fleurderys' ANH Stunt Build (AP) + bonus challenges of being a 5'6" lady

[fleurderys[501st]]

Hi!

 

I got my AP armor a few months ago and have just been scared on where to start. But, it's doing no good sitting in the box, so I may as well try to put this thing together. I've found great comfort and information in Cricket's WIP threads and spent an hour this morning reading through it again.

I'm 5'6 / 126 lbs. I got the armor pre-trimmed but realize I will need to do some (okay, a lot) of additional work. Someone suggested on here that beginning with the torso can make it easier to appropriately size the arms/legs and that's my current plan of attack - the torso also scares me the most, so getting that out of the way will (hopefully)? make it easier to get moving.

 

Here's the initial try-on of the front - trying to gauge for height and if that needs any trimming...

 

 

I know I need the sides to taper a bit more, but what about the height? I feel like I could trim either the top of the ab or the cod piece... or both? I'm quite scared of trying to recreate that return edge on the ab piece, but I will do it if I have to. 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by fleurderys

[TheSwede[TK]]

From the looks of things it doesen’t seem you need to trim for hight. Good to hear you have found Christine’s thread already, I will ”ping her” for you @Cricket

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Here are a couple of other great shorter trooper threads for reference

 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38842-fragarocks-rs-stunt-build-not-to-scale/

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/42868-sha-shas-wtf-anh-stunt-build-complete/

[Goggytalks[TK]]

Hi,

Good to see a new build starting. believe it or not I'm approximately the same height and not much heavier than yourself. 5'6 high and 60kg. 

When i started my build earlier this year, I thought starting with the Ab and chest piece was the obvious thing to do, but they are  actually the easiest parts to work on as they didn't need trimming at all other than the excess around the edges. I started with biceps as they are mostly hidden underneath the shoulder bells. That way you can get some practice with spacing the girth around your arms and legs. Aim for approx a fingers width all around between the inside of the armour to your arm. I then moved onto the shoulders, forearms and thighs, shins practising the same principle of a finger room all around the armour. I actually left the abs and chest as they came because when I tried it all on together it all seemed to gel perfectly. One tip that i can say that makes a massive difference. Always have your under suit on for any sizing as the under suit sucks your body in and helps to get the nice snug fit your looking for. 

[fishgoh0nk[TK]]

8 hours ago, Goggytalks said:

Always have your under suit on for any sizing as the under suit sucks your body in and helps to get the nice snug fit your looking for. 

 

Also helps minimize armor bite and cuts. Be good to your skin ☺️

[fleurderys[501st]]

20 hours ago, TheSwede said:

From the looks of things it doesen’t seem you need to trim for hight. Good to hear you have found Christine’s thread already, I will ”ping her” for you @Cricket

 

Phew! That's a relief. I was staring at it so much I couldn't tell anymore. I will leave that alone for now and focus on width

 

14 hours ago, Goggytalks said:

Hi,

Good to see a new build starting. believe it or not I'm approximately the same height and not much heavier than yourself. 5'6 high and 60kg. 

When i started my build earlier this year, I thought starting with the Ab and chest piece was the obvious thing to do, but they are  actually the easiest parts to work on as they didn't need trimming at all other than the excess around the edges. I started with biceps as they are mostly hidden underneath the shoulder bells. That way you can get some practice with spacing the girth around your arms and legs. Aim for approx a fingers width all around between the inside of the armour to your arm. I then moved onto the shoulders, forearms and thighs, shins practising the same principle of a finger room all around the armour. I actually left the abs and chest as they came because when I tried it all on together it all seemed to gel perfectly. One tip that i can say that makes a massive difference. Always have your under suit on for any sizing as the under suit sucks your body in and helps to get the nice snug fit your looking for. 

 

This is great advice and very helpful!! Thank you so much!!

And thank you for the warm welcome, all! Pleasantly surprised to see so many initial responses. Will post updates and questions shortly, I hope!  

[Cricket[TK]]

Welcome welcome!  Good to see new white armor on smaller troopers!

I'll add in another suggestion for fitting:  tape all of your ab/chest/butt/kidney/back plate pieces together with blue tape, attaching them all on the insides at the returns (don't tape on the outside, inside simulates best how it actually fits with strapping).  Then put it on.  Take pics of front, back, both sides.  You'll suddenly have a very good idea of how the 'actual size' fits and feels.  When you put just the front ab and chest together, the fit can be a little deceptive unless you have the back parts attached as well.   

 

 

[fleurderys[501st]]

On 12/19/2021 at 1:53 PM, Cricket said:

Welcome welcome!  Good to see new white armor on smaller troopers!

I'll add in another suggestion for fitting:  tape all of your ab/chest/butt/kidney/back plate pieces together with blue tape, attaching them all on the insides at the returns (don't tape on the outside, inside simulates best how it actually fits with strapping).  Then put it on.  Take pics of front, back, both sides.  You'll suddenly have a very good idea of how the 'actual size' fits and feels.  When you put just the front ab and chest together, the fit can be a little deceptive unless you have the back parts attached as well.   

 

 

 

GREAT tip! Thank you. Tried it all on together-- I didn't realize the front was crooked when I took this, apologies!
 

front

back

 

bonus accidental side picture when I turned too early

 

I've done a little bit of hot water bath shaping: the chest & ab pieces to curve the sides more, and the shoulder pieces of the back plate after I took these pictures.

I have a bit to trim in the waist for the ab/kidney pieces, there was a lot of extra overlap when I taped these off. I'm still unsure about the height of the front. For the back, I have to shape the kidney piece and the butt piece a bit, but overall I feel good about the height unless you guys spot something I've missed?

 

A couple of questions:

1) Mark from AP suggested that I use foam strips inside the arm/leg armor rather than trim them exactly to me since I have skinnier limbs and that may look off proportionately with the torso. That makes sense, but so far, I haven't found a similarly-sized person's build thread who did this? Is that an acceptable method?

2) Do y'all heat shape the....crotch area connection? I'm sure adding the snap will help, but those two pieces did NOT want to go together when I did this try on, haha!

 

[revlimiter[Staff]]

My own experience has a sample size of one (1) AP kit, but I think the correct chest plate height is defined by your neck. It should feel kinda like a button up shirt with the top button done up. So, quite close around your neck but not too tight. Yours looks to have some space up there. And with it cinched up, you can probably get away with not having to shorten that chest plate.  The height looks more correct in your first post photo.

 

As for the torso heating and reshaping, I would humbly suggest you don't spent a ton of effort doing it. Get it to where you like, but don't kill yourself trying to make it look sleek and narrow. I mean, you totally can and that's part of the fun of building armor, but in my obsessive build thread reading while finishing up my own AP kit, it just isn't as sleek an armor set as some others. The AP has a rather wide midsection. I thought maybe it was just me, but with my own reading each AP build looks to be kinda wide in the middle. Anovos seems to fit more narrowly, for example.

 

I didn't heat my crotch plate.

 

Good luck trooper! You look to be well on your way.

 

[Cricket[TK]]

Offering a little bit of feedback with what I can see here:

It looks like your cod is hanging somewhat low on you, which means everything needs to shift upwards a bit.  Typically, you should only have an inch or so gap between your cod and your girly bits.  When you walk, your thighs shouldn't rub against this part.  If they do, then it needs to come up.  And you can trim the cod as well- but shifting things up first would be what I'd do before trimming.

If you haven't done it already, another thing to look for initially is placement of your ab button box.  The top of the ab button box should rest somewhere near the bottom of your sternum.  Next, there should be 1-2 fingers' width (horizontal) between the top of the ab button box and the bottom of the chest plate.   You can secure the ab and chest plates together and then put them on- if your cod is correctly "high and tight", then you may notice that the ab button box is too high- which means you would need to cut your cod down (on the ab plate) to better position your abdominal plate.  And if your ab button box is in the proper location, then you might notice that your chest plate is hitting your chin.  At that point, you'd trim around your neck line (and possibly around the arm areas as well). 

Any modification you do to your armor, try to remember the "As Above, So Below" concept.  If you shorten things up in the front, then you will absolutely need to make corresponding modifications to the opposite parts in the back, or else your armor will end up wonky.    

Just a few personal notes from someone who has built and fitted their fair share of TKs for myself and others:  With as many people who complain about armor bites, I'll say this: If your armor fits you properly, it won't hurt.  And if it doesn't feel right, it probably needs adjustment.  There is a certain lack of mobility that comes with wearing white plastic, but it's not entirely uncomfortable!    Looking forward to seeing more of your progress-  you're off to a great start!!!

[Cricket[TK]]

1 hour ago, fleurderys said:

A couple of questions:

1) Mark from AP suggested that I use foam strips inside the arm/leg armor rather than trim them exactly to me since I have skinnier limbs and that may look off proportionately with the torso. That makes sense, but so far, I haven't found a similarly-sized person's build thread who did this? Is that an acceptable method?

As a smaller trooper I can attest to the fact that if you only pad out your arm/leg armor and not size it to fit you width wise, you're not going to be comfortable or have much mobility at all.  No disrespect to Mark, but if I had done as he suggests for you, I would have been waddling around instead of walking.  You want to have some room in your arms/legs, but not too much.  I've added a little padding to prevent the sniper knee from clipping my thigh, but that's about it.  You won't look disproportionate if your torso and limbs are sized correctly.  It takes patience and work to size things down, but very much worth it.

 

1 hour ago, fleurderys said:

 

2) Do y'all heat shape the....crotch area connection? I'm sure adding the snap will help, but those two pieces did NOT want to go together when I did this try on, haha!

 

I heated up the butt plate tab and shaped the snap end to curve better to meet the cod piece so it wouldn't strain on the connecting strap.  I did this only after my torso was completely strapped together and the final fit had been achieved. 

[Goggytalks[TK]]

 
GREAT tip! Thank you. Tried it all on together-- I didn't realize the front was crooked when I took this, apologies!
 

front

back
 

bonus accidental side picture when I turned too early
 
I've done a little bit of hot water bath shaping: the chest & ab pieces to curve the sides more, and the shoulder pieces of the back plate after I took these pictures.
I have a bit to trim in the waist for the ab/kidney pieces, there was a lot of extra overlap when I taped these off. I'm still unsure about the height of the front. For the back, I have to shape the kidney piece and the butt piece a bit, but overall I feel good about the height unless you guys spot something I've missed?
 
A couple of questions:
1) Mark from AP suggested that I use foam strips inside the arm/leg armor rather than trim them exactly to me since I have skinnier limbs and that may look off proportionately with the torso. That makes sense, but so far, I haven't found a similarly-sized person's build thread who did this? Is that an acceptable method?
2) Do y'all heat shape the....crotch area connection? I'm sure adding the snap will help, but those two pieces did NOT want to go together when I did this try on, haha!
 

As I mentioned before, I wouldn’t recommend trimming anything off yet on the abs / kidney joints as it may seem too big around your torso at this point, but when you try on all your legs and arm pieces you will find actually that it will all come together. Looking at your photos, it looks like the gap between the shoulder bridge of the chest and back needs to be shortened. On my armour I have only 1 inch gap. That will bring the bottom of the chest piece up above the ab button panel more and look better. As far as my arms, when I cut off the excess to form the girth the joints were almost at right angles! The cover strip wouldn’t naturally touch both surfaces to glue, so I had to place heavy weights on them in order to glue them on. I then reinforced the joints by glueing strips on the inside to. Had to do this for the thighs as well. I hadn’t read about water hearing at the time so I haven’t tried that method but the way I achieved the right fit for my skinny limbs it worked.





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fleurderys[501st]]

@revlimiter @Cricket @Goggytalks Thank you all for your swift replies and thoughtful feedback, it is very, very much appreciated!!  I see what you all mean about the front hanging lower in the pics - thanks for that! I won't trim anything on the torso yet but will make adjustments for my next fitting. Going to focus on the arm pieces, will do some trimming on the forearms for sure, and see how that all shakes out before tackling anything too large 

 

[fleurderys[501st]]

I bought this kit mostly pre-trimmed to my measurements, but inevitably, there will need to be some adjustments. Checked the sizing on the arms-  the bicep fits well, the forearms will need to be sized down a little width-wise. I feel good about the length of the forearm for now (when I took this picture it had slipped down my arm a little) - if I change my mind, I'll undo the inner strips and cut from the wrist (as learned from Cricket's handy cutting-down guide!)

 

 

Also following Cricket's lead from her Hero build on installing the inner cover strips for the front of the forearms and will do resizing from the back. 

 

 

Someone posted the "one day at a time" technique of doing one side at a time with E6000, letting it cure 24 hours, and then doing the other side, and I'm heeding that recommendation. You guys weren't kidding- shaping these so that they line up on both sides is gonna need some TLC and lots of hot water or some serious forging  

 

 

This build is finally starting to make sense, which means I'm due to make a mistake... going to try to take it slow and keep reading. Stay tuned. 

 

I'm scared of making the outer cover strips so I'll probably put that off as long as possible. Cutting things evenly has never been my strong suit!

 

 

 

 

[Goggytalks[TK]]

Good progress. Once you’ve gained confidence in building the arms it gets easier.
Don’t forget to wear your undersuit when testing the size of the armour. Makes a big difference than normal clothes.
I used a 1m long metal spirit level to act as a cutting edge when cutting the cover strips. You only have to score the plastic and then turn the material over and gently prise the section up and it will naturally snap along the line you’ve scored with the blade.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Depends on the weather but I like to leave E6000 sitting for 48 hours, especially on any areas which may be under strain, you find this can happen on the opposite sides to the ones already glued.

 

Adding a little foam to the insides of the forearms can help them stop rotating. FYI when it comes to the strapping it's best to place the elastic on the upper inner sides, helps to keep them straight when moving and resting.

right arm

 

When ever in doubt while building ask as there's normally someone online ready to help and if not head to the gallery sections, lots of great references there

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

 

Looking forward to seeing your progress

 

 

[Goggytalks[TK]]

Here’s a utube video from Cableguy Dan specifically talking about arm alignment.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

As Cricket mentioned, the cod needs to come up, but this means the ab and chest plate will too.  Luke was only 5'9", so they had to make some mods to his armor.  One main change was to cut the bottom off of the chest plate (but be sure to follow the existing curves).  It looks as if yours could be raised a bit as well-  the ends of the tabs at the top could be a bit closer together.  Raising the chest may mean you have to trim out the neck some for comfort.

Another option is to remove the lower part of the ab plate, shorten it, and then glue it back into place with a shim in the back.

 

        

[TheSwede[TK]]

Not to start a discussion but, Hamil was closer to 5’7 and that according to himself. At 5’9 there wouldn’t be any need for that extra trimming they did on both the chest and back piece. 

[Goggytalks[TK]]

Not to start a discussion but, Hamil was closer to 5’7 and that according to himself. At 5’9 there wouldn’t be any need for that extra trimming they did on both the chest and back piece. 

Yes I’m 5’6 and didn’t need to cut the bottom of my chest plate, abs or kidney. Looking at the photos above it looks like the gap between the back and chest at the shoulder bridges need to be closer. That should sort the issue out. Just raise the chest up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fleurderys[501st]]

Okay, I've been staring at my forearms for a few days now...

I'm using @Cricket's suggestion in one of her build threads of doing the trimming in the back. I essentially need to trim off the raised area on both sides, perhaps more, but I'll start there. Can it taper/slant a little bit at the wrist, or should it stay a strait line? 

(note: the yellow line on the left is approximately where I marked the forearm on the inside)

Edited January 4, 2022 by fleurderys

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Should be straight at the wrist

 

 

[Cricket[TK]]

A suggestion:  You might consider lining up the tops of the forearms, and trimming from the bottom (while adjusting at the back for width).  There is detail at the top that you really don't want to lose too much of.     You'll most likely need to recreate the swoop on the inner forearm to accommodate for the size reduction and for mobility.

In case you haven't seen it, here is how I sized down a forearm that had ridges on both halves.

I think Glen is saying that you cut straight along the bottom of the forearm.  But the forearm itself can taper inwards at the wrist- is that what you're asking?  So the forearm is slightly more narrow at the wrist, a bit larger at the elbow.  

Edited January 4, 2022 by Cricket

[fleurderys[501st]]

38 minutes ago, Cricket said:

A suggestion:  You might consider lining up the tops of the forearms, and trimming from the bottom (while adjusting at the back for width).  There is detail at the top that you really don't want to lose too much of.     You'll most likely need to recreate the swoop on the inner forearm to accommodate for the size reduction and for mobility.

In case you haven't seen it, here is how I sized down a forearm that had ridges on both halves.

I think Glen is saying that you cut straight along the bottom of the forearm.  But the forearm itself can taper inwards at the wrist- is that what you're asking?  So the forearm is slightly more narrow at the wrist, a bit larger at the elbow.  

 

Thank you!!! That was another question that I couldn't figure out how to ask -- that I would need to re-center the swoop after trimming. Thank you!

All my questions, to clarify, are in regards to trimming width! The green line is more what the trim feels like it needs, but that would be at an angle vs. the straight yellow line. Does that make sense?

 

 

(note this piece is rotated so I could show potential cut lines)

 

Good tip about where to trim in terms of height, that has been on my mind and am constantly referring back to your build thread  At the moment, I'm not planning on taking off any height on the forearms -It's kind of hard to tell from the photos since the forearm kept sliding down (dang slippery compression shirt) but my arm measurement from wrist to elbow is about 10.75" and the forearm armor is just over 10". I may change course once I start strapping together.

 

Edited January 4, 2022 by fleurderys

[Goggytalks[TK]]

My forearms are the same length too. I had to trim from the wrist end back towards the first raised square. The CRL states that none of the squares can be removed , but you can get close. I did reduce the length on my arms to about 8 mm raised edge, but then reduced again to about 5 mm now. Doesn’t sound much but makes a world of difference when trooping. I haven’t taken anything off at the elbow end other than shaping and taking off the surplus . I like the returns on the armour so haven’t really reduced the length at that end. Here’s a couple of photos of mine for you to look at.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk