Count Chocula MTK ANH Stunt Build Thread

[count chocula]

Hey all! I'm a 32-yo from Houston. I landed a set of MTK armor a couple of weeks ago (talked my wife into making it a valentine's day gift). I've been collecting parts and tools and doing a bunch of research.  I'm excited to get started on building some armor. 

 

I kind of went crazy this weekend and trimmed/sanded about half of the kit and did a rough fit of the arms/legs. Will attach photobomb soon.

[Trogdor[TK]]

Welcome Sean. I'm tuning in to see another MTK build.

[count chocula]

The BBB - sans helmet (which is on the way).

 

Edited March 17, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

I started by trimming/sanding the forearms. The left is a little smaller than the right, as starsaber and others have noted. I can just fit my left hand through the forearm without a glove.

 

 

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

Biceps

 

 

 

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

Shoulders

 

 

I think I may need to take off some more of the return edge

 

 

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

Thighs

 

 

 

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

Shins

 

 

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

Dropboxes

 

 

 

 

 

 

TD faceplate

 

 

 

 

TD endcaps and shoulder straps

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[count chocula]

so many scraps

 

 

 

Rough test fit

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully nothing is too bad. I was a little worried earlier today that the thighs were going to be way too tight. After further research I realized I was putting the two outer thigh pieces together *whew*

Edited February 29, 2016 by count chocula

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Off to a great start. Cool to see more MTK builds. 

[count chocula]

I see some people rounding off the edges of the cover strips, like this (or maybe a little less popsicle-stick-looking than this):

 

 

 

While others seem to leave the cover strip ends at almost 90 degree angles:

 

 

 

 

Is there any consensus on whether these should be rounded? Or is it just a matter of personal preference? 

[Trogdor[TK]]

I don't have the reference shot handy but it think originals had like 75-80degree angle. Personally I took the comers off because they are so sharp and with wonky shaped armor the angles seem to fit better.<br><br>

I think it was the RS suit reference pics I was referring too but here is a build thread with lots of pics from one of the deployment officers. <br>

<a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31920-ukswraths-am-10-ata-bucket-build/?p=411829'>http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31920-ukswraths-am-10-ata-bucket-build/?p=411829</a>

Edited March 4, 2016 by Trogdor

[count chocula]

Thanks, Joe. That's helpful. I see from ukwrath's build a very tiny 45 degree cut angle on that shin cover strip, which looks nice.

 

 

I think I was trying to round mine off too much, which made them look a little less refined to me.

 

I also found this interesting thread from Clamps after posting this question. It seems like the overall idea is to look at reference photos and other builds and come up with your own interpretation while maintaining consistency throughout.

 

It also seems to depend somewhat on the angle of the edge of the part you are cover stripping, too, though, since some people curve the edges of the cover strips on the tops of the thighs a bit, for instance, to match the curve of the armor edge.

 

[count chocula]

I tackled the main armor belt and knee ammo belt using billhag's template for guidance.

 

 

Here's a link to the billhag photobucket.

 

I trimmed the main armor belt to 3ish mm on each side of the blocks and about 38mm/1.5 in from the end.

 

 

 

 

RE: the corners of the main ammo belt

 

Some seem to trim the corners of the main belt fairly liberally

 

 

But I think I've seen one or two people get dinged at the centurion/EIB level for trimming their ammo belt corners too much (although I can't find the threads now). Anyhow, I tried to make sure the trimmed ends of the armor belt lined up well with the canvas belt.

 

 

I measured my canvas belt from trooperbay to be about 7.5cm in width.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had trimmed the main ammo belt to about 9.5cm:

 

 

 

 

So I made the 45 degree cuts at the edge by marking about 1cm from each corner:

 

 

 

Then scored (using half of a paint mixing stick as an edge), snapped and sanded lightly:

 

 

 

The edges of the corners line up pretty well with the canvas belt.

 

 

 

On the knee belt, I trimmed the long edges to 3ish mm as per the BillHag template, then followed the advice of Mike from trooper bay and used the TD pvc pipe as a template to round out the bottom corners:

 

[count chocula]

I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks but I've made some progress with the kit. I'm going to an armor party this weekend so I wanted to try and get everything ready for fitting, etc. if possible... I think it's a good time to get some input/insight from those out there with experience. I've made a few errors along the way so maybe I can help out some future builders, too. 

 

Inner/outer cover strips

 

After sanding everything, I decided to start fixing parts together using inner cover strips first (hoping to make it easier to put the outer cover strips exactly where I wanted them).

 

I made inner cover strips roughly the width of the outer cover strips for each piece (5/8" for the arms, 7/8" for the legs) out of some of the trimmed ABS scraps (reserving all of the extra ABS provided in the MTK kit for the outer strips) and used these to join the arms and legs together.

 

Hard to see in this picture (above), but the inner strip is on the far inside edge.

 

The left forearm is a little bit tough to close compared to the right (the plastic forms don't really want to sit together the way you'd like them to). The same goes for the shins. (see below, when the middle was lined up, the tops and bottoms flared a little). 

 

 

My solution was basically to brute force each into shape with tape/magnets/clamps. Wrapping tape around the circumference of each piece was helpful to prevent the pieces from pulling apart.

 

 

 

 

 

Side note (red dye issue):

 

You may have noticed that there was some red stuff on some of the joints shown above (e.g.front grieve joint).

 

 

This came from one of the plastic clamps I bought from Amazon. I didn't use any tape to try and cover the orange/red part of the clamp itself, and I think that excess E6000 reacted with the clamp and basically dye'd that part of the plastic red. This particular area will be covered by an outer cover strip, but the same thing happened to the outside of several of my pieces, too, which was disturbing. 

 

It seems to happen mostly with the red-tipped plastic clamps and not the orange-tipped clamps, but that may be coincidence. I initially thought the dye was just within the glue residue. But I've tried scraping the glue off and the color actually seems to penetrate the plastic a little. The only way I was able to get rid of the spots so far was to sand down the plastic a bit (until the color was gone), then going over it with meguiar's cut and polish so that the sand spots go away. Maybe the higher level novus polishes (e.g. #2, #3) will take it off without sanding.

 

Red (left) vs. orange (right) clamps (I've now taped over the red clamp ends to try and prevent this):

 

 

 

After letting the inner strips set up for 24hrs (I'm using E6000), I noticed that (1) one of the forearm pieces had not lined up properly, and (2) the left bicep was a bit larger than the right, and seemed to flare out more at the top I (unfortunately I don't have pictures of this but my wife will corroborate).

 

I ended up re-do'ing the misaligned forearm and bicep strips, un-doing the E6000 connection on each, cleaning up the glue, and re-attaching with more E6000.

 

I later cut the outer cover strips from the official/quality ABS scrap provided by Mike with the MTK kit (5/8" for the arms, 7/8" for the legs). I made a small corner cut on each strip (trying to copy ukwrath and affixed those to each piece.

 

 

Placing the outer strips in the exact center of the joint seemed relatively easy now that the closure tension on the forearms, e.g. was absorbed by the inner strips. 

 

Here are some of the final covered edges of the legs:

 

 

 

Does anyone think the tops of the front grieve cover strips look a little off? I kind of want them to be more in center at the top recess/flat-part (they seem to favor the outsides at the moment, but when I was putting them together this position seemed best. Not sure if I should move them.

 

Other issues are: (1) there are gaps on the sides of some of the strips, particularly in the middle of the strips (the magnets I was using were kind of weak; recommend getting the real neomydium/rare-earth kind to others) and (2) I may have been too generous with the E6000 as there is some glue flash on the outside of some of the joints. See below

 

Gap (above)

 

Glue flash (above)

 

I'm planning to rehab the gapped edges with CAglue, using some better clamps. I'm hoping I'll be able to remove some of the glue flash with these felt polishing wheels I've ordered.

 

I also added hook to the biceps to hold the elastic from the shoulder bells using this tutorial form SIMpixels. They came out ok i think.

 

 

Ab plate

 

I painted the buttons on the ab plate (according to billhag's template) with humbrol paints. I may need to do another coat. I had some trouble with the blue button on the bottom of the main plate and had to redo it a few times by washing the excess off with paint thinner - hard to tell in this picture, though. I've heard that the ab plates are supposed to look like an extension of the ab piece itself. Not sure if I've accomplished that here or if I need to sand the edges more...

 

 

Chest/back

 

I trimmed and sanded chest and back pieces, then attached the shoulder straps to the chest piece. I lined them up by eye, sanded both spots on the outer chest piece and then E6000'ed the fronts of the straps onto the chest piece, trying to leave about 5-6 "bumps" of shoulder strap on the chest piece itself.

 

 

 

Again with the red stuff. I'll have to figure out something to do about that. Probably just sand a little and then novus polish.

 

 

Strapping/snapping

 

I started making some snaps to connect everything together. I bought a bunch on Tandy Line 24 snaps and a set of snap pliers. I cut out some squares from the polypro webbing I had purchased, put a hole in the middle of each with a soldering iron, and tried putting male and female parts on two different squares, but they wouldn't snap together. This was because the post on these Tandy snaps is relatively long, and the extra post material was grouping up within the business part of the snap, preventing the male and female parts from getting together. I needed to make a double-decker webbing strip for each side to make them work.

 

Single-"deck" webbing

 

Double-decker webbing

 

Double-decker webbing

 

Also, the pliers come with two receiver attachments, one (on the left) works better for the female base parts, whereas the right piece works better with the male base parts. If you use the male receiver on female bases, it will make a dimple in the base of the snap.

 

 

You have to squeeze the pretty hard to get the post to round out properly, and even then, sometimes I had to push the male and female parts together a few times before they became used to one another and sat well.

 

Anyway I added some snaps to the chest, back and shoulder pieces. Still have to put some on the other parts.

 

 

 

 

I finished my first tube of E6000 on the snap pieces.

 

 

 

 

Thermal detonator

 

The CRL says that the TD is supposed to be 7.5" long. My starting PVC was a little shorter than that, but I'm hoping the length of the end caps will make up for it.

 

 

I started by taping off an area for the faceplate, then primed the TD with this rustoleum primer. It turned out to be way too dark.

 

 

 

 

I then added a few coats of this krylon primer (which turned out a little lighter), sanded and added a few coats of clear coat. It looks better, but still a little darker than the ab buttons. Maybe I should sand and repaint with a lighter gray. Maybe just use the Humbrol grey from the ab buttons.... or maybe just leave it

 

 

 

I used two aluminum rulers from Amazon to make the TD straps/holder. In retrospect, these were a poor choice, as the rulers were wide than 1" (I had to dremel the width down) and the lettering/print was recessed into the aluminum and I had to sand off quite a bit of the metal to get the ink off and make it look smooth. 

 

I started by removing the cork backing and marking out 1" x 8.5" as per vern's tutorial.

 

 

 

After cutting along the lines with the dremel grind/cutoff wheel, I sanded the edges and face until smooth. The face took a while because of the recessed lettering.

 

 

I think the end result looks ok though. I left the print on the very bottom portion, because that's going to be up against the TD anyway.,

Edited March 16, 2016 by count chocula

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

Sorry I must have missed some of your previous posts, those shoulder bells could use a lot more trimming. You're doing a great job and I apologize again for the lack of feedback you've been getting. One of the issues with your snaps is you're using the clamping tool. I could never get that dang thing to work and I ended up ordering a Tandy anvil setter. Basically its a tool you put in on the post and you set the back side on a round anvil. Hammer it in and you're good to go. You may have bought longer posts too. You can always trim them down with a dremel if you want. I never had the leaching issues with clamps. I have a mixture of red and orange. Red from wal-mart and orange from lowes or home depot. Some buffing and polishing should get that corrected. It looks like the majority of areas will be hidden by a cover strip anyways. Your belt looks the way it is suppose to. Since you used E6000, I would remove the cover strips, peel off all the dried glue and reapply them to get rid of those gaps. Get  clamp the top and use painters tape to really force them down. Camp the bottom and put rare earth magnets along the strip on top of the painters tape. A little gap is ok but those ones are a little big. Some guys have gone as far as using caulking. 

[count chocula]

... those shoulder bells could use a lot more trimming. 

 

Thanks for the input, Jason. RE: the shoulder bells. Which side/part should be trimmed? Or do you mean the return edges? Or maybe all of the above? 

 

 

 

 

Since you used E6000, I would remove the cover strips, peel off all the dried glue and reapply them to get rid of those gaps. Get  clamp the top and use painters tape to really force them down. Camp the bottom and put rare earth magnets along the strip on top of the painters tape. A little gap is ok but those ones are a little big. Some guys have gone as far as using caulking. 

 

Yeah, I'm getting some better clamps and will try to address the cover strip gaps this weekend.

 

Thanks again for the help.

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

The return edge side on the bottom. 

[count chocula]

The return edge side on the bottom. 

 

Gotcha. Thanks.

[count chocula]

I trimmed down the shoulder bell return edges as suggested. I'm gluing some snaps in there to strap the shoulders to the biceps.

 

 

I had to double check billhag's stapping diagrams (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) a few times to be sure I was connecting everything properly.

 

Redoing the cover strips

 

I've also started re-doing the cover strips to fix the gaps. I removed the old strips with an exacto knife and was able to re-use some of them after pulling off most of the glue with fingers/sandpaper. I tried to really cinch the strips down this time with tape/magnets, and I also used some ratcheting needle-nosed clamps as suggested by TK-32917 which were more effective at clamping down the hard-to-reach middle areas (video).

 

 

The redone strips look better. Very little gap:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also started strapping the torso/ab/butt together with black elastic.

 

 

Everything fits pretty well overall, but the kidney/ab want to overlap a little bit:

 

 

Not sure if I should trim a little bit off of the kidney/ab pieces to make them matchup better (although I would have to re-do the kidney notch), or whether I should just leave them be and have a little extra space around the waist area. I will probably trim a tiny bit from the kidney piece and re-do the kidney notch (maybe using an iron to recreate the tiny return edges of the notch).

 

Thermal Detonator

 

I'm almost finished with the TD. I rebuilt the aluminum strips (I wasn't happy with the remade ruler strips, they were too thin). I bought some 1" x 1/16" aluminum bar from a nearby hardware store. The new ones (left) are seen next to the ruler mods (right) below:

 

 

 

I used vern's tutorial for the strip-making/bending part. Here's a picture of my bending rig:

 

 

The final? product (blue tape there bc the faceplate glue is still drying):

 

 

I'm going to put some better screws in there. I just remembered I have some black pan-head screws left over from another project. I haven't glued the caps on yet. I had to sand the edges of the pvc down just to get them on. They're just stuck on by fit at the moment.

 

 

I think the first bend may be a little too low/close to the TD and the last bend may be a little long (I will probably trim those down). Not sure if this will ride too high when I put it on the belt, although some of the screen-used TDs do seem do ride high:

 

 

Vern's tutorial didn't specify where to make the first bend (although he does specify that the last bend should be 3.25" from the first bend). My first bend was about 2" from the second screw. It looks like verns was more like 2.5 - 3".

 

 

Here's a picture of my clips next to vern's. The last bend on mine is clearly longer. Mine looks a little disturbing compared to his lol. I'll wait to see how it fits before deciding whether to redo it.

 

 

My last bend was 3.25" from the first bend, as in the tutorial. Hopefully it will sit ok on the belt. If not I will just re-do it. 

 

 

 

I also went to an armor party this weekend. Much thanks to TK-32917 for teaching me how to trim the thigh backs by marking them with blue tape. I'm now gluing the inside strips.

 

[Airborne Trooper[501st]]

I'll let some other more experienced people chime in but I think you should remove from the ab instead. My reason is that the butt plate and kidney line up perfectly. Just make sure you take off equal amount on both sides of the ab. I'm jealous, I wish I had your problem instead of having to add to lol. 

[count chocula]

Thanks for the feedback, Jason. I took about 1cm off of both sides of the ab piece. I think you're right that its better to avoid messing up the kidney/butt lineup and notch.

[count chocula]

I initially used the Tandy line 24 snaps for the visible snap parts (upper right corner of ab; butt piece), but realized I didn't like the look of the "Tandy" lettering being visible.

 

I drilled those out, removed them, and replaced with them these snaps from amazon, which look better I think.

 

 

 

I strapped a bunch more stuff together, and made a garter belt for the thighs. Now just working on getting everything fitted. Here is a test fit of everything except shins/boots/helmet/gloves and belt:

 

 

Excuse the tan lines on my feet. I went fishing in flip flops and didn't wear sunscreen lol.

 

 

 

 

There are still a few "fitting" issues:

 

1. The ab-kidney connection wants to overlap some, I will probably loosen those connections a little to try and get it to butt together properly.

 

2. The butt piece kind of wants to flare out a little. I've seen some people attaching the flaring sides of the butt piece to the thigh garter with velcro/snaps. I might try this.

 

3. Might need to drop the thighs a little more and/or trim the upper backs of the thighs so they don't pinch when I walk.

 

4. The left shoulder bell needs to come in a little more.

 

Any comments/advice would be appreciated. I've kind of skipped over some steps without posting pictures here. Will try to make a more detailed update next time.

 

I've begun to realize how tough it can be to get into this thing by yourself and why troopers need handlers...