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

[Linus]

Been following along. Really nice work so far and thanks for the frequent chuckle 

[shashachu[TK]]

The ears look great! Remember - gaps are cannon!

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 11/9/2018 at 7:53 PM, Linus said:

Been following along. Really nice work so far and thanks for the frequent chuckle 

Hey thanks, Dave! Look, Frank, at least SOMEONE isn't out to ruin my day.  (still 100% kidding.)

 

On 11/12/2018 at 8:37 PM, shashachu said:

The ears look great! Remember - gaps are cannon!

But, but, imperfection... *cringes*

But really, you're so right. And as soon as I muster the courage to pick up my bucket again, I will implement your wisdom.

 

In the meantime (please picture this on a T-shirt), I did a bunch of work and all I got was this stupid picture.

These past two months have warped by suspiciously quickly. Between jetlag, a new jigsaw puzzle (my kryptonite - why yes, I am secretly an old lady with the quilting problem to prove it), and Sithmas prep, I've had less armor time than I'd like. I did, however, hot water bathe *everything* and should only have to revisit a few pieces! I got some surprisingly good elastic from amazon, and used the for-sale-sign snap reinforcement method to make all the 2" elastic bits I'll need. I was quite glad I had my snap press. Once it's snapped together I'll figure out how I want to strap the torso onto myself - I've seen some way cool suspender systems that have me thinking!

 

Some things left to do, in order of "AAAAAHHHHHHH!" to "I got this"

-bucket.

-shin closures

-torso strapping installation

-shoulder bell trimming

-making holster

 

Don't you love the inconsistencies between the lists so far? Don't worry, I'll pick an entirely different format for the next one.

Stay toasty, y'all (minus the y'all of you in warmer climates to whom I say BOOOO), and happy thanksgiving to all. 

Edited November 19, 2018 by TheLorelei
Typo

[Frank75139[501st]]

I’ll keep my mouth shut. Don’t want to bring anyone down...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Doing great Lorelei 

[shashachu[TK]]

I was originally planning on a suspender system but ended up just using a nylon belt with the thighs strapped. The ab and kidney hang off the back and chest with elastic and snaps - I haven't felt the need to have anything holding up the ab. It's held up well for a year. 

 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

19 hours ago, Bud Spaklur said:

The bucket’s the best part!

...

So what percentage would you say you’ve got left to do?

It's just so *visible*. And iconic. Percentage left to do? I have no clue. 20? Maybe less. It seems like it could all fall into place quickly, or I could discover so much more I didn't even know would need to be done. It'll definitely be a bit before I can go EIB and Centurion because I have to fiddle with my E-11, but basic approval shouldn't be tooooo far off.

17 hours ago, Frank75139 said:

I’ll keep my mouth shut. Don’t want to bring anyone down...

I think others would agree that maybe, just maybe, we like you anyway, Frank. 

15 hours ago, shashachu said:

I haven't felt the need to have anything holding up the ab. It's held up well for a year. 

SO helpful to see your torso strapping. Thank you!! I have mild scoliosis, like you, and I'm a bit generally concerned about the top - hanging even, not hurting, etc. I just need to see how heavy it ends up being. But if you say the normal strapping has worked fine, I'll just stick with that for now and modify down the road if need be.

 

Sketching in snap plate attachment points now! Did you guys have to re-place your snap plates ever? I'm thinking I can just use ca glue to attach them and save much time and angst about them sliding around but of course e6000 is removable...

[shashachu[TK]]

4 hours ago, TheLorelei said:

SO helpful to see your torso strapping. Thank you!! I have mild scoliosis, like you, and I'm a bit generally concerned about the top - hanging even, not hurting, etc. I just need to see how heavy it ends up being. But if you say the normal strapping has worked fine, I'll just stick with that for now and modify down the road if need be.

 

Sketching in snap plate attachment points now! Did you guys have to re-place your snap plates ever? I'm thinking I can just use ca glue to attach them and save much time and angst about them sliding around but of course e6000 is removable...

Aw, yiss. Time to start Fire Team Slanted Shoulders...

 

Re: snap plates, I have not yet had to re-place them, but I'm also kind of terrified of doing anything even moderately irreversible on my kits, so I stuck (ha!) with E6000. 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 11/20/2018 at 10:53 PM, Bud Spaklur said:

Easy fix- just had to reglue with e6000 and clamp it back on.

Gotcha! Still wrapping my head around the fixability and changeability of this kit. In other words, still, like Shasha, scared to death of doing anything that might even accidentally turn out to be unfixable.

On 11/21/2018 at 2:10 AM, shashachu said:

Aw, yiss. Time to start Fire Team Slanted Shoulders...

Yes!! *hurries to work on shins so she can sign up*

 

Turns out I did get another picture last week, and it's a "look, everyone was right [again]" shot from trimming my neck. You know how everyone says not to just trim the same amount off of every side, but rather to preserve the original curves? Well this is what the neckline looks like traced and moved down. A far cry from taking the same amount off every edge! Imagine how wide the neck would have become.

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 11/22/2018 at 11:09 AM, Bud Spaklur said:

If you’re using E6000 for the whole build’s gluing, it’s completely reversible.

Yeah - it just has to cure at  over 50° and not indoors and we've been pretty short on those temps up here! Except tomorrow it looks like it should crack 50, somehow. 

[TheLorelei[TK]]

...never mind, just realized you're in jersey, Matt, and know exactly what type of weather we've been having. 

[Frank75139[501st]]

Looking good. And so you know I’ve pulled off cover strips after everything was completely dry and it’s a bit hard to get started but once you get it started it’ll come off. It came off “rolled” a bit so I couldn’t reuse it but it’s cut and was used for some abs paste.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 11/24/2018 at 10:31 AM, Frank75139 said:

I couldn’t reuse it but it’s cut and was used for some abs paste.

Thanks! I got impatient and did some snap plate installation with E6000 night before last in the garage with a space heater. After an hour or so, I moved the pieces into the basement in a Rubbermaid which I taped up to be nearly airtight. Kept them warm enough to cure. Slaved away on my right ear for a couple hours. Seem to have gotten nowhere, but am optimistic about my next attempt IF thinning out the lower front of this one doesn't fix it . By "optimistic about my next attempt", I mean that I know the curves well enough by now to carve the proper shape out of a block of wood - it just remains to transfer that skill to the odd hollow shape of the ear.

 

With yesterday's delightful warmth, I started on the cover strip learning curve by applying two thigh cover strips rather poorly. The second two went better. Worst comes to worst I'll pop em off and try again.  I also whipped up some new nylon snap plates in record speed and threw those on my ab and chest. I am very, very excited about strapping my torso together for the final trimming!

 

Looking ahead, I have the most work to do on my bucket and shins. When trimming the back of the left shin, I somehow ended up with the line on a slight diagonal. It might not be enough to bother with, but I'm just not sure. My phone's camera died but I'll borrow a phone and get some pics tonight to get y'all's opinion on it.

 

Current top goals: right ear, shin resizing. Still want to sit by the Christmas tree in my completed armor!

[Cricket[TK]]

2 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

When trimming the back of the left shin, I somehow ended up with the line on a slight diagonal. It might not be enough to bother with, but I'm just not sure.

 

That has happened to me as well, despite careful measuring over and over again.  The really nice thing about the 25mm cover strips is that they will cover up (and correct!) most wonky cuts back there.    

[TheLorelei[TK]]

10 minutes ago, Cricket said:

 

That has happened to me as well, despite careful measuring over and over again.  The really nice thing about the 25mm cover strips is that they will cover up (and correct!) most wonky cuts back there.    

What is the deal with that?? Yeah, I used the cover strip to correct an off center cut on the rear thigh so I could see it working here except for the fact that I'm doing your magnetic closures. Doesn't the seam have to be perfectly centered for those?

[Cricket[TK]]

5 minutes ago, TheLorelei said:

Doesn't the seam have to be perfectly centered for those?

 

Nope.   Below is a pic from the very first pair I made using magnets.  Much wonky!

 

The goal is that the halves meet together nicely on their own, even if things aren't perfectly straight back there.  Check the pic from my EIB/Centurion application.  Cover strips FTW! 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Cricket

[TheSwede[TK]]

On ‎11‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 7:58 PM, TheLorelei said:

What is the deal with that??

I have no idea, my cuts are always nice and straight - I know, extremely helpful right? () 

 

Edit: suddenly felt the need to clarify I was only joking 

Edited November 27, 2018 by TheSwede

[TheLorelei[TK]]

On 11/26/2018 at 2:04 PM, Cricket said:

Nope.   Below is a pic from the very first pair I made using magnets.  Much wonky!

 

The goal is that the halves meet together nicely on their own, even if things aren't perfectly straight back there.

Ohh. I see. It makes sense now! Phew, thanks!

This is where they currently stand. About to try them on all booted and suited up and see if I need to take more off. The left needs to be heat formed to a tighter curve, and the right needs to be made to meet better (and also trimmed, I suspect).

On 11/26/2018 at 2:07 PM, TheSwede said:

I have no idea, my cuts are always nice and straight - I know, extremely helpful right? () 

At least you know it

[TheLorelei[TK]]

I'm finding these shins difficult to hot water bathe. Using a large stock pot I'm able to submerge over half a shin at a time vertically, or a decent bit of one side if I lay the shin across the top of the pot (keeping the pot very full), so that's not the issue so much as the temperamental nature of the shins. Despite being fairly thick, it's easiest to work with them after submerging them for only about 15-20 seconds. (For reference, if I submerged my biceps - or forearms - for that short a time, they would merely laugh short laughs and not budge at all.) Any longer than that and the shins start to take their preexisting curves to extremes - the open rear seams fold in on themselves, the awesome "dents" along the front shin seam become REAL dents, bad dents, squeal-a-little-and-frantically-push-them-back-out dents, and harsh bends become harder. Side note, beware correcting those bends with too much force. If someone were silly enough to do that, this might happen.

Someone is sure she can fill the crack with ABS paste, reinforce it with a scrap on the back, and polish it out of existence though. Fear not.

 

So this is where they stand! Literally. Haha.

What do y'all think? The left one fits pretty perfectly, in my opinion. The right one is definitely larger, more noticeable in person. You can sorta see it in the last picture. The right one has been a huge pain in general, and is greatly improved from where it was, I swear! It was a weird almost heart shape when viewed from above before. Now it's still more circular than the pleasing oval of the left, but not TERRIBLE. I think I'll trim it tighter before fighting it again.

 

But anyway, brutal honesty time. Left shin too tight? Boots too squished? Posts too boring? Promise I won't cry more than a few hours.

[Rat[TK]]

We here in the Imperial army do not cry. We simply cut onions.

Sent from my 5054N using Tapatalk

[PhilBobTheFish]

Good ol' fashioned squeal-a-little-and-frantically-push-them-back-out dents. 

Truly an important part of every great build. 

[PhilBobTheFish]

1 hour ago, Rat said:

We here in the Imperial army do not cry. We simply cut onions.

Sent from my 5054N using Tapatalk
 

There's no crying in baseball! But space baseball... with a laser bat... in white armor... in a legion... of stormtroopers and others... yay Star Wars.

Edited November 28, 2018 by PhilBobTheFish

[shashachu[TK]]

Shins look awesome to me. Like was suggested, I'd also trim the bottoms to match. Are the shins being held together with the tape or do they stay closed by themselves? One piece of advice I found helpful is that you'll have a much easier time with the shin closures if you're able to bend them into shape so that they stay closed naturally rather than having to be forced closed with Velcro, bra straps, etc.

 

Side note: I recently got added to the DO team so I will be eagerly awaiting your EIB and Centurion submissions.

[Pretzel]

Looks great! Keep up the great work. Just make sure they are not too tight that you can't walk. 

[Freduster[TK]]

Oh, those shins look so symmetrical and sit so flush - stuff I have always dreamed of during my RS build looking good, and soon you will be part of the ranks