Suspend's AP ANH Stunt Build

[TheSwede[TK]]

[ukswrath[Staff]]

26 minutes ago, Suspend said:

Ok, so I've cleaned up my belt mess.  I trimmed the longer side to match the shorter side and did the 45 degree corners to meet the canvas belt.

 

Now I have another question....

 

I've been reading a bunch of threads on the belt.  Ukswrath seem to have the "goto" build thread which shows 15mm up from the mold line and 28mm over on the right and 59mm over on the left for the snap locations on the AB.  However, those measurements are for a 100mm (in height) ammo belt.  The AP one is closer to 90mm....which makes me think the height up should probably be closer to 20mm instead of 15mm.  Then Wook and Bud mention that for themselves, 40mm over instead of 59mm (left side) worked better for them.  I was getting pretty confused and I'm thinking of marking my own hole locations......which brings me to the age old question:

 

How close should the ammo belt sit to the button panel?  :-)

 

I've seen mention of just touching the button panel, I've seen a few mm under the button panel and I've seen touching and partly covering the bottom button.  Help...

 

Thanks,

Mark

 

My numbers and the illustration template are guidelines and may not apply exactly to your armor. Bottom line is once assembled you want the upper ammo belt to be at or just below the lowest Ab buttons like seen in the following reference photos.

 

[Suspend]

Thanks for the pics, guys!!!

 

Borrowing a page from Alay's build, I used Chicago screws for the ammo belt attachment to the canvas belt.  I kind of like the non-permanentness rather than using pop rivets.

 

I used 1/4 inch Chicago screws which I further trimmed off about another 1.5mm (using a dremel cutting disk) to make sure the stem wasn't too long.

 

 

The left side shows the trimmed down Chicago screws and the right side are the "full height" originals.

 

 

I marked the hole locations on the canvas belt while the ammo belt was curved around the Ab.  I noted that with the belt flat, the outer holes were about 2mm further toward the edges than with the belt curved around the ab.

 

Now just holding the belt in place...

 

 

Do you think this is OK?  The belt is pressed against the bottom of the main button panel.  There's a bit of a lip there.  Or should it actually sit on top of the main button panel?  The photos you guys provided make it seem like it's actually overlapping on top of the button panel.

 

And as a follow up question....popper snaps or line 24 snaps for the belt to AB?  I saw the original Ukswrath post used poppers.  I have both.  I tried a popper just on a scrap piece of ABS and, to me, it didn't seem it had the strength of a line 24.  Opinions?

 

Thanks for all the help!!  Thinking of this build, I think the belt has me the most stressed.  :-)

 

Mark

 

[lucnak[TK]]

You can definitely have it overlapping the panel itself, but this placement or just slightly higher is good! Keep in mind that the ABS belt will sit higher than your canvas belt when placing your snaps.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

On 9/22/2018 at 11:27 PM, Suspend said:

Do you think this is OK?  The belt is pressed against the bottom of the main button panel.  There's a bit of a lip there.  Or should it actually sit on top of the main button panel?  The photos you guys provided make it seem like it's actually overlapping on top of the button panel.

 

And as a follow up question....popper snaps or line 24 snaps for the belt to AB?  I saw the original Ukswrath post used poppers.  I have both.  I tried a popper just on a scrap piece of ABS and, to me, it didn't seem it had the strength of a line 24.  Opinions?

 

As Luc mentioned yes on the waist ammo belt.

 

 

 

[wook1138[TK]]

On ‎9‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 12:27 AM, Suspend said:

I marked the hole locations on the canvas belt while the ammo belt was curved around the Ab.  I noted that with the belt flat, the outer holes were about 2mm further toward the edges than with the belt curved around the ab.

 

Now just holding the belt in place...

 

 

 

Do you think this is OK?  The belt is pressed against the bottom of the main button panel.  There's a bit of a lip there.  Or should it actually sit on top of the main button panel?  The photos you guys provided make it seem like it's actually overlapping on top of the button panel.

 

And as a follow up question....popper snaps or line 24 snaps for the belt to AB?  I saw the original Ukswrath post used poppers.  I have both.  I tried a popper just on a scrap piece of ABS and, to me, it didn't seem it had the strength of a line 24.  Opinions?

 

Thanks for all the help!!  Thinking of this build, I think the belt has me the most stressed.  :-)

 

Mark

 

Looks good Mark.  The height on the belt is good.  As the pics show, you could come up a bit to just slightly cover the lower button if you wanted to.  For the poppers vs line 24 snaps - I agree with you, the line 24 snaps seem stronger - at least with the ones I had.  I went with the line 24 snaps so I don't have trooping experience with the poppers.  If you are going for screen accuracy - then the poppers are the way to go.  I just feel more confident trooping with the line 24 snaps (I tend to bump my belt a lot - I'm surprised I haven't knocked it off during a troop yet). 

[Suspend]

Thanks everyone....that's great to hear!!

 

I've decided to use the Line 24 snaps for the belt to ab.

 

Mark

 

[Suspend]

So for the belt I kind of worked out my own spacing of the snaps.

 

For the right side (when wearing armor) I went over 33mm from the bottom of the vertical ridge and came up 16mm from the bottom return edge.

 

 

And for the left side (when wearing armor) I also went over 33mm from the vertical ridge on that side but I only came up 14mm from the bottom return edge.

 

 

It seems the AP armor is not quite straight, probably because the originals weren't either.  So coming up 16mm on each side made the belt look ever so slightly lop-sided so I came down 2mm with the hole on the left.  With this spacing the female side of the snap winds up dead center of the last ammo bump on the belt.

 

Now for my question.....for the drop boxes.....are they supposed to hang slightly below the belt (2mm) or are they supposed to be actually touching the belt?

 

Thanks,

Mark

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

They do look a little low, have you tried the belt on while wearing the armor? it can change how it hangs, you'll find the belt tilts down towards the front when wearing.

 

You can see in this image that the plastic section of the belt just sits on the ab plate bottom.

 

 

And you are correct, there should be a small gap between the belt and drop boxes, just allows for some movement

 

 

 

[Suspend]

35 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

They do look a little low, have you tried the belt on while wearing the armor? it can change how it hangs, you'll find the belt tilts down towards the front when wearing.

 

 

Grrr.  You're right.  It is just a little low.  5mm higher would be nice.

 

This is a shot wearing the armor.  Sorry for the poor quality bathroom lighting.  :-)

 

 

It's pretty close.  Think it will be an issue?

 

I guess I could leave the snaps on the torso and take the belt apart instead.  I could try to patch the holes and try to set the snaps in the belt 5mm lower to raise the belt up.

 

Mark

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I wouldn't hold you up for basic approval. but you'll need to move it for the higher levels  

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Great job Mark. As Glen mentioned it definitely won't hold you up from basic, nor EIB to be honest.  

[Suspend]

Ok, after several attempts I re-positioned the belt.  First it was a bit low.  Then it was a bit lop-sided.  Then it was a bit too high and covered too much of the blue button on the smaller panel.  Then finally I got it not lop-sided and not covering too much of the button.  Thoughts?

 

 

 

Lighting is not the best because it's night time.

 

Here's the first shot will all the gear on.  Exciting!!!!

 

 

My "to-do" list still includes painting the helmet screws, adding a bit of foam to the left thigh at the knee, and finishing the helmet fans and speaker.....but at this point, unless there are still some glaring mistakes, I could probably take some better photos and submit for pre-approval.  Woohoo!!!

 

Mark

 

[wook1138[TK]]

Belt looks good!   As does the armour in general.  Nice work! 

[lucnak[TK]]

Belt position looks good to me. I would wear the thighs a little higher if you could, but then again, you don't want too big a gap at the knee.

[shootstraight]

How did you get you ab paint buttons so perfectly round? Want to follow ur method. Thanks


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[ukswrath[Staff]]

4 minutes ago, shootstraight said:

How did you get you ab paint buttons so perfectly round? Want to follow ur method. Thanks


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You can use round stencils found at your local craft store. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I borrowed a friends hole punches and used some contact plastic (it's for covering school books) and that seems to work. Paint white first so any bleed areas are filled with white then paint the grey and blue.

 

I have also used a small piece of rubber hose, cut into thin pieces, hold down tight and then paint inside, did get a couple of little bleeds but easy to remove with a toothpick.

[Suspend]

7 hours ago, shootstraight said:

How did you get you ab paint buttons so perfectly round? Want to follow ur method. 

I used the decals that came with the AP Kit. :-)

 

I put the decal in place and then hit it with a hairdryer.   The hot air softens the decal and let’s its drape over the button without wrinkles. 

[Suspend]

Hey all, I just realized that I jumped ahead a bit.  I was so excited to post a pic of the armor that I forgot to finish my posts on the helmet.

 

The green lens material that comes with the AP kit is a little "thin" in my opinion.  Apparently it's accurate to the movie but I preferred something a little darker so I picked up the darker lens from TrooperBay.  I tried fitting the material in as a single strip, but I couldn't get the material to sit flush against the eye sockets, so I option to install the eyes individually.

 

First this was to head to Home Depot and pick up some Tee-Nuts.

 

 

Leaving the base as (roughly) a circle was going to make them too large so I cut two sides off the base using my dremel.

 

 

This allowed me to position the T Nuts around the eye socket.

 

 

I then cut away the plastidip around the eye and used Sugru to surround the bases and attach them to the helmet.  Sugru is kinda hard to find in Canada.  I finally found some at "Home Hardware" but they only had the mixed box of colors.  So I ended up with black, grey and white.  Oh well, I'll paint over them.  :-)

 

 

Give the sugru lots of time to dry.  I think they said it dries at a depth of 2mm per day.  While waiting I did a "rubbing" of the eye sockets and then hand drew a cleaner version with a buffer around each lens to attach each to the T nuts.

 

 

And cut out the lens material...

 

 

I resprayed the plastidip around the eyes then I marked the hole locations on the lens material, drilled the mounting holes and screwed down each lens.

 

 

I picked up some tactical helmet pads from Amazon.  It took some experimenting to decide the best locations for the padding.  I wanted it to grab onto my head so the helmet wouldn't flop around.  It works pretty well, although I think I'd still like a bit more on the sides of my head.

 

 

Next I started work on the fans and microphone.  I picked up an Aker MR1505.  I found you can remove the metal head band and just keep the mic and boom.  It velcro's nicely to the side of the helmet.  Then I picked up an Anker "big lipstick" style USB battery and I got a fan kit from Ukswrath.  I got the fan bracket as well but ended up only using pieces of it.  The bracket that the fans attach to is really cool.  It fits perfectly in the helmet and looks awesome, but the only place I could find to fit my big usb battery was a the back of the helmet.  With the battery there, I couldn't make use of the fan bracket.  So I took the bracket apart and used velcro to attach the fans inside the helmet.  I took the power switches off the bracket and attached them to the lower ear screws.  One on each side.  So if I'm trooping, I can individually turn the fans on an off while in costume.  It works really well but that USB battery might just be a hair too big.  I can BARELY squeeze my head in.  Once I'm in, it's fine.

 

 

Mark