Sha Sha's (Slow) KB FOTK Build for Short Troopers

[shashachu[TK]]

It's that time again! I bought a Standard Line Anovos TFA helmet a while back, and had been thinking of pulling the trigger on a KB FOTK kit for a while when I happened upon a garrison friend selling a KB kit and a bunch of accessories (blaster, pistol), so I jumped on it. I knew that it would be a much more challenging build for a short and slim trooper (I am 5' 3", 125 lbs) than the OTTK due to all of the molded-in details that I can't just chop off, so I let it sit in the box for quite a while, and instead did a lot of research, primarily studying Ruthar's and Anzo's fantastic KB build threads.

 

I finally had some free time a few evenings ago and decided to stop procrastinating and just jump in.

 

The first thing I did was take inventory of all the armor bits in the box. (Yo dawg, I heard you like boxes...):

 

 

Everything looked complete, except my TD has the same trimming error that Anzo's did, where they accidentally cut out a big semicircular chunk of the top of the TD. I decided to just not worry about it, as I'm thinking of ordering the new KB resin TD anyway. Somehow having everything laid out like this actually made the build seem *less* intimidating than when it was all sitting in the box. I guess just seeing everything together makes me realize it really is a finite amount of work.

 

Like my OTTK, I decided to start with the biceps and forearms. It actually took me a few minutes of staring at EIB and Centurion applications to make sure I'd picked the proper 4 pieces for the forearm, but eventually I rough trimmed and taped everything together for a test fit.

 

Lolz.

 

 

Somehow it looks semi-reasonable in photos, but in person, the bicep is RIDICULOUSLY large. Like...I could fit both my arms in it at once. I am not going to do any resizing until I have my gaskets, but it's clear I'm going to have to do some major work.

 

 

 

The good thing about the overlap construction for the inner bicep seam is that it gives me quite a bit of flexibility in terms of resizing. My plan is to take the heat gun to the bicep pieces to give them a much tighter radius (I used the heat gun a ton with great success in my OTTK build), then do a lot of trimming from the rear piece to preserve the details in the front piece. The one thing I will need to be careful of is that the outer and inner seams don't get too asymmetric, as I'll be taking most/all off the rear piece. I'm also planning on trimming for length from the top, as the cut should be hidden by the shoulder bell.

 

For the forearms, I don't think I'll be able to do much in the realm of resizing for width, but they're not as wide or long as I was fearing; I should be able to take my helmet off and on myself, especially if I add the 'Finn notch.' Also, the good thing about having tiny hands is that I'll be able to completely glue the forearm closed, instead of having to leave the wrist end unglued like most builders.

 

I bought the kit with a set of FN gaskets that proved to be much much too large, so I have a set of Soulart's gaskets in order. But just for kicks, I tried the elbow gasket on with the bicep and forearm, and now I know how NASA astronauts feel in their super bulky space suits.

 

 

Question for other FOTK builders - is it a mistake to do the build with E-6000? With the number of times I pried apart and reglued my OTTK parts, I'm nervous about using weld-on or whatever more permanent glues most folks use. Any thoughts?

 

That's it for now! Hope to have more progress soon.

Edited April 2, 2018 by shashachu

[TheSwede[TK]]

Yeey have fun with the build, still waiting on KB to ship mine so this build will be nice distraction  (or quite possible make me more impatient to get it)

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Another Sha Sha build thread!  I know how meticulous you are, sister, so I expect great things from this!  If I could make one small suggestion, it would be to list your height in the main post.  The reasoning for this is that you have become one of the "in house experts" on making armor fit perfectly on smaller frames, and I'm sure that future FO TKs will appreciate your work.  

I'm sure this will be just as well built as your OT TK, and I can already see another set of Centurion level armor in your future!  

 

[Shanester[TK]]

I agree Joseph, everyone take out there notebooks and prepare for a lesson. 

[shashachu[TK]]

2 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

Another Sha Sha build thread!  I know how meticulous you are, sister, so I expect great things from this!  If I could make one small suggestion, it would be to list your height in the main post.  The reasoning for this is that you have become one of the "in house experts" on making armor fit perfectly on smaller frames, and I'm sure that future FO TKs will appreciate your work.  

I'm sure this will be just as well built as your OT TK, and I can already see another set of Centurion level armor in your future!  

 

Hahaha no pressure! Thanks for the suggestion - edited the thread title as well as put my height/weight info.

 

I'll probably end up going for EIB, but I may not go for Centurion due to the requirement of rubber gaskets. But never say never.

[Anzo[TK]]

Following!

 

Regarding your question on glue. I would say that e-6000 is probably okay on all of the limbs since you will likely be resizing them a few times in your situation. Once you have the right fit though, perhaps you could undo the E6000 one last time and use something more permanent (and faster curing time) if you like. 

 

I probably wouldn't go that route as a final solution on the high flex points in the chest, yoke and ab/kidney. You certainly can until you have a sure sizing, then use the Devcon or Weld-On as demonstrated in other threads. As you have probably read, once Devcon or Weld-on are set you can't get them apart without significant damage to the plastic.

 

Just my 2 cents. 

Edited April 5, 2018 by Anzo
More info about glue.

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Lots of FO threads lately, great.

 

I’m about 3” too short so I’m curious to see what mods you make. (Popcorn goes here.)

[shashachu[TK]]

6 hours ago, Harbinger said:

I’m about 3” too short so I’m curious to see what mods you make.

To be honest, I think I'm going to be making it up as I go along. As I mentioned, I think the built-in details make this a much tougher build to modify for small troopers, although I know it can be done (I've seen photos of a 5' 3" woman in KB armor). I'm actually more worried about the width of it - the chest and back are extremely broad on me. The craziest thing I was thinking about this morning was heat bending the back to make it narrower, and slicing out a strip from the middle of the yoke and connecting it back together. Since the armor has to be bondoed/sanded/painted anyway, that opens up the door for a lot more drastic modifications.

[shashachu[TK]]

7 hours ago, Anzo said:

Following!

 

Regarding your question on glue. I would say that e-6000 is probably okay on all of the limbs since you will likely be resizing them a few times in your situation. Once you have the right fit though, perhaps you could undo the E6000 one last time and use something more permanent (and faster curing time) if you like. 

 

I probably wouldn't go that route as a final solution on the high flex points in the chest, yoke and ab/kidney. You certainly can until you have a sure sizing, then use the Devcon or Weld-On as demonstrated in other threads. As you have probably read, once Devcon or Weld-on are set you can't get them apart without significant damage to the plastic.

 

Just my 2 cents. 

Thanks for the input! I've never worried about the E6000 pulling apart on my OTTK. Is there a worry that the bondo/filler would crack if the parts are only held together with E6000, or is it actually that the parts might come apart?

[lucnak[TK]]

I have been working on a KB FO TIE Pilot kit and I have to say that when I just had E6000 holding the back/yoke section together, there was quite a bit of flex. I was worried that bondo would crack. When I filled the seam with plastic weld, it got much stiffer and I ended up using a little bit of bondo to smooth it all out as plastic weld is not fun to sand. Also wanted to mention that the KB back section is pretty large so I ended up having the heat bend the sides inward, though that may not be sufficient to fit your frame on the Anovos kit.

[Anzo[TK]]

6 hours ago, shashachu said:

Thanks for the input! I've never worried about the E6000 pulling apart on my OTTK. Is there a worry that the bondo/filler would crack if the parts are only held together with E6000, or is it actually that the parts might come apart?

I think it is the former. Filler areas cracking under the stress. I just followed the example of others. Perhaps @ukswrath or @gmrhodes13 can comment more specifically on the "why".

[shashachu[TK]]

1 hour ago, lucnak said:

Also wanted to mention that the KB back section is pretty large so I ended up having the heat bend the sides inward, though that may not be sufficient to fit your frame on the Anovos kit.

Yes, I will definitely need to at least heat bend the back, as it's massive on me. (I also have a KB)

[lucnak[TK]]

Yes sorry, just realized that! Confusion on my part.

 

If you do split the back vertically to shrink, that will be quite the feat, but may ultimately end up with a much better fit.

 

The other challenge that I've had is getting the yoke to fit on me well. I ended up having to heat bend the connector to have the yoke hug my body better, which also lead to me having to bend the chest plate to follow this new curve. An unanticipated challenge!

 

Will definitely keep up with your build to see how it goes. There is a new recruit in my garrison working on a Phasma Jimmi build that has been ahving challenges resizing for her frame as well. Anything I learn there I will definitely share!

[shashachu[TK]]

Thank you, Luc! Do you have a build thread or any photos to share? 

[lucnak[TK]]

Not sure how helpful it will be to you, but here is my FOTI build thread on the JRS: https://www.jrs501st.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=177&t=15480

 

The JRS is unfortunately not very active for the First Order TIE Pilots...seems like they have been encouraging folks to just post in the Facebook group, which is super unhelpful for others doing research, so I have been tring to document my build for future FOTIs.

[shashachu[TK]]

Thanks! I just requested access to the forums.

[shashachu[TK]]

Got a bit of time last night after SVCC to do some more trimming work on the kit. I realized I'd left too much edge on the flat panel on the inside of the right forearm, so I trimmed that off and also trimmed the left bicep and forearm as well as both shoulder bells.

 

 

It's been an interesting experience working on a kit I know I'll be repainting later. While I agonized over every little scuff and mark on my OTTK, I freely draw cut lines in black sharpie all over the FOTK.

 

------------

 

I will say that my experience with the KB kit so far has been in line with what I've read in other builds, in that the cut lines tend to be a bit ill defined, and the pulls are quite soft. The trapezoid bicep details, for example, are barely there. Also, the indent on the chest is very soft. I was going to try to make the cutout detail in the ABS rather than using the resin insert, but it being as soft as it is, I may not have a choice. Now that he's moved to a new shop with a bigger vacuumformer, perhaps the pulls are sharper.

 

And maybe I'm just getting used to the ridiculousness of the sizing, but I will say that the arm pieces don't look *too* crazy to my eye.

 

 

---------------

 

I'm definitely going to have to significantly resize the biceps, but I'm less worried about it now, especially since I remembered that the inside seam is filled, so I don't have to worry about the inside and outside seams being lined up.

 

Lastly, I finally saw a FOTK in person at comic con! I think he was actually visiting from a neighboring garrison and I didn't actually talk to him, but I definitely creeped on him (well his suit anyway) a lot. So if this is you...sorry. 

 

----------

 

Both Praetorian Guards are from my garrison, and I thought they looked amazing.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[shashachu[TK]]

And the trimming continues, this time the chest, back, yoke, and yoke connector.

 

 

The pulls in these areas are not the best, unfortunately. The sides of the chest have a bit of an orange peel texture:

 

 

and the plastic is very very thin. I had some cracking on the back already, just from trimming.

 

 

The yoke is so thin that it's actually floppy - is this typical? 

 

I did have a question about the trimming of the back and yoke. I was planning on leaving the return edge on the top of the back, and trimming back the yoke so that the filled seam isn't right on the corner. Here's how much back return edge I have right now:

 

 

And I'd trim off about here on the yoke:

 

Does this seem like a reasonable idea? Or do most people trim off the top return edge of the back so that the back and yoke meet at the corner?

[lucnak[TK]]

Some issues I had here:

• The chest plate would ideally keep going before you have to trim so taht you have more of the rectangle detail still on. I ended up making new rectangle details.
• When I cut the yoke, I cut too much and had a gap between where the back and yoke meet at the sides (you would see this from the side view), so keep that in mind. I kept the return edge and cut the yoke around where you did and it seemed to work for me. Obviously you cut off as little as possible to have as small a gap to fill.

Regarding the yoke, I asked for extra material to reinforce it and they sent me a B-grade, which worked out nicely to reinforce it. Once I filled the seam with plastic weld, the whole thing felt way sturdier.

[shashachu[TK]]

 

15 hours ago, lucnak said:

Some issues I had here:

• The chest plate would ideally keep going before you have to trim so taht you have more of the rectangle detail still on. I ended up making new rectangle details.
• When I cut the yoke, I cut too much and had a gap between where the back and yoke meet at the sides (you would see this from the side view), so keep that in mind. I kept the return edge and cut the yoke around where you did and it seemed to work for me. Obviously you cut off as little as possible to have as small a gap to fill.

Regarding the yoke, I asked for extra material to reinforce it and they sent me a B-grade, which worked out nicely to reinforce it. Once I filled the seam with plastic weld, the whole thing felt way sturdier.

I was thinking I might just cut off the chest that has the orange peel texture, so I may also have to recreate the rectangle details.

 

I think I'm ok on the yoke trimming, but I'm pretty sure I did remove more of the side return edge than is ideal, but the rough trim that KB did on the yoke didn't leave me much choice. If I end up running the shoulder bell straps and the shoulder bell metal tab through the return edge, I think I'll need to add some reinforcing material there.

 

They sent you a whole b grade yoke? That's pretty cool! I still have a bunch of ABS from my OTTK kit, so I'll use that to reinforce the yoke. 

[shashachu[TK]]

So something that's finally sinking in is just how BIG the FOTK is compared to the OTTK.

 

I got really discouraged last night because I decided to try on the chest and back, and they just looked silly on me.

 

It looked ok when it was just the armor:

 

But on me, I was swimming in it.

 

 

I really wanted to just give up on the whole project, but I spent some time today looking at some builds photos on the KB Facebook page, and there were a few troopers who also had slim frames who somehow managed to make the armor work without doing any major surgery on the kit.

 

I recalled everyone saying that the gaskets would add some bulk, so I decided to just try it. I have a set of custom gaskets coming from Teresa, but in the meantime I have a too-large gasket set from FN armour that I decided to try.

 

I started by trimming and taping the ab/kidney. The chest/shoulder gaskets were so big I couldn't even get the biceps on, but once I had the chest/back/yoke on top of the gaskets, the abdomen, and added the helmet, I dare say that everything actually looked pretty ok:

 

 

When I'm not wearing the ab, you can see how small my body actually is in the armor:

 

Nevertheless, tonight was the first time I actually felt a bit of confidence that I'd be able to pull this off.

[heartstopper85[TK]]

I think you can trim the side connection on the back a bit. Mine looked like that with my Tie Pilot but once I added my soft goods it came together fine

[shashachu[TK]]

14 hours ago, heartstopper85 said:

I think you can trim the side connection on the back a bit.

I'm not sure I know what you mean.

[heartstopper85[TK]]

7 hours ago, shashachu said:

I'm not sure I know what you mean.

On the back yoke section, the side "tabs" that you'll be putting Velcro on. I've seen that taken in a bit. The square details should be on the actual chest piece tabs so it shouldn't mess anything up. I think KB left quite a bit on for bigger troopers.

[shashachu[TK]]

Ah yeah I got you now. Yeah I have several inches of overlap between the chest and back so I'll definitely be able to trim the back.