Adder's ANH TK Build Thread [TM]

[Addertime[TK]]

Today was BBB day!

It was unexpected as I had picked up a package earlier in the day and was told by the mailroom that there was nothing else for me today. Near closing time, the secretary who usually picks up my mail IM'd me and said the mailroom told her I had a large box waiting and it was too big for her to carry. I went back down and was again told there was nothing for me but I was invited in to look around for myself. I poked around a bit and then I saw a pile of courier packages which needed signatures. I saw a large box with a few smaller ones on top and as I moved them, was ecstatic to see my name on the tag and Paul's as the return address. I then noticed that it had arrived last Friday! Still, I was riding high so I let it go but I was really glad I took the time to look myself.

So, now it begins, my first armor build, and I can't wait until I have time to dive into it!

[T-Jay[TK]]

Congratulations on your BBB day, Michael. This photo looks so familiar to me

 

Have fun building the armor and good luck

[Addertime[TK]]

Congratulations on your BBB day, Michael. This photo looks so familiar to me

 

Have fun building the armor and good luck

Thanks Tino! Your 2014 thread was part of my inspiration.

[68Brick[TK]]

Congrats on BBB day!

[Addertime[TK]]

After I posted my BBB photo last night. I put it aside. It was late and I was dead-tired after a trying week.

 

I puttered around and did a few things and then, as I was heading downstairs to bed, I decided that I needed a "win". So I went back up and sliced the tape on my BBB. Now, I fully intended on doing the whole ceremonial unboxing thing but I was too beat and just wanted to see my new kit. 

 

Opening the box, I recognized Paul's packing from other TM build threads. It felt instantly familiar having seen it numerous times here on Whitearmor.net. I carefully cut the tape and unwrapped the first bundle. As the pieces emerged, I began to get very excited and by the time I finished the bundle, I felt very emotional. I sat there on the floor, looking at the formed plastic arm I was holding and thought, "Wow. I've waited for this moment for 40 years." I really didn't know I would feel that way but it was an unexpectedly powerful moment for me. 

I continued through the unpacking and in the end sat there marveling at how cool it all was. The workmanship and attention to detail even in the packing were very impressive. I went to bed a very happy guy.

 

In the morning when I awoke, I wished I had documented the unpacking. I felt like I missed out on being able to relive those moments... but then I also wondered if the documentation might has made the process more clinical and less of a visceral experience. We'll never know but I took some photos tonight as I repacked the box to have room for my ongoing blaster build, among other projects, and will begin the build in earnest very soon. 

So, here they are, the bits and bobs that will become the TK.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

Stormy's favorite piece is the sniper knee. 

 

Sorry for the couple of blurry shots. I didn't have my glasses on when I took these photos and they all looked great on the 1" camera monitor.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

Bicep and Forearm

 

I REALLY wanted to start with the helmet but I heard the voice of my old boss (exhibit and display shop) saying, "Start in the back, Michael," which meant, "Don't learn your lessons with the part that everyone looks at first." I was notorious for doing just that.

So... I suppressed my desire to build the bucket first and thought the arms would be a nice easy start. I watched YouTube videos and scoured the forums but when it came down to actually cutting into $1100 worth of plastic, I was more than a little apprehensive.



Ah! The first cut down! That wasn't so bad.

 

Well on the way now. The score and snap method, which I use often for other materials, proved to be the fastest and easiest way to do it requiring only a minimum of cutting with the lexan scissors.

 

 

And here we are, that wasn't so bad.  

 

 

And then the fear set in again and I had to stop. Whereas there's tons of info on trimming, butt joining, cover strips and gluing, there's very little on fitting. I learned from where the pieces around for a little bit that I need to trim the returns on the bicep for comfort and relax the seams a bit because it becomes tight when I flex the muscle and the forearm feels ridiculously really loose but once I saw my test photos, I felt better about the forearm. I can barely get my hand through and the back has maybe a 1/2" of play when flexed.

 

Any advice before I glue these up?

[Sentry71[TK]]

The first cut is always the most nerve wracking.

 

Your thoughts on fit and trim are spot on. You want things loose enough that flexing isn't difficult. 1/2" of space is a great overall target to shoot for. Loose forearms can be addressed with foam inserts, if really needed.

 

Personally, I remove all the bottom return from my biceps. You may want to leave a little - that is your call.

 

(LOL - just saw your signature quote. Love it. )

Edited May 19, 2016 by Sentry71

[Chiro]

Looks good, I echo Sentry, remove most if not all of the return edge of the bottom of the biceps. gives you a better fit, less chance of armour bite.

[Addertime[TK]]

The first cut is always the most nerve wracking.

 

Your thoughts on fit and trim are spot on. You want things loose enough that flexing isn't difficult. 1/2" of space is a great overall target to shoot for. Loose forearms can be addressed with foam inserts, if really needed.

 

Personally, I remove all the bottom return from my biceps. You may want to leave a little - that is your call.

 

(LOL - just saw your signature quote. Love it. )

It was nerve wracking but I think I'm through it and ready to cut!

 

Thanks for the advice! 

[Addertime[TK]]

Bicep and Forearm - Cont.

I've been traveling for the past week and a half but now, I'm back on the build!

So, I returned home and immediately glued up the waiting forearm shown above. It was my first time ever using E6000 and I was nervous about the smell, clean up, etc. from all the things I've read here and it all went better than expected.... except the I had planned to trim the front seam a lot more. I kept hearing the words I've read here many times about removing material slowly, etc. and well, I chickened out. I didn't cut it like I wanted to and glued it up as it was with the flat part of the arm at about 22mm wide under the 15mm cover strip.

 

Well, after I pulled the magnets and clamps off the next morning, I hated it. I realized that the flat area needed to be much closer to the width of the cover strip and was presented with my first opportunity to REMOVE a piece glued with E6000. More stress, more drama, but it was far easier than expected. I trimmed the pieces and reglued. 

Here's the trimmed and reglued arm:

 

I didn't care for the magnet method of holding the pieces together. I felt the strip was not pulled nearly tight enough to the arm material so I changed to a more familiar method and taped it. This word so much better! I first taped the inside of the butt joint to get the seam nice and flat and then clamped the ends of the strip and starting in the center and pulling outwards, taped the strip. The air gaps along the strip which the magnets allowed disappeared and I'm much happier with the look of the seam. I'll be repeating this method for all my future cover strip seams. 

Detail of taped strip:

 

Having gotten a whole lot of varied experience on this one part, I feel ready to dive into the rest of the build and have been trimming more pieces and will be gluing up the bicep and other arm tonight. 

[SlyFox740[TK]]

Everything is looking good so far, keep up the good work Michael!

[Troopacoola[TK]]

How many WIP'S are you doing?

[TKZombie[TK]]

Looking good so far. I just finished my Troopmaster Hero build and just had it 501st approved as well as Expert Infantryman and Centurion approved. My build thread is on here if you want to reference it. <br><br>

Take you time and refer to Pauls build thread too and you'll do great!

[Addertime[TK]]

How many WIP'S are you doing?

Two. Which is too many. I work on one of them evet day and yet never seem to make much progress. I know that one day, I'll suddenly realize I'm finished and then have to start a new project.  

[Addertime[TK]]

Looking good so far. I just finished my Troopmaster Hero build and just had it 501st approved as well as Expert Infantryman and Centurion approved. My build thread is on here if you want to reference it. <br><br>

Take you time and refer to Pauls build thread too and you'll do great!

 

Hi Christine! I've been following your build with interest. Congrats on the approvals. I hope I can join you there.... it might be a while though,

[Addertime[TK]]

Bicep and Forearms cont.

 

Ok, so I've actually advanced quite a ways but I'm lagging on my updates here. 

Here is the second forearm/vambrace...

I tried adding the coverstrip to one side. let it dry and then added the second half of the vambrace and I wasn't pleased with the results so I'm gonna stick to the way I was doing it before. I butt the halves together and tape the joint on inside. Then I apply E6000 to the length of the joint, on the other side, and apply the cover strip, taping it down as I go starting from one end to the other.

 

 

To make the joints tight, as I think I explained before, I flex the joint and then pull the wings of the tape into place. The tape sticks very well to the ABS and the elasticity of the plastic acts as the clamp.

 

And here is forearm two, all taped up.

 

 

As you can see the flex makes the joint very tight.

 

So, yeah, blue tape. Love the stuff... almost as much as gaffer's tape. I've largely eliminated the magnets from my clamping inventory. I feel they may have their uses but for the cover strips, the tape method works very best for me. You'll see later that the shins worked out perfectly with the tape method also. 

Edited June 11, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

Helmet

 

And now I'm gonna change gears. Of course I was dying to put the helmet together since day one but knew I needed some experience under my belt before I embarked on building the most iconic bit of the kit. I posted the initial images a few day ago...

 

 

 

I was pretty happy with the initial assembly. Here's how it went down:

The face plate came pretty well trimmed from TrooperMaster. I did a test clamp and it fit together well. I wrote to Paul and asked if I should trim the forehead or not and he said he usually leaves it like this but I could trim it if I wanted.

 

 

 

I decided to leave it. So I took it down to the shop cut the eyes and teeth out, and painted a first coat on the vocoder, just because I just wanted it to look more finished and  then after another five (or twenty) test fits... trimmed the skull plate and popped the rivets into it.

 

 

 

I was ecstatic and let it sit overnight and went back the next day to work on the ears. I studied everything I could find on creating the ears and felt confident about it.

I marked the left ear and became cutting and test fitting.





And after three grueling hours of cutting and fitting, I had a piece of roughly ear-shaped scrap plastic... yes... scrap plastic... now I see why there were two sets included with the kit.



Day three of the helmet build and I opted to work the right ear. The right side of the helmet fit together tighter and I felt I'd have a better chance with it. I reviewed all the tutorials I could find and went in again.

Using the hard-learned lessons from the first ear debacle, I got it right mostly this time.

 

 

And this time it only took two and a half hours. Could the ears be a little leaner? Yeah.... and they will be... baby steps.

I'm still concerned about the redoing the left ear but I think it'll be ok. That's my project for tomorrow evening.

 

Thanks for visiting. See you soon with more progress and probably hard lessons!

I know a lot of kits come with the helmet assembled and I considered that but I wanted to build it all. I'm a maker, and in the end, the satisfaction of having completed it and having overcome the difficulties, will make it all the more special for me. Or I'll have a bunch of scrap ABS. Either or.

Edited June 11, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

Ok, so I didn't get around to finishing the helmet tonight. Tomorrow for sure.

[pewpewpew[TK]]

Bicep and Forearms cont. Ok, so I've actually advanced quite a ways but I'm lagging on my updates here. Here is the second forearm/vambrace...I tried adding the coverstrip to one side. let it dry and then added the second half of the vambrace and I wasn't pleased with the results so I'm gonna stick to the way I was doing it before. I butt the halves together and tape the joint on inside. Then I apply E6000 to the length of the joint, on the other side, and apply the cover strip, taping it down as I go starting from one end to the other. To make the joints tight, as I think I explained before, I flex the joint and then pull the wings of the tape into place. The tape sticks very well to the ABS and the elasticity of the plastic acts as the clamp. And here is forearm two, all taped up. As you can see the flex makes the joint very tight. So, yeah, blue tape. Love the stuff... almost as much as gaffer's tape. I've largely eliminated the magnets from my clamping inventory. I feel they may have their uses but for the cover strips, the tape method works very best for me. You'll see later that the shins worked out perfectly with the tape method also.

 

Just so I understand your technique here: you're flexing the joint so that when released it pushes back on the tape, and this pressure keeps the coverstrip firmly in place until the glue dries?

[Addertime[TK]]

Just so I understand your technique here: you're flexing the joint so that when released it pushes back on the tape, and this pressure keeps the coverstrip firmly in place until the glue dries?

 

Yep. That's exactly it. The taped-flexed joints are as good or better than the one I clamped AND both sides are glued at once which greatly reduces drying time. Now, I didn't use a strip on the inside like some people do. This technique would'nt serve for that method. 

Edited June 13, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

Helmet cont.

 

Tonight was right ear night (again). 3 hours of fit and dremel and I'm not happy with it (again).

 

 

I hate the gap and the thickness of the ear. I think I will rework both sides. I want them to be leaner and sit closer to the helm. 

 

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Edited June 13, 2016 by Addertime

[troopermaster]

They can be trimmed down more. I think you have the face sat down low but the ears attached high which is not a great combination. The ear caps should follow the face plate more than the back plate. Trim the ears down more and see how you go. I have extra pairs if you need them.

[Addertime[TK]]

They can be trimmed down more. I think you have the face sat down low but the ears attached high which is not a great combination. The ear caps should follow the face plate more than the back plate. Trim the ears down more and see how you go. I have extra pairs if you need them.

Thanks Paul. I'll reposition the faceplate a bit and have another go. 

[Addertime[TK]]

Helmet cont. (sigh)

 

Ok, I dismantled it all back to it's component parts.

 

 

Then I repositioned the faceplate, drilled new holes and re-riveted the helmet back together. 

 

I went right to work on the ears and cut them down a lot, as much as an 1/8" in parts. About 3 1/2 hours later, it looked like this:

 

 

I'm much happier with it now though it's still not perfect. I looked at tons of screenshots and the screen used helmets are all over the map... some are good and some are crazy bad but two things were clear... 1. no two helmets were the same and 2. they pretty consistently have a 1/4" to 3/8" of white showing above the eyes. I tend to like the low brow because I think it looks more menacing and that seems to be a popular contemporary way of styling the brow. I had done it myself. But I failed to notice that the real ones weren't like that and I decided to raise the forehead a bit. That helped my ears fit better and I didn't even have to redrill the top holes. All in all, it came out ok and I'm calling it "art" for now. 

Onto the painting! 

Edited June 17, 2016 by Addertime