Lord Dark Helmet’s AP build thread and cardiac therapy

[lucnak[TK]]

To clarify, return edges is usually referring to the area at the ends of parts that curve back and give the appearance of thickness. You're referring to the ridges for the cover strips. Understandable confusion, but I just wanted to mention it in case anyone gets mixed up.

 

As for the alignment, cover strips should align with cover strips (biceps and forearms) when your arms are down, but obviously as you turn your forearms, the alignment will change. I have a strap from bicep to forearm at that area, so things stay lined up nicely. I've noticed many in my Garrison have just been letting the forearms freefloat, but I like my attachment better. It also minimizes the black area between the armour parts.

 

All that to say: Looks good to me! Your bicep make feel like it's big now, but once all your armour is on, I don't think it'll stand out.

[Alay[TK]]

As Luc said; the cover strips should be roughly in line.  Your fitting looks pretty good!  With the rest of the armor on it won't feel as big.
 

 

Picture says a thousand words so hopefully these might help... here's how my arm armor looks for my left arm right now 

Note the bend of the elbow and how the forearm sits.  The side with the bumps in it goes towards the "outside" while that cut is where your arm bends.  You can also see the inside of the forearm ends a lot further down than the outside; that's fine, the coverstrip overlaps a little
 

 
The strapping is towards the outside, just about under the cover strip.  This way the cover strips "line up" like Luc said.
 
Inside the bicep

 
Inside the forearm (I use velcro to be able to adjust, but snaps work just as well)

 

 

You're pretty much spot on, just turn those forearms before adding any strapping

[Deadeye[TK]]

Great feedback.  I think that I have enough confidence to open the glue.  I need to cut my cover strips to length and then I'll glue the forearms, biceps, shins and thigh on the front and follow that up with the backs on the arm parts.  Also getting started on the torso parts.  I need to trim off the extra girth to get it back to my size but luckily my waist is trooper-sized--33 inches.  Glad I don't have to do all that surgery you had to do on the kidney/ab/posterior parts, Sarah.

[Alay[TK]]

You got this!

 

Just make sure you're using E6000 if you're not 1000% sure/confident of where you're gluing.  E6000 is amazing stuff; you can jam a butter knife under it to pull it apart easily without issue and if that doesn't work just throw it in the freezer for an hour and it comes right off

[Deadeye[TK]]

One side of each forearm and bicep glued. That E6000 is some messy stuff. The tube never seemed to shut off. I'd squirt a bead on each side and go to close up the tube and it was still oozing. No pictures yet but I'll get some before and after the clamps come off. Can't wait to see how they turn out.<br><br>

Done for today.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Lord Dark Helmet

[sylverbard[TK]]

Like any pressure tube if you roll up from the bottom then unroll and squeeze the side it makes an air space to let you cap it. E6000 works best when you squeeze slowly.

[Deadeye[TK]]

Sylverbard, thanks for the feedback.  I tried to do like you said today.  Some times worked well and others...not so much.  Oh well, at least it cleans up reasonably well.

 

So here's the latest progress.  Last night I got the arm parts glued up with cover strips.  Here's what they looked like when I put them together:

 

 

Once I removed the clamps and tape and cleaned up the glue mess, I got to this:

 

 

Then I decided I'd glue up the fronts of the calves and I had enough magnets to finish the biceps, so I did this:

 

 

At that point, I only had a few magnets left and I wanted to let the forearms cure a little more before I have to torque on them to line up the back edges so I moved on to other things.  I cut the pieces for the thermal detonator.  I used the dimensions from ukswrath's Anovos thread for all of the parts.  The length came out exactly to the 7 1/4" that he cites.

 

 

Then I decided to move on to the body shell pieces.  I hope that everything looks correct.  I cut the AP-extended kidney down to get the 22x22mm notches and squared up from the lower edge.  I then tried to cut the extended ab piece back to where the line shows in the AP thread about the extension.  I don't think I was able to get it all the way to where the line is but it's close.  It fits pretty nice at this point.  Then I started laying out the snaps and rivets for all of the parts.  I have the snaps for the belt, the left side rivets, the visible snap on the right side and cod and posterior snaps and rivets.  I haven't drilled anything yet.  Need to build up my confidence that everything's in the right place, first.  I tried to align the belt as ukswrath describes in his thread.

 

 

Tomorrow, I hope to finish the forearms and get the front of the thighs done.  Then I might drill some things and get some snaps going.  Getting really excited by the progress but there are some daunting steps ahead.

[jmschak]

Granted, I have zero experience, but your build seems to be going fairly quickly. I can't wait until my kit shows up so I can get started on it.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[Deadeye[TK]]

Jaime, it is going along pretty quickly.  My wife is fortunately pretty tolerant of me working on projects for long periods of time and with the fact that I'm off work for a few weeks I've had a lot of time to focus on it.  My wife's a teacher and today is the first day back so I hope to make some good progress this week as well.  The kids start back next week so I have one more week with lots of free time before my leave from work runs out and I go back to work full time.  I'm hoping to have it done or really close to done by then, as I'm sure I won't have much time after that.

 

With that said, this weekend proved pretty slow.  My parents decided to come visit to check on me before they leave on a long Alaskan trip.  And then we were scheduled to go visit my in-laws who are camping for the weekend and spent most of yesterday there.  I got almost nothing done.  Here are couple of pictures of what I could accomplish.  I wanted to get some pictures of the side notches for posterity and to ensure everyone still thinks I'm on the right track.

 

 

As I said before, I tried to get to where the line appears to be on the pictures that Mark posted when he introduced the extended AP sides but I think I'm still a bit short.  I noticed the bottom of the ab piece hangs a little lower on SpiceCredit's sides.  Still, I think it fits pretty well (I wouldn't want to go tighter) and they look pretty muck like the notch diagrams that are floating around for Centurion approval.

 

Next, I was able to get the biceps and calves unclamped and cleaned up.  I think they turned out pretty well but I noticed the cover strips on the calves didn't seal down tight and there were some gaps underneath.  That made me a little nervous they weren't adhered perfectly so I added some internal cover strips to ensure they don't come apart with all of the movement required to put them on and off.  Also last night, I squeezed some more E6000 into the gaps and I'm hoping they clean up and look filled today.  Here's pics before the added glue.  No pic of the internal strips.

 

 

I also glued up the backs of the forearms.

 

 

I was even able to let the glue set up and got the clamps off last night.  I noticed similar gaps under the cover strips but since these parts don't move I figured the added glue squeezed in the gaps would be enough there.  I may still do internal cover strips at some point but the forearms are pretty snug already so I'd prefer to try to go without.  Last thing last night, I was able to get the fronts of the thighs so those should be ready to unclamp today.

 

Today's plan is to size up the calves and thighs in hopes to get those glued up and finalized.  Then I'm going to start on webbing pieces for snap plates and may be setting snaps by the end of the day.  I want to get the body put together soon.

[SpiceCredits]

Hey! I'm glad my thread could be of help to you! Sorry to hear about the attack. I hope everything is going well for you now! Looking forward to watching your build!

[Deadeye[TK]]

Hi, Rick and thanks for checking out my build.  I'm feeling a lot better than I was a month ago today.  I learned a lot about AP construction steps and some little tricks from your build.  Appreciate your work.

 

Well, it's been a chaotic couple of days of bouncing around to several different things.  I didn't post anything because I wasn't sure what to post.  So here's some progress updates.  First off, I got my Hyperfirm B-grade E-11 yesterday.  I love it and I'm not sure what's B-grade about it.  

 

 

I also went ahead and cut up my nylon webbing and spent a bunch of time heat-sealing the edges and then got the soldering iron out and melted my holes.  Then I set 46 male line 24 snaps in preparation for my elastic straps.  I'll be doing double snaps in most locations but a couple of singles in the arms.  Not sure if it's a common issue but a lot of my snaps seemed to "wander" a bit when being set.  You can kind of see what I'm talking about in the last picture where the back seems offset from center.  Hoping this won't present a problem when I create the straps.

 

 

I then decided to work on my belt.  Using a combination of ukswrath's Anovos build thread and some tricks from SpiceCredits, I laid out the canvas belt and measured for and installed ukswrath's suggested 'S' popper snaps on the belt and ab piece.  Then I laid out the holes for the ammo belt and installed line 24 snaps as SpiceCredit did.  Then I used his water bath technique to put some curve into the ammo belt and when I went to put it all together nothing lined up.  Individually all of the pieces worked but assembled the outer two snaps on the ammo belt were too far out to line up.  it's due to the fact that the arc of the loose belt around the waist is shorter than the arc of the ammo belt when curved compared to the flat pieces.  No problem, I just ended up drilling them out and installing new ones a little closer in but I am down to my last snap so hopefully nothing else comes up.  Here it is all assembled and fitted and working perfectly (although I'm a bit worried about the holding power of the 'S' popper snaps).  Still need to install the covers of the backs of the snaps.  While I was bending the belt I also bent up some other parts that needed it.  I tried to shape the bottoms of the calves a bit narrower side to side to fit over my boots better but that proved kind of difficult.  I think they're better but not great.  No pics of that.

 

 

I'm also working on the thermal detonator.  I tried to find the gunship grey that ukswrath recommends but couldn't so I got something similar in a matte finish.  Here's the in process painting.  Also bought material for TD clips.  All other parts are ready to be assembled once the paint's dry.

 

 

Next up was fitting the thighs.  I was kind of apprehensive about it and didn't want to make any cuts but kind of got to a point where I said how bad can I screw them up?  I'm sure they can be replaced if I get them wrong.  So I cut them for size and measure that they were the same.  Everything looked good and lined up well.  I was a little concerned about the bottoms that were unsupported by cover strips so I added some pieces on the insides to bridge the gaps.  You can see the clamps for one of those here.

 

 

Lastly, I added the last cover strips on the backs of the calves.

 

 

So that pretty much brings me up to date.  Once the glue's dry on all of these parts I think that I'm ready to install snap plates and start strapping.  Then I get to figure out how to use the vintage sewing machine that my wife inherited from her grandma so I can start folding over the ends of my elastic straps

[Troopacoola[TK]]

 

 

Then I get to figure out how to use the vintage sewing machine that my wife inherited from her grandma so I can start folding over the ends of my elastic straps

Hi mate. If you heat sear the ends of your elastic and double it over when you install the snaps, you won't need to stitch the elastics

 

Marc

[Deadeye[TK]]

That's a good tip.  I will definitely do that on some of them.  I think there may still be a couple that I need to sew like the smaller white pieces for the calf closure.  No snaps, just the bra hooks.  Plus, I just bought two different kinds of thread in two different colors--four spools total--so I hope I get to sew something.  LOL.  Of course I say that now but I haven't tried the sewing machine yet.  That might change my opinion a bit.  Thanks for the tip, though.  I really appreciate it.

[Deadeye[TK]]

I've kind of reached a point where I seem to be doing several different parts in one sitting.  It seems that I do one thing and let the glue dry while I jump over to something else.  Kind of feels like nothing is getting done but I think it's just that I'm working on details so there isn't a lot to do anywhere.  Now that I've got the thighs and calf cover strips finalized, I want to finish up the legs so I've been working on the knee parts.  I got the ammo belt attached to the right thigh and the sniper knee should be done (assuming the glue holds).

 

 

I tried to use the advice I've read on the sniper knee.  I secured the center making sure it was "level" and centered on the cover strip (pretty sure that's the goal).  I then secured the inside and made sure the upper edge follows the top return edge.  When I went to do the outside, it seemed like I really had to force it into place.  I'm not 100% confident E6000 is going to be robust enough to keep it in place long term.  When I last looked it appeared that the upper edge followed the return edge well and I'm hoping that once the clamps come off today everything stays in place and looks right.  I'll post more pics if everything works out.

 

Again, trying to finish up the legs I wanted to install the snap plates for my Pencap510 garter system.  I fitted the thighs in place and figured out where I wanted them and then glued them in with plenty of E6000.  I think I'm maybe a little overly generous with that stuff as I've almost used up my second tube and still have all my snap plates to install.  Oh well, as long as it holds I'm happy.

 

[Deadeye[TK]]

Next, I wanted to steal a page from SpiceCredits' build and add a tab to the right side of the ab/kidney connection.  I added a pocket to the ab and a "tongue" to the kidney.  You can also see in this pic where I'm adding a second snap for a strap at the bottom of the pocket.

 

 

These were glued on with CA, as I was concerned that they would pull off with E6000.  It seems to me the ab is narrower (maybe because of how I cut it) than the kidney so there may be some stress on these parts.  Hopefully the CA holds.  Since I was concerned about pulling, I also thought the three nylon straps riveted to the left side may not be enough to hold that together.  I added two tabs between the straps that will keep the kidney aligned to the ab and I plan to put two elastic straps over these tabs.  I think that should be robust enough.

 

 

I've done some other odds and ends but that's the major stuff.  At this point (assuming all the glue holds), the arms and legs are done except for the hooks on the biceps and I need to start strapping.  Once the strapping is done, I'll need to break out the paint and do the ab plates and the helmet.  Yesterday, I bought a cheap hard hat at Home Depot and plan to use MoSc0ut's technique of cutting out the mounting points and gluing them into the helmet.  I'm also THIS close (holds fingers really close together) to finishing the TD but for some reason I can't find screws with the required non-Philips head.  Seriously, everything at Home Depot yesterday was either Philips or a combo head.  I'll head over to Ace Hardware today to see if they have something.  Fingers crossed.  Then I can wrap that thing up.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Lord Dark Helmet

[lucnak[TK]]

I actually find since the side with two tabs has a tight slot, it stays straight better for me (I didn't put any straps on the side, my canvas belt holds my kidney and ab together)! I will eventually switch my other side from the large tab to two tabs. E6000's done just fine for me so far!

[Deadeye[TK]]

I don't know if it's an AP thing or just the way mine worked out but the right side of the ab has a pretty noticeable curve to it.  Much more than the left side.  This appears to have made it narrower than the kidney.  I tried to hot water bath it a bit less curved but it was difficult to fit in the pot and the return edges kind of kept the shape.  This seemed like an easy way to ensure that I wouldn't get too much misalignment and would have a nice clean look when I was wearing it.  It's pretty easy to get into at this point so it's not too big a deal.  Also, I had the CA laying on the bench from some previous projects so I just figured it would give it that little extra hold.  I'm already having a couple issues with E6000 on some joints.

[Deadeye[TK]]

Another day of doing lots of different stuff.  I started by unclamping the sniper knee and checking out how it looks.  I think I did pretty well at getting it level and I really tried to get the edges to line up at the top.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  Bear in mind that the side view pictures are tipped toward the camera a bit so you can see the top of the calves and how they line up with the knee return edges.

 

 

With that done, I took the magnets off the thermal detonator control panel to see how that turned out.  The caps are just pressed on at this point and will be glued after the clips are screwed in place.

 

 

Next up I finished up the clips, made from ukswrath's instructions in one of his build threads.  I think I still need to bend the ends back at which point I'll probably install some fuzzy white velcro but these are pretty close.  Still trying to find slotted-head screws to mount these but once I do this will be done.

 

 

Once I had this stuff done, it's pretty much all done except for snaps and straps so I wanted to try everything on to see how it looked.  Here's some taped together fitting pictures.  Obviously some stuff is woefully out of place and looks ridiculous but I'm pretty stoked with how it all looks.  By the time I got a useable back picture the parts were all falling apart and look kind of silly.

 

 

In these pictures, the shoulder covers are just taped on.  Once I stripped everything off, I glued those in place and then I got to work measuring and installing snap plates.  I centered them 1" out from the edge and figure I will make my straps about 1.75" center to center on the snaps to put them under a little bit of tension to hold the pieces tight.  Any thoughts on that plan?

 

 

That's all the backside pieces, and then I'm out of clamps.  Tomorrow, the clamps come off the shoulder covers and all of the snap plates and I can do the fronts.  From there, I need to finish the TD and start cutting, heat sealing and putting snaps in my straps.  I may or may not sew some or all of those.  I also need to figure out the calf closure.  I'm debating using SpiceCredits method with velcro or MoSc0ut's approach with tabs and straps with bra clips.  I'm leaning toward that one at the moment.  With that stuff done, I should be able to move on the helmet finalization and painting.  Getting really close but the remaining steps seem more daunting to me than most of the stuff I've already done.  And I keep forget the drop boxes from the belt.  I need to find a rivet gun for that so I keep putting them off.  I also kind of screwed trimming one of the parts so I may need to make some ABS past to patch that up.  Not sure yet.

[lucnak[TK]]

Looking good!

[Alay[TK]]

I don't know if it's an AP thing or just the way mine worked out but the right side of the ab has a pretty noticeable curve to it.  Much more than the left side.  This appears to have made it narrower than the kidney.  I tried to hot water bath it a bit less curved but it was difficult to fit in the pot and the return edges kind of kept the shape.  This seemed like an easy way to ensure that I wouldn't get too much misalignment and would have a nice clean look when I was wearing it.  It's pretty easy to get into at this point so it's not too big a deal.  Also, I had the CA laying on the bench from some previous projects so I just figured it would give it that little extra hold.  I'm already having a couple issues with E6000 on some joints.

 

Same with mine... trick to heating for me was to tie it to the shape I want with some tight string, put it in my sink, boil water, then slowly pour it over the armour areas where I wanted to bend.

[Deadeye[TK]]

Thanks for the info, Sarah.  For now, I'm going to attempt to wear it as is and see if the bends cause me issues while in use.  I'm hopeful that the added plates that I put on the two sides will pull things together.  If not, I'll definitely attempt your technique to get it bent to where I need it.  I wonder if that would also work on the calves, as that seems to be the one part that is not cooperating and they are consistently fighting me for shape.

 

Anyhow, I know that I've been really lazy in posting updates lately.  All of this bouncing from spot to spot makes it difficult to think to take pictures before moving on.  So here's another data dump of progress pictures.  I tried to use grandma's old sewing machine to make my straps but I think it's just too long out of use and probably needs too much maintenance.  It proved to be too unreliable and problematic to use.  I know Marc (CTID) suggested I could just folder over the straps and punch the holes but that was causing me some issues measuring things out and punching through both sides cleanly so I just went ahead a hand stitched enough to hold them closed.  I still heat sealed the ends like he suggested.  I don't have any in-process pictures of making straps but here's the body all strapped up.

 

 

I also strapped up the arms.

 

 

I wanted to be able to disconnect the forearm from the bicep so I added snaps at that end but kept the traditional glued-in elastic at the forearm end because it's already pretty snug.  I also added the glued-in straps to close the right side of the body and the riveted cod closure since these pics.  I didn't get pictures for it but I installed traditional calf closures so far.  We'll see how they go and if I want to augment with tabs or go with something completely different at some point.  The calves are my nemesis in the build since they seem so misshapen and don't close properly.

 

That pretty much wraps up the body and limbs (except for the painted ab buttons).  So the only thing left is finishing up the helmet.  I started by trying to integrate the hard hat suspension.  I don't have pictures but I basically emulated what MoSc0ut did by cutting out the retaining points and gluing them in.  I lacked his confidence in just gluing them in so I did a bunch of test fitting and stuff to try to position them.  I think I got it but until I get it all put back together I won't know for sure.  I then went to work on the teeth that Luc agreed needed some more refinement.  I think these turned out much better.

 

 

Then it was on to painting.  You can see here laying out the grey around the teeth.  I wanted to draw in all the painted areas to ensure I didn't get too sloppy.  Again borrowing a page from MoSc0ut's build I used his technique to replicate the decals into hand painted tube stripes.  Here's an in process pic.

 

 

And the result.

 

 

I then drew in the vocoder paint lines before grabbing the brushes.

 

 

And I used ukswrath's technique of masking out the ab buttons.

 

 

Here's a progress picture after the first coat of grey.  I've since also done the first coat on the tube stripes and the vocoder.

 

 

So that's where I'm at to this point.  I'll be going back out in a few to put on some more paint.  Tomorrow is my first day back to work since the heart attack.  This whole process started before that and while it was certainly an unplanned event I think that the time I've had off has been very beneficial to make quick progress on this build.  I know it would have taken much longer if I had to work every day.  I was really hoping that I would have everything done and be taking my submission pictures tonight but at this point I'm guessing that's not possible.  This Humbrol paint seems to take a long time to dry and there are just a few too many small things that need to be done before everything is ready to go.  I need to do a second coat (at least in some areas) of these base colors and once those dry I'll need to add the black outlines and touches.  Then I have some Plasti-Dip to coat the inside of the helmet.  After that, I need to figure out how to mount the lenses and the frown screen.  Once all of that's done, I can put the helmet back together and test out the hard hat suspension.  With all of that done, I still haven't trimmed the helmet opening at all so I want to do some of that and then I can cut the 'S' trim to wrap up the bucket.  That at least gets me to submission photos and once I have the build complete I want to buy my helmet electronics and integrate fans, hearing system and TrooperTalk.  Really close but I don't want to rush and mess up all of this progress by being careless.

[Cricket[TK]]

You've made amazing progress in such a short amount of time!  I wish I could work as quickly as you have.  Everything looks great so far.  

I'm finding that the build itself is an amazing journey, so don't forget to enjoy it!    Great work!
 

[zv288bot[TK]]

Great job!

 

sent from my phone

[68Brick[TK]]

Looking good! Nice tape job for your button paint!!

[Deadeye[TK]]

Thanks for the kind words, Christine. I'm amazed that I filled the whole six weeks of my time off with this build. I honestly don't know how people pull this off with a full time job. I have certainly been enjoying the build, though. I'm honestly ready to start my next one as soon as this is done. I've been contemplating a FOTK, a clone or maybe something completely different--a Mandalorian.<br><br>

Thanks as well to Jorge and Brad for the kind words. The continued positive comments make me think I got things right so far so I really appreciate everyone that has offered them.