fragarock's RS Stunt build - Not to scale

[fragarock[TK]]

Hi, I've been working on my thighs some more. I tackled the strapping system. The RS strapping kit comes with 3"x8" long black elastic but I used 3"x12" that I cut from a roll I had. The extra lenght gave me more flexibility when it came to placement and how much to glue down.

 

Here's the belt with the 3" strap showing how it gets installed. I looped the elastic over the belt and marked a line to sew. Then whipped out the sewing machine and went to work. Simply sew a line across the elastic making a loop that your belt will slip thru.

 

 

Once these were made I slipped them onto my belt and put it on. Then put on the torso part of the kit, thighs, boots, and shins. Then, with these straps hanging down from the belt I lifted up each thigh piece, positioning it at the correct height and at a point that was comfortable. Then I traced the top profile of the thigh onto the elastic with pencil. A piece of fabric chalk would be better if you have it. Once I took off the kit I then glued theses elastic  strips into the thigh pieces roughly centering them over the front cover strip. I only glued about the bottom 4".

 

 

The next day I tried them on. I positioned them so there was a slight gap between the bottom of thigh and top of shin. The left thigh over the sniper plate seems to be in good shape. The right one will need some foam to shim it a bit as it drifts left-to-right as I move. I could walk around pretty well with minimum noise, although I'm not really sure how much plastic clanking there should or shouldn't be.

 

 

 

 

 

I did attempt to make it up the basement stairs but couldn't lift my leg up to the first step at all. Clearly I'm gonna have to notch out the back of the shin, thigh, or both. In the photo below you can see the limit of my bending before the shin jams into my thigh. I'm presume I need to notch the back of the shin. Is this the right solution?

 

 

And tomorrow is my birthday. We celebrated early with my wife and son making a sweet R2 cake. They rock!

 

[Toddahhhh[TK]]

Looking good. You do have your legs swapped tho, ammo on right, sniper on left.

 

 

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[fragarock[TK]]

Looking good. You do have your legs swapped tho, ammo on right, sniper on left.

 

 

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It's just reversed in the mirror. Guess I didn't explain that part.

 

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[Toddahhhh[TK]]

Lol, good to know, didn't look right

 

 

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[Toddahhhh[TK]]

My brain couldn't navigate the flips, see it now

 

 

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[Cricket[TK]]

Looks good so far- you're on your way!  

I can see that you've got some overlap going on in the back while standing.  

 

This will only get worse when walking.  See how this guy has his thigh fully extended back as he walks?  His armor still has a teeny tiny gap between the thigh and butt plate.

 

You've got three options here:

1. trim more at the top back of the thigh where it's overlapping (don't trim any more from the front)

2. trim around the edges of the butt plate where the thigh hits it

3. split the difference between the two and trim a little off of both.

Regarding walking, blowing out the backs is a good idea and allows for better mobility.  I would try that first.  Can you adjust the thighs up any further?  It will leave a little more room at the knees and still look good.

 

 

And yes, a bigger gap at the hips allows for easier mobility on stairs.  However (as I've been told by many troopers), if you're going for a screen-accurate look, then you won't necessarily be able to navigate stairs easily.  I think it comes down to a personal preference because thigh/cod gap isn't really looked at all too closely for EIB and Centurion.

 

Oh, and happy birthday! That cake is fabulous!    

[fragarock[TK]]

Looks good so far- you're on your way!

 

I can see that you've got some overlap going on in the back while standing.

 

This will only get worse when walking. See how this guy has his thigh fully extended back as he walks? His armor still has a teeny tiny gap between the thigh and butt plate.

 

 

You've got three options here:

1. trim more at the top back of the thigh where it's overlapping (don't trim any more from the front)

2. trim around the edges of the butt plate where the thigh hits it

3. split the difference between the two and trim a little off of both.

Regarding walking, blowing out the backs is a good idea and allows for better mobility. I would try that first. Can you adjust the thighs up any further? It will leave a little more room at the knees and still look good.

 

 

And yes, a bigger gap at the hips allows for easier mobility on stairs. However (as I've been told by many troopers), if you're going for a screen-accurate look, then you won't necessarily be able to navigate stairs easily. I think it comes down to a personal preference because thigh/cod gap isn't really looked at all too closely for EIB and Centurion.

 

Oh, and happy birthday! That cake is fabulous!

Excellent photoshopping. Looks like I'm standing there with a cocktail in my hand.....maybe a White Russian like The Dude.

 

I gonna trim the thigh a bit to miss the butt plate. Do you think I should start off by cutting a notch out of my shins for better mobility then if that's not enough, cut the thighs too?

 

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[TK Goatee[TK]]

Happy birthday.

Awesome build, awesome WIP.

And please keep the kidney notches the way they are ;-)

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/uploads/gallery/album_16/med_gallery_12157_16_598.jpg

Edited March 13, 2017 by TK-71715

[Cricket[TK]]

Excellent photoshopping. Looks like I'm standing there with a cocktail in my hand.....maybe a White Russian like The Dude.

 

 

Hey, The Dude abides.      

 

 

I gonna trim the thigh a bit to miss the butt plate. Do you think I should start off by cutting a notch out of my shins for better mobility then if that's not enough, cut the thighs too?

 

If you're going to trim the thighs at the butt plate, be sure to trim conservatively.  I put on the thighs and torso armor and walked around in front of a mirror for this part.  I used a pencil to mark where the two pieces would barely hit, and used that as my 'trim line'.  Then I tried it all on again and repeated the process until they fit the way I wanted them to (this took a long time for me!).  Try to remember to leave a little extra so you can rebuild the return.  Depending on how much or how little you need to reduce on the thigh, you might not even need to cut anything.  You might instead use the heat sealing iron to reduce the length of the thigh and create a new return at the same time (that's what I ended up doing on parts of the thigh).  

 

There's no shame in cutting out the backs of the shins and thighs.    Start with the shins and see how that works for you.  Add the thighs if you need to.  I personally prefer an "as above-so below" symmetry on the backs of the legs.  It would seem a little off to me if the shins were cut out, and the thighs weren't.  But it's all personal preference, so do what works best for and is aesthetically pleasing to you!

[fragarock[TK]]

Decided to do some trimming of my thighs and butt which were hitting. I started off by trimming the top of the thighs where the interference occurred. Here's the original condition.

 

 

Basically took a pencil and traced where the butt was overlapping the thigh on both the left and right.

 

 

 

I trimmed off the excess using the dremel grinding wheel. It just seemed easier than trying to cut with scissors. Then I made a new return edge in the areas of the cut. Here's the fitting test. Some improvement!

 

 

But, the fit could be a bit better so I trimmed some more off the butt. Overall it looked kinda bulky so trimming seemed appropriate plus the return edges seemed a little too much.

 

Same process as the thighs, trim then make a new return.

 

Here's after the trimming.

 

 

 

I decided to try the kit on again with my wife's help which made getting dressed so much faster...and less painful. Another thing I did which I didn't bother photgraphing was too tighten up the elastic loops between the butt/kidney and kidney/back. I also put new "white" industrial Velcro on the torso to hold on my belt as the RS snaps don't work well.

 

Here's the new butt which fits a bit better now that I tightened the loops. Forgive my lack of TD...so embarrassing.

 

 

Maybe I should trim a bit more off the sides. What do you think? Also I still haven't mentally committed to trimming the back of the knee...need to convince myself with some ANH watching.

 

 

Here's the current fit-up. I need some foam on the side of my left thigh down by the sniper plate...its' drifting inwards. The belt weight is still pulling down on my ab sometimes creating a gap at the chest joint. Need to fix that with a strap or something...need to brainstorm. I look half asleep in this picture...bad timing.

 

 

 

Also added on the white elastic loops at the shoulder straps.

 

 

 

Let me know what you think about the trimming and general fit. I wanna make this as good as it can be so any input you have is appreciated.

Tomorrow I'll paint the various rivets and bolt heads white and start researching helmet build info.

 

Thanks !!

[fragarock[TK]]

Hi,

 

Late night for me as usual. I've started trimming the helmet face plate and have a quick question. Looking at the photos below, should I trim off a little bit more material around the eyes? It's hard to tell where the trim line should really be around the eyes.

 

 

You can see here there's a smidge of material left that may get removed...or maybe not. Also, should I leave the cut lines a little jagged or make them nice and straight? Seems like nice and straight would be more appropriate for a hero build, not the stunt.

 

 

[Cricket[TK]]

Maybe I should trim a bit more off the sides. What do you think? Also I still haven't mentally committed to trimming the back of the knee...need to convince myself with some ANH watching.

 

 

 

Let me know what you think about the trimming and general fit. I wanna make this as good as it can be so any input you have is appreciated.

 

 

Looking sharp there, trooper!

 

I would probably trim the butt plate at the same areas as you indicated with the yellow lines.  Trim a little, check the fit, trim a little more, check the fit...  It's a tedious process to get the fit back there just right, but you are definitely on the right track.  Keep it up!

 

Looking at your forearms, are you able to move around okay in them without any bites?  They look a little long, but it's always tough to tell in just photos.  I stumbled across this tip somewhere in the boards about how the mobility should feel (it helped me get a sense of how things should fit): "At a minimum and for basic trooping safety, you should have enough mobility to do the following unassisted: (1) put on and take off your helmet, (2) drink from a bottle of water, (3) feed yourself a light snack such as a powerbar or a piece of fruit, and (4) draw and holster your blaster. If you don't at least have that, you probably need to make some adjustments."

 

I could do 1, 2, and 3, but not 4.  I had to give my leather holster a quick hot water dip and reshape it (dipped the main part of the holster in 180 degree Fahrenheit water for 30 seconds, stuffed with newspaper to keep it open as it dried) so I could easily draw and holster the blaster while my helmet is on.  I was so surprised to discover that you are practically blind if you want to draw and holster your blaster with the helmet on!  It's all done by touch. 

 

As far as the eyes go, be sure to stare at the pics in this folder to figure out where you should be going on them.  The eyes were challenging for me as well!

Edited March 19, 2017 by Cricket

[Gwithian]

I trimmed mine a bit more then you, i used the dremel to get it how i wanted it to look, it maybe a tad too clean ...

 

The armour is looking fantastic

 

 

 

 

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[fragarock[TK]]

Help, I'm having real problems securing the back of my lid to the face plate. Trying to use pop rivets but they just keep breaking off prior to be setting fully. They worked fine on my belt drop boxes but I can't figure out what the problem is.

 

Any ideas????

 

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[Cricket[TK]]

Are they actually breaking, or just pulling through the plastic?  If they're pulling through, use a washer for support.

[fragarock[TK]]

Clearly I'm a moron and simply forgot how to use the pop rivet gun. Total operator error.

I did figure out what I was doing and got everything attached only to realize the back plate was nowhere close to aligning with the face plate. It flares out too much. I heat-gunned it  a bit to reduce the misalignment but it's still not good. I can rivet it back in place but the area around the ear is never gonna lay flat. Should I just CA glue it down? If it's not flat I don't see how to install the ear piece. See how much it flares out? And this is after I bent it inwards a bit to better align with the face plate.

 

[Gwithian]

I had the same problem Frank, I will post some better pics later but I ended up using more rivets , oh and had the same problem of them not attaching in some places so used washers like Cricket said .... I wasn't brave enough to use the heat gun lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

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[Gwithian]

Hi mate, hopefully these will be a bit better

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[fragarock[TK]]

So when in doubt use brute force. I'll give that a try.

 

Thanks.

 

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[Gwithian]

So when in doubt use brute force. I'll give that a try.

 

Thanks.

 

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It worked for me

 

 

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[trooper1[TK]]

Man!! That is looking so awesome! Nice job! I gotta get me one of these sometime!

[troopermaster]

I have never seen anything quite like this before and it is definitely not the way to do it.

 

Two rivets per side is enough. Gaps are covered by the ear caps.

Edited March 23, 2017 by troopermaster

[Cricket[TK]]

My RS lid is gappy under the ears as well.  Even though I used just two rivets, the ears cover all the spaces that seem like they shouldn't be there.  The RS helmets are beautiful in their wonkiness, and not everything fits together as you think it should look initially.    

[Gwithian]

I have never seen anything quite like this before and it is definitely not the way to do it.

 

Two rivets per side is enough. Gaps are covered by the ear caps.

I did check on the UKG and was told it was ok ..... will put it down as a learning experience

 

 

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Edited March 23, 2017 by Gwithian

[fragarock[TK]]

Hello,

 

I've spent a few hours each night over the last week working on my lid and figured I should get back to updating my build as well as get any input you may have. So here we go....brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long post so get your snacks and go to the bathroom before reading.

 

Let's start off with some reference pictures of the RS helmet.

 

 

 

 

 

I started off by watching all the Trooperbay videos on helmet assembly. Basically I tried to trim the pieces down to get them to look like what I saw in the videos.

The face plate was trimmed by removing the top portion all around. I kept the trim line as parallel as possible to the brow line over the eyes. This was about 1 3/4" above the eyes.

 

 

 

 

Cutting with scissors seemed to work just fine.

 

 

 

Then I trimmed off what seemed to be the extra pull material from the bottom of the face plate. Eventually I trimmed off more but to start I removed along the line shown.

 

 

I cut this material away with my Xacto knife. It was pretty thin.

 

 

Then it was time to work on the eyes. I traced a pencil line around the area to remove. There's no clear line where this cut is supposed to occur so you have to look at reference photos and then wing it a bit. Just cut a little shy of the line so you can trim more later if you need to.

 

 

 

 

I drilled out a few holes around the perimeter of the eye, kind of a connect-the-dots approach.

 

 

Then I removed some material with this gnarly bit, it makes an awful racket so I took off just enough to get my xacto in there.

 

 

This is the other eye but you get the idea, trim around with the knife.

 

 

Here's my initial trimming. You'll see that there's a bit of a ridge around the eye opening. After getting some advice I decided to trim this some more to get a cleaner eye opening.

 

 

Here's the final trimmed eye sockets. Once trimmed I sanded down the edges.

 

 

On to the teeth! Here are the tools I used. Drill, xacto, various small files (some with rounded sides and some with flat sides), and sandpaper.

 

 

 

Same process as the eyes, drilled a hole in each tooth gap. Then used the xacto to cut lines around the gap to be removed. Take care to stay away from the edges of the teeth. You want the teeth to retain their return edge so they appear to have some depth. When you look at the stunt version of the teeth, they are cut out a little roughly with some jagged edges. The hero version are much cleaner. Although this is a stunt build, my OCD forced me to make the neat and clean cuts. Just my preference. xacto cut out the teeth then used the files to fine tune each side of the tooth opening. Then sanded the back side of the teeth to remove any remaining burs.

 

 

Here are the final cut outs.

 

 

 

So now the face plate was done. The back of the lid had a crack in it which I quick fixed with some CA glue. Guess I didn't take any pictures of the trimming on this back piece. Sorry about that. I started off by removing the extra thin material all around the sides and at the brow line. Eventually I removed more as I was fitting the rubber brow piece and fitting the ears. It took several rounds of trimming.

 

 

 

Here's the right ear with the pencil trim lines that came from RS. I trimmed a little shy of these lines but later discovered that I took off too much material. I suggest not trimming these at all until you've got the front and back of the lid attached which will allow you to place the ears into position to see what really has to be removed.

 

 

I took some time to review the movie and see how ears actually fit around the helmet and see how the brow trim was installed. There were a lot of gaps between the ears and the helmets. Brow trims seemed to be either flat across and parallel with the eyes or slightly arched with a small high spot over the nose.

 

 

Here's one with the brow slightly arched. This is the look I went with.

 

 

 

Here you can see how the bottom part of the ear piece is angled backwards and the top center of the ear is roughly aligned with the end of the painted trap above.

 

 

Once I had a plan I placed the brow trim, saw some areas where it was uneven, trimmed off more ABS and re-fit the brow. You can use magnets or clamps to hold the back of the lid to the face plate.

Take note of the giant gaps between the front and back of the lid. I don't know if all helmets are this way or if it's just the RS version but these pieces do not align at all, not even close. Maybe it was just mine...a weird pull that day in the RS shop, who knows for sure.

 

 

Once the front and back were stuck together with magnets I then placed the ears on top and traced out where I thought they should fall. This would give me an idea how to trim the back piece.

 

 

Here you can see the pencil line of the ear tracing. I started by cutting along this line. Eventually I discovered the actual cut lines would be behind the point where the front of the ear meets the face plate.

 

 

Repeated the process on the other side. See the flared out piece at the bottom. That piece is a real pain and made it impossible for me to fit the ear on that side. So I heat gunned it and pushed it into position. It was the only option.

 

 

Here's the trimming.

 

 

If you saw my earlier posts you know that I had some trouble with the pop rivets. Initially I placed one in the existing dent on each side of the helmet. This didn't work at all. While everyone acknowledeged that the pieces don't perfectly align, they also said that 1 rivet should be enough to hold this in place. I can tell you it wasn't on mine. With one rivet in this area the ear was never going to fit. The back piece flared out so much, I couldn't even place the ear over the lid to trim it. So I pulled out the rivet and the placed 2 new ones on each side. That did the trick.

 

 

The left side was a lot better than the right.

 

 

Here's the left ear. The RS piece has dents where the holes get drilled. I used a 1/8" bit and bored the hole slightly bigger.

 

 

Next was the tedious task everyone stresses about. Slowly trimming off excess material to make the ears fit the curvature of the lid. I took me a couple hours to get the left ear fitted. I used the dremel, the xacto, and 180 grit sandpaper for fine adjustments. Don't worry too much about the bottom. It will get pressed into place with the bolt you install down there. Once I finally had it fit, I traced the profile of the ear onto the helmet. That way I could located where the pop river at the bottom should go.

 

 

Prior to that I had to pop rivet the bottom pieces together.

 

 

Here's the fitting. Note that I countersunk the bolt holes in the ear so the heads sit flat.

 

 

 

I did the same fitting and tracing process on the right side. Also riveted the bottom as well. The gap between front and back on this side was bad. Also, I had overcut the right ear which compounded the problem. So this side was really difficult to get to be passible.

 

 

 

Here's the right ear. You can see it slopes backwards relative to the helmet.

 

 

The bottom of the right ear was a real problem I installed the bottom bolt but the alignment was off as you can see in the photo below.

 

 

So the next day I decided to make an adjustment to improve the fit. I took out all the ear bolts and removed more material from the bottom of the ear. The more I removed the closer I could push (force) the ear to fit along the curve of the face plate. I also made a new hole for the bolt which would allow me to compress that bottom of the ear against the lid better. It's not perfect but it's good enough.

 

 

Once this was done I trimmed off the bottom edge of the back piece.

 

 

 

Here are the hovi mic tip areas. There's a marked area for the holes. The ones that came with the RS kit have a bolt that will fit thru a 1/8" drilled hole if you bore it out slightly. I placed them in with the washer on the back side.This area of the face plate is thin so I'll reinforce it with some ABS paste later. For now I just wanted to see what the mic tips looked like.

 

 

Here's the basic assembled lid.

 

 

 

Here's a closeup of the mic tip. I know the interior is supposed to be hollow and white along with that white outer edge you can see in the photo. But the casting of this is really rough on the outer black face and there's white paint on the mesh. Is this a problem? I bought alternate mic tips which have a better/cleaner casting but aren't hollow or white on the inside. Does anyone have a better mic tip supplier? Or do I just live with the RS ones and swap out the mesh?

 

 

Finally for reference here's a screen helmet for comparison.