RS Propmasters ESB TK slow and steady build in Portland, OR

[Chemi[Staff]]

Oopsss, sorry, I don't know why I thought it was an armor anh... 

 

 

[Infern0[TK]]

On 5/23/2020 at 2:01 AM, Chemi said:

Oopsss, sorry, I don't know why I thought it was an armor anh... 

 

 

All good I know I’m odd doing an ESB build... love those hand plates and that holster though

[Infern0[TK]]

Haven’t got as much done this month as I was hoping. Health has limited me to 3-4 hours per week, but it’s better than nothing!

 

Got the thighs and shins in progress, and I’m measuring them up to final trim and assemble using the dimensions from the RS suit as a starting point.
 

How does this look size wise? 

Note: shins will be a little low due to lack of boots.

 

I think the thighs are maybe a tiny bit too large at the top, and I definitely need to cut out the backs a little. Shins might be a tiny bit too large, but it’s hard to tell with the overlap since I haven’t trimmed the back at all yet.

 

Also, as you might have noticed, got the belt nearly done with help from my wife. Just needs a dab of glue to keep the drop box straps in place:

And, puppy (helmet is my wife’s btw)

[Infern0[TK]]

Recap of what I’ve been able to complete the past month or so:

 

After a bit of trial and error size wise, I got the elastic for the hand guards glued on and Velcro glued on the gloves. I put a couple of strips on the hand plates so I can move them higher and lower on my hands.

 

 

 

Belt was pretty straightforward and good to get done while waiting for glue on other bits to dry. RS is kind enough to have the rivet positions marked both on the fabric and the plastic, and I already had riveting tools from previous leather work, so assembly was pretty quick. 

 

Drop boxes are riveted to the strapping, and a dab of E6000 between the strapping and the belt holds them in place nicely. Finally I cut out back of the elastic around the belt snaps for a little extra screen accuracy (and ease snapping it to the abdominal plate). Please ignore the extra holes on the strapping... may have measured wrong there!

 

 

 

 

On to the legs!

 

Thighs:

 

20mm thigh coverstrips and strapping measured and glued in. I went back and forth a bunch trying to figure out how I wanted to trim the backs, since looking at reference every one is different. Went through a few iterations:

 

Initial trim for both:

Right (with cutout marked out):

 

Left:

 

Right final:

 

Left final:

 

I ended up focusing on keeping the back cover strips approximately the same length for both. I may need to adjust the right a bit more - I’ll see how it looks next time I do a test fit.

 

Gussets added to bottom of the thigh fronts to keep under suit from showing through (and add a little reenforcement):

 

 

 

Measured the thigh strapping with the belt on, and glued accordingly. Left a bit of room at the tops of the elastic on the thighs so that their pivot point isn’t right at the top. I’m hoping that this will make them hang a bit nicer... we’ll see.

 

 

 

Sewed loops in the elastic to attach to the belt.

 

 

Final trimming of the thigh and clean up of return edges done, plus gave it a nice gentle wash:

 

 

As you can tell from the background, this leads to the thigh ammo belt...

 

Ammo belt trimmed and corners rounded off as per reference. I think I cut a bit too much off of the beveled corners, but I don’t think it’ll be noticeable once installed... 

 

 

Drilled holes in the belt corners with a 1/8th inch bit. Lined the belt up evenly between the back corners of the thigh, and marked the outer rivet placement, then put the first  rivet in and stuck the cap on just to test fit.

 

 

Wrapped the belt around as tight as I could and marked + drilled second hole and put the second rivet in!

 

 

The belt is fitted tight enough that it’s held in position by the front of the thigh as per what Rob does in the RS videos. I sanded the rivet heads here too so they’ll accept the white paint better when I get there.

 

 

I’m pretty happy with it, but I’m waiting to pound the rivets in just in case anyone has feedback! 

Edited July 21, 2020 by 1nfern0
Changing text color

[Infern0[TK]]

First I gotta share this little guy who I bought a couple of months ago and has been a huge help with the ammo belts, drop boxes, and shins. ‘Twas a good purchase

 

 

On to the shins!

 

Rough trimmed with 20mm strips on the front: 

 

 

 ... and 25mm on the back, with 5-10mm glued to the outside piece:

 

 

Return edges removed and bottoms trimmed to the same length:

 

 

 

Holes drilled roughly 10mm in from the edge with a 5/32 inch bit for strapping using the markings on the armor as a guide: 

 

 

 

Strapping next! 

[Infern0[TK]]

I ended playing around with the classic shin strapping method, and then settled on this as suggested by @MoSc0ut with the straps on top and bottom and using bits of left over cover strips in the middle to make slots to slide the no cover strip half into. I may have made the slots too long  - test fitting proved them not too easy to get on, but I'm calling them done for now!

Added some padding based off of the test fitting as well:

Sniper plate glued on:

Painted screws/rivets - didn't get a picture of the abdominal -> kidney rivets but they are painted too:

Painted abdominal buttons and glued on:


Nearly done!! Here's a silly video of my test fit. I was so happy with it - was not expecting it all to look quite that good.
Note that I was having trouble with the shoulder strapping, but this should be fixed now (and the bucket is my wife's Anovos ANH):

 

[Infern0[TK]]

So, with my armor pretty much done, save for any fixes, there is a troop this Saturday, and I want to try to get my bucket done in time to be approved to troop my TK at it!

I have about 67.5 total hours until the troop, and have never done a bucket before. Can I do it?? We'll see! Stay tuned for updates!
 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Here's a few threads which may be of help

 

 

With your thigh ammo strip you went a little large with the curve and rivets are a little close to the corner

 

Good luck and hope you make it

[Infern0[TK]]

5 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

With your thigh ammo strip you went a little large with the curve and rivets are a little close to the corner

 

Good luck and hope you make it

Thank you for all of the info!!! For these issues on the ammo pack, I know I kind of messed up the trimming on the corner - I was hoping it wouldn't be an issue...
Any suggestions on how to fix it without buying a new ammo pack? I can trim it more, but I'm worried that it will end up too short to wrap around properly.

Cheers!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

9 minutes ago, 1nfern0 said:

Thank you for all of the info!!! For these issues on the ammo pack, I know I kind of messed up the trimming on the corner - I was hoping it wouldn't be an issue...
Any suggestions on how to fix it without buying a new ammo pack? I can trim it more, but I'm worried that it will end up too short to wrap around properly.

I think for basic approval you should be fine but it may affect higher level clearance. You may need to replace but I'd wait until a DO chimes in, or you can send them a PM to check, @justjoseph63 @TKSpartan or @shashachu

[Infern0[TK]]

6 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I think for basic approval you should be fine but it may affect higher level clearance. You may need to replace but I'd wait until a DO chimes in, or you can send them a PM to check, @justjoseph63 @TKSpartan or @shashachu

Ok. I'll definitely sort it out before I go for EIB, but I'll try to get it through basic as is.

[Infern0[TK]]

Bucket trimming has commenced (to be honest I started back when I began the build and then thought the better of it):

 

Eyes first pass trim following RS's molded trim lines. I was a little generous perhaps, I'm aware that they trimmed the eyes out more for ESB, so I'll probably take a little more off:

Right:


Left:


Both:


Frown work in progress:

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by 1nfern0

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good so far, a few references for you

 

 

 

 

[Infern0[TK]]

54 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Looking good so far, a few references for you

Thank you!! Your help is really appreciated.

 

Eyes trimmed out a bit more. I think I'm pretty happy with them now. Right might need a tiny more widening:


Teeth still need a little refinement, but they are getting there:

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

It makes a lot of difference for viewing if you can get right into the inner inside corners of they eyes.

 

Nice work in the teeth

[Harder[TK]]

Garrett this is an amazingly well detailed build thread. Thank you from those of us who are building too.


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[Infern0[TK]]

13 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

It makes a lot of difference for viewing if you can get right into the inner inside corners of they eyes.

 

Nice work in the teeth

Thanks! Finished up the teeth. Will get to the eyes soon:

 

10 hours ago, Harder said:

Garrett this is an amazingly well detailed build thread. Thank you from those of us who are building too.

Thank you so much! Hopefully you can learn something from my mistakes at the least
 

[Infern0[TK]]

Full disclosure: when I said I'd started trimming the bucket back in 2018 before I started the build, I  think I may have trimmed too much! I made the mistake of trimming along what I thought were the trim lines... and drilling holes in the dents molded into the plastic. If it was any other armor maker aside from RS I probably would have been fine doing this, but I was not wise to the process of RS's builds (and the fact that the trim lines and holes from the HDPE original don't work with the ABS replica), and hence I may be left with too little material to work with




Regardless, before I started on the eyes and frown, I painted the inside with two coats of black Plasti-Dip:



I masked off the area around the frown and eyes for easier trimming.

Now, I've added the brow trim and am working on riveting the helmet together. I'm worried that I don't have enough material on the back to put all four rivets in... but I'm hoping at the worst case I can superglue some spare ABS to the inside of the back to rivet into, and no one will ever be any the wiser.


Stay tuned, and please keep offering advice! @Rat has kindly offered to sanity check me as I go along, so fingers crossed we'll get there!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A good tip is to use nuts and bolts first as it gives you the ability to remove and re-drill holes if you need to move the pieces around, rivets are very hard to get out once set in. Tilting the faceplate or backplate forward or backwards can adjust brow height but also can affect the size of the neck opening. Each helmet make have their own quirks so don't be too hard on yourself, we can all make mistakes but hopefully you can still make this work.

[Sly11[Admin]]

Looking good so far.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Looking great Garrett 

[Infern0[TK]]

Took out the rivet with my dremel and started again using nuts and bolts... Turned out pretty well all things considered I think! Not going to rivet it again until ears are done and ready to assemble too:



The only thing worrying is a small gap on the left side below the brow trim, but I may glue a small panel in here and eventually abs paste over it to fill in the gap.

Today has been about getting my head around the ear process, and getting the hovi mix tips ready. Between the forums, and the RS build videos I spent a good part of the day just watching.
There have been a few choice words, but I'm actually pretty happy with how the left ear is looking. Could definitely be worse!
Test fitting (don't mind the purple lighting):





Also, Hovi tips after two coats of gloss white and satin black:

[Infern0[TK]]

At this point, it's past 6pm, so I've resigned to the fact that I won't get it done in time to get approved for the troop tomorrow. I'm still pretty happy with my progress and most importantly I've learned a lot the past couple of days. I'll keep trucking and still try to get it approved ASAP though, I'm aiming for Monday morning now.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Not too worry there will be plenty of more troops in the future  Stay on target and I'm sure you'll get that TK approved soon.

[Rat[TK]]

No matter if you made it or not Garrett. It looks good. Also you know where to find me if you have questions.