Poseidon's ANH Hero build

[Poseidon[501st]]

Painting time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I cheated and used stickers for the tube stripes. Next time I think I will just get the templates.

 

 

 

 

 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Great job Tom . Though the black trim line in certain areas around the traps and tears appears to be a little thick, overall beautiful work. 

[Poseidon[501st]]

Lens time. I took a lot of pictures, but suffice to say, I learned a few ways to NOT install bubble lenses in a helmet

 

I decided to go with the clip method instead

 

Made six of these bad boys, got too in the groove before I remembered to stop and take a picture. I rounded all the edges because having sharp stuff near my eyes seems like an extraordinarily poor decision, even for me.

 

No real inbetween shots to speak of, but here is the final product

 

 

Three clips, per eye, padded out the helm and added some screen. You can't tell, but I painted the screen black. Took a shot of my S edging too, so I won't have to undo it later.

 

 

I also too the opportunity to thin out some of the lines around the traps and tears

 

 

 

Quality control.

 

 

 

 

[Poseidon[501st]]

Test fit the second.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added snaps to my garters to hold my thighs in place, and fixed my drop boxes in place on my soft belt. Here is a better shot.

 

 

 

No thermal detonator on, as I am still gluing the fuzzy size velcro on it so it doesn't scratch up my armour. Also of note, my drop boxes are now fixed in place on the soft belt so they don't move. My hand is holding it out of the way when it is in the resting position.

 

 

 

I still need to paint the rivets on my thigh, touch up my buttons, add elastic to the shoulder straps, rivet my holster strap in place to hold the E-11 down...a few other things I am sure.

[magni[TK]]

You're looking good!

All your hard work is showing!

[Poseidon[501st]]

What is up my dudes? I got my approval for EIB (no biggie) and my suggestions for Centurion. After a few weeks I finally had some time in the garage to work on them, so here is my progress with that.

 

First up was the shoulder bells.

 

 

I needed to reduce the gap. Here is where I started

 

 

Mark up the edges...

 

Some trimming...

 

A little bit of sanding, and we're done!

 

 

 

 

[Poseidon[501st]]

Next up, TD screws. I had black screws before, but I needed pan head, slotted for Centurion

 

 

 

"The TD screws are to be pan head and slotted."

 

So lets make it happen.

 

Here is what I started with. No bueno.

 

Proper screws, courtesy of justjoseph

 

 

Got them lead in, mostly so I had something to hold them while I sanded/painted

 

 

200 grit sandpaper to give the paint something to grip

 

Coat of paint

 

All screwed in. You can probably get away with using a plastic butter knife so you don't damage your paint job.

 

 

All done!

 

 

[Poseidon[501st]]

Next up, the forearms.

 

I didn't get dinged on it for my submission, but according to the CRL

 

" No return edge on the inside of the front of the forearm is allowed. "

 

Here is where we started from. No bueno

 

A touch with the belt sander, courtesy of Ryobi and...

 

 

I also cleaned up the cover strips in a few places that I thought stuck out a bit too much. Also, you can't really tell, but I gave it a minor dip around the wrists so it wouldn't dig in so much either.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Hey Tom looking good and great work so far.

 

 

[Poseidon[501st]]

Next up is the changing out the belt mounts for the holster

From the EIB thread:

"Holster mounts. Snap base mounts are too large, they should be smaller, similar to cap rivets or Chicago screws. If you stall want to make the holster removable there's a couple tutorials out there illustrating how to take Chicago screws and install them so they also double as snaps.   "

Alrighty, a bit too big. I decided to go with Chicago screws as they were more readily available. I still wanted to keep the snap functionality, so I decided to adapt the Chicago screws to the male snaps.

 

I used two different punches for this. Here I am using the more pointed one to remove the snap backing. It was much easier than drilling them out.

 

I was able to salvage some of the male snaps. Waste not want not. Here is the Chicago screw that I plan on using. 1/4 inch in height

A wee bit too big, not a problem.

 

Rather then use a drill (as I have seen in other tutorials) and go slow, I opted to use the pin punch to widen out the hole. This is the added benefit of self centering, and I was not worrying about crushing the the snap whilst holding it with pliers. Plus more material. You can't tell, but there is a hole below the punch, to allow the punch to sink in a bit. More art than science, but there is a fair amount of room for error. Tap it down with a hammer.

 

Easy-peasy lemon squeezy

 

Now I normally use an awl to put stuff through fabric. More threads means stronger grip, and an awl just pushes stuff out of the way. Not this time. The Chicago screws were a bit to wide to get through two layers of canvas and two layers of elastic. I had to use my trusty leather hole punch

 

Now I used my larger, more shallow punch to widen out the hole on the Chicago screw to give it something to grip onto inside the male snap

 

A couple of taps with a hammer..and

 

Repeat as necessary

 

 

Not in my hardsuit, but here you can see it holding up my E-11

 

In the future I will probably add a piece of plastic to avoid blaster droop. But that is a project for another day.

 

Side question, anyone think this worth putting in the tutorials section?

 

 

[troopermaster]

You could have simply pop riveted the snaps in place and got the same look as the original belt. Use the snap as a backing washer behind the belt - works a treat