Scimitar's ANH Stunt Build - AP

[Scimitar[TK]]

Got the belt snap bases installed in the ab. Thanks to multiple people for noting that the left side snap needs to be about 40mm from the raised edge on the AP armor vs the 59mm that the Billhag diagram calls for.

 

 

Then I marked the canvas belt and set the other side of the snaps. I also trimmed the 45* angles onto the ABS belt, drilled the rivet holes, and went to install it but found out that none of the rivets I have will capture the thickness of both belts. Oops! So went to Home Depot today for rivets with a longer grip.

 

 

I also bought a Husky 50 gallon rolling box because I figured it was finally about time... and it doesn't fit in my car (G37 sedan). It could have fit in the back seat if I didn't have a car seat, but I would like to avoid having to take that out to troop, and my wife and daughter might want to tag along from time to time as well.

So, any recommendations for a slightly smaller box? I considered the Husky 25 gallon box they had, but it seems like it wouldn't be tall enough for everything to fit after some padding was added. Seems like something in between those two boxes would be perfect.

 

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges
4. Glue Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in straps for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
13. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
14. Submit Member Application
15. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
16. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
17. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application
18. Start next build

Edited September 14, 2018 by Scimitar

[Cricket[TK]]

I use this bin for my kit.  I nest the arms and legs all together, and those fit inside the torso.  Helmet goes in a separate helmet bag.  I use old white pillowcases as padding and protection.   There's even extra space for a repair kit, boots, and my blaster. 

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-35-in-Mobile-Job-Tool-Box-222167/205053257

Edited September 13, 2018 by Cricket

[Scimitar[TK]]

12 minutes ago, Cricket said:

I use this bin for my kit.  I nest the arms and legs all together, and those fit inside the torso.  Helmet goes in a separate helmet bag.  I use old white pillowcases as padding and protection.   There's even extra space for a repair kit, boots, and my blaster. 

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-35-in-Mobile-Job-Tool-Box-222167/205053257

Cool, that's the 25 gallon bin that they had next to the big 50 gallon bins, but it looks so small inside. lol I'll give that one a shot! Thanks!

[Cricket[TK]]

Just FYI, you'll need to remove the small tray that comes inside it.  I have never needed it. 

[wook1138[TK]]

6 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

Cool, that's the 25 gallon bin that they had next to the big 50 gallon bins, but it looks so small inside. lol I'll give that one a shot! Thanks!

I have the 25 gallon one as well.  I second everything Cricket said. And it fits in most small cars. 

[Scimitar[TK]]

Y'all are the best. I'll swing back by after work and pick it up!

 

1 minute ago, Cricket said:

Just FYI, you'll need to remove the small tray that comes inside it.  I have never needed it. 

Yeah, I figured as much!  

Edited September 13, 2018 by Scimitar

[Scimitar[TK]]

A bit of an adventure tonight with riveting the ammo belt to the canvas belt. Big thanks to Christine for catching a mistake I made but also for some helpful moral support!

 

Somehow through all of my research I had missed the need to curve the belts together while marking the outside holes for riveting. I had only remembered folks posting it wasn't necessary to give the ammo belt a hot bath to pre-curve it and for whatever reason I didn't even think about curving them. If you don't do this step, the rivets will definitely have some hard diagonal stress when you wear the belt. I could see it as soon as she mentioned it so off came the two outside rivets.

 

I curved the belts, slotted the existing holes in the canvas belt to match the new rivet location and reattached the ammo belt, backing the rivets with finishing washers I had. This provided some extra bite into the canvas and ABS inside the belt and will keep the rivet from sliding in the slot, it doesn't move. And they provide a nice finished look too.

 

So if anyone asks me I would probably recommend giving the ammo belt a hot bath, just in case. lol

 

 

And here's the belt snapped to the armor:

 

 

The ammo belt doesn't sit exactly even under the large button plate (even though the canvas belt was even last night), I tried to put some good light on the picture to make that visible. Basically it touches the right corner but there's a 1.5mm gap on the left side. Does this still look ok for Centurion?

 

I went back to Home Depot after work and got the Husky 25 gallon bin, it fits in the trunk just right. First thing I did was clean it up, very dusty. Now I need to get some stickers for it.  

 

[Cricket[TK]]

Glad you were able to get that belt under control.  I knew you could do it!   

 

I don't see an issue about the belt not being perfectly level, but I'm not a Centurion judge, either. I'd ask Tony or Sly about that one. 

 

 

[Scimitar[TK]]

Today I gave the shins a hot bath. The left shin wasn't cooperating but I finally got it worked right, but then the rear strips came halfway unglued from all of the heat. Got those reglued and curing though. Started gluing the magnets in the right shin and into the magnet covers but I have to stop for a bit so I'll finish that later tonight.

 

I also glued in the rest of the snap plates to get that out of the way and got one of the shoulder bridges glued in place and curing.

 

I did a test fit with the thighs on and got the front of them trimmed down nicely. Now I just need to mark & trim the rears of the thighs and they'll be done.

 

During the test fit I also snapped on the shoulder bells and thanks to my long arms I'm going to have to drop the biceps very low in the shoulder bells to minimize the elbow gap, so I positioned the snap plates inside the bells accordingly, with some wiggle room just in case. I'll probably need to make slightly longer bicep hooks too. And I'll have to remake new bicep-to-forearm straps with a gap wider than 1/4".

 

I did get the belt all done though (modeled by my wife's mannequin).

 

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges (One glued, one to go)
4. Glue Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition or Remake Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers (In progress)
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming (Front done, rears to be done)
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Glue on Silicone Hand Plates
13. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
14. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
15. Submit Member Application
16. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
17. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
18. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application 
19. Start next build 

Edited September 16, 2018 by Scimitar

[Scimitar[TK]]

Forward progress on the shins last night. I cleaned up the left shin from regluing the cover and inner strips and then I glued the magnets into the cover strip, so those are curing now.

 

I found out that the magnets I glued into the little covers Sunday morning still weren't cured yet. The E6000 was cured at the surface but was still liquid under the magnet. Accidentally found that out when one of the covers got too close to one of my clamping magnets. Guess I'll need to give them the full 72 hours and see what happens.

 

I put some magnets inside the right shin to test how well it will close once the magnet covers are glued in place. I'm happy with this!

 

 

 

I also reglued the hooks back into the biceps, I positioned them a little higher than they were originally to accommodate the potential bicep placement. I plan on gluing the second shoulder bridge on tonight and once that cures I'll begin working on getting the arms positioned right. Going to try to get the rear of the thighs trimmed up tonight too.

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges (One glued, one to go)
4. Glue Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers (In progress)
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming (Front done, rears to be done)
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Glue on Silicone Hand Plates
13. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
14. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
15. Submit Member Application
16. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
17. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
18. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application 
19. Start next build 

[Scimitar[TK]]

Small pictureless update:

- Both shoulder bridges are glued in place, the second one will reach the targeted cure time tonight.

- All of the shin magnets are glued & cured inside the shin cover strips.

 

Back to the magnet covers, even after three days they were still not cured under the magnet, basically they were curing at the sides and sealing the wet, excess glue inside. The recesses are slightly domed instead of flat, this may be contributing to the problem, so last night I drilled a small hole in the center of the back of the covers and reglued. I think this might take care of the issue. We'll see. I have a backup plan if not.

 

In the meantime I started playing with the sniper knee plate and after a bit more trimming of the remaining return edge I have a plan of attack for attaching it, so I'll be taking care of that within the next day or two.

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges
4. Glue Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming (Front done, rears to be done)
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Glue on Silicone Hand Plates
13. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
14. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
15. Submit Member Application
16. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
17. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
18. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application 
19. Start next build 

[Scimitar[TK]]

So drilling the holes in the magnet covers did not work. So I will be making new covers with flatter recesses, thanks to LTM for the sacrificial magnets & jig thingy! In the meantime I took some of the magnets I had been using for clamping and re-purposed them into inner strip magnets. They work perfectly for this because they are larger than the holes in the shins and their surface would be where the original magnets would have been.

 

 

I also decided to redo the shoulder straps, this time completely doubling over the elastic front to back for strength and reinforced them with plastic strips in between all of the snaps like before. This let me ensure that the shoulder bells were as tight to the shoulder bridge area as possible, the first straps were still allowing too much gap for my liking.

 

 

As noted previously I also lengthened the distance between the bicep and forearm, I had to use 1/2" vs the usual 1/4". Thanks long arms. I also added a bit of padding under the forearms to keep them from rotating, the left one more so than the right. I need to reglue the left strap to be further inboard. Small and easy improvement.

 

I also glued the silicone hand guards to the gloves using the Loctite Plastics Bonding System. When the activator is used properly this stuff sets up FAST! The glue itself is also very runny, so be sure to take that into account. I did it all at once while wearing the glove and had some get out from under the hand guard. No worries though, acetone will remove it from the glove with no ill effects that I could see, other than a little fading that went mostly away after I handled the gloves for a bit. If the acetone touches the hand guard it will smear white onto the glove but that wipes away with acetone too.

 

I'd recommend gluing them on in sections, starting in the center and working to the edges. The glue sets up so quickly you could do it easily while wearing the glove and you'll likely make less of a mess. And don't worry about going overboard with the activator, it doesn't leave any residue behind.

 

 

Sniper knee plate. The one part that strikes fear into the hearts of many AP kit owners.

 

I started by clamping it flat against the cover strip with a stronger clamp than the normal spring clamps I've been using (thus the tape on the front of the knee plate in the pictures). The left arm (facing the knee plate) naturally fell into alignment with the shin ridge when the plate was angled, the right arm of course did not. So while clamped I figured that I needed to twist the right arm to move it down into alignment with the shin ridge. I practiced the movement it took to make the arm move down and then did that with a hot bath. The result is a knee plate that is centered and resting flat against the cover strip, a bit crooked as expected with the AP plate, and is aligned with the ridges. Then I applied a healthy amount of glue on the front and waited to glue the arms as a next step.

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the arms are mostly aligned and only need a little bit of finger pressure to close them against the shins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have any pictures but I glued and clamped the arms to the shins with a little glue to account for the small contact area (don't forget to sand both surfaces to help adhesion). Then I added a little more glue in layers, separated by a few hours each time, to build up the glue support between the arms and shin. This method seems to be working well so far, the arms aren't coming off even with the repeated action of putting the shin on and taking it off.

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges
4. Velcro Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers (Temp. Countermeasure for Covers in place)
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Glue on Silicone Hand Plates
13. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
14. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
15. Submit Member Application
16. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
17. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
18. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application 
19. Start next build 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Scimitar

[Scimitar[TK]]

And... I have submitted my pictures!! Now I anxiously await approval.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to secure the Shoulder Bridge elastic in place (decided to do that with Velcro instead of glue) and I need to add some Velcro to the right shin and boot, it stays put until I do an action pose. It comes back into line but just not all the way. The left shin doesn't move but I'll add some Velcro to it too.

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges
4. Velcro Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers (Temp. Countermeasure for Covers in place)
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Glue on Silicone Hand Plates
13. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
14. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
15. Submit Member Application
16. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
17. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
18. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application 
19. Start next build 

Edited September 24, 2018 by Scimitar

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Good luck 

[wook1138[TK]]

Looks great, Eric!  You might as well Velcro both boots/shins - depending on what you are doing during a troop, they can both shift around a bit.  The Velcro does a solid job of keeping them lined up nicely.

[Scimitar[TK]]

21 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

Looks great, Eric!  You might as well Velcro both boots/shins - depending on what you are doing during a troop, they can both shift around a bit.  The Velcro does a solid job of keeping them lined up nicely.

Thanks Greg! It's exciting to finally be to this point! And that's what I'll do.  

[wook1138[TK]]

11 minutes ago, Scimitar said:

It's exciting to finally be to this point!

Yes!!!

 

This has been a fantastic build.   The best part is yet to come - trooping!

 

See you at Centurion

[TheSwede[TK]]

Easy peasy approval = great job

[Scimitar[TK]]

33 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

Easy peasy approval = great job

Thank you!!

[CableGuy[TK]]

Nicely done - looking great!! :-)

[Scimitar[TK]]

2 minutes ago, CableGuy said:

Nicely done - looking great!! :-)

Thank you!! Hopefully the EIB application won't be too far behind this.  

[Scimitar[TK]]

Nothing yet on my official approval but I did get permission to participate in tomorrow night's troop, so I'm excited for that!

 

Last night I got the Velcro in place on both boots and shins and then I figured out how to pack everything in the tote. Should be all ready to go now!

 

Running To-Do List:

1. Drill/install snaps in ab for belt
2. Build Belt
3. Glue on Shoulder Bridges
4. Velcro Shoulder Bridge elastic in place
5. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Shoulder Strap connection
6. Glue in snap plates for Shoulder Bell to Bicep connection
7. Reposition Bicep Hooks
8. Reshape Shins & Back Plate at Shoulders
9. Glue in Shin Magnets and Covers (Temp. Countermeasure for Covers in place)
10. Final thigh test fit for upper thigh trimming
11. Glue in snap plates for Thigh Garter System
12. Glue on Silicone Hand Plates
13. Install Sniper Knee Plate ()
14. Submit Application/Pictures to GML
15. Submit Member Application
16. Hopefully be able to sign up for 9/28 troop ()
17. Make any necessary changes & submit EIB Application
18. Make any necessary changes & submit Centurion Application 
19. Start next build 

[LTM[TK]]

Congrats Eric! First troop!!!!! Get some good pictures and make Vader proud

[Scimitar[TK]]

I am now officially TK-17529!!!

[Cricket[TK]]

Yeaaahhhhh!!! Huge congrats, trooper!