MissingNo's First Kit Build - ATA

[MissingNo[TK]]

Hey yall, so today is the second day of my first ever build and I figured it was time I put up a build thread so that I could share my (minimal) progress as well as get advice and tips from the community as I go along. I'm super excited now that I've started working, and even though the progress is slow, I'm really looking forward to reaching the end goal.

 

I've never really done anything like this before. I'm a computer programmer so these sort of "handy" tasks are things I've avoided most of my life. I live in an apartment, so my workshop is a rather makeshift creation of a vinyl tablecloth over my dining room table. I've assembled all the tools I will need (I think), but don't have access to some things of convenience like a belt sander and such.

 

Even so I've been excited to get started. I've been working off of various ATA build threads here on the forums, primarily Rullsellr2d2's build, as well as ukwrath's and a youtube tutorial series by TK 1636. I received by big brown box two weeks ago, and rushed to tear it open and carefully assemble the pieces on my dining room table. It was only then that I realized that I had no idea what I was doing and that armor sat laid out on my table for two weeks while I tried to figure it out.

 

 

 

 

Finally, I decided to take the plunge and start cutting my first pieces. Like many others, I'm working on the smaller biceps and forearms first. After a day of cutting, trimming, and sanding--I've got one forearm taped and fitted just about ready to be glued, and the other arm pieces ready to be trimmed to fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did want to ask though, I'm not sure how correct I've done the fitting. I brought in the return edges to 10mm on each side, which is a little more than needed but I wanted to be sure. The right forearm seems a bit large, still, but I've also heard thats just part of the ATA.

 

 

 

 

In any case, I'll be trimming down the rest of my arm pieces and hopefully getting cover strips on all of them by the end of today. 

[MissingNo[TK]]

So it's been a long few weeks, but I've made a lot of progress on my costume so far that I wanted to share / ask a few questions.

 

I've gotten all the arm pieces glued together and relatively ready, perhaps with a bit of cleanup needed.

 

 

I've gotten the front half of the thighs done (with a touch of extra glue that I will need to remove at a later date). I used an inner cover strip first for these and let it dry before applying the outer one. As it is now, I've trimmed down the backs of the thighs and they fit pretty well with no support. If I walk around they will slowly fall off my legs. I have a garter belt system so I assume once I hook that up it will help keep those in place.

 

 

My only issue now is that I've begun to start thinking about the whole process of strapping and bracketing, which is surprising for me because when I started I never even believed I would get to this point!

 

My issue is that I had already trimmed the top return edge of the posterior piece, and I might have trimmed it a bit too small. I have the brackets already, but I'm a little worried that I won't be able to put them in given the small return edge I left on the posterior.

 

 

 

 

 

Was looking for some advice on the above pictures. If it looks like I won't be able to use brackets for this part, or if I should be okay drilling the 7/64th hole needed.

 

Been a lot of fun working on my costume so far, looking forward to continuing it.

[troopermaster]

Drill the holes for the brackets in the crease of the return edge. Don't be too particular as the original brackets were placed in the creases or even on the face of the armour if the return edge had been trimmed too much.

[troopermaster]

[MissingNo[TK]]

Thats great to hear! Its really surprising how much leeway there was in the original armor.

[magni[TK]]

Looking good so far. I'd only recommend going easy on the bevels on your coverstrips. They're pretty steep. Especially on the top of your thigh in photo above. Check out the photo's in the gallery of original suit. Keep up the good work! We're rooting for you!

[MissingNo[TK]]

Looking good so far. I'd only recommend going easy on the bevels on your coverstrips. They're pretty steep. Especially on the top of your thigh in photo above. Check out the photo's in the gallery of original suit. Keep up the good work! We're rooting for you!

Thanks for the heads up, yeah, that one got a little bit away from me. Is that something that might affect my chances at Centurion?

[magni[TK]]

Only they can make that call. But I'd say yeah it could affect it. Did you check out the original photos yet? And I believe they don't ask for notches anyways for EIB. It's more of a personal wanting to follow original OCD thing. Which good for you in doing it. Oh yeah, go a little easy on the glue! Lol

 

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[MissingNo[TK]]

go a little easy on the glue! Lol

 

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I think I finally learned my lesson on that after having to peel e6000 off my fingers for the next hour after that thigh

[MissingNo[TK]]

Looked at the original photos, its a lot less pronounced there than I've made mine for sure. I will try to limit it in the rest of the strips I do and replace the offending ones when the time comes. 

On that note, what is the best way to get rid of that excess glue / remove a coverstrip if need be?

[MissingNo[TK]]

So I trimmed out my ammo pack for the thigh. The ATA armor doesn't have lines to curve out the edges. Was wondering, before I cut them out myself, what the best way to draw out that line would be. Are there any regulations on the size of the curve? 

 

[Deckard1138[501st]]

If you checkout tk1636 on YouTube he shows using the thermal det tube I believe to get the curve. Things are looking good!

 

 

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[MissingNo[TK]]

If you checkout tk1636 on YouTube he shows using the thermal det tube I believe to get the curve. Things are looking good!

 

 

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Found the video where he talks about it, thanks! I'll be giving that a go this week.

 

 

The next question I have in my long list is about the back of the shins. 

 

 

So, I'm wondering what size I should make my initial trim there. Should I trim one down to 10mm, then check the overlap with the other one? Should I bring both down to 15mm before checking the fitment? When I do the fitting itself, how tight / loose should I try to make it?

 

Thanks for any answers yall provide!

[MissingNo[TK]]

Working on trimming the kidney plate, was wondering how close I need to bring in the return edge--also, looking at ukswrath's guide I notice there are notches in the armor which the ATA one doesn't have, how big should these notches be?

 

Heres a picture of his notches: 

 

And here are the pieces I'm working with, wondering if the pencil I drew on the top side is where I should trim and if the bottom should be trimmed down as well.

 

 

[MissingNo[TK]]

Working on trimming the kidney plate, was wondering how close I need to bring in the return edge--also, looking at ukswrath's guide I notice there are notches in the armor which the ATA one doesn't have, how big should these notches be?

 

Heres a picture of his notches: 

 

And here are the pieces I'm working with, wondering if the pencil I drew on the top side is where I should trim and if the bottom should be trimmed down as well.

 

 

 

 

Looking at ukswrath's photo now I can sort of estimate  that notch at 1/2 an inch

[magni[TK]]

If your armor doesn't have the notch then you don't need to do it. I believe that's in the CRL. As for your pencil lines. That looks good. I'd leave them when you rough trim and finish just up to it. Leave 5mm or so is a good estimate.

[MissingNo[TK]]

Well, they are a pain to get in and out of--but I have legs now.

 

[MissingNo[TK]]

Hey, everyone! I haven't updated in awhile, but I've still been working slowly and surely...

 

Got all my pieces relatively trimmed, and did my first test fit. I've marked where I intend to make all the holes for the Bracket system, but I figured it would be best to see how it all fits together before I actually start drilling.

 

So, tried on my armor. It seemed to be a bit loose. (One picture shows a bit what the gap under the breastplate looks like) I'm not sure what the solution would be for this would be, whether I should trim some material off to fit or what. Was wondering how it all looked. I think the butt is a bit low, might have to raise that overall piece up a bit. And one of the shins is a bit off and needs to sit lower down on the boot.

 

Here is my first test fit, let me know what you think!

 

Of course I had to try on my incomplete helmet: 

 

 

 

 

And heres the gap:

 

[68Brick[TK]]

Is the ab plate against your abs? if it isn't, you could trim your kidney plate to suck in your ab plate, which will pull the chest piece in towards your body. Regardless, you'll end up with room behind the chest plate. But that's OK, as it's the perfect spot for electronics!

[MissingNo[TK]]

29 minutes ago, 68Brick said:

Is the ab plate against your abs? if it isn't, you could trim your kidney plate to suck in your ab plate, which will pull the chest piece in towards your body. Regardless, you'll end up with room behind the chest plate. But that's OK, as it's the perfect spot for electronics!

The ab plate was a a bit loose. I think you're right and trimming down the kidney is probably the right way to go, just nervous to make that cut!

[Shin]

What do you plan to do about getting the butt plate lifted? Building an ATA now myself...

[MissingNo[TK]]

Hey yall! Been a looong time since my last update, but I've been on and off working on my armor. I never thought the day would come, but I've gotten everything stapped together. I'm running into an issue though. The shape of my kidney piece doesnt seem to line up with my ab piece which creates a bit of a gap. Anyone have any ideas on how I solve this? Looking at the pictures you can see the gap that slightly forms there.

 

[MissingNo[TK]]

[MissingNo[TK]]

[FodiChan[TK]]

I had the same problem. I ended up using q tab system and it holds things in place really nicely. You can check out some example pics people posted in my build thread:
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44137-fodichans-56-female-ata-works-centurionhopefully-build/&share_tid=44137&share_fid=44557&share_type=t

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