Haso's ANH Stunt TK Build - AP Armour

[Haso[TK]]

...forgot to say, I also used a hot water bath to twist the outer side of the sniper plate inwards to help with the fitting.  Not much, was just a small amount, but a little just to reduce the gap a bit.

[Pyrates[TK]]

Sweet job mate and coming along awesome!

Edited March 13, 2016 by Pyrates

[Haso[TK]]

Sniper Knee Plate fitting:

 

So I've done a little mock up of how I've approached this so far.  Gist being that the fit on both sides of the plate don't align with both angled ridges on the shin.

 

This piece will be the shin:

 

And here's the shin with the sniper plate.  Note where I've got the pencil is where the two parts don't align - note the angle of each is way different:

 

If I place the sniper plate in position so that it's centred at front, and aligning with the inner shin (which is left of the picture), you see the right side sniper plate and shin do not match, in fact it 'overshoots' the shin:

 

What I've done, is use a hot water bath (be careful not to have any plastic touch the sides and bottom of the pot) to gently bend the mis-aligned side of the sniper plate in slightly (below).

Important - I've exaggerated this bend for the purpose of illustration only, check out post #25 to see what I actually did on the armour.

(below pic - looking at the sniper plate from the back)

 

The result I got, is similar to what I've demonstrated below (remembering that the curve is an exaggeration):

 

First, the 'good' side, or the inner side of the shin.

 

and the 'outside' of the shin:

 

I hope this might be helpful to someone else in a similar position.  I'm not sure this tip will be useful for everyone, but it's how I hope I've reduced the amount of 'error' in the sniper plate.  Before gluing, I've done a dry fitting - see my post #25.

 

I'll glue each side in turn, once the previous one is fully cured - say 1-2 days.  This will be a week long exercise!  Would be interesting to hear how Mark (AP) approaches this, and what he does.

 

Kris

[ComradeDave[TK]]

Brilliant work man! You're flying along I found this helpful for when I have to do my shins.

[Atin[TK]]

I'm currently building my AP as well and this thread is pure gold.

[Haso[TK]]

I'm currently building my AP as well and this thread is pure gold.

Hey thanks mate. Much appreciated. Got some more updates and pics to post up soon...on cover strips, sniper plate and about to start some belt fittings and snap plates.

 

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[Haso[TK]]

Brilliant work man! You're flying along I found this helpful for when I have to do my shins.

Cheers Comrade! Am also closely following your build and wishing I had your patience and slower approach to things!

 

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[Pyrates[TK]]

Beautiful job Kris!

 

I'm experimenting with a lotof E-6000, clamps,Fix-it stick, and silicone.

 

Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

[Haso[TK]]

Beautiful job Kris!

 

I'm experimenting with a lotof E-6000, clamps,Fix-it stick, and silicone.

 

Can't wait to see how yours turns out!

I've gone through 4 tubes of e-6000, and counting, lol!

 

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[Haso[TK]]

Converting the AP ESB Holster to ANH:

 

I've always wanted to convert the holster supplied with my AP kit from the ESB version to the ANH version with the natural tan leather straps.  I think it is still acceptable as is for ANH (but don't quote me on that), but really want that natural leather look (Don't we all, lol!).

 

So here's how I did it.  This is a pretty straightforward process.  This update is pretty pic heavy.

 

Extra equipment for this job:

 

1) Leather Punch

2) A piece of natural leather

3) Some craft glue suitable for leather

 

(I picked up a length of natural tan leather for $5, and the leather hole punch for about $30, both from Spotlight, and the craft glue from Lincraft, which might mean something to any other Aussie builders.  The leather is pretty much enough to do this job with some scrap left over).

 

Straight off the bat, here's the result we're setting out to achieve:

 

We're also referring to this diagram (pic below), more so for the length of the straps attaching the holster to the belt.  They are 3/4" by 4" wide.  It's really only that 4" length we need  to make sure we have with our piece of tan scrap, because we'll simply use the existing black straps for the width measurement.  I believe this diagram is sourced from a Trooper Master plan, so credit where it's due:

 

 

Firstly, unscrew the Chicago screws attaching the black straps to the holster, and use the straps as a template to draw onto the natural leather piece.  See pic below, ensure you also trace the hole that will be made for the Chicago screw.  Length of the natural leather is approx 4 1/2" long, I just left it at that (we can trim as needed when fitting to the canvas belt):

 

 

Cut out the leather strips.  

With the leather hole punch, cut out the holes for the Chicago screws.  I found that the highest setting on my hole punch - 4.5mm, was just about right to fit the screws through, I just twisted them into the holes to make them that little bit bigger.

 

Also, using the black strips, cut out the squares that will be added back to the holster.  I made sure that the squares were large enough to go right to the top of the holster, to fill the whole corner.  The line across the black strap is a pencil line, where I'll cut it for my little black squares (pic below.  I apologise for the blurriness, I'm a crap photographer with a crappy phone, and don't notice the blur till I'm seeing them posted on here):

 

Yikes!  If we place the new tan straps back over the holster they don't go to the edge, and I want them to go to the edge.  Nevermind, I'll just mark where I need new holes and punch them in (pic below):

 

 

...and here's the two holes I have (got this on both sides now).  The exacto blade points to the NEW hole that I want (pic below)...we'll plug the old holes next.

 

 

Now this bit is a little fiddly, but not that difficult.

Using the rest of the black straps that is now scrap, cut some small pieces sufficient to plug the holes.  Put some blue painters tape around the area of the hole that you want to fill - this is to help prevent glue going onto other parts of your holster.  Kind of like how a surgeon covers around the area they cut into.  Make the little pieces fit just right, or slightly large if possible, apply glue into the hole, and push the little pieces into the hole (pic below):

 

..and hole plugged:

 

Now simply reassemble the holster.

 

I put the natural tan leather straps at bottom, then the holster, then the little black squares on top (so the holster is basically sandwiched).  Then reattach the Chicago screws, and you're done....

 

 

Done!  Simples (kind of...)

 

I'll post up some progress pics of sniper plate assembly tomorrow.

 

Kris

[Dougal[501st]]

Looking really good Kris!

[ComradeDave[TK]]

LOL it's not patience it's pure terror! I've already mangled a bucket I'm moving at a Hutt's pace I wish I could be more finished :L

 

 

Cheers Comrade! Am also closely following your build and wishing I had your patience and slower approach to things!

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[Haso[TK]]

Ok all, I'm going to post up a big update on shin sniper plate, arms, torso strapping and hand plates, so here goes...

 

Straight up, progress on my sniper plate.  I've glued the front, and inner side, but still to do the outer.  I hadn't anticipated the outer side sitting as high over the shin ridge as it does, and I'll need to pull it down in order to fix it as shown in one of the photos.  

I glued the front on first and waited a good 24 hours before glueing the inner side.  I've since been away and so both of these have had about a week to fully cure, which is good because the last side is going to be interesting...I'll clean up the area around the glued sections at a later time.

 

 

Arms & shoulder bells

Have finished assembling the cover strips (both inner and outer) and these all seem to fit pretty good.  I've taken out all return edges for both the wrist and elbow ends of the forearms but have still to decide on how I'll trim the top of the forearms to get a good taper across the two halves of the armour.  Will come back to that though.  I'm going to attach the black strapping to these this week; well that's the plan.  To do this, I'll study TK 1636's video tutorials hard - I'm finding these to be gold to help with my build, as well as Trooperbay's tutorial vids too:

 

 

Hand guards

I got these from Trooperbay, and went for the plain latex handguards that needed to be painted.  As they are a clear brownish colour, they need to be painted white and for these I made a concoction of white acrylic, a fabric medium additive (to convert the white acrylic to a fabric paint), and some white PVA wood glue (the last I picked up from a tutorial here on FISD from Sonnenshein, who I was going to buy these from till she stopped making them earlier this year).

I really want to get the rough painted, cracked look for these so I wasn't too precious in painting them.  I want to keep as much of the flashing that I've put around it as possible:

 

I painted these with a crappy cheap paint brush from a $2 shop, and to be honest I'm not sure how these will hold up long term, I got a feeling these will require pretty constant maintenance if the paint does chip off too quick.  We'll wait & see...

 

Torso Strapping

I chose to go the screen-accurate brackets and elastic route for this, and received a package in the mail today from mrnostripes on FISD:

At this point, I went over to Trooperbay's video tutorial and simply followed that process to get these results (I'd say it took about 1 1/2 hours for a newb like be to do, but it was a pretty straightforward process and not high on the difficulty level.  I'd recommend considering this method, at least it minimises the snaps you need to make...)

...of course, I had to stuff up my very last drill hole, and went the wrong way along the armour, lol:

Nothing that some abs paste can't fix I guess.  I've already glued a piece of scrap abs behind it in readiness for the paste.  I'll paint the screws white at a later time.

 

And also....

Found a cool use for the original helmet trim that I replace with a Trooperbay s-trim.

Use it to mount the teeth mesh.  I simply cut some up and glued it along the bottom of the teeth.  The mesh can just be slotted into it, and I then put another small piece near the nose to hold the middle top of the mesh (which is what that blue-tape magnet is gluing on).  Works like a charm.

 

And tip - don't ever put blu-tac on plasti-dip, even temporarily - you can't get it all off (unfortunately in my constant search for good fan and mesh mountings, I had blu-tac and velcro in the bucket and that's what's causing the wear and tear on the plasti-dip).  I can always go back and touch those areas up, but won't do so till I've finished my tinkering in there.

 

 

I've also gone the padding route for my bucket, with some velcro attached to the inside of the bucket, it's easy enough to configure it so it's comfortable and sits well.  The pads I just ordered off ebay and they're military style, used for paintball helmets etc...

 

 

Anyway that's a quick rundown of my recent progress, it's all been a bit scattergun lately as I've waited for the torso brackets to arrive, which would kick off the strapping/fitting phase proper.

 

I'll post a little more on my fans (which I've sourced from a local supplier - our local GML) and other bits and pieces over coming days.

 

BTW - my E-11 is a pvc pipe build.  Parts on their way from Doopy Doos, I've cut out the pvc pipe, and some other bits (t-tracks, completion kit) to be sourced from FISD.

 

Kris

[ComradeDave[TK]]

Lookin tight and right my friend!

[Pyrates[TK]]

Beauty mate!

[Dougal[501st]]

I've seen the trooperbay videos they help a lot but haven't seen TK 1636's. I'll have to find those and check them out!

[Haso[TK]]

I've seen the trooperbay videos they help a lot but haven't seen TK 1636's. I'll have to find those and check them out!

Yeah mate. Do yourself a favour and search for tk1636 on YouTube. Great vids.

[Pyrates[TK]]

I've seen the trooperbay videos they help a lot but haven't seen TK 1636's. I'll have to find those and check them out!

Here you go mate:

45 videos showing TK assembly. by- TK 1636

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/34351-45-videos-showing-TK-assembly%2E-by--TK-1636

[spyder918]

Here you go mate:

45 videos showing TK assembly. by- TK 1636http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/34351-45-videos-showing-TK-assembly.-by--TK-1636

It's crazy how fast he is!

[Haso[TK]]

It's crazy how fast he is!

Only a Jedi has reflexes that quick!

 

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[Haso[TK]]

Hey all,

 

After the weekend's Armour Party I can now start back into my build.  I had help with fitting for the torso section and am now up to strapping.

 

I just realised though that I've glued 20mm rear cover strips to the shins.  I've used 20mm for the shin fronts, and thigh front and backs as well.

 

I'm going with the bra clip and hook method, and they seem to be adequately hidden behind the 20mm cover strips, but I need to check properly once the glue has dried (E-6000) where I've anchored the clips into the shin.

 

My question is: as I'm going for a Centurion build, will the 20mm rear cover strips on the shins need to be upgraded to 25mm?  I know that the larger width seems to be widely accepted for the back of the shins.

 

If so, I've got no worries ordering more ABS plastic from Trooperbay (I don't have enough scrap to make larger cover strips), but otherwise, if 20mm is acceptable at Centurion level for shin back covers, I may leave as is....depending on aesthetic results when I can try on the shins to test the clips.  My other concern is because the strips are 20mm, it forces the clip holes to be closer to the edge of the shin...potential cracks etc...

 

I got a feeling I'm starting to answer my own question, but would be grateful if others could chime in.

[ComradeDave[TK]]

I've had this same issue with cover strips, there seems to be norms but variations are accepted. for example due to my size the 15-16 mm coverstrip on my arm armour had to be taken down to 13, I've asked around an that seems to be ok.

 

I'm not on my leg armor just yet, :L 

[Pyrates[TK]]

As long as the cover strips are uniform and look proportional with the other parts you will be fine.

 

If you're very concerned that it doesn't then take a dry fit pic and PM Andrew or Tony - they may not get back to you right away, due to their roles, but those guys really take good care of us and always answer

[Sentry71[TK]]

As long as the cover strips are uniform and look proportional with the other parts you will be fine.

 

If you're very concerned that it doesn't then take a dry fit pic and PM Andrew or Tony - they may not get back to you right away, due to their roles, but those guys really take good care of us and always answer

I did this as well - contacted Tony about slightly wider strips, and he said to keep it proportional.

[Haso[TK]]

OK I've let my thread go dead for a while but I can say I'm 90% done. A stack of pics and updates incoming this week...

 

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