Husky68 ANH TK (trimmed AP)

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

7 hours ago, husky68 said:

thin out the black maybe but seem proportionate with the decals and at some angles seems fine

Hi, here a reference photos so you can compare. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[husky68[TK]]

30 minutes ago, TKSpartan said:

here a reference photos so you can compare. 

  From those and so many other photos and other forum posts I can see this is not an area that is absolute.  Some members and screen used helmets have grey extended past uncut tooth,  with that uncut tooth either cleared or painted over.  Others just taper off after the last cut tooth and don't extend that far.

 

  The CRL is not specific so it seems to be owners choice and fine as long as some screen used reference can be cited. 

[wook1138[TK]]

Looking great, Robert!

[husky68[TK]]

So rivet on belt popped while I was getting ready to put the small covers on it.  Not a fan of the rivets and best it popped now than on a troop.  Need to find a source for the Chicago screws because they seem to be same size as rivets and might be a better replacement.

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I used snaps just so I could swap belts for ESB or ANH.

 

I managed to find Chicago screws on eBay, one of the few times I use it  

[troopermaster]

Most of the time rivets pop because the ammo belt and canvas belt have been connected laid out flat, causing the plastic ammo belt to bend more than the canvas, creating tnesion on the rivets and ultimately pop. There are two ways to correctly install the ammo belt without creating tension on the rivets and with both ways you have to start with the middle rivet.

 

1.  Snap your canvas belt to the abdomen and place the ammo belt on, bending it to form around your abdomen plate and marking the holes. When laid flat, the marks will be short of the holes by a few mm's or 1/8". Your ammo belt will be bent slightly like a Mcdonalds 'M' with tension on the ammo belt. This is not a problem for flexible ABS like 1.5mm that the original armour was made from.

 

2. Lay the ammo belt on top of the canvas belt and mark out the holes, then add a few mm's or 1/8" outwards of the marks and rivet. This will make the canvas belt under the ammo belt slightly longer  but it takes away the tension once the belt is snapped to your abdomen plate.

 

Both ways work extremely well, whether you rivet the ammo belt short or long of the marks when laid out flat.

[husky68[TK]]

Bought some Chicago screws from online and must say I think they look much better than rivets.  Added bonus makes the abs remove-able from the belt.

 

 

  I didn't remove the other rivets,  they were put in much better than the one that failed, but know if they eventually fail I can replace them easily.  Maybe down the road will swap them out.

 

[husky68[TK]]

Additional work last week,  then on the long weekend Bulldog44 came into Tokyo to help with some additional building and take some photos.

 

 

  First placement of sniper knee,  like every AP armor kit the sniper knee needs to be off center to be level and still I am not happy with the alignment on the sides.

 

 

 

 

 Finished up the ab plates and buttons.

 

 

  Attached the thigh ammo belt with rivets,  forgot to paint them so will get to that.

 

 

 

  While in Canada I purchased the suggested super glue and it worked like a charm.

 

 

 

  There is still some strapping to be done on the arms to keep them in position.

 

 

 

See below for painting those rivets.

 

 

  This is the telling photo,  the right shin did not hold and will need a redo or new approach.  Also noticed for the first time the TS clips were too long.

 

 

  Next day cut the AP provided TD clips down to screen accurate length, will need to add some bends into it as well.

 

 

 Painted the side rivets and helmet screws,  forgot the thigh ammo belt rivets so paint will come out again.

 

 

 

 

  So the work continues but that mountain top is in sight.

 

[husky68[TK]]

Attempts to fix up the right shin led to a new design.  Overlap making a grove to put one side into the other.  This was in hope to help with the misalignment.  Sadly the tension combined with super tight fit around my calf made this design fail.  Looked nice before I tried putting it on my leg.

 

 

 

 

  But you can see below that the alignment and shape of each side combined with pressure to get around my calf,  proved too much.

 

 

 

  Hot bath and steam in the past did little to sort this out.  I've gotten some tips from Cricket and with some new gloves hope to give it another go.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I use a heat gun as it does give a lot more heat but I practiced quite a lot with scraps first, it's very easy to go from slightly pliable to molten mess in the blink of an eye. It was the only way I could give enough bend to the back of the calves to get them to sit flat. Best of luck.

[husky68[TK]]

Long weekend with a earthquake and a typhoon seems like a good time to stay home and work on my armor.

 

With the issue of shins being too small I had to open up the whole shin and start over.  Finished up the front adding a larger gap to get more room in the back (hopefully).

 

 

The drop boxes needed improvement,  so I used the extra Chicago screws to make drop box removable.

 

 

  From previous pictures it looked like my butt plate was too loose and floating a bit.  So I moved the snap points out and added a middle strap of nylon instead of elastic.

 

  To close the back of the shin I needed something with a gap and not wanting to add a bunch of extra abs for support.  The simplest approach seems to be using a baseball cap snap to hold the spacing and leave a gap that is close to 25mm.  Will see how it works out,  likely to still be a bit tight.

[MissionTrooper[TK]]

Good idea in the drop boxes. I wish I'd thought of that.

[husky68[TK]]

I didn't realize that I stopped updating this build log as I pushed for membership.

 

 From the last picture I see the old lock for shins which just did not hold because of the tension and force pulling glued stips off.  So I switched to a slot lock much like the ab/kidney.  I put double hooks on right shin and a single hook on the left as an experiment.  This proved that making the two hooks was harder to stay glued down but holds the shin more firmly with less shifting.  Both work so have not replaced the single with the double design yet.

 

 

 

 

  Also it appears I never shared the right side slot lock of the ab/kidney which was much simpler not having to work around the rivets.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2020 by husky68

[husky68[TK]]

  Moving forward with some suggestions,  touched up my paint on bucket and added a layer of gloss to make it shine a bit more.

 

 

 

 Clean up the teeth a bit more and added gloss.

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

3 hours ago, husky68 said:

  Moving forward with some suggestions,  touched up my paint on bucket and added a layer of gloss to make it shine a bit more.

 Clean up the teeth a bit more and added gloss.

Looks fantastic, Robert!   You definitely have an artist's touch with the painting skills, brother... keep up the great work!

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Nice touch up work on the helmet. 

 

I have been working on painting an ATA helmet kit and tried my hand at painting the thin black lines on the traps. After many minor fixes to get the line a bit more consistent, I used very fine black tip oil marker to fill in the tiny line areas that were bothering me. Not exactly movie prop accurate but works well and happy with the results. The marker I used is a ZEBRA マッキー .7mm /.3mm

[husky68[TK]]

It was pointed out after I started trooping that the lenses in my helmet, although correct,  were allowing people to see my eyes inside.  I might get to painting the inside of the helmet black but in the short term I wanted to trim the lenses down and add some mesh.  Previously just had the one sheet of film taped on either side.

 

 I used some leftover chicago screws and magnets to attach the lense.  Took a while to experiment with sizes and mounting to not leave any visible gap but maybe allow some airflow.

 

 

  Next I was given some mesh from JG member FarEast, it provides good blocking of eyes but only slightly darkens view.

 

 

 Cutting out the matching shape was easy enough,  but bending the mesh to fit the mound and eye openings was really hard.  Several attempts and ended up with not a perfect fit but close enough.

 

 

 

[husky68[TK]]

  From EIB review,  I have adjusted the TD clips to rotate tube so that the bar and circle are level and visible.

 

So what I did was cut between the two current holes and rotate the tube down. Then drilled new holes in the clips and TD and fastened it in place.

 

 

 

 

 

  I know there could be a few bends in the back of the clips to angle it in then out,  but will leave that for another day.

[husky68[TK]]

Always wanted the inside of my bucket to be black but cautious about spraying myself.  So @FarEast was kind enough to share his skills and expertise and got the job done nicely.

 

 

  Then second to-do item was shorten the side screws to avoid the occasional scratch when removing the helmet.

 

 

Now I need to redesign the padding and audio wiring.  Previously the position of amp would press into the back of my head.  The s-trim would rub my shoulder bridges so need to raise the helmet just a touch.

 

Edited July 18, 2020 by husky68

[FarEast[TK]]

Your welcome brother!!!

[husky68[TK]]

After over a year of storage and pandemic I pulled the TK armor out and put it back on for some video message recording.   I was happy that it all still fit but taking it off the left shin lock snapped.



  This sliding lock worked well,  only coming undone once but the 1cm didn't hold up and snapped.

 So I designed a new lock which works on a pin instead of sliding it up which gives more size for the plastic  and should still hold strongly.



  I added some space to get a hold and pull the pin up.  Also an elastic above it which makes it engage as soon as it is inserted so only taking it off takes a bit of work.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Genius!  

[Sly11[Admin]]

I love the ingenuity you have applied to this build Robert, well done sir, also such very clean and tidy build.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Awesome update to the lock system you made. Hope you can get some troops in soon to test it out. 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Awesome!