ANH Stunt 2mm ABS TM First Build

[JDA]

Hi All. This is my first build of armour which is from TM in 2mm ABS.  I've been lurking for a while trying to pick up as much info as I can. 

 

Brown box arrived last week.

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by JDA

[JDA]

and after a couple of days and a lot of nervous cuts and sanding, this is where I've got to. My biggest fear is cutting too much off so I'm sure the edges have too much left on them. 

 

Next steps will be to glue in the shoulder elastic on the back plate and work on the kidney plate edge. I'm lucky that I won't have to build in spacers. 

 

Im not actually building this for myself but for my 15 year old son who can't wait to join the 501st when he's old enough. He's already 5 ft 8 so I hope the armour will fit him for some time 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Welcome aboard.

Looks like you’ve made a good start. :-).

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to the progress good luck

[Sly11[Admin]]

Excellent! Keep up the great work.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JDA]

Thanks for the encouragement! A bit more progress tonight. Got the side webbing in place plus shoulder straps and crotch strap. 

 

Tomorrow night I want to have a go at setting the shoulder straps. I'm worrying about getting the crotch high enough on someone whos 5ft8. Is this usually a problem at this height? Seems like I might meet to take a few mm more out of the neck line of the chest plate.

 

 

 

Edited January 14, 2020 by JDA

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Looking good so far , keep on doing a great work !!  

 

by the way, I think the following post could be usefull  

cheers

 

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by TKSpartan

[JDA]

11 minutes ago, TKSpartan said:

Looking good so far , keep on doing a great work !!  

 

by the way, I think the following post could be usefull  

cheers

 

 

Thanks. That's a huge help.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looking GREAT, James!  If I could make a suggestion, it would be to eliminate most of the return edges on the cod and posterior plate tab and round them out a bit.  The reason being is that the square(ish) angles and return edges can cause chafing in that area, making things... well, let's just say "mighty uncomfortable".

 

Note in the last photo that the return edge tapers down to zero and ends higher up (yellow arrow) and the roundness of the tab (blue arrow).

 

         

 

Keep up the fantastic work!!  

[JDA]

Thanks for the guidance. I'll get to work on the return edges later with the Dremel.

[JDA]

This is where I've got to and I need some advice please. I've raised the ab plate to get the crotch higher. Currently I haven't shortened any of the armour but have doubled the length of the long metal brackets. They're looking a bit like they could bend now, but I could secure them to the inside of the chest plate with some webbing glued across them for strength. That might be reversible in the future.  It's low on the right because I've not done it properly yet.

 

I've got myself confused after reading lots of different build threads where different adjustments were made including the Hamill mod. What do you think I should do from here? It seems to me that if I dont get this bit right, everything I do next could be wrong.

 

I'd like to be able to leave in some room to grow a bit if possible. If not I'll be working on it a lot if he gets taller. 

 

 

 

[JDA]

Got a few more hours in over the past days.

 

 

Belt and thermal det are finished. 

 

 

Have been reading about cover strips and the different widths. Started work on the right arm. Lots of trial fits with masking tape and have glued up.

 

 

 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

On 1/15/2020 at 11:53 AM, JDA said:

I'd like to be able to leave in some room to grow a bit if possible. If not I'll be working on it a lot if he gets taller. 

Hi James, in my opinion, you're rigth leaving some room considering your kid is growing up a little more.  You can always make some adjustment to the straps to fit better but It would be so difficult to ad some plastic shims to make it larger.

 

I hope you got my point.

 

And about the ab belt here is a reference photo so can see the correct position that it almost touching the lowest button on the ab plate.

 

 

 

Cheers  

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by TKSpartan
add photos

[JDA]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the belt height when he's wearing the armor and work on the height at the front.

 

Have been painting boots tonight. I think the tabs on the back will get cut off.

 

 

[JDA]

Got to the point of having the arms assembled. 

 

 

I've got a snag list running including the belt height and stopping the shoulder bells rotating backwards. I think some foam in the arms will help it sit better.

 

I've used E6000 glue and where I've had to make changes it's been nice to be able to get joins apart and cleaned up relatively easily. 

 

So far I haven't shortened anything, but looking at the thighs, I'm going to have to take a couple of inches off the top. I need to do some reading on the forum to work out exactly where the knee should sit. I guess from there I can size the shin before glueing up. 

 

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Thanks for the advice. I'll check the belt height when he's wearing the armor and work on the height at the front.
 
Have been painting boots tonight. I think the tabs on the back will get cut off.
 
 

Hiya,

Just my 2 cents, but, I’d keep the tabs, 100%. It’s tricky to get the boots on sometimes, especially with other armour parts on, so the tabs make it a lot easier to pull the boots on. ;-)

[CableGuy[TK]]

Got to the point of having the arms assembled. 
 

 
I've got a snag list running including the belt height and stopping the shoulder bells rotating backwards. I think some foam in the arms will help it sit better.
 
I've used E6000 glue and where I've had to make changes it's been nice to be able to get joins apart and cleaned up relatively easily. 
 
So far I haven't shortened anything, but looking at the thighs, I'm going to have to take a couple of inches off the top. I need to do some reading on the forum to work out exactly where the knee should sit. I guess from there I can size the shin before glueing up. 
 
 

Making good progress by the looks of it.

Just out of interest, do you have separate pictures of your arms away from the armour? It’s possible that the biceps are a little wide compared with the elbow end of the forearms.
Is there much room in them?

[JDA]

Thanks for the feedback. The more I look at the biceps the more I think you're right that they're too large. I want to leave some growing room where possible and so far the only parts I've shortened are the tops of the thighs.

 

Here's a photo from a fitting today. Forgive the ski gloves he's wearing! Left thigh is held up with masking tape temporarily. Neck seal and gloves are on their way and a holster from Darman. 

 

Snag list includes raising belt and stopping shoulder bells rotating backwards. 

 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by JDA

[snipedoc2001[TK]]

Other than your list, it looks excellent.  Remember to paint the rest of the ab buttons, and correctly.  I accidentally had my diagram printout upside down and painted the 4 vertical buttons upside down which was not fun to fix.  Also the rivet heads need to be painted as well.  There should also be a small ammo belt attached to the bottom of the right thigh.  Keep up the good work!

[JDA]

I think I'm close to finished. (Please ignore the crotch strap in one photo!)

Have moved the shoulder bell straps forward to stop the bells rotating back, raised the belt, got a holster from Darman which is great, fitted blowers in the helmet, painted screws and buttons, and added elastic to pull down the shins. Having read advice on here, I've also got a Plano box to transport everything but the helmet. 

 

Hopefully now ready for LFCC next weekend. Will it hold together for Cadet Eds first outing.... possibly.

 

 

 

 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Looking Good Trooper !!