Lee_C Anovos TLJ build

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Right. Finally getting round to posting this up on here. I’m almost ready for painting so I thought I’d show what I’ve done so far. 
Kit was ordered September 2016. Received about 8 weeks ago, minus the lid and the gaskets. This is ok as I have gaskets from GP. I also ordered a lid from sanotized creations. This brings me on to the next point. 
I had a paint shop unsuccessfully try to match a paint with the armour. It is not possible. They matched it but when you go from being inside to outside and vice vests, the shade of white changes, due to the properties of the plastic. 
We decided, to keep things uniform, to paint the whole kit and get a lid that requires painting. I’ve seen a few Anovos kids on painted kits that haven’t 100% matched and I didn’t want this. 
mom a side note, I think that anyone building this kit will have to paint it. Even the suggested paint, that Anovos recommend for the resin parts does not match 100%. 
Some quick pointers. The yoke needs filling and reinforcing, the ab section needs filling at the seams, the forearms need modifying and the TD backplate needs modifying. More on those later. 
Here’s what comes with the kit. 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Lee_C_77
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[Lee_C_77[TK]]

AB Section

 

The ab section has internal overlap strips built in so that they join together. Anovos instructions state to use Velcro, but the crl says seamless. 
I used devcon plastic weld to glue the 2 halves together. 
This then means that unless you have a 28” waist that it needs opening along the back. I cut along the rear line, and used snaps and elastic to close it. Even though my waist and chest aren’t huge, there’s a 50mm gap at the lower part of the back, and a 100mm gap at the top. This is ok and is covered by the TD back plate. 
 

 

Withe the ab section glued and cut, I used poly flex flexible body filler to fill the seams that run up the sides of the ab and back section. I mixed it and applied it from a syringe, using a silicone former to spread and shape it. It dries very very quickly and is flexible. 
 

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

TD backplate

 

This was my first real problem. The design and curve of the backplate is not curved properly. With the ab section not cut up the rear, it fits. When you open the ab section up to fit you, it obviously throws the shape out into more of a curve. Also, they say use Velcro to secure it. This is insufficient for this part due to 2 things. The TD is cast and is fairly heavy. Also, Velcro doesn’t pull the plate in tight and leaves gaps at the edges, which look awful. 
Here’s what I did to get this to fit. 
 

I used some angled plastic to sit in the internal top part of the TD holder. This hooks over to top of the ab section rear and supports the weight of the whole piece, keeping it nice and secure. Then I glued 5mm earth magnets to the lower sides of the TD holder. A thin piece of plastic sheet glued on this, with 2 more magnets on top of that. I then glued 2 5mm magnets inside the armour. Once fitted, it fits and holds really well. I also had to trim the edges of the TD holder slightly to fit the curve of the ab section. 
 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by Lee_C_77
Spelling

[mikidymac[TK]]

This is great!

If mine ever arrives it's so nice to see a step by step for us to see how the issues are handled.

I already have my Devcon and Poly-Flex ready to go but it will probably be expired by the time my kit arrives.

 

And 28" waist? WTF? as usual Anovos???

Edited October 8, 2019 by mikidymac

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

3 hours ago, mikidymac said:

This is great!

If mine ever arrives it's so nice to see a step by step for us to see how the issues are handled.

I already have my Devcon and Poly-Flex ready to go but it will probably be expired by the time my kit arrives.

 

And 28" waist? WTF? as usual Anovos???

Thanks. Hope your kit arrives soon. There are a fair few issues with the kit. The instructions are pointless. There’s no way you can use Velcro on the kit and get clearance. And regarding the ab section, I think anyone with a 36” waist or above will struggle. The TD plate Is maybe 6inch wife andmust cover the rear split part. My waist is 32” and there’s a 2 “ gap already. 

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Lee_C_77
Photos

[mikidymac[TK]]

Should be good to go on the back, 32" waist here also.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Off to a good start, looking forward to the progress

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Forearms 

 

Unfortunately, the forearms are a really poor shape. The top part cuts too deep when compared to screen caps. All the BS about perfecting accuracy and scanning screen used parts , they really messed this part up. Anyway, I was told that these were ok for clearance, but I wanted to mod them to make them a little better. Unfortunately I’ve struggled to get consistent screen caps. I’m thinking that the top may have been trimmed slightly to suit the person in the armour on screen. 
 

here’s Anovos effort

 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2019 by Lee_C_77
Photos wrong

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

And here’s the screen caps. Had to change to Tapatalk. My photos are no longer appearing on this site for some reason.

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Forearm mods

To try and make the forearms better I did the following.

Trimmed the return edge from the part to be modded. Considering it was pre trimmed it was rough anyway.


Then I heated some abs sheet. I heated it a few times, progressively shaping it.





Once happy, I glued it inside the arm.





Then cut another piece to sit on top, bringing it flush to the armour.



Before I filled the joint with polytek. It might need a little more shaping but I’m fairly happy with it.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Great work will be a good guide for others to follow, if their kits every turn up.

 

It's a shame Anovos changed some details for better screen accuracy like the longer front yoke and the bottom ab tabs (which can't really be seen) but then let obviously things slip by.

 

You are well on top of this though  

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully kits will start shipping soon. I noticed that another deadline has been and gone without any updates.

 

Yoke assembly

 

This part has been the biggest PITA to get right. The way the instructions tell you to assemble it is by using Velcro on the shoulder joint to hold the front and back parts together. Whilst this would work, if going for clearance, the joint needs to be seamless. I thought that this would simply be a case of filling and blending. But it isn’t.

Here’s a picture of the 2 halves glued together with Devcon plastic weld and a first layer of poly flex filler. It’s a small picture as I forgot to take one and edited one from further along.

 

 

With this glued and dried there is a hell of a lot of flex on the yoke. Far too much. It flexes so much that it puts pressure on the area around the joint, to the extent that it will split and crack.

To remedy this I bought some of the brackets from UKSWrath to support the seam and joint. These things are great. With a little mod, they fit perfectly and really do stiffen the whole of the shoulder area.

 

 

 

 

These are really easy to fit. They need a slot cutting on the yoke, then bending slightly to fit, before being glued in. But note that 1 of the small parts at the top needs removing due to the Anovos return edge not being deep enough to accommodate it. And don’t forget to glue a small piece of abs to the top of the flaps that protrude through the yoke to support the shoulders.

See picture below.

 

 

 

Whilst the bracket really stiffens you the yoke, it does cause another problem. It moves the stress away from the shoulder areas to another area. If you think of the arm opening as a clock, it moves the stress point from 12 o’clock, to 10 and 2 o’clock.

I noticed stress marks in these areas. I tried to photograph them but it’s hard to see them.

 

 

 

To rectify this I reinforced the areas by heating plastic sheets up and cutting/shaping them inside the yoke.

 

 

 

 

Until you end up with something like this.

 

 

So, with all of the reinforcing done, I gave a final fill to the seams, after using primer to look for imperfections.

 

 

And I ended up with this.

 

 

 

And the yoke is now ready for primer and paint. I’m fairly sure that like all the other abs yokes, it will crack and need repairs but apart from reinforcing it, there’s not a lot you can do.

 

EDIT

 

Don’t forget to fix 2 snaps to the metal shoulder supports. These attach with elastic to snaps inside the shoulder bell. If you want, you could slot the elastic through the yoke but it leaves it very thin and at risk of splitting.

 

 

 

 

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Edited October 14, 2019 by Lee_C_77
Double posted pictures

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Ab section mods for Butt, cod and belt.

I changed the way the butt and cod attach to the flaps at the bottom of the ab section too. Anovos say to use Velcro but I don’t think that it was man enough. I tried putting snaps straight to the flaps but this was too rigid. There needs to be a little give in them for movement.

On the rear part, I trimmed away part of 2 of the flaps and glued 50mm webbing each side. Then I used snaps.
The 2 inner facing snaps will line up with snaps on the butt connection, allowing a secure and flexible attachment. The snaps facing outwards will be used to attach the belt and stop it slipping or rotating. More on that later.





For the front I did something similar. I cut 2 sections away and fixed webbing in. The 2 snaps line up with the snaps on the cod. The centre one will attach to the belt.





Also, anybody building this kit, ignore/throw away the instructions. They are pointless and basically say to use Velcro to connect everything together. Also, the templates they give you for the Kit Kat parts on the shins have the holes in the wrong place. They don’t line up so be aware.


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[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work and you are correct stiffening under the top of the yoke only shifts the stress point, over 4 years I've added longer support strips behind twice which has helped, I have them all around the opening now down to hallway at the front and back. 

 

Way to go, ditch the Velcro, makes life easier down the track.

 

 

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

22 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Nice work and you are correct stiffening under the top of the yoke only shifts the stress point, over 4 years I've added longer support strips behind twice which has helped, I have them all around the opening now down to hallway at the front and back. 

 

Way to go, ditch the Velcro, makes life easier down the track.

 

 

Regarding the Velcro, as it’s TLJ armour, the arms and legs all have overlap joints that open to help put them on. The instructions say to use Velcro to close them. This isn’t going to work either. 
due to the thickness of velcro it leaves a 4–5mm gap on the overlap and looks horrible. I’m thinking of using a few 0.75mm magnets to close instead. Whilst the gap with the Velcro is only noticeable when you look close up, it looks awful and is one of those things that will bug me. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Depends on the thickness of the Velcro, I use it on my shins and they really aren't that open too much, as its on the inside it's not that noticeable.

 

In regards to the legs and arms overlap joints you don't need to use Velcro there, they can be glued together and don't need to open to put on, the overlap construction is just screen accurary, not needed for actual dressing. 

 

 

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Depends on the thickness of the Velcro, I use it on my shins and they really aren't that open too much, as its on the inside it's not that noticeable.
 
In regards to the legs and arms overlap joints you don't need to use Velcro there, they can be glued together and don't need to open to put on, the overlap construction is just screen accurary, not needed for actual dressing. 
 
 

Good shout. I’ve glued the biceps and thighs tonight. Forearms need to be able to open to get my wrists in, so that will be magnets. Shins will be Velcro on the inside leg.

The Anovos kit is paper thin around the rear of the neck area. Maybe less than half a mm. Adding some plastic sheet inside. Photos to follow once it’s dried. I’m guessing that all of the early Anovos kits needed reinforcing inside too. It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s needed to keep the flex to a minimum.

Hopefully they start to get some kits out soon


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[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Definitely any additional strengthening to the yoke is a great idea, they do take a lot of strain getting arms in and out and flex a lot, if they are now that thin they will be even more susceptible to cracking, good call.  

[JAFO[TK]]

You’re going great guns Lee!

Great build thread which will prove of great value to those that follow.


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[ukswrath[Staff]]

Wow how have I been missing this? Excellent work so far Lee, fantastic!

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing.  Great work so far!  You know seeing all those magnets, I wonder if at some point we'll see people using those instead of snap plates to do connections between such things as shoulder bells, etc.?

[Lee_C_77[TK]]

Thanks for the input guys. Regarding magnets, I’ve tried them on the wrist sections and they’re fine. I used them in the chest to yoke connection too. I’ll put photos up later.

I had a really productive Sunday, taking advantage of a nice warm day to get the whole kit painted, after priming it last week.

Excuse the awful pictures, it’s like a game of Jenga in the shed, and I’m scared too move everything until the weekend.

Remember, that this was the kit that Anovos said required no paint. Then they said the resin parts only. Trust me. The whole kit needs painting.







Regarding the paint, I’m ok with painting, and used cans of 2k paint, so no need to lacquer.
The paint is TC10 2k and I have it from the supplier that this is the colour used to touch up the rubber screen suits and to paint any none rubber parts. I’ve seen the sample cards from the movie in his store. It’s the same supplier that supply the studio. This sample was from the spacebear sample cards which was the working title for TLJ. The name was space trooper white, and the pint code was TC10. It was quite cool for him to let me flick through the sample cards. I’m trying to go there again regarding the TR1XIE colours for another costume.



I managed to get the right thigh out and fit dans holster.



And all I had to hand to try it was an F11D.



On a side note Dans holster is a few mm smaller than the Anovos one. The holes in the Anovos resin part need re drilling to take this holster. And the self tapping screws that he supplied need cutting by a couple of mm.

Hopefully get more pictures up soon as trying to get clearance for a con. Painting was the big job. The rest is fairly straightforward.

Also, along with the instructions and the Velcro Anovos supply, toss the resin holster in the trash.


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[JAFO[TK]]

Great update Lee! The kit is looking fantastic.

I love how Anovos include their choice of paint in the instructions for their “kit which doesn’t need painting”

If only they had access to Colorite! The guy is a legend.




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[Krisko720]

That’s a darn good use of a small space! So is this the official paint we should be using on our Anovos pieces and even the blasters? Where might one find this paint?


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