Zel's Anovos Stunt Build for the Mini and Vertically Challenged

[Zel]

8. Strapping.. Part one: Zel's tutorial on making snap plates!

Woooow.. its been a while FISD, and I miss you! It's been three busy tk days here! I've actually "finished" my tk for basic approval last night so I can troop in the Canada Day parade this Sunday. Heres a sneak peek: (YAY for basic approval! and YAY for first 501st costume! here to many more!!)

Alright where were we.... Lets talk about strapping today!

I have decided to go with snaps as my strapping method, and this is for a few reasons:

• Easy to make and assemble, and does not take too much time
• a lot of adjustment potential, if a strap is too long/short, simply make a new one and snap it on! no gluing required!
• Comfortable and relatively tidy interior
• Reliable, out of the few local TKs around my area, non of us has had any snaps fail on us (knocks on wood)

The first step to strapping is to make some snap plates! these are nylon webbing squares with a male snap in the middle, and these will permanently glued to the armour with e6000. These will be what the straps with female snaps attaches to. For my kit, as I have a few extra pieces of armour (cod and I decided to use snaps for all my arm attachments too); I went very generous with strapping, I used around 40 snap plates. Many tks get away with around 20-30, its all about how you want to personally strap your armour. 

*Note: All of the techniques and methods below belongs to CoasterTK (Jay) in the Outer Rim Garrison, I am just writing a tutorial and showing how I assembled my kit*

Supplies:

For Creating snap plates, you will need.

• 1.5" While Nylon Webbing cut into 1.5" x 1.5" squares.  Some tks and Anovos mounted male snaps on small abs pieces,but nylon would attach so much nicer to your armour as it bends and molds to fit the shape of the armour.  Personally I preferred white nylon as it blends in with the white armour and looks better with the straps removed, however, theres nothing to stop you from using whatever colour you want as no one sees the inside of your armour!
• Male snaps, both top and bottom
• Male snap assemble kit, usually comes with purchasing the snaps themselves, or can be bought seperately
• Torch! (the fun part)
• A fire proof clamp holding a nail...

^torch+clamped nail.

IMPORTANT Safety Note: please do not do this in a non-ventilated environment, make sure there isn't any thing flammable in the proximity, wear PPE and common sense!! Please please please be careful <3

Step 1: Draw and X on the square nylon from corner to corner and mark the middle of the square

Step 2: Fire up the torch, then carefully use the fire to seal the frying ends of the nylon squares. it only takes a split second n the fire to seal the edges!

Step 3: 

Holding the Clamp, heat up the nail on the fire, then carefully poke the nail through the center of the white nylon. This will create the hole where the male snap fits through, and seal the hole from fraying in one step!

Step 4: Turn off the torch, then insert the backing of the male snap through the hole made by the nail. 

Step 5: Put on the top of the male snap and hammer everything together on a concrete surface.

Step 6: Voila! Now repeat 20-40x as you need! Making more than less at once is always better, plus I'm sure fellow tk builders if your area would love some too! I made around 80 snap plates in around an hour. 

After the snap plates are finished, I glued them on to my armour using e6000 and held in place with clamps and/or magnets. I left the snap plates to cure for 24 hours. 

Here's where I placed by snap plates: Here are also the promised photos which shows the torso armour post heat molding and sizing(trimming).

2x on shoulder bells to connect to shoulder bridge straps

2x on the middle of the shoulder bells to connect to bicep

2x on biceps to connect to shoulder bell

2x on forearms to connect to bicep. 

^The snaps on the arms are all optional, as many troopers simply glue the strapping on to the armour, I did this so I can easier adjust and switch out pieces for future plans. (I plan on owning many shoulder bells in the future which I can swap in and out, each painted to represent a charity/ cause to support. Ex. rainbow shoulder bell for pride, puzzle shoulder bell for autism etc.)

2x on top of thighs to attach to garter belt. 

4x on top of chest and back armour to attach to the shoulder bridge elastic strapping

4x on top of abs and bottom of chest to attach to them to each other (2 straps)

8x on the abs and top of cod to attach them to each other (4 straps)

1x on the bottom of the cod to attach to the butt. 

5x on the right side of abs and kidney to make them join together (3 straps) (I used the han snap as a pair for the top snap plate on the kidney)

8x on the kidney and butt to attach them together (4 straps)

6x on the kidney to attach to the back plate (3 straps)

I then named the pairs of snap plates. this will come in really really useful later on.  I don't know why but I lost the images  took at this stage of my kidney and back plate, but the images of everything strapped together makes it quite obvious (see strapping part 3)

 

To be continued.. 

[Coastertk]

Well deserved approval Mandy. You worked really hard and it shows in the quality of your build. Can't wait to see your EIB application next. And you know where we go from there. 

Congrats Trooper. Welcome to the 501st!!

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

GREAT tutorial, and smart thinking on using the propane torch, Zel... "where there's a will, there's a way!  Another option is to purchase a soldering or woodburning iron.  These are relatively inexpensive (less than 20 bucks) at Lowe's or or any craft store and you can use them not only make the holes, but seal the edges (to prevent fraying) as well.

 

 

 "(I plan on owning many shoulder bells in the future which I can swap in and out, each painted to represent a charity/ cause to support. Ex. rainbow shoulder bell for pride, puzzle shoulder bell for autism etc.)".... AWESOME idea!!!

[Zel]

9. Strapping Part 2: Ab Width Sizing for Curvy People, Split rivets, Han Snap and Other Particularities. 

 

While I hover around 125lbs and 130lbs, I have a relatively wide frame for my height. I have fairly wide shoulders and hips, and a relatively narrow waist. TKs however, have a torso that is almost perfectly tube shaped. This means that I have a LOT of room width wise between my abs piece and by kidney piece; and much more on the top part of the armour compared to the bottom. I want to accommodate for this and have a set of armour that moves with me, while still keeping the TK look and not look too curvy. 

 

I first taped all by torso armour together, and then fitted my abs and kidney armour to where it fits me more comfortably, while not looking too "curvy" for the TK look. I overlapped the kidney over the extra material that I need to remove from my abs. I quickly realized that the joint of the overlap is a diagonal line as I am wider on the bottom than top, and not a straight one. uh-oh, that is no good. To correct this, I first measured the angle of the diagonal line, then replicated that angle into a line on my kidney, and then drawing a line from the top to bottom. I then trimmed off this "triangle" piece of armour. Then, overapping my abs armour with my kidney again, I doubled checked to make sure that the seam line is now straight, which it is. I then marked the line of the overlap and trimmed by abs piece to it. All in all, I removed almost 4 inches of width from my abs. I still have room where I will be securing my AKER and phone for TrooperTalk as I do not have enough room in my chest piece to do so there. 

 

Then, on the left hand side of my  ab armour, I measured 10mm from the edge, and 20 mm from the top and bottom of my abs to mark the place for my top and bottom rivets. I then took the middle between those two rivets and then marked my middle rivet. I lined up my abs and kidney and did the same marking on my kidney, 10mm from the edge. Then, after double checking my marks, using a small drill bit (I eye-balled the size, I'm not very familiar with power tools in general ) and drilled holes. I then used 3 1/2 inch black nylon webbing, cut it to 40 mm long and sealed the edges. I marked two spots ( 10mm from the edge, 20mm apart in the middle) and poked holes with the same method described in Part 1 of strapping. I connected my ab and kidney on the left size using these webbing and the split rivets. I threaded the rivets through the armour, then the webbing on the inside and hammered flat. 

 

TA-DAH!

^Inside

^Outside

 

Then, I measured around 10mm from the edge of the bottom of the cod, and eyeballed the center. I then drilled a hole there and put in a split rivet there. I put in a small piece of black webbing in the back to add some thickness and protect the armour from the rivet. 

 

 

For my Han Snap, I measured the marked the spot on the top right hand side of my abs. I then drilled a hole and assembled the male snap facing the inside of the armour.  I am actually using this snap functionally as well for closing the right side of my armour.  (note how short and little my abs are after sizing )

 

 

 

Then, after looking at the reference imaged I placed two hole on the bottom of my posterior plate, then drilled holes and assembled two male snaps facing inwards. These two snaps will be functional as well for me, connecting to the snap plate in my cod. 

 

 

To be continued.. Sorry life has been really busy and will be even busier soon. So I will try to catch up this thread as fast as I can but it may take a while. 

 

In the meantime! I LOOOVED my first troop as TK-62639! here's a cheeky photo of me (shortie) with the ever so handsome TK-21887 at the Canada Day parade! Outer Rim Garrison ROCKS!

 

Edited July 4, 2017 by Zel

[shashachu[TK]]

I'm in love with this thread! So am I correct in reading that your ab/kidney does taper in slightly? ie the top circumference is smaller than the bottom? 

[Zel]

2 hours ago, shashachu said:

I'm in love with this thread! So am I correct in reading that your ab/kidney does taper in slightly? ie the top circumference is smaller than the bottom? 

yes, ever so slight so I dont wobble too much, I adjusted the angle of the sides to maintain the straight closure lines on the clam shell. 

[68Brick[TK]]

Looking good Mandy! One recommendation I would have is to double up the number of snaps on the shoulder straps. They see a lot of FORCE and could become un-snapped during a troop.