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

[Cricket[TK]]

[TheLorelei[TK]]

20 hours ago, Cricket said:

That's the elastic that holds the shoulder bell to the shoulder strapping.  One half of the size 10 snap is sewn into the white elastic.  The other half of the snap is sewn into the black elastic strap.  The other end of the black elastic strap is glued directly into the shoulder bell.   Hope that helps!

Ok well now my question seems super stupid, haha. This:

looked like leather or something bridging the shoulder gap beyond the elastic further around the arm, perhaps to hide the end of the neck seal bib or something was my thought. Must just be the lighting! Return to your homes. Nothing to see here.

[Cricket[TK]]

Haha!  That's just some extra foam padding on my mannequin. It gives more support to the armor when it's on display. 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Ohh! Ok! Thanks

[gatetrooper[TK]]

Lorelei,

When you kicked off this build at Jonathan's house back on Labor Day weekend, I commented that he would finish quick ("blessed" with Joe Average TK build), but that your build had potential to be the stuff of legend. So far, both of those are playing true to forecast! You are doing awesome! When you are ready for The Show, please post (here or PM or Carida forums) where your first troop will be. I would love to be on hand when you go "live".

Andrew

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Thank you, @gatetrooper ! I'll most definitely let you know. I'd love for the first set of TK armor I got a good look at to be on hand for my debut too.  It's been quite a ride and it's not over yet, but I'm enjoying it regardless! Though how quick Jonathan's build was does make me a *smidge* jealous, yes.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Okay, folks. Maybe not radio silence, but it's been video silence (visual silence? visual blindness? I'm trying here) long enough. PICTURES! And then questions. Down below.

 

But first, a progress check-in! Last night I brought all my limb armor into the living room, piled it in front of the couch, and put on movie after movie to keep my brain occupied (quite a task at the best of times) while I cleaned every. last. cover strip seam.

Four (4) hours later, the travesties on the left looked like the beauties on the right. Yes, I still have to trim the cover strip ends. I took A.J.'s recommendation of using white E6000 for applying outer cover strips, 'cause if you cut the excess cleanly enough it fills any small gaps and unevennesses nicely. My big trick for clearing the E6000 was my HDad's tip to use these blades

which may look like danger-claws but are in fact commonly known as roofer's blades and fit in any normal utility knife. They let you cut materials by pulling more than pressing down through the material (and consequently scoring whatever's behind). They're downright magical. Invest, y'all. I still had to clear the glue off of the upper bit of the strip and get the seam really clean which took for-ever but hey, it's done now.

 

My ab closures are now almost ready, too! Tab on one side. Han snap is purely decorative. Half of the closure is also my kidney splice reinforcement. Still have to make elastics, put back the part of the bottom edge that snapped when making kidney notches, and bend the tab inwards some. I admire those of you that chose flexible tabs. Brains, foresight, etc.

Other side is looking half happy too.

Hinge is a la @A.J. Hamler (again). However after gluing the elastic behind the ABS strips vertically, I discovered my woven elastic wouldn't stretch at all, so while it was still a hinge, it had no stretch. Stretch was a priority for me due to fear for the safety of the rivet holes. So I yanked and tugged and peeled it off and glued three pieces horizontally instead and now it does stretch a tiny bit! Yay. I also glued thin pieces of pre-vac-formed ABS behind each hole before mounting the hinge with only rivets and washers. Side note: my rivets were too short and @ukswrath swooped in to the rescue. Woo! Thanks, Tony!

 

My belt is looking rather belt-like. Got the Velcro installed now that I could size it.

Made the Velcro narrow enough to fit between the TD/O2 canister brackets as it gets rather thick otherwise. The belt is reinforced with "plastic canvas" throughout (minus ends), and the plastic belt is riveted on in the center only pending snap attachment of the canvas to ab.

 

Drop boxes are looking drop boxy

 

Magnetic shin closures are in and rocking

assembled according to Cricket's instructions. Highly recommend.

 

Arm armor snaps are in

 

Cool. Good talk. Now the queries.

Q1. My forearms are stupid. How would y'all recommend I treat that height difference up top? Angle the cover strip, taper the whole thing?

 

Q2. In some places, my cover strips do not lie perfectly flat. How noticeable is this actually while oot and aboot trooping, and do I need to deal with it?

 

The sniper knee stinks to install as much as everybody says it does. I wrestled with it for so stupid long. One side lines up great! The other, not so much. I did trim down the sides rather significantly already. THEN I found the reference album. Sigh. So:

Q3. Am I correct in drawing the apparent trim line on the trooper on the right? The inside of the knee is hard to find pictures of.

Q4. Do you think, if I just trimmed the ends vertically, I could leave the knee where it is?  No worries if not.

 

Thanks in advance, everybody!

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Whoa, check this out. In rereading my post I was like "why on earth does the Han snap have a female back, did I have the wrong dies in my press" and then I went and got my ab and whaddya know, I installed a female snap in the Han snap place using a split rivet. No, really.

My Han snap is a split rivet.

So.

That'll be changed pronto.

 

Also, what the heck.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Gotcha. Thanks, Matt! Yeah, the wrist ends of my forearm cover strips aren't even or rounded off yet because I'll likely be taking more off the whole end. Just wanted to get them assembled  first. I already trimmed one bump off and the length seems good, I just need to even it all out on a belt sander.

I like that trim line at the elbow end of the forearm. Would you give that end of the cover strip 45° tapers, too?

[Rat[TK]]

Looking absolutely fabulous Lorelei!

Sent from my 5054N using Tapatalk

[TheSwede[TK]]

12 hours ago, TheLorelei said:

Do you think, if I just trimmed the ends vertically, I could leave the knee where it is?

If it were me I would get a new one and have another go to make it more in keep with the original, you are correct in that vertikal cut

[TheLorelei[TK]]

1 hour ago, Bud Spaklur said:

Roger that. And hey, I thought I was the only one with half a dozen little curls of painter's tape sticking off of furniture... ;D

 

Thanks, Rat! It'll be truly glam eventually.

 

29 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

If it were me I would get a new one and have another go to make it more in keep with the original, you are correct in that vertikal cut

Snap, do you really think I have to get a new one? I mean I'll do it, goodness knows Terrell probably put a whole spare kit aside for me after seeing how many ears I ordered , but looking at the scrap I cut off from around my knee I'm not sure there's much more I could've kept. Looking at other ATA people's knees, that seems to hold true. From D'Angelo's recent ATA Centurion app, for instance:

So his edges are vertical, yes, but at the cost of being not quite to the "bend" in the calf, which is where I'm afraid I'd be even if I got a new one.

[PhilBobTheFish]

The build is looking buildy... 

 

and near completion. 

 

For the cover strips, you are fine. No one will notice them usless they use a teloscope, microscope, or some other kind of scope.

Can't wait to see it done!

[TheSwede[TK]]

4 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

do you really think I have to get a new one?

You don’t have to but that’s what I would do.

At the very least I would make that vertikal cut and see how it looks

 

 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

28 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

You don’t have to but that’s what I would do.

At the very least I would make that vertikal cut and see how it looks

Gotcha. Yeah, that's a good first step. And since you're so many time zones ahead of me, happy almost New Year to you and yours, Daniel!!

[TheSwede[TK]]

10 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

Gotcha. Yeah, that's a good first step. And since you're so many time zones ahead of me, happy almost New Year to you and yours, Daniel!!

Just under 5h to go and happy new years to you and your family too

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Slight rework to see if I need to get that new knee in the mail. This thing was HARD to pry off! Go E6000!!

Not a perfect vertical, but not the slope it was, and not so far from the shin corner either.

I don't love how it ends up on a slight diagonal but that seems to be screen accurate, so...

Obviously there's more trimming of the sides to be done and sanding etc but here's the concept.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

4 hours ago, TheLorelei said:

Snap, do you really think I have to get a new one? I mean I'll do it, goodness knows Terrell probably put a whole spare kit aside for me after seeing how many ears I ordered , but looking at the scrap I cut off from around my knee I'm not sure there's much more I could've kept. Looking at other ATA people's knees, that seems to hold true. From D'Angelo's recent ATA Centurion app, for instance:

 

So his edges are vertical, yes, but at the cost of being not quite to the "bend" in the calf, which is where I'm afraid I'd be even if I got a new one.

The ATA sniper knee, even a replacement will NOT line up on the right side, they're made small, just an FYI. The left side should be close.

 

That said, we have several ATA L3 badge holders with imperfect sniper knees. Though Daniel is correct in pointing out they should be aligned with the return edge you will not be held to that standard because the manufacturer didn't make them big enough. 

[Frank75139[501st]]

I like the rework. I thought the original was good too. It’s not gonna be perfect none of them where. I hate how my ammo belt is on my right thigh. I bugged AM for months to get a replacement. I felt like it was the worse thing in the world and people were laughing at me and every time I would say something at a troop everyone was like it’s fine. Ended up getting the replacement and still haven’t changed it. You’ll see a lot of perfect builds on this forum but I’m willing to bet just about everyone has that one thing nobody notices or cares about that ticks them off.

Or you could order a new one, ultimately it’s your time and money.


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[troopermaster]

36 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

 

You're fitting the knee plate to a right hand shin.

[TheSwede[TK]]

13 hours ago, TheLorelei said:

Slight rework to see if I need to get that new knee in the mail.

No need for a new one However when going back in the thread and looking at both your shins it do look like Paul is correct, could be the way you have it between the legs for the photo but might be worth to check

[troopermaster]

On 11/28/2018 at 12:51 AM, TheLorelei said:

 

It;s definitely the right shin. They are paired up perfect;y and worn on the correct legs in the photos above, so something has gone astray since. It's nothing major anyway if they have been swapped over as the shins were all over the place in the movies, but you had them assembled correctly earlier.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

4 hours ago, troopermaster said:

It;s definitely the right shin. They are paired up perfect;y and worn on the correct legs in the photos above, so something has gone astray since. It's nothing major anyway if they have been swapped over as the shins were all over the place in the movies, but you had them assembled correctly earlier.

Something HAS gone astray - my mind! This must've been among the "brilliant" things I set in motion while sick and fuzzy-minded. Thank you for catching this, Paul! I'm excited to see how it lines up on the other shin 

 

23 hours ago, ukswrath said:

The ATA sniper knee, even a replacement will NOT line up on the right side, they're made small, just an FYI. The left side should be close.

Ok, for anybody here who may have historically had trouble with right and left , do you mean the "inside" of the knee or the "outside" should be close? Thanks!

 

23 hours ago, Frank75139 said:

Or you could order a new one, ultimately it’s your time and money.

Thanks, Frank. Our flaws do tend to stand out to ourselves most. Trying to balance that with Centurion-grade quality and screen accuracy can be tough, though!

 

***Also, PSA*** - Hallmark stores have Christmas goods 60% off, including that amazing light-up tree skirt featuring Darth Vader & son's classic lightsaber duel. Guess who finally got one  along with several Tie Fighter ornaments. Ooh yeahh.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Sorry for the confusion Lorelei, Paul is correct regarding which shin the sniper knee is to be mounted to, forgive me for not catching that I was solely focused on the knee only.

 

Regarding the knee itself, the left shin inner will not line up with the edge of the sniper knee as seen in the provided screen shots above. Unless Tyrell (ATA) has changed his process the knee has a flared edge at the corner, the area in question. For the knee to look correct the flare will need to be trimmed off. Trimming the flare leaves the area in question a bit short of where it should be. The only reason I know this is I have an ATA and had the exact same concern and ordered a 2nd knee thinking somehow I'd messed up the first, nope, same problem. Hope this helps

[TheLorelei[TK]]

"I'm excited to see how it lines up on the other shin," I said. HAHAhaha, ha, ha, ha. It lines up much worse, and I've definitely overtrimmed the top edge. You can see the shin behind it. It should be up here, according to further research (and Tony's detailed trim lines from his build which I somehow imagined did not apply to mine):

 

9 minutes ago, ukswrath said:

Sorry for the confusion Lorelei, Paul is correct regarding which shin the sniper knee is to be mounted to, forgive me for not catching that I was solely focused on the knee only.

...

The only reason I know this is I have an ATA and had the exact same concern and ordered a 2nd knee thinking somehow I'd messed up the first, nope, same problem. Hope this helps

It's ok, Tony! No harm done. Didn't think to check for it myself, either.

I'm glad you've worked with the actual ATA knee; it's really useful to hear about the specific alignment issues.

 

Well, off to email ATA about a new knee.  Thanks again for all the help, everybody!! I'd look like the guy with the 5-gallon bucket for a helmet if it wasn't for you guys. Here's to another year of great community, and may your armor always be shiny and white.

...Until you decide to go sandy.