fragarock's RS Stunt build - Not to scale

[illusionz_09[TK]]

Hi Frank-

I can get you added in to the FB page. It's a private group, but a very friendly one. Please look me up on FaceBook as "Diana Wolf Torres" so we can connect and I can get you added in. The group is almost at 500 members already. So, rest assured you are in great company. There are a lot of awesome building tips and tricks being exchanged on there and the best comeback lines to "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"

-D.

 

That damn quote. I'm 5'8" and I get that short trooper line all the time. The main issue is that most of my fellow squad is well over 5'10" so I always look shorter. But damn. No respect lmfao

[illusionz_09[TK]]

How tall are you guys. You're doing an amazing job btw...

[Skylar Leakey]

The BBB from RS Prop Masters arrived last night. After cleaning up from dinner, packing lunches, and getting the kids to bed I cracked this sucker open and laid out the pieces in their full glory. I started to freak a little looking at all the pieces because I now know how much work is involved here. Baby steps is what I have to keep telling myself.

 

The pieces look good and seem to have survived the shipping. I'm surprised by the lumpiness of parts of the bucket. Some areas are perfectly smooth while others are a bit lumpy. Cricket mentioned this in her thread but I didn't really understand until I saw it in person.

 

One are has me concerned. There's a dent on the bottom of the bucket face piece which appears to have been formed when the piece was pulled. Anyone else with an RS kit have this dent? I'm wondering if it's supposed to be there, damaged part, or fabrication glitch. Do I need to order a new piece from RS? See the picture below.

 

I also got the strapping kit which has the rivets and bra hooks already attached. This should help as I can't sew....yet! I figure I'll decide which parts to use or swap our for alternate straps as i work thru the process.

 

Here are some reference shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's the dent picture.

With the thing of alot of work I totaly tried to avoied that becuse I don't have time to spare I got the full commission TK suit it is taking 6 to 8 weeks but I have a feeling it's going to be worth the wait

 

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[Skylar Leakey]

Hey Frank,

 

I haven't really examined my face plate until you mentioned this, so I pulled it out of my box. Well, whaddya know.... denty here too!

 

 

Have you emailed Rob about this? Mine is paper thin in this area as well. I'm guessing that a hot water bath might help to ease things out. I've been too busy tackling the rest of my kit to tend to this issue yet.

 

And heads up: if yours is as thin as mine is, you're absolutely going to need to reinforce the mic tip areas.

We'll I got to check if my will have that when it comes in... btw there armor is casted from original castings

 

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[fragarock[TK]]

We'll I got to check if my will have that when it comes in... btw there armor is casted from original castings

 

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Ya, the consensus was that it's from the original. There are lots of little imperfections all over the armor pieces. Part of the charm of this set.

 

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[fragarock[TK]]

How tall are you guys. You're doing an amazing job btw...

Thanks! It's hard sometimes to feel like you're doing well when there's so much work to be done. I'm 5'-5" and the only piece I haven't chopped literally inches off is the back plate. There's a lot of trial and some error doing this. Even with Christine's valuable WIP it still is a challenge because what works for one person has to be customized for you.

 

So I'm just trying to focus on one area ata time....just the way I like to work. And that way I don't get too overwhelmed.

 

Hope you like the progress.

 

 

 

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[Skylar Leakey]

How tall are you guys. You're doing an amazing job btw...

5'6 lol

 

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[illusionz_09[TK]]

Yea I got lucky. I was right on that border of being shorter than the movie accurate trooper. Since I'm 5'8" the pieces fit as is fairly well. I know it's more work for you shorter troopers, but you are all doing a amasterful job!

[fragarock[TK]]

Work has kept me very busy for the past week and I'm just getting back to the build. My ab plate seemed to hang a little too low off the chest so I undid the brackets so I could get the elastic straps out. Once they were out I sewed a new line across them to essentially shorten the size of the loop. Then reinstalled everything.......meanwhile.....1 hour later.

 

I also finished up the ABS paste, sanding and polishing job on the bottom of the kidney plate. Afterwards I drilled the bracket holes and the corresponding holes in the butt plate. Finally got the torso section assembled and tried it on. Now I don't have the side connections in place yet so a little blue tape is needed to hold it together. Generally it fits around me well although I haven't taken an back pictures yet to see all those connections. Here's what I noticed so far:

 

1. Need to remake the notch on each side of the kidney. I lost it when I had to trim off the bottom.

2. Where the butt plate extends between the legs (the area with the snap) I need to trim material off the sides. Right now it's rubbing against my thighs and is in no way comfortable.

3. The butt piece sticks out a bit behind the kidney plate. I'm presuming this won't be an issue once I get the belt on. Also the left and right ends of the butt plate flare out a bit past the kidney plate above. Again figuring the belt will fix this. Or do I need to bend those ends a bit more?

 

Any feedback you have is appreciated.

 

 

Next I'll tackle the hinge strap/rivets on the torso......need to do some more research on that.

 

I also worked on the TD.

The RS kit comes with a plastic tube already formed in grey. I presume it's the correct color but I haven't been able to find Testors Gunship gray at any of the hobby stores near me to compare. Anyone know if the raw tube is the correct color?

 

The end caps need to be trimmed as does the control panel piece. Here are the pieces for reference.

 

 

First I rough cut these out. These should be 20mm wide according to various threads I looked at and the reference library photos. So I used my trusty compass to trace the line around and cut with scissors.

 

 

 

I the cut just a bit short of the line and cleaned it up on the belt sander.

 

Here's the control panel. Trimmed around it like usual and did some hand sanding.

 

 

You also need to cut out the ends. I left a bit of return on each side so that this piece would look like it had some thickness.

 

 

 

Then some glue and onto the tube it goes.

 

 

Once it was taped in place I grabbed the small brush and painted the screw heads. The RS TD comes with the clips already attached which is nice.

 

 

Here it is drying. My notes said the total width of the TD was to be between 184 & 190mm. I set mine to be 184mm. Should it be wider? The end caps aren't glued so I can move them out if needed.

 

 

Here's the completed TD. Ready to be thrown at some rebel scum. Of course I'll follow the Combat Operations instructions from my Imperial Handbook that my wife got me for Christmas.

 

 

 

 

Finally I have a question regarding forearm strap. I can't tell from the reference pictures where the straps are to be positioned. I think they go to the inside of the cover strip facing the body rather than facing out. Can someone confirm their placement? Here are the options below (note that this is the left arm looking at the front):

 

Option #1 (centered)

 

Option #2 (outside of the cover strip)

 

Option #3 (inside of the cover strip)

 

 

Do you just glue this into place with E6000? I read somewhere that when glued, the top of the forearm and bottom of the bicep should be touching or almost touching. Is this correct or is there supposed to be a space between them? I figure when they're hanging off the arm, the forearm piece will drop slightly anyways creating a small gap. ????

[Cricket[TK]]

For the forearm/bicep connection see Ukswrath's excellent tutorial here.  You want just a little bit of space between the bicep and the forearm, but not so close that you get armor bite.  I attached mine initially with industrial velcro at both ends so I could adjust things as I went.  I'll be installing snaps to replace the velcro very soon (now that I'm satisfied with how my arms fit with my gloves).

 

I don't know if you're building for EIB/Centurion, but you may want to adjust your thermal detonator clips so that they're closer to the end caps.  According to the CRL, "Thermal detonator belt clips are positioned with little to no gap between the clips and the end caps."  Like this (not my pic, but it's from an RS Props Centurion approved application):

 

The gray of the tube is correct, so you don't need to paint it.  I sanded off the lettering on mine and polished it up.  It won't matter if you leave the lettering on, though.

 

You wrote: "The butt piece sticks out a bit behind the kidney plate. I'm presuming this won't be an issue once I get the belt on. Also the left and right ends of the butt plate flare out a bit past the kidney plate above. Again figuring the belt will fix this. Or do I need to bend those ends a bit more?"

My butt plate sticks out a little behind my kidney plate as well, even though they're fairly well aligned.  I have seen this in other TK builds as well, so I'm guessing that it's a common thing.  

 

The butt plate still might flare out even with the belt on.  I gave my butt plate a hot water bath to make it more curvy to my shape, so it doesn't flare at the sides anymore.

 

Are you waiting on your belt still?  I wouldn't make any further adjustments until your belt has arrived.  My belt likes to slide up the kidney away from the butt plate, so don't expect the belt to keep the butt in check.    I might add some velcro back there to keep the belt from sliding around on the kidney.

Edited January 15, 2017 by Cricket

[fragarock[TK]]

For the forearm/bicep connection see Ukswrath's excellent tutorial here. You want just a little bit of space between the bicep and the forearm, but not so close that you get armor bite. I attached mine initially with industrial velcro at both ends so I could adjust things as I went. I'll be installing snaps to replace the velcro very soon (now that I'm satisfied with how my arms fit with my gloves).

 

I don't know if you're building for EIB/Centurion, but you may want to adjust your thermal detonator clips so that they're closer to the end caps. According to the CRL, "Thermal detonator belt clips are positioned with little to no gap between the clips and the end caps." Like this (not my pic, but it's from an RS Props Centurion approved application):

 

 

The gray of the tube is correct, so you don't need to paint it. I sanded off the lettering on mine and polished it up. It won't matter if you leave the lettering on, though.

 

You wrote: "The butt piece sticks out a bit behind the kidney plate. I'm presuming this won't be an issue once I get the belt on. Also the left and right ends of the butt plate flare out a bit past the kidney plate above. Again figuring the belt will fix this. Or do I need to bend those ends a bit more?"

 

My butt plate sticks out a little behind my kidney plate as well, even though they're fairly well aligned. I have seen this in other TK builds as well, so I'm guessing that it's a common thing.

 

The butt plate still might flare out even with the belt on. I gave my butt plate a hot water bath to make it more curvy to my shape, so it doesn't flare at the sides anymore.

 

Are you waiting on your belt still? I wouldn't make any further adjustments until your belt has arrived. My belt likes to slide up the kidney away from the butt plate, so don't expect the belt to keep the butt in check. I might add some velcro back there to keep the belt from sliding around on the kidney.

Hey Christine,

 

I'd like to get to centurion although I'm not sure I'll get there with all the chopping I've had to do....we'll see.

 

I do have a canvas belt that came with the RS accurate strapping kit but I haven't worked on it yet. Maybe that's the next piece I should do?

 

I actually just started remaking my kidney notches and realized I have to move my brackets. <insert face palm here>. So that's my current task.

 

Once that's fixed I can do the belt or I was thinking about getting the arms and shoulders set. Is the belt more important to work out with the torso at this point?

 

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[Cricket[TK]]

Hey, you'll make Centurion if you want it. I've read about many other TKs who've sliced and diced their way to EIB and Centurion. You're on the right track! <br><br>

The belt is helpful for seeing how everything pulls together. You'll start getting a feel of what needs to be altered once it's on. If you've got strapping/brackets done on the torso then the belt would be my next choice to work on. <br><br>

Unless you're getting frustrated with the torso. If so, step away from it and work on the arms instead.

[fragarock[TK]]

Had the day off from work for MLK Day. Spent the morning with the kids at The Henry ford Museum looking at trains, planes, and cars and generally running around like idiots. After some PB&J's and nap time I got a couple hours work in on the kit. Here's the progress.

 

New notches were needed in my kidney plate. There were some on the original RS plate but I had to chop off the bottom of the plate and lost the notches when I did that. So time to make some new ones.

These are 22mm x 22mm. They should align with the groove in the ab plate.

 

 

Unfortunately I goofed and installed my brackets before making this notch....big dummy! So I'm gonna have to remount the brackets on each side of the kidney plate. Here you can see the goof I made.

 

 

I started off by cutting about 6mm short of the 22mmx22,, lines. This will leave me some material to make a new return edge.

 

 

I used the heat iron set to "4". Mine doesn't have a temp guide so "4" is about as accurate as I'm gonna get. I started doing one side. Hold the iron on the side you want to bend for about 15 seconds then with mild pressure push the return over while holding the iron at 45 degrees. I did this then let it cool for a few seconds to firm back up. Then did it again to get it to bend all the way over. Notice how I cut out the ends of the existing returns at the notch to make it easy to bend....otherwise I'd get some warping.

 

 

Here's the finished return.

 

Once the notches were made, I realized I had to trim off some material from the sides of the butt. This way the sides would align with the notches as shown in the diagram.

 

 

Again I marked off the area leaving some material for a return edge. Then the old heat iron treatment.

 

And here's the new edge aligned with the notch in the kidney plate above.

 

Next task was the cod strap installation. Following UKSwrath's build I measured the position for the split rivet. For me it was 1" from the end of the cod. I drilled a 1/8" hole and then bore it out some more as the hole was too small. Insert the rivet. This rivet doesn't get painted.

 

 

 

Next punch a hole in the elastic strap. I bought a punch and snap setting kit for this work. Don't need to wack this very hard...gentle. I hit the punch too hard and bent it into oblivion. Luckily there was an extra. You could also make a hole with scissors.

 

 

Place the elastic with the washer over the elastic. Then use a chisel if you have one to hammer down into the split rivet and spread apart the sides. I didn't have a chisel but found a flat head screwdriver on its side worked just fine. This will only get the heads bent  a bit. Then you need to finish the job with the hammer.

 

 

 

 

Next was the left side connection of the torso. Again following UKSwrath...I marked out the holes for the split rivets. 10mm in from the side edges on the ab and kidney. 20mm from the top. 10mm from the raised horizontal ridget on the ab. The middle one gets centered between the top and bottom. Transfer these marks over to the kidney plate. Then drill with 1/8" bit and bore out the holes. I had to bore out all the holes as the split rivets that came with the RS kit were bigger than 1/8" diameter.

 

 

 

 

Then insert the rivets. Some people pre-paint these white prior to installing them. I'll paint them after. Also because I needed to set these on a hard concrete floor to split the rivets, I would have messed up the paint job anyways.

 

 

Then I measured out some 1" elastic strapping. I made it 2" long. You'll need (3) of these. Then you need to punch (2) holes in each one. The holes should match the spacing between the center of the rivets on your kidney and ab which you just installed. Ideally 20mm apart but mine were 25mm due to the return edge on the ab piece. It all depends on what line you used to measure 10mm in for your rivets. I set all mine on the kidney side first. Then had some trouble getting them pulled over to fit on the rivets on the ab. I could stretch the fabric over but found the chest pieces was just in the way of the hammering process. So I took off the brackets for the chest piece which gave me some room to maneuver. Then I reinstalled the chest.

 

 

Here are the kidney rivets installed.

 

 

Here's my screwdriver technique on the ab side.

 

 

Final attachment.

 

 

Finally I adjusted my TD brackets per Christine's comments.

 

They were easy to remove with a screwdriver. The brackets have to be bent back to get to the rear screws. But it's easy. I drilled new 1/6" pilot holes.

 

 

Here's the new bracket location. I also spread the end caps a little further apart before doing this.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for today. Thanks for tuning in.

[Kacrut[501st]]

Good job... I really enjoyed this build thread. Thanks for sharing the Progress build with us here.

[Cricket[TK]]

Good work, Frank!  Go go go!

It might be the angle of the pics, but are there still returns on the sides of your kidney?  From everything I've read, you only want to keep the returns on the top and bottom of the kidney, and ditch the returns on the side.  See here and here.  

[fragarock[TK]]

I'm glad you mentioned this. I wasn't sure about these returns, something just didn't feel right about them, especially after making the ab/kidney connection. I'll chop those off. Luckily I placed the kidney rivets at the break in the return edge, not for the end of the return so I won't have to mess with the split rivets. I kinda planned that thinking those returns would not work out. Happy accidents!

Good work, Frank!  Go go go!

It might be the angle of the pics, but are there still returns on the sides of your kidney?  From everything I've read, you only want to keep the returns on the top and bottom of the kidney, and ditch the returns on the side.  See here and here.  

[fragarock[TK]]

Thanks Louis,

 

I'm glad you're enjoying it. Makes me happy other people can see the progress and maybe get something useful out of it. I've been working on the armor for about 3 months now and although a slow march, I'm happy with the progress so far. Feels like I'm nearing the crest of the hill and am on the downhill slope.

Good job... I really enjoyed this build thread. Thanks for sharing the Progress build with us here.

[fragarock[TK]]

After thinking I got the left side fo my torso fitted together correctly, I realized I messed up the rivet locations. While waiting for some new split rivets to arrive in the mail I figured I'd work on the belt.

 

The RS belt is a white fabric with an off-white canvas-like material on the front. It comes with the snaps to attach to the ab plate already installed. The ABS part of the belt needs to be cut down a lot to get it to the proper dimensions. Here's the belt and the uncut ABS part.

 

 

There are several good diagrams floating around on the FISD site. Here they are for reference. Very handy as they show where all the cuts need to be made.

 

 

After looking at these, I went to work rough trimming the edges off the belt, basically all the scrap material that was keeping me from getting the piece to sit flat on my work table.

 

 

Next was to mark out the actual cut lines in pencil to match the diagrams above.

 

 

The RS belt comes with dimples in it to mark the fastener locations. Here I was double checking it compared to the diagram.

 

Once I marked out the lines, my top-to-bottom height on the piece was 100mm.

 

 

 

 

To cut these lines I clamped down my straight edge and went to work with a utility knife. Score-and-snap method. Then cleaned up the edges with some sanding.

 

 

After also trimming off the corners this is what the piece looks like. Next step is to center it on the center of the belt. Since my snaps were already installed I just measured between them to  get the center point.

 

Once you've got that done, you'll have to drill out (3) holes for the fasteners. I used a 1/8" bit.

 

 

Important item here! When you are wearing the belt, the soft side of the Velcro is on your right, the prickly hook side is on your left. Keep this in mind when you're working on the belt and place the canvas belt in the proper orientation before you attach the ABS piece.

 

 

Place the ABS piece over the canvas belt making sure it's centered left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Mark the drilled holes with a pencil onto the canvas belt below. Then using a leather punch and some light hammering, make the holes in the canvas.

 

 

I ordered the strapping kit from RS. This includes cap rivets for attaching the belt ABS to the canvas.

 

 

I wasn't sure the exact method for this but it made sense to put the tall part of the rivet thru the bottom of the canvas.

 

 

Then put the ABS piece over and place the cover rivet. To hammer the top piece on you need to be on a hard surface. I moved the whole belt to the concrete floor for the hammering. I used on of my snap/rivet setting tools and a hammer to set this top piece into place. Doesn't take much force.

 

 

Repeat until all (3) are installed.

 

 

When I first opened the BBB I didn't know what this thing was. Eventually figured out it's the button covers for the belt. These need to be cut out and glued over the rivets.

 

 

 

 

Drop boxes need to be rough trimmed. Looking at other builds, the number 10mm kept coming up for the thickness so that's what I used. I marked this 10mm line all around the box and then cut it out with scissors. I didn't cut exactly to the line, left a bit more material then put the pieces on the belt sander to even them up all around.

 

 

 

 

There's a front and a back piece. The attachment happens at the back piece. So I drilled a 1/8" hole, 1" down from the top of the piece. This is where the RS supplied 1" white elastic will attach. I attached this with a 1/8" diameter pop rivet using my rivet gun. I did it prior to gluing the front of the drop box on. Others do it after....as long as you're using a pop rivet.

 

 

Next determine how the other end of the elastic will attach to the belt. Flip the belt over and work from the back side. Place the drop box so that the side of box is aligned with the end of the ABS part of the belt. Also, the top of the box should be just about touching the bottom of the ABS part of the belt. Once I had the box positioned, I marked the belt where the fastener would go through the canvas belt. I decided to have it be nearer the top.

 

 

Punch a hole in the elastic with the leather punch. I couldn't use the punch on the canvas belt because I had already attached the ABS piece on the other side. So I used an XACTO knife to cut the hole. Insert the cap rivet, find something hard to hammer on and that's it.

 

 

On to the holster. I bought mine from Darman http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/user/1656-darman/ and it's been sitting around for several months since I did my E11 modifications http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38895-fragarocks-hfx-hyperfirm-e-11-mod/

 

I set the holster in position relative to the belt per the diagram at the beginning of this post. Marked the hole locations and punched them thru. Then transferred the marks to the belt straps and punched them. Finally I attached it using the cap rivets that RS supplied.

 

 

 

 

I set the rivets using the metal setting plate. This way the rivet head that's exposed on the front of the belt wouldn't be damaged during the hammering.

 

 

 

 

 

And here's the completed belt. Or as my lovely wife called it, "a fanny pack". Ya, a fanny pack with a thermal detonator on the back!

That's it for tonight. Here's a link to a good video explaining how to install various snaps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qPLy0WpLak

 

 

 

Next post will be the repair of my left side torso straps and re-riveting....removing split rivets is no joke!

[Cricket[TK]]

What happened to your rivet placement? Something looked a little 'off' to me in your pics, but I couldn't tell what it was exactly. I'm very curious now!<br><br>

Removing the split rivets isn't all that difficult. It just seems scary at first. I use a pair of small needle nose pliers (the kind to fix necklaces) and a small flat head screwdriver. <br><br>

The screwdriver is used to pry up one flat tab of the rivet. The pliers grab the opposite tab to keep the rivet from moving around. Once you get the tabs lifted enough, you then use the pliers to squeeze the tabs back together. You should then easily be able to push the rivet back through the hole.<br><br>

You're doing great so far. Hang in there!

[fragarock[TK]]

What happened to your rivet placement? Something looked a little 'off' to me in your pics, but I couldn't tell what it was exactly. I'm very curious now!<br><br>

Removing the split rivets isn't all that difficult. It just seems scary at first. I use a pair of small needle nose pliers (the kind to fix necklaces) and a small flat head screwdriver. <br><br>

The screwdriver is used to pry up one flat tab of the rivet. The pliers grab the opposite tab to keep the rivet from moving around. Once you get the tabs lifted enough, you then use the pliers to squeeze the tabs back together. You should then easily be able to push the rivet back through the hole.<br><br>

You're doing great so far. Hang in there!

The rivets on the ab side are fine. The kidney ones are off. If you look at the pic from that post you'll see that the bottom of the kidney isn't properly aligned with the bottom of the ab, it's too low. The kidney notch should be up higher.

 

I inadvertently aligned the top of the kidney with the top of the ab. That's how it's supposed to be normally but in my build, they won't align because I had to chop down the top of the ab to make the brackets work with the chest. So my kidney will be a bit higher than my ab piece.

 

I tried to pry apart the rivets with pliers but couldn't do it. Not sure if I'm actually that weak or if the rivets RS supplied are made from adamantium. I cut the off with a dremel wheel...several dremel wheels as they kept shattering.

 

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[Cricket[TK]]

If you're worrying about EIB/Centurion, I am fairly certain that they don't care about how the kidney lines up with the ab at the bottom. How the top lines up is what they look at. Maybe someone else can chime in here. I will pull up Diana's Centurion application post later to show you where it was discussed.<br><br>

Unless it's a fitting/comfort issue for you. Then just ignore me.

[Cricket[TK]]

BTW, that graphic that shows the different Centurion ab/kidney notches is to illustrate just the correct size of the kidney notches when dealing with shimming the kidney outwards. It's not to show examples of exactly how the ab/kidney alignment should be. I'm wondering if this is what you may be referring to?

[fragarock[TK]]

BTW, that graphic that shows the different Centurion ab/kidney notches is to illustrate just the correct size of the kidney notches when dealing with shimming the kidney outwards. It's not to show examples of exactly how the ab/kidney alignment should be. I'm wondering if this is what you may be referring to?

So are there any specific rules about how the top and bottom of ab/kidney have to join up? That could save me some hassle.

 

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[fragarock[TK]]

If you're worrying about EIB/Centurion, I am fairly certain that they don't care about how the kidney lines up with the ab at the bottom. How the top lines up is what they look at. Maybe someone else can chime in here. I will pull up Diana's Centurion application post later to show you where it was discussed.<br><br>

Unless it's a fitting/comfort issue for you. Then just ignore me.

 

I am worried about the top alignment. But I can't get the various parts to fit comfortably if I align the tops. Hopefully it's not a huge issue.

I did see a image in Diana's build that showed her tops not aligning. But that may have been changed in her centurion application which I don't think I've seen yet.

[Cricket[TK]]

I'm sorry you're having troubles with this!  We'll be able to help you figure this out for sure.  The ab/kidney fitting was a major PITA for me, too.
 

So are there any specific rules about how the top and bottom of ab/kidney have to join up? That could save me some hassle.

The top corners of the ab/kidney should be fairly well aligned at the top.  That's about the only rule for the higher level awards.  The bottoms are hidden by the belt and do not have any specific requirement regarding alignment.  
 

I am worried about the top alignment. But I can't get the various parts to fit comfortably if I align the tops. Hopefully it's not a huge issue.

I did see a image in Diana's build that showed her tops not aligning. But that may have been changed in her centurion application which I don't think I've seen yet.

 

Here's the link to Diana's Centurion post where the kidney/ab issue is addressed.  She corrected the misalignment of the ab/kidney at the top and earned Centurion.

 

What specific areas are giving you problems with fitting?  If you can share pics that could help.  

 

Another thing to note is that a return edge on the ab is not required for the higher level awards.  I saw in Diana's build thread that she had no return at all at the top of the ab plate, but still had the brackets in there.  

 

Found the pic!



 

Edited January 22, 2017 by Cricket