Chest to backplate shoulder alignment (anovos)

[Bobo]

Hey guys!

 

I glued the shoulder straps onto the chest plate as per ukswrath's tutorial. I also adjusted the back plate shoulder part with a hot water bath to make them fit better. Now I'm not sure what to do with the alignment because it seems that the backplate is wider that the shoulder cover strips so it's all misaligned. What is the best solution for this? I guess I could re-glue the cover strips so they open up in the back more, but then they would be skewed in the front on the chest plate. Or I could bend the back to conform to the front plate? I don't think that the white elastic will be strong enough to align all this.

 

Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Bobo

[TK-42134[TK]]

You’ll use thin white elastic to tie them together.


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[TK-42134[TK]]

I do see how they are a little off from each other though.


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[Bobo]

11 minutes ago, TK-42134 said:

You’ll use thin white elastic to tie them together.


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Thanks! They're off by quite a bit actually, I'd say an inch at least. And I do have the 1/4" white elastic, but will it be strong enough to bring the plastic together?

[TK-42134[TK]]

It is strong enough to hold the floating shoulder straps. I hope someone has advice for the other part of the armor.


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[Sly11[Admin]]

There are few things you can do to give your armour a little more flex but also sit closer to you and may help the rear alignment.

First I would remove some of the return edge, you seem to have a reasonable amout on the neck line and the sides of the chest plate

 

You can also water bath your shoulder bridges to add a slight twist and have them sit outwards a touch to better align with the back plate.

 

[mikidymac[TK]]

I had a similar issue. Hopefully you used E6000 glue. I removed mine from the chest plate then put the armor on with blue painter's tape from the underside so I could see where it actually fit me. I then put the shoulder straps on and marked where they needed to go. Mine were skewed to the outside a little like yours need to be then took the armor off and glued them down. The elastic holds them down but I don't think it will correct yours when you are actually trooping.

[Bobo]

Thanks for the help everyone! So I managed to get them working fine without any modifications. I finished my build and when I put it all on, the straps align nicely and are held down pretty strongly with the elastics. Only problem now is that sometimes the shoulder covers slip out from underneath the little elastics and I'm wondering if there's a trick to this little issue.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I would definitely take Andrew's great advice on trimming down the top of the neck area on the chest plate.  The reason being is that Anovos kits are notorious for splitting there and on the sides.  (See highlighted areas in photo).  I highly suggest cutting some long curved strips of scrap ABS (about 1/4 inch wide) to reinforce these areas on the inside, (second photo) and try to use one long strip if possible.  It doesn't have to be pretty, as these areas are not seen, and it will not affect approval at any level.

 

                                   

 

 

 

 

[BDWC[TK]]

I had the same issue, and also used the "remove and locate by tracing onto painter's tape" ( It's amazing how so many troopers come up with the same ideas!!!)

This healed to 'cheat' the angle over a bit. I also reinforced my shoulder bridges with an extra layer of scrap ABS glued to the underside. Make sure to hot bath and form the doubler piece to the same curve as the bridge before gluing as  you won't be able to reform very much after the reinforcement.

Also, I have run into the issue of the bridge jumping out of the 1/4" elastic, but this is because the elastic is over two year old with many, many troops. So I am going to change this out to canvas straps during the winter off troop season, just to give me more "mileage" out of the straps, to hold the back of the bridges in place (without Velcro) , and I am hoping that this will also maintain my shoulder bells slightly higher, too.

 

But overall...YES, hot bath tweaks are your friend!!!

[Bobo]

Thank you so much! I'll apply as much of these tips as possible

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

16 hours ago, Bobo said:

Thank you so much! I'll apply as much of these tips as possible

That's what we are here for, sir.  Always feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

[Bobo]

I'm thrilled to say that I have finally finished my build and already trooped twice since last week! It was so much fun!!! I just sent off my email to my GML(s) for approval so I'm hoping to hear back (but it seems they take a while to get to emails).

 

[Dielotski]

12 hours ago, Bobo said:

I'm thrilled to say that I have finally finished my build and already trooped twice since last week! It was so much fun!!! I just sent off my email to my GML(s) for approval so I'm hoping to hear back (but it seems they take a while to get to emails).

 

Awesome photo!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Good luck, hopefully it’s not a long wait. Looking good.