What have I gotten myself into?

[Zinfer[TK]]

l have to admit, this is the second time I've watched your suiting up vid and you look absolutely authentic.  I'd seen this video before.  Very impressive.

[Zinfer[TK]]

Ok, so 3 things done today.  Finished off the belt (other than the holster) with adding the beltboxes  (Yep my Zip Kicker arrived today).  I somehow ran through that tiny bottle of super CA glue.  Be nice if I could find a larger amount of it.  Anyone have a good site for their CA glue?

 

[Zinfer[TK]]

Finished sanding the Chest Plate.  Those little nodules on the bottom I'm not sure if those stay or go.  

 

 

 

[Zinfer[TK]]

And finally the Butt Plate.  I took notice of how wonky this piece is.  The left butt Cheek doesn't have the same symetry and the Right.  It was missing an entire point.  I believe the right cheek has 5 points, where the left either had 4 or was a bad pull.  But I tried to make it work.  Also notice the legs left an right were a little assymetric. Maybe too many beers but the right appears higher than the left.

Notice the 5 points on the right butt cheek.

However the left was almost missing an entire point.  I tried to work with this to get it a little more correct?  Was this a mistake on my part to try and correct this?

 

 

[Zinfer[TK]]

Thinkin the back plate next.  Notice I'm avoiding the codpiece and kidney.  I am so diet conscious.  I hope the heck I can do a StormTrooper figure justice.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Perfect work on the angles on the ends of the ABS belt meeting the canvas one, but the outside edges of the drop boxes should be aligned with the outside edges of the ABS belt.  This is not a requirement for Basic approval, but is you are (hopefully) aiming for Centurion level it will be and is screen accurate.  Some E-6000 glue behind the straps will keep it in place.

 

 

Speaking of E-6000, I noticed that you mention CA glue a lot.  Yes, it dries instantly, but I honestly do not suggest using this.  The reasons being:

 

1.  It can run (drip).  If it gets on your armor in a place where you don't want it, it has to be sanded down and re-polished.  Not an easy task.

2.  If you make a mistake when attaching something it is unforgiving.  I have seen more that one instance where the pieces involved had to actually be replaced.

3.  It can become brittle over time, causing the join to fail.

 

Using E-6000 is pretty much the tried and true method.  It takes time (12+ hours) to cure and has to be clamped during the process**, but does not get brittle and can be removed if needed, even if it seeps outside the join.  Trust me on this one.

** This is what the neodymium (rare earth) magnets are used for. 

[Harder[TK]]

Rodney, I must say I agree with seeing your apprehension transition to digging in and becoming an seasoned builder was quick!

 

Also, I do not want to glaze over the fact you have an arcade there, kickass carpet, the old MBT desolderer, welder, and my favorite, oscilloscope! It’s evident if you’re not a mechanical engineer, you’ve got the aptitude for it. I have built several emulator arcade machines, but I believe you’re the real macoy there. You got this!

 

Love all the pictures and detailed progress. Keep it up!!

[Zinfer[TK]]

10 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

Perfect work on the angles on the ends of the ABS belt meeting the canvas one, but the outside edges of the drop boxes should be aligned with the outside edges of the ABS belt.  This is not a requirement for Basic approval, but is you are (hopefully) aiming for Centurion level it will be and is screen accurate.  Some E-6000 glue behind the straps will keep it in place.

 

 

Speaking of E-6000, I noticed that you mention CA glue a lot.  Yes, it dries instantly, but I honestly do not suggest using this.  The reasons being:

 

1.  It can run (drip).  If it gets on your armor in a place where you don't want it, it has to be sanded down and re-polished.  Not an easy task.

2.  If you make a mistake when attaching something it is unforgiving.  I have seen more that one instance where the pieces involved had to actually be replaced.

3.  It can become brittle over time, causing the join to fail.

 

Using E-6000 is pretty much the tried and true method.  It takes time (12+ hours) to cure and has to be clamped during the process**, but does not get brittle and can be removed if needed, even if it seeps outside the join.  Trust me on this one.

** This is what the neodymium (rare earth) magnets are used for. 

Oh you're absolutely correct justjoseph.  I am ok with simple parts/flat surfaces for CA.  As for the dropboxes, there's a little wiggle room there I think.  Only other thing I can do is order another Beltplate, some wihite plastic dots and dropbox cloth, rivets and try it over again.  What screwed me up there was not realizing it had to meet the belt in a particular location with those 45's .  So I was left with a predicament of having to shave each side back, which left me with just a little room for the placement of the drop boxes, but like I say, I think I can adjust that further outward with just a tug.  As for the E-6000, your right I haven't used it any at all.  I'm still waiting on RS to ship me that PVC material so that I can start in on the limbs.  When I begin fitting and coverstrip and glueing, that's when all the E-6000 is going to be pouring out.  I was absolutely surprised with the belt boxes and my first application of Zip Kicker.  WOW - instant and no second chances with that combo. Solid in a second.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I use gel superglue and zip kicker for joining 3D parts, it's pretty solid and fills spaces, I'm not sure I'd use it on ABS or PVC plastic though, it can bloom and leave a cloud of white stain but if it works for you all good

[Zinfer[TK]]

9 hours ago, Harder said:

Rodney, I must say I agree with seeing your apprehension transition to digging in and becoming an seasoned builder was quick!

 

Also, I do not want to glaze over the fact you have an arcade there, kickass carpet, the old MBT desolderer, welder, and my favorite, oscilloscope! It’s evident if you’re not a mechanical engineer, you’ve got the aptitude for it. I have built several emulator arcade machines, but I believe you’re the real macoy there. You got this!

 

Love all the pictures and detailed progress. Keep it up!!

Thank you Harder.  That's a wonderful compliment.  Yea I built me an arcade a few years back, 40x60 2400 square ft.  About 60 + classic 80s cabinets and no chance of keeping up with repairs.  I've never seen the sense in half efforts.  Experiment and go slow at first, but once you got the hang of it, then dive in with both feet.  Yea I do alot of electronics repair being I collect those old cabinets in barns for years.  I saw someone once use the Pace desoldering station and I was instantly hooked after a while of using a solder sucker.  Using the oscilloscope is a bit more complex to use.  I typically will use my PAT9000 to test out a board initially.  Mame and other emulators are fine and a blessing sometimes when ROM chips fail.  You can just reburn the image onto a new  Eprom and plop it back in the socket.  I've had to replace ALOT of sockets.  Just did recently with the Amiga 2000, 68000 processor.  Battery acid damage.  THIS, I've never done before so it is a new experience for me.  Thankfully I have the tools onhand to compensate for my inexperience.    With the 501st and FISD as well as the Garrison, this is an enormous wealth of information and sometimes instant answers to hard questions.  I don't know if I'll ever get to Troop but I can say right now it looks like alot of fun and compassion.  I think the real challenge for me will be getting to around 170 or under and LOOK the part.    Thanks again Harder.

 

P.S.:  That carpet is actually UV reactive.  Under black light it illuminates the entire room without any additional light necessary.    But you probably want to wear a fresh washed pair of pants before entering as there are 6 sets of fluorescent black lights mounted on the ceiling. 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Zinfer

[Zinfer[TK]]

18 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I use gel superglue and zip kicker for joining 3D parts, it's pretty solid and fills spaces, I'm not sure I'd use it on ABS or PVC plastic though, it can bloom and leave a cloud of white stain but if it works for you all good

Yea that's the CA I was using before I just ran out.  The Loctite brand gel.  I like the gel because yea I hate RUNS and liquid.  A water type glue is really hard to work with as it always figures out a way to screw you up.  My first time last night using zip kicker.  I do have some Zap a Gap coming.  Never used that either but the containers are SO SMALL.  I think so far I've only used it on the back of the drop boxes and the cloth to secure them.  And just that ran me out of it.  :).  Stupid little half ounce bottles at $7.  Oh and I used some (a couple dabs) on the ammo belt rivet plastic cover x3.

Edited December 5, 2020 by Zinfer

[Zinfer[TK]]

So last night I finished trimming and sanding the kidney plate. Tried to preserve enough return edge for any brackets.  I'm still thinkin about the old RS strapping versus just going with button snaps. 

 

 

 

My next project is the Back plate.  Man now THIS is hard tracing the pencil lines as there was very little I could see of any old flashing.  I sat for an hour probablly watching Rob at RS draw those lines, how thick,  where, how wide...took a bit to figure out and put pencil to plastic.  Hope I got it right.  Going to trim it out later tonight. 

 

Alot of meat at the bottom.  If I do go with brackets, plenty here to work with.

 

I'm thinking the further up I go to the shoulder the return edge gets to near nothing.  Erring to caution on the initial cut.  Better to have more meat than nothing at all to work with.  For now I'm thinking this is too thick.

 

Really not sure here, but I think this is supposed to be a squareish round circle back.  I've nociced from Rob's video tut that this section is very thin.  More thin than my rubbish rough drawn lines.  THIS is why I tend to use the dremel sanding bit rather than a cutting tool.  I make adjustments on the fly.

Edited December 5, 2020 by Zinfer
spelling

[CableGuy[TK]]

Hiya,

 

For the back plate, you could certainly go for thinner return edge (edit: on the sides). As below, probably more like 3 to 5mm.

 

 

:-)

[Zinfer[TK]]

Wow that's Really tight.  Wonder how they even had brackets on there?  Watchin your C3PO at the moment on Youtube. 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Wow that's Really tight.  Wonder how they even had brackets on there?  Watchin your C3PO at the moment on Youtube. 

That’s for the sides (against your picture of the side of your back plate). ;-)

Here’s the bottom edge of the back plate on the original RS Suit;



If ever in doubt, check out the gallery - there are two excellent folders with pictures of nearly every part of the RS suit. :-)

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/category/24-anh-tk-reference/

[Zinfer[TK]]

Finished trimming the back plate.  Actually turned out pretty good.  Still may take some a little more off the lower back. 

May need a hair more trimming on the right side.  I see a line I may have missed.

 

[Zinfer[TK]]

Now for the dreaded final large piece of body armor.  I'm going to have to seriously do alot of exercise and workouts to fit inside this thing with no gap in between the kidney plate. The Codpiece.  Not going to be trimming much off the sides of this.  Wish me luck in EVER fitting into this.  

[CableGuy[TK]]

Finished trimming the back plate.  Actually turned out pretty good.  Still may take some a little more off the lower back. 
May need a hair more trimming on the right side.  I see a line I may have missed.

 

Of course, the final decisions are up to you, trooper, but, as below, you could probably still take another 4 or 5mm out of the return edge here.



If you leave to return edges too large, it could start to look quite clunky. It might also dig in to you quite a bit.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Your 45 degree angles are spot-on and it looks like you are in fine shape.. You may want to think about removing the drop-box elastic and starting over... not as difficult as you may think.

Since the elastic is not seen in the back you can get creative, and they don't have to be on a loop around the canvas belt.  On my second build I had this issue and I just glued (E-6000) a strip of elastic to the back of the box and then directly to the canvas belt in the proper position.  Done deal.

 

       

 

A few more suggestions:

 

I would take at least this much off.

 

Leaving this much on may cause the bottom of the chest to stick out.

 

 

  A few reference images

           

 

As I mentioned, some troopers like the thicker look of partially removed return edges, no biggie, but some more trimming would be in order in my humble opinion.

 

[Zinfer[TK]]

10 hours ago, CableGuy said:

Of course, the final decisions are up to you, trooper, but, as below, you could probably still take another 4 or 5mm out of the return edge here.



If you leave to return edges too large, it could start to look quite clunky. It might also dig in to you quite a bit.

Yup.  I was just going by what Rob had said in that if you don't leave enough material there, the simple act of drilling the holes can lead to a crack.  You can always remove more material afterward.  Now, I've never done it before so I was just taking his word at it.  I have yet to see any kit base for the snap configuration of the elastic straps and still leaving my options open for the original method.  I can only imagine a nightmare of any one of 12 glued elastic strap loops not holding with these loops.  So at this point leaving all options on the table.  Yea I agree there's still alot of meat there and last I saw another trooper create those straps by hand, strap by strap, snap by snap.  In either case I'll have to revisit the kidney trimming.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I've seen a couple of people add the actual brackets with very loose elastic so there is no actual strain on them, they then use the snap and elastic method and this does all the hard work, it's double the work but gives you the screen accurate look without the worry of cracking any plastic. 

 

Leaving some return edge is fine but what you have is a little too much and I can see it digging into you with movement.

 

Another few references

 

[Zinfer[TK]]

Ok, so nobody likes my back plates' trimmed thickness.  I'll bring it back to the bench and see if I can shave just a little more off the edges.  As for the belt, I am really scared of further having to mod it.  I am very near having to replace it entirely and start over.  Had I not trimmed a good 1/2" off both sides the drop boxes would be even further away from the ends.  I'll take another look at it.  So I think your issue was with the left box.   Maybe the strap for the beltbox had just moved inward a bit when I flipped it over to take a shot.  I will examine it.  Back to the back plate,  I feel there is supposed to be a difference in thickness of the bottom of the back plate from the top.   Probably not as pronounced as I'd initially trimmed it.  I'll get on this today as well as trimming some off the bottom edge. 

[Harder[TK]]

Glenn = 100%

Also, and for reference, one of my degrees is Bachelors I’d Applied Sciences, Mechanical Engineering of Polymer Sciences. Essentially I have been in the plastics industry since 1993.

For drilling and to relieve stress.. you can warm the plastic in the sunlight to approximately 120 to 150 degrees, then sandwich the polymer with two sacrifice pieces OR wood... and drill through it with a NEW sharp bit.

The Tg or “Glass Transition” point of ABS is 220F PVC is 180F.

That’s the softening point to be able to move the polymer chains without breaking... laymen’s “it won’t crack but you can move it.

Thermavacuformed sheets are a little lower. Hence why I’m suggesting 120 to 150.

FYI.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CableGuy[TK]]

Ok, so nobody likes my back plates' trimmed thickness.  I'll get on this today as well as trimming some off the bottom edge. 

Hi Rodney,

I hope we’re not coming across in the wrong way. Whilst we will offer tips and advice, along with some helpful reference photos, as I mentioned previously, the decisions are totally up to you. We would never want you to think we’re pressuring you to make changes.

Hopefully the reference images help and can give you the confidence to trim here and there, if required.

You’re doing really well so far - keep up the good work, and keep the updates coming. :-)

Best wishes
Dan

[Zinfer[TK]]

Oh no you guys are great.  Keeping me straight.  I was being facetiously pouty. Sorry if I came across a different way.  Typing words far easier to misinterpret than speech.  Thank you all