BDWC's ANH stunt ANOVOS build WIP

[BDWC[TK]]

As many of us new ANOVOS TK owners/builders, I have been following Ukswrath's build thread for much needed experienced guidance.

I haven't had "too" many issues, but decided to start my own thread instead of clogging up Tony's tutorial with my specific questions and photos.

I hope that some of my issues may help other builder's as well, since I cannot express my thanks enough to Tony as well as every other trooper on FISD that is sharing their discoveries, tips, successes, and struggles for the benefit of all.

 

A little about me, I have been a prop maker and costume builder for my two sons' many anime convention cosplays, but I have always wanted my own TK armor. A few years back, I even went as far as building my own vacuum-forming table in hopes to make my own stormtrooper armor, but soon became overwhelmed with the amount of sculptured bucks I would need to build for all the parts. I also found that the table I made would not be large enough for the back nor chest plates. So, my dream had to be put aside...for a while. Instead, I started on a Mandolarion armor kit, since I found from the WOF templates that the plates were much smaller and easier to form.

 

Then, ANOVOS, announced this more affordable (mostly complete) TK armor set. My dreams had been answered, and as you all know began my almost year of anticipation of my own BBB.

 

Okay, onto the build....

My posted are not in the sequence of my build but by the current areas where I found issues that need to be figured out.

 

A HUGE THANKS to everyone in advance for the awesome community sharing all this knowledge with us first-timers!!! 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

[BDWC[TK]]

still cannot use the images nor link tools to add to this thread

I have sent a message to the admins to see if I have not been given access or if it is a settings issue

In the meantime I will try to post up pics from my phone as that is working just fine....just taking some "finagling" to upload my modded photos onto my iCloud that attach using Tapatalk

 

Ahhh, technology always finds a way

[BDWC[TK]]

Okay.... Whew
The black lines are the ANOVOS trim marks
The red lines were the part edges that I was able to reclaim outside of the trim line during my original rough trim out of the box.
My thighs are slightly large with measurements of 25.5" at the top down to 18.5" just above the knee. To be able to make the thigh armor about 1 to 1.5" larger required trimming the bottom overlap and keeping the top edges just under the coverstrip width.
The green line is the final trim line and the green triangle is the resulting gap that I covered up with an inside coverstrip made from trim scraps

I had already used a couple of mm per side on the front. I kept this as " normal" as possible since this is the show side.

It is really centered better than this photo shows since the left side of this return has a curve to it, then it appear slightly off center.

With the front all front all done, the issues above with the rear connection was the best I could do with what was left.


Sent from my Imperial communicator using Tapatalk

Edited March 11, 2016 by BDWC

[BDWC[TK]]

Okay since I am on an update roll, here is my extended frown paint job

Rightside closeup

 

Leftside, also showing the lens areas before being trimmed.

 

 

Sent from my Imperial communicator using Tapatalk

[BDWC[TK]]

I also looking to mod lenses into smaller individual lenses mounted using E6000'd t- nuts. However the trick is getting the one needed behind the tear area to sit at the correct angle. So I sculpted with some air dry clay to make the fitted mounting shim.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160311/d4dccafd56340084c7251cd746a58599.jpg

After a day or so I will remove them and let them dry for several more days before attempting to glue them in place.

 

 

Sent from my Imperial communicator using Tapatalk

Edited September 13, 2022 by BDWC
spelling

[ukswrath[Staff]]

So if you remove the upper thigh return edge can you regain some room to work with the or are you maxed out in that area no matter what?

 

Your front cover strip it too long. It supposed to stop just above the return edge as seen here.    

 

 

The frown looks good, make sure your paint runs into the gum line.

[BDWC[TK]]

Thanks, my next step it to refit check and see what kind of room I have to work with. Thanks I'll shorten the front cover strip (although this did solve the gap tooth look issue) after shortening I will add a trim piece behind the gap if that's ok.

 

So i need to widen the extra tooth a little?

 

Thanks for taking the time for looking at this as this will save me hours come application time!

 

 

Sent from my Imperial communicator using Tapatalk

[BDWC[TK]]

I took apart the helmet since I really wanted the ears to fit more flush. I thought this would just be a trim job but the right side of the helmet mismatch was what was standing it so far off as you see here

I don't understand why the back of the helmet is not formed to match the face section. The left side matched much better

My plan is to add 1/8" pop rivets just above the 'tube' sections to bring the parts closer. The ears should cover this. Also noticed some return edge left at the bottom of the rear section front edge that may also be contributing to the ears mot laying flat.

This little extra piece is on both sides. I plan on using painter' tape to mask and draw edge lines on to mark the areas covered by the ears to insure that I don't take off too much.

 

 

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[BDWC[TK]]

I mouned up the t-nuts, but I am a little hesitant to cut up the ANOVOS lens as there is not a lot of room for error once the plastic gets sliced up.

so I think I am going with ukswrath's solution of mounting into the ear hardware, and if somewhere down the road this poses a problem, at least I will already have the posts mounted, and that was the main reason I fully disassembled the helmet, in order to get easier access to the areas that need the shim to be molded.

Edited April 20, 2016 by BDWC

[BDWC[TK]]

I had some serious issues with my thighs #1) being large and tapered, and #2) having the back seam connections poking me 

 

Here is what I removed:

 

After some trimming, sanding, smoothing, etc I wound up with this fitting much better:

 

I will have to see how this contours with the butt plate once I get all of the strapping figured out down the road, but this appears to match the screen used thighs quite well as per this photo from the

FISD gallery: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/sizes/2055-a-new-hope-knee-pack-placement-lfl-caleb-06/medium/

Mine matches the one on the right if I take off some more material, but I want to check it "fully integrated" first....and to see if anyone posts any comments as to this shape, as well 

Edited April 20, 2016 by BDWC

[ukswrath[Staff]]

It's nice to actually see someone using the reference pics we have at our finger tips

 

Keep up the good work Jim

[BDWC[TK]]

It's nice to actually see someone using the reference pics we have at our finger tips

 

Keep up the good work Jim

Thanks Tony!

The pictures in the Gallery plus those of the various members' applications has really helped a lot. The light bulb really went on in the realization that the ANOVOS trim lines (and even their mold shapes) are not to be taken as canon.

 

On another note (and apologies for not taking pictures) I noticed some comments in the build tutorial about whether to make front or back connections first, especially with the forearms and thighs since they seem twisted upon closure. I believe that this may just affect larger troopers with more "Popeye arms" and " Lance Armstrong thighs". Personally I'm not saying I hit the gym as much as I used to, I'm just saying that for troopers with more tapered limbs, that this 'twist' effect seems more pronounced...or at least it did for me.

I have been following Tony's tutorial which glues up the front cover-strips first. This makes the most logical sense since this is the side everyone sees. However, I has some issues with trying to avoid shims that really made the back seam line a higher priority when it came to my right thigh. For both thighs I had used Ton's "cover-strip half-distance offset" method to make the final front-side cuts. I put the thigh halves together with copious amounts of tape and squeezed the overlap to reach the thigh upper and lower measurement I needed. Fortunately all came out fine, but the wonky, curvy return edges on thighs had me concerned.

For the second thigh, again, I cut the front final locations before finding my backside seam locations. For the left thigh, ANOVOS seems to provide a little more 'outside the lines" ABS for me to steal back, so I didn't have the same gap issues as on the right thigh. This time though, once I did the final dry fit,the front seam looked to have a curved gap in the center. I found it handy to c-clamp the rear seam line in place to the edge of my workbench to find the true front seam locations. What I found was that I had left 2-3mm extra on each side for adjustment, waviness, and final sanding. I'm really glad I did because I set the sides against each other at the very center of the front seam and used the top and bottom overlap to determine the final trimline. This was too small to score-n-snap so I simply trimmed off the offending areas with my offset aviation snips, re-sanded everything smooth, and this time both front and back edges lined up nicely with almost no effort at all. I will defintely keep this back-and-forth measurement check method in mind on future builds

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Sounds good Jim, one thing I've learned from building armor, one persons assembly technique doesn't always work for everyone. I'm glad you found your nitch and went with it. Great job

[BDWC[TK]]

Just for general reference, throughout my build I have trimmed my armor parts to allow for as much extra material as possible.

In some of my posts I mention how I "reclaimed" some ABS back.The best way I can describe it is that I trimmed outside of the ANOVOS recommended trimline and instead I cut up to the very edge of the "reverse return edge" that happens where the mold buck meets the vacuum plate platen.

But a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is an example on my shin pieces so that I could start with as much real estate as possible as I try to avoid shims wherever possible

This is typical of how I rough trimmed every part in order to start with as much plastic as possible (This really paid off on the forearms, biceps, and thighs!!!.....and upcoming shins)

 

Edited March 16, 2016 by BDWC

[BDWC[TK]]

GAZILLION- noun; definition- the number of times you mount, mark, file/sand, and remount your helmet ear pieces until you realize that perfection is the enemy of good enough.

 

Here you can see that the factory trim was "ok" on the left ear but there was a huge gap on the right ear.

 

This shows the right ear gap from my mandatory bucket picture on BBB day

 

This is the original right ear condition (you can see that this is before I trimmed out the eyes, as well):

 

 

 

Now after much work, countersunk screw hunt-n-paint, here is the "good enough" condition.

 

You can see that the real improvement was the right ear and the left ear is just a little more even following the contour now, albeit not quite 'gap-free'

 

Inside I used #4-40x3/8" screws to adjust the face to back overlap gap. When I pulled everything up flush, the ears just did not have enough material left to make up for the gaps that resulted. Since the ears were originally trimmed to match the two piece 'free state' the answer laid somewhere in-between. I drilled the hole for the screws at the normal location that folks put in 1/8" pop rivets just above the tube to cheek location. I drilled the holes undersized and basically tapped the screw through the plastic. After getting the ears into a little better shape just using screws as locating pins and only applying hand pressure, I was anxious to see the fully mounted result. I trimmed out the ear screw holes with a countersink bit so the head would end up as flush as possible. The left ear lower screw factory location worked out fine. The troublesome right ear required moving the lower screw slight lower and to the back to pull everything into place. After all the fasteners were tightened up, I could then tighten or back off the tapped screw to adjust the final front-to-back overlap gap. After that was set, I put on the nut, snugged it up and added a drop of CA to hold it in place. This is really as good as I could get things and I really don't want to take it back apart now so I hope this is "good enough".

 

Another item is the gap at the top of the ear. Does anyone notch their ears to cover this, or is it just generally accepted? (I know, I know that all the screen used are like this or much, much worse. I just want a higher standard of assembly than what was done originally)

 

Also, I know other have the tube stripe issue, and it is supposed to be ~8mm from the cheeks...however mine sit right at a very consistent 10mm on both sides from front to back. Anyone think that 2mm  would hold this up from basic approval...or even EIB? (would probably reapply/paint for Centurion)

[BDWC[TK]]

While I had the helmet apart, I notched out the right side area slightly where the brow trim ended inside the left trapezoid. The trim was long enough to reach from end-to-end on both traps and this is what I ended up with:

 

 

 

I have seen others cut the tails of the brow trim at an angle to match the trapezoid cutout angle. Now I am pretty sure that is not screen accurate, but it looks really clean.

Is this a thing, or would this not be recommend for EIB or Centurion levels??

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Just for general reference, throughout my build I have trimmed my armor parts to allow for as much extra material as possible.

In some of my posts I mention how I "reclaimed" some ABS back.The best way I can describe it is that I trimmed outside of the ANOVOS recommended trimline and instead I cut up to the very edge of the "reverse return edge" that happens where the mold buck meets the vacuum plate platen.

But a picture is worth a thousand words, so here is an example on my shin pieces so that I could start with as much real estate as possible as I try to avoid shims wherever possible

This is typical of how I rough trimmed every part in order to start with as much plastic as possible (This really paid off on the forearms, biceps, and thighs!!!.....and upcoming shins)

 

 

 

Nice work 

 

Also, I know other have the tube stripe issue, and it is supposed to be ~8mm from the cheeks...however mine sit right at a very consistent 10mm on both sides from front to back. Anyone think that 2mm  would hold this up from basic approval...or even EIB? (would probably reapply/paint for Centurion)

 

Basic and EIB no, Centurion will be determined at the time of the approval and the overall look of the armor. If we feel it's too wide then you may be asked to make needed repairs. 

 

I have seen others cut the tails of the brow trim at an angle to match the trapezoid cutout angle. Now I am pretty sure that is not screen accurate, but it looks really clean.

Is this a thing, or would this not be recommend for EIB or Centurion levels??

 

It won't effect any approval levels.

[BDWC[TK]]

As always, thanks for the awesome tips, Tony! ( also look for a Hovi speaker/mic kit order from me soon)

 

....now back to the glue

[ukswrath[Staff]]

As always, thanks for the awesome tips, Tony! ( also look for a Hovi speaker/mic kit order from me soon)

 

....now back to the glue

 

[BDWC[TK]]

Well here we go...I held off on the controversial parts as long as I could....the SHINS !!!  

 

Here are the parts, numbered 24, 25, 27, 28, from left to right.

 

So per ukswrath's build, these should match up with 25 & 28 (second from left and far right in pic) for the left and 24 & 27 (sfar left and second from right in pic) for the right

(reference here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/35086-ukswraths-anovos-tk-build/?p=462538 )

....or opposite legs, depending on who you ask 

 

I will figure this out come fitment time...suggestions welcome !!!!!

 

 

Again, I am going to "steal some material by drawing outside the lines, so step#1 is to measure the minimum configuration at about ~12mm from the reference return edge and see it that will allow for enough material to reach the rear seam upon fitment. The worst case, i.e. widest I can go, would be to measure about 8mm outside of each front trim-line mark so I can use as much material as possible but just enough so that the 20mm cover strip still covers the molded trim-lines on each side once glued up. The answer will likely wind up somewhere in between.

 

So....it'sTAPE TIME...(again, lol)

Edited March 17, 2016 by BDWC

[BDWC[TK]]

WI need some input here as it appears that ANOVOS numbered my set correctly.

Although the 24/27 (L) and 25/28 ® set-up appears that it will work but the shapes of 25 and 27 are nearly identical other than the front return edges where 25, like 28 it a larger offset.

Also, when switched around to the 24/25 ® and 27/28 (L) setup, this not only pairs the large and small return edge pairs it also appears that the inside ankle edges are slightly higher than the outside ankle edges in both cases.

 

In other words, either combination appears to work...enter major confusion ( have now joined the rest of the ANOVOS kit builders in this state of mind now,ughhhhh )

[BDWC[TK]]

Okay, I did some fit ups and to me it really looks like any of these combinations will fit with little to no issue.

However there are some noted discrepancies found.

• Both "alternative" pairing put the two short return edges together and the two longer offset return edges together. I don't know of this is right or wrong, but the pairing seem better balanced of mixed (maybe ANOVOS marked mine correctly??)
• Also, should the inside or outside ankle edges be higher? This seems to be the major discrepancy since the parts are slightly different lengths and keeping the top edges even makes for different results depending on the pairings.
• Parts (in my case) #24 and #25 seemed to be the hardest to determine where the return edge lies to mark the front offset cut line (but I clamped the cover strip in place and used the best fit to determine a location that looked reasonable and used the trim-line locations to make an even offset) 
• The front trim locations for parts #25 and #28 fell exactly on the ANOVOS trim line. the other two parts front trimline fell slightly inside the ANOVOS trim line by ~4-5mm

 

                                       Inner  |  Outer  |  Longer part  |  How much longer? |  Higher ankle  | Ankle difference 

"Others"    Right Side       25          28             28                          3mm                        28           visual difference  

                    Left Side       24          27             24                         10mm                       27                                     

Tony          Right Side       27          24             24                         10mm                       27           visual difference  

                    Left Side       28          25             28                           3mm                       28                                      

ANOVOS   Right Side       25          24             24                           5mm                       25           very slight  

                    Left Side       28          27             28                           5mm                       28

Soooooooo..........I really like the "even-ness of the configuration, HOWEVER, if either the inside or outside ankle edge is supposed to be a higher edge, that will make the difference.

 

Edited March 17, 2016 by BDWC

[BDWC[TK]]

Since Tony's tutorial build shins look even (in both seam lengths and in inside/outside ankle overlap edge lengths), I am moving forward with the ANOVOS combination as it appears that my kit was numbered correctly.

 

Looking at his left shin, it looks like both ends are very close to even--->

 

 

And also the right looks close to even at each end, as well:

ven

 

 

 

The ankle ends look to be close in the tutorial build as well, which also matches the 24/25;27/28 combination 

 

Most reference pictures I can find show the ankle ends somewhat even

 

(after trimming and tape, fitment picture coming soon.....)

Edited March 17, 2016 by BDWC

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Hey Jim try not to sweat it too hard. Without having your shins in my hand or some really good pics it's hard to tell anyways. I glued mine in such a way one looked slightly  larger than the other but after a how water bath they looked the same. The key here is one side of the shin will have a sharper sloping edge then the other as it leaves the front return edge of the shin. Also, the upper left side return edge (as looking at it with the shin on your leg) will sit lower than the right side.

 

Hope this helps