Simes' ANH TK Build

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, you could define the vocoder a little more, there is a bit of paint outside the mold lines

 

 

Also you may need to remove a little paint form the teeth, should not be extending on to the gums: Frown is painted grey and does not leave the teeth area.

 

 

I find the best tool to use to remove paint are toothpicks, get into the corners and fine lines really nicely and easy when paint is relatively new.

 

 

[simorph]

Okay, so I went over the vocoder and made the 'bumps' on the top more pronounced by going past the moulding.

 

 

And I scratched back the teeth a bit (screwdriver, and gently - I don't have any toothpicks!) 

 

I labelled 'em up to make it easier to feed back if it needs more tweaking...

 

[Commander Gree[501st]]

Okay, so I went over the vocoder and made the 'bumps' on the top more pronounced by going past the moulding.
 

 
And I scratched back the teeth a bit (screwdriver, and gently - I don't have any toothpicks!) 
 
I labelled 'em up to make it easier to feed back if it needs more tweaking...
 

Looks good to me

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[simorph]

Okay, so I Plasti-Dipped the interior of the helmet (scuff inside with 80 grit, layer of Plast-Dip + cheesecloth, then two more layers of Plasti-Dip), gl;ued in the mouth mesh and installed the mic tips with slightly longer screws than those supplied so that I've got a couple extra mounting points in the front of the helmet should I need them.

 

 

To create the shape of the mesh for the mouth tips I knocked up a little tool on my 3D printer - a small anvil with a 16mm hole in it, and a small cylinder 15mm dia...

 

If anyone needs one - here's the link to my Thingiverse where you can download the STLs/SKP files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3518807

 

 

I printed it with 100% infill in PLA and it worked well enough for the two uses I needed it for...

 

 

So here's the helmet turnaround:

 

 

 

 

 

Time now to start filling in the space between the boots and the helmet!

 

I have the 5 torso pieces trimmed (chest, abs/cod, back, kidney & butt plates) ready to do a test fit.

 

Does anyone have a good pointer to a fitting guide?  I'm finding lots of strapping guides, but not so many "these bits should line up/these bits need to follow the line of these bits" type tutorials.  So if anyone can send me a few links in that regard, that'd be most helpful.  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2019 by simorph
Adding link to 3D print file

[CableGuy[TK]]

Hi Simon,

Nice progress. :-)

Aside from looking at the screen used suits for fitment, this video that Ross made is very helpful.

[TheSwede[TK]]

Here´s two other great videos to watch on the subject

https://youtu.be/koWPCn4YtNo

https://youtu.be/jyIWUYbhk3U

 

[simorph]

Not in a position to start test-fitting everything so I'm picking at peripheral tasks that'll pay off in the end.

 

Cut out and painted the ab panels, and just laid them here on the ab for size.

 

I'd first attempted to size according to the Billgrams thread diagrams, but discovered those sizings don't work for RWA, so I trimmed and trimmed until they looked right in comparison to screen ref and the pics in Dan's thread.

 

 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

In a perfect world, the paint on the ab-buttons could be a bit smaller, (note in the reference photo that the entire button is not painted) and the small button plate trimmed a bit more but these will not hold you back from the higher levels.  GREAT work on that bucket!!

 

    

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, just trim that smaller ab plate and you're done

[simorph]

Yay! Managed to get time and assistance to test fit the torso pieces.

 

Here's  the blue tape turnaround...(with a small 1cm piece of helmet padding in the top of the helmet to hopefully sit the helmet about right for the photos)

 

 

To my understanding, these are the guidelines, please correct me if I'm wrong:

• Kidney Plate and top of ab plate must line up (I've noticed on the left side there's a discrepancy on the RWA kit of about 3-4mm - decided to line up the top of the kidney here)
• Butt Plate and Kidney Plate must be as close as possible
• Back Plate and Kidney Plate must also be as close as possible (I see there's a slight overlap on my left side in the pic - I think that's just movement with the tape, tbh)
• Chest Plate overlaps Ab Plate, leaving a finger space or thereabouts on the shoulder between the tops of the Chest Plate and Back Plate

(Furthest right shot is a repeat of the front, but with a bit of tape under the chest on which I've marked the Chest/Ab overlap)

 

Okay guys, what needs a tweak?

 

Thanks!

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Looking good, bud. It’ll all sit even better once the strapping starts to go it. :-)

Feeling like a Stormtrooper yet? ;-)

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

As Dan said all is looking good, things can move a little once you start strapping. I made a couple of strips of elastic with evenly spaced snaps so I can trial and adjust widths of the strapping 

[simorph]

Thanks, guys, much appreciated.  Getting kinda exciting knowing that we're moving along in the right direction!

[simorph]

Ooo...guys, here's a question...

 

I'm working on the strapping for the body plates now, but thinking that before I start drilling in those side snaps I really ought to think about doing a bit of reinforcement.

 

I'm thinking of putting in some strips of 2mm ABS inside the abs and kidney plate where those snaps go just to take a little bit of strain by doubling up the thickness of ABS they have to pass through.

 

I'm also thinking that there's probably a few places on the kit where laying in a bit of woven fibreglass might not hurt either.  As far as I understand, under the neck, arm regions of the chest and sides of the cod are vulnerable to take a few knocks.  Are there any other places that could do with a little reinforcement laying in/are notoriously prone to cracking? 

 

Thanks!

[Commander Gree[501st]]

Hmmm, I would leave it has it is. A little flex is a good thing. And it's all about dealing with the cracks as they come. You dont want to start adding unnecessary weight, although FG is light. As far as the ab parts, your not going to be putting a ton of stress there. Or at least I haven't seen issues. But what I did was put the rivets in as non functional, and glued snap plates over them. This way there is no actual stress on the holes for the rivets. It's not necessary for L3, they just need to line up, not be functional. I did however change the middle section of webbing from webbing to ABS to hold its alignment.

You can see it here:

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[simorph]

Ooo....that's a really clever idea!  Make them cosmetic, not functional!  Thank you!  That's genius!

[simorph]

Okay - here's the strapped torso for the first time...

 

Jordan - I took your advice - the visible rivets/snaps/Han snap are drilled through and set into the ABS and are cosmetic.  I then applied the real connecting straps over the top, attached to the armour with webbing strips which means no strain is put on the drilled holes.  (If you have any other little tweaks and dodges like that, please feel free to share - I want to make the kit as durable and easy-to-wear as possible, so any of those tips are greatly received!)

 

I think my chest plate is sitting slightly right-of-centre which means that the Han Snap is hidden (it is there, honest!).  Will double-check that it's just my putting on the armour that's throwing that off rather than the strapping.

 

Regarding the butt plate - in the shots I can see the corners are pushing into the kidney plate - is it worth tweaking those outer butt-plate straps by about 3mm or so to allow it to sit lower there?

 

Anything else that anyone can see?  Thanks all!

[CableGuy[TK]]

Nice work, Simon. Looks like you’re fitting it really nicely to you.

 

When you get to the point of adding the shoulder bridges, you could possibly consider either shaping the top of the back plate of trimming them down slightly. Area highlighted below;

 

 

 

Do you have any pics of the internal strapping? Might help to resolve the butt issue.

 

Other than that, looking super thus far. :-)

 

 

Out of interest, are you documenting this on the UKG forum too? Not sure I’ve seen it over there.

 

Dan

 

 

(Oh, just a little thing - it might be easier to post your pictures individually rather than collage. Makes it easier to zoom in on each one). ;-)

 

[simorph]

Wicked, thanks, Dan!

 

Great idea on that shoulder - I'll give that a tweak.

 

Here's some close-ups on the strapping.  One thing I have done is put some webbing loops on the right hand and cod strapping so that I've got something more substantial to grab a hold of when pulling the straps to close them up and take some of the strain off the elastic where the snap fits in.  Pleased to report it made suiting up solo much, much easier (I'm used to putting on a Mando, and that pretty much always takes two of us to put on anything past the legs!)

 

 

 

And here's the butt...

 

Right side....

 

Left side...

 

I have a placeholder account on the UKG, but haven't decided whether or not to go for clearance there yet - I'm just enjoying the purely build-focused nature of the forum here for now. (I've had a few very irritating experiences with costuming forums when they go off-topic and away from the subject of building so I've decided to stay away from that side of things for a while and just do the fun stuff of making the props.)

 

Thanks for the help, once again, and have a great Sunday!

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Nice work! That strapping is looking neat and tidy.

For the ‘flappy butt’, you could consider and extra pair of connectors a little further out;



Regarding the forums, if you’re looking to join the 501st then I’d personally suggest posting your progress on the UKG forum as early as you can. You’ll need UKG clearance to become a 501st member and the armourers are excellent. When you start your own WIP thread, only you and a UKG armourer is allowed to comment - this takes away the possibility of things going off-topic.

Hope that helps a little. :-)

Dan

[simorph]

Definitely does! Many thanks!

 

[simorph]

Taken your advice, Dan.  Thanks!

 

Here's the UKG WIP post: https://www.ukgarrison.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=73524#p798124

 

Going to add those extra couple of snap mounts today.  Currently trimming a lot of limb parts!

 

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Taken your advice, Dan.  Thanks!
 
Here's the UKG WIP post: https://www.ukgarrison.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=126&t=73524#p798124
 
Going to add those extra couple of snap mounts today.  Currently trimming a lot of limb parts!
 
 

Excellent - great news. They’ll look after you. :-)

[simorph]

So, I trimmed back the smaller plate, and then placed a small washer over all the buttons on the ab, scratched back to that size and cleaned up the edges - so now they're all much rounder and a little smaller...  Haven't glued the panels on yet

 

 

And here's my first limb piece - left bicep.

 

Thought I'd post these up - how are they looking?  I intend to go back in with a rotary tool and smooth off the inner profile and hit the edges with smooth sandpaper after that to finish everything.

 

 

 

...oh, and I'll take off the gaffer tape and swap in so inner cover strips once I know they're correct!

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Lovely work in the ab buttons. Very tidy paint work.

For the coverstrips, I’d just be careful not to exceed the armour parts with coverstrips. See below for approx where I’d cut the coverstrips.



This is handy for appearance as well as to avoid coverstrips getting caught on other armour parts. :-)