W.T.F. ANH Stunt build WIP

[68Brick[TK]]

Nice job on the shin closures and ABS paste!

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Nice job on the shin closures and ABS paste!

Thanks "68"! I'm going to add some elastic in the bottoms to keep them from creeping up but they were one of the things I was most worried about.

 

 

Jim M.

[68Brick[TK]]

Good Idea Jim. Another method for retaining your shins is to put Velcro on the inside of your shins and top/front of your boots. Works well too.

 

Good Luck!

[68Brick[TK]]

Have you been to Trifecta Tavern? I was in Portland last year ... Good food there!

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Good Idea Jim. Another method for retaining your shins is to put Velcro on the inside of your shins and top/front of your boots. Works well too.

 

Good Luck!

Thanks for the tip! The thought of gluing Velcro to my new boots makes me a bit queasy. lol!

 

 

Jim M.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Have you been to Trifecta Tavern? I was in Portland last year ... Good food there!

I don't think I have, but I've heard of it! I may need to make a trip there now. Portland has sooooo many taverns and brew pubs it's hard to decide which one to go to.

 

 

Jim M.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Got a few more strapping items done last night. I'm probably going about it in the wrong order and when it comes to doing the brackets I think I may have just made it harder on myself. If you're following this as a guide maybe wait and do this next part AFTER doing the internal torso strapping/brackets.

 

I started by gluing in the left side shoulder elastic. Then made a snap plate for the right side and installed it. I found in the tutorials in the armor sections, how to.

 

 

 

I'm running a little low on silver snaps and since this won't be seen I am using what ever color I have laying around.

 

I then added the female side to the elastic. I made lines on the inside with a pencil where the elastic would over lap. Found the male side of the snap through the elastic and made a mark. I punched a hole through the fabric with my handy leather punch. A thrift store find which has been invaluable throughout this build. They sell these at Joann fabrics too in the tiny leather craft section. I got mine for cheap so it was worth it.

 

 

 

I then added the ABS shoulder straps.

 

 

and 1/4" elastic.

 

 

 

 

Just a good 'ol square knot going on here. I may throw a stitch in there just to keep it from sliding around.

 

Jim

Edited May 27, 2016 by MoSc0ut

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Next was the thighs.

 

Out of all the different tutorials for this I went with the one from the Trooper Bay videos.

 

My Dad was a Police officer. When he passed away 18 years ago, for some reason I ended up with his duty belt.

 

 

So using 3" elastic I made a loop and sewed it so it would slide onto the belt.

 

 

I may be adding some hook side Velcro to the inside of the loop. (If I do, I'm going in the wrong order for things again!) The duty belt has loop Velcro sewn to the inside so this will prevent the elastic from sliding around.

 

 

I then donned my thighs and figured out where I wanted them to hang and marked the elastic with a fabric pencil.

 

 

Next I glued the fabric inside the thigh. I've been going with 3" on all elastic that is glued in anywhere as it seems like that will give plenty of holding power.

 

 

Trying the legs all together.

 

 

I have a problem. Now that I see them all together the Left calf looks noticeably different from the right.

[sigh.]

 

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

While I think about how to fix that I am going to finish up the shoulder bell attachments.

 

First I cut 2, 6" pieces of 1" wide elastic

 

 

Hand sew in the male side of the snap. Check reference photos, glue and clamp in place with magnets.

 

 

 

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Did some bicep hooks too. I just used a lighter to heat up the plastic then bent it over. The trick with a lighter is to just carefully hover just under the plastic and not let the flame touch the the plastic or you get black scorch marks. Also fire heats stuff up quick so be careful not to melt it, you just want to soften it.

 

Then a little sanding to get rid of the sharp edges.

 

 

 

Done.

 

Jim

Edited May 27, 2016 by MoSc0ut

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

A bit of a quantum leap forward today. I actually feel like I might finish this in the next 48 hours!

 

First I addressed that left calf that was too big.

 

I should have known that using CA glue was going to come back and haunt me at some point.

 

Trying to tackle this problem I started with the utility blade. Realizing that I may cause more damage (than pictured below) I switched to my Dremel and carefully took off the cover strip.

 

 

I used some gaffers tape to protect the side I didn't want to scrape up with the sand paper. I then ripped it half lengthwise and used the clean edge to mark out the bit I was going to remove.

 

 

I had to remove one of the eyelets that I used to reinforce the the plastic hole.

 

 

Another hot water bath in my canning pot.

 

 

Sorted.

 

 

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Time to install the torso strapping.

 

I made my own brackets.

 

 

And elastic

 

 

 

First the back.

 

 

Snaps and straps for the posterior and cod.

 

 

 

Now the front.

 

 

Left side closure. I borrowed russel2d2's idea of using tool box matting for a more durable closure that won't stretch out. It was a pain to get the split rivets to spread out because the matting is pretty thick.

 

 

 

 

Jim

[shadan[TK]]

Great build thread, mate. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the mishaps and corrections you're making along the way. It makes me think I may actually have a chance of doing this myself shortly...

[pewpewpew[TK]]

I just read this from beginning to end and wondered why there were so few people commenting compared to other build threads. That's when I realized you were doing everything so well that there wasn't really a need for there to comment. Lots of great info in here. Great work Jim.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Great build thread, mate. I'm thoroughly enjoying all the mishaps and corrections you're making along the way. It makes me think I may actually have a chance of doing this myself shortly...

Thanks! It's a very intimidating project but thousands have done it around the world so why not us? I thought of leaving the mistakes and corrections out. However my thoughts going into this was to make it similar to a journal. Had I left them out I wouldn't have been truly sharing/recording the experience as it happened.

 

My advice to minimize making mistakes is: (not that you asked for my advice! )

 

1. read, read, and read some more from the build thread section and the EIB and Centurion application sections.

 

2. Measure twice (or three) time and cut once. You'll still probably make a mistake or two but I think we all do the first time.

 

3. Probably the most important is if you have that feeling in your gut that you're about to make a mistake, stop find a thread that covers it, review again and if necessary, ask questions before proceeding. Better to walk away than damage something beyond repair.

 

With my calf error had I asked UKswrath or one of the others that review Centurion apps I probably would have gotten it right the first time.

 

 

Jim

[walt[501st]]

Wow. . This IS pin worthy!!!!!

[pewpewpew[TK]]

Wow. . This IS pin worthy!!!!!

I was actually going to mention exactly that in my post earlier, but I'm not experienced enough yet to really know what is and isn't pin worthy.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Wow. . This IS pin worthy!!!!!

That is high praise indeed. Thanks Walt! Not just for the praise but for providing a great kit at a great price and customer service that is beyond what I was expecting. I'll be looking to get at least one more kit from you but I'm waiting on some of those projects you have up your sleeve!

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

I haven't been idle. In fact the end is in sight!

 

Here is the "clamshell" all together.

 

 

I spent a better part of yesterday making my neck seal. This is my 3rd attempt at this by the way. I'm not going to show the miserable fails. Even this I'm not 100% happy with but it'll get me basic approval for now so.....

 

I started with my fabric and neck measurement +3 1/2". Then I measured from just below my ear to my collar bone and cut off a strip x 2 (fabric is doubled over in this pic). This will be the neck piece.

 

 

I used my hard hat, that I raided for the liner, to cut out a spot for my chin. Fabric is still doubled over so they both match.

 

 

 

I'm using a hidden zipper. This is a 7"-9" I should have gotten the next size up as my head barely squeezes through the hole. My 15 3/4" neck plus 7-9" the zipper adds barely fits the circumference of my head!

 

The next piece is the bib. For this I have a set of descending size bowls and found one that was "close enough". This opening is oval as it will get all rumpled up when sewing if it's round. Again should have made this longer but it'll work as I actually have a small collar on my suit that will hide this anyway.

 

 

Bigger bowl to round the edges.

 

 

I sewed the two neck parts together with a 1/4" seam allowance the clipped the corners of the seam and inverted it.

 

I then started to see in 9/16 piping to make the ridges using a zipper foot. Here is it halfway done.

 

 

As usual my phone died at this point so and by the time I finished this I was ready for bed. A finished picture will be forthcoming today.

 

I also glued together my arms and fixed some other parts and pieces including affixing the ab details. (Pics to come!)

 

See you soon.

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Ta-Da! Completed neck seal!

 

 

 

I'm proud to say I suck at selfies.

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Okay here is what I came up with to hold the right side a little more closed.

 

I had bought some neodymium magnets a while back. As they are super strong I set them down near each other and they scooted across the table to each other and broke almost perfectly in half. For some reason (science) the two halves now reversed polarity so they couldn't be glued back together. So I had encapsulated them in duct tape....until now. Dun-dun-DUN!

(Sorry, Interstellar just came on and it's influencing my post, it's a very "dun-dun" filled movie!)

 

I marked the "like" sides of the magnets. I took 2, 4" long pieces of 3" elastic and sewed 3 edges. Then made three pockets for the magnets and pushed them all the way to the end with a pencil.

 

 

 

I ran a seam as close as possible to the magnets to keep them from flipping over and stitched and X to make the the elastic more rigid and more like nylon strapping.

 

 

I then CA glued the loose halves to the inside of the kidney with the correct side out. I then made a pencil mark for aligning it with the other side and affixed it.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the glue dries we'll see how well my idea works.

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Arm straps done. 2" elastic.

 

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Gluing on my hand guards for Centurion (I hope).

 

 

 

Jim

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

I was originally going to go with a pad system similar to my Army helmet I wore in Iraq. I was having issues with getting the padding the right thickness so I could see and keeping it in place on my head.

 

After much debate here is what I did. I used a hard hat liner but instead of going the Velcro route I went a step further.

 

Since I had bought a whole hard hat (about $7) just to get the liner I was looking at the connection points inside the helmet and thought, 'why not use those to hook in the liner?'

 

So that's what I did.

 

I first roughed out the area to cut out. I also marked them to keep them straight. They are probably all identical but I didn't take the time to analyze that.

 

 

I then cut them out and sanded them all roughly the same shape.

 

 

 

Here is the connection point I was interested in preserving.

 

 

Connection points installed. This took a bit of fiddling and will have to be adjusted for the individual.

 

 

Clip in the liner aaaaaand done!

 

 

Getting the bucket on is a bit awkward but then again what bucket goes on and off with out a little effort?

 

 

Jim

Edited May 30, 2016 by MoSc0ut

[hupspring[TK]]

Cool idea. I like using a hard hat liner instead of just padding, but I'm currently using velcro to hold mine in place so it's a bit wobbly. Did you use E6000 to glue the connection points in?