Bob's ROTK 850 Armor Works Build Thread

[Teach-]

BBB day was three years ago and it's finally time to get started. Thanks for the welcome on the new members forum. Here I go...

 

 

 

No more BBB, kit was put away and stored in a bin.

 

Started off with the thermal detonator. Figured it'd give me experience trimming, sanding, adhering, using a dremel, and making some mistakes in a place that might not be as critical as other pieces of armor.

 

Made all the cuts using straight cut snips. Sanded the edges on a belt sander and then hand sanded. The oval greeble sat lower than the bottom edge of the control plate so I sanded the bottom off so it will eventually sit smooth on the tube. Ended with a little more hand sanding today (post picture taking) and I still need to cut out the D shape recess.

 

One important lesson learned already: read the CRL more than I think I need too. 850 provides a panel line around the control panel that matches the Level Three Certification ("There is a panel line approximately ¼” 6mm from the edge around the control panel"). I actually cut along that panel line and I wouldn't have if I had read the CRL more closely. Lesson learned, read carefully you fool!

 

 

 

 

 

Three thermal detonator questions:

 

1. The CRL says it mounts to the belt with no visible screws or clips. I'm assuming some of you rivet or screw it to the belt and do not use snaps. I've been reading a lot of build threads but have not come across that yet. Any help on good ways to attach the thermal detonator to the belt would be appreciated.

 

2. I've come across several ways to fill seamss (e.g. bondo). I'll have to do that after I connect the two halves. I'm new to any kind of model work so I'll take whatever advice you have for a newbie's first attempt.

 

3. The total length will be 8 1/4 inches. The CRL says approximately 8". I'm assuming my 1/4" extra is okay. 

 

 

Edited February 7, 2023 by Teach-
Resized pictures (didn't know how to post them properly the first time around

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

 

I'm no Rogue One guru but here are a few answers for you

 

1. The CRL says it mounts to the belt with no visible screws or clips. I'm assuming some of you rivet or screw it to the belt and do not use snaps. I've been reading a lot of build threads but have not come across that yet. Any help on good ways to attach the thermal detonator to the belt would be appreciated.  Some mount with screws/bolts, some use magnets and some use velcro, so it can be removed and some even glue it on.

 

Which ever way you mount the detonator they can come off at times  

 

2. I've come across several ways to fill seamss (e.g. bondo). I'll have to do that after I connect the two halves. I'm new to any kind of model work so I'll take whatever advice you have for a newbie's first attempt. Some use ABS paste, it just helps on places that may flex, it's a little more work though, JB weld is sandable and is also good for flexing pieces, bondo can crack under stress/bending.

 

3. The total length will be 8 1/4 inches. The CRL says approximately 8". I'm assuming my 1/4" extra is okay. I doubt your GML will want you to get a ruler out, should be fine 

 

[TerribleBen[TK]]

Good luck!  Have fun! All questions will be answered to the best abilities !

[TerribleBen[TK]]

Look at the build threads, I used the boxes on the front belt and velcro replaced by snaps on the back. I did not have any seems to fill, the sides of the abdomen I covered with black plastic for the angled stripe on the side. Your tdet will be fine,  I used a piece of plastic for mine so no seems. Mine is just bolted to the back belt. I will have to make a mount to go up in class though! Have fun, stay with it and you can get a great set of armor! Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 4, 2023 by TerribleBen

[Teach-]

Thanks for the help!

 

Did some cutting, trimming, and sanding this weekend. Cut the abdomen, kidneys, and back plate. Watched the 850 ab tutorial first. Rough cut and taped and then fine tuned the sizes so had to trim some more...figured it's best to go slow and try to avoid over trimming as long as I can.

 

Pre-sanding

 

Pre-final cuts and before final sanding

 

I cut about 1/2 inch back from the 70 degree line on the kidney armor. That helped get away from some imperfections and still allowed it to fit me. I'll be leaving the gap for the black, recessed rib mentioned in the CRL.

 

I also ordered some nylon suspenders for the ab/kidney. Comes with velcro and snaps.

 

I did some more work on the detonator. No pics yet.

 

Two questions:

 

1. For cementing the ab and kidneys, many threads and the 850 video suggest something other than E6000 because of how much stress/flexing the ab/kidney get when going on and off. I plan to use JB. Good plan, yes?

 

2. In the pic below, you'll see that the forearm of the 850 armor has what looks like a pre-made cover strip. I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how those would have the actual cover strip go over them. I've looked at the threads and the 850 tutorial but can't ever see clearly how others have done it. I'll take any advice out there.

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1. For cementing the ab and kidneys, many threads and the 850 video suggest something other than E6000 because of how much stress/flexing the ab/kidney get when going on and off. I plan to use JB. Good plan, yes? I used JB weld on my FOTK, has held up great, just make sure you rough up both pieces with coarse sandpaper, gives the glue more to grip too.

 

 

2. In the pic below, you'll see that the forearm of the 850 armor has what looks like a pre-made cover strip. I'm having a heck of a time figuring out how those would have the actual cover strip go over them. I've looked at the threads and the 850 tutorial but can't ever see clearly how others have done it. I'll take any advice out there. Hopefully someone that's assembled an 850 kit will chime in, I could presume this may be carried over from before them offering resin cover strips and you may be able to removed that BUT I may be wrong. I did find this build perhaps send a private message to @Twelveravens to check how he tackled it

 

[Twelveravens[TK]]

I did remove that. My forearms have thin strips on the inside to hold the two halves together. Then the resin strips over the seams. I had to also sand my resin strips down a bit from the bottom as they were to thick otherwise. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

7 hours ago, Twelveravens said:

I did remove that. My forearms have thin strips on the inside to hold the two halves together. Then the resin strips over the seams. I had to also sand my resin strips down a bit from the bottom as they were to thick otherwise. 

Thanks for your feedback Justin 

[Teach-]

What the heck have I done, lol....six things going on at once...no longer have a dining table...but loving it. 

 

 

Trimmed the chest and back, glued the two halves of the detonator, worked on the forearms.

 

The back plates where the cover plate attaches were too high for the plate to fit over so cut about 1/2" out of the middle to make them shorter. Saw the same issue in other 504 AW threads.

 

Also fitted the abdomen, kidneys, and spacer plates. There wasn't enough room for tightening it all so I cut the kidney plates down by 5/8". (Picture is before cutting them down)

 

Learning that this is a slow and steady process. 

[Teach-]

The work continues on weekends: I attached the kidney plates to the abdomen and painted the black, depressed angle line. I also used industrial white velcro for the rectangular plate.

 

 

I liked the thought of a zippered closure like the one pictured in the R1 TK Reference Gallery so thought I'd give it a try. Used a six inch zipper and sewed it to 3" wide strapping (a guitar strap). I used 3" so I could add additional snaps in case I had to increase or decrease the size and how tightly it fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I shortened and re-stiched the suspenders. I also reversed and replaced the snaps so they would snap to the armor on the inside and were stronger than the ones they came with. After fitting the armor though, I don't know if I'll need the suspenders; the armor fits pretty snug. Decision later.

 

 

 

Did a test fit and it's pretty good. Eventually I'll use a heat gun to reshape some of the armor so it fits a little better but for now I'm happy with it.

 

 

 

 

[Teach-]

Worked on the chest armor for a resizing today. The neck and trapezoids were too high for me. Made a template for the neckline and then traced it below. Cut the new neckline and cut off the traps. I then cut a hole for the shoulder straps before adding the traps in their new location. I bent the top of the chest armor with a boiling water dip so the traps would sit more flush to my body. I think I'll be doing that agin once I get the back armor fitted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the dremel was out, I added the indents on the hand plates too.

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by Teach-
added picture

[Teach-]

Boots and gloves from Imperial Boots arrived. I also dug up my neck seal that I purchased a couple of years ago.

 

 

 

 

Got to work on the hand plates. Filled the depression on the underside so the velcro would sit flush. Put the velcro on and voila!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 850 AW shoulder armor was really narrow at the top. I hot water dipped and widened them a bit (where the yellow line is). The picture below is after I widened them. I think I'll be trimming some length eventually but I'll get them fit on the body armor before deciding.

 

 

The upper arms were too big in their raw form. I had to cut them down quite a bit. I took about 1/4 inch off the top of each piece. I also had to dip and bend them a bit more too. They were not concave enough. I made one mistake when gluing: I intended to glue the fronts and velcro the backs. I checked twice but of course made two left arms! Not the end of the world and I might disassemble one in the future. For now, one will be glued on both sides. In the images, the ones on the left are resized and reshaped, on the right are the original forms.

 

 

 

 

 

More to come...

[Teach-]

Snaps and straps today. Getting ready to strap the upper body. I've been using Tandy Leather Line Snaps (matte black line 20) and Line 20 Snap Setter. Learned quickly that I needed enough material between the two snap pieces so the center post wouldn't lean while I was setting it. Doubled the thickness of my nylon for that reason, and I'm using thinker scraps of armor when I use those. I also learned to be mindful of not applying J&B near the center of the snaps. If too much is used, it oozes up and interferes with the inside of the snap. After making the male and female snaps, I tested them all before applying them to the pieces of armor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'll be working on the chest and back next. Need to get it test fitted and marked up, and then I'll be setting the snaps for the shoulder straps. The T shaped nylon (picture above) will attach the back and chest and the perpendicular strap will attach to the shoulder armor. I saw a few other builds like that and I'm going to do the same. Thank you to all those that did this before me.

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Teach-

[FN1313[TK]]

Progress is looking good.


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[TerribleBen[TK]]

Looking good!!!

[Teach-]

Used "SNAP Setting 101 by justjoseph63." Didn't mention that last time but that post made the work a lot easier. Used a soldering iron to put the holes in the webbing. 

 

 

The shoulder strap took a bit of trial and error until I could get the chest and back armor to sit at the right place. Below is the strapping with all the different snap placements I tried. In the end, I used the two closest ones and that's the second picture below.

 

 

 

Had to heat and bend the back armor so the shoulder straps would go in better and so the armor sat on my shoulders better. The arrows show the angle where I had to bend them down. Also had to lower the chest neck opening by about 1/4 inch. It was riding too high for comfort.

 

 

 

 

The two picture below show the shoulder strapping from the underside. Second picture includes the shoulder armor.

 

 

 

Fitted the extensions between the chest and back. Had to trim them a little once they were fitted. Also had to heat and bend them a bit more too. Might trim the back plate so it's the same width where it meets the extensions. Painting them black will happen this week. I was originally going to snap the extensions to the chest and back armor like I had seen in other builds, but I've decided to try velcro first. We'll see if that's strong enough once it's all in use.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Teach-

[Teach-]

Painted the side extensions black and put industrial strength velcro on the chest, back, and extensions. Had a little time after work to get it done. Looking forward to getting everything that's assembled on this weekend.

 

 

 

[Teach-]

Did a test fit. Things that went well: the side extensions and the velcro work. The snaps work and everything is relatively fitted in the right place. Things I will fix: the shoulder straps are raised and need to sit lower onto my body. I'm going to hot water bath the chest armor and bend the area where the shoulder straps insert and get them closer to my body. I might then lengthen the nylon straps that hold the chest and back armor together to get it to sit just a little lower. And because the armor runs a little big on me, I might trim the sides of the chest armor a bit too. Looking at the CRL and gallery/screen captures first.

 

 

 

 

 

So I did both: bent the top of the chest armor and lengthened the straps by about an inch and a half. I also cut the width of the shoulder down a little based on the CRL and gallery images. I also trimmed a little from the sides of the chest armor. I did another test fit and then shortened the length of the shoulder armor. The CRL and gallery images show the length to be about even or a little below the horizontal line created by the pectorals. Mine were too long. I also added velcro to the shoulder straps and inside of the back and chest raised trapezoids.

 

 

 

Drilled the 8mm circular indent described in the CRL. When looking at gallery images (two of them below), it certainly looks more like a hole than an indent. Any advice on whether to add a piece on the inside so it becomes an indent and not a hole?

 

 

 

 

Latest test fit below. Still need to cut down the ab/kidney so it doesn't show above the extension pieces. I'll take any advice you have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Teach-]

Just a little work this week. Cut down the sides of the ab/kidney. Before and after:

 

 

 

 

[FN1313[TK]]

It’s coming along and looking good.


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[Teach-]

Thanks FN1313. Slow going but getting there. 

[FN1313[TK]]

Thanks FN1313. Slow going but getting there. 

Slow and accurate is better than rushed and redo.


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[Teach-]

Printed 11b30b4's abdomen details from his file at thingiverse. Thank you Jeff! They are perfect and save me from lots of sanding (the resin details from 850 Armor Works would need lots of sanding if I used them). I'm also pretty satisfied with the white of the print. It's a better match than any paint I've found yet. 

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2023 by Teach-

[Teach-]

Trimmed and then added snaps to the cod armor. Made nylon straps to fit it to the abdomen. Started trimming and fitting the thigh armor. Plan to get the cod and posterior armor on the abdomen before finalizing the thighs. Working on the posterior armor next.

 

 

 

 

[Teach-]

Trimmed the posterior armor. The 850 AW posterior had an octagonal type edge to the sides of the armor and one too many sides. The gallery shots show just one angled side, so I cut from the top of the first angled side up to the top (along the yellow line below). I then added snaps to the posterior and inside the kidney armor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trimmed but didn't sand the ammunition belt and boxes.