Revvek’s ANOVOS TK upgrades (stunt)

[Revvek[TK]]

Progress up date time!

 

After working with TK-88667, we determined I need to add shims, and he provided me with some Anovos white scraps that will help with that! Thanks!

 

So I have begun moving forward with that upgrade. 
started with cutting the return on the sides off. (Gulp)

Removed the rivets 

 

Glued plugs in the holes and patched with ABS paste

 

oh, and I don’t recommend adding paint thinner rather than Acetone to make your paste… oops grabbed the wrong can!

I was wondering why it wasn’t getting more fluid… 

and I have started to glue in backer material (not the proper white, but it’s inside)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work so far

[Revvek[TK]]

after the internal backers were in, I had to thin down the shim material to better match the part edge. 

so I taped it face first to a small board and sanded it with my palm sander. (Difficult photo!)

 

I then formed a return edge with a heat gun and hot iron, before using a cold solid metal block to do the final bend. (not pictured)

the iron is good for playing with bending and not cooling it off to fast, but the cold metal helped lock in it. 

its hard to document some of this with only 2 hands!

 

then I used solvent glue spread all over (like I did for the backers) to bond the shim to the backer. 

clamps are you friends, but make sure they are not squeezing to much, and that no glue is under them!
they make nice dents when the glue softens the plastic if they are to strong... 

 

I have much to learn about ABS slurry application...

 

sanded down the first try and filled in the remaining seam with more. this time using a small syringe (not pictured, but maybe next time I'll get a shot)

Edited April 17, 2022 by Revvek

[Revvek[TK]]

I hope the difference in off white plastics fades with polishing. but gloss white color matched paint may be needed at some point... 

 

the new Belt arrived!

 

started to dismantle the original

first by drilling out the rivets from the back to make things easier to handle. 

 

and ran into an issue...  unlike other places on this armor, the person who glued the belt, didn't skimp on the glue on this part...

these are not coming off easy, even with the backs of the rivets removed...

 

thinking.... maybe I can find a way to remove things through the back and come up with a different way to attach to the belt than pop rivets...

 

Edited April 24, 2022 by Revvek

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You will find that some have had to paint their filler pieces to match the color of the armor, we see this with so many modifications, even purchasing from the same supplier there can be differences in color.

 

If the belt was glued with E6000 a little pressure should allow the glue to separate, perhaps running a knife behind may help

[Revvek[TK]]

How to get the belt to better match is the next question…. Looked up Rit dye Sweet Corn Silk looks like a great option, but finding it for sale someplace is a completely different issue…. 

 

Definitely not e6000!

first cover came off with some effort using a flat end xacto chisel blade.

 

Used a ball end burr to grind away much of the pink glue. Kind of smells a bit like epoxy or fiberglass resin…. 

then I used wire cutter to pop the rivet out and cleaned up the rest of the pink glue with the burr and sand paper to make room for a new rivet. 

 

The middle cover proved to be extra tough to remove!

ended up with a big hole… 

 

so I patched it with a few small scraps and repaired the hole. 

 

once I sort out how to get the cream color on the belt, I can put it all back together!

only with 2 holster screws not 4!

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Revvek

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

WOW that was definitely glued in there, some work to get it out.

 

If you ever need to make some new button covers here's a great How To

 

I've had success using a tea dye when re-coloring white, use this a lot with Tusken's, but you do need to test a few pieces to make sure you get the correct color.

 

 

 

[Revvek[TK]]

I will never buy any armor again pre built, that does not come with a lot of scrap material of the same color!

Edited April 25, 2022 by Revvek

[Revvek[TK]]

I dug around for how I want to dye the belt, and for the moment I decided I’m going to hold off! 
to many variables to go wrong… 

so I’m going to use Chicago screws to hold everything on it. That way I don’t have to worry about dealing with glue later when I finally do decide to tackle this. 
 

I moved on to cleaning up the bucket for now!

the eyes where just horribly trimmed. (Don’t care if some film used where just as bad!)

left sill needs cleanup, but the right is cleaned up. 

I can live with these now. 

 

I am also going to paint the inside with black truck bed liner spray, so time for some masking.

plugged the holes from the inside and then the eyes from both sides to make sure nothing gets on the outside. 

and used heavy plastic for the outside

 

Edited May 5, 2022 by Revvek

[Revvek[TK]]

Truck bed liner applied, masking removed.

[Revvek[TK]]

Assembly of new belt started as I wait on the liner to dry for a few days.

centered boxes on new belt. 

planning to mount it with Chicago screws this time so I can work on it easy in the future.

got a few… 

[Revvek[TK]]

Oh, oh a side note…

R2 got to make new friends.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Revvek

[TheRascalKing[TK]]

On 5/10/2022 at 12:22 PM, Revvek said:

Truck bed liner applied, masking removed.

 

Awwwww yea, another convert. How you like the finish?

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

You are killing this build, Steve!  (And I mean that in a good way).  Loving your attention to detail and patience, sir.  This is the type of dogged determination that really goes above and beyond, and for that I salute you!  

 

If I could weigh in on one thing it would be that (personally) I would not dye the canvas belt.  In looking at screen caps, the "original" color was bright white (first photo) which matched the armor.  However, during production those things were probably attached hundreds of times by wardrobe assistants who had filthy hands from working on the set.  If you looks at Luke's belt (second pic) the overlapping end is a LOT darker.  The third pic shows the exact same belt worn by the poor TK that he stole it from.

 

        

[Revvek[TK]]

19 hours ago, TheRascalKing said:

 

Awwwww yea, another convert. How you like the finish?

It seems good so far

[Revvek[TK]]

19 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

You are killing this build, Steve!  (And I mean that in a good way).  Loving your attention to detail and patience, sir.  This is the type of dogged determination that really goes above and beyond, and for that I salute you!  

Thanks!

Wish I could put more links in my signature like yours!

Edited May 12, 2022 by Revvek

[Revvek[TK]]

added Chicago screws. glued in place with some E6000

 

with a bead of E6000 around the edge of the covers 

 

ready for the belt

Edited May 13, 2022 by Revvek

[Revvek[TK]]

Mesh installed in bucket using black VHB tape

 

new screws installed.

 

Bucket just needs lenses, padding and other guts, but it’s back together.

 

[Revvek[TK]]

Body snaps, and belt boxes installed. 

 

to make the body side work with my snaps, I had to remove the old ones.

then I discovered my snap tool would not reach!

so I had to dig out the mallet and setting tools!

 

I decided to make a small spacer for under the inside, because this armor is so thin. 

 

Checking alignment after the first snap is attached and it looks good to me. 

 

[Revvek[TK]]

Next I worked on the dangle boxes

got some new elastic, and decided to go with the pop rivet in the back of the box method. 

 

Before gluing the front box on with some e6000 in each corner, I put some 1/4 EVA foam inside the back box to help make them sound a bit less wind chime… 

 

I think they will do

[Revvek[TK]]

I fiddled with placement for the holster holes, but was advised to put that aside for later after I can wear the armor.  

So I started to make the snap points for my back armor connections.

 

it was tempting to put them right at the edge, but I moved them 1/4 or so away from the return so.

making the snaps pull forces more sideways. (I talked to Ken about it and he confirmed that’s the best option)

 

After the e6000 started to set, I taped the butt and kidney plates together over the return edges.

then used a scrap of paper to press over the 4 snaps for one of the 2 center connections to get the hole placement on the first strap. the side connections are going to be Velcro and elastic to start with, not snaps. 

 

Edited May 16, 2022 by Revvek

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Yes the belt can sit differently when worn so better to do final fitting when you are wearing the hole armor  

[Revvek[TK]]

I will refine the side elastic and Velcro in the future but for now these are connected.

 

moving on to the kidney - ab side connections.  marked out my rivet hole placement 

 

I'm not going to use these rivets for the actual connection, I will be using snaps.

the original holes where patched and are not visible under the blue tape at the moment. so far I am NOT pleased with ABS patching. it's ugly. 

 

I needed just the heads of the rivets to go in the holes, so I dug out my wire saw and vice. 

 

and now I have 6 rivet heads!

I pre painted them (not pictured), so they will be ready to add once the armor patching and extensions are polished up.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Revvek

[Revvek[TK]]

I got close to having armor to wear at Celebration 2022 Anaheim, but just ran out of time… 

I need to sort out the pads in my helmet to make it not ring like a bell on my head, and the current top pad that was in there, is to thick… so I’ll probably not have a top, or back one up there either. (So my face isn’t pushed into the front)

wow these things are tight. 
 

 

I’m also not at all happy with the seam on my shims! This ABS paste filling thing is kind of a joke… may have to carve it out more before attempting this. Or I should have put he paste in the seam even before putting the parts together!

the color difference also likely means I need color matched paint at some point…

 

 

More updates to come

 

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Absolutely loving some of your build ideas. Foam in the dropboxes and spacers on the snaps – doing these in my next build.

 

Keep up the good work! You’ll be approved in no time. Hope to see you at centurion.