SpacesNoTabs AP Stunt build

[SpacesNoTabs]

Been nearly a year since I've been working on my armor!  I think I got somewhat discouraged, but feeling better now and back at it with some more questions.  

 

First up, here's my butt plate and kidney plate connection.  Some of the straps look like crap.  When I put the snaps together, I get about half of them looking good, and the other all misaligned, but they're still functional, albeit a bit challenging to snap/unsnap at times.

 

 

Now I have to figure out how to attach the back plate and kidney plate.  I'm not understanding how to attach these to where they will fit together since the bottom edge of the back plate is so curved.  Any tips appreciated!

 

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Welcome back, Chris! I know the feeling of stepping away for some time myself well.

 

As for your question of the back to kidney connection, the important thing right now would be to have the pieces centered horizontally. You'll then eventually need to adjust the tightness of your strapping in order to pull the pieces together appropriately and minimize the gap. Here is a photo of my internal strapping:

 

 

Depending on how the pieces fit on your body you may eventually find that everything comes together perfectly, or that the pieces need further reduction. AJ document the extra corner trimming well on his build thread in both THIS post and again later HERE.

[SpacesNoTabs]

Awesome!  Thanks for that response Caleb.  Some follow up questions:

 

When you talk about "adjusting the tightness of my strapping" I assume that you are talking about remaking new straps longer/shorter depending on my needs?  I can't think of another way to easily adjust the straps unless there is something I'm missing

 

(yellow highlight) I'm having a hard time tracking down exactly how to do the shoulder straps!  What's that black piece in the center of the strap 

 

(red highlight) Why do you have an extra set of snaps on the kidney plate?  Or are  your straps just not attached there? 

 

(blue highlight) Again, I'm sure it's out there but I've had a hard time finding how to do the kidney/ab connection.  What are the black pieces that go vertically between the rivets?  Below those straps?

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Using elastic allows some give and can be more advantageous than using nylon.

 

Using a snap guide can help get the snaps in the right spot each time. A plate of plastic cut to the width of the elastic/nylon, then add two holes for snap placement in the middle, then use a color marking pen to mark the holes, as you can see below they are all pretty much in the same position

 

 

  

 

I use adjusters on my ab/chest plates makes it easy to make corrections. If your straps are too long can can add extra snaps, as it appears was down in Caleb's image

[SpacesNoTabs]

Thanks @gmrhodes13!  I do use a snap guide, but I have been just using a hammer and the snap setting tool so I'm still not very accurate!  I'll have to look into those adjusters, that seems like a good idea.  

[SpacesNoTabs]

Hey @MaskedVengeance, would you have a moment to address my questions about your straps?  If not that's totally cool!

 

Another question for y'all: what's the best way to clean up the paint edges?  For example, I need to clean up some of the paint on my helmet, just little bits here and there.  I've tried using a toothpick in mineral spirits, but it hasn't worked great for me.  I read on the supply list that Goo Gone is an option.  Would that work better?  Or is paint thinner OK to use?  Thanks so much!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

11 minutes ago, SpacesNoTabs said:

Hey @MaskedVengeance, would you have a moment to address my questions about your straps?  If not that's totally cool!

 

Another question for y'all: what's the best way to clean up the paint edges?  For example, I need to clean up some of the paint on my helmet, just little bits here and there.  I've tried using a toothpick in mineral spirits, but it hasn't worked great for me.  I read on the supply list that Goo Gone is an option.  Would that work better?  Or is paint thinner OK to use?  Thanks so much!

DON'T USE PAINT THINNER it will melt the plastic (thinners and scrap plastic is how we make ABS paste ). 

 

Normally a toothpick and mineral spirits does the job for me, any stubborn areas I cut a pieces of scrap plastic so it has a sharp edge then use that to scrape off the excess, some times you do need to use some polish to remove any smudge.

[SpacesNoTabs]

6 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

DON'T USE PAINT THINNER it will melt the plastic (thinners and scrap plastic is how we make ABS paste ). 

 

Normally a toothpick and mineral spirits does the job for me, any stubborn areas I cut a pieces of scrap plastic so it has a sharp edge then use that to scrape off the excess, some times you do need to use some polish to remove any smudge.

 

Thank you for saving my armor

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Absolutely, Chris. Sorry I didn't see your comment earlier! The yellow highlight that you pointed out is the shoulder bell snap that is roughly midway on the strap between the chest and back armor pieces. It is on the underside of the shoulder strap to reduce visibility, and you can faintly see the stitching for the same snap on the opposite shoulder strap.

 

With your red highlight you pointed out a set of spare snap plates I installed on my back-kidney connection. This is purely to give me flexibility on my armor fitment and how much black gaps I want to show between my armor pieces. This actually addresses your first question about adjusting the tightness of strapping. Rather than making new straps I simply added an additional set of snaps, and I now actually have a corresponding set of second snaps on my chest-back pieces, so basically I can move my back plate up and down. Glen was exactly right with his answer.

 

As for the blue area, I got a little exotic with my ab-kidney connections, and first put down a strip of black plastic on all the edges as reinforcement. I then added some tabs for alignment purposes.

 

 

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

18 hours ago, SpacesNoTabs said:

Thank you for saving my armor

 

One thing other than mineral spirts that worked for my is isopropyl alcohol. You could try 70% before moving up higher to like 92%. Be sure the overpaint that you're trying to remove actually gets some of the moisture of whatever solution you use. I generally start with q-tips or some fine-tipped ones from a craft store. Think of them like a fine-tipped sharpie vs a regular one. They're absorbent, but tipped for precise application. Depending on how much paint I'm trying to remove, I may then use a toothpick to chip away at the paint, or stick with the fine-tipped swap.

[SpacesNoTabs]

Thanks so much Caleb!  Really appreciate it.  So I need to actually sew some snaps on there?  Uh-oh Wait, are those where the shoulder bells are supposed to connect?

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

In Glen's photo you can see that he uses two regular snaps in his white elastic shoulder straps, but some troopers use a sew-on snap so there's no snap base to be visible (if people are looking that closely). It's advised to attach your shoulder bell mounting point closer to the front of your shoulder strap than the rear; that way your bells are more likely to stay forward (making you look better when viewed from the front) rather than rotating to the back. You can see in Glen's photo that his middle pair of snaps on the white strap are closer to one of the two ends of the strap.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

3 hours ago, SpacesNoTabs said:

Thanks so much Caleb!  Really appreciate it.  So I need to actually sew some snaps on there?  Uh-oh Wait, are those where the shoulder bells are supposed to connect?

 

Hi, perhaps this image can help

 

 

 

 

And this one I found 

 

 

 

[SpacesNoTabs]

Those are fantastic! Thanks so much @TKSpartan

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Having your snaps a little closer to the front helps to bring the shoulder bells inwards when you move your arms

 

 

[SpacesNoTabs]

I'm attempting to identify all the fabric that I need. Currently, I have an excessively large roll of 2 inch black webbing and another large roll of 2 inch elastic. I bought them before I totally knew what I was doing!

 

So far, all of the straps and snaps I've done use the nylon webbing. But I know there are some other things I need and wanted to get verification.

 

Shoulder straps are 2 inch wide elastic - white.

 

Are there other places where 2 or 1 inch elastic is useful? What about 1 inch wide black nylon?

 

Thanks! 

[SpacesNoTabs]

Do these look ok? I assume that the ab side will look the same!

After that, how are the other sides of the ab and kidney connected? I can't really tell from the various pictures I've seen but I probably haven't looked in the right places!

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

9 hours ago, SpacesNoTabs said:

Do these look ok? I assume that the ab side will look the same!

After that, how are the other sides of the ab and kidney connected? I can't really tell from the various pictures I've seen but I probably haven't looked in the right places!

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk
 

 

 

Take a look

 

 

 

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Apologies if this has already been previously posted, but just in case you haven't seen it, the image below can be helpful.

 

 

Additionally, below is the whole strapping section from the resource thread I compiled.

 

Strapping Systems

Rivet Setting 101 by justjoseph63 (Print PDF)

Snap Setting 101 by justjoseph63 (Print PDF)

Snap Setting Hardware Solutions by TheRascalKing

E6000 and Snaps Discussion by Harbinger, Snap Options by ukswrath

Snaps with Rivet Heads by TheSwede

Split Rivet Placement by DroidHunter

How to Use a Rivet Tool by huttman

How to Make Snap Plates by stukatrooper

Elastic ABS Reinforcement by Cricket

Magnetic Shin Closures by Cricket (Print PDF)

Magnetic Shin Closures (supplement) by Zugor

Alternate Magnetic Shin Closures by OddViking327

Types of Inner Strapping by Shinyarmour1

Internal Strapping by justjoseph63, nrgband

RascalSnaps by TheRascalKing

Thigh Garter System by Pencap510

Making Thigh Garters by Spectre

Bicep Hooks by Pyrates and Brent

Shin stabilization by Cricket and themaninthesuitcase

[SpacesNoTabs]

3 hours ago, TKSpartan said:

 

 

Take a look

 

 

 

 

Wow.  That's amazing!

[SpacesNoTabs]

Does anyone know a good place to source the split rivets?  My armor came with 6 but looks like I'll need a few more.  I can buy them on Amazon if I want 100 or so of them Which is fine!  But if anyone knows a place to buy a smaller amount, that'd be great!

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

47 minutes ago, SpacesNoTabs said:

Does anyone know a good place to source the split rivets?  My armor came with 6 but looks like I'll need a few more.  I can buy them on Amazon if I want 100 or so of them Which is fine!  But if anyone knows a place to buy a smaller amount, that'd be great!

 

I got mine from Joseph through his centurion hardware thread, but I'm not sure if he's currently processing them. I say get the 100 and have some to spare and also share with other builders following in your footsteps!

[SpacesNoTabs]

17 minutes ago, MaskedVengeance said:

 

I got mine from Joseph through his centurion hardware thread, but I'm not sure if he's currently processing them. I say get the 100 and have some to spare and also share with other builders following in your footsteps!

 

That's a great way to give back!  I'll probably do that

[Doggydoc[Staff]]

Glad to see you back at it again Chris. Looks like you are making progress again.  

[SpacesNoTabs]

37 minutes ago, Doggydoc said:

Glad to see you back at it again Chris. Looks like you are making progress again.  

 

Good to see you again Gerald!  I hope you've been enjoying your trooping