TK Monkus' RS Prop Masters ANH-S Build Thread (first build)

[TK Monkus[TK]]

I forgot to post a pic of the finished back cover strips on my thighs, see below. Again, I think I will be adding mobility cuts back there.

 

 

Thanks,

M

[TK Monkus[TK]]

I think most of my torso armor has been cut for me, which is great, but the butt plate I think needs a bit more. See pics below and my markings as to where I think I will cut. I have been looking at @justjoseph63 thread on return edges and while I do have a bit more than what he recommends on the other pieces, I would like to see if I can keep those on. I will do a test fit at some point after I think I have things where I want them and can see what kind of input I get. For now I will start with the butt plate. The snaps were already in when I got it, also appreciative for that.

 

Butt Plate cut marks

Bottom/side

 

Top

 

Thank you,

M

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You can take more off the butt plate, BUT I would leave more on the top edge for strength, unlike below, notice the cracks. References:

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

31 minutes ago, TK Monkus said:

 

You may want to do a little check, appears the cover strip is not central to your join, also (may be the photo) looks like your thigh is wider on one side than the other

 

[TK Monkus[TK]]

11 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

You may want to do a little check, appears the cover strip is not central to your join, also (may be the photo) looks like your thigh is wider on one side than the other

 

 

Darn! The width is just the angle in the picture but you are correct on the strip, it is not central  I will remove and re position them. Thanks for the heads up.

 

As for the butt plate I will only clean up that top area and leave a good amount. It may also be worth noting I plan to use the double snap method which not sure if that well help protect from cracking a little more than the brackets.

 

Thanks,

M

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

The double snap method will serve you well for keeping your armor from coming apart during a troop (trust me), but it probably won't help with any cracking issues.  I really haven't seen any issues with RS cracking, as it is pretty thick, but the key is to keep an eye out on any potential areas when un-suiting after a troop.  If you see any starting to form, you can easily reinforce them before they spread.

Even after 50+ troops in my AM armor I have had no issues, but I had to do a few repairs on my Anovos armor due to the ABS being thinner but with some strategic repairs/reinforcements they came out great.

[TK Monkus[TK]]

It has been a bit since I made any progress, but I recently taped everything up after making some cuts to my butt plate to see how the sizing all looks and did a test fit.

 

@gmrhodes13 suggested early on that I wait to glue the cover strips on my forearms until I had the rest of everything ready so I could see how it all looks together. Well everything isn't necessarily ready, but I think this gives a pretty good idea of what it will look like. I think the forearms sizing looks good so I am going to start gluing the inner cover strips, then the outer. I don't think they look to skinny or fat. I realize the placement may be slightly off, but fine tuning can come later.

I still need to size and cut my shoulder bells, but also wanted to wait until I had most of this done so I could size and make sure there was no gap between the chest and the bell. Below is a pic with everything I have so far taped on. Any pointers about anything are greatly appreciated. Everything does not meet up perfectly and there is major overlap in some sections, i.e. kidney and front ab.

 

Questions:

• Do the forearms look ok compared to the rest of the armor (sizing)?
• The edges of the butt fan out as you can see in the pic, will that be fixed with strapping or is that a sizing issue?

 

 

 

I will try and add the thigh ammo belt and size my shoulder bells next.

 

Thanks,

M

 

[TK Monkus[TK]]

Cut the thigh ammo belt to size and it is ready to be mounted. I made small ABS chips for the fronts of the thighs for a little extra strength. Once those dry I will mount the thigh ammo belt.

 

 

 

Thanks,

M

[TK Monkus[TK]]

I also trimmed down my shoulder bells.

 

I am going to trim out the rest of that return edge in red.

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

M

Edited July 27, 2021 by TK Monkus

[TK Monkus[TK]]

I trimmed out the return edges of my shoulder bells as well as added my thigh ammo pack which means the thighs are ready for strapping! I do still need to paint the rivets white, but am thinking of just doing that all at once when I have the torso completed as well.

 

Shoulder Bells

 

Thigh Ammo Pack

 

Thanks,

M

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, you are a little close to the corners on the thigh ammo strip with the rivets though, won't be an issue for basic approval but could be mentioned at higher levels, always pays to check those reference images  

 

[TK Monkus[TK]]

Hey Guys,

 

It has been a while as work has been kicking my butt.

 

I have the cover strips on my forearms, but realize one side isn't long enough so am going to amend that before I post.

 

Question about my shins:

 

The backside tops don't align perfectly, but will the strapping be enough to pull those even or will that be to much strain? Want to make any adjustments before adding the back cover strips. I am going to be using the 3 small hook method by the way.

 

 

 

Thanks,

M

[TK Monkus[TK]]

On 7/27/2021 at 9:34 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

Looking good, you are a little close to the corners on the thigh ammo strip with the rivets though, won't be an issue for basic approval but could be mentioned at higher levels, always pays to check those reference images  

 

 

 

Thanks Glen.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, TK Monkus said:

Question about my shins:

The backside tops don't align perfectly, but will the strapping be enough to pull those even or will that be to much strain? Want to make any adjustments before adding the back cover strips. I am going to be using the 3 small hook method by the way.

Normally you need to add a little heat to get them to sit right, the better they are from the get go the better they will close. Even using velcro I find if you don't use some heat they won't fully close. A lot of people use the hot water bath, submerge for a short period in hot water then hold to the shape you desire until it cools. If they still don't close fully you can glue a piece of abs behind one side so when closed it will pull the other side flush.

 

You may also notice with RS on the left back of the shin towards the bottom that the left side is smaller than the right and the split is not central giving a slanted appearance, to help this you could add the coverstrip offset to this side, so instead of fully gluing half the cover strip just add 1/4, this brings the covestrip over a bit which will make it look more central. 

 

Quick example of what I mean

[TK Monkus[TK]]

On 8/12/2021 at 6:38 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

Normally you need to add a little heat to get them to sit right, the better they are from the get go the better they will close. Even using velcro I find if you don't use some heat they won't fully close. A lot of people use the hot water bath, submerge for a short period in hot water then hold to the shape you desire until it cools. If they still don't close fully you can glue a piece of abs behind one side so when closed it will pull the other side flush.

 

You may also notice with RS on the left back of the shin towards the bottom that the left side is smaller than the right and the split is not central giving a slanted appearance, to help this you could add the coverstrip offset to this side, so instead of fully gluing half the cover strip just add 1/4, this brings the covestrip over a bit which will make it look more central. 

 

Quick example of what I mean

 

Thanks Glen!  I will try the hot water bath and keep that in mind when adding the cover strip.

 

M

[TK Monkus[TK]]

I tried the hot water bath for the shins but either didn't leave them in long enough or maybe the water wasn't hot enough? Due to the size of the shins I couldn't boil water so I turned the bath as hot as it would go, which is hot enough you can't leave your hand in the water for more than a fraction of a second, and let them sit in there for about 15 min, then tried holding them in position. They didn't take. I am really just trying to bring the top so it is even. Right now one side sits slightly above the other on both the left and right. Maybe it is such a small distance that a hot water bath isn't enough? Or should they sit in longer? Any tips would be helpful. 

 

I did add the cover strips on to my forearms. I think one of them wasn't trimmed properly and so sits a bit oddly on my arm, but can maybe be fixed with foam inside. They were one of the first pieces I started trimming and so was still pretty new to the whole process. See pics below (not on my arm).

 

 

Thanks,

M

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

May not have been hot enough, was there any bend to them once heated. You also need to bend more than required as when cooled they will relax a little.

[TK Monkus[TK]]

On 8/20/2021 at 2:37 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

May not have been hot enough, was there any bend to them once heated. You also need to bend more than required as when cooled they will relax a little.

 

There wasn't really much additional bend. It felt like the normal amount. I did think of the overcorrection and tried that, but still no difference. Maybe I will boil water and just try pouring it over the pieces?

 

Thanks,

M

[fishgoh0nk[TK]]

Hot water pour is pretty safe. Just be sure to apply pressure on the joints and pour water on the neighboring areas as well. To clarify, unless you're doing a sharp bend, all areas affect the curvature of the plastic, so you also have to heat the support areas to achieve max bend without fold. I usually allow it to cool while under pressure until it's mildly warm or hardens, whichever first. 

[TK Monkus[TK]]

Hey Guys,

 

I have had a little bit of time and am getting my arm strapping set up. I think I have things almost where they need to go but want to make sure before I glue the straps in place. My right arm could probably use a forearm rotation a bit more forward? See pics below.

 

Questions:

 

I would like to align the dimpled ridge of the forearm with the raised edge of the bicep as much as I can. In order to do that I need to glue the elastic strip at a bit of an angle though. Is that ok? How perfectly aligned do they need to be, or is it more personal preference? I don't really see anything in the checklist pertaining to that.

 

R arm

 

L arm

 

 

 

Thanks,

M

[TK Monkus[TK]]

On 9/5/2021 at 10:26 PM, fishgoh0nk said:

Hot water pour is pretty safe. Just be sure to apply pressure on the joints and pour water on the neighboring areas as well. To clarify, unless you're doing a sharp bend, all areas affect the curvature of the plastic, so you also have to heat the support areas to achieve max bend without fold. I usually allow it to cool while under pressure until it's mildly warm or hardens, whichever first. 

 

Thanks James.

 

I see you are in the socal garrison, where about in socal are you?

[Sly11[Admin]]

Super clean build so far Matt, keep up the great work

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A lot of people add the elastic on the back between the bicep and forearm when it's actually on the front, just to the side of the cover strip, this helps keep them in position when moving and tend to come back to normal placement at rest.

 

 

 

[TK Monkus[TK]]

1 hour ago, Sly11 said:

Super clean build so far Matt, keep up the great work

 

Thank you!

[TK Monkus[TK]]

1 hour ago, gmrhodes13 said:

A lot of people add the elastic on the back between the bicep and forearm when it's actually on the front, just to the side of the cover strip, this helps keep them in position when moving and tend to come back to normal placement at rest.

 

 

 

 

Thanks Glen.

 

See where the elastics are in red in the pic below.  I will try and adjust the right side so it is more straight and sits along those cover strips and just adjust that forearm as needed for it to sit properly.

 

 

Thanks,

M