ANH AM TK Build

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Lol, thank Dan. I actually saw the tube stripe post a week ago and had to chuckle when I heard you were the “tube stripe police”. It is the main reason I ordered the template instead of even thinking about putting on the ones that came with the bucket.


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[CableGuy[TK]]

Lol, thank Dan. I actually saw the tube stripe post a week ago and had to chuckle when I heard you were the “tube stripe police”. It is the main reason I ordered the template instead of even thinking about putting on the ones that came with the bucket.


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Hehe. I still wear my unofficial badge with pride! Lol :-)

[Frank75139[501st]]

Hehe. I still wear my unofficial badge with pride! Lol :-)

I thought it was official by now


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[Armoredfist5[TK]]

finished the forearms. Hope I left enough room at the wrists to allow for going over gloves/hand guards....bit of an afterthought unfortunately. We’ll see when they arrive later this week. 

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Any tricks to allow more room on the inside of a bucket (think Tardis)? My absolute main goal along with obtaining the rank of Centurion is to have all electronics contained within my bucket. No cables or wires under, over or down to anything. It’s just uncomfortably tight. I don’t have that big of  a head and no hair to get in the way. I have 2 fans, icomm, voice booster, HOVI speakers and hearing aids with helmet speakers. Is there a trick? Or am I just overloaded. It would’ve fit in my old FX bucket 

[Frank75139[501st]]

Cut your ears off

Seriously it’s hard to tell how much padding is in there but can some be removed? I installed a hard hat insert which might give you some more room. I’ve got 2 fans and a lipstick battery pack and it’s tight in there. I’d say go the route I did and get a Bluetooth mic with an Aker amp but you already have a ton of money invested in everything so that’s not an option.


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[ukswrath[Staff]]

8 hours ago, Armoredfist5 said:

Any tricks to allow more room on the inside of a bucket (think Tardis)? My absolute main goal along with obtaining the rank of Centurion is to have all electronics contained within my bucket. No cables or wires under, over or down to anything. It’s just uncomfortably tight. I don’t have that big of  a head and no hair to get in the way. I have 2 fans, icomm, voice booster, HOVI speakers and hearing aids with helmet speakers. Is there a trick? Or am I just overloaded. It would’ve fit in my old FX bucket 

I have the same set up for obvious reasons , you get used to it. Other than that like Frank mentioned maybe installing a hard hat liner will help. What also helped me was to place the larger components as low as possible in the rear and position the lipstick charger in the cheek

Edited May 1, 2019 by ukswrath

[LTM[TK]]

Give the measurement from the cheek to the front of the ears, I think you have the same issue I did. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by LTM

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Anyone see any issues? Want to double check my cover strips before moving on to biceps. 

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

4 hours ago, LTM said:

Give the measurement from the cheek to the front of the ears, I think you have the same issue I did. 

From what I understand, that is normal. Am I incorrect?

[LTM[TK]]

That is how the helmet "wants" to go together, you need to make the left side match the right side. Once I did this to my helmet (AM btw), it made a big difference on fitting my head. 

This issue was brought up in my pre-approval process:

Corrected, you can see how much I moved it by looking at the hole. Hard part is knowing that the lid is "wonky" as per the originals

 

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Great!! Thank you LTM for the info. Would be nice if this came with instructions! Per AM’s recommended YouTube video, the guy (can’t remember his name) said it was normal for them to be different like that. Anything else you found wonky with your AM armor? On your pre-approval did they give a specific measurement from ear to cheek? I’m wondering if I could split the difference.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Alright so don't shoot me but technically the upper and lower ear screws are aligned with the trailing edge of the trap. This is not a requirement yet butt, the CRL is changing not to mention it's highly pushed at the higher levels of accuracy. If you can it is recommended you align your ears like this.

 

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Lol, all information on corrections is greatly appreciated as I WANT CENTURION! Lol. I don’t think I’d be happy with anything less. I’ll take a look at it when I get off work but I’m sure one side has the ear screws correctly lined up and the other is off. Also, does anyone use bucket straps to hold down your bucket?

[ukswrath[Staff]]

8 minutes ago, Armoredfist5 said:

 Also, does anyone use bucket straps to hold down your bucket?

Are you referring to the one used with the movie helmets?

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

I don’t remember seeing any on the movies and although I have seen references to helmet straps, I have yet to see any on approved bucket pics on this board.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I used straps once and ended up cutting off, weren't the most comfortable of things, I use two blocks of foam in the helmet which sit on both sides of the head which helps keep the helmet from moving, won't even fall off when leaning over, that may be an option for you.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

4 hours ago, Armoredfist5 said:

I don’t remember seeing any on the movies and although I have seen references to helmet straps, I have yet to see any on approved bucket pics on this board.

They're not a requirement because like most of the interior connections it can't bee seen,

 

Reference photo

Edited May 2, 2019 by ukswrath

[LTM[TK]]

16 hours ago, Armoredfist5 said:

Great!! Thank you LTM for the info. Would be nice if this came with instructions! Per AM’s recommended YouTube video, the guy (can’t remember his name) said it was normal for them to be different like that. Anything else you found wonky with your AM armor? On your pre-approval did they give a specific measurement from ear to cheek? I’m wondering if I could split the difference.

This site is your instructions. 

 

Hardest part to understand is "one size fits all" and "its wonky".  Most of what you are going through has already been experienced by other troopers, make sure to check out other AM builds (each suit maker - AP, WTF, AM, etc... have their own issues) and keep asking questions. 

 

For this lid, go with the measurement on the right side (it looks correct) and make the left side match as close as possible. Making the ears match on the slant will be a little challenge, but if you want l3 go ahead and bite the bullet now. Use screws and nuts to hold the face to back of lid as you might need to reposition a few times. Mine looks like swiss cheese under the ears.

For a strap, I did not do that. Instead I did the hard hat liner from trooperbay and could not be happier. I tried the foam pads, but for me the lid was either pressing a little too much or wobbled from side to side.

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

This site is your instructions. 
 
Hardest part to understand is "one size fits all" and "its wonky".  Most of what you are going through has already been experienced by other troopers, make sure to check out other AM builds (each suit maker - AP, WTF, AM, etc... have their own issues) and keep asking questions. 
 
For this lid, go with the measurement on the right side (it looks correct) and make the left side match as close as possible. Making the ears match on the slant will be a little challenge, but if you want l3 go ahead and bite the bullet now. Use screws and nuts to hold the face to back of lid as you might need to reposition a few times. Mine looks like swiss cheese under the ears.
For a strap, I did not do that. Instead I did the hard hat liner from trooperbay and could not be happier. I tried the foam pads, but for me the lid was either pressing a little too much or wobbled from side to side.

Thank you for the assist! I’ll give the hard hat liner a try. It worked well in my old FX bucket.


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[Armoredfist5[TK]]

How’s this?

[LTM[TK]]

That looks great! Well done trooper!

 

It will come up that the black border around the ears is thinner than the tears (I assume the stickers that came with the helmet), might be easier to make that change now. 

 

Edited May 3, 2019 by LTM

[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Ok, I’ll fix that this weekend.


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[Armoredfist5[TK]]

Yeah!!! Finally have some color on my bucket!!

Ok, now that that excitement is over...

I want to check with y’all focusing on Centurion level details.

I added more black border on the ears to match the other areas, painted the screws white again after having to readjust the ear screw lines to be in line with the top/front traps. First coat of #14blue for the tube stripes. Sooo,

how does everything look?

Tube stripes look right (I know it’s hard to tell with the template still on)?

Gap between ears and bucket ok?

Teeth ok?

Anything not Centurion level please let me know.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

On 5/1/2019 at 2:41 PM, Armoredfist5 said:

 

Anyone see any issues? Want to double check my cover strips before moving on to biceps. 

I'm a little late to the game, but you will need to shave a bit more off of the "bump" area as seen below:

 

 

" I left enough room at the wrists to allow for going over gloves/hand guards..."  Don't worry about this... the gloves go on after you suit up.  Great job so far, Brian!  Keep those questions and photos coming!