Tico's RS Props build

[ticopowell[TK]]

Cool, I thought I had to do 3 for some reason, 2 makes sense on both sides, and with the belt maybe even 1 would work... but Ill do 2 on each side for now. I'm thinking E6000 on one side, and snaps on the ab side. 

[ticopowell[TK]]

I had a helper today

 

 

And I finally did some acceptable snaps, took me long enough haha

 

 

And here is the helmet liner mounted. 

 

 

I got the side rivets in and painted as well.

 

 

I also got my Hovi mic speaker system from @ukswrath. I got the full set with icomm and microphone. 

 

I did buy fans and they arrived today as well, as well as the fan controller. I just need to figure out a battery (5V, likely going to use one of the many USB battery packs I have laying around for now). 

 

Well, on to the list, let's see what's left.

 

 

Test shoulder elastics, I glued them down better and will see if that helps them. If it doesn't I'll likely sew a small strip of fabric to them down the middle on the bottom side, that should fix them well enough. 

Size and glue side straps

finish helmet. (finish paint, install lens and electronics)

Talk to the GML

 

 

Dang... almost there. 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Looking good Caleb 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Coming along Pura Vida !!! 

[ticopowell[TK]]

Side straps are gluing, Ill test the shoulder straps tomorrow once the side straps have dried. Then just the helmet is left and all it needs is paint and the fans installed.

[ticopowell[TK]]

Torso fits! Now just the helmet is left. My wife is diligently painting when she has some extra energy (morning sickness is lasting most of the day  ). I got the mics installed, as well as the amp and icomm. 

 

Here are a few pics of the sides. I know I need tweaking, see below for my plan. 

 

 

 

I think I need to tighten them slightly by moving the snaps closer to the rivets. The gap mostly disappears when the belt is installed, but it's not perfect. Ill get a suited up picture (and get pre-approval pics up) once the helmet is finished. 

 

I did make my own fan system based off of my Vader fans. I wanted an adjustable fan speed so I bought this guy again https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RYKR83Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it works very well. For fans I bought these https://www.printedsolid.com/products/ldo-5015-5v-blower-fan-df5015h05s. I wanted a high cfm fan and most amazon ones were about half of these. I bought 6 fans. 2 for the lenses, 2 for the back of the helmet, and 2 for Vader because they are a lot stronger than what I have there. , you might notice that they are 3 wire fans, but mine are 2 wire fans... I just broke the 3rd yellow wire off because it's not needed. It's a tach signal, and the PWM controller doesn't care. I do plan on cutting the wires to size once they are installed and I know their needed length.

 

Here are the fans I bought. 

 

 

And here is the whole setup with a temporary battery and only 2 fans for now. I wanted to test it and make sure it worked. 

 

 

That battery is a 2600mAh USB battery, 5V at up to 1A. Assuming 4 fans at max speed I would be using 1.2 Amps... so I couldn't actually get max speed with this battery. I ordered a new one. The new one is 10000mAh and up to 2.4A so it should do the trick. I was wondering how long the first would last, simple math at 1A draw means it would last 2.6 hours at most. With the 10000mAh battery I could draw the full 1.2A for over 8 hours. I don't think Ill ever be in armor that long :). To connect the battery I found an old USB cable and cut it, stripped the wires (it was a charge only cable so only 2 wires, made life easier because I didn't have to guess which wire was the 5V and which was ground), and connected that to the speed controller. 

 

If you want I can provide a wiring diagram of how they are wired, but it's pretty simple. The red wire of the fans goes to the + terminal (labeled on the bottom), the black goes to the - terminal, and the usb cord goes to the + and - power terminals. With power (cables and battery) and fans connected all you have to do is rotate the knob and it works. 

 

Also, here is my wifey helping out!

 

 

Everything is painted black because I'm kinda lazy, and i'm kinda OCD. I painted the edges as nice as I could, but the brush had excess paint so I wiped it off in the middle... and it covered most of it so I just covered the whole thing on the fist trap I painted... then I did the next and thought it looked funny that it didn't match so I just painted the interior of both black... and just painted them all black at that point hahaha. I know, it's not needed. I had a slight worry about the grey looking different if the black wasn't uniform, then I remembered how thick the paint was and knew that it wouldn't be a problem. 

 

Well, that's it for now. Ill see if I can get anything else done tonight but I don't really expect to at this point. 

 

Happy Independence day to those in the USA, and happy Saturday to everyone else. 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by ticopowell

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Hi Caleb,  

 

Great work mate! your wife is an artist   

 

For your consideration about the Cut-out notches at the bottom of right and left sides of the Kidney Armor  for Level 3.

 

CRL states they are optional but:  If present, each notch is approximately 22 mm tall and the back of the notch ideally is aligned with the front edges of the Posterior Armor plate..

 

It looks like in your case could be just an alignment and center issue, mainly in your left side,  but you may want to check this out. 

 

 

 

Pura Vida!    

 

[ticopowell[TK]]

Hi Caleb,  
 
Great work mate! your wife is an artist   
 
For your consideration about the Cut-out notches at the bottom of right and left sides of the Kidney Armor  for Level 3.
 
CRL states they are optional but:  If present, each notch is approximately 22 mm tall and the back of the notch ideally is aligned with the front edges of the Posterior Armor plate..
 
It looks like in your case could be just an alignment and center issue, mainly in your left side,  but you may want to check this out. 
 

 
 
Pura Vida!    
 

Yeah, I've noticed that. If I perfectly center the kidney plate on the posterior plate the bottom plate is about 1/2" larger on each side. The only 2 options I can think of to fix it would be to either just cut it to match, or cut it slightly long and form a new return edge.
If I slide one edge to match the other edge is about an inch off.
Let me try and take a picture of it to show you.

[ticopowell[TK]]

Here are 2 pictures.

 

This is the right side lined up

 

 

Here they are centered. 

 

 

I looked at moving the butt plate out slightly, away from my torso, but that wouldn't work without a lot of reworking of the mounts, and I'm pretty sure it would look funny. 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

8 minutes ago, ticopowell said:

I looked at moving the butt plate out slightly, away from my torso, but that wouldn't work without a lot of reworking of the mounts, and I'm pretty sure it would look funny. 

 

Centered looks better and I think  it could be better to wait when  you put it on and look the alignment.    

 

[ticopowell[TK]]

 
Centered looks better and I think  it could be better to wait when  you put it on and look the alignment.    
 

I'll pay attention to that next time I wear the armor. I know it won't affect initial approval but I'd like to fix it before I apply, and I think I have time while I wait on the helmet.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

7 minutes ago, ticopowell said:

I'll pay attention to that next time I wear the armor. I know it won't affect initial approval but I'd like to fix it before I apply, and I think I have time while I wait on the helmet.

Yes, It's for level 3, so don't worry.   I'm sure when wearing it'll solve.   

[ticopowell[TK]]

And... it's done! now on to the GML. 

Pictures are posted in the pre approval thread, here's the link. 

 

 

 

 

[Sly11[Admin]]

All your hard work is finally going to pay off Caleb, well done and looking forward to congratulating you on your pending approval.

[ticopowell[TK]]

APPROVED! I need to hike the biceps up a little and they're happy

 

Edit, I meant biceps, not shoulders

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Great Caleb !!! Congratulations.  

[Chemi[Staff]]

Congratulations Caleb!!!...And now, EIB and Centurion!!!!

[ticopowell[TK]]

So, 

I'm going over the EIB options and from what I can tell I don't really need to change anything, I might need a few more pictures, but I have pictures of everything already and I'm tempted to upload those to the EIB thread tonight lol. 

The biceps are getting glued at the moment, so they should be ready tomorrow. I think Ill suit up tomorrow, retake pictures of the biceps, and take a few more cleaner close up pictures in costume, then submit. 

That is unless @TKSpartan or @justjoseph63 want to call it good  hahahaha jk, don't worry guys, I'll submit tomorrow

Happy 4th everyone

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Hey Caleb, great to read you're applying so soon!!  

 

I if I can give a tip, I would like to recommend you to take a quick view in some of the approved EIB applications so you can see the required photos and  the most common adjustment requested. This can make you review to go fast.  

 

Cheers  

[ticopowell[TK]]

Just now, TKSpartan said:

Hey Caleb, great to read you're applying so soon!!  

 

I if I can give a tip, I would like to recommend you to take a quick view in some of the approved EIB applications so you can see the required photos and  the most common adjustment requested. This can make you review to go fast.  

 

Cheers  

That's what I'm doing tonight, double checking my armor and comparing it to the CRL. I've also reviewed a few EIB submissions and will look at a few more tomorrow before suiting up to make sure I have all the pictures I need. 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

7 minutes ago, ticopowell said:

That's what I'm doing tonight, double checking my armor and comparing it to the CRL. I've also reviewed a few EIB submissions and will look at a few more tomorrow before suiting up to make sure I have all the pictures I need. 

Great, I did the same with mine.  

[ticopowell[TK]]

Looks like I have to wait to request EIB, I do not have a "start new topic" button in the correct page of the forum. I assume that it's because I don't have TK access yet, just standard 501st access. I requested it here 

 But they haven't updated me yet. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

8 minutes ago, ticopowell said:

Looks like I have to wait to request EIB, I do not have a "start new topic" button in the correct page of the forum. I assume that it's because I don't have TK access yet, just standard 501st access. I requested it here 

 But they haven't updated me yet. 

You would be correct, the requests are periodically updated so shouldn't be too long to wait.

[ticopowell[TK]]

Guess I never updated my build thread. 

 

Here's my EIB app and approval thread!

 

 

Now I'm going for centurion, I fixed all the mandatory centurion items so I'll hopefully post that thread soon. Baby is due this week (hopefully not today, the hospital is 2 blocks away from the superbowl!) so I should have some time off work to help the wifey, and take a few more pictures

 

For the Centurion fixes I trimmed and lowered the helmet brow, I added white to fill the gap on the thigh piece, I glued the belt boxes into place, and I think that was all I needed to do. I think I adjusted the forearms so they were slightly lower, and Ill have to look at the thigh placement when I wear the suit next. 

 

So... I need to suit up, take a few pics, and I should have centurion in the bag!

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

All great news Caleb !! hoping everything Pura Vida with your Baby !!   and looking forward for your Centurion App.