Mayo's ANH Stunt (AP) build

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

10 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

In case you didn't see it, this may help: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44619-magnets-101/

 

Excellent points in there, thank you!

Today I finished up the TD! The glue dried on the front plate and I put the caps back on. I don't think I'll glue them for now. It seems like a nice spot to store car keys. 

 

 

I added the bends to the clips—much easier than I thought. All it took was a couple of pairs of pliers.

 

 

Then I tightened the clips up, also using the pliers. You can see the difference here: 

 

 

And lastly I added the velcro! I didn't have any adhesive white velcro, so I just used a small amount of superglue and held it firm with a popsicle stick. 

 

 

 

 

And it's finished! That brings me to two completed pieces. We're getting there! 

 

 

Next, while the forearms dry, it's on to the biceps.

[CableGuy[TK]]

Nice work. Making great progress. :-)

[wook1138[TK]]

Looking great! 

 

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

Thanks guys!

Question! Following the trim lines on the bicep, one upper end is taller than the other. Should the bicep look symmetrical-ish once it's finished, or should I leave this shape how it is? 

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Thanks guys!

Question! Following the trim lines on the bicep, one upper end is taller than the other. Should the bicep look symmetrical-ish once it's finished, or should I leave this shape how it is? 
 

Try to line up the lower edge (elbow end). The tops of the originals didn’t line up too great, as below.




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[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

Just now, CableGuy said:

 

Try to line up the lower edge (elbow end). The tops of the originals didn’t line up too great, as below.




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Understood! Thanks thanks. :-)

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

This is what I would suggest, Brendan:

 

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

Hi, everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. 

I was away visiting family for the last couple of days, so not much progress since Friday. I did get my biceps trimmed up, though, and started gluing them together using scarp ABS as inner cover strips.

 

 

 

 

I also was able to move on to the next stage of gluing the forearms, which was closing them together on the other side (still with only inner coverstrips).

 

 

 

Once those dried, my forearms looked like this: 

 

 

 

I tidied up the edges and sanded down the butt joint connection a little, and here are my forearms as they are now:

 

 

 

All ready for pretty cover strips! I measured, scored and snapped them at 16mm (using those special Canadian millimetres )

 

 

 

My next question—is it better to round the corners of your cover strips, or leave them straight? Pictures seem to vary and I didn't find a specification one way or the other in the CRL.

 

 

Thanks for your help, everyone! :-D 

 

[wook1138[TK]]

5 minutes ago, MakeNoiseMan said:

My next question—is it better to round the corners of your cover strips, or leave them straight? Pictures seem to vary and I didn't find a specification one way or the other in the CRL.

Arms look great! 

 

I trimmed a little off the corners and sanded them just so they wouldn't catch on things (e.g. undersuit).  Just give them a little 45 degree cut and hit with some sandpaper. 

[A.J. Hamler[TK]]

You'll find them generally three ways -- left straight as you have them in that above photo, slightly rounded corner, and corners cut at slight 45-degree angles.  The 45-degree cut seems to be the most common, but I personally like slightly rounded.  

 

I posted a question to this effect some time ago, as to whether any particular method was preferred over another and the answer was that it was generally considered personal preference and that all were acceptable.

 

A.J.

[CableGuy[TK]]

Yeah, agreed that they vary a little.

Here’s a nice reference montage from the RS suit.

[TheSwede[TK]]

I would follow ^ ^ advise just above

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

WOO-HOO, Brendan!  EXCELLENT job on both the forearms and biceps!   

[Frank75139[501st]]

Looks great.


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[ABS80]

Did you use the supplied screws for the ears? somehow the head look smaller which are inaccurate, the supplied screws are the correct size

Edited January 7, 2019 by ABS80

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

Thanks so much, everyone! We are getting there! :-)
 

18 hours ago, ABS80 said:

Did you use the supplied screws for the ears? somehow the head look smaller which are inaccurate, the supplied screws are the correct size

I used the screws that came with TrooperBay's helmet kit - I never realized they were different sizes from yours. Whoops! If it's an important detail, I'm sure I can swap them out with the ones you sent without too much trouble.

 

I decided on slightly rounding the cover strip corners with sandpaper and glued them in place. I also closed up the biceps and left them to dry.

 

 

Once the glue dried, I cleaned up the biceps and cut, sanded and glued the outer cover strips. 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, my forearms had finished drying meaning they are 99% finished. Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

All I have left to do is remove the E6000 that squished out from underneath the cover strips. Does anyone have any good suggestions for doing that? I don't want to scratch the armour, but my fingers don't seem to be enough and toothpicks aren't strong enough.

Next I'll be cutting out the shoulder bells, and then the chest and back pieces. I'm thinking about creating and installing the strapping for the shoulders and arms after that, followed by the ab/kidney/butt plate assembly, and then lastly the legs. I'm theorizing that having the torso section finished will help fit the thighs properly. Is that right, or am I overlooking something with that project outline?

Thanks for your input, all!! Talk soon!

[wook1138[TK]]

14 minutes ago, Bud Spaklur said:

I did my own, but it was a major pain and made me stop working on the kit for 5 months.

Haha.  Don't let Matt scare you - he has no patience and overreacts all the time.

 

That said, the thighs are not as straight forward as the arms.  If you think you need to trim the tops for height - do that the best you can before fully fitting them for width.  And be sure to leave a little room in the thighs - it is better to have a little extra space (you can always adding padding) than having them too small.  I've seen a lot of people undersize their thighs.

 

Also, the right thigh front coverstrip ridge is slightly curved.  I found gluing half (lower or upper) of the coverstrip on first then forcing the other half into place later (and holding with good clamps) worked - forces the coverstrip to follow the curved return edge / seam.  If that makes sense. 

 

Arms look very nice!  Great work, trooper!!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Using scrap ABS is good for getting in to areas that has glue residue, you will find after some use the ABS gets blunt, just cut to a point and continue. For larger areas I just rub with my thumb.

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

Thanks, guys! Great ideas. Tweezers did the trick for me perfectly. 

 

Man, being back at work after the holidays really slows one's progress. The Emperor's gonna be displeased. I have managed to make sure I get at least a small amount done each day, though.

 

The biceps finished drying and are now complete. Woohoo!

 

 

After that, I got the shoulder bells, chestplate and backplate cut out, trimmed and sanded.

 

 

 

 

And the collection so far:

 

 

Next, I'm gonna start on some strapping for these pieces, so I can get a feel for it before doing the ab section. I really like how Scimitar did his strapping, so I've been using his build thread as a model for my game plan. You can see it all here: 

 

Today, after spending an embarrassingly long time trying to untangle the spaghetti ball of velcro strapping and nylon webbing I had thoughtlessly stored together in a plastic bag, I measured and cut out a template for the male snap pieces that will be glued inside the armour, as modelled in Scimitar's build. 

 

 

 

That's as far as I've gotten for now. Next I'll start hammering snaps into nylon and test-fitting. :-)

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I will probably get a lot of flak for this, but I feel the need to offer yet another suggestion, Brendan.  Using ABS plates for mounting snaps to your armor can be tricky.  ABS is flat, but many of the areas you will be mounting them to are curved.  Unless you heat up the plates and conform them to the shape of the area you are gluing it to you will have gaps, and E-6000 (being a very viscous glue) will seep out of those gaps, possibly making it not as secure.  However, if you mount the snaps to nylon they will conform to the shape of whatever part you are adhering them to.  Just my two credit's worth.

 

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

3 minutes ago, justjoseph63 said:

I will probably get a lot of flak for this, but I feel the need to offer yet another suggestion, Brendan.  Using ABS plates for mounting snaps to your armor can be tricky.  ABS is flat, but many of the areas you will be mounting them to are curved.  Unless you heat up the plates and conform them to the shape of the area you are gluing it to you will have gaps, and E-6000 (being a very viscous glue) will seep out of those gaps, possibly making it not as secure.  However, if you mount the snaps to nylon they will conform to the shape of whatever part you are adhering them to.  Just my two credit's worth.

 

Whoops, I should have been more descriptive!

I do plan on gluing all the snaps in with nylon webbing, as you describe. The ABS template pictured above is just to help me make all those little nylon bits with the right dimensions/snap placement. Sorry for the confusion!

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

3 minutes ago, MakeNoiseMan said:

The ABS template pictured above is just to help me make all those little nylon bits with the right dimensions/snap placement. 

EXCELLENT idea!  That way they will all line up properly.  On my very first build, I used ABS plates for mounting the snaps.... disastrous!  After switchem out for the nylon ones I haven't had any problems.

[Scimitar[TK]]

Yup! Using a template is very helpful in getting everything to line up when you go to put the snaps in the straps. At first I was punching holes though my template and then heat sealing the edges but I switched to just using the soldering iron to make the holes. That removed a step and, with the properly sized iron tip, it made the holes just the right size for the snap posts.

 

Build is looking great! Keep up the good work!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Using a template is ideal, doesn't matter which straps you are making as the connections will always be the same at the end. I went with ABS plates for the first few builds but they are some extra work when having to heat to conform to areas that are curved, so I quickly converted to nylon, quicker to make and contours to the armor a lot better in places, can just use a solder iron to make the holes and it also seals around them. I have a container of ABS strips I use, some are curved and I use them to hold down the nylon while gluing, then just add magnets or clamps.

 

Coming along nicely.

[MakeNoiseMan[TK]]

Hi everyone!

I got a start on some strapping done. Using the template, I created twenty strips of strapping to glue inside the armour (as a start). As many have suggested, I used a soldering iron to do this—and HIGHLY recommend it! Not only did it make the task really easy, but it was also really satisfying. Simply poke the iron through the holes in the template and then run it along the edges to stop them from fraying.

 

 

 

Then I hammered male Tandy snaps into the straps. I bought 40 pairs of male/female snaps, but since I'm doubling up on snaps, that'll only be enough for 20 connections. I'm expecting I'll need to order some more snaps. 

 

 

 

And lastly, I got the first few straps glued into place on the chestplate, backplate and shoulder bells. I forgot to take a picture of the chestplate, but it's essentially the same as that of the backplate. 

 

 

 

More updates to come! Thanks for your ongoing input. :-)