it's not quite as rounded over. You can actually see the slight dip in the cover strip in the bottom photo, above, just shy of the shin end. Not particularly visible except from certain angles, unless some one points it out.

Edited March 15, 2016 by kman

[kman[TK]]

Little things. But little things are rapidly gaining importance as I near the "finish" line. ("Finish" since it's clear this is going to be a moving "end" goal for a long, long time!)

 

First up, I finished the last piece of actual armor: The Velcro at the back of the right shin. The armor itself is now DONE!!!

 

 

I also took out the Dremel and knocked down the nasty pointy bit that was protruding from the bottom of the side that moved lower. Some minor cleanup remains, but it's actually wearable now.

 

I decided enough is enough, I need to deal with the button covers I've been procrastinating about. I decided to take a stab at rebuilding the shattered one before attempting to make one from scratch, and I think this is going to work out. (which is good, because matching these would be really tough, I don't trust Anovos to sell me any replacements on any timetable that actually works for me.)

 

First, though, I used a metal engraving tip and ground out most of that horrible epoxy from inside the covers.

 

 

You can see there's still a good amount in there, but there's plenty of room for the Chicago screw base and glue, and I was afraid to make the plastic too thin. (you can see the tiny spot where it actually ground through, but that was from when I was first trying to remove the rivets... that'll go away with a tiny drop of ABS paste, but I don't want any more of those!) What's left will only strengthen the covers, so no biggie.

 

For the repair, it looks like I was somewhat lucky: The break lines are pretty clean and some CA glue (plus a bunch inside!) may have done the trick! Here it is glued, including the back:

 

 

Next step is ABS paste and sanding. I think it's going to come out well, judging by how the pasted-up button looks. Here it is next to the intact covers:

 

 

When it's all cleaned up and ready to glue, of course, I'll probably fill the inside cavity pretty thoroughly with E6000, to support it from the back.

 

While the ABS paste cures, I sanded down the ABS paste on the ammo belt a bit, readying it for the covers. It doesn't need to perfect, again, since the button covers will, well, cover it. But it's a lot smoother than it was:

 

 

Here is the ammo belt with the button covers placed on it. Looks pretty good, I think, even with the ABS paste still all over the repaired button!

 

 

The button paste needs to cure overnight before I can try to sand it smooth and pretty, though, so onto the next task:

 

Cleaning up the helmet eyes: I think I did ok, although I may do some more cleanup at a future date. I used a Dremel at first, and then moved to needle files and cleaned up the small stuff by hand. Here's the before and after shots:

 

 

I'll still make a small cleanup pass just to smooth things out a touch more, but I think it's better than it was.

 

So that's it for the armor itself. This is it!

 

 

Tonight's cross-outs on the ol' to-do list:

• Painting: Paint the side rivets and thigh rivets white, however, and the TD screws black. (I'll do this very soon, since it will be really fast))
• Strapping: Modifications to the chest plate strapping are needed, to stop it from popping up. I'm thinking some popper straps that provide a hard stop just before it can go too far.
• Back Plate: More heat bending of back plate shoulder straps for better fit. This shouldn't take too long, but it's tricky, so finger's crossed.
• Helmet: Cleanup work on the helmet eye trim/excess flashing. DONE. Further mods can wait until after basic acceptance.
• Shin Armor: Finish velcro and heat treatment of right shin armor. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Rebuild destroyed button. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Finish sanding and cleanup of rebuilt button, and glue all covers to ammo belt.
• Cleanup: General cleanup of excess glue, finishing edge sanding for smoothness and comfort, etc. E6000 on side split rivets. Remove protective plastic, finally! Hopefully all this won’t take a huge amount of time, but it might take more than I wish...
• Ab Button Plates: They're painted (well enough for now), so I just have to glue them on. Planned for last.

These items have been moved to the post-acceptance to-do list:

• Helmet painting: Paint the inside of the helmet with black Plasti-Dip spray. This will obviously take a fair amount of time to mask everything thoroughly for overspray (after I quickly tear everything out). Maybe I won’t be done this week after all. And of course then it'll need a couple of days to dry, and off-gas completely so it can be worn.
• Helmet rigging: Remove Anovos hard hat rigging (see above), install military helmet pads (can’t install these until the plasti-dip is dry).
• Helmet Lens: Split the lenses and mounting them with standoffs. (T-nuts, but the plastidip work needs to be finished first)

And finally, these steps remain that I plan to take after basic acceptance is done, for my own peace of mind, for a possible EIB submission, and hopefully eventually Centurion:

• Convert thigh Anovos snaps to 3" elastic straps looped around a belt, a vastly better system. Should be easy enough.
• Add white felt at the bottom of the shin armor, to protect the shoes.
• Remove and repaint the gray frown, including the points at the ends. This should be pretty straightforward, actually. I just want to get on with the 501st admission before taking the time, and the bucket is fine as-is for that.
• ABS paste and sanding to conceal the seam for the kidney shim. This will be a pain.
• Fullv convert Anovos Velcro strapping over to snap plates (not required for EIB but I still want to, as a priority). Need to decide if I’m using nylon strapping for “plates”, or find a source of good (thicker) ABS for plates (Anovos scrap is too thin, IMO). This will be a pain, but it can be done slowly, over time, just replacing a strap or two per night here and there.
• Helmet upgrades: Install fans, electronic voice changer. This should be fairly straightforward, once I get the TK Voice app working correctly on my phone... and once Echo has time to make my fan rig. Otherwise I’ll need to rig something up myself, if he takes too long. I don’t think I can wear that helmet very long without something to provide airflow!
• General helmet teardown, improve ear curve fitment, etc. This will complicated, of course.
• Convert shoulder straps to Centurion-approved white elastic with snaps. Shouldn’t be overly difficult, but has to be done in conjunction with the snap plate conversion, since it will affect the shoulder armor strapping as well.
• Bicep armpit “Han hooks”? (only if needed... I do need a source of thicker ABS for this, otherwise, very simple)
• Elastic loops to hold shoulder straps to back plate. Easy, just gotta buy the right elastic.

Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

One of my shins is twisted. Might try the bath to fix it. I have to do the shoulders so will have to get some boiling water going anyway.

[kman[TK]]

One of my shins is twisted. Might try the bath to fix it. I have to do the shoulders so will have to get some boiling water going anyway.

There's actually a slight curve to my right shin, as a result of having to torque it (and heat treat it to stay) to get the top lined up right. It's not especially noticeable when wearing it, though, so I'm not going to bother rebuilding it (if that would even work without somehow adding more material). How bad is yours?

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Probably 1cm out of line (so the ends are 1cm out of level if if that makes sense). I might just leave it and let the closures hold them in place.

[kman[TK]]

Probably 1cm out of line (so the ends are 1cm out of level if if that makes sense). I might just leave it and let the closures hold them in place.

Oh! I think you mean you had the same issue I did. (see mega post #88, on the previous page, near the bottom of the post, the last 2 photos in that post) The hot water bath did a good job of cleaning that up.

Edited March 15, 2016 by kman

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Yea but sounds like yours was more pronounced than mine is.

[Burke Kevlar]

Amazing work! You clearly did your homework before diving in. I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to finally get things out together. I've been stuck just browsing these threads endlessly, making a vague list of everything I need to get done. Your approach was practical: get most of it done, get trooping, then start to work on EIB and Centurion status. <br><br>

It's not bad to plan that stuff from the start, but at some point, I have to start gluing! <br><br>

Thanks again!

[kman[TK]]

More little things. Life is really really busy right now, so I'm only getting a couple small things per night taken care of, at this point, if that. Here's last night's work:

 

Step one, sanding the repaired belt button cover. Here it is, close to the final product, next to the other two (I'll do one more round of paste and sanding before calling these done):

 

 

Let's call it "battle damaged"! LOL It's a little better now, after another pass, but not perfect. When Anovos finally gets around to selling replacement parts, I might buy a few.

 

From there, I used E6000, clamps and magnets to glue the button covers onto the belt. Under the covers are the bases to the Chicago screws, open side toward the body (fabric belt). I left the screws in place, and put a teeny-tiny piece of painters tape at the tip of the screw. I'm thinking this will (a) prevent E6000 from pouring into, and filling up, the threaded body of the Chicago screw, and ( the tape will prevent the glue from sticking to the screw itself and making removal difficult.

 

 

So tonight, when the clamps and tape come off, this f#*&ing belt will FINALLY be completely done. That was an entirely unnecessary delay to this project's completion, entirely owed to Anovos' bad choice of belts (and worse choice of glue for the ammo belt)!

 

Next up, a bit of paint.

 

White paint on the thigh ammo pack rivets:

 

 

White paint on the side rivets on the main body:

 

 

And finally, black paint on screws of the TD:

 

 

More cross-outs on the ol' to-do list:

• Painting: Paint the side rivets and thigh rivets white, however, and the TD screws black. DONE.
• Strapping: Modifications to the chest plate strapping are needed, to stop it from popping up. I'm thinking some popper straps that provide a hard stop just before it can go too far.
• Back Plate: More heat bending of back plate shoulder straps for better fit. This shouldn't take too long, but it's tricky, so finger's crossed.
• Helmet: Cleanup work on the helmet eye trim/excess flashing. DONE. Further mods can wait until after basic acceptance.
• Shin Armor: Finish velcro and heat treatment of right shin armor. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Rebuild destroyed button. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Finish sanding and cleanup of rebuilt button, and glue all covers to ammo belt. DONE.
• Cleanup: General cleanup of excess glue, finishing edge sanding for smoothness and comfort, etc. E6000 on side split rivets. Remove protective plastic, finally! Hopefully all this won’t take a huge amount of time, but it might take more than I wish...
• TD Velcro: Add loop-side Velcro to back of straps to protect armor
• Ab Button Plates: They're painted (well enough for now), so I just have to glue them on. Planned for last.

And finally, these steps remain that I plan to take after basic acceptance is done, for my own peace of mind, for a possible EIB submission, and hopefully eventually Centurion:

• Thigh loops/garter: Convert thigh Anovos snaps to 3" elastic straps looped around a belt, a vastly better system. Should be easy enough. Definitely first on the list!
• Boot protection: Add white felt at the bottom of the shin armor, to protect the shoes.
• Helmet painting: Paint the inside of the helmet with black Plasti-Dip spray. This will obviously take a fair amount of time to mask everything thoroughly for overspray (after I quickly tear everything out). And of course then it'll need a couple of days to dry, and off-gas completely so it can be worn.
• Helmet rigging: Remove Anovos hard hat rigging, install military helmet pads (can’t install these until the plasti-dip is dry).
• Helmet Lens: Split the lenses and mounting them with standoffs. (T-nuts, but the plastidip work needs to be finished first)
• Frown: Remove and repaint the gray frown, including the points at the ends. This should be pretty straightforward, actually. I just want to get on with the 501st admission before taking the time, and the bucket is fine as-is for that.
• Gloves: Glue "justjoseph" latex hand guards to back of the rubber Anovos gloves.
• Shim: ABS paste and sanding to conceal the seam for the kidney shim. This will be a pain.
• Snap Plates: Fullv convert Anovos Velcro strapping over to snap plates (not required for EIB but I still want to, as a priority). Need to decide if I’m using nylon strapping for “plates”, or find a source of good (thicker) ABS for plates (Anovos scrap is too thin, IMO). This will be a pain, but it can be done slowly, over time, just replacing a strap or two per night here and there.
• Shoulder Straps: Convert shoulder straps to Centurion-approved white elastic with snaps. Shouldn’t be overly difficult, but has to be done in conjunction with the snap plate conversion, since it will affect the shoulder armor strapping as well.
• Shoulder loops: Elastic loops to hold shoulder straps to back plate. Easy, just gotta buy the right elastic.
• Bicep armpit “Han hooks”: Only if needed... I do need a source of thicker ABS for this, otherwise, very simple
• Helmet upgrades: Install fans, electronic voice changer. This should be fairly straightforward, once I get the TK Voice app working correctly on my phone... and once Echo has time to make my fan rig. Otherwise I’ll need to rig something up myself, if he takes too long. I don’t think I can wear that helmet very long without something to provide airflow!
• General helmet teardown: Improve ear curve fitment, etc. This will complicated, of course. Definitely low priority.

Next up is definitely finishing the heat shaping of the pack piece. Then I can finish the final Velcro strapping and take some submission photos! (after gluing the already-painted ab button plates on, of course)

 

I could probably finish this for basic submission in one evening, if I had one full uninterrupted evening to work on this, but nope! Unless some plans get canceled, perhaps early next week?

Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[kman[TK]]

Ok.  Despite a dinner party (erin go bragh!) my low need for sleep allowed me to accomplish some stuff tonight.

 

First off, the ammo belt came out fine.  It's now attached to my belt and ready for business!

 

 

Secondly, I tackled the backplate, and it's obscenely sharp shoulder curves.  First step was to taper the return edge down to nearly nothing, so the bend doesn't cause a crack.  (I learned my lesson the first time, so this is all done on my replacement backplate)  Here is the backplate with the return edge knocked down, but you can see the absurd stock bend is still there:

 

 

I used the boiling water technique as follows:

 

Bring a pot of water to boil.  Turn off the heat and wait approx 1 min for the metal temps to stabilize to the water temp, so I don't accidentally melt anything.  (this is a little less important for this particular piece, since only a little is going in from the top, but it's much more important for larger pieces, like when I did my shins in a large roasting pan and they DID touch the bottom of the pan)  Then put the piece in the water for a full minute:

 

 

Pull the piece out, dry as fast as possible (so you don't scald yourself!) and bend the piece up carefully.  Hold it in position and either plunge it into very cold water (ice water if you want) or under the cold water tap.  Cool the plastic to help lock the new shape in place.  Repeat as needed, if the bend is not holding.  Increase the immersion time as a last resort, but be careful!  If you get the plastic TOO hot, it can literally warp in unsalvageable ways just from it's own weight!  Here's the final product... notice how much better that curve is!

 

 

Next, I tackled the chest-to-ab connection that was allowing the ab plate to pop from under the chest piece.  I decided snap plates were in order.  I'm going to start with a pair right in the middle, and see how that goes. So I took some nylon webbing (I had some strong stuff from TrooperBay, else I would have used straps salvaged from the Anovos straps) and made a pair of strips like so:

 

 

I taped the back of the metal to avoid any heat issues.  Not sure it's a legit concern, but the tape won't hurt anything (in fact it will stop glue from squirting inside the snap) and it might help, and it only takes a second, so I did it.  Apply glue liberally:

 

 

... and place into the chest plate.  Tape it in place thoroughly (it wanted to drift all over until I did, even with clamps!), clamp it, and add a magnet in the center.

 

 

Next repeat for the ab plate:

 

 

Then tape, clamp, etc, as before:

 

 

Once the glue is cured tomorrow, I'll measure how long the connecting straps need to be and whip them up.

 

As a final step, I added some loop-side (the soft side) velcro to back of the TD straps, to help protect the back armor from scratches.

 

 

One important question:  Now that the ammo belt is connected to the canvas belt, I'm going to be gluing down the drop boxes so they can't move out of position.  Does anyone know which of these is correct?

 

Option 1: Drop box aligned with the very edge of the belt

 

Option 2: Drop box aligned with the corner of the belt, just before the 45 degree angle cut:

 

Hey, check out that to-do list... I wonder if I can take submission photos tomorrow?

• Painting: Paint the side rivets and thigh rivets white, however, and the TD screws black. DONE.
• Strapping: Modifications to the chest plate strapping are needed, to stop it from popping up. MOSTLY done, just have to make the connecting straps tomorrow, which is easy once the clamps come off the cured snaps.
• Back Plate: More heat bending of back plate shoulder straps for better fit. DONE!
• Helmet: Cleanup work on the helmet eye trim/excess flashing. DONE. Further mods can wait until after basic acceptance.
• Shin Armor: Finish velcro and heat treatment of right shin armor. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Rebuild destroyed button. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Finish sanding and cleanup of rebuilt button, and glue all covers to ammo belt. DONE.
• Cleanup: General cleanup of excess glue, finishing edge sanding for smoothness and comfort, etc. E6000 on side split rivets. Remove protective plastic, finally! Hopefully all this won’t take a huge amount of time, but it might take more than I wish...
• Drop Boxes: Glue drop boxes in place with E6000
• TD Velcro: Add loop-side Velcro to back of straps to protect armor DONE.
• Ab Button Plates: They're painted (well enough for now), so I just have to glue them on. Planned for last.

And finally, these steps remain that I plan to take after basic acceptance is done, for my own peace of mind, for a possible EIB submission, and hopefully eventually Centurion:

• Thigh loops/garter: Convert thigh Anovos snaps to 3" elastic straps looped around a belt, a vastly better system. Should be easy enough. Definitely first on the list!
• Boot protection: Add white felt at the bottom of the shin armor, to protect the shoes.
• Helmet painting: Paint the inside of the helmet with black Plasti-Dip spray. This will obviously take a fair amount of time to mask everything thoroughly for overspray (after I quickly tear everything out). And of course then it'll need a couple of days to dry, and off-gas completely so it can be worn.
• Helmet rigging: Remove Anovos hard hat rigging, install military helmet pads (can’t install these until the plasti-dip is dry).
• Helmet Lens: Split the lenses and mounting them with standoffs. (T-nuts, but the plastidip work needs to be finished first)
• Frown: Remove and repaint the gray frown, including the points at the ends. This should be pretty straightforward, actually. I just want to get on with the 501st admission before taking the time, and the bucket is fine as-is for that.
• Gloves: Glue "justjoseph" latex hand guards to back of the rubber Anovos gloves.
• Shim: ABS paste and sanding to conceal the seam for the kidney shim. This will be a pain.
• Snap Plates: Fullv convert Anovos Velcro strapping over to snap plates (not required for EIB but I still want to, as a priority). Need to decide if I’m using nylon strapping for “plates”, or find a source of good (thicker) ABS for plates (Anovos scrap is too thin, IMO). This will be a pain, but it can be done slowly, over time, just replacing a strap or two per night here and there.
• Shoulder Straps: Convert shoulder straps to Centurion-approved white elastic with snaps. Shouldn’t be overly difficult, but has to be done in conjunction with the snap plate conversion, since it will affect the shoulder armor strapping as well.
• Shoulder loops: Elastic loops to hold shoulder straps to back plate. Easy, just gotta buy the right elastic.
• Bicep armpit “Han hooks”: Only if needed... I do need a source of thicker ABS for this, otherwise, very simple
• Helmet upgrades: Install fans, electronic voice changer. This should be fairly straightforward, once I get the TK Voice app working correctly on my phone... and once Echo has time to make my fan rig. Otherwise I’ll need to rig something up myself, if he takes too long. I don’t think I can wear that helmet very long without something to provide airflow!
• General helmet teardown: Improve ear curve fitment, etc. This will complicated, of course. Definitely low priority.

Depending on how things go, I may even touch up the frown (no need to repaint fully) before basic 501st submission... Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Very nice, very nice

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

[allan1313[TK]]

I am pretty sure the drop box aligns with the absolute edge of the belt.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Allan is correct. Drop box alignment

 

[kman[TK]]

Excellent! One little task on my way out the door this morning, then, and we're that much closer:

 

 

Some final cleanup, and glue the ab button plates on, and I believe I'll be ready to take some submission photos this evening.

• Painting: Paint the side rivets and thigh rivets white, however, and the TD screws black. DONE.
• Back Plate: More heat bending of back plate shoulder straps for better fit. DONE!
• Shin Armor: Finish velcro and heat treatment of right shin armor. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Rebuild destroyed button. DONE.
• Ammo pack button covers: Finish sanding and cleanup of rebuilt button, and glue all covers to ammo belt. DONE.
• TD Velcro: Add loop-side Velcro to back of straps to protect armor DONE.
• Drop Boxes: Glue drop boxes in place with E6000 DONE.
• Helmet: Cleanup work on the helmet eye trim/excess flashing. DONE. Further mods can wait until after basic acceptance.
• Strapping: Modifications to the chest plate strapping are needed, to stop it from popping up. MOSTLY done, just have to make the connecting straps tomorrow, which is easy once the clamps come off the cured snaps.
• Ab Button Plates: They're painted (well enough for now), so I just have to glue them on. Planned for last.
• Cleanup: General cleanup of excess glue, finishing edge sanding for smoothness and comfort, etc. E6000 on side split rivets. Remove protective plastic, finally!
• Photos: Submission photos to 501st. Woohoo!

And finally, these steps remain that I plan to take after basic acceptance is done, for my own peace of mind, for a possible EIB submission, and hopefully eventually Centurion:

• Thigh loops/garter: Convert thigh Anovos snaps to 3" elastic straps looped around a belt, a vastly better system. Should be easy enough. Definitely first on the list!
• Boot protection: Add white felt at the bottom of the shin armor, to protect the shoes.
• Snap Plates: Fullv convert Anovos Velcro strapping over to snap plates (not required for EIB but I still want to, as a priority). Need to decide if I’m using nylon strapping for “plates”, or find a source of good (thicker) ABS for plates (Anovos scrap is too thin, IMO). This will be a pain, but it can be done slowly, over time, just replacing a strap or two per night here and there.
• Shoulder Straps: Convert shoulder straps to Centurion-approved white elastic with snaps. Shouldn’t be overly difficult, but has to be done in conjunction with the snap plate conversion, since it will affect the shoulder armor strapping as well.
• Shoulder loops: Elastic loops to hold shoulder straps to back plate. Easy, just gotta buy the right elastic.
• Frown: Remove and repaint the gray frown, including the points at the ends. This should be pretty straightforward, actually. I just want to get on with the 501st admission before taking the time, and the bucket is fine as-is for that.
• Helmet painting: Paint the inside of the helmet with black Plasti-Dip spray. This will obviously take a fair amount of time to mask everything thoroughly for overspray (after I quickly tear everything out). And of course then it'll need a couple of days to dry, and off-gas completely so it can be worn.
• Helmet rigging: Remove Anovos hard hat rigging, install military helmet pads (can’t install these until the plasti-dip is dry).
• Helmet Lens: Split the lenses and mounting them with standoffs. (T-nuts, but the plastidip work needs to be finished first)
• Gloves: Glue "justjoseph" latex hand guards to back of the rubber Anovos gloves.
• Shim: ABS paste and sanding to conceal the seam for the kidney shim. This will be a pain.
• Bicep armpit “Han hooks”: Only if needed... I do need a source of thicker ABS for this, otherwise, very simple
• Helmet upgrades: Install fans, electronic voice changer. This should be fairly straightforward, once I get the TK Voice app working correctly on my phone... and once Echo has time to make my fan rig. Otherwise I’ll need to rig something up myself, if he takes too long. I don’t think I can wear that helmet very long without something to provide airflow!
• General helmet teardown: Improve ear curve fitment, etc. This will complicated, of course. Definitely low priority.

Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[kman[TK]]

Snap strips accomplished!

 

Fairly routine procedure, once the clamps came off. Reassemble the armor, and here are the new snap "plates":

 

 

Find the max stretch point, just before the ab plate is going to pop out from under the chest, measure the length needed to connect the new snaps at that distance, and cut two strips of nylon webbing at that length. My handy hot nail makes the hole:

 

 

... and the snaps are installed.

 

 

I took the clamps off my ammo belt (the drop boxes were being glued into place), and reassembled the full belt, with holster and all. I love that this thing goes together so easily with Chicago screws!

 

 

This is it. The plastic sheeting came off! WOOHOO! No more saran wrapped armor!

 

At that point, the last thing really is gluing the button plates onto the ab armor. They were painted days ago, and shaped weeks ago, a little glue an magnet action, and Bob's your uncle:

 

 

And now, I am LITERALLY waiting for glue to dry, before I can take my admission pics. *sigh*

 

I got bored while waiting, so looking at my belt sitting there, with the blaster inside, I decided to finally add the D-ring to my Hyperfirm, so it's good for Centurion. Not needed right now, but hey, it's something to do!

 

At Home Depot, I had picked up some black decorative chain. (it's the kind they use for hanging lamps and stuff like that) One foot was $0.98, even though I only need one link. I guess I have a lot of spares! At least it's already painted black, so there's one less thing I need to do.

 

 

Next, drill a hole through the mounting point for the chain.

 

 

Then I went out to my tool bench, and got busy with the vice grip. I took one link off the chain (twisting with pliers and a screwdriver did the trick). The decorative chain was a little too oval, so I a squished it in my bench vise until it screamed... that is, until it was properly pill shaped.

 

 

Next, a hacksaw made quick work of the inside bits, because this metal is way too strong to bend into place without damaging something, unless it has to bend far less. So I cut away about 3/16" from each side of the joint.

 

 

After that, it was just a matter of wrestling it into place! Much less bending needed since I removed that material, and I was able to get the second side into the newly drilled hole without messing anything up. Here we go!

 

 

DRY GLUE, DRY!

 

No way I'm gonna last 24 hours. Since the only thing still going are the ab button plates, I think I'll grab some dinner, and then see if the glue is set enough for some photos. A quick photo session, and I'll be done! THEN I'll put the magnets back on so the glue can cure overnight.

 

To be continued...

Edited March 21, 2016 by kman

[kman[TK]]

Submitted to 501st for approval.

 

I don't anticipate any issues, but I guess we'll see! I definitely have plenty of work to do before I could spend multiple hours in this armor (even ignoring the current lack of cooling fans). First up is improved strapping for the thighs. I'm really starting to hate the Anovos thigh strapping. It's never convenient to hook up, no matter which side you start with! And looking at these photos, I clearly have them them a bit too low, so I need to remember to pull them higher next time. (which will also help with the thigh armor over the sniper knee issue)  I also need to add more new snaps to the chest/ab connection. The new snaps helped, but they did pop out at one point, so I need some more to hold it in place. The left side of the armor clamshell is fine, since it's held by all the rivets, but the right side doesn't seem quite good enough to hold it right, although the belt make it something of a non-issue. But proper snaps, again, will help a lot.

 

And THEN we have the rest of the to-do list. *sigh* But at least I'm finally submitted, as a start.

 

Edited March 20, 2016 by kman

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Congratulations on finishing.

 

What size Chicago screws did you use to hold the plastic to the belt? I need to get cracking on the belt soon.

[kman[TK]]

Congratulations on finishing.

 

What size Chicago screws did you use to hold the plastic to the belt? I need to get cracking on the belt soon.

"Finishing" HA!

 

I took the Chicago screws that came for the holster and used them for the belt. Just the right length. Then I bought new stainless steel ones (Tandy) to hold to holster (since I stole 3 of the 4 aluminum ones it came with). The SS ones were a little bit longer than the aluminum ones, but in the same ballpark. I think I posted a photo of the lot of them, a few posts back. (EDIT: Yes, see Post #84 on page 5)

Edited March 19, 2016 by kman