Jayben's Anovos First Order: Painting, and Magnet/Velcro Strapping

[Jayben Kenobi[501st]]

A while back I purchased a partially completed Anovos kit from another member here on the forum. The weather has warmed up and I got a few days without rain so I took to trying to complete this armor. Following the advice of those on this forum, I went with Rust-oleum Gloss for my Anovos Kit.

 

For reference I have included the Costume Reference Library (CRL) of the TK-First Order from the 501st Website:

http://databank.501st.com/databank/TK_-_First_Order

 

 

 

I sanded the armor and used a tack cloth the get all the dust and such off. It was my first time using a tack cloth and man those things work great.  I guess I am amused by simple things  

After everything was prepped I started to set up a make shift painting area. I used an old diaper genie as a painting stand for my chest armor. I placed weights in the bottom to ensure it wouldn't tip over. I placed duck tape on the back of the chest armor to secure it to the stand. I gave it several coats. At one point a laid a coat on too heavy and created a small paint run on the right side of the chest so I went back with high grit sandpaper and sanded that area down to get rid of the paint run. Painted it with a few more coats and was happy with the result.

 

Chest Armor. Diaper Genie. Duct Tape.

 

 

I picked up the Rust-oleum spray gun attachment before starting the other pieces of armor and man did that thing save my fingers. It works really well. I recommend it for anyone going with the rattle can approach to painting armor. 

 

Moving on to the other pieces, I set up various painting stands using whatever I can find laying around. I used a Tee Ball batting stand coupled with a round cardboard tube covered in Blue Painters Tape to paint my Forearms. For the Back/Yoke I used an old beat up kids bike as a stand. For my Thigh Armor I needed to find something that would keep snug and secure while painting so I took an old scare crow yard prop and stripped every thing but the Styrofoam and bamboo stick part off. I cover that in Blue Painters Tape. Sadly I have no pictures of this setup. The Biceps and shins were laid out between the broom and trash can and painted with several coats. The rest of the armor was painted by getting some cardboard, wiping it off with the tack cloth and painting it with several coats. I did have an issue with tiny orange bugs wanting to land on my armor so between coats i would have to blow them off or sand them off with high grit sandpaper if they were stuck. 

 

 

 

 

After all the painting was done, I moved the armor into my basement for safe keeping and to prepare for the strapping phase. For the strapping I took some concepts from ukswrath's incredible build thread as well as TK4205 Magnetic Plug thread.

 

**** Let me take a moment to thank everyone who posts their builds on this forum. It was the defining reason I decided to try an join the 501st. I am not a craftsman or a fabricator by trade so these threads gave me the confidence to tackle this project. I love Facebook groups and seeing people's progress, but it is nice to have a site that makes it easy to locate information because people have taken the time and energy to post HOWTO's and WIP of their projects. Again, thank you! **** 

 

I found what I believe is a tree stand harness at Goodwill for like 4 bucks and I plan on trying to modify it to use as my strapping system.

 

For my Shins I went with ukswrath's low profile velcro method. 

 

For the abdomen section, I had to cut the back plate in order to fit into it. The previous builder was thinner that me. I used a dremel and a dremel cutting wheel specifically designed to cut plastic to cut down the center back. I plan on using the Magnetic Plug method shown on this site by TK4205. Photobucket isn't showing the images anymore but I viewed it several times before Photobucket decided to pull the stunt of charging folks to see their pictures so i think I can manage to make them up. Per TK4205 tutorial, I went to Home Depot and purchased the magnets there. I also purchased some small sheets of styrene from Amazon to use for the Plug and Socket Method per TK4205. I am planning on cutting them at about 2" in length. 

 

 

That is all the updates I have for now. Until next post!

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by Jayben Kenobi

[Jayben Kenobi[501st]]

7/11/17- Update: Gluing Magnets to back of Abdomen

 

I was able to get my Magnetic Plug Socket cut and glued. Since my styrene sheet was so thin I had to stack 4 pieces of 2" long sheets on top of one another so the magnet could fit inside. I glued the sheets and the magnet to the sheet with E6000 glue. I let it cure for 24 hours before moving on to the next step.

 

The next step i took was to attach magnets to my back plate. I marked off where I wanted the to go, then used E6000 glue, painters tape, and an additional magnet to secure the glue and magnets to back plate.

 

(the magnets pictured above are to hold the magnets with glue on the other side until they cure. The magnets on the outside of the armor will be removed)

 

After the magnets have cured for 24 hours, I will move on to attaching the Styrene sockets.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by Jayben Kenobi

[Ensi[TK]]

Looks great! Those makeshift paint stands are awesome, maybe I should get a trike.. 

[Jayben Kenobi[501st]]

16 hours ago, Ensi said:

Looks great! Those makeshift paint stands are awesome, maybe I should get a trike.. 

 

Thanks!

Haha! When you're broke from buying armor you have to get creative 

Edited July 12, 2017 by Jayben Kenobi

[Jayben Kenobi[501st]]

7/12 Update -Abdomen & Belt : Attaching Styrene Sockets

 

I was able to complete the Magnet Socket Method on my Abdomen Section!  I am very happy to complete this part because now I am able to really get in to the strapping phase of the build since I will truly know how everything is going to fit together. 

 

First thing I did was lay the Styrene Sockets on the back of the abdomen to see exactly where they needed to be.  Then I drew a small outline around each styrene sheet so I would know where to put the E6000 glue. After that I prepped the Styrene sockets with blue tape so that once I put the glue down I could quickly put them in place

 

Next I put the E6000 glue in places outlines and then taped down the sockets. I also added some magnets to help keep the sockets in place. After a few minutes I decided to add some weight to really make sure the sockets, glue, and armor were bonding properly 

 

 -Belt-

Not much here. Just put the belt together and had a little help from a Ewok dressed as a Stormtrooper

 

 

I used UKSWRATH's belt tutorial on his thread. Here is the link to the belt tutorial:

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31877-ukswraths-fotk-build-thread-tk-10116/?page=13#comment-443456

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by Jayben Kenobi

[Jayben Kenobi[501st]]

7/19 - Update - Ab to Cod Piece and Belt to Abdomen

 

I have made some progress on attaching pieces to my armor:

 

 

 

I followed Ukswrath's Ab to Cod tutorial found here. 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31877-ukswraths-fotk-build-thread-tk-10116/?page=13#comment-443442

 

 

I have also started working on my torso suspension system. Again, following the concept of Ukswrath's build. No wonder his thread has 80,000 views  

 

The white material is Styrene and the red material is Silly Winks foam from Hobby Lobby. I had it left over from an old project so I decided to use it up. I glued them together using E6000 glue. 

Edited July 19, 2017 by Jayben Kenobi

[Jayben Kenobi[501st]]

Update 7/24 Ab to Posterior and Thermal Detonator 

So for the ab to posterior I went with 2" webbing and magnets. I cut 2 8" strips of webbing. I used painters tape to show the 2"  of 8" piece of webbing that didn't need to be glued down to the armor. I  grabbed some magnets, & positioned in the appropriate place and glued it all down with E6000 glue.  I let it cure on the armor for 24 hours. Next I lined up the posterior with the with back of the ab marked off the place for the magnets, and glued them down as well. Next came the Thermal Detonator. I followed Ukswrath's method of securing the Thermal Detonator to the posterior. A small slit was cut using a dremel  and 2" Velcro was placed on the TD and the posterior. Works very nice.

 

Next, I attached magnets to the posterior itself. I used E6000 glue and let it cure for 24 hours

 

Attached to armor:

 

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2017 by Jayben Kenobi