AP ANH Stunt Build

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

So I got my AP kit a few weeks ago. It came while I was away on business, as did several items for my build. It was pretty great to come home to my BBB etc. 

 

So far all I have been able to do is rough trim some of the pieces, start painting the helmet, apply hand painted looking decals, and research. So much great info here on whitearmor.net.

 

I have to say how impressed I am with the AP kit. It is way thicker than I would have imagined. It came with the split rivets too. Those are kinda hard to find in Canada for some reason. I'm using the screen accurate brackets to hold it all together. I made those a while back while waiting for my armour to arrive. I originally ordered from Anovos but cancelled a month or so ago. That's another story. I paid AP (Mark) to have the helmet pre trimmed so it is pretty much ready to assemble with some minor tweaks. The thought of messing that up freaked me out too much and I'm glad I spent the extra cash to have it done properly. Next week I'm hitting it hard and hope to post photos. I will probably have lots of questions by then too.

 

Sean

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Great news, looking forward to the progress and pictures, have you thought of building to EIB or Centurion level? much easier to do this from the start and very rewarding.

 

Good luck

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Centurion for sure! All part of the plan. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

3 minutes ago, Sean said:

Centurion for sure! All part of the plan. 

Great to hear, once again good luck with the build

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Glad to see you (and so many others, me included) aiming for Centurion from the start. Look forward to watching your build!

[wook1138[TK]]

Hey Sean, glad to hear you have started your build.  I just started my AP build as well.  I went with the trimmed kit - it has been awesome to work with so far.  I too am going for Centurion - well, I say that now

 

[jethroskull[501st]]

Looking forward to following both you and Greg on your journeys. My AP is supposed to arrive Thursday but I'm way behind the curve in prep. Danged impulse buys!

Edited November 29, 2017 by Jethro Skull
speeling

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

I purchased the holster from AP. The straps that connect it to the belt are black so I went to a local craft store, bought a piece of leather, cut it, punched it and installed the new straps to the holster.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

The TD is almost complete. I trimmed and sanded the parts, cut the tube to length, painted the tube with the Humbrol #5 Grey, glued it together and installed the clips supplied with the AP kit. The end caps are 3/4". The space between the caps and centrepiece is just over 1/2" bringing the total length to 7 3/8". I read here that the length should be between 7 1/4"-7 1/2" so I think I'm ok. The clips, however, need to be modified, in my opinion. I feel like I need to shorten them so the screws are closer to the end of the clips.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Sean

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Screen accurate clips have the screws 1/4" or so from the edge (some even closer!). You might want to round the edges a bit as well to help prevent armor/belt damage.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Thanks Brien. That's what I thought. I am definitely planning on rounding the corners. They are quite sharp right now.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

So last night I rough trimmed all the arm pieces. I've been kind of dreading this part of the build. The biceps fit fine but the forearms feel quite tight. Reading Wook1138's build thread has been helpful as he's got an AP kit as well and mentioned the forearms feel a little narrow. Today I will work more on the arms and hopefully get to the point where I'll be ready to glue tomorrow.

[wook1138[TK]]

13 hours ago, Sean said:

The TD is almost complete. I trimmed and sanded the parts, cut the tube to length, painted the tube with the Humbrol #5 Grey, glued it together and installed the clips supplied with the AP kit. The end caps are 3/4". The space between the caps and centrepiece is just over 1/2" bringing the total length to 7 3/8". I read here that the length should be between 7 1/4"-7 1/2" so I think I'm ok. The clips, however, need to be modified, in my opinion. I feel like I need to shorten them so the screws are closer to the end of the clips.

Hey Sean.  Did you get the caps on all the way or did you figure out your overall length with them sticking out a bit?  If they are sticking out a bit, what did you cut the tube down to?  Looks like your final measurements are bang on.  Nice work.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

10 hours ago, wook1138 said:

Hey Sean.  Did you get the caps on all the way or did you figure out your overall length with them sticking out a bit?  If they are sticking out a bit, what did you cut the tube down to?  Looks like your final measurements are bang on.  Nice work.

Hi Greg.

 

The caps, as I'm sure you have discovered, do not press in all the way with the pipe provided. My caps only grab on by about 3/8" approx. Following ukswrath's Anovos build and the reference pics, I used those measurements to determine the dimensions. Caps are 3/4" wide, space between caps and centre piece (?) 1/2", centre piece 4 3/4". Overalll length 7 1/4", give or take. I didn't measure the precise amount the caps clutch the pipe. That was kind of trial and error. Now I just need to cut the clips down a bit to achieve cannon.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Sean

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

So today I worked on the forearms, biceps and gloves. Once I got into it, it wasn't as bad/hard as I thought it would be. I did discover that with the AP kit my overall forearms and bicep circumference needs to be larger than the kit. I've decided to go with the 15mm cover strips on both front and back so I can achieve Centurion, however, the back of the forearms and biceps will need to be wider. I'm planning on using a 15mm cover strip but the 'relief' will be wider on the back sides of the armour. Is this OK? In the pic the untrimmed 'relief' is what I am referring to. I've already glued the cover strips to the forearm halves with E6000. That waiting game has begun. I only have 20 clamps and 50 magnets. All have been used.  

 

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by Sean
correction

[Harbinger[IPM]]

I think that would be okay, but I'd double check.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Following ukswrath's thread I have glued the silicone hand guards to the gloves. I used packing supplies to stuff the gloves in order to glue the guards on. I used E6000 but left a small overhang. If the hand guards look wrong I can easily pull them off. If they Look fine I will use Zap-A-Gap to finish the edges.

Edited November 30, 2017 by Sean

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

3 minutes ago, Harbinger said:

I think that would be okay, but I'd double check.

Thanks.

[magni[TK]]

It's best to get your coverstrip to the edge of raised area as close as you can. If coverstrip needs to be 20mm let's say that would be better then a 15mm strip floating in the middle of raised area. Usually the only pcs that have a problem with raised area widening is on the shin fronts at the tops on some brands of armor. You're doing a great job so far!

Keep up the good work!

[wook1138[TK]]

You're moving right along.  Nice!

[TheSwede[TK]]

12 hours ago, Sean said:

15mm cover strips on both front and back so I can achieve Centurion

 You can achive Centurion with bigger strips than 15 since  it`s about uniformity, for screen accaracy (and best look in my opinion)  you should try for the smaller version if possible...since the arms are relative small limbs I would try to avoid bigger than 20 (front and back)  However it`s like Randy said about the raised areas, the cover strip is meant to cover does areas as much as possible, original armor did not have those ridges on the biceps, armors that do are intended to use the overlap method, not approvable at level3 (Centurion), hence the trickiness to assable said armor especially if one got bulging biceps Forearms are looking great by the looks of it How big of a cover strip have you planed for the back of arms? And it can be a different size compared to the front, just curious

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

2 hours ago, TheSwede said:

 You can achive Centurion with bigger strips than 15 since  it`s about uniformity, for screen accaracy (and best look in my opinion)  you should try for the smaller version if possible...since the arms are relative small limbs I would try to avoid bigger than 20 (front and back)  However it`s like Randy said about the raised areas, the cover strip is meant to cover does areas as much as possible, original armor did not have those ridges on the biceps, armors that do are intended to use the overlap method, not approvable at level3 (Centurion), hence the trickiness to assable said armor especially if one got bulging biceps Forearms are looking great by the looks of it How big of a cover strip have you planed for the back of arms? And it can be a different size compared to the front, just curious

Hi Daniel

 

I'm going to try 20mm cover strips on the back. I might need to do that on the front too if the 20mm on the back doesn't make the armour big enough. The return edge on the elbow end of the forearms will have to go completely too.

Edited December 1, 2017 by Sean

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Well, as I headed to my basement this morning with grand ideas about what I was going to accomplish today, I was reminded the kids have a PA day. No school. Dang it. 

 

I did, however, make some decisions based on the helpful advice from Daniel and Randy. I'm pulling off the 15mm cover strips I glued on yesterday and going with 20mm front and back. I need the extra room. Uniformity and fit over canon. I'll see what I can get done today, if anything. 

[wook1138[TK]]

Haha. Stupid PA days. 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

As it turns out, my kids like it when I hide in the basement. So far today I was able to pull apart the 15mm cover strips I glued on yesterday. What I learned from that was I hadn't used enough E6000. A couple of them came off a little too easily. Good to know. I didn't make that mistake again when gluing on the new 20mm cover strips. I also trimmed and fine tuned my biceps. They also got a cover strip on one side. I worked a little on my bucket too. Something was weird with one of the ears and I fixed it. Nice. The exterior of my bucket is almost done. One thing I need advise/help with is the painting of the ears. Does it matter which bump gets painted? Does it have to be the rear one? Also, my hand painting skills kinda lack. That fine black line around the grey part is killing me. Maybe I should lay off the coffee for a while before I try cleaning it up.

 

Edited December 2, 2017 by Sean