Blast 'Em!'s ANH Stunt Anovos Build

[Blast 'Em!]

Here goes nothing.

 

Intro post: 

 

 

Many moons have passed since I placed my pre-order for Anovos' TK kit in May of 2015 and received my BBB in March of 2016. But there's no better time than the present! After reading an unhealthy amount of whitearmor content (if that's even possible), I finally accumulated enough supplies and time to start my build. I was initially leaning towards a sandtrooper, but now that I've found the HWT it's too tempting to not go TK/ HWT instead of TD. At least for this kit- there still might be a sandy for me in the future. 

 

I'll be updating this first post with all of my purchased supplies and accessories once I've finished the build, as I found those lists immensely helpful to me. I've greatly enjoyed many of your build threads, tutorials, and general banter, so a big thank you to all of you. A HUGE specific thank you goes to @justjoseph63 and @ukswrath for their detailed content and encouragement/ guidance for new troopers. I hope everyone keeps up the great work, and I welcome any and all feedback.

 

Let's jump right into it. Centurion or bust. I started on Sunday by laying out all my armor pieces. 

 

I removed the numbered stickers from the tops of every piece and placed it on the underside, allowing me to keep track easily. Per Joseph's guidance, I'm going to remove all appropriate return edges right off the bat to ensure best fitment. I'm also trying to be accurate with my cuts to reduce the amount of sanding time required. I'm collecting and storing all of my ABS scraps for either ABS paste or inner cover strips (gotta reinforce that Anovos armor). I'm also leaving the plastic covering on until the end, meaning I have to peel little bits of plastic off my scrap ABS.

 

Giddy and excited, I sat down at my folding table and pressed play on the A New Hope soundtrack. As the 20th Century Fox fanfare blared, I made my first cuts, starting on the biceps per the recommendation of many (provides cutting/ sizing practice). For the biceps, I removed all return edges. I used only straight and curved lexan scissors for these pieces, getting a feel for the technique. Below you can see my pencil tracing of the no-return-edge cut-line and my "stress-relief" cuts along the side of the piece. I used many of these cuts to allow the ABS to flex while I followed my cut-lines.

 

After taping it up, the right biceps armor measured 15 3/4" around the widest part. I measured my biceps for reference and got 13" unflexed and 14 3/4" flexed. A test-fit with my undersuit confirmed that I need more room and a hot water bath to re-shape the piece. I plan on starting with a 10mm shim at the back of the armor- I'll moc that up soon and get feedback from you all.

 

Next I cut out the forearms, using the score and snap technique for the long edges. As shown in the photo, I clamped my metal ruler to the piece and scored it 5-6 times with a hobby knife, using low pressure. I cut out all return edges on the wrist ends and tops of the inner pieces. For the tops of the outer pieces I'm leaving a 5mm return edge.

 

After test fitting the forearms, I have plenty of room to remove material and taper the pieces. Aiming to get that done in the next few days. Yesterday I cut out the shoulder bells, again leaving no return edges. Next up, I'd like to dial in the fit of these pieces and start gluing cover strips (outer, then inner). This is gonna be fun!

 

 

 

 

[PhilBobTheFish]

Looking good. Glad to see you are able to get around to this long held project in this time. Remember, if you ever have any doubt, feel free to ask, and someone with more knowledge than myself will answer. Good luck with your build.

[wook1138[TK]]

Good start!  First cut is the hardest part - well, sort of.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Good luck with your project. looking forward for your advance photos 

[Wyrkk[TK]]

Good luck and enjoy the journey! Looking good!

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looks like you are off to a fantastic start, Shane!  One thing I would suggest is to save your ABS scraps.  The wider ones (photo 1) can be cut down and used as interior cover strips to strengthen the joins.  They don't have to be pretty, but will definitely make the seams stronger.  This is especially important on the calf armor pieces, (photo 2) as those get a lot of wear and tear (flex) from opening/closing the backs when suiting up.

Another thing that may seem like a no-brainer is to make sure the clear plastic protective cover is removed before gluing.  My Hero armor is Anovos, and I found this out the hard way, lol.

 

Lastly (for now) I would suggest using some of the scraps to reinforce a few areas as seen below (photo 3), as Anovos is famous for splitting/cracking there.  A few well placed 1/4 inch shims on the inside will prevent this, but try to use single pieces for each and not sections.

 

                                      1                                                                 2                                                                                                 3

        

 

I am following your build, so keep up the great job and keep those photos coming!  Remember, when in doubt, post a pic before cutting/final gluing.  

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to the progress, when in doubt there are some great reference images in the "Gallery Sections", Good luck with the build

[Blast 'Em!]

Making progress... While cutting I've been listening to the Star Wars soundtracks and I've just finished all the prequels and the OT, which puts me 7 hrs into this build.

 

So far so good. I've primarily been cutting with lexan scissors. I've used score-and-snap along straight sections (using clamps and a metal straight edge) and other large sections (I've been going slow to preserve large sections of scrap, per Joseph's recommendation). I only have the thighs, shins, sniper knee, and thigh ammo belt remaining, and I'm hoping to complete those tomorrow.

 

 

I plan on rough sanding the edges real quick before test fitting everything with my undersuit.

 

A couple questions for you guys: 

• When sanding, it sounds like most people go something like 100 grit (block or dremel)--> 220 grit (block or dremel)--> 400 grit (block) and/or sanding sponge. Are you deburring the plastic edges and rounding them off, or just primarily deburring?
• I'll find out shortly, but what kind of mess does sanding ABS create? I'm wondering if I should have a vacuum running right next to me, or if I can just use the vacuum to clean up the immediate area in the garage after without too much hassle
• Regarding your E-11 (or any blaster), I've read that many prefer a rubber blaster for trooping so there's minimal risk of damage if the kids want to hold it. This makes sense to me, but I've also seen people troop with their Doopy builds. I'm leaning towards the "worry free" approach of a rubber blaster, but I wanted to hear some more opinions.

Thanks everyone!

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

51 minutes ago, Blast 'Em! said:

• When sanding, it sounds like most people go something like 100 grit (block or dremel)--> 220 grit (block or dremel)--> 400 grit (block) and/or sanding sponge. Are you deburring the plastic edges and rounding them off, or just primarily deburring?
• I'll find out shortly, but what kind of mess does sanding ABS create? I'm wondering if I should have a vacuum running right next to me, or if I can just use the vacuum to clean up the immediate area in the garage after without too much hassle
• Regarding your E-11 (or any blaster), I've read that many prefer a rubber blaster for trooping so there's minimal risk of damage if the kids want to hold it. This makes sense to me, but I've also seen people troop with their Doopy builds. I'm leaning towards the "worry free" approach of a rubber blaster, but I wanted to hear some more opinions.

 

You're doing an excellent work, about your questions, my two cents:

 

1- In my case I usually use 100 and 120 grit, just to let the plastic as smooth that It doesn't  have splinters or pikes .

 

2-I use a vacuum just at the end, but make tha sanding over a plastic container to collect the maximun mess as possible

 

3- Rubber Blaster is definitely the "worry free." but more expensive, Doopy is cheaper but you need to be careful and I would rather don't let others to handle it.

 

Cheers 

 

 

 

[Blast 'Em!]

Thanks for the feedback TKSpartan! If anyone else has feedback on their sanding procedure or their blaster for trooping, I'd love to hear it!

 

Last night I found a spare hour and finished the shins. I used snap and score, making only one pass with medium pressure with my hobby knife on the long sections of the shins. Super easy! Then lexan scissors for tops and bottoms. Super hard! Man those top corners are difficult, even when coming from both sides with curved lexan scissors. My fingers were starting to hurt haha.

 

 

Getting close to test fitting everything!

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

14 minutes ago, Blast 'Em! said:

My fingers were starting to hurt haha.

Welcome to the Club .  

[Blast 'Em!]

I finished trimming the thighs yesterday- everything is now cut out! It took me around 9 hours and I listened to every Star Wars soundtrack from Episode I through VIII .

Tonight I aim to rough sand all the edges and tape everything up for an initial size check. 

 

For my initial trimming, I've immediately removed all return edges per Joseph's guide. As an engineer, I'm all about functional armor that won't cut into my arms and legs when I'm trooping. For the thighs, this meant removing all the top return edges. I started every piece by using a pen to trace the cut line- below you can see my tracing on the inside of the top of a thigh.

 

The sides of the thighs were super easy to snap and score. I found that I didn't need to use a ruler to guide my cuts and that it was easier to go slow with steady pressure, using my other hand to hold the material behind the cut (for stability). I went slow with all my cutting so I could create large scrap pieces for inner cover strips and reinforcement.

 

In my opinion, the bottoms of the thighs were the toughest section of all the armor. The acute turns and rigid surroundings made things tough, even with curved lexan scissors. I would always start by removing the vacuform's return edge to make the piece a little more flexible and manageable. Still, it was tricky.

 

I've purchased almost all of my remaining materials at this point, with the exception of elastic. Almost all elastic is currently being used to rightly make masks for the general public, and I can't find any small amounts online that can be delivered by next month. Does anyone have some leftover scraps they can sell to me? Any help would be much appreciated. I'm looking for the following:

-Elastic (shoulder bells)	1" wide, black. 4 ft
-Elastic (shoulder connection)	2" wide, white. 1 ft
-Elastic (drop boxes)	1" wide, white. 1 ft
-Elastic (shoulder straps)	1/4" wide, white. 1 ft

[Gaanon[501st]]

Looking good so far.  Just a couple of things for you to keep in mind:

 

Return edge:  Keep about 1/8" return edge all around except for the wrist and ankles.  They're not allowed in those two spots, otherwise, it helps your armor look thicker.

Cover Strips: 1)  Anovos only gives you precut (width) outer cover strips.  These are for decoration and to cover the seams.  I'd strongly recommend inner cover strips as well.  Since you're local to San Diego, I'd recommend checking out ePlastics in Kearney Mesa for some thin sheeting to use as inner cover strip material.  2) Sizing is important.  Not knowing your body type, you may need larger cover strips than the standard.  If that's the case (and your GML will confirm) put the correct size in the front and put the larger cover strips, or shims, in the back.  This is also where those inner cover strips come in handy.

Holster:  The standard Anovos holster, if I remember right, is a hero version.  Not a big deal it can be modified for stunt.

 

Other than that, have fun with the build.  When we're out of quarrantine I'd be happy to talk to you at our Armor Party and help out any way I can.

[Blast 'Em!]

Today I sanded down all the rough edges on my armor in preparation for my initial fit test/ blue tape moc up. I popped open the garage to give myself some fresh air, donned my mask, and threw on some safety glasses. I decided to use a dremel to make the task quicker, so I selected a 120 grit sanding drum and flipped the dremel to around 7k RPM. After practicing a few passes on a scrap piece of ABS, I started on the biceps. An hour later, all edges were relatively smooth and ready to be taped up. But unfortunately fitting the armor got pushed to tomorrow, so more pictures will follow then.

 

In the meantime, I've been starting to get blaster fever. My oh my does Praetorian make a sharp looking E-11. And DLT-19. 

[Blast 'Em!]

I taped together all of my armor yesterady, hoping to do a quick fit test.

 

But I quickly realized how difficult it is to approximate fit with multiple pieces precariously fastened with painters tape. I settled for a photo of a single shin and thigh piece, with me holding up the ab to approximate fit. My lovely assistant (an amused fiancee) helped tape the shin to create more of a taper. I've read that you want a little space between the bottom of the shin and the boot to prevent the shin riding up (I will be trying stirrups or attaching velcro to the boot to prevent shin shifting/ rotation during trooping). Is there specific guidance on this gap? 

 

My main takeaway was that I'll want to reshape every piece of armor so that it actually conforms to the shape of a human limb. How do you guys water bath larger torso pieces? Or is a heat gun necessary for these?

 

I've decided to shift my approach to test fitting/trimming/gluing the forearms, then biceps, then shins. After that I'll test fit all torso pieces and lastly the thighs and shoulders. I'm also going back and trimming all remaining return edges to 3mm for functionality (less armor bite and risk of cracking). 

 

After further guidance from Jospeh, I've removed/ I'm removing the following return edges:

• Wrists
• top of the inside Forearm piece
• top and bottom of Biceps
• top of Thighs
• bottom of Shins
• neck and sides of Chest and Back
• sides of Kidney
• tab of the Butt (minimal to no return edge left)
• Shoulders
• around the Cod (minimal to no return edge left)

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Depending on your frame you may not need to size down any pieces, I am thin and just added some foam in places to stop it moving around, you ideally want to keep a consistent sizing/look to the costume rather than sizing down to your frame (depending on how big the pieces are of course).

 

I don't have any gap between my boots and the shins, I have a piece of elastic looped through the top of the boots which goes up inside to the shin and held with snaps, helps to keep the shins down and stop rotation.

 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

The calf and thigh pieces look spot-on, Shane.  Super nice job on those!     As for the torso pieces, you shouldn't have to bend any of them.  The strapping on the ab/kidney connections and canvas belt will bring them in for a more form-fitting look.

 

[Blast 'Em!]

Today ended up being Measurement Day. But first a quick recap of some trimming activities. I ended up re-trimming all the return edges on my limbs to 5mm, figuring I could go down to 3mm if I really needed it later. The stock Anovos edges were more around 10mm.

 

I couldn't find any good reference photos for trimming the return edge on the cod, but Joseph was able to point me in the right direction (his image is below). I definitely didn't want to find out I had too much friction down there on troop #1 

 

I then donned my undersuit and my fiancee used our fabric tape measure to pull all relevant measurements for assembling the arms and legs.  Next, I measured the size of all my armor as-is while it was taped up. Lastly, I adjusted the tape to make the butt joints narrower or wider to get an ideal fit.

	Body		Armor as cut		Armor target w/ trim
	R	L	R	L	R	L
Hand, smallest shape	9.75	9.75	12	11.5	11	11
Forearm, flexed	12.5	12.5	15.5	14.75	14.75	14.75
Biceps, bottom, unflexed	12	12	15	15.25	15.5	15.5
Biceps,top,  flexed	15	15	15.75	15.75	16.25	16.25
Shin, ankle, in boot, standing	11.5	11.5	14.5	14.25	13.25	13.25
Calf, flexed	16	16	18	19	18	18
Bottom thigh, 45° bend forward	16.75	16.25	20	21	20	20
Mid thigh, flexed	23	23	26.5	26.75	26.5	26.5

 

Here's a top-down view of the forearm, taped up to reduce some space and taper more towards the wrist.

 

Below I show a 1/2" tape shim for the biceps, helping create some space

 

And last, here are my shins, accounting for the incorrect numbering provided by Anovos. The left shin is a little wonky at the bottom, so I'll trim the inside piece so that it matches the outer piece.

 

I was hoping to post some photos of me wearing the taped up pieces in their "ideal trim" form, but a couple edges snagged the seams of my undersuit. I didn't want to damage my undersuit any more so tomorrow I'll rough sand all edges again, then post images of everything before I start to cut and glue.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looking great, Shane!  Speaking of snags, you may want to round off the tops of the biceps. 

 

    

[Blast 'Em!]

Fitment day! I spent another 2 hrs rough sanding all edges with my dremel, covering myself in ABS chips and dust. I finished my Saturday by taping all the limbs together to approximate the circumferences listed in my table above. This morning, with the help of my very patient fiancee, we taped everything together as best as possible. Let me know if anything could use improvement! Looking at the photos it appears my thighs externally rotated a bit more than intended, and the biceps bowed outward because of how we taped them. 

 

For reference, I'm 6' tall and 185lbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surf's up!

Edited May 3, 2020 by Blast 'Em!

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looking fantastic, Shane!  I realize that you haven't started on the strapping yet, and the areas mentioned below will take care of those.  You are definitely on the fast track for Centurion, sir!  

 

 These would be my suggestions:

 

1.  Having everything level/symmetrical is important for an ideal look.  The bottoms of the bells and wrist openings are presently at a different heights, but no biggie, as once you install the straps you should be golden.  I would definitely suggest making sure the tops of the bells touch (or are VERY close to) the ABS shoulder bridges.  This will also bring them in closer to the chest and back plates.

 

2.  The gap in the back/kidney connection should be reduced.  This should be a matter of just dropping the back plate down a little.  It's great that you haven't done the white shoulder elastic yet, as that will make it much easier.

 

3.  The rear closures on your calf pieces need some tweaking.  The yellow boxes are where the cover strips should go.  It appears that you have plenty of wiggle room on the left one, and the right one may just need to be lined up.

 

      

 

Keep up the great work, and keep those photos coming!  

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

looking good Trooper !!  

[Blast 'Em!]

Last night I prepped 12 N40 and 20 N52 magnets with painters tape. I did a quick review of Joseph's Magnets 101, then proceeded with caution. Even so , the N40 magnets got me with a blood blister as I was handling them from their shipping container. Those magnets are powerful.

 

I started with the outside of the forearms and did some trimming to get my cover strip seam the same size as my cover strip (ended up taking off a little too much material). I measured the length of the cover strip and then snipped off the corners (I learned that I'm bad at estimating a 45° cut). Next I sanded the bottom of the cover strip and the top of the butt joints and wiped them down with a microfiber towel. Then it was time to wrangle some slippery E6000. I'm liking the approach of gluing the cover strip to one side, waiting 15 min for the tackiness to set in, then gluing the two butt joints together. 

 

 

 

I found that some of my Anovos armor pieces only have a plastic wrap on the inside. That was confusing. And now I have some polishing in my near future, as some of the pieces have gotten dinged. No worries.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

9 minutes ago, Blast 'Em! said:

"... as some of the pieces have gotten dinged".

Battle damage, lol.

 

The tops of the biceps are just... well... amazing!  Fantastic to see that you rounded off those corners, Shane.  I see that you haven't removed too much of the "scoop" on the top of your forearm, but no biggie.  Some troopers have no issues with armor bite there, but you have them fitted in a way that if you do need to remove more in the future you are in good shape.

Gotta' say that this is one of the best build threads I have seen in a long, long time.  Keep it up! 

 

[Blast 'Em!]

Thanks for the kind words Joseph. The only reason I've made it this far is the wealth of knowledge from other troopers like you. Good eye with the forearm "scoop"; after some test fitting today I think I need to remove more material so I can bend my arm more (gotta be able to reach that bucket).

 

Last night I was only able to apply a cover strip to the front of my left shin. Unfortunately I've been gluing late at night, preventing me from following up an hour later to make sure nothing has shifted too much, so I've found my cover strips have migrated north-south several millimeters. Beware! That E6000 is a scoundrel! Hopefully some minor trimming can hide my errors. 

 

I'll be shimming my biceps with a 10mm wide piece for the back joints. Since the original cover strip is 15mm wide, I'm planning making a 20mm wide strip to cover the shimmed section, using a 25mm wide inner cover strip to strengthen the joint. I'm hoping the 20mm wide strip is allowable and not too over-sized since it's on the back side of the armor.

Edited May 6, 2020 by Blast 'Em!