Doggydoc’s AP ANH stunt build

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Excellent work on that sniper knee placement, Gerald!  That can be a pain in the posterior armor to get right, but it looks like you managed it in fine style.  

If I could suggest one small thing, it would be to round out the area seen below.  Sharp angles can lead to splits/cracks..

 

     

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

I did a suit up today to see where things need to be adjusted. Family got excited (the dog as well) and snapped some shots.

 

Excuse the under armour logo on the hip.  The undersuit is not my good one.  This is one of my old base layers from snowboarding just in case a sharp edge catches and pulls the fabric.  
 

I must admit, it felt pretty good to put it on but ouch from the armour bite on the inner elbows and backs of the knees.

 

 

 

 

 

[revlimiter[Staff]]

YES!!!! Looking fantastic! Almost ready for your post.

 

For inner elbow armor bites - try something like these cheap paintball helmet pads.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGF4CTH

 

One of the smallest ones up high on either the front or back edge should eliminate the bites. It'll either bring the armor super close to your skin and eliminate the bite, or bring the armor away from the skin and give clearance to eliminate the bite. My own armor has a pad on the inside for one arm and the outside for the other. It just happened to work best that way.

 

And as a bonus, the larger pads work great on the front of the shin to keep the sniper knee spaced out.

 

For back of the knee bites - scissors. Give the shins the mobility cuts.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I still remember that feeling of the first time kitting up in the armor, never gets old. You can find once you start moving around that a little trimming may be needed here and there, especially on arms  

 

Almost there, "stay on target"

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

Glued the last piece on yesterday.  Just need to do strapping for the arms, mobility cuts on the legs and abs paste gaps on the thighs. So close. 
 

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

Did my mobility cuts and sealed the seams on the bottom of the thigh pieces with ABS paste. Just need the E6000 on the shoulder bell snaps to dry and I will be suiting up for approval photos. So exciting. 
 

 

[SpacesNoTabs]

Awesome! You've done such an incredible job and been so helpful to me as well!! Can't wait to see your full suit and hope we can troop together in person some day! 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Very close now  

[revlimiter[Staff]]

Those thighs are CRISPY! And dare I say perfect. Well done.

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

I was so sad last night. 
‘I finished my armour and tried to post pics but I couldn’t access the site. So I applied to the 501st before doing my pre approval.

 

so better times today and here are my pics

 

sorry about the crooked TD. Wife was in charge of that. LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Awful, all dressed up and no-one to show, that kills  

 

Nice work trooper, good luck with approval.

 

A couple of things for higher levels, you cold removed (cut down) the large rear cover strip tab .

 

           

 

Just watch your shoulder strap elastic appears to be pulling out a bit

 

 

 

Also watch your drop box positioning, should align with the end of the plastic belt, a couple of drops of E6000 can help them stay in position.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Looking great !, easy basic pass.  

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

3 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Just watch your shoulder strap elastic appears to be pulling out a bit

I noticed this as well. Any ideas how to keep them tucked in.  I had to go fairly long with the shoulder elastics to get the butt plate to sit low enough (TK wedgies aren’t very fun ). That is also why I left the large tabs on the shoulder bridges. I have been thinking of trying a shorter elastic.  Do you think that would stop it from pulling out, or is there another trick?

 

3 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Also watch your drop box positioning, should align with the end of the plastic belt, a couple of drops of E6000 can help them stay in position.

I think that the forward tip of the drop box makes it look out of position.  Will the E6000 hold it flatter as well?

This photo shows the position a bit better. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

9 hours ago, Doggydoc said:

I noticed this as well. Any ideas how to keep them tucked in.  I had to go fairly long with the shoulder elastics to get the butt plate to sit low enough (TK wedgies aren’t very fun ). That is also why I left the large tabs on the shoulder bridges. I have been thinking of trying a shorter elastic.  Do you think that would stop it from pulling out, or is there another trick?

 

I think that the forward tip of the drop box makes it look out of position.  Will the E6000 hold it flatter as well?

This photo shows the position a bit better. 

A tighter elastic may help, I have my snaps on the inner side of the elastic (most add it on the outside) so there is more elastic that has to be pulled by the shoulder straps. You can also find industrial elastic which is stronger and doesn't give as much.

 

Glue will definitely help keep those drop boxes straight, you can see how far forward the drop box is in this image. 

 

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

I heard back from my garrison GML. There are a few fixes that I need to make before getting approval.  As much as I completely understand, I am so disappointed  and really am uncertain how to fix some of the issues. 

 

1.They would like the shoulder elastic fixed as we discussed above already.

 

2. Adjust the helmet fit, so it doesn’t tilt forward.

 

These are relatively simple fixes and I am comfortable with them.

 

3. “There seems to be a few proportion issues with the forearms and thighs. I think you have been a bit cautious with the kit and left too much space. 

The cover edge can be seen on both pieces with the cover strips appearing quite large. 

As a guideline we tend to go for 20 mm in width for cover strips. Some troopers push that to 30 mm if their body requires it, often in the legs. The images show that you still have a fair amount of space in the thighs so it would be good to bring them in a bit. This will greatly reduce the likelihood of the sniper plate being caught under it as seen in your first front facing shot. While you are working on the thighs you may want to trim some of the upper front curve so that the thighs can pull up a touch without losing the black gap from the torso. This should provide even more movement in the legs, however, this is not strictly speaking necessary, the gap you have right now is fine.  

 

The same sizing issue is true of the forearms, the action shots show quite a bit of room. The right forearm in particular is showing lots of material that should be covered by the strip. Bring them in a touch and the comfort level should also improve. “
 

 

These fixes are where my dilemma is. 
Since I have fairly large upper thighs and forearms compared to my knee and wrist area, these parts are skin tight at the top of the piece.  
‘With the forearm, I feel that I can likely trim the raised area back and bring the cover strip over, then shim the other side for room.  The AP forearm has only one side raised , as seen below, so this should be achievable.

 

 

My thighs are where the stress comes.  I have already put a shim in the back upper area to get them around my leg.  If I bring the bottom part in, it will cause some narrowing in the upper portion and I likely won’t be able to get into them properly.  I have already taken the left thigh apart and tried to narrow the bottom to get the cover strips to line up with the shin cover strips but could not figure out how to reduce the bottom without having to do some massive shim work on the top part.  I ended up just putting it back together and placed padding on the outside portion to pull it over and line up the cover strips.  I suppose, I could also put some padding in the back to pull back the front part and better clear the sniper knee?

 

If anyone has any ideas, please help.

 

Thanks. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

6 hours ago, Doggydoc said:

I heard back from my garrison GML. There are a few fixes that I need to make before getting approval.  As much as I completely understand, I am so disappointed  and really am uncertain how to fix some of the issues. 

 

1.They would like the shoulder elastic fixed as we discussed above already.

 

2. Adjust the helmet fit, so it doesn’t tilt forward.

 

These are relatively simple fixes and I am comfortable with them.

 

3. “There seems to be a few proportion issues with the forearms and thighs. I think you have been a bit cautious with the kit and left too much space. 

The cover edge can be seen on both pieces with the cover strips appearing quite large. 

As a guideline we tend to go for 20 mm in width for cover strips. Some troopers push that to 30 mm if their body requires it, often in the legs. The images show that you still have a fair amount of space in the thighs so it would be good to bring them in a bit. This will greatly reduce the likelihood of the sniper plate being caught under it as seen in your first front facing shot. While you are working on the thighs you may want to trim some of the upper front curve so that the thighs can pull up a touch without losing the black gap from the torso. This should provide even more movement in the legs, however, this is not strictly speaking necessary, the gap you have right now is fine.  

 

The same sizing issue is true of the forearms, the action shots show quite a bit of room. The right forearm in particular is showing lots of material that should be covered by the strip. Bring them in a touch and the comfort level should also improve. “
 

 

These fixes are where my dilemma is. 
Since I have fairly large upper thighs and forearms compared to my knee and wrist area, these parts are skin tight at the top of the piece.  
‘With the forearm, I feel that I can likely trim the raised area back and bring the cover strip over, then shim the other side for room.  The AP forearm has only one side raised , as seen below, so this should be achievable.

 

 

My thighs are where the stress comes.  I have already put a shim in the back upper area to get them around my leg.  If I bring the bottom part in, it will cause some narrowing in the upper portion and I likely won’t be able to get into them properly.  I have already taken the left thigh apart and tried to narrow the bottom to get the cover strips to line up with the shin cover strips but could not figure out how to reduce the bottom without having to do some massive shim work on the top part.  I ended up just putting it back together and placed padding on the outside portion to pull it over and line up the cover strips.  I suppose, I could also put some padding in the back to pull back the front part and better clear the sniper knee?

 

If anyone has any ideas, please help.

 

Thanks. 

1. Thought they may require this

2. Easy fix lift up your head while photos are taken, you do appear to be looking down giving you a large gap at the back of the helmet/neck

3. This is one thing which is a little more difficult with larger than normal coverstrips, I would advise your GML that you don't have very much of a gap and need the extra spacing, you could also add some photos of you wearing those pieces with no other armor showing you have very little room. The ridge placement is depending on size and which kit, with the raised edges you are pretty stuck on what size coverstrip you can use if you need more room than standard fit, some kits don't have the raised edges which makes them easier with this issue. Having one forearm larger than the other is pretty standard with most kits, although I did heat one up for a really huge round one a member had and made it a little more oval which makes it look smaller worn. Adding some foam behind the sniper plate could help bring it away from your thigh, or adding foam to the back of the thigh could help pull the thigh backwards. 

 

 

 

 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

We see the helmet tilting issue a lot, Gerald, and I am honestly thinking (from personal experience) that it is due to the padding in the top.  Not all noggins are the same, but in this case I think it is lifting the bucket too high, which is causing you to have to tilt it forward just to be able to see.  As seen in the third image below the helmet should be more or less level.

 

    

 

Note how the one in the reference image sits much lower to the torso.

        

 

I know you have electronics in the top, but it may be a matter of removing the padding, configuring your layout and mounting them into the cheek areas on the side(s).

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

Finally able to find some time to get back to my build.

 

‘’I took my forearms apart today to trim them down slightly. They will fit quite snug but as you can see in the photos below from before I took them apart, I was way off on the cover strip and the raised edges. Guess that shows how much you learn as you go along. Not sure what I was thinking but these were some of my first pieces.

 

 

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

While waiting for the glue to dry on the forearms, I started to work on the shoulder elastics. They were pulling out where the shoulders attach as seen below.

 

I had the ends of the elastics triple folded over to hold the snaps but the mid section was just 1 layer. I tried redoing them with a 3 layer front to back elastic but it still pulled out and the reduced stretch gave me a trooper wedgie. 
 

Next I put some Velcro on the underside of the shoulder bridge and on the corresponding elastic portion and this seems to be working well. 
 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2022 by Doggydoc

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

Ok. I have everything corrected to reapply. I will be posting a pre approval page but here are the corrections.

1. Redid the forearm coverstrips and corrected the positioning with a slight reduction in size.

2. Fixed the elastics pulling out from under the shoulder bridges. 
3. Corrected the positioning of the sniper knee plate and left lower thigh to prevent the sniper plate from moving under the thigh. Did this with foam padding.

4. Adjusted the suspenders that hold the thigh pieces up to better hide under the armour

5. Refitted the helmet padding to have it sit lower on my head.

 

Still to do.

1. Reinstall the fan electronics with a smaller battery pack to fit the reworked helmet interior.

2. Trim the bigger tabs down on the back of the shoulder bridges. 
 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Doggydoc

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, feedback left on your pre approval thread (yes I mentioned the large rear tabs  )

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

I heard back from my GML today. They have accepted my application to the 501st and I am just waiting for the official email now.  
 

Thank you to everyone at the FISD for their help with my build. You are all an amazing bunch and I can not wait to call myself one of you.

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Congratulations trooper and welcome to the ranks, hope to see you with your TKID soon 

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

So tomorrow is the big day, going on my first troop at a local Comic-Con..  so excited. I signed up to be a range target as well for the blast a trooper.

 

Made a few last minute modifications to the armour today.

 

Replaced the 4 12 V fans and power supply which were not blowing well due to the power supply only putting out 5 W. I now have 2 6 volt fans powered by 4 AA batteries with on /off toggles for each fan.  More room in the helmet now that the power bank is out.  Will be buying rechargeable batteries soon.

 

Switched the nylon straps between the kidney and back plates for elastic ones and made new shoulder bridge elastics that are slightly shorter to bring the back piece up and closer to my back.  This worked well and I finally felt comfortable to trim the big tabs off of the back of the shoulder bridges.

 

polished up the kit and packed it all up for tomorrow morning’s early start.

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1 hour ago, Doggydoc said:

So tomorrow is the big day, going on my first troop at a local Comic-Con..  so excited. I signed up to be a range target as well for the blast a trooper.

 

Made a few last minute modifications to the armour today.

 

Replaced the 4 12 V fans and power supply which were not blowing well due to the power supply only putting out 5 W. I now have 2 6 volt fans powered by 4 AA batteries with on /off toggles for each fan.  More room in the helmet now that the power bank is out.  Will be buying rechargeable batteries soon.

 

Switched the nylon straps between the kidney and back plates for elastic ones and made new shoulder bridge elastics that are slightly shorter to bring the back piece up and closer to my back.  This worked well and I finally felt comfortable to trim the big tabs off of the back of the shoulder bridges.

 

polished up the kit and packed it all up for tomorrow morning’s early start.

 

 

 

 

Great to hear, you will have a blast (see what I did there) very jealous over "blast a trooper" it's something we can't do down under due to our public liability insurance restrictions  

 

5V with 4 AA's is what I use and they last for ages, I only use one fan at a time and find that's enough.

 

Not sure if you seen this, bit outdated but still it's not a bad read "troopers survival guide"

 

Don't forget fluids too, you need to stay hydrated, you don't realise sometimes how much you can sweat.

 

Now while at the troop having photos and seeing younglings smile take note for a minute to see if you are smiling like a little kid and then realise nobody can see you smile as you are wearing a helmet 

 

All the best for your first troop, looking forward to seeing some photos