Merkava74's TFA FOTK Build Thread (Anovos)

[Krisko720]

BTW this build thread has a lot of great information and detail. Worthy of being pinned in my opinion.

I’m not sure how I missed this thread.. it is definitely chock full of greatly detailed work! I will agree and say that it ranks up there with those used for researching ways to accomplish a build.

I’m digging those spat closures! Might have to use that idea for mine.


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[merkava74[TK]]

Thank you guys! Means a lot for you to say that!

[merkava74[TK]]

CHEST PART 2

 

Another tricky part. The problem for me as I am 170cm (5'7"), which means I am a smaller size compared to what the armour is meant to be for. As such, I need to make my chest more snug than it is meant to be. With the girth of the abdomen piece with the TD, I had to make my chest piece wrap around these snugly, almost no play. If I give some gap, the chest would look oversized. 

 

The lucky thing about my size is I am able to glue shut one side of the chest and still squeeze my head and hands through, so I only have to make one side functional, which I will do with magnets. 

 

So here is one side glued:

 

And this is how it looks from the outside.

 

On the other side, I indicated where I would drill 3 holes for the magnets to be insetted. 

 

And here they are drilled. They are 22mm holes, and I will be using 20mm magnets, so I needed the holes to be slightly bigger for the magnets to go into this recess easily. 

 

Next up, I fabricated the "female" magnet holders. I drilled an acylic plate with a 20mm hole to snugly fit the magnet, and another plate wth 22mm hole which will be glued above it, forming the recess of the female magnet. 

 

After I glued the magnet into the 20mm hole, I glued the plate with the larger 22mm hole over it, and sanded and rounded the sides. Had to make 3 sets of these.

 

Then I glued these sets below the 3 holes I drilled on the back piece, and then added a thin layer of black foam into the recess, so that when the magnets clasp, the force is cushioned and I don't risk breaking the very brittle Neo-dy magnets.

 

 

Finally, I glued the "male" magnets on the end of the chest piece. The joint is snug and strong. 

 

The photo below shows the inside of that clasp with the 3 magnets. 

 

And this is me test fitting it again. As mentioned, notice how snug I need the chest and yoke set up to be around my abdomen piece. But I think it looks sleek. 

 

 

Next is the covering of the pill boxes (with mesh and gaffer tape) and the centre vent (with gaffer tape). They are both secured with Duct Tape. 

 

How both looks from the inside,.

 

And how they look from the outside. 

 

 

And finally, can't help to assemble what is completed onto my manny. Getting excited now that it is looking more and more like a Shiny!

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[merkava74[TK]]

GASKETS PART 1

 

Had a set of Imperial Gaskets back when they were still in operation. Now that they're not, I was really worried when tackling this in case I made an irreparable mistake. But all is well, and here is how I did it. 

 

First, measure the inner circumference of the following parts of your armour. Do not measure your arm, as if you have skinny arms like me, your gaskets will look shrunk under the armour. I wanted the gaskets to fill out the armour nicely. 

A. Inner circumference near top of Bicep Armour

B. Length from your armpit to your mid forearm. 

C. Inner Circumference around middle of Forearm Armour

 

Then I proceeded to cut my gasket according the the dimensions:

 

Once, cut, I started to join the ends RIB BY RIB using CA glue. I wanted to create as seamless a joint as possible. CA glue cures fast, and actually holds the rubber really tight. The problem is that they cannot flex, and the whole joint would need to be reinforced from the inside with a shim using flexible glue. Here you can see the mid-progress of the CA gluing.

 

 

Tedious, yes, but the end result looks great. 

 

 

And here are both arms done. 

 

 

I have not glued the shims on the inside yet. As my arm Armour pieces are still with the painters, I want to have them back for a fitting before I finalise the gaskets and shim them permanently. Also, I did not cut the gasket into "Shoulder" and "Elbow" pieces as many others have done, as I want to see how it all fits with the armour before I do that. Remember: MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE. 

 

Same with the knee gasket. Measure the inner circumferences of the bottom of the thigh armour and the top of the shin armour, and join the 2 ends together. 

 

 

 

I was pretty confident with the thigh, so I shimmed it. 

 

 

Here are both pieces done. 

 

 

And I also test fitted my arm gasket to see how it looks. Pretty happy with it. 

 

 

Strappings and final adjustments if any when my armour pieces are back from the painters. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

AWESOME fitting job on those gaskets, Jasper!  Once you get this complete, I genuinely hope you will consider taking it to the next levels (EI and Centurion) of approval.  With your amazing attention to detail you should have no problem, brother.  Keep up the great work!  

[merkava74[TK]]

16 minutes ago, justjoseph63 said:

AWESOME fitting job on those gaskets, Jasper!  Once you get this complete, I genuinely hope you will consider taking it to the next levels (EI and Centurion) of approval.  With your amazing attention to detail you should have no problem, brother.  Keep up the great work!  

Thank you! Yes, I am hoping to bring this to Centurion level. Keeping fingers crossed!

[Pretzel]

Nice and Shiny! 

[Krisko720]

Great work. It’s too bad Anovos is being the way they are, it really is a great looking set of armor! You’re killing it. Glad to see someone else had a set of rubber, I’ll be doing mine soon.


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[ukswrath[Staff]]

Imperial Gaskets is back in business and listed on the FOTK Supply list.

 

Also, Imperialsurplus makes FOTK armor, comparable to Anovos. I'm actually commission building a set as we speak, it's very nice. You can find them on FB. 

[merkava74[TK]]

Imperial Gaskets is back in business and listed on the FOTK Supply list.
 
Also, Imperialsurplus makes FOTK armor, comparable to Anovos. I'm actually commission building a set as we speak, it's very nice. You can find them on FB. 

Oh they’re back? Awesome!

[merkava74[TK]]

GASKETS PART 2

 

And my arm pieces are back from the painters! Couldn't wait but to test fit my gaskets with the armour to see how my measurements were. 

 

 

It looks good, and this is before I strapped the gaskets across my body, which is why you see a little section near the top of my shoulders where there are no ribbing. So, strapping! After measuring the distance I need, I made 2 straps, and 2 more rectangular pieces. The rubber will be sandwiched between these 2 pieces of strapping, glued together, and then sewn. In this way, when there is tension, the strapping won't pull and tear the rubber. They would pull against strapping. 

 

And here they are glued and sewn together.

 

 

For the front, I made a simple clip so I can get in and out of the gaskets. Did the same thing as the back: sandwich the rubber between 2 pieces of strapping glued together. 

 

 

And here it is completed. Notice that the ribbing now sits beyond the top of my shoulders, so when I wear my chest and yoke piece, only ribbing will be revealed. 

 

 

 

Calling this part done!

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[Sly11[Admin]]

Sensational work Jasper, fast becoming my favorite build thread.

[merkava74[TK]]

42 minutes ago, Sly11 said:

Sensational work Jasper, fast becoming my favorite build thread.

Thanks Boss!

[merkava74[TK]]

FOREARMS PART 2

 

Nothing much to add here, except that I got my Forearms back, installed the 2 boxes, and stuck on the vinyl stickers. Here they are finished. 

 

 

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[merkava74[TK]]

SHINS PART 2

 

This is the step where I added the magnets to hold my Shin seam together. 

 

First, I have 5 points that I want to use magnets to clasp the shin. I drill holes into acrylic plates.

 

 

Then I added a thin acrylic sheet behind it, to hold the magnet, and then glued the magnet into the recess. 

 

This is how it looks on the other side, showing the magnet that will be glued to the other side of the shin seam. 

 

And here they are trimmed to size, edges rounded to prevent catching any body suit. 

 

I glued then onto one side of the seam, thin acrylic sheet facing up. If you understand what I am saying, when clasped, the magnet will be pulled against this layer, and you won't run the risk of magnets popping out of their recesses. Also, the thin acrylic creates a softer clasp then directly with magnets, as these magnets tend to break when the impact is hard. 

 

And this is how it looks on the inside.

 

A nice seam when clasped. 

 

So repeat for the other side, and shins are done! Oh ya, back the pill button with black gaffer tape. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[merkava74[TK]]

LEGS ASSEMBLY

 

Time to assemble all the components of the legs together. 

 

First, I made 2 straps with buckles, one for each leg assembly. 

 

Then I glued one end to the inside of my abdomen piece, between boxes 1 and 2, and 6 and 7. The buckles will be just below the belt, and inside the thigh armour. 

 

The other end was then glued to the inside of the thigh, after measuring how high the thigh piece should be on my leg. 

 

2 elastic straps with velcro was glued to the inside of the knee gasket, and the corresponding side on the inside of the lower thigh. 

 

This is how it looks assembled. 

 

The same thing was done to the Shin piece. 

 

Next, I used a thin elastic cord and stuck it to the back of the knee armour, and also glued a piece of velcro in the center. I later realised that the velcro was not even needed, as the elastic cord rested snugly in the rib of the knee gasket and held the knee in place very well. 

 

Finally, this is how the whole set up looks. Only thing missing is the ankle spats. 

 

Did another test fit with everything on, to see that the distances and proportions are correct. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Almost there.

 

I did a similar mod with magnets on my Sithtrooper shins, used a slightly larger magnet behind the inside sections so I didn't have to use spacers, always amazing to see different ways to achieve the same results.

 

Great work

[merkava74[TK]]

ANKLE SPATS PART 2

 

First, I drilled 2 holes slightly larger than the intended magnets.

 

Then I backed up the 2 holes with a thin piece of acrylic. 

 

Glued 2 magnets from the inside where the holes are.

 

Then glued the 2 corresponding magnets to the other clasp, and this is how it looks like completed. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by merkava74

[CDEV-991]

On 2/20/2020 at 7:08 PM, ukswrath said:

Your backplate should keep it in place but the magnets is definitely a nice touch. In addition the movie had a strip of Velcro that is fed through the bottom of the TD and secured under the waist belt thus help preventing it from moving up and becoming unhinged. Just a thought if you're interested.

 

Reference photo

 

 

I did something similar on mine

Does this mean you can take your thermal detonator on and off? I think that's what I'm seeing...

 

[merkava74[TK]]

Does this mean you can take your thermal detonator on and off? I think that's what I'm seeing...
 

Yes. The thermal detonator MUST be removable, as you need to hide the seam of your abdomen under it.

[merkava74[TK]]

What the hell is wrong with Photobucket???? Several of my photos have gone missing and are also not showing up here! WTH!!!

[LEGOeatPokemon[TK]]

1 hour ago, merkava74 said:

What the hell is wrong with Photobucket???? Several of my photos have gone missing and are also not showing up here! WTH!!!

Maybe you could try imgur? It works pretty well for me

[Sly11[Admin]]

Photobucket has been fickle for a long time, sorry you images have gone MIA but maybe give Imur a go to replace them.

We have many old build threads with missing images due to Photobucket which slowly but surely we are trying to recover and add back in through Imgur.

It does seem odd that it is only some of your images, but the old PB before they changed it, anyone could download your images and use them as they became public domain. Maybe there is a glitch or somehow someone has managed to remove them from PB.

[merkava74[TK]]

Thanks. Am switching over to imgur right now, and will repair all my photos here. Give me some time.

[merkava74[TK]]

TESTING IMAGE HOSTED BY IMGUR

 

Please let me know if you can view this so I know my privacy settings are correct. Thanks!