Lorelei's 5'4" ATA ANH-S Centurion-Hopeful Build

[Rat[TK]]

Looking fabulous Lorelei. Your just stepping in and owning it.

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[TheLorelei[TK]]

6 hours ago, Frank75139 said:

Don’t let him fool you, he’s my bff he tells everyone this in the attaché section.

 

Mmhmm, sure Frank, sure.

5 hours ago, Bud Spaklur said:

Lorelei- what are you using for the lenses? The thin acetate lens that comes with most kits or you using welding shield material?

Tbh I wish my kit came with a thin lens - what my ATA came with is so thick I can barely bend it, and it refuses to be heat formed. Perhaps that's welding shield material? It's very nice quality, just a pain to work with.

 

5 hours ago, Rat said:

Looking fabulous Lorelei. Your just stepping in and owning it.

Why shanksh Rat! I'm very, very motivated to finish this build and get to serving the Empire. 

[TheSwede[TK]]

1 minute ago, TheLorelei said:

Mmhmm, sure Frank, sure

Actually he does

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 12/15/2018 at 7:10 PM, TheSwede said:

Actually he does

Fine - Daniel, I'll believe. One step removed from the situation and whatnot.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Kowalski, analysis. Please.

Putting on a somewhat-functional clamshell of armor was almost as fun as putting on a bucket with no trim, ears, lenses, or paint. Cheap thrills, y'all.

Ignore the loose strapping on right here:

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

OK. Discussion time. Don't all rush in at once; there are plenty of issues to go around.  Here are the main things I see, and could use help troubleshooting where noted.

 

Q1. Chest stands away from ab

A1. It's not flared away, the curve is good - it's just... not inclined to rest down against the ab. My current strapping mounts are sorta high in the chest, and I'm wondering if bringing them down would help snug it up. Admittedly there's, uh, more going on behind the chestplate than there was with the original TKs too. Maybe some further compression gear is in order.

 

Q2. Chestplate wraps around pretty far

A2. Perhaps trimming along dotted line is in order?

 

Q3. Buttplate wraps around pretty far (and poorly)

A3. Other shorties have trimmed the sides, as far as I've seen. Just making sure it would be ok, and necessary. Green line is the approx. location of the side seam. Now the red line here looks fine, but take a look at the other side:

 

Q4: What about the nonexistent square kidney cutout?

A4: My ATA kit didn't come with the (blue lines) notches and my understanding is that's ok leave it alone, but if they were there, wouldn't I be matching the butt line with the bottom of the kidney (which is NOT the same as the side seam line)? Seems it'd put the butt pretty far back if I did.

 

Q4. Belt is gappy and not horizontal.

Also in the last pic, scroll back up. Yellow line is what I'd consider "flat".

A4. It gaps away considerably in the upper back as is. Not sure what to do about this one. Haven't mounted anything, fwiw.

 

I'll also be trimming the back plate's shoulder tabs to remove overlap with the chest.

All in all it's feeling pretty good otherwise - feel free to burst my bubble though! Thanks for all the help!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Q1A. You nailed it, armor and body strapping adjustments needed or added.

Q2A. Nothing saying you can't trim it, just not too far

Q3A. Your trim lines will work. Also suggest making sure the butt plate is fully under the kidney before final trim is made.

Q4A. No longer required at any level of approval. 22mm notch is completely up to you to add. Personally, I did it because it was accurate.

Q4A (belt alignment) Unless you plan to Velcro it in place, plan on it moving around while trooping. Perfectly normal

 

Keep up the good work 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

21 minutes ago, ukswrath said:

Q3A. Your trim lines will work. Also suggest making sure the butt plate is fully under the kidney before final trim is made.

Q4A. No longer required at any level of approval. 22mm notch is completely up to you to add. Personally, I did it because it was accurate.

Thanks so much, Tony!! I was going to make sure the butt plate was fully under the kidney first, yes. Somewhere I saw a diagonal strap at the buttplate corner that I think would do the trick. But about the 22mm notch - should I line the trimming of the butt up to where it WOULD be, or not?

[Frank75139[501st]]

Can’t say much that hasn’t been said. Your doing great and once you get approved I’ll have your back if you want to get paper clips on the belt put into the CRL cause honestly it works.


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[ukswrath[Staff]]

40 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

 But about the 22mm notch - should I line the trimming of the butt up to where it WOULD be, or not?

Great question, so the following reference photo is screen used armor. Note the notch placement, duplicate it. 

 

Your butt plate will move around while trooping regardless, so how it aligns with the notch won't matter too much once installed. 

[Rat[TK]]

Well Tony was on it for ya Lorelei.

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[TheLorelei[TK]]

49 minutes ago, ukswrath said:

Great question, so the following reference photo is screen used armor. Note the notch placement, duplicate it. 

I'm on it. 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

58 minutes ago, Frank75139 said:

Can’t say much that hasn’t been said. Your doing great and once you get approved I’ll have your back if you want to get paper clips on the belt put into the CRL cause honestly it works.

Thanks Frank! Haha, I can see my submission now. "My belt's, uh, screen accurate! What do you mean my EIB application has been denied??"

[TheLorelei[TK]]

My to do list seriously doesn't seem to be shrinking at all. What, lying around sick isn't checking things off?? Absurd. After I got those pictures kitted up on Sunday, I could barely move. Energy levels are low, mental energy is high but disjointed... my brain is like a sleep-deprived 3-year-old on a caffeine high trying to complete a puzzle with oven mitts on.

 

Moreover, last night to my great chagrin I realized that my split rivets are too short to go through 4 layers of ATA ABS and a layer of elastic (as they would have to have done for my proposed side hinge closure). I can a) buy more online and wait for them to come because apparently nobody sells split rivets any more or b) rework the closure since it was bulkier than I wanted anyway, and I worry about straining the rivet holes (even reinforced). Option b) won out during last night's "sleep", and I think I'll put in ornamental split rivets with a conventional three pairs of double snaps with 2" elastic.

 

Let's lay a few things out.

 

• Sand ab seam

• Reinforce seam

• Install split rivets

• Install ab closure

 

• Size canvas belt

• Sew on Velcro

• Paint ab plate buttons

• Glue ab buttons to ab

• Attach belt snaps to ab

• Attach ammo packs to belt

 

• Connect cod to ab

• Cod to butt elastic

 

• Better butt to kidney strapping

• Trim buttplate edges

 

• Re-Plastidip bucket interior

• Drill lens holes

• Install lens mounts

• Install frown mesh

• Polish everything

• Install ears

• Paint bucket

 

• Trim shoulder tops

• Connect shoulders

• Heat form shoulder straps (?)

• Reinforce straps (?)

• Apply straps to chest, five bumps on chest plate

• Make shoulder bell strap

• Trim shoulder bells (12" from bottom of ridge, 5" from side of ridge?)

 

• Sand out hovi mic tip interiors

• Install speakers

• Paint hovis

 

• Make neck seal bib

 

Seems to me that, from the couch (or adjacent floorspace) today, I can work up new buttplate, shoulder, and ab strapping, trim the buttplate and shoulders, get shoulder strap positioning nailed down, and move on to belt and neck seal work if I can. I'd REALLY like to plastidip my bucket some more, but breathing with my respirator on... oh! I could paint my ab buttons, too. Let's do this thing! *cough*

[Frank75139[501st]]

Slow and steady your useless to the empire unless you get better, don’t prolong it by doing too much. You’ve got a good game plan the list will shrink soon.


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[Rat[TK]]

Yeah I'd agree with what Frank says. Slow and steady.

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[ukswrath[Staff]]

Lorelei I have the longer split rivets if you need some. Shoot me a PM

[TheSwede[TK]]

Nahh...don’t listen to any of these guys...in order to please the Empire you should double your efforts!! 

[Rat[TK]]

Nahh...don’t listen to any of these guys...in order to please the Empire you should double your efforts!! 

Hahahaha! Good one Dan.

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[TheLorelei[TK]]

Fine, I have balanced the sane advice with Daniel's advice - quickly recoated my bucket with plastidip, and will now lie very, very still. 

 

And thanks, Tony! PM sent. Turns out the rivets only have to go through 3 layers of ABS plus one of elastic, so if I can do the initial closure plan I'd like to.

Edited December 18, 2018 by TheLorelei
Wrong name

[TheSwede[TK]]

1 hour ago, Rat said:

Dan.

 

3 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

Dan's advice

Well my friends, I would like it if you would refer to me as Daniel or Danny even, Dan is some other dude aka @CableGuy 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

3 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

Well my friends, I would like it if you would refer to me as Daniel or Danny even, Dan is some other dude aka @CableGuy 

Shoot!!! And I thought about it, and I looked at your profile (and I called you Daniel yesterday, if you recall), and then I figured Hey, Rat probably knows better than I do. Dreadfully sorry, I mean I hate it when people shorten my name without being instructed to do so. Ugh.

[Frank75139[501st]]

Shoot!!! And I thought about it, and I looked at your profile (and I called you Daniel yesterday, if you recall), and then I figured Hey, Rat probably knows better than I do. Dreadfully sorry, I mean I hate it when people shorten my name without being instructed to do so. Ugh.

Good luck with you future Centurion application.... your marked for life now.


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[TheSwede[TK]]

5 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

Shoot!!! And I thought about it, and I looked at your profile (and I called you Daniel yesterday, if you recall), and then I figured Hey, Rat probably knows better than I do. Dreadfully sorry, I mean I hate it when people shorten my name without being instructed to do so. Ugh.

I DO remember and not to worry, all is well and if you think about it it´s all Rat´s fault, I have tried to aducate him but when it comes to my name...well...HE is but the learner and I am the Master 

 

(not to worry Rat, I still like you just as much)

[TheSwede[TK]]

9 minutes ago, Frank75139 said:

Good luck with you future Centurion application.... your marked for life now.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

11 minutes ago, Frank75139 said:

Good luck with you future Centurion application.... your marked for life now.

 

 

Heavens to Betsy, Frank you're right - even if by some miracle they do let me in, they'll send me a certificate that says "Laura" on it and I'll have to hang it on my wall and wince every time I see it.

3 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

I DO remember and not to worry, all is well and if you think about it it´s all Rat´s fault, I have tried to aducate him but when it comes to my name...well...HE is but the learner and I am the Master 

 

(not to worry Rat, I still like you just as much)

Oh phew. Thanks!