Shinyarmour1 AP ANH Stunt First Build

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Thanks Mario, it has helped to clear things up.  I'll adjust the right shin to match the left so they will both be 2 fingers gap.   As for the thighs, the images you used to show the alignment is the 3 finger gap picture.  I'm assuming that's the size to start with (I can always take more in if they are too big).

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

I was going to make a start on the canvas belt today.  I already drilled the holes in the ammo belt, all I need to do was make the hole in the canvas belt.  I made the first hole, stopped and thought about the belt length.  Since I trimmed down my kit to fit me better, what about the canvas belt length itself?  After doing a quick test fit I discovered that the belt is too long.  Here is the length where the velcro meets and it is way too big (even if I didn't trim down my kit, it would still be big so I would need to take it in a little).

 

 

Here I tried to tighten the belt as close as I could to fit me and there's a small amount of velcro with a lot of excess belt overhanging.

 

You can still see a bit of gap though.

 

This is where the velco is on the belt.

 

 

What should I do?  Should I trim the excess belt material and add some velco?  I am open to any and all suggestions.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

24 minutes ago, Shinyarmour1 said:

What should I do?  Should I trim the excess belt material and add some velco? 

 

Hi, definitely It's a bit too long for you. If it was me, I would take to a  tailor or seamstress. Cut the excess and add velcro. here some reference photos that can clarify the size.

 

          

 

Cheers.  

 

 

 

 

[ABS80]

On 6/7/2020 at 9:05 PM, Shinyarmour1 said:

Although the biceps fit better than before, they are still a little big on me, so I'll just do what other troopers have recommended and add some padding.

I've cut a 15mm outer coverstip so I can see how the ridges look before continuing.  Does it look like it would sit correctly on the bicep ridges evenly?  I don't want to have the ridges showing underneath the coverstrip, nor do I want to accidently trim off too much.  Please let me know what you guys think.

 

Here is the right bicep

 

Here is the left bicep

 

Test fit

 

Per movie original you need to completely trim off the raised edges on both sides, the AP biceps are purposely made much  

bigger than the movie original to fit most, look at movie suit biceps they have pratically the same circumference as top of forearms. 

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by ABS80

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Got to work on the shins and thighs.  When it came to trimming the front, they were pretty straight forward, cut a 20mm coverstrip for the front for both of them.  I starting with the left shin cutting 10mm each side, glued the inner strip to hold it in place and then glued the outer strip.

 

 

Now the back was a completly different story.  Because there is no guide line return running down, that ment I had to hope my overlap measurements were correct for sizing.  The top was 6mm overlap and the bottom 16mm.  So I trimmed 3mm at the top and 5mm at the bottom on both halfs.  I even gave myself some extra room just in case and to allow the shin to fit over my boot.  I cut out the 25mm strip for the back, glued half on the left hand side (becuase its the left shin) and after curing applied the velcro to the other half.

 

 

It seems to close alright at the top but theres a slight gap at the bottom where the shin curve does not align properly.

 

 

It's hard to notice but I was wondering if this is normal.  Mark Gambino build thread has the same issue, while gmrhodes13 said to give it a hot water bath and bring the gap closer, Mark (ABS80) said to leave alone because thats how they were on screen.  Has anyone else had the same thing with their shins (even when using velcro) and did they need to fix it?

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

The thighs...same thing.  I'm only woring on the left side first and if all looks correct, then I can work on the right.  Still in the process of trimming/sanding the coverstips, but the thigh front is done and the back as well (I hope).  Like the shin, I measured the overlap, added some extra space and trimmed.  How does it look?

 

 

Again, the back is giving me grief.  It seems the back ridge is not co-operating with me.  When I tape this scrap piece coverstrip into place there leaves a gap where the 2 ridges meet.

 

 

Even if I take the trimmed ridge and glue it behind to try and close the gap, the other half of the thigh becomes raised and, again, leaves a gap.

 

 

I can't hot water bath this one because there's too much uneven stress to glue both the coverstrips and the ridge piece.  What should I do about this?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I normally glue the cover strip on, wait until it's completely dry @48 hours, then I use a scrap piece of ABS plastic for behind the ridge, glue and clamp tightly, usually the ridges will come together, again leave it well to dry. A little bit of force is sometimes needed  

[MightyAtom[TK]]

I did as@gmrhodes13 suggests here: glued small tabs inside the edges. It worked a treat.

However, to allow for the tension between pieces, I also glued internal strips to get the thighs together first, then the cover strips, then the inside tab to bring the edges together, before finally applying ABS paste. Bear in mind, if you have mobility cuts on the rear, this will remove some of the misaligned edges anyway, so don't stress too much.

I did this one strip at a time and waited two days for the E6000 to cure to ensure the bond would take the tension of the next stage. So, glue one internal strip to each half, wait two days; now glue both sides together, one side at a time to allow for tension, wait two days between each side; then glue cover strips outside, wait two days; now glue the tab on the inside edge to align the edges - the thigh joins should be rock solid by now and take the strain of the edge being clamped to bring them together.

All up, it has taken me weeks to build the thighs, but I know they are rock solid.

Here's the tab I glued inside the thigh edge. I used two strong clamps and kept them on for two days while it cured.

Sent from my Imperial Communicator

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

1 hour ago, Shinyarmour1 said:

Has anyone else had the same thing with their shins (even when using velcro) and did they need to fix it?

Hi,  this very common when building the shins, as Mark pointed, the plastic if different today (thicker) and the lower section of the shins is very curved. If I was you I would try to apply a hot water bath , but before gluing. If you have already glued it , I think it's not very noticeable as it.

 

Here some reference images that shows this problem was even in the film.

 

 

   

 

 

       

 

 

Hope this can give some light.  

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, markgambino said:

Here's the tab I glued inside the thigh edge. I used two strong clamps and kept them on for two days while it cured.
 

Not sure if I mentioned it before but make sure you rough up the areas with course sandpaper especially where you want the glue to grip or it's under any strain  

 

Came out great, nice work.

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Thanks for the helpful feedback everyone.  I'll have a go at closing the shin gap, if I can't, then I'll just leave it alone.  As for the thighs, I'll do as you guys advice and glue every strip waiting  48 hours in-between.  I will just have to accept that the bottom ridges on the thighs will only align with substantial clamping force, followed by ABS paste to conceal the gap. 

 

Thanks again.

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

I'm currently in the process of gluing the thigh coverstips.  While I am gradually gluing the inner and outer stripes, I have also cut and glued the strips for the shoulder bridges.  Unfortunately after several attempts with the shins in hot water, the gap has not closed, so I'll probably just leave it be (it's not that noticeable anyway).  I've also been doing battle with the sniper plate.  I've glued the middle on first, and am now waiting 48 hours before gluing 1 side, followed by the other.

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Its been very slow for me in the way of progress.  I've been trying to find the time to work on my kit, along with the difficult areas to glue that require 48-72 hours cure time instead of just 24 hours.  I managed to get my left leg completed (except for trimming the top of the coverstrip) and I want to get confirmation from you experts that if everything looks good, I can incorporate those measurements for my right leg.  So here's what I managed to do.

The last time I spoke about the thighs, I was struggling to get the gap where the ridge was at the back to close.  After some very helpful feedback and ideas, I went back into the thighs.  I installed the inner strips, then the front coverstrip.

 

 

I borrowed an idea from Markgambino for closing the back ridge gap (thanks Markgambino)  I cut 2 thick pieces of ABS, glued them together so they would be extra strong...

 

 

...and used the force (clamping force) to close and even the ridge gap for 48 hours cure time.  This worked batter than I expected.  I thought that there would still be some gap to fill with ABS paste, but there's hardly any at all.  After that I glued the back coverstrip...

 

 

...and here is the result.  I'll trim the tops of the strips only when I know that the thighs are good and don't need  resizing.

 

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

I wanted to have a go at painting the boots, so after reading several tutorials about boot painting, I got to work.  I gave them a good wipe over with acetone to remove the shine and placed the velco to keep the shins in place.

 

1 coat of white leather paint

 

3 coats later

 

6 coats later

 

I still need to go around the sole with a toothpick to remove some paint bleed, but man they were fun to paint and see the transformation.
 

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Now for the dreaded sniper knee.  Like many builds have mentioned, vertical sides looks more screen accurate and rounded corners to prevent stress splits/cracks.

 

I think I might have the sniper knee secured in the correct position.  It was a tough battle getting this awkward knee to fit, not to mention a long time.  But as it was strongly advised, glue the base (wait 48 hours), glue one side (wait another 48 hours) then glue the other side (wait 48 hours).  As you can see there were quite a few clamps needed.

After I removed the clamps, I gave it a once over to check the positioning.  It looks straight and aligned to me, but I'll leave it up to you guys.  It was soon after checking the position of the sniper knee, I then realised that one of my clamps had left an imprint on the side. 

So I did what any rational person would have done.  I had a 5 minute panic attack, then went through my options and possible outcomes.  It seems that there are only 2 options for me:-
A. I leave it as is and say "oh well, these things happen".
or
B. I carefully remove one side, trim off as much of the imprint as I can and reglue.  Then carefully remove the other side, trim off a little to even it out and reglue.  
Here's a picture to show what I mean.

What should I do?
 

[Sly11[Admin]]

You have done a great job on the sniper plate. Perhaps just take the pointed corner off so it doesn't catch on anything and damaged your under suit etc.

You dont want to damage all your hard work.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

For my OCD I'd have to remove that side, add a little heat then use two popsticks or small pieces of wood just to push together BUT you have to have some experience with using heat, bit hard to hot water bath unless you are going to take the whole plate on. You may actually find if you remove that side you may very well be able to man handle that section and push it back out. I think it would be noticed if you are going for higher level approvals.

 

Nice work though on the rest

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Thanks for the feedback and likes to my build so far.  For the sniper plate, I have some pop sticks but no heat gun, so I'll just try and restore the dented area with a few hot water baths and clamp the pop sticks together to hopefully level it out.  But before I do that, here is my left leg test fit.  

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work. Adding some foam behind the shin may help push the sniper plate away from your thighs, you don't want to catch it while walking or bending 

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

A lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, so I'll bring everyone up to speed with what I have done since my last post.  There was a clamp dent in the side of my sniper knee which had to be either bent back into place, or trimmed off.  After dipping that part into boiling water and taping several paddle pop sticks together, I clamped the sticks in and on top of the groove dent and clamped hard.  By doing this several times, the dented part of the sniper knee  bent back straight once again.

Before

 

After

 

 

The split rivet/snap for the cod.

 

Installed snaps and a slot system to keep the Ab/Kindey plates from moving and overlapping.

 

Drilled holes on the Ab/Kidney sides and even glued some ABS plates for extra strength.

 

 I even crested a slot system for the other side to level out and also prevent sliding/overlapping.

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

I trimmed the AB plates, measured the button decals supplied by AP, traced around and cut out on painters tape.  Here we are after 2 coats and a toothpick clean up.

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

I had a mishap when I glued the hand guard to the glove.  Not only did some glue spill ooze out under the guard, but there was a fold  that I did not see when I glued onto the glove.  So I decided to cut the guards off the gloves because there was no recovering it with the thumb fold glued underneath, oh well, live and learn.  Just went out to get 2 sets of gloves instead (1  being a backup pair).  This time I had a better understanding and was well prepared.  Here are my new gloves ready for L3.

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Here is the belt so far.

 

As for the canvas belt itself, it was way too long  Others had suggested exactly what I was thinking...trim off the excess.  

 

After looking at several reference images, doing a test fit with the TD attached and taking some measurements; I was wondering about using the TD for a reference of the trim line and cut right here.

 

If I were to trim the belt where I have marked it, would this be correct and accurate (especially for L3)?
 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

1 hour ago, Shinyarmour1 said:

If I were to trim the belt where I have marked it, would this be correct and accurate (especially for L3)?

 

Your marked  points are ok. Here some references.

 

       

 

 

 

And if I can give some more considerations  on the AB Belt for L3 :

 

 

Buttons cover go ideally flat .

 

 

               

 

 

CRL L3:  The corners of the plastic ammo belt shall be trimmed at a 45 degree angle that that meets the outer edge of the cloth belt.

 

Also take note that the covers of the buttons go centered , not to the edge pf the ABS Belt.

 

          

 

 

And for the Drop Boxes  

 

CRL L3 Drop boxes are vertically aligned with the end of the ammo belt with minimal gap between belt and box.

 

 

 

 

Keep on doing a great work Trooper !!  

 

 

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Thanks for the reference pictures Mario  

 

Measured, drilled, counter sunk and installed AP supplied snaps for the butt plate

 

And made the thigh belt too.