AP ANH Stunt Build

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Hard at it today...while I can.

 

Forearms are glued up now. Tomorrow will be exciting when I take away all the clamps , magnets and tape. I will then be able to figure out how much of the return edge at the elbows will need to go.

 

I've taken my bucket apart in order to give the interior a proper Plasti Dip coating.

 

This is just the first coat. Three have been done and I'm just waiting for it to dry in the garage. Stinky stuff.

 

Trimmed the Ab piece to the proper screen accurate spot. Getting ready to cut. Yikes! And no going back now.

 

Fitting the Kidney.

 

And trimming the kidney.

 

Well, that's that. 

 

Have been working on fitting chest, back, ab, kidney and butt. When my wife gets home I'll have her take a pic of the rough fitting.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Gave the shoulders a bath. As you can see the shoulder doesn't sit properly around the bicep. Bath time and...good.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Ok. Pretty happy with how this turned out.

[jethroskull[501st]]

Is the interior coating required or just a good idea?

[wook1138[TK]]

Not required.  People do it for various reasons.  Mainly, it looks cool.  It can also darken the interior of the helmet - less likely for people to see your eyes.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

I've started fitting the padding in my helmet. I need to replace the green with something darker. I can see my eyes while wearing it. A local 501st member told me Acklands Granger has a curved welding shield which works really well. That might be my task this Thursday. 

Edited December 4, 2017 by Sean

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Split rivet time. As per all the great info here, thanks Ukswrath for your hyper detailed build threads, I've drilled the holes. Starting at the top 20mm down and 10mm in from the edge.

 

The top of the Ab had a steep angle on the return edge so I took out my heat gun and very carefully worked the edge down to more closely match the kidney piece for a cleaner look. I took my time. The heat gun really focuses the heat and it would be very easy to warp the armour in a bad way. 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

I placed and order for popper snaps from Amazon.ca. They shipped a while ago and are long overdue. I might have to go with the line 24 snaps provided by AP. Not screen accurate but approvable. Before I knew AP provided all these pieces (thanks Mark for such an amazing and complete kit) I purchased snaps at Michael's here in Toronto. Although I don't need them for the armour, it's nice to have a bunch to practice with and figure out before installing.

[Harbinger[IPM]]

If you go with with the line 24 snaps, I can't recommend the Tandy brand ones enough - much, much heavier duty than the ones most places offer. Especially if you go for the stainless steel ones.

[wook1138[TK]]

Did you make "snap rivets" or are you just going to rivet the nylon right on?  By the way - are you planning on using mainly Velcro or nylon webbing for the strapping?  I've seen both being used, but I can't image the elastic holding up very well over time.

 

Awesome progress, BTW!!  Looks amazing.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

2 hours ago, wook1138 said:

Did you make "snap rivets" or are you just going to rivet the nylon right on?  By the way - are you planning on using mainly Velcro or nylon webbing for the strapping?  I've seen both being used, but I can't image the elastic holding up very well over time.

 

Awesome progress, BTW!!  Looks amazing.

Not sure what you mean by make snap rivets? You mean a split rivet into a snap back? I have split rivets for the Ab to Kidney and I'll be using nylon webbing for that connection. I'm going with the screen used brackets for attaching all the armour together. That involves elastic loops at the back. I'll see how that goes for the first little while as far as the elastic stretching or wearing out. Very easy to replace though. Nice thing about all the stuff 'behind the scenes', as it were, is it can all be replaced with something else and not effect the look of the armour. Right now I'm putting the belt together. Not sure how much I like pop rivets to attach the ammo belt to the canvas belt though.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

It turns out that my pop rivets are too short. I'll have to get longer ones tomorrow. Dang it. I wanted to glue the rivet cap covers on tonight. Oh well.

[Harbinger[IPM]]

1 hour ago, Sean said:

Not sure what you mean by make snap rivets? You mean a split rivet into a snap back? I have split rivets for the Ab to Kidney and I'll be using nylon webbing for that connection. I'm going with the screen used brackets for attaching all the armour together. That involves elastic loops at the back. I'll see how that goes for the first little while as far as the elastic stretching or wearing out. Very easy to replace though. Nice thing about all the stuff 'behind the scenes', as it were, is it can all be replaced with something else and not effect the look of the armour. Right now I'm putting the belt together. Not sure how much I like pop rivets to attach the ammo belt to the canvas belt though.

Well, single cap (rapid) rivets is what they used in the film, so you don't have to use pop rivets.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

7 hours ago, Harbinger said:

Well, single cap (rapid) rivets is what they used in the film, so you don't have to use pop rivets.

I've got those but I question how strong and durable they actually are. Guess I'll do some testing today. Nice thing about those is they're less likely to scratch the armour under the belt.

[wook1138[TK]]

8 hours ago, Sean said:

Not sure what you mean by make snap rivets? You mean a split rivet into a snap back? I have split rivets for the Ab to Kidney and I'll be using nylon webbing for that connection. I'm going with the screen used brackets for attaching all the armour together. That involves elastic loops at the back. I'll see how that goes for the first little while as far as the elastic stretching or wearing out. Very easy to replace though. Nice thing about all the stuff 'behind the scenes', as it were, is it can all be replaced with something else and not effect the look of the armour. Right now I'm putting the belt together. Not sure how much I like pop rivets to attach the ammo belt to the canvas belt though.

Yeah - "snap rivets" was somebody's term that I stole.  You got it though - use the split rivet and attach to the snap base on the other side.   I've seen people use Chicago screws for the belt.  hey, for the belt - did you use the measurements from ukswrath's build?  Or just fit the belt and put holes were needed?

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

1 minute ago, wook1138 said:

Yeah - "snap rivets" was somebody's term that I stole.  You got it though - use the split rivet and attach to the snap base on the other side.   I've seen people use Chicago screws for the belt.  hey, for the belt - did you use the measurements from ukswrath's build?  Or just fit the belt and put holes were needed?

I just put holes where needed on the belt, following his build as a guideline. I did use his measurements for placement of the snaps on the Ab.

[wook1138[TK]]

I have a roll of white hockey tape for covering suspect rivets or other metal parts that might scratch the ABS.  That is my Canadian detail for the kit. 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Forearms are done...mostly. I've taken off most of the return edge at the elbow. They are still a little tight but not uncomfortable.

 

I glued the painted buttons on the Ab piece too. Love those magnets.

 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Snaps into the posterior piece. After drilling I used a much larger drill bit and, by hand, created a countersink. Without this the snaps won't sit flush.

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Trimming the thighs and gluing on the cover strip to half of each thigh. The raised lines are a little curved so I felt it best to tackle it like this. I also had enough camps to so half of one shin.

I've left the top of the cover strip long on purpose. Fitting the thighs is probably going to be a challenge. I've determined I will need to finish the fronts first and then shape them at the back. As it is, they are almost too small at the tops. I might need to make a shim. Almost 25 years of carrying/walking around with heavy equipment at work on a regular basis has given me large thighs and calves.

 

Here go the calves. Well at least one of them.

 

Trimming

 

Glued.

Edited December 5, 2017 by Sean

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Ok. So I started on the bracket strapping system. I know I said I'd ask my wife to take pics of me with the rough fitting armour. I lied...for The Empire, of course. I realized I needed to have the brackets installed in order to fit a good portion of the armour properly. The way it sits with those screw heads sticking out makes a difference to how long the shoulder straps need to be for me. I love this AP armour. I love the human imperfections. This is in no way a jab at Mark (AP). This is how the original armour was made. Although I think his armour looks cleaner, sculpt wise, than the screen used stuff I've seen, in a really good way. I'm having so much fun putting this together. Something I've wanted since 1977, when I first saw Star Wars. But alas, I digress...

 

 

Because I made the brackets, each one is a little different. I marked the back armour and taped the appropriate brackets above the corresponding marks so I wouldn't mix them up. This wasn't as necessary as I thought it might be. Turns out I was pretty consistent with my measuring and bending.

 

 

Above, the bracket is installed with the elastic I sewed while waiting for my original Anovos order. Still waiting on that refund...

 

 

Marking the corresponding bracket position on the Kidney armour.

 

 

After the elastic was installed. I can see a visible gap between the armour pieces.

 

My OCD doesn't like this. However, this is how it was done back in the day. Not sure if others have countersunk the screws in order to minimize this. If I were to do this I would need to install backing strips of ABS to beef up the connections. This is why I have left the screws a bit long.The screws I am using are 1/2". 3/8" would be long enough unless I put those strips in.

 

 

Oddly enough, 4-40 pan head screws are almost impossible to find in Toronto. I had to drive to Niagara Falls and Buffalo NY. to get these. I had to get longer screws than needed and cut them down because I couldn't find enough 1/2" screws.

 

 

Here are the back pieces all connected.

 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Ok. The belt. I marked the middle of the belt then determined where the snaps would go to hold it to the Ab armour. Punched the holes for the snaps and installed them.

 

Next, I trimmed the corners of the Ammo plate, marked and drilled the three holes for riveting it into place and tried my pop rivets. Too short.

 

 

Going with what Harbinger told me, I used cap rivets. Worked like a charm. 

 

 

Next I marked, punched and installed the holster using Chicago screws.

 

 

Finally I riveted 3/4" white elastic to the inside drop boxes. Then I glued the halves together and glued the caps over the rivets on the front of the belt.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Sean

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Lots of progress. Coming together nicely.

 

Looks like your drop boxes are lined up with the bottom corners instead of the outer edges of your belt though... since I assume you're aiming for L2/L3 you'll want to move those out a bit and sew/glue down the elastic so they stay put:

Edited December 6, 2017 by Harbinger

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

1 hour ago, Harbinger said:

Lots of progress. Coming together nicely.

 

Looks like your drop boxes are lined up with the bottom corners instead of the outer edges of your belt though... since I assume you're aiming for L2/L3 you'll want to move those out a bit and sew/glue down the elastic so they stay put:

Drop box halves were only glued together after riveting the elastic. I put a washer inside to secure the rivet. Nothing has been glued to the belt yet in the photo. I needed to let the glue dry before final positioning. Thanks though. Good diagram.

[wook1138[TK]]

Looking good Sean!  You're cruising through this!