Kaosem's ANH Hero WTF Build

[kaosem]

Yesterday was BBB day! 

 

 

Did a layout today. Excited to get started but overwhelmed too. 

 

 

 

I'm thinking I will start on the helmet first. I am aiming for Centurion. 

 

 

 

 

[Sn4k3]

Excellent bro, enjoy your build

Sent from my GM1900 using Tapatalk

[magni[TK]]

Nothing like BBB day!

 

Good Luck Future Trooper!

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

1 hour ago, kaosem said:

I'm thinking I will start on the helmet first. I am aiming for Centurion. 

 

Welcome to FISD future Trooper. Congratulations for your BBB Day. 

 

Glad to read your going for higher levels, feel free to ask whatever you need, post photos and receive feedback and tips for our very experienced Troopers. 

 

Take a look to the following post. I think it could be useful for starting your helmet build. 

 

Good luck with your project and remember, we are here to help. 

 

 

 

 

[kaosem]

Thank you everyone!

 

Is there anything specific I should know about selecting a black undersuit since I am aiming for Centurion? Is it supposed to be more of a cotton material? Or lycra with a shine? I want to find something so I can wear it underneath while sizing armor. 

 

Also, I am concerned about making the armor small enough to fit. I am 5'6" and 120lbs. It seems very big. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by kaosem

[Sn4k3]

Remember the sizing is mostly made with the back side, if You look closely the forearms, shins and thighs have a ridge that is one of the parts where you have to place a cover strip, the cover strips are about 15mm wide for the arms and about 20mm for the legs, for big trooper (which is not your case) is possible modify that measure to a bigger one, in your case use the standard measure and cut a little bit more on the back until it starts to look good, this is a picture of one of my thigh pieces, I'm using a cover strip of 20mm

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[TKSpartan[Staff]]

3 hours ago, kaosem said:

Also, I am concerned about making the armor small enough to fit. I am 5'6" and 120lbs. It seems very big. 

I was thinking about and you may want to check out the following building thread, it could be so useful for you. 

 

Hope this can help. 

 

Cheers 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

As Daniel mentioned, most of the sizing will be done on the back sides of the calves, thighs and forearms.  Using his photo, you can see that the ridges on each side of the front run closely parallel to the cover strip on each side.  Once you get that lined up/cut correctly you can adjust the sizing in the back as needed.  This applies to the calves as well.

 

 

When cutting down the height of the thighs, just follow the existing contour.

 

You will definitely need to remove most (if not all) of the return edges on the majority of the pieces, but do this before final fitting/gluing.. (don't worry, doing this is screen accurate).  Note in the reference photo the absence of return edges in most areas.  This thread may help. 

 

      

 

Normally the return edges are left on the top/bottom of the kidney plate, the top of the posterior plate, the top of the ab plate and bottom of the chest plate.  But Luke's armor had to be cut down as well, so in the image below you can see that the bottom of the chest has no return edge, so this is perfectly acceptable at Centurion level.  You will probably need to trim the top of the ab plate as well to cut down the height, but again, no problems with approval there.  Just make sure the top of the ab/kidney connections on the sides are level.

 

 

In posting these pics of your build, you are doing the perfect thing.  It's always better to ask before cutting, and remember there is absolutely no limit to the questions you can (and should) ask.  We are here for ya'!

[Cricket[TK]]

Hey Emily, 

 

You're 5'6" and 120lbs?  You're taller than me and a few others that I've helped with their TK builds.     

The WTF kit is overall pretty small compared to other kits, and you should have not many issues having to size it down much at all.  The armor should not fit you in a skin-tight way.  It has some "float" all around, but not too much.  The thighs, for example.  They should not stick to your legs; you will have about an inch or so of space all around for good movement.

 

Your undergarments should be compression-type- meaning the black gear should be very snug.  If your garments are as tight as a pair of bike shorts, you're good.  That said, it's very important to hold off on sizing your parts until you can try them on with your compression gear on.  Things will fit quite differently if you wear anything else.  

 

3 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

When cutting down the height of the thighs, just follow the existing contour.

 
This is good advice, but be cautious on this before trimming!  Many people jump right in to trimming the thighs down before they've fully dialed in their torso (that's ab/chest/back/kidney) to proper size.  Then when they put the trimmed thighs together with the torso, the thigh tops tend to be too short.  If you trim the same amount of thigh all around the tops (let's say 1" all around), the thigh won't look right when you get it on with the rest of the kit.  In my experience trimming down thighs, I've had to remove much, much more at the inner thigh than at the outer side parts of the thigh.  This results in a nice, long looking thigh, even though some of the length has been removed.  Remember, if sizing down armor, for best results on the thighs, you need your torso to fully fit before trimming!  

Dial in the torso and get it all assembled to fit your body first.  Then put on one thigh (you should also have a fully fitted shin and boot on as well).  The top curve of the thigh will follow the bottom curve of the cod and the ab.  The curves fit into each other nicely like a set of loose fitting puzzle pieces.  Take a pencil and trace along the cod onto your thigh.  This will give you a rough line of where you need to trim.  Trim conservatively and try the thigh on again.  Do this until the thigh and cod no longer bump into each other when you move, the black space is minimal, and you can move fairly comfortably.  If the top of the thigh pokes into your hip, then trim that as well (following the original curves), but just the part that's pokey, not along the outer thigh.  If the butt plate overlaps the thigh at the side and/or back (when you walk, with your thigh extended back), use your pencil to mark the overlap and trim conservatively.  

The goal is to have a minimal amount of black showing between parts, but still be (somewhat) mobile.  haha...  Here you can see differences of how thighs are trimmed.  I'm the trooper holding the blaster in my right hand, holding the helmet in my left... and the shortest trooper in the pic.   


And as always, best to refer to screen shots for reference.   


I overtrimmed my thighs on my first kit (I've built 4 TKs total), and ended up having to completely replace them.  Hoping to help you avoid that.    Cheers!

Edited April 10, 2020 by Cricket

[kaosem]

Thanks so much everyone. This is very helpful!

[kaosem]

Progress so far on the helmet. More filing needed anywhere?



Got this in the mail from [mention]justjoseph63 [/mention]

[Sn4k3]

Don't cut from the sides or the top of the faceplate, aim for level 3, watch reference pictures from the movie and level 3 threads

 

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[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Looking good trooper. 

[kaosem]

 

I suppose the next step would be to drill holes for the ears. Does this look like correct positioning?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You really want to clamp or magnet the sides together as it can change how the front sits, here is a great tutorial to follow:

 

Although a different make of helmet they are all pretty much the same to assemble

[kaosem]

Awesome. Thank you.

[kaosem]

 

Wow ears are frustrating. Anything I can fix? I’m hoping once bolted on they will sit more flush because when I hold it harder against the helmet the biggest gap is in the front.

[Sn4k3]

They are VERY hard to fit, what i did was, measure approximately, trim a tiny little bit with a dremel in the spot or spots i considered needed, and measure again with the helmet, try to fit it in place, no good? Trim a tiny little bit more and measure with the helmet.

 

Do that until you get a good fit, remember, it won't be a 100% perfect fit, but it can be pretty close.

 

Watch the movies, pick a trooper and emulate him, as best as possible

 

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[TKSpartan[Staff]]

4 hours ago, kaosem said:

Wow ears are frustrating. Anything I can fix? I’m hoping once bolted on they will sit more flush because when I hold it harder against the helmet the biggest gap is in the front.

Hi, I'm not and Helmet expert, but by my short experience, (I have built 4 ANH  helmets only) , once I get the correct face-cap alignment, I used magnets and clamps, make the holes and place the rivets to affix this main two pieces and start to align the ears using photos and trim little by little the zone where there is too much gap. remember, they're no perfect fit. take a look to the following hero helmet photos.

 

Another suggestion is to try to take the helmet photos showing it complete from at least  one meter of distance and  a crop the picture to have a closer view and a correct perspective, this is so helpful for us to have a better idea of your progress.

 

Hope this can help.

cheers 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[kaosem]

 

The gap from the front is pretty big and the ear piece is thin so I don’t want to cut more. Is the gap going to be an issue? 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

On 4/14/2020 at 2:58 AM, kaosem said:

The gap from the front is pretty big and the ear piece is thin so I don’t want to cut more. Is the gap going to be an issue? 

Hi Emiliy,  You may want to lower a bit the ear and get it a little back, as you can see in the reference pic the ear's screws are aligned with the traps.

 

 

 

Here is a Hero Helmet 

 

 

Note that the right ear aligns a little bit different from left one with the  trap

 

 

cheers, 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by TKSpartan
add photo

[kaosem]

Thank you. I think I’ve fixed it. I do have holes showing on each side now from the previous positioning. Is there a fix to cover them? Also anything else that needs fixed so far? Really appreciate the help! 

 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

4 hours ago, kaosem said:

Is there a fix to cover them? Also anything else that needs fixed so far? Really appreciate the help! 

Hi Emily, from my point of view, there are two ways

 

1- Using ABS paste to fill in the holes.

 

2- You can just twist a little bit forward the low part of  the ears while the rounded section remains still , just to cover the holes  and still being looking good. (personally I would try this option first)

 

 

 

Excuse me for the bad drawing but it's difficult using the mouse. 

 

 

hope this can help you. keep on doing a great work.

 

 

 

[kaosem]

So I’ve taken a little break from the helmet and did some research on biceps. This is currently where I’m at:

 

 

Is there a rule of thumb on how snug they should fit? I have removed the return edges on the top. Is there any benefit to leaving the return edges on the bottom? Like making me look less puny? Lol 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

 

Hi Emily,  for me, the Helmet is always the most challenging stage of an armor build , you're right in taking a break 

 

About your  return edges question

 

"Is there a rule of thumb on how snug they should fit?

 

Certainly, there's no a stone written rule, it's most about how it looks on you and how consistent it is with the rest of the armor.
I mean something like you don't have big biceps and slim forearms. there must be coherence, for that the reference photos and the photos of the complete set are very useful: biceps and forearms together for example.

 

 

 

 

 

 I have removed the return edges on the top. Is there any benefit to leaving the return edges on the bottom? 

 

Most troopers, me included, prefer to remove all return edge or leave a few (2 mm)  top and bottom.

 

I highly recommend you to take a look to the following post , I'm sure it is going to be so useful on this matter.

 

 

This other link is for and WTF armor building thread that can give some tips for you project.

 

 

This is the clue to an successful project and investment, Asking questions, search for info, measure twice and cut or glue once.

 keep on doing a great work .

 

Cheers   

 

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by TKSpartan
add info