QuartZ's Anovos ANH Stunt Build

[TheSwede[TK]]

Elastics works just fine

[QuartZ]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

Hi Dana. The straps seem short but they do stretch a little too. I've noticed this with my armour after one troop and I'm thinking about replacing them with new shorter ones before I apply for Centurion. I have about a 3-4mm gap where there was none before. It would be way worse with elastic. I like that you've used lock nuts for your brackets and are countersinking your screws. I'm replacing all my nuts with lock nuts I ordered from Amazon. When they're in I will countersink my screws too. Without the countersink there is a little bit too much of a gap between armour parts for my liking. 

 

Your armour is looking great!

Thanks for the perspective on the nylon straps and for the compliment. I'm trying my best! I figured that the strapping would probably change over time like the fit of regular clothes but that's interesting to hear that several troops later your nylon is stretching out.

 

1 hour ago, TheSwede said:

Elastics works just fine

Argh Daniel!!! That looks so good you have me torn between elastic and nylon.  Luckily it can all be changed. I'm going to focus on the strapping between front components and back components before I go back to the Ab/Kidney connection. Your armor fit looks fantastic. I hope mine turns out that nice.

 

-Dana

[QuartZ]

Ok, so I did all of the countersinking yesterday and it was much easier than I thought, I was more worried about how careful I would need to be but this Anovos kit plastic drills so nicely. I haven't had any bit walking, or anything (granted I use good bits in new-ish condition). I used my cordless drill and a 1/4" countersink bit:

 

I went slow so that I could see about how much material needed to be removed from the first hole as I frequently checked the fit of the screw until it sat pretty close to flush. It really wasn't much work and it looks SO much better to me! Below you can see a finished countersunk hole on the left and what the screws looks like installed on the right: 

 

 

-Dana

[TheSwede[TK]]

10 minutes ago, QuartZ said:

1 hour ago, TheSwede said:

Argh Daniel!!! That looks so good you have me torn between elastic and nylon.

Sorry about that I prefer elastic over nylon but it comes down to personal preference, just wanted to let you know that there's no problem with it 

And thanks for the kudos

[QuartZ]

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was 3D printing pads to reinforce the bracket mounting areas of the torso armor. I took a slightly different approach with this step by choosing to print the pieces, but ultimately it's inspired by others here and I wanted to print them for several reasons:

 

1. I wanted to have consistent parts that could easily be adjusted by changing the design and waiting 30 minutes for a whole new batch to print

2. I wanted to do other things while bracket pads were magically made for me (got robots)

3. I could do it so why not

 

Here's a look at the two different versions I designed to go with the bracket set (for the long and short brackets):

 

I printed them in white ABS on my Prusa i3. I have a few other printers but this one is my current favorite. Below is a shot of the printer laying out the first layer of some initial test prints (I ended up changing the hole diameters to make it easier to pass screws through).

 

And here's an example of one of the final short pads (15 of these were needed overall and 3 long ones for the chest):

 

And here's a picture of how they fit between the armor return edge and the metal brackets with the hardware roughly in place (not tightened down or glued at this point)

 

With all of that work done, my plan is to heat some of the brackets so that they better follow some of the armor contours using the hot water method since this is ABS! That shouldn't take long, then I'll glue them all in with E6000 and use magnets/mini-clamps/bracket hardware as clamps in order to secure them all.

 

Hope this makes sense and gives some other people ideas,

-Dana

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

3 hours ago, TheSwede said:

Elastics works just fine

For you perhaps. Mr. "I'm taking a break from armour to exercise" I think my straps have stretched a little because of a few too many holiday treats. Maybe.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Really nice work. Stop giving me ideas.

[TheSwede[TK]]

3 hours ago, Sean said:

For you perhaps. Mr. "I'm taking a break from armour to exercise

Besides that I also use the belt as a corset  

[shadan[TK]]

Nice work so far!

I installed the brackets on my chest and ab pieces to see how it all fit together. I need to countersink the screw holes like you. Off to Bunnings for a bit as soon as I’m home from this quick holiday! (Bunnings is the Aussie equivalent of the US Lowes, I think - our Lowes just sells clothes!) I’m looking forward to getting all the internal strapping done. It appears I need to take material off, and here I was thinking I’d need to shim! Awesome seeing builds doing what I’m currently doing. 

 

Edited December 25, 2017 by shadan
Reasons

[QuartZ]

On 12/24/2017 at 4:36 PM, shadan said:

Nice work so far!

I installed the brackets on my chest and ab pieces to see how it all fit together. I need to countersink the screw holes like you. Off to Bunnings for a bit as soon as I’m home from this quick holiday! (Bunnings is the Aussie equivalent of the US Lowes, I think - our Lowes just sells clothes!) I’m looking forward to getting all the internal strapping done. It appears I need to take material off, and here I was thinking I’d need to shim! Awesome seeing builds doing what I’m currently doing. 

 

Thanks, it's going slow but steady. I'm trying to find opportunities to add value for anyone following my progress. So when I have an idea that gets me somewhere, I figure it's worth putting out there in case anyone else could use it too. Here's another one for instance:

 

I painted the split rivets that connect the Ab/Kidney a few days ago. I decided to sand the rivet heads with 400 sandpaper, then I gave them a quick coat of flat white primer (Rustoleum):

 

Once this dried, I hand brushed some Testors Gloss White enamel paint (after reading ukswrath mention that the color match looked good in his build thread). I gave it 2 coats a couple hours apart. Note the brush marks:

 

Overall I was happy with the coverage and the subtle hand-painted texture...but the finish was satin at best. I certainly wouldn't call it gloss. It could be the roughness of the primer underneath, I'm not sure and I haven't used Testors paint since I was a kid in the 80s. However, I do have tons of experience with painting props/models so one of my favorite tricks is to post-polish parts to get to a desired shine. I waited 48 ours for the enamel to cure and then grabbed some rubbing compound and did a quick rub/buff with paper towels:

 

Here's what the look like after a polish pass:

 

I was able to retain the subtle brush marks and imperfections so they have that nice hand-made 1977 feel  Then I popped a few back into the armor to test the color/luster match:

 

Again, hope this post wasn't overkill. Just wanted to share a process I'll be repeating on the bracket screws as well to get them finished up for assembly. Hope it helps someone.

 

-Dana

[AngryEwok[501st]]

This is looking amazing. You're several steps ahead of me, so I'll be watching closely!

[QuartZ]

23 hours ago, AngryEwok said:

This is looking amazing. You're several steps ahead of me, so I'll be watching closely!

Good luck on your build. I feel like I'm hopping all over the place while working on this torso armor. There's a lot of different things involved. Even making decisions about hardware as I go has me ordering some parts and then moving on to another area while I wait for things to arrive. I planned ahead but I'm still changing my mind as I go.

 

For instance, in my research, I heard people talking about a brass split rivet in the cod...I looked at the photos of the screen used articles but can't really tell for sure if it's brass (best shot I saw was from the inside and mostly looked like the washer had rusted giving it some color). I had planned on going with the standard Anovos rivet for the cod. But it nagged at me. If the experts here say it was brass then why would I not use a brass rivet  So I found some that seem to match. Here's one:

 

Yesterday I prepped and painted all of the bracket system screws so that I could just install them when I glue the bracket pads I made in and leave them in the armor. This ultimately will save me some time but it means that I have to move on to something else while the paint cures.

 

Screws sanded and cleaned with rubbing alcohol (ready for primer):

 

Curing after two coats of Testors gloss white:

 

I also decided it wasn't worth trying to bend some of the bracket pads in the direction they were the stiffest to conform to the contours of some of the locations (they bend in one axis really nice but not both). So I designed and printed some short curved ones as well. All the test fitting and adjusting was worth it. I now have three different pad designs and I printed up a bunch ready for glue once the screws dry. Here's a screenshot from Fusion 360 showing the 3 final pads:

 

I'm working on taking apart the Anovos belt right now. I'll probably post an update about that next.

 

-Dana

[TheSwede[TK]]

Great work

[QuartZ]

Thanks, I just received my Kittle belt today and struggled with bringing myself to try @Harbinger's method for tea dying it to take the "cool" white edge off the color of the fabric. The belt is awesome! So if you're seeing this Rob, thank you for the beautiful belt, the custom size, and I hope I didn't just ruin it trying it trying to tweak the color .

 

 

It's hang drying overnight. I'll be able to check out the resulting color tomorrow. My process was pretty similar to Harbinger's but I used smaller teabags, 3 of them, and probably less time steeping/submerging the belt. I'm nervous about it...fingers crossed!

 

I almost finished dismantling the Anovos belt hard parts. I didn't break anything, I used a small chisel to slowly work my way around each cover rather gently. I covered the surfaces around each cover with blue tape (not pictured) to protect the surface from dings/scratches just in case. You hear a little cracking at a time until eventually it just pops off. I really went slow and relied on the mechanical wedge of the chisel rather than anger/brute force. I probably also got lucky:

 

I just have the drop boxes to take part. Do I need to get a washer on the inside for the rivets as well? @ukswrath's tutorial seems to install the new elastic and rivet from the outside without needing to remove the inner dropbox parts to get at the inside? 

 

Thanks in advance for any insight/encouragement!

-Dana

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Yep, just drill holes for the pop rivets a d you’ll be good to go.

 

Only reason to disassemble drop boxes is if you want to re-use the original elastic, but it’s so cheap there’s no need to do so.

Edited December 28, 2017 by Harbinger

[ukswrath[Staff]]

3 minutes ago, QuartZ said:

I just have the drop boxes to take part. Do I need to get a washer on the inside for the rivets as well? @ukswrath's tutorial seems to install the new elastic and rivet from the outside without needing to remove the inner dropbox parts to get at the inside? 

 

Thanks in advance for any insight/encouragement!

-Dana

To avoid damaging your boxes it would be simpler to either glue the connecting straps directly to the box or use a pop rivet. 

[QuartZ]

5 minutes ago, Harbinger said:

Yep, just drill holes for the pop rivets a d you’ll be good to go.

 

Only reason to disassemble drop boxes is if you want to re-use the original elastic, but it’s so cheap there’s no need to do so.

Ok, cool. Thanks for the heads. Oh and thanks again for the belt dying tips!

 

1 minute ago, ukswrath said:

To avoid damaging your boxes it would be simpler to either glue the connecting straps directly to the box or use a pop rivet. 

I plan on using a pop rivet and washer as in your tutorial, I just didn't know if it was a good idea to get another washer on the inside. It sounds like I'm fine ripping the old elastic out without fully disassembling the drop boxes and installing the new elastic per the tutorial. Thanks, I already have all of the supplies so that should be all the info I need. I appreciate the crazy-quick responses!

 

Thanks again,

-Dana

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Just now, QuartZ said:

Ok, cool. Thanks for the heads. Oh and thanks again for the belt dying tips!

 

I plan on using a pop rivet and washer as in your tutorial, I just didn't know if it was a good idea to get another washer on the inside. It sounds like I'm fine ripping the old elastic out without fully disassembling the drop boxes and installing the new elastic per the tutorial. Thanks, I already have all of the supplies so that should be all the info I need. I appreciate the crazy-quick responses!

 

Thanks again,

-Dana

Anytime 

[QuartZ]

And you guys just inspired me to grab those drop boxes and pull out that elastic. It took some wrenching back and forth. I would pull left slowly until I heard a crack, then pull right until another crack. I figure each box took 2-3 minutes of careful tension on the elastic to make sure I didn't crack/tear the plastic. Glad that's done!!!

 

I think that's all I will do tonight. Ah Progress.

-Dana

[QuartZ]

Paint cured on the bracket screws. They look like a good match (they aren't tightened down in the first shot):

 

So, I started installing all of the brackets using E6000, the screws with lock nuts, and some of my clamps:

 

I also tried some of my smaller magnets to get some experience using them to hold drying glue:

 

Overall I'm happy that this step is finally done. I lost some paint on some of the screws when tightening things down. Oops. I'll do some touch up later today when these parts all end up sitting 24 hours to cure.

 

-Dana

[QuartZ]

Alright, so my Kittle belt finally fully dried (it took 24 hours) and I'm really happy with the results! It took me 2 passes with the tea dying method described by @Harbinger but I'm really glad I went for it. To recap, I wanted the belt fabric to be a warmer off-white tone than stock and slightly darker than the armor. I think this is good enough for me:

 

Here's some notes on what worked for me, your results may vary and I tried to follow @Harbinger's instructions/advice but my results were different so I hope these notes help give others some potential hints.

 

For the first bath, I boiled a small pot of water and steeped 3 regular sized black tea bags for 1min 30sec. I took the tea in the pot and poured it into a larger bucket that contained 16 Cups of room temperature water (this was the pre-measured amount needed to submerge the belt fully I this particular bucket). It was also an attempt to dilute the tea. I stirred the mix and let it cool a bit (maybe 1 min of cooling time, I checked that the bath was warm with my hand).

 

I had already pre-soaked the belt when I was testing how much water was required to fill the bucket with fresh clean water... some people suggest you fully soak the fabric to help absorb dye more evenly.

 

Next, I submerged the belt in the dye bath and gently moved it around for about 1 minute. Then I pulled it out and put it into another bucket of cool water and a bit of white vinegar. Again, I gently agitated the belt for a minute or so then removed it and let the water run out as much as possible. This was suggested to help the dye to set. I draped the belt over a coat hanger and let it sit overnight.

 

The next morning, it was still damp, but it also wasn't the color/tone I wanted. The cool white was a bit muted, but not the result I was aiming for. I figured it was better to go this way as I should be able to repeat the process and get closer to what I wanted. I did most everything the same on the second pass except the following:

 

1. I increased the tea bag count from 3 to 5 this time

2. I steeped them for 2 minutes instead of 1min 30sec

3. The belt spent 2-3 total minutes in the diluted dye bath (checking the color after each minute)

 

It's tricky, you can't tell what you've got while the belt is in the bath/wet as the color changes when it dries. It looks lighter when dry and slightly more tan than when it's wet. If I were to do it again, I'd probably do it the same maybe even use 3 passes of the same batch for more control. It just requires more patience as you need to wait for everything to dry.

 

Sorry for the lengthy write up without photos. I just wanted to pay it forward,

-Dana

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Glad it worked out for you.

[QuartZ]

38 minutes ago, Harbinger said:

Glad it worked out for you.

Thanks for inspiring me.

 

-Dana

[QuartZ]

Over the last few days, I moved over to the arms. I started by sizing the biceps. Here's where I started with the rough trim from before:

 

I followed all the advice I could find here as far as the fitting/trimmimg process is concerned. And I looked at reference of the original suits from the RS gallery and film stills to gauge how I wanted mine to look/fit me. After several iterations, I was able to get both left and right biceps trimmed, test fit together with tape and the sanded before gluing. Not all of the butt-joint edges are perfectly straight, but they fit nice:

 

Tip/Hint: I don't know if everyone else does this, and I haven't seen it mentioned, but I found it really helpful to do a test run with my clamps and magnets for each piece to figure out which size/strength of magnets were needed and where I wanted them depending on how the cover strips laid down. Some locations along the length needed more pressure from the magnets because of the curvature of the biceps. I could also determine the spacing of the magnets and have a mental picture before I added the E-6000.

 

I decided to glue the biceps in 2 stages. So, overnight the first sides were drying and tonight I was able to get the other sides glued up. Here's a photo I took of the first glue stage:

 

I have both sets of forearm parts nearly final-trimmed as well. Just a bit more material to the left forearm and a quick sanding pass then I can cut cover strips and start gluing those.

 

-Dana

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Nice clean work there. Keep it up!