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

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Perfect regarding the TD, looked a little long, sorry. 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 10/13/2018 at 9:09 PM, ukswrath said:

Perfect regarding the TD, looked a little long, sorry. 

Forgiven, it did look long, thank you very much for noticing it! I'd much rather you all keep me in line than sugarcoat things and let me end up with a subpar TK. 

[Rat[TK]]

Well it's one of our specialities.

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[TheLorelei[TK]]

1 minute ago, Rat said:

Well it's one of our specialities.

Well it better be, Mr. Imperial Attaché! Just saw the news in the newsletter, congratulations! 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

ATA pipe diameter is smaller than other makers so I tend to cut the pipe a little shorter as they can have a long appearance at 7 1/2  

[Frank75139[501st]]

Only on FISD will you have a separate thread within a thread on TD pipe size when there was nothing wrong with it to begin with. Gotta love this place. Best forum!


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[TheLorelei[TK]]

5 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

ATA pipe diameter is smaller than other makers so I tend to cut the pipe a little shorter as they can have a long appearance at 7 1/2  

Ergh. That's a good consideration. I'm a little disappointed with how the caps are on there anyway, so I might disassemble and go down to 7 1/4".

 

3 minutes ago, Frank75139 said:

Only on FISD will you have a separate thread within a thread on TD pipe size when there was nothing wrong with it to begin with. Gotta love this place. Best forum!

Yes, definitely!

[Rat[TK]]

Why thank you Lorelei.

Well it better be, Mr. Imperial Attaché! Just saw the news in the newsletter, congratulations! 

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[TheLorelei[TK]]

THE FORUMS ARE BACK THE FORUMS ARE BACK THE FORUMS ARE BAAACK! My goodness it's awful spending a day without them. Especially when I do something like this!

Meet my flower child, Smudge.

 

First I got his brow sorted out

using just my exacto. I've taken to sorta whittling the plastic for general reshaping (wearing cutproof gloves) as it means I don't end up covered in white dust. I smoothed it a little more and then placed my brow trim.

I marked the angle with a pencil and cut the trim with scissors while holding it spread open.

Testing the trim...

Thanks to gazmosis' tutorial I knew to trim the wearer's right side very generously to allow for overlap with the face plate. That does necessitate reshaping the side of the bucket to curve over the face properly. I used a heat gun (oh, the horror) and a thin canning jar.

It took many patience, but I eventually got it lying along the face better.

Nothin' a little ear can't cover up! I think.

Positioning the face using magnets was super convenient and remarkably secure. Threw a few doubles along the brow and ears and adjusted away.

When it got to looking good, I stacked a bunch more magnets on...

...checked the alignment a few dozen more times...

...and drilled a few holes to tack everything in place.

It's looking pretty great to me!! More tomorrow. Ear work. Dun dun dunnn.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

You guys, this is the worst. Ears. They hate me. I hate them. I've spent hours on the right one alone. It's finally looking almost acceptable, but my goodness what a ridiculous lot of sanity I've lost to get it there. I'm going to try the compass trick to get the curve onto the left ear, but does anyone have any other groundbreaking tricks or tips on fitting the ears that they've been keeping under their buckets til now?

 

Much obliged.

 

Pictures once I hate the right ear less.

[lucnak[TK]]

Ear trimming trick. Drill the screw holes in the ears. Mount the ears on the bucket sans ears with the long ends facing out. Slide the ear on the screws to check fit. This way, you're always checking the ear in the same position and not tilting in one direction or the other. Hope that little tip helps!

[TheLorelei[TK]]

5 hours ago, lucnak said:

Ear trimming trick. Drill the screw holes in the ears. Mount the ears on the bucket sans ears with the long ends facing out. Slide the ear on the screws to check fit. This way, you're always checking the ear in the same position and not tilting in one direction or the other. Hope that little tip helps!

Thank you, Luc!! It does help! Been working away at them with much more success using that method (slightly modified in that I used some small axles instead of screws because that's what I had around).

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I agree ears are diabolical, some great threads with some helpful info:

 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29238-my-helmet-ear-tutorial/

 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/27375-howto-draw-an-approximate-ear-trim-line-with-no-gaps/

 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 10/17/2018 at 9:09 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

I agree ears are diabolical, some great threads with some helpful info:

 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29238-my-helmet-ear-tutorial/

 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/27375-howto-draw-an-approximate-ear-trim-line-with-no-gaps/

 

Ok, HOW did I miss those? Gazmosis' especially. Pinned and all. Thank you! Helped immensely! I still may have to order an extra set as I think I overtrimmed my second right ear but that remains to be seen. My third set should go swimmingly though at this rate. What a learning curve.

[Xanthais]

I haven't even touched mine yet. They're scary, and the ABS is thick af too.

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[shashachu[TK]]

I did do a lot of trimming on my forearms. I somewhat regret it not because it didn't turn out well, but because it was a pain in the butt. I think it's more common to leave the forearms a bit bigger and just add foam to make up the room.

Edited October 19, 2018 by shashachu

[Bazz[TK]]

On 10/7/2018 at 7:35 AM, TheLorelei said:

REAL quick before I go play Mario Kart  - another dry fit this evening. I have thoughts on it of course but I'm curious if anything glaringly awful jumps out at anybody (other than the kidney overlapping the ab, and other obvious test fit, er, idiosyncrasies).

I know, you mistook me for a real live stormtrooper in that last one. Just me. Just me.

Hello Lorelei , have you trim your kidney yet? I'm so scared to start trim my kidney kit haha

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 10/21/2018 at 6:22 PM, Bazz said:

Hello Lorelei , have you trim your kidney yet? I'm so scared to start trim my kidney kit haha

Hey Adi  I haven't trimmed my kidney yet, and it's looking like I might not have to. I'm going to put my strapping in so everything can really hang how it's going to hang, and then decide. Are you absolutely sure you need to trim your kidney? A good bit of length can be made up for visually by bending the back plate's shoulder tabs downwards (by water bath) and the butt plate's lower tab upwards to curve under you better (if space allows). Just my two cents.

...

Or wait, just my two Yen - my apologies for the delayed reply, as I'm in Japan for a few weeks  hopping about, feeling close kinship with every Star-Wars-merch-wearer I see. I am appropriately labeled in our galactic alphabet in case one of these domestic Japanese flights should land us in another galaxy, worry not.

Be back in a bit, and keep an eye on the Emperor for me 'til then y'all.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

I'm baaack! Despite the beautiful sights and the fun and the delicious food, I was missing Smudge by the end of the trip. I've clearly got a problem.  But I did get my Star Wars fix while I was out there, which was nice.

So while I'm laid out with yet another sickness (travel does *not* agree with me), I'm strategizing. I had a pipe dream of finishing my armor in time for approval by the thanksgiving day parade but that's looking a bit challenging and I don't want to rush things. I mean I DO want to rush things, but I know I shouldn't. Probably. So here's The List (in no particular order, and with soft bits excluded):

 

Bucket:

-trim ears

-polish

-install lenses/mesh

-coat bucket interior

-paint exterior

Legs:

-heat form shins

-trim shins

-install shin magnets

Torso:

-install (applicable) strapping

-trim ab/kidney connection accordingly

-make belt to that size

Arms:

-heat form forearms

-assemble forearms

-glue handplates onto gloves

Thermal Detonator/O2 Canister:

-redo, shortening pipe (I will likely leave this til I finish the rest of my armor, as it's ok as is)

General:

-fill seam lines a la AJ

-install strapping

-outer cover strips

-polish

 

Really I need to order my 2" black elastic already. I'm not sure how I haven't yet. Without that, on days when I don't want/have time to stand over a pot of boiling water for hours, there's nothing to do but sit and agonize over ears. WHICH! I worked on tonight. The left one is now downright passable, if I do say so myself.

The back is a hair gappy but not gappy enough for me to freak right this second. Maybe later, though. Who can say.

My best right ear looks super lopsided, but fits fine when it's on because the right side of the bucket is also super lopsided. Oh well. The lumps are the beauty, the lumps are the beauty.

Here's the top of the best-fitting right (but I overtrimmed the bottom back so don't go thinking I can use it. I have two MORE new pairs of ears in hand [plus an extra right due to shipping errors] though!)

 

And there I am for now. It seems like everything is waiting on everything else to be sized - what a weird puzzle this armor is - but I know if I get the shins and forearms heat formed I'll have more gluing and resizing to work on, so I'll aim to do that tomorrow.  Over!

[Frank75139[501st]]

Slow down and take your time. I’ll tell you right now our garrison takes at least two weeks to review prior to approval. Even if you submitted today you would have to beg and plead to get it pushed and that’s if you don’t get dinged for anything. Sorry to be a pipe dream destroyer lol. If you want to make a goal I think you can have this done in time to troop in January of 2019. I got sent back twice to retake pics, that’s a month of waiting and pic taking between it all. Your making good progress and it’s looking good now that your back from your trip.


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[Rat[TK]]

Those ears look pretty good to me. Overall looking good Lorelei.

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[PhilBobTheFish]

Glad to see this back up and running! The left ear is looking great, can't wait to see this finished helmet. Keep up the good work, and as Frank said, take your time. You don't want to make any mistakes, because that is just a pain, and will add a lot of time onto your build. Good luck on the road following! 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Nice work Lorelei 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice fit, well done

[TheLorelei[TK]]

Thanks, guys! Except for Frank. You rain cloud.  See I was just gonna show up at Roddie's in armor and have him approve me on the spot... entirely kidding, of course. I'm not really worried about an approval deadline but I'd really, really like to have at least my bucket done by Sithmas. A Christmas TK just sounds so dreamy.