Saltyr1's First ATA ANH Build thread

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I cut my holes a little lower, also use a couple of washers, which I placed on a socket, then hit with a hammer in the center to curve the washer, gives a little more strength behind the mounting area as it can be quite thin

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Glen’s idea of a conical washer seems like a good idea for hovi tip mounting, as the well area is super thin. If you haven’t already, hold it up to the light and you’ll see! I reinforced mine with milliput, documented in my most recent build thread update, and then used a rubber washer and the ATA supplied metal washer.

 

My ATA hovi screws weren’t quite as off-center as yours, but they were off a bit. Honestly, having them that was was kinda nice since I could then rotate them around to adjust the final angle at which the tips pointed. Keep up the great work!

[Cali_Nole]

On 1/8/2021 at 8:55 AM, saltyr1 said:

...and the dreaded ears. 

Ears...I'm still having nightmares from mine lol!  No, seriously, they weren't as scary as I'd anticipated them to be.  For me, tedious and time consuming for sure, just required a good amount of patience.     

 

[saltyr1[TK]]

Thanks for the feedback!  I have made more progress over the past couple weeks:

 

Hovi mics I think look good.  I added milliput and made a rubber washer from some gasket material I had laying around.

 

Then I started on the 'easy' ear.  As Cali_Nole mentioned, very time consuming.  I honestly spent probably 6 hours on this one.  Now the next one should go quicker.  But...  I initially struggled trying to keep the ear high up near the brow.  But ended up moving it a little lower, similarly to the Dave M helmet.  I don't care for the small gap at the top, but to get the ear so it doesn't look like dumbo, I felt one of two things had to happen: 1) it would stick out more than I wanted it to.  2) or I had to cut down the bottom which wouldn't be right.  You can see what I mean below with this pic of the ear moved up by the brow line.

 

So this is how it ended up. With a comparison to the Dave M helmet.  Now I have not drilled the holes for it.  I wanted to get any feedback on if this would be a problem with Centurion level.  I assume not as this is seen on the real ones.  But please let me know.  I do have a second ear I could do differently (but not something I want to do again if possible).  

 

Thoughts?  Next step is to drill the holes and mount it.  I might try something else next before I try the other ear, like the thermal detonator.  But that could change.

[Cali_Nole]

Looks great to me!  I'm fairly certain the brow line to top of ear gap won't be an issue, as like you said, it's consistent with the Dave M helmet, but maybe wait for more experienced troopers to chime in.  Mine wanted to fit the same way, but I went the other route and thinned out the bottom to bring the top more in line with the brow.  Of course, that gave me a bigger gap between the top of the cheek tube and the ear, so it was 'pick your poison'.  Pretty much a personal preference thing I think, since the screen used ears were kind of all over the map.  

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, nice work.

[saltyr1[TK]]

Hello again!  It's been a few weeks since my last post.  I did have to make the wife happy and get some interior painting done, so that is all behind me now.  During that time I actually finished up my 3d printed blaster which I didn't really document.  It came out really good, but lots of priming, sanding, painting.  I think part of this is my reluctance to start on that other ear LOL.

 

I also started on the TD.  

 

Now the clips.  I got a set of Ukswraths clips.  Now I have the common problem of a 2inch pipe being an ATA kit.  I was reading MV's part 2 of his TD build on how to handle the gap (I was hoping part 3 was ready).  So what I did was mounted one to a test piece.  Then I bent it at the blue arrow using a 1 1/2 piece of pipe.  I was much happier with the results.  Now it does bring the clip a little too high up in the front.  So my thoughts are to trim down the clip as shown below. 

 

I think this would be acceptable comparing it to the real example above.  And allow for more of a proper placement of the panel.  Though I would like to get others thoughts before I proceed.

Edited February 12, 2021 by saltyr1
Change reference to picture from below to above

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

I think you’re on track with your TD clip adjustments. Glad you saw my TD posts; I was a little obsessed with that component for a while, and haven’t finished up my final part 3 solution because I actually managed to acquire a couple of the larger-diameter versions and if I decide the white tones match closely enough (haven’t decided yet), I’ll need to reconstruct the new ones. Then I’ll be really obsessed, with multiple ones in-hand. Haha. =)

MV


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[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work on getting rid of print lines on that blaster.

 

It's a shame ATA has never updated their detonator, it is a lot smaller than a lot of other makers.

 

Here's a couple of references on the TD to show the rotation of the detonator on the belt. I would agree and cut your brackets, you don't want the control panel too high, notice the raised O is fully visible so adjust the placement of the panel to that.

 

         

[tat2trooper[TK]]

Where did you get that E11 stand? 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

4 minutes ago, tat2trooper said:

Where did you get that E11 stand? 

I've seen it on Thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2797990

[saltyr1[TK]]

Yes that is it.  I had to resize the vertical mounts as the blaster was too big to fit in the top cutouts.  

[saltyr1[TK]]

Resizing the whole stand to 113% fits the Sterling SMG kit perfectly.

[tat2trooper[TK]]

Looks pretty nice bro. You should weather it.

[saltyr1[TK]]

Thanks!  I do plan on weathering it.  I did the bolt and the spring since they were easier while it was in pieces.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Man, you are putting in a lot of detail and it looks great.  Can't wait to see how the rest turns out, as spring is almost here.

[saltyr1[TK]]

I uploaded my remixed Blaster stand arms to Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4760956/files).  This allows the stand to be printed at a normal size, but these arms will fit the Sterling SMG kit.  The part that goes in the base is the same size.  However, since the arms are wider, you need to trim some of the top cover to allow the 'fins' on the arms to sit properly.  Hope this helps other troopers.

Edited February 13, 2021 by saltyr1

[saltyr1[TK]]

As you can see I have the TD mocked up below.  The overall measurement came out pretty good with the total width being 191mm, with the end caps each 20mm and the panel is 122mm wide.

 

I did cut down the front of the bracket a bit, which helped.  But the round button is pretty much facing straight up.  

 

I do wish I could get tilted back a little more.  I could cut the bracket just under the screw hole and drill a new one.  But any thoughts?  Do you think its acceptable as it is?

 

Also, I have a can of Krylon Classic Grey gloss I was hoping to use for the TD.  Here it is compared to Hubrol #5 and Testors 1138.  Would this be acceptable?

 

Thanks!  Chris

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, looks great

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Nice mods on the TD clips. Maybe I'll make a design change for the ATA customers. 

 

Keep up the great work 

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

21 minutes ago, ukswrath said:

Maybe I'll make a design change for the ATA customers.

 

Tony you totally should make a 2" tube version of the clips! Then you could alleviate some of my OCD behavior, haha! (It could have saved me from all this - gif diagrams towards the bottom of my TD #2 post). Plus a smaller version of the clips would work not only for ATA, but also AP, WTF, RT-Mod, and MTK.

Edited February 15, 2021 by MaskedVengeance

[ukswrath[Staff]]

1 hour ago, MaskedVengeance said:

 

Tony you totally should make a 2" tube version of the clips! Then you could alleviate some of my OCD behavior, haha! (It could have saved me from all this - gif diagrams towards the bottom of my TD #2 post). Plus a smaller version of the clips would work not only for ATA, but also AP, WTF, RT-Mod, and MTK.

 

Well technically they're supposed to be universal, but obviously they need a little adjusting, I'll work on that thanks 

 

ATA I believe has the smallest TD tube dimensions of all the armor suppliers. I haven't heard from anyone else regarding fitting issues but I'll be sure to ask around. 

[saltyr1[TK]]

I did get the other ear trimmed and fitted.  

 

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[saltyr1[TK]]

More progress!  I finished up the TD and I'm happy with the results.

 

Then back to the helmet.  I originally had no intention of painting the inside of the helmet black.  But it really grew on me seeing pics of others done this way.  So I decided to do it.  And again, happy with the results.  I used the garbage bag method and lots of tape around the eyes and teeth.  I used a white primer first, followed by black truck bed coating.  Then let it set for 4 days.  I used Gorilla double sided tape for the frown mesh I bought from TrooperBay.

 

Before putting it back together, I took the opportunity to add the tube stipe decals.  I feel like the helmet is almost there!

 

So next step is to paint the ears...

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, coming along well.

 

Just with the ear screws, you can use a larger drill bit by hand and countersink the hole so they sit down a little