A.J.'s O.F. AM 2.0 Build

[Alay[501st]]

12 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

Say Whhaaaa? 

Some cross garrison trooping!  He's coming to say hi to us at our Air Museum Expo!

 

 

[Pretzel]

Some cross garrison trooping!  He's coming to say hi to us at our Air Museum Expo!
 
 

That's so awesome!!

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[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Yep, we lived in Connecticut for nearly 20 years -- in the next town over from Sarah, in fact.  Our daughter and grandson Jed (my Young Jedi) still live there and we visit frequently.  I have an upcoming visit that coincides with the CTG "Space Day" event at the New England Air Museum so I asked for permission to fall in with them, and there you go.

 

Really looking forward to it!

Edited March 20, 2019 by A.J. Hamler

[Frank75139[501st]]

The Hamlers are everywhere!


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[Linus]

12 hours ago, A.J. Hamler said:

Hi, Dave..

 

I *think* I made those plates 1-1/8" x 2", but I'll check for sure when I go downstairs later this morning.  I know they're 2" long, because I cut them crosswise from 2" webbing, but I'll check the width to be sure.

 

[A slight pause occurs here.  Well, "slight" if you consider two hours to be "slight"...]

 

OK, I checked and my webbing plates are indeed 1-1/8" x 2".

 

Hope this helps.

 

A.J.

 

Yes, Thank you very much! Glad I asked cause my visual measurements were way off. Sorry that leads to another series of questions...

 

Now that you've trooped using those web/straps, would you say the two inch width is plenty in terms of lateral support (restricting the upper and lower pieces from shifting side to side)? Do you suppose making them a bit wider with the snaps slightly further apart might mean more support?

 

On the converse, many say elastic is the way to go wherever possible due to armor movement flexibility benefits. While I personally want to go with strapping on my back pieces, perhaps wider would be too restrictive? For example, I can take a piece of strapping and shift the upper and lower points I'm clutching ever so slightly getting about 1/8 movement'flexibility out of it.

 

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

You could make them wider, but I don't think it would add appreciably, and in fact may restrict movement.  The 2" straps are pretty wide, and give -- for me -- the right amount of lateral movement.  Elastic straps are stretchy lengthwise and not across their width, so the wider the straps the less lateral movement.

 

As to using 2" webbing or 2" elastic.... ah, that's a debate that's been going on here for a long time.  Many people swear by elastic and nothing else, while just as many seem to swear by webbing and nothing else.  For me, I did a mix.  I originally did all elastic, but found that the middle of the Butt Plate tended to push out too far with all elastic.  So, I replaced the center strap with webbing, while leaving the two outer straps elastic and it works much better.  For reference, here's my strapping scheme:

 

 

You can see the three straps joining the Kidney and Butt Plates -- the center one is webbing, the two outer ones elastic.  Those two outer elastic ones aren't the originals, btw.  I found that my first ones were a bit too stretchy, so I made some new ones just a skosh shorter to hold those areas under a bit tighter tension.  Still plenty of give when needed, but the Butt isn't floating around all over the place now.  (I absolutely HATE when my Butt floats around.  It's so undignified.)

 

Hope this helps.

 

A.J.

[Linus]

Gotcha, My butt plate flares a bit on the outer edges too so I'll likely hot water bath it a bit and consider the elastic route there as well to pull it in if needed.

Thanks again!

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

And you're thinking, Ah man, that longwinded Old Fart is back again.  Shouldn't he be yelling at kids to get off his lawn or something?

 

Well, yeah, it is prime yelling-at-kids season, but they're at school at the moment -- or they oughta be, the little juvenile delinquents -- so I've left my lawn unguarded for a little while to bring you up to date on my build.  Haven't updated anything since March, at which time I outlined a few issues:  One was my left Bicep constantly coming loose.  After two troops I knew that I was satisfied with the Bicep position, so rather than replace or add more snaps to the Bicep, I simply squirted a bit of E6000 around the snaps such that it cemented one strap to the other right around the snaps.  Not a lot of glue, but enough that it never comes undone on its own anymore, but would be easy to pull apart if I needed to.  (Thanks, E6000.)  I also had a clicking Sniper Plate, even though I had already added padding in the front of the Shin and Back of the thigh on that side.  A bit of judicious Sniper Plate trimming along the top edge, along with hiking up the thighs pretty much solved that.  

 

The final issue I needed to deal with at the time was the rampant and incessant pinching around the, ahem, nether regions.  The armor bites were terrible, even leading to a bleeding wound at one spot on my leg after three hours of Trooping.  I shaved a bit off both sides of the Cod, as well as off the inner edges of the thighs.  Next troop I still got some bites, but not nearly as many.  I shaved some more off the inner edges of the thighs again, and the problem is all but gone.

 

Since then, I submitted for and achieved EIB (yay!) and intended to immediately go for Centurion.  As always, the EIB review was filled with lots of great suggestions for improvement that don't directly affect Centurion approval, but there were two things I was requested to fix before applying for Centurion:  The gaps between the Shoulder Bells and the Chest plate in front, and the overlap of the Back Plate over the Kidney.  The first was an easy fix by just tightening up the shoulder straps, but that Back Plate was problematic.

 

As anybody who has built a set of AM armor knows, the bottom edge of the Back Plate is a bit odd.  Now, I absolutely love AM armor and consider it to be the best out there by far. 

 

 

However, it does have a couple quirks and that Back Plate is one of them.  For some armor, the bottom edge of the Back Plate has a nice, flat return edge that mates flat on the top edge of the Kidney Plate.  AM armor is different: That bottom edge isn't anywhere near flat, and the outer tips bend down and out like little "wings."  The end result is that no matter what you do, those wings will overlap the Kidney, which is a no-no in general, and a roadblock to attaining Centurion.  Here's a detail from the back photo from my EIB submission:

 

 

 

Notice in the above photo that the actual bottom of the Back Plate is right on top of the Kidney where it's supposed to be (red arrow), but those wings overhang at the sides (green arrows).  What's worse, with those wings overhanging they tend to pull the Back Plate out and down over the Kidney pretty much every time you move.  Here's a look at if from the side just before I started to work on it yesterday.

 

 

How badly the effect is may vary from Trooper to Trooper, depending on body characteristics.  If your upper back arches out at an angle, it's a bit easier to get the bottom of the Back Plate to rest atop the Kidney.  In the photo below, I'm holding the Back Plate out at an angle.

 

 

If your back arches out, great, but even if the Back Plate is resting in the right place along its width at this angle, good luck getting it to stay there.  Lean forward and your strapping will likely pull the Back Plate down over the Kidney again. 

 

I had brought up this issue way back during my build and got a number of suggestions, most of which dealt with heating those wings and bending them up to make them level.  But I could tell that heating and bending would warp the side edges of the Back Plate because of the amount of return edge I'd retained there, so I balked on heating.  Then, when I got my EIB, I corresponded with JustJoseph about it and got some guidance from him, as well.  Joseph has a set of AM armor, so he knows exactly what this issue is like.  He agreed that trying to reshape them with heat would badly mis-shape the side edges, and suggested that the only real way around it is to start cutting off return edges to reshape those pesky wings.  Again, I put it off because I wanted those edges to stay (my shoulder blades tend to push the Back Plate out, creating gaps at the side that I wanted to minimize with as much return edge as possible),.  However, I want to reach Centurion level even more, so those edges had to be dealt with.

 

After giving it a lot of thought, I determined that a combination of return-edge trimming and heat would be the best way to go.  I started by outlining the cuts I planned to make on the sides...

 

 

... and along the outer tips of the bottom.

 

 

It took me a long time to do these cut lines, as I kept redoing them to ensure I started with the minimum amount needed -- I didn't want to cut too much.  I wanted to do this in extreme baby steps: Do some cuts, then do some heat and see what I got.  Then trim some more and heat some more, and check it out.  By the way, remember that last photo above.  You'll see it again a bit later.

 

So, first I used Lexan scissors to cut off most of the waste up to my lines.

 

 

After that, I headed over to my drill press and used that cutter drum you saw earlier in my build to shave the Back Plate smoothly down to my lines.  Then, I heated those trimmed wings up using a hair dryer and did some bending, starting with the right side wing.

 

 

In the photo above, you can see the result after several cycles of trim/heat, trim/heat, trim/heat.  I was indeed taking it slow.  Satisfied that I had the right side as good as I could get it, I did the same trim/heat, trim/heat, trim/heat routine on the left wing.

 

 

OK, both sides are looking pretty good, and you can see how the bottom edge is now more or less straight across with no corner wings dipping down.   Lastly, I heated both sides a bit more to curve the outer edges inward to more closely match the curve of the top of the Kidney to help the Back rest more firmly in place.

 

 

This whole process took several hours, but I was determined to go slowly.  I did not want to trim any more than I had too or, worse, ruin the Back Plate and have to buy another one and start over.  Hey, remember earlier when I said you'd see that photo of my proposed cut lines again?  Well, here's that same photo, but I've superimposed red lines where I ended up making my actual final trims.

 

 

Yeah, I ended up taking a lot of plastic off, and as time-consuming as it was it was worth it when I reassembled all the straps and hung the torso on my mannequin to see how it came together.

 

 

That's about as perfect as I think it can be.  I still don't like the way the AM armor isn't flat along that bottom edge -- that bottom return edge is angled, not flat -- and I may address that somewhere down the road, but for now I'm satisfied that this fixes my issue with the overhanging Back Plate.

 

Now it's time to reshoot submission photos and achieve that Centurion certificate.

Edited May 23, 2019 by A.J. Hamler
repaired dead photo link

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

WOW, A.J.!!  As a fellow AM owner I can say that you have really conquered that issue with finesse.  The extra time you spent certainly made a huge difference, and this will be an invaluable reference for those with this issue.  As I mentioned in my PM, you should add this as a tutorial, no doubt!  GREAT job!    I see a Centurion badge under your name in the near future, brother.

[Sly11[Admin]]

That's some mighty fine work there AJ!!

[TK-4510[501st]]

Nicely done sir!

[Artshot]

I know your pain.

 

I have had many moments of wanting to test the aerodynamics of a back plate as I skim it out of a window, it was slowing me down so much that I had to move on to something else.

 

Soon as I think I am finished I will revisit those troublesome corners/wings or as I came to know them, devils horns.

 

You solution is going to come in very handy

 

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Hi gang; guess who?

 

Yeah, still tweaking my build thread as much as I'm tweaking my armor.

 

Just did my 5th troop last week, and it was a blast.  Not only was it a fun outdoor event with absolutely perfect weather, but it was the first time I used a sound system.  Up till now, I've eschewed adding sound mainly because I wanted to focus on the armor itself in my first troops.  Concentrating on walking without falling down, not trampling small children, and making sure all the armor stays where it's supposed to has been top-of-mind for me, and I didn't want any distractions caused by worrying about sounding good.

 

I've had my sound gear for more than a year (got it way back during the build), and it consists of an Aker 1506 and an iPod with the outstanding TrooperTalk app installed.  And, since I've had everything for so long I've  had a lot of time to think about how I wanted to implement it.  I didn't like the idea of mounting it into the armor itself, as I wanted to be able to adjust the sound and get it perfect before getting the armor on, so I finally decided to use a neck-hanging system.  Here's what I came up with:

 

 

I picked up some black plastic mesh at the craft store (the kind used for stitched needlepoint, or whatever it's called), and cut it to size to accommodate the Aker amp at the top, and an inexpensive folding iPod wallet at the bottom.  The wallet is very thin, not bulky at all, but has slots for my driver's license and a bit of cash.  The wallet folds closed with a magnetic tab.  You can find the wallet here:

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NY2G8S1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I attached both the Aker amp and the wallet to the plastic mesh with E6000 slathered on the back of each, then just weighted them down on the mesh till dry.  Then I just corralled all the wiring, folded it neatly, and bundled it into place with twist-ties along one edge of the mesh.  The neck strap is the same one that came with the Aker amp, but I disconnected it from the amp and reattached it to the top corners of the mesh.  It took some trial and error to adjust the strap to get everything to hang at the optimum level, but the neck strap is easy to adjust.

 

The system worked perfectly on its first troop, and I found that the hanging system is fairly easy to reach inside and adjust by just leaning to one side so that it hangs closer to the side opening of the chest plate, allowing me to reach in and adjust as needed.  The volume wheel on the Aker is at the top right (as you're wearing it), so all it really takes is reaching a finger in to adjust the volume level.

 

A.J.

Edited June 27, 2019 by A.J. Hamler

[Frank75139[501st]]

No problems with feedback?


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[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

13 hours ago, Frank75139 said:

No problems with feedback?


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Nope.  The end result has the Aker hanging pretty much right where it would have been mounted in the Chest Plate, so I wouldn't expect any more or less feedback than mounting it in the chest.

[Frank75139[501st]]

Nope.  The end result has the Aker hanging pretty much right where it would have been mounted in the Chest Plate, so I wouldn't expect any more or less feedback than mounting it in the chest.

I was getting terrible feedback. Maybe it was the Bluetooth headset


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[Mad Dog 20/20]

On 2/26/2017 at 6:56 PM, pattrooper said:

welcome aboard...from another old fart

Another Old Fart to soon join the ranks here

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Greetings Troopers! With this thread being one of my top builds for referencing I thought I would compile it into a downloadable/printable PDF document. The Table of Contents is clickable—scrolling the document straight to the selected section—at least on a computer, and each main thread entry has a URL link straight back to the web posting. Also included are AJ's Pre-Approval, EI, and Centurion submissions, so the full scope of his armor build process could be documented and seen in one place. I've already shared the PDF file with AJ, but below is the link for all of you to have.

 

AJ's O.F. AM TK Build

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kXZnv64H9fERK9rwoCWrDxKVy_71ovbU/view?usp=sharing

 

Bonus! For my All-In-One TK reference thread I had also created a PDF document of AJ's reinforced shoulder bridge thread, which is linked below. I hope some of you will find AJ's threads as helpful as I have, and that these documents will add additional value to his work!

 

AJ's Reinforced Shoulder Bridges

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GgREnqxtqXmQ_QsZJmK2C_6tD16Nro4y/view?usp=sharing

 

 

 

[Firedog[TK]]

5 hours ago, MaskedVengeance said:

Greetings Troopers! With this thread being one of my top builds for referencing I thought I would compile it into a downloadable/printable PDF document. The Table of Contents is clickable—scrolling the document straight to the selected section—at least on a computer, and each main thread entry has a URL link straight back to the web posting. Also included are AJ's Pre-Approval, EI, and Centurion submissions, so the full scope of his armor build process could be documented and seen in one place. I've already shared the PDF file with AJ, but below is the link for all of you to have.

 

AJ's O.F. AM TK Build

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kXZnv64H9fERK9rwoCWrDxKVy_71ovbU/view?usp=sharing

 

Bonus! For my All-In-One TK reference thread I had also created a PDF document of AJ's reinforced shoulder bridge thread, which is linked below. I hope some of you will find AJ's threads as helpful as I have, and that these documents will add additional value to his work!

 

AJ's Reinforced Shoulder Bridges

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GgREnqxtqXmQ_QsZJmK2C_6tD16Nro4y/view?usp=sharing

 

 

 

I cannot express enough how valuable this resource will be to me. I was unaware of your build thread until I noticed this post under the New Posts tab. I've begun a build of two AM 4.5 kits and have been pouring over this thread for an hour now. The work you put into the PDF document is professional quality and will no doubt be used by many troopers to come. Thank you!

[DTKC]

@A.J. Hamler @MaskedVengeance holy smokes!  I just came across your  Build PDF.  To say I am impressed is an understatement.  To say I am blown away is more on track.  From one old dude, to another, I love you man.  You just made my life 1000% easier. THIS is by far the best build documentation I have seen yet.  I am just starting my build and was super overwhelmed by the wealth of information on this forum.  You are answering all the questions I had in your document.  I can't thank you enough for your time and effort you put into this.  This should be required reading for every new AM builder!  

 

Your document and this thread have are exactly what I needed.  Thank you again!  

 

Edited August 12, 2023 by DTKC

[whosdachief]

On 2/28/2017 at 3:03 PM, A.J. Hamler said:

Helmet, Part I -- Smile!

 

Didn't get anything done on my armor yesterday and very little today, but I did start on my bucket.

 

The AM 4.0 helmet is really nice. Very thick and heavy, and very nicely trimmed. The eyes are nice, the overall shape is smooth and unblemished ... heck the whole thing looks good. Won't know till I have it fully assembled, of course, but I'm thinking that the only real trimming I'll need to do on this is the opening where the S-trim goes.

 

Since I got such a late start today, I figured I'd only tackle cutting out the teeth. Tools for this will be my Dremel rotary tool with a coarse-grit sanding drum bit, sharp knife, some needle files and maybe a bit of fine sandpaper.

 

In some of the builds here I've seen folks do a lot of drilling into those teeth openings, followed by lots and lots of cutting. Looked like way too much work for this Old Fart, plus any opportunity to avoid cutting myself when I'm cutting by doing as little cutting as possible is a Good Thing. I took a tip from Eric Dyck's AM 4.0 build video on YouTube, and elected to simply sand the openings to eliminate most of the waste. To do this, I worked from the back of the helmet face.

 

http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr355/ajhamler/AJ%20Stormtrooper%20Build/TK%209%20lo-res.jpg

 

On the inside of the helmet, those teeth openings really bulge out, and the ABS here is a lot thicker than you might think. To open up those teeth, all you need to do is start leveling those bulges. It's as easy as that. With my rotary tool set low enough that I had plenty of control of the grinding process -- and yet still fast enough to produce the lovely aroma of hot plastic -- I started with the smallest tooth opening at one end of that beautiful smile and worked my way to the other. (Yeah, yeah -- it's a frown. I know that. But at this point it's easiest to work with the face upside down to allow the best access for my rotary tool, and from this angle it looks like a smile to me. And why the hell not? This guy knows he's on his way to Stormtrooper glory. He just can't wait for me to finish...)

 

I didn't want to grind too deeply, so as a way to guide my progress I set a shop work light on the other side and got to work. As you get to the point where plenty of light starts coming through the thinning plastic and outlines the rough, rounded rectangular shapes of the openings, just move on to the next one in turn. By not going all the way through there's no danger of going too far and deforming the openings, and it leaves a paper-thin membrane that's easy to cut through in the next step.

 

When leveled to my satisfaction, I shook out the ABS sanding dust and flipped the face over to the outside, resting it solidly on my workbench. Taking my utility knife and snapping the blade to reveal a sharp edge, it was a simple matter to just trace around the teeth openings with the tip of the knife and clear out the rest of the waste.

 

http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr355/ajhamler/AJ%20Stormtrooper%20Build/TK%2010%20lo-res.jpg

 

There's still a lot of plastic flange at this point and the shapes of teeth openings are still rough, but just keep working the openings till almost all the flange is gone. And for the moment, he's still smiling at me. Now, I moved over to my needle files, and worked those openings to refine the shapes.

 

http://i499.photobucket.com/albums/rr355/ajhamler/AJ%20Stormtrooper%20Build/TK%2011%20lo-res.jpg

 

I just keep working those files and continued the refining, occasionally flipping the face over and working from the opposite side -- that allowed me to work those teeth from behind at another angle. Also, I jumped around with my needle files, too. The flat one with the square edges worked best on the long, flat sides of the openings, while the triangular one really let me square those corners. The tapered file also helped get those corners nice and sharp.

 

When I considered the teeth as perfect as I was going to get them, I folded a small piece of fine sandpaper and stuck it through each opening just to smooth those edges a bit. Not much, just enough to remove any sharpness or remaining flange or cutting pieces.

 

I'm pleased with how the teeth came out. And while he's frowning now, I'm smiling.

 

OK, that's it for today. Next up will be Part II of the helmet construction. Before actually assembling the bucket, though, I think I'll figure out how I want to mount the lens while everything on the inside of the face is still easy to access.

Im glad my videos helped you with the teeth and the rivet by the tubes.