Matt and James's TK build thread - AM 4.5

[Sawanator[TK]]

Hey everyone,

 

After getting our BBB several weeks ago, we've finally started!

James isn't much of an online guy, so I'm posting for both of us.

 

Day 1 has been pretty productive. We are roughing all the arms and legs to start.

Still on the hunt for a good AM 4.5 build thread to follow as we are finding it slow to start and we are piecing it together of different build videos (Panda Trooper, Troope Bay, etc) even though they are slightly different armour types.

 

Anyway, I was going to post some pics as a Google Photos links as I haven't' figured out a way to shrink photos on my Chromebook yet.

If my posted etiquette sucks, please do let me know. 

 

Here are pictures of my biceps armor

Here is James biceps armor

 

We were also able to get our forearms figured out. This took a while to figure out which forearms piece when where, as they are clearly angled differently on the back of the forearms, and we weren't sure why or where the one arm piece with the groove went. We decided to put it on our right so that when we hold a blaster, it will be a bit more comfortable. Our forearm measurements were the same, so we could always swap if we want. We figured we could cut the other arm to match, but seems like it may not be worth the effort.

We are aiming for centurion standards and have cut the wrist return edge completely.

Here are my forearm pictures. I will upload James's tomorrow.

 

Pretty happy with how it's going, but wanted to post these pics and see if we should change anything before glueing the cover strips.

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You may be better off uploading your images to a free image host such as Imgur then copy the links to the photos directly into your thread, it's a better way of receiving feedback, rather than going backwards and forwards between the forum and google images.

 

Here's a how to

 

 

[Sawanator[TK]]

Ok thanks. 

Here it goes. I had no idea which angles were helpful, so if better shots are needed, let me know.

 

[Sawanator[TK]]

Here are some of James's biceps. Will post some of his forearms tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

PS, if this is too pictures heavy, please let me know for future posts.

Thanks

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

That's great, all looking good and wearing your undershirt while trying armor on is best, well done

[Sawanator[TK]]

Here are James's completed arms:

 

 

 

 

 

[Sawanator[TK]]

Here are my thighs. This was the most stressed I've been so far.

 

 

Time for lunch.

[Sawanator[TK]]

Here are James's thighs.

 

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

looking good. 

[TheDecisiveRaindrop[TK]]

Looking good you two! I was just recently approved with my AM 4.5 kit! If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

here’s my build thread if that helps!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice fitting on the thighs

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

REALLY nice job so far, gentlemen!  If I could make a couple of suggestions on James' armor..

 

Note how the right forearm tapers down at the wrist (perfect), but the left one seems to be more of a rectangle.  This is especially apparent when you look at the wrist openings-  There is a minimal gap between the edge of his hand and the bottom, but on the left one it is a lot bigger.  If you haven't glued the cover strips on yet, I would suggest another trim. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Reference image

      

 

The thighs fit well, but ideally the cover strips should be located more toward the middle of the front of the leg and the middle of the rear.  This looks like a simple matter of rotating them before you do your strapping, so no biggie.

                                                                                                                                                                                           Reference images

                 

 

Keep up the fantastic work, guys, and if I could make one last suggestion it would be to post up photos before gluing.  We are here to help!

[Sawanator[TK]]

Thanks for the tips. We will look at those suggestions for sure. I'll get James to take some other pictures of his forearm. I'm not sure there is much wiggle room as he needs to get his hand out atill, but it's possible it was just a funny angle. We'll investigate for sure.

 

I did glue my biceps (I got to be the guinea pig for that one), but that's it. I'll post some pics tomorrow when I remove the clamps. Was crapping my pants doing that step. Hopefully it turns out ok. 

I think next time I will post more pictures of the butt joint before glueing (with the tape on the inside). 

 

We're going to slow down at this point. Will post when I can.

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

When ever in doubt or just to double check there are the gallery sections full of references https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/category/24-anh-tk-reference/

 

 

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb Sawanator:

I did glue my biceps (I got to be the guinea pig for that one), but that's it. I'll post some pics tomorrow when I remove the clamps. Was crapping my pants doing that step. Hopefully it turns out ok. 

 

As someone who had to take apart some of my already glued armour at later points during my build, I can only suggest using E6000 glue (if you aren't using that already). When it came to taking them apart it was fairly easy to do so and to clean everything up. Personally, using that glue saved me a lot of stress whilst glueing because it's very easy to fix mistakes. If you're nervous about glueing, that might be something to look into!

 

Good luck on your build, this is looking amazing already!

[Sawanator[TK]]

So took a look after 12 hours to clean up the e6000 residue. Definitely a learning curve to the glueing. I. Worries the way the biceps came together, before flying. They met, but they seemed to meet at a bit of an angle. I thought the glueing and clamping would just balance that out, but when I took. The clamps off, it looked like the force of the bowing was going to rip the cover strip, so I re-clamped and will probably leave it for a full 72 hours just in case. 

 

James hasn't glued his yet, so I will get him to snap some pics and see if there may be a preventative fix.

 

The only thing I can think for mine is to use a heat gun and gently reshape it a bit.

Thoughts?

[TheDecisiveRaindrop[TK]]

1 minute ago, Sawanator said:

So took a look after 12 hours to clean up the e6000 residue. Definitely a learning curve to the glueing. I. Worries the way the biceps came together, before flying. They met, but they seemed to meet at a bit of an angle. I thought the glueing and clamping would just balance that out, but when I took. The clamps off, it looked like the force of the bowing was going to rip the cover strip, so I re-clamped and will probably leave it for a full 72 hours just in case. 

 

James hasn't glued his yet, so I will get him to snap some pics and see if there may be a preventative fix.

 

The only thing I can think for mine is to use a heat gun and gently reshape it a bit.

Thoughts?

Are you doing double cover strips? If not, I highly recommend having internal cover strips + external ones. Those provide the extra rigidity for armor.

 

i’m always weary of using hot glue guns. Especially since AM kits are thicker than most so it might take a little extra time/force to get them to shape and provide a higher risk of making mistakes. You might want to look into using boiling water to get them into shape.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

2 minutes ago, Sawanator said:

The only thing I can think for mine is to use a heat gun and gently reshape it a bit.

Thoughts?

Hi Matt, photos are always useful to give a tip, when available try to post some for us, we love photos . 

 

Using a heat gun is a fast option...but, be careful cause doing so could damage or melt the piece. What I wpould suggest is to make some test with some abs scrap pieces first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sawanator[TK]]

It's all clamped up right now while it cures. 

 

I will for sure post photos once it's done.

 

I really like the idea of double cover strips. I'm sure that will help immensely. We were planning to do this for the shins which obviously take a lot of stress. Should we plan to do double for all limbs?

If so. Can you do both at the same time?

So happy for this forum. You are all awesome!

[Sawanator[TK]]

On 8/25/2021 at 4:02 PM, TheDecisiveRaindrop said:

Looking good you two! I was just recently approved with my AM 4.5 kit! If you guys have any questions, feel free to ask!

 

here’s my build thread if that helps!

I will for sure go over your thread in detail again. I started reading it and realized I had already started a while back when researching. Heard good things about this thread. Thanks for reminding me about this. 

 

I really do love how thick Dave's armor is, except when I cut it ..my poor thumbs with those little lexan scissors. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You need a lot of practice on scrap plastic before using a heat gun, it can quickly go from almost pliable to molten mess, make sure you are very confident on using one before delving in  

[TheDecisiveRaindrop[TK]]

On 8/26/2021 at 1:58 PM, Sawanator said:

It's all clamped up right now while it cures. 

 

I will for sure post photos once it's done.

 

I really like the idea of double cover strips. I'm sure that will help immensely. We were planning to do this for the shins which obviously take a lot of stress. Should we plan to do double for all limbs?

If so. Can you do both at the same time?

So happy for this forum. You are all awesome!

All my limbs have double strips on them. The area they are most important is the shins though, but you’ve already caught on to that!

 

I should also mention that depending on where you you two are, don’t troop in the heat with E-6000. While the stuff is great when building, but the garrison I’m with has had issues of the E-6000 melting and coming apart in the Arizona heat. Most of the troopers I know use super glue which definitely has its drawbacks.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

8 minutes ago, TheDecisiveRaindrop said:

I should also mention that depending on where you you two are, don’t troop in the heat with E-6000. While the stuff is great when building, but the garrison I’m with has had issues of the E-6000 melting and coming apart in the Arizona heat. Most of the troopers I know use super glue which definitely has its drawbacks.

That's very weird, I'm wondering could that E-6000 be a knock off brand, there was some circling the globe a while ago.

 

I've trooped events over 39deg C and never encountered the glue melting or parts coming apart.

[TheDecisiveRaindrop[TK]]

3 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

That's very weird, I'm wondering could that E-6000 be a knock off brand, there was some circling the globe a while ago.

 

I've trooped events over 39deg C and never encountered the glue melting or parts coming apart.

Looking up E-6000 on multiple websites says that it can only withstand up to 32 degrees for prolong periods and up to 40 degrees for short periods. Not ideal for areas where it can reach 44c in the shade, let alone sitting in a hot car traveling a few hours from point A to B here.

[fishgoh0nk[TK]]

31 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

That's very weird, I'm wondering could that E-6000 be a knock off brand, there was some circling the globe a while ago.

 

I've trooped events over 39deg C and never encountered the glue melting or parts coming apart.

Arizona, where everything melts 

Edited August 31, 2021 by fishgoh0nk