AP ANH Stunt Build-- March to EIB!

[CoatHanger[TK]]

And back to shimming the thighs. 

 

I did some fitting.  The challenges--- I need more width at the top of the thighs, but actually need to taper it at the bottom.  I want the seams to be in the middle as much as possible.  So, this is the line I got from the sizing:

 

The red line is the original measurement side.  The green lines are splitting the difference of the "taper" portion in order to keep the seam in the midline.  

 

 

A close up of the higher order geometry I had to do to figure out how to make this work:

 

How I felt trying to figure this out:

 

 

I cut all the angles and made another inner cover strip to fit behind the "new" joint.  Tons of blue tape and clamps and prayer later---

 

 

Holy smokes, it actually looks decent!  Whew!! Now to ABS paste!  Oh... And do the other side! 

 

 

 

Edited June 15, 2018 by CoatHanger

[TheSwede[TK]]

Nice work

[CableGuy[TK]]

Still at it.
 
Sanded down my small bits.  These look okay?
 

I’m a little late to the party here but, great job so far. Excellent vocoder painting amongst many other lovely bits. Well done on that belt ammo pack too. I was a little concerned when I saw the billhags diagram as the proportions on the diagram look a little off: however, you nailed it with your one!! :-)


I don’t think I could see a reply to your ab button question. Here’s a great reference shot. Your smaller ab button could come down quite a bit when you get to it, pretty much losing all of the flashing/return edge.



Best wishes
Dan

[CoatHanger[TK]]

I’m a little late to the party here but, great job so far. Excellent vocoder painting amongst many other lovely bits. Well done on that belt ammo pack too. I was a little concerned when I saw the billhags diagram as the proportions on the diagram look a little off: however, you nailed it with your one!! :-)


I don’t think I could see a reply to your ab button question. Here’s a great reference shot. Your smaller ab button could come down quite a bit when you get to it, pretty much losing all of the flashing/return edge.



Best wishes
Dan

I had held off painting/glueing that smaller ab button plate because I had a gut feeling it wasn’t right. This reference photo is exactly what I needed! Thank you!


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[Pretzel]

Great work on those Shims for the thighs. I had to make shims for mine as well,  but decided to not use ABS paste, and used Apoxie scuplt, and re-painted them. I found it much more forgiving than ABS paste. But, whatever works for you! 

 

Good Luck, I am eager to see how the thighs turn out. Well done so far. 

[CoatHanger[TK]]

“Emergency” Shim Help. (Obviously not really, I’ll go to bed and deal with it tomorrow.)

My shins turned out perfect size with all my fancy geometry. But now making them blend in is going terrible.

http://i.imgur.com/KTBCxNO.jpg



I added ABS paste. After entirely too much hand sanding and ibuprofen, my husband let me in on the secret that we have an electric “mouse” sander. Finally getting all the bumps of ABS off. But lots of issues—

On the left thigh, I can feel the ABS of the original armor is getting dangerously thin. And I can still see the joint. (I realize those pits probably would be fixed with more ABS paste but I don’t want to put any more acetone on this thin area.)

On the right, again with the pitting, and you can definitely see the joint line.

Ideas?! The best I have (but not bold enough to do it without advice) is Bondo the upper “V” area bilaterally to give a smooth contour, and feather it out. I know it will have to be painted, but honestly the shim was different ABS and was going to have to be painted anyway.

Help!


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[CoatHanger[TK]]

Great work on those Shims for the thighs. I had to make shims for mine as well,  but decided to not use ABS paste, and used Apoxie scuplt, and re-painted them. I found it much more forgiving than ABS paste. But, whatever works for you! 
 
Good Luck, I am eager to see how the thighs turn out. Well done so far. 

Ok, I’m currently trying to search out how you did this. Having shim issues. (See above.)


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[ukswrath[Staff]]

Reinforce the armor from the inside adding another layer of ABS or equivalent. This with strengthen the armor also giving you more material to sand on.

[Pretzel]

I agree with Tony (and if you don't you are a fool like anyone) lol. but seeing that you have already used the ABS paste, I would suggest adding more ABS to the inside to reinforce it. As Tony already mentioned, it will give you more material to work with when you begin sanding it smooth. 

[CoatHanger[TK]]

Ok. I’ve done some things. The thigh shims really bummed me out. I ended up buying/trying the Apoxie Sculpt. After a few trials with errors, finally sanded down to this—

 

 

Then, some Rustoleum Gloss White—

 

 

I still need to do some light wet sanding to make the paint smooth, but I am very happy with the results!

 

So, as I have worked on everything else, I decided to do a “pantsless” dry run.

 

 

 

 

 

I am pretty stoked. Obviously still things I need to work on (especially add in thighs). Any and all tweaks appreciated.

 

Specific question—How much should I cut off the back of shoulder straps?

 

And here is me cheesing it up. Let me tell you, HUGE grin under that frown!!

 

 

 

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[Commander Gree[501st]]

3 hours ago, CoatHanger said:

Ok. I’ve done some things. The thigh shims really bummed me out. I ended up buying/trying the Apoxie Sculpt. After a few trials with errors, finally sanded down to this—

 

 

Then, some Rustoleum Gloss White—

 

 

I still need to do some light wet sanding to make the paint smooth, but I am very happy with the results!

 

So, as I have worked on everything else, I decided to do a “pantsless” dry run.

 

 

 

 

 

I am pretty stoked. Obviously still things I need to work on (especially add in thighs). Any and all tweaks appreciated.

 

Specific question—How much should I cut off the back of shoulder straps?

 

And here is me cheesing it up. Let me tell you, HUGE grin under that frown!!

 

 

 

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looks great! the one thing that is literally sticking out to me (besides your hair) is your hand plates. If I may suggest, take a thin (1 inch or smaller) piece of elastic and secure it as you did with the hand guards, at the wrist end, to keep it from flaring up like that. this will also help to keep your forearms from sliding under the hand plates. 

 

as for you question about the shoulder straps remember that the approval is based largely on how the armor fits the wearer. you may be able to take the large bump plus 2 or 3 more small bumps off it. not sure as far as L2/L3 is concerned, i dont remember seeing anything other than how they are secured. 

 

For the thighs, does the color match exactly? if you can tell even a little bit you might get it kicked back. then you would have to paint the entire armor. but it should be fine. Looks great, keep up the awesome work!

 

one last thing, your chest armor flares out quite a bit. Do you have it secured on the backside? 

[CoatHanger[TK]]

looks great! the one thing that is literally sticking out to me (besides your hair) is your hand plates. If I may suggest, take a thin (1 inch or smaller) piece of elastic and secure it as you did with the hand guards, at the wrist end, to keep it from flaring up like that. this will also help to keep your forearms from sliding under the hand plates. 
 
as for you question about the shoulder straps remember that the approval is based largely on how the armor fits the wearer. you may be able to take the large bump plus 2 or 3 more small bumps off it. not sure as far as L2/L3 is concerned, i dont remember seeing anything other than how they are secured. 
 
For the thighs, does the color match exactly? if you can tell even a little bit you might get it kicked back. then you would have to paint the entire armor. but it should be fine. Looks great, keep up the awesome work!
 
one last thing, your chest armor flares out quite a bit. Do you have it secured on the backside? 

Thank you so very much for the feedback!!

Great idea on the hand plates. I have ridiculously small hands, and should probably take the time to reduce the overall size of the hand plates, but your idea is a great fix! Question— do you know if I can make the wrist edge of the hand plate concave to better sit against the hand? I don’t see anywhere in the CRL that says “don’t” but not sure if I “should”.

I’ve decided to go the “measure twice, cut once” on the shoulder straps. So I’ve cut off the big tab only for now.. and will cut off one at a time based on future fittings!

The color is spot on. Now, you can still see the shim if you look close, see the glare. But I pray the powers that be have grace for that.

And the chest... it is attached (and may need to tighten)... part of that flare is me trying out my amp and TrooperTalk app— the amp kept sliding down too low; now, once I fix that I worry I will still have some flare, for female anatomy reasons.

Again thank you so very much!! I can’t believe I’m finally so close!


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[Cricket[TK]]

Looking good there, Lindsey!    You look great!

Some things that I noticed that you may want to look more closely at:
 

• Your Han snap appears to be installed backwards.  The working part of the snap should be on the inside of the ab, not the outside.

 

• The shoulder bridge looks like it could be placed further down on the chest.  This would eliminate the need to remove the smaller bars off the bridges.  I think you can go 5 or 6 bars on the chest plate.  Also, you can completely remove the large tab on the back end of the shoulder bridges.   That should help keep the ends further away from the OII box.
  
  

 

• I'm also noticing (as in the photo above) the back and kidney are overlapping.  Tightening up the strapping there should help remove that overlap.  If that doesn't work, you may also consider trimming the back at the neck (and the back at the shoulders) to bring it into better proportion with your frame.  It's difficult to see how much you may or may not want to remove at where the shoulders of the back and chest plates meet.  Can you post a pic of both sides while in kit with your arms down?

 

• If you're going for higher level awards, you will need to bring your drop boxes out so they meet the ends of the plastic part of the belt.  As they are now, they are too far away from the ends.  You would want the edge of the box to be aligned where the top arrow is.

 

Again, you're doing a great job!    Keep it up!

 

Edited July 15, 2018 by Cricket

[CoatHanger[TK]]

Looking good there, Lindsey!    You look great!

Some things that I noticed that you may want to look more closely at:
 

• Your Han snap appears to be installed backwards.  The working part of the snap should be on the inside of the ab, not the outside.

 

Stupid mistake. I’ll fix it! Great catch!!

• The shoulder bridge looks like it could be placed further down on the chest.  This would eliminate the need to remove the smaller bars off the bridges.  I think you can go 5 or 6 bars on the chest plate.  Also, you can completely remove the large tab on the back end of the shoulder bridges.   That should help keep the ends further away from the OII box.
  
  

Ok! Somewhere I read said 3-4, but I think I agree that it’d look better to be able to see it more (short neck syndrome has that bucket riding low.) And I have now removed the back big tab.

 

• I'm also noticing (as in the photo above) the back and kidney are overlapping.  Tightening up the strapping there should help remove that overlap.  If that doesn't work, you may also consider trimming the back at the neck (and the back at the shoulders) to bring it into better proportion with your frame.  It's difficult to see how much you may or may not want to remove at where the shoulders of the back and chest plates meet.  Can you post a pic of both sides while in kit with your arms down?
  
  

The shoulder strap currently is as short as possible (essentially 5 snaps touching each other on a doubles up piece of 2” elastic.). But, I can definitely trim the back plate’s neck/shoulders to give me more room. That’d be a ton easier than shortening the ab/kidney and recreating return edges (what I’m desperately trying to avoid.)

 

• If you're going for higher level awards, you will need to bring your drop boxes out so they meet the ends of the plastic part of the belt.  As they are now, they are too far away from the ends.  You would want the edge of the box to be aligned where the top arrow is.

Done! Thankfully made those puppies adjustable just for that reason (well, more specifically, because I didn’t trust myself..)
 
Thanks for all the great feed back!!


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[CoatHanger[TK]]

Some minor upgrades—

Moved the shoulder straps down. Now 5.5 small bumps on the chest plate.



Side view of the chest/back connection. Not pictured is the corrected floating snap.



Trimmed the back at the shoulder and neck by about 5mm. Is this acceptable? Very minimal overlap at the sides (but honestly the kit doesn’t seem to be molded for zero overlap). Or should I trim more for less gap?



Thanks bunches!


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[lucnak[TK]]

Some additional feedback on your outdoor pantsless fit test:

• The cover strip on the front of your left bicep looks a bit long.
• Do you think your forearms are too long? They look like they are getting under your handplates.

And on your last posted photos:

• Chest to ab connection looks much better with less angle.
• Back to kidney overlap is definitely better too.
• Your shoulder bridges also look better. I think you could give these a hot water bath and add the 1/8" elastic to hold them down so they don't look so "floaty" in the back.

Hope that's helpful! You're making great progress!

[Commander Gree[501st]]

Looking much better. For L3 it states, back shall have NO, or minimal overlap of the kidney plate. this will ultimately be up to Tony and Joseph on what they want to except, but for Basic your just fine. The shoulder straps look great, although they may be a tad uneven, but that's just a knit picky thing. I also must agree with @lucnak, your forearms look a bit too long, you may want to take some off the elbow end in order for them to sit without siding under your hand plates. Ideally you will have an even amount of spacing between your hands and forearms, and forearms and biceps. on shorter troopers this is a little bit of a kick to mess with, but in the end will help with the "esthetic" of the trooper. and for your question about the wrist plate, if you add that second strap it should keep in right were it should be. Not sure you need to do anything else to it. Keep up the good work, you will be there before you know it.

[Cricket[TK]]

Thanks for posting the side shots.  Very helpful!

Here is a suggestion of how you could trim additional bits off the back and chest where the plates meet.  Shortening the areas - especially the left and right shoulder areas on the back plate - should allow you to bring the back plate up and off the kidney.  I was told there should be an inch or two of gap between where the back and chest meet at the shoulders. (pic from my RS build)  This is just a suggestion, though.  Go with what's fitting you best right now.  Any gaps will be covered by the shoulder bridges.

 

At any rate, bringing the back plate up in this way could also allow you to bring your chest plate down in the front.  This would also help the bottom of the chest from popping out quite so much.  I think it might also make your girls a little more comfy in there by adding a little more space in the chest (this can also be accomplished by lengthening the white elastic at the shoulders).   

 

Like others mentioned, you can hot water bath those shoulder bridges so they have more of a curve.  This will shorten them up as well.  I added a piece of metal strip to the shoulder bridges.  Not only does this add extra strength to the bridges, but it allows for a really nice bend exactly where you want it to go.  

From my WTF build...

 

And from my RS build...

 

 

And some screen reference for ya:

 

I hope you don't think I'm being too nitpicky about things.    Trimming down a TK is challenging, and you're making amazing progress so far!  

[TheSwede[TK]]

Cricket beat me to the punch, was just drawing ut basicly the same thing

If you have space I would suggest making the kidney come closer to the body and that would also get the lower back closer and "lifting" the corners up a bit as illustrated below and, also raising the back plate just a tad and that would require cutting the back/chest tabs as Cricket showed Also...you could tighten the strapping for the butt plate to get it more flush to the kidney and that will also help common issues with the butt overlapping the kidney when moving around - keep up the great work

[Cricket[TK]]

8 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

Cricket beat me to the punch, was just drawing ut basicly the same thing

 

 

haha... great minds! 

 

8 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

If you have space I would suggest making the kidney come closer to the body and that would also get the lower back closer...

 

An alternative to making the kidney smaller is to make yourself bigger in there- and I don't mean by gaining weight!  Add padding to the inside top part of the kidney to push it outwards to meet the back plate.  I have similar issues with my kits.  For me, my back plate wants to go under the kidney,  so I added a wedge of foam in the bottom of the back plate to keep things in line.  

Edited July 17, 2018 by Cricket

[CoatHanger[TK]]

Thank you all (Cricket, lucnak, Commander, TheSwede)!! Due to these silly interruptions by work and family (don’t they know my priority should be to the Empire?!) I haven’t had a chance to start implementing some of the above changes. Taking all of the above thoughts, here’s what I think I’ll do—

1– check to make sure the kidney to back connection isn’t too tight. Reading yall’s comment and notations on pics, I want to bring up the back and bring the chest forward/down. My first thought is since I attached to kidney-back with an overlap, let’s make sure I’m not hindering my own progress.

2– then, I might do some test fits/pics to see how much I need to cut the shoulder tabs and/or increase the shoulder elastic length to get the appropriate alignment.

3– water bath the shoulder straps for closer fit

4- tighten butt to back connection

5– consider adding foam to back of kidney (I am currently in a journey to lose some baby weight, and have lost 25# in 2018 so far... so foam is better than calories.

6– show y’all the thighs. I’m happy with the shim result. But, remember previously mentioned weight loss?? Yeah... don’t lose weight after spending 6wks working on thigh shims... hoping foam can fix that too

7– look closer at forearms. I know I need to just suck it up and trim them at the elbow. But I love the look of return edge, and I have just not mastered recreating return edges. Some of the troopers here make it look so easy. So I’ll revisit that.

Now just for some alone time in the garage...


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[Commander Gree[501st]]

3 minutes ago, CoatHanger said:

Thank you all (Cricket, lucnak, Commander, TheSwede)!! Due to these silly interruptions by work and family (don’t they know my priority should be to the Empire?!) I haven’t had a chance to start implementing some of the above changes. Taking all of the above thoughts, here’s what I think I’ll do—

1– check to make sure the kidney to back connection isn’t too tight. Reading yall’s comment and notations on pics, I want to bring up the back and bring the chest forward/down. My first thought is since I attached to kidney-back with an overlap, let’s make sure I’m not hindering my own progress.

2– then, I might do some test fits/pics to see how much I need to cut the shoulder tabs and/or increase the shoulder elastic length to get the appropriate alignment.

3– water bath the shoulder straps for closer fit

4- tighten butt to back connection

5– consider adding foam to back of kidney (I am currently in a journey to lose some baby weight, and have lost 25# in 2018 so far... so foam is better than calories.

6– show y’all the thighs. I’m happy with the shim result. But, remember previously mentioned weight loss?? Yeah... don’t lose weight after spending 6wks working on thigh shims... hoping foam can fix that too

7– look closer at forearms. I know I need to just suck it up and trim them at the elbow. But I love the look of return edge, and I have just not mastered recreating return edges. Some of the troopers here make it look so easy. So I’ll revisit that.

Now just for some alone time in the garage...


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All this sounds great.

 

for your #7. take some of the ABS that you trimmed off something, a piece of "waste" so to speak, and practice the return edges with that. For now, trim the forearm down for the issues its causing, and work on perfecting your ability to create a return edge. then when you are comfortable with it, BAM! but remember you will lose some more length with creating a return, so account for that when you trim. Last thing you want to do is to take off enough, but then the return edge makes them too short. Your are doing great work, keep it up. Remember, its a marathon, not a sprint. you are doing fine and have no need to rush! your closer than you think.

[CoatHanger[TK]]

Deleted. Someone give Tapatalk some Ativan and a Keppra load...


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Edited July 19, 2018 by CoatHanger

[CoatHanger[TK]]

Urgent help (just because I actually have 2 hours right now to work on stuff)..

I’m looking at my back piece overlap (see above pictures.) When I lay out the armor with no overlap, this gap is created due to the convex shape of the bottom of the back piece.

Is this okay?!

CRL says “no or minimal overlap” but doesn’t say anything about a gap.




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[JenEcho[TK]]

I was worried about this too when my armour was laid out, but found that once it's on your body, the back will naturally lean out a bit and rest flat against the kidney. It took a bit of adjusting of the shoulder straps to get it just right, but it did look fine once it's on.