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

[LTM[TK]]

Looking great! I *think* the three buttons on one piece is for the Sandtrooper version, but you made it work!

 

 

Edited January 16, 2019 by LTM
double image

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Odds 'n' Ends -- Part II

 

Working on the Shoulder Bridges and waiting for glue to dry between photos, so I thought I'd tackle a few more odds 'n' ends that needed doing.  First up was to attach the Button Plates to the front of the Ab.

 

 

I'd put those off as long as possible so I wouldn't get them scratched up wrangling the Ab around doing strapping and whatnot.  But I expect to be taking submission photos this week, so the time had come.  I used sparing dabs of E6000 around the edges to attach both Button Plates just in case I ever wanted to go Sandy.  The next item on my to-do list was to install the Frown Mesh.

 

 

No idea why I waited so long for this task, other than it was yet another little detail that didn't fit neatly into any other particular section of work.  To adhere the Mesh, I used a dab of E6000 between each of the tooth openings, and held the Mesh in place with some tiny magnets till the glue set. 

 

After that, I cut and fit the S-Trim into place on the bottom of the Helmet (flat-ish side out, rounded side in).

 

 

In this shot and the previous one, it's obvious I've decided not to coat the inside of the bucket with black Plasti Dip.  I don't really like the stuff.  However, I do want to troop a bit with the Helmet without it and see how it goes.  I may eventually change my mind and do the dip on the inside, but I'll save that for another day.  I'll also need to do a bit more Helmet work -- those screws could use another coat of white paint, which I'll do before I do photos, plus my Ukswrath cooling fan system.  Also, you can see some preliminary padding up in there that's just taped into place, so I'll need to do the final padding.  I have the pads, but installing them is just another one of those little things I haven't done yet.

 

And finally for this post, I added a nice little tweak to my Hyperfirm E-11 by inserting a reticle into the gunsight. 

 

 

I did this just for fun.  I'm thinking that down the road I may replace the Hyperfirm rubber sight with something nicer in resin, or I might even invest in one of Field Marshall's metal E-11 sight kits, but for now adding the crosshairs seemed like a nice little touch to add.

 

OK, that's it for the latest round of odds 'n' ends.  Back to the Shoulder Bridges to check on how that glue is drying.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Looking good A.J. If shooting for Centurion may I recommend you scale down the vertical Ab button plate. Technically it should be smaller than the raised area it's attached to. Here's a reference photo. 

 

As for the scope decal, looks nice. I've also see people take a thin layer of Plexiglas and place it just over the decal giving the illusion of actual glass 

 

Keep up the great work 

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Easy fix, Tony.  (Another reason I usd glue sparingly.) Thanks!

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Odds 'n' Ends -- Part III

 

Before getting back to work on those Shoulder Bridges, I took care of another little odds 'n' ends task I've been wanting to get around to.  

 

I don't like sharp edges, especially when they come into contact with me.  They're coarse and rough and irritating.  Kinda like sand on Tatooine.  Yeah, same thing.  The split rivets joining the left side of the Ab/Kidney connection are a perfect example.  I mentioned this a while back in the build, and opined that I'd probably cover them with some E6000, but I came up with a better idea.  And, once again, I'm making use of something from my woodworking shop.  First, take a look at what they do, then I'll explain what they are.

 

 

Those are called "screw caps," and they're used on ready-to-assemble furniture and cabinetry anytime there would be visible screws.  They come in a matched set of two pieces -- a washer with a flanged edge and a cap.  The idea is you drive the screw through the washer, snug it down tight, and then snap a cap on top so it clicks into place on the washer flange.  This effectively hides the bare screw, and yet allows it to be accessible if you ever needed to disassemble the furniture.  These things come in a couple sizes, and about a hundred different colors.

 

As it happens, I designed and built a bookcase using these things just a few weeks ago for a project article.  For that bookcase, I bought a bag of a hundred caps.  Way more than I needed, but it was the smallest quantity I could get.

 

 

But as I'm snapping those caps in place on the bookcase, it occurred to me I could put them to good use in service to the Empire.  First, I dabbed a bit of E6000 onto the splayed tips of the split rivets, followed by another dollop inside each cap.  Then it was just a simple matter to press them in place over each rivet and let the glue cure.  Bingo, no sharp edges to snag my undersuit, and it gives a nice clean appearance should anyone ever be poking around inside my armor.  And since it's E6000, should I ever need to get at those rivets I can pry the caps right off.

Edited January 23, 2019 by A.J. Hamler

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

The Long and Winding Road

 

Well, here we go with the last major step I need to get done on what has been an extremely long journey.  Way back when my BBB arrived on my doorstep in February 2017, I never dreamed it would take this long to get to this point.  But a LOT happened in that time -- moving from one state to another, changes in job status, a serious family illness, several enormous work assignments, unexpected travel (being 400 miles closer to our daughter has been a huge incentive to hop in the car and go see her whenever we want), and a whole list of miscellaneous miscellany.  But slow and steady wins the race they say.  (They say that, right?)  So, let's wrap up this last step of adding the Shoulder Bridges.

 

The Shoulder Bridges are perhaps the most fragile part of TK armor, so it's always a good idea to reinforce them in some way.  Also, since the underside of the Bridges is basically hollow there's nothing there to glue to.  Most builds I've looked at fill in all those hollow spaces with slivers of ABS glued in to add both strength and gluing surface.  I decided to try something different.  My plan was to cover the entire underside of the Bridges with a strip of thin ABS cut from a For Sale sign I picked up for $1.99.

 

First, though, I needed to trim the Bridges down a bit to remove excess edge.  AM armor is nicely trimmed, but there is a bit extra left on, so trimming these was my first step.

 

 

The AM Shoulder Bridges are already curved (almost perfectly, for that matter), so using the score-and-snap method wasn't an option and I relied on my trusty Lexan scissors.  And while we're on the subject, a small rant -- why in the hell can't you get these things with bigger handles?  Do cutting for any length of time and those tiny thumb/finger holes tear your hands to pieces.  The blades are fine (the small size of those is perfect for careful cutting) but in the name of all that's holy I wish someone would make them with bigger handles.  OK, rant over.

 

Notice here that I'm not cutting all the way to my line.  That's because I'll be gluing ABS to the entire underside and I want more surface to work with.  I'll trim them to their final size after the gluing is all done.  I had already cut out the ABS -- again slightly oversized -- so gluing started by attaching the ABS to the Bridges at the middle.  The reason for this is that all the critical gluing of the ABS is mostly around the edges, and I wanted a solid center all the way down the middle for strength and rigidity, and to support the thin ABS.

 

 

To do this, it only takes a dollop of glue on the center of each "rib" where it'll make contact to the ABS sheet.  I'll use something different gluing the edges, but I'm using E6000 here for the longer working time and adjustability.  With the glue dolloped on, I pressed the ABS into place and added a series of small clamps down the center and set the Bridges aside to dry.  A couple things to keep in mind if you decide to do this ---

 

1)  First, shape the Bridges as closely as possible to the shape you want them before starting this.  Yes, you can still bend them afterward but it's not quite as easy, so bend them to shape now.

 

2) When you clamp on the ABS, ensure that you keep the curve intact the way you want it while the glue is still wet.  This is pretty easy to adjust, even with the clamps on.  But once the glue is dry it will hold the curve, so you want the curve to be right where you put it.

 

3) I've talked a couple times about how you can work with things glued with E6000 after only a few hours without waiting for a full cure.  That doesn't apply here.  You want the glue down the center to fully cure before proceeding.  Why?  Well, E6000 is strictly evaporative and needs air to cure.  The inside of the Bridges won't have air circulation once the edges are glued.  So let that glue cure at least the full recommended 24 hours.

 

OK, lecture over.  To glue around the edges I'll use Plastic Weld, which does exactly what it says.  This glue is very thin, cures very quickly, and makes a permanent, nearly invisible joint.  It's also easy to use since capillary action does most of the work for you.  

 

 

Work in small sections at a time -- about three or four ribs length -- from one end to the other.  I alternated sides.  Dip the brush into the bottle, apply liberally to the edge (the slightly oversized ABS forms a little "shelf" that acts as a guide) and capillary action instantly sucks the glue right into the joint.  Brush on a bit more in the same spot, and again it'll be drawn right in.  Keep doing this till no more gets sucked in; at that point the joint is fully filled and you can apply your smallest clamps.  You only need minimal pressure, and you only have to leave the clamps in place for a couple minutes.  The glue works that fast.

 

Important note: Be extremely careful with this stuff!  It will instantly start fusing any plastic it touches, including your armor, so get it and anything else out of the way.  Keep a cloth or paper towel handy for drips and spills  -- it will also start fusing the plastic laminate on my table, for example -- and wipe up any spills immediately.  Note how I keep the glue bottle in my Tray Of Isolation, plus I have it nestled into a hole in a piece of wood that prevents the bottle from tipping. 

 

Then I just kept working down around the edge, alternating sides, until I'd gone entirely around the Bridge.  Done?  Nope.  When this kind of glue cures, it shrinks ever so slightly, and if you look at the glue joint you might see tiny gaps that look like bubbles.  Go all the way around once more with your brush applicator, adding a second line of glue.  You'll see it suck right into those little gaps.  Once you see no more tiny gaps, then you're done.  Set it aside for an hour or two.  Yeah, the glue is dry, but you want it to fully cure.  An hour or two is more than enough, but best to be sure.

 

Now, I trimmed that oversized ABS right up to the edge of the Bridge plastic with a sharp knife, and sanded the edges smooth.

 

 

This is a straight edge, so either use a sanding block, or better yet a full sheet of paper held flat to your work surface.  I did a quick rough sanding with 150-grit just to level the edges and bring them to the final size, then followed with 220-grit, then 320-grit for a really smooth edge.  And here's the magic: Because this is a welded plastic joint, there is no appreciable glue line.  Seriously, take a look:

 

 

 

There you go.  The Bridges are strengthened from one end to the other, and you have a smooth, flat gluing surface ready to go on the underside for attachment to the armor.  Which, by the way, we'll do after making an adjustment to the armor.

 

Although the shoulder extensions at the top of the Chest and Back Plates are trimmed to length and shaped to my shoulders, the ends of those extensions weren't quite in the same plane.  Let's go over to Barky the mannequin and I'll show you what I mean.

 

 

The armor feels good on and fits just right, but no way those Bridges are going to lay correctly on that.  Leaving the armor on Barky, I reshaped those extensions by heating them with a hair dryer.  (I'm terrified of using a heat gun, but a hair dryer works great on small, thin areas like this and it's far safer.)  Essentially, I just heated up the ends of those extensions and twisted them until they lay in the same plane with one another.

 

 

Once I had the left shoulder nice and planar, I did the same thing with the right shoulder.  When finished, the bridges will lay perfectly over the top.  Now, it was just a matter of lining up the Bridges to center them over the shoulder extensions and making a few registration marks, then removing the armor and gluing the Bridges to the Chest Plate over on my workbench.  This is another critical glue joint, by the way, so once again I allowed the full curing time for the E6000.  

 

 

All right, let's take off the clamps, reattach the shoulder strapping and put this back on Barky and see what we got.

 

 

Nice.  Now, just a little cleanup for some E6000 squeeze-out, and these are ready for the thin elastic loops on the back.

 

At this point I have about a dozen little things to do -- put a few more pads into the Helmet, shorten the length of the Cod strap, add those aforementioned elastic loops to the backs of the Shoulder Bridges, that kind of thing -- plus some things like install the fans and sound system and such, but none of that is critical for submissions and as far as my armor goes... that's it.

 

Can't believe I'm saying this, but my armor is done!  And I couldn't have done it without all of you here on White Armor.   I can't thank everyone enough.

 

And I saved the best for last:  I'm ready to take my submission photos.

Edited January 26, 2019 by A.J. Hamler
insert new photo, typos

[Frank75139[501st]]

Wait! What? Submission pics? Did I hear that right Bud Spaklur? Did he say he was submitting pics? I think that’s what he said. But I’m not sure, maybe he needs to repeat it again.

Any who, great build thread, very informative unlike some of the others I’ve read recently that are filled with gibberish and crooked knee plates. I’m not gonna go calling anyone out but you did a great job. Good luck with submission.


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[DarthShinzu[501st]]

Congrats brother. Cant wait to troop by your side. Bring on the smiles!!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Awesome job A.J. You've done a fantastic job on your build. Hope to see you at the higher ranks as well

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, good luck with approval

[TheSwede[TK]]

12 hours ago, A.J. Hamler said:

I'm ready to take my submission photos.

Awesome!

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

"All right Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup..." *

 

OK, gang.  It's photo time.  I still need to get dressed and really get started on all the photos, and I'll post them later today, but here's my first test shot.

 

 

I still want to play around with the lighting and maybe adjust it a bit, but I think I have everything else pretty much set.

 

Man, I'm am one excited Old Fart!

 

A.J.

 

* "Sunset Boulevard" 1950

[Frank75139[501st]]

Ummm you know you’ve got to actually wear the armor right????

Jk looking good. My pics were in my bedroom taken by my wife so your good


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[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to seeing some fully kitted up photos

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

This is maddening.  Maddening, I tell you.

 

My armor is done and ready to submit, but the clock and calendar are moving too darned slow!  [Checking calendar again... Damn!  It's only the 6th!]  

 

So, to kill time waiting for this interminable election to conclude, I've been doing some tweakification of my armor.  The first order of business was to address some things JustJoseph suggested in my pre-approval thread.  To that end I raised the Biceps a bit, and they look a lot better.  I also raised the Belt at the front so it's slightly overlapping the bottom of the Button Plates.  Again, it looks better, too

 

One of the things I noticed when doing the shoot for my submission photos was that I could barely walk.  Getting around on a perfectly level floor was definitely a case of the Trooper Waddles, and an attempt to go up the basement steps was met with little success.   I was able to get up two or three steps, but it was a struggle of kinda crab-walking sideways.  Ditto coming down the same two or three steps.  So with time on my hands before I can submit, I thought I'd trim the leg edges behind my knees to facilitate movement.

 

I started by penciling in approximately where I wanted to make my cuts, and did rough cuts well clear of the line with a Dremel rotary tool with a cutter wheel.

 

 

Not particularly pretty, but this was just to quickly and efficiently remove most of the waste ABS.  Did this to the bottoms of both Thighs, as well as the tops of both Shins.  Then I moved to my drill press, still outfitted with that Microplane shaping drum you saw back on page two of my build.  I worked steadily and slowly with the drum and completed the cuts up to my penciled lines, and then refined the overall shape of the cutouts.  After that, a bit of sanding smoothed everything out.  Let's take a look.

 

 

Tried on my legs and holy yikemoly, what a difference this makes.  I'm not going to be bounding up stairs anytime soon wearing these, but I think I can at least manage stairs now without either looking like a total buffoon or falling flat on my face, which would be even buffoonier. 

 

I had mentioned earlier that I thought I needed to raise my Thighs, but to be honest after making these cuts behind the knees I'm not so sure now that I do.  I think I'm going to leave everything the way it is for now until I get my first troop under my belt, and then decide if the Thighs need raised.  Of course, that'll be at least a couple weeks yet because of that election thing.  Speaking of which, where's that calendar?

 

Damn!  How can it still be only the 6th!

Edited February 7, 2019 by A.J. Hamler
replaced incorrect photo

[LTM[TK]]

Hey A.J., start thinking about reinforcing some areas before they crack, front chest piece can be an issue.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Hang on tight, the days will pass soon enough, besides there's always reading to keep you busy, EIB and Centurion threads and if you finish with those have a read through the Trooper Survival Guide  

 

 

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

5 hours ago, LTM said:

Hey A.J., start thinking about reinforcing some areas before they crack, front chest piece can be an issue.

That's an excellent idea, Lou.  Not sure how prone the AM armor is to cracking in those areas, as it's really thick ABS.  But beefing up potential trouble spots would be a Good Thing.

 

3 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Hang on tight, the days will pass soon enough, besides there's always reading to keep you busy, EIB and Centurion threads and if you finish with those have a read through the Trooper Survival Guide  

I've been following the EIB and Centurion threads religiously, Q.  (Sometimes I think I look at them more than the builds!)  I've been building for EIB and Centurion from day one.  In fact, I've already shot all my EIB submission photos and they're literally ready to go.  And I've also shot almost all of my Centurion pix, too.  Just two or three that I have left to shoot.  

 

The Trooper Survival Guide is awesome.  I've downloaded the PDF and have studied it thoroughly.  Good stuff.

 

But waiting for when submissions start again is worse than waiting for Christmas as a little kid!

[Frank75139[501st]]

FYI I left the return edges on my AM and it cracked on the return edge into the chest. I think it’s strictly from messing around and closing my arms while dancing and what not. It’s not bad but it’s worth reinforcing with some ABS. I went above and beyond with mine.


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[LTM[TK]]

My cracking on the AM armor is on the chest plate from how I am gearing up, so like Sean I have reinforced the chest and other areas to add support. Shins are another high stress area for me (taking off and on). Look at page three, I had the same issue after a few troops, better to work it now before you get cracks. 

 

[6pack]

Hi AJ, just wanted to say thanks for documenting your build so well.  It's been a help to me and I'm sure will be to many more. 

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Thanks, Paul!  I appreciate it, and am glad to hear you're finding it useful.

 

In may ways documenting the build has sometimes been even more fun than the actual building.  (Especially the frustrating parts. )

 

A.J.

[Linus]

Ditto on Paul's remarks. I find your thread pictures and well articulated processes, your attention to detail and the quality of your work to rate up there with my top five build thread references. I know it takes a significant amount of time and effort to maintain a decent build thread.
Thank you A.J.!

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Hi, Dave, and thanks for the kind words.  Documenting my TK build so thoroughly was not only a pleasure, but it forced me to work in a strict one-step-at-a-time manner that really helped to minimize mistakes.  

 

Note that I said "minimize" and not "eliminate" -- I made plenty of mistakes!  

 

A.J.

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

Meanwhile...

 

Yeah, I know it's not part of my TK build, but while I'm waiting to submit we finished my wife Sally's Imperial Line Officer and I just had to share.

 

 

A.J.