JenEyre's WTF ANH TK Build

[jeneyre[TK]]

TK-50721 here! I'm a member of the New England Garrison with my Imperial Staff Officer. 

 

This morning, I ordered my ANH TK from Walt, my boots from imperailboots.com, and the strapping from MrNoStripes! I'm a perfectionist with my sewing, so I figured I might as well aim for Centurion from the start!  

 

I love to sew, so I'm probably going to make my neck seal and belt. I'm decent with leather as well, and actually have a slab leftover from my Jedi belt and Imperial officer belt, so the holster may be one of the cheaper parts of this build!

 

Right now, I'm going to hurry up and wait for my big brown box, and continue reading everything on the forums! 

 

I'm teaching summer school, and there's no air conditioning, so between those five sweltering weeks and the always steamy start of the school year, I figure I'll be prepared for wearing armor by the time my suit is finished! 

[Cricket[TK]]

Congrats and welcome!  Building a TK is fun and challenging, and it seems that you're up for it!  

 

I'm also building a WTF kit, and it comes with its own set of quirks.  I'm discovering them as I build.  Looking forward to seeing your custom leather additions to your kit! 

[shashachu[TK]]

Welcome! Glad to see more WTF kits popping up here. I'll be following your build! 

[bobafret[TK]]

Sewing is such a helpful skill!  I am envious of my Garrison mates who are nimble with that machine.  Good luck on your build!  Sounds like you have a great skill set for this!

[Shanester[TK]]

Welcome and good luck on the build.  I don't think I could have done it without the help I found here.

[jeneyre[TK]]

Big brown box day tomorrow! I meant to have my holster and neck seal done before bbb day. . . . Oops!

 

I'm going to see what I can do with the holster this morning, before I leave for a troop as Leia. Maybe I'll do the leather stitching in the car. . . . Or in the car tomorrow on my way to pick up the box! Fortunately, my husband and a friend were up for the road trip. Apparently there's a really great lobster roll place on the way. . . 

[magni[TK]]

Hey Jen, I saw your BBB today when I was at Walts! Good Luck with the build!

[jeneyre[TK]]

Finished  my holster! Will try to pay a full picture of that one I'm back on my laptop.

 

 

Oh yes. . . . And I picked up my big brown box! 

[jeneyre[TK]]

I'm having trouble finding a thread for a thorough wtf anh stunt  build that's aiming for centurion. Other makers, yes, but my search skills are failing me! 

 

Will going off non wtf build threads work? Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks!

[TheSwede[TK]]

Now that´s one happy camper and understandable so  and nice holster

[68Brick[TK]]

Congrats on BBB Day Jennifer! You can definitely build off a non-WTF thread! A lot of the kits are similar, but every maker has their own set of unique features and fitment challenges. If you find a good WTF build thread and Centurion application, run with it, If not , pick another Centurion build to follow and start out. Photobucket recently changed their services, so a lot of pictures might be missing in the threads as people find other providers. Be patient, we are all here to support you, and there are tons of troopers, threads, pictures etc to guide you along the way. 

[jeneyre[TK]]

Okay. . . so here's a link to a video of my first cut. . .  .  

 

That first cut was MUCH more intimidating than I thought it would be! Then I started getting into a rhythm. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention to my posture, so my back is a bit ticked off at me at the moment. Giving myself a break and reading up on build threads! 

[shashachu[TK]]

As WTF is a somewhat newer maker, there aren't too many build threads yet. MoSc0ut is the only WTF kit I know of to reach higher levels of approval, and I see you've found his thread already. Rob is shooting for EIB and Centurion as well, although he hasn't applied yet. (There's also a discussion on his thread about the proper pairing of the shins in a WTF kit.) If you're smaller, I'd highly recommend Diana and Cricket's builds for advice on fitting a kit to a smaller person. They both have RS, but the same general principles apply. In looking at build threads, the arm pieces of WTF seem very similar to ATA kits, so I've been looking at those build threads as well. 

[jeneyre[TK]]

 I learned from Walt that ventilation through the teeth is critical. He mentioned putting fans behind the teeth, to blow out hot air from your breath. Definitely going to try that! Hoping my microphone won't pick up on the fan noise. If it does, I'll probably try to finagle a switch to turn that fan off alongside a switch to turn on my microphone. Maybe.

 

If you have smaller than man hands, just order your cut resistant gloves online. The ones on the left, from a local big box store, were wayyy to big for me. I ordered the smaller pair online and they are perfect.

Soooo, when you go to assemble your helmet, make sure to use the right screws. I *might* have accidentally used the silver ones on the left, not the correct brass ones on the right. In theory, this wouldn't have mattered, but I did a little countersinking of the screws, and did a little more countersinking than I would have liked for the actual, correct screw size. Oh well. 

*****CORRECTION!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I was using the right screws for centurion the first time!!!!

 

That's what I get for not reading the forums enough. And not labeling all the parts. I'll put the correct screws back in tomorrow.**********

 

 

Everyone says that the ears are the hardest part. Well, I'm hoping that's true! If it is, I'm sure glad I got them out of the way. It's pretty rare, with a costuming project, that I don't meet my own quality standards. With the ears, I just have to step back and tell myself, "ear gaps are canon. . . ear gaps are canon. .." If you're anything like me, and those ear gaps are bothering you, do yourself a favor, and scroll through this awesome helmet reference. Type A friends, are you able to breath again? No? Me either. You want to exactly match the gaps on the "move along" helmet, now, don't you? STOP!!!!! You're not even done with the helmet yet!!!! MOVE ALONG TO THE NEXT PART!!!

And I need to keep reminding myself that one ear higher than the other is also canon. . . .
 

Oh, wait. Before you do anything, meet the best YouTube video series ever. If you are new to this website, it will be your new best friend. TK 1636's armor building tutorial on YouTube has been playing on repeat while I work. He's building for Centurion Level approval, which is my goal.  Just watch this over and over again. Seriously. He is AMAZING.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2017 by jeneyre

[jeneyre[TK]]

Ohhhh, and heyyy. Is it okay if someone had to use extra rivets to get one side of the helmet, under the ear, to sit right? and maybe accidentally drilled a few extra holes? (all covered by the ear)

 

Asking for a friend. . .

[jeneyre[TK]]

CORRECTION!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I was using the right screws for centurion the first time!!!!

 

That's what I get for not reading the forums enough. And not labeling all the parts. I'll put the correct screws back in tomorrow.

 

[magni[TK]]

Jen tell your friend if it's covered by the ear it never happened. And I don't think those gloves will pass with that rubber stuff on fingertips. Have you looked at nomex? If your aiming for Centurion which I'm sure you are you'll need to find rubber gloves. The ears came out great BTW.

Keep up the good work!

[jeneyre[TK]]

Just now, magni said:

Jen tell your friend if it's covered by the ear it never happened. And I don't think those gloves will pass with that rubber stuff on fingertips. Have you looked at nomex? If your aiming for Centurion which I'm sure you are you'll need to find rubber gloves. The ears came out great BTW.

Keep up the good work!

 

I'll tell her. :-)

 

And thank your for the compliment on the ears!!!! 

 

Those aren't my gloves for trooping, they're my gloves for making sure I don't cut my fingers off! They're cut resistant gloves, which happen to come in black! Thank you for letting me know, though!!! I'll post a picture of the rubber ones I found when I clear off a space somewhere . . .

[magni[TK]]

Well I'll pay attention more Jen

I'll just get some popcorn and watch for awhile. If the armor comes out like that helmet you'll be Centurion for sure!

[shashachu[TK]]

Helmet looks awesome! I'm leaving mine for last because I'm scared...

Edited August 3, 2017 by shashachu

[jeneyre[TK]]

16 hours ago, shashachu said:

Helmet looks awesome! I'm leaving mine for last because I'm scared...

 

I wanted to get it out of the way!

[jeneyre[TK]]

 Here's the left ear before I put the correct screws BACK in. You can see that the countersink was too big, as it was made for a larger screw. Fortunately, the larger screw was actually correct for centurion level! Check out the bottom screw. . .

 

 

 

The hole for the bottom screw, due to the countersink, was large enough that I was worried about gapping or pulling through. Below, you can see my little work around.

 

Basically, I made a little piece, almost a washer, that fit inside the hole. This took a while, and turned out to be unnecessary!

 Finally, the correct screw is in! It actually took me almost an hour to get all the screws re-installed. It took that long the first time, too! The top and bottom screws are JUST long enough. I imagine I could have trimmed the ears a bit closer in general, but I am CERTAINLY not going back to do any more! What I found I needed to do was hold the nut while turning the screw with a flathead screwdriver. Once the screw threads caught, I'd hold the nut with a wrench. I couldn't get the washer to fit on all of them, though.

Oh! Another problem I ran into was that some of the ear screw holes were too close to the washers of the rivets to use a washer with the screw and nut. Well, the washer couldn't lay flat. So, I actually trimmed some washers so the nuts could be flat! That also helped the screws to lie better on the surface.

[jeneyre[TK]]

The forearm pieces seemed absolutely HUGE compared to my forearms. I was worried that I'd need to form new return edges, and do all kind of ridiculous things to make them fit. I was not looking forward to that.

The forearm cover strips are supposed to be 15mm, so I cut strips of painter's tape at 7mm. Yeah, I got rid of half a mm. I live dangerously. Actually, half of me thought cutting out a mm (1/2 on each side) was going to help the fit. The other half thought I would end up accidentally adding in that half a milimeter anyway. We shall see!

 

I put the strip along the edge of the forearm, so I had a tape line exactly 7 or 7.5mm away. Probably should have gotten a picture of that. Maybe I'll remember on the right side!

 

One section doesn't have a return edge. I only have two hands, so I couldn't take pictures of this in the process! I taped the side with two return edges, and the wrapped it around my arm. I lined up the section opposite the no return edge bit (the far left and far right parts in the picture below) I made marks where I wanted the edges to meet. I was able to reach inside and mark a line by tracing along the other edge. It actually seemed like there was a hint of a line from the mold there, too!
 

 

After trimming, I think they're still fairly symmetrical.
 

 

 

 

 

It was raining, so I couldn't go outside to start gluing with the E6000. Also, moving on to the gluing stage is scary. Also I'm scared that I trimmed it too much or something. Eek.

[rwbowri[TK]]

the forearms are looking really good, can't wait to see them after you glue them.

[cjkirk11]

Wow, this is a nice looking build so far! Keep up the good work!