Should cutting off the back of shoulder straps be allowed?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

If you look at the shoulder straps in the CRL, it says this:

 

Shoulder Straps For 501st approval: These shall be securely mounted in front and may free float in back. They may be affixed with rivets, Velcro, or adhesive.

For level two certification (if applicable): No visible rivets are allowed.

For level three certification (if applicable): These shall free float in back. These shall be glued in front. The plastic shoulder straps need to be held down in the back via a white elastic band to the white fabric that connects/bridges the chest and back piece.

 

Along with this picture

 

When  you get your kit, that front tab is present on both sides, and for years people just glue/velcro (or in the old days rivet) the fronts and let them free float in the back.  Right?  Well apparently people take a look at some screen shots like this:

 

 

And say "hey, you can just chop the back tab off of the straps and you are good.  In fact, some EI & Centurions get approved with this modification.

 

Other GMLs are saying "wait, wait, but that's not per the CRL!".  Who is right?  Ugh, Captain Grey Area.  Why?

 

Older GMLs may not think about it since all kits come this way, and maybe in their garrison people leave it on and all is good. Why not? That's what we've been doing since 2005 at least, right?

 

Others point out that it's not seen on screen, the CRL doesn't explicitly require them, and since there is this cool picture on screen, off they go!  Also, the fact that Centurions are approved this way lends weight, right?

 

Anyway, it's worth getting everyone on the same page.  My question is: are there many TKs in ANH/ESB that have the tab in the back?  I'm just trying to ascertain to what level we update the CRL, e.g. we can allow either on L1, but restrict L3 if the photo evidence is suggestive one way or the other.

 

 

[TheSwede[TK]]

30 minutes ago, Daetrin said:

When  you get your kit, that front tab is present on both sides

Not all kits, after a close inspection with a ruler on my two different armor makes the rear bump is in fact a few mm bigger than the rest (front bump aside). That little difference will be very hard to spot on screen but atleast (what I think) we will see that the front and back are not the same size. For the record I did not modify my shoulder bridges besides trimming the sides.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Thanks!  For reference - can you please post pix?  

[TheSwede[TK]]

3 minutes ago, Daetrin said:

Thanks!  For reference - can you please post pix?  

Do you mean screen grabs or of my kits?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Your kits.  I'm just curious to see what yours looked like in the end is all.  

[wook1138[TK]]

some screen caps.  I can't speak for the length, but the larger back tab seems to missing more often than not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TheSwede[TK]]

No problem, just wasn`t sure what you meant.

Hero-suit Centurion-app

Front

Back

 

Stunt-suit Centurion-app

Front

Back

 

And the Shadow (back)

Edited March 13, 2018 by TheSwede

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Thanks Daniel - that's what I thought, I appreciate you confining.

[troopermaster]

The original shoulder straps have a large tab at the front of them and a smaller one at the back. Most replicas have large tabs on both sides that is not accurate and looks better if removed. You will see on all the ANH suits that the straps have about a 5mm border on the sides but none on the front.

[CableGuy[TK]]

I’d certainly agree with smaller at rear, if none at all.




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[troopermaster]

It's there, just a bit hard to see as it's not much wider than the rest of the strips.

[Neb Sgird[TK]]

I've heard it straight from Mark (AP)'s mouth that he added the large tab on the back to assist larger troopers in getting their bridges all the way to where there should be on the back plate. He regularly recommends that the back tab be lopped off. I'm sure having a symmetrical mold doesn't hurt on his side, either.

 

The only other kit that I'm sure has the tabs as large in the back as the front is ATA. How many other kits have it?

 

If this was a voting committee, I would say keep the requirements as is for basic and EIB, and add the requirement of no larger tab for centurion. Is there a consistent number of tabs on the screen-used bridges? Maybe we can use that for the requirement?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

5 minutes ago, Neb Sgird said:

I've heard it straight from Mark (AP)'s mouth that he added the large tab on the back to assist larger troopers in getting their bridges all the way to where there should be on the back plate. He regularly recommends that the back tab be lopped off. I'm sure having a symmetrical mold doesn't hurt on his side, either.

 

The only other kit that I'm sure has the tabs as large in the back as the front is ATA. How many other kits have it?

 

If this was a voting committee, I would say keep the requirements as is for basic and EIB, and add the requirement of no larger tab for centurion. Is there a consistent number of tabs on the screen-used bridges? Maybe we can use that for the requirement?

From a CRL perspective, we'd have to allow lopped off backs on L1 to allow it on L2/L3.  L2/L3 can only add to the base, not take away.

[Neb Sgird[TK]]

From a CRL perspective, we'd have to allow lopped off backs on L1 to allow it on L2/L3.  L2/L3 can only add to the base, not take away.

Right, this was what I meant.

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[troopermaster]

4 hours ago, Neb Sgird said:

 Is there a consistent number of tabs on the screen-used bridges?

1 large front tab, 11 thin strips and 1 medium end tab.

[wook1138[TK]]

Is it just me or does it appear that the slightly larger tab is more consistent with the Hero suits and much less so with the Stunt?

[Daetrin[Admin]]

On 3/13/2018 at 4:51 PM, troopermaster said:

It's there, just a bit hard to see as it's not much wider than the rest of the strips.

As always Paul - your knowledge and expertise are highly appreciated  

[Cricket[TK]]

My RS kit does not have the huge tab at the back.  My WTF kit has the big tabs on both ends.

[starsaber25[Admin]]

I can also confirm that my MTK kit has large tabs at both sides.  I'm starting to lean towards that you can have either for Basic and Level 2.  And based on all of this photographic evidence having only a larger tab in the front and a smaller tab in the back should be the level 3 requirement.

[TheSwede[TK]]

My take on the matter is that since it has been proven that the large tab on the rear is non-existing on the Movie-suits it should barely pass basic. Beeing Expert Infantry and having something that`s clearly not on the suit seem very odd to me. For sake of argument: having a total of ten teeth cut out is not approvable even though it can be found in the Movie so why should something that`s not on any suit be approvable? Just beacause some makers make them that way? They need to improve their molds and to help larger Troopers then just ad more smaller tabs. Think of it as to shiming the sides, you`re extending the part, not altering it.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

FWIW, that change was made last weekend.  You can now cut off the back of the shoulder straps if you want.

 

https://databank.501st.com/databank/Template:CRL-tk-anh-shoulderstraps