Emma's First ANH Stunt [WTF] - any help is appreciated!

[Cricket[TK]]

Hey Emma!

I made the same mistake with making my cover strips-  I used little pliers, too!    Yeah, didn't make that mistake again.  I found that using a trigger clamp works much better for snapping off strips.  It grips well, and doesn't leave a mark.

 

Your returns at the tops of the shins look fine to me.  I wouldn't stress about the fine details of them until you've got them fitted.  You can always use a Dremel to take off the excess as much (or little) as you need, and it'll look clean when you're done.  

 

I've got the same gloves as you! They were the smallest ones at Home Depot. haha...  BTW, I love your blingy ruler!  

Edited October 11, 2016 by Cricket

[68Brick[TK]]

Your return edges look fine. Hit them with a sanding block to even out any waviness. Nice job on the long cut. If you clamp your ruler over the abs at the edge of your plywood board, you'll be guaranteed that the ruler won't move, and your cut will be super straight. Keep it up~

[EmlanThane]

Hey Emma!

 

I made the same mistake with making my cover strips-  I used little pliers, too!    Yeah, didn't make that mistake again.  I found that using a trigger clamp works much better for snapping off strips.  It grips well, and doesn't leave a mark.

 

 

Your returns at the tops of the shins look fine to me.  I wouldn't stress about the fine details of them until you've got them fitted.  You can always use a Dremel to take off the excess as much (or little) as you need, and it'll look clean when you're done.  

 

I've got the same gloves as you! They were the smallest ones at Home Depot. haha...  BTW, I love your blingy ruler!  

That's a good idea to use a clamp! And Those gloves were also the smallest one I can find   That's too funny! 

[EmlanThane]

I have a very helpful picture! I have been in contact with Walt to figure out which shin halves are which. Below is a picture of all of the halves I have labeled (digitally- don't worry, I didn't write on them with red marker). This might be useful for anyone else with a WTF kit or molds of similar derivation. Here it is!

 

 

 

From left to right, left inner, right inner, right outer, left outer. 

Edited October 11, 2016 by EmlanThane

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

As far as using pliers to snap the ABS, you can also wrap the "grabby" part with a few layers of tape to cover the teeth so they don't leave marks. Also the bottom of the shins (ankle) will eventually have no return edge. For fitting purposes you should trim it off now as it won't properly fit over the boot when trying to size it for that final trimming. When sizing the armor pieces for the arms and legs remember that there will be about 1/2" gap between yourself and the inside of the armor, top and bottom, as a general rule. This is where a friend comes in handy, especially on those legs! Oh and as for an easy to use 1/2" guide most people's first digit of their index finger is about 1/2" in thickness, top to bottom. It doesn't have to be exact and remember to make it comfortable for you, if it needs to be a bit wider than that, then that's okay as long as they are all consistent.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[EmlanThane]

I have another question: When I trim the fronts of the shims to 11 mm, I should cut a straight line. But the place I am measuring away from (the rounded portion of the shin before the return edge) is curvy and not straight, so if I measure 11 mm away at multiple points along the shin half and connect the dots, I don't get a straight line. Does that make sense? Should 11 mm be the maximum length or the minimum length of return edge (given the unstraight nature of the part of the shin I use to determine where to trim).  If I'm not making sense I can try with a picture.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Here is what mine look like finished.

 

 

I measured 11mm about 1/3 down and 11mm 1/3 up and used that as my guide for my straight line. The cover strip will hide any waviness to the outer "curvy" edge.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[troopermaster]

I see this question asked a lot and the trick is not to measure 11mm and cut. The best way to cut the joint (any joint on the limbs) is to cut your joining strip first and offer it up to your joining edge and mark the centre of the strip on the armour, making sure the joining strips does not go over the edge. You will probably find that if you use a 20mm wide strip, the bottom edge of the joint might be 11mm wide and the very top might be 15mm wide. The distance from the joining edge to the trim line measured in several places along the armour will vary because of the unevenness of the armour which is quite normal. It does not matter if the flat joining edge can be seen when the joining strip is in place.

[EmlanThane]

I see this question asked a lot and the trick is not to measure 11mm and cut. The best way to cut the joint (any joint on the limbs) is to cut your joining strip first and offer it up to your joining edge and mark the centre of the strip on the armour, making sure the joining strips does not go over the edge. You will probably find that if you use a 20mm wide strip, the bottom edge of the joint might be 11mm wide and the very top might be 15mm wide. The distance from the joining edge to the trim line measured in several places along the armour will vary because of the unevenness of the armour which is quite normal. It does not matter if the flat joining edge can be seen when the joining strip is in place.

It's good to know I'm not the only one with this question. This helps A LOT! Thank you so much! 

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

I see this question asked a lot and the trick is not to measure 11mm and cut. The best way to cut the joint (any joint on the limbs) is to cut your joining strip first and offer it up to your joining edge and mark the centre of the strip on the armour, making sure the joining strips does not go over the edge. You will probably find that if you use a 20mm wide strip, the bottom edge of the joint might be 11mm wide and the very top might be 15mm wide. The distance from the joining edge to the trim line measured in several places along the armour will vary because of the unevenness of the armour which is quite normal. It does not matter if the flat joining edge can be seen when the joining strip is in place.

This is the best advice you're going to get from one of the most knowledgeable individuals in FISD. The picture of an actual screen used shin says it all. As long as yours looks somewhat this picture you are good to go!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[EmlanThane]

I have returned... MWAHAHAH! Sorry it has been so long- school started to get really busy and I have barely any time to sit down and work on this. I did manage to assemble the helmet today. It's something!

 

I used a 1/8" drill bit and 1/8" rivets to secure the back and cap and faceplate together (they were previously held together by clamps). It took a lot of pep talk to go ahead and drill and rivet. I'm hoping it will get less scary as I do it more  

 

Here's the front:

Slightly asymmetrical but that's ok(?).

 

The right:

 

And the left/"problem side":

 

You can see that I tried adding a 3rd rivet to close the gap here. That failed, so I had to remove it (which was not easy!). Adding the ears will close the gap.

 

I have also begun trimming the biceps. Making the return edge consistent is hard! I will probably also resume the shins too. Yay progress! I hope I have more time in the near future to keep working on this   

Edited November 26, 2016 by EmlanThane

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Welcome back Emma! We've missed seeing your progress. We had an impromptu armor party in my garage today! Worked on some shimming and how to use ABS paste today.

 

Your gap will be fine. If you want that third rivet to hold you need to use a back up washer on the inside. As you discovered the ABS is too soft to hold that together by itself. As for being asymmetrical, well it's supposed to be, the ANH stunt helmets are all kinds of wonky! Looks great by the way. Can't wait to see more!

 

Jim TK-50899

Edited November 27, 2016 by MoSc0ut

[EmlanThane]

**Ok first of all I switched from imgur to photobucket to upload photos and it is so much easier it's not even funny.**

 

 

I managed to do more stuff today! Yay! The next three weeks are about to get absolutely insane (between Thanksgiving and Christmas break always is) so I'm not sure how much I will be able to do, but what I did do today I am VERY proud of.

 

I originally planned on installing the eye lens, but the hardware store didn't have the 5mm-long hex/computer nuts I was looking for. I wanted to follow CTID and use putty sockets- it's a great idea! I will have to order them online! I cut one lens already and tried improvising with regular hex nuts, but the putty gets annoying without longer ones, so I will have to wait on that.

 

Anyway, I began.... THE EARS!!       

 

              ...Duh!

 

                    .....Duh!

 

                    ................................DUH!

 

That's my dramatic music. Can you tell?

 

I know, I decided to tackle one of the most difficult parts of the whole darn thing. Silly Emma 

 

After a preliminary trimming and hours spent watching tutorials, I pulled out the dremel and went to work. WEEEEEEEE!

 

Here's progress 15 minutes in:

 

And 30 minutes:

 

To do this, I slowly sanded down the parts of the ear that were touching, to bring the parts that were not touching closer to the helmet (thus eliminating the gap). My dremel skills are improving. It was hard getting the ear to sit pretty flat on both sides, but once I got it where I wanted it (another 10 minutes after the previous photo was taken) I drilled the top two ear screw holes (after testing which drill bit size worked on a scrap piece). I had stopped sanding after I started to fear over-trimming.

 

Another important thing: I marked where I lined the ear up so that when I put it against the helmet to fit it and assess where to sand down next, I was always placing it on the same spot.

 

Another important thing: I did not sand anything without marking it with a pencil first!

 

 

 

I used a mechanical pencil to drop down through the drilled holes and mark where to drill the same size hole in the helmet:

 

Then I just put the ear screw that come in the WTF kit through the holes and tightened them with nuts. The third hole at the bottom I drilled last. It was hard to hold it tight because I couldonly keep my hand sooo close to the drill, so it is not as taught as I would like but it is the best I can do. I think it is okay.

 

Here is the final product (I think...)

 

From the back:

 

And from the side!

 

I will do the other ear if this looks okay, and then paint everything.

 

 

Here are my two important questions:

 

1. Is there still too much gap?

 

2. Is it bad that the ear is tilted forward slightly? (Did I use the wrong ear on the wrong side...?)

 

Let me know what you think!  

Edited November 28, 2016 by EmlanThane

[Cricket[TK]]

Hey Emma! Good to see you back! <br><br><br>

The gaps look fine to me. But... and I hate to say this... to me on my small phone it looks like you've got the ear on the wrong side. I've been looking at a screen used lid to compare... and I can't get the link with the pic to work from my phone. <br>

Can anyone confirm this?

Edited November 28, 2016 by Cricket

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Hey Emma! Good to see you back! <br><br><br>

The gaps look fine to me. But... and I hate to say this... to me on my small phone it looks like you've got the ear on the wrong side. I've been looking at a screen used lid to compare... and I can't get the link with the pic to work from my phone. <br>

Can anyone confirm this?

.....um.....yep......that ear is on backward/the wrong side

 

....

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[EmlanThane]

*Darth Vader voice* NOOOOOOOOOOOO!<br><br>

Actually, no worries that is. I can unscrew it and see if I can adjust it to the other side. If not, I have a second pair of ears, and it was good practice. Thanks for the help though- I knew something was off when I was trimming, even though I had checked which ear was which beforehand. I guess I got it wrong!

[illusionz_09[TK]]

Yea, same thing happened to me when i first built my bucket.

The ears swap sides fairly easily. 

 

Glad the fellow troopers pointed that out. better to catch that early lol.

Edited November 28, 2016 by illusionz_09

[Kacrut[501st]]

how do you know Which one is left and which one is right?

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

how do you know Which one is left and which one is right?

The bottom part swoops forward kind of like a human ear. Cup your hand around your ear like your trying to hear something better, that's the shape to use as your guide.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[Kacrut[501st]]

Oooh...now i understand what you mean after i compared your pict build helmet, the key is "the swoops at the bottom facing forward" got it... I'm taking notes now for my future build. Thank Youuu Jim.

 

*edit* i'm adding emma's helmet.....post#171

Edited November 28, 2016 by Kacrut

[Kacrut[501st]]

Edited November 28, 2016 by Kacrut

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

That's my helmet too!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[DamnitDavid[TK]]

I am awaiting my walt kit now...as patiently as i can. Just read all of this thread. Good job and thanks for making it so detailed. 100pts on all the shin advice.

[EmlanThane]

Hi! So.... It's been a solid 4 years since I've been to this thread...I figured COVID-19 would be a great time to finally work on this armor some more! I will post more updates here. Wish me luck!

[Cricket[TK]]

Welcome back, Emma!