Fixing cracks in TK armor with Aceton

[Vicky_Velocipanda[Staff]]

My TK armor has a crack- what can I do now?

 

Hello there! In this simple tutorial I will show you how to fix cracks in your beloved TK armor. Finding a crack for the first time is super scary, but don’t worry, they can easily be fixed!

 

 

What you need:

 

Leftover scraps of plastic from your armor build

Aceton

 

A jar (preferably made of glass and not plastic) with a lid

 

Something to stir

Sanding paper

Cottons swabs

Paper tissues/ wipes

 

Reminder: Aceton is quite stinky and unhealthy so make sure
to work in a well ventilated area!

 

Starting off:

Break your leftover scraps into many tiny scraps so they dissolve easier. Put them in your jar (I use a jam jar) and pour in some Aceton over them. Be careful to not pour too much as you don’t it to be too runny. Close the jar, wait and shake it around a bit. Take your tool ans stir the mix. You want the whole thing to be viscous and thick.

 

Applying the goo:

When you’re happy with your little mixture, take a look at the cracks. For huge cracks in places with lots of pressure on them, I strongly recommend adding a piece of plastic as support. I just glue a little strip of the leftover plastic on the backside of the crack using the Aceton paste and then cover the plastic strip in Aceton to get a smooth transition. As you can see in the picture, I used strong magnets to help the plastic strips stay in place while the Aceton paste is drying. Adding the plastic strip for support is really important because otherwise, the cracks will come back. It’s not pretty yet, but we’re getting there! On the front side use less Aceton paste but make sure you cover the whole crack!

 

Sanding it down:

When the Aceton paste is completely dry and hard, you can sand it down. Take some sanding paper and start sanding. Do that until you’re happy with the look aka welcome to sanding hell!

 

Make sure you start with a coarser sanding paper and make your way down to a really fine one! You want to have a really smooth surface! In the picture, the crack is still visible, so I had to do more sanding.

 

 

Finishing touches:

When you’re happy with your surface, you might see that the shine of your armor is reduced in the areas where you worked with the Aceton paste. My armor is one of the really shiny ones so I wanted to bring back the shine. What you can do for that is to put some (really just a little) Aceton on a tissue or a cotton swap (depending on the size of the area) and give the area you want to make shiny a quick wipe. This has worked really well for me. I sadly don't have a picture of the finished repair because I wanted to get over with it after hours of sanding. But you'll get the idea!

 

 

And voilà, your TK armor is fixed again! Keep trooping! The repaired parts will still not be as sturdy as they used to be, so watch out and don't do stuff like breakdancing or going down slides in armor (yes, I witness both of these)!

Additional tip: Keep the jar and write the Trooper you used it for on the lid! In our household, we have armor kits from different makers so we label the jars to not confuse them. Also, you can just use the same glass jar over and over again!

 

This tutorial was brought to you by TK-50893

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work Vicky. You can use different grades of wet and dry sandpaper to smooth out the filled area, then finally buffing compound and polish, it can be very slow and tedious work to get a shine back.

 

Great tip on the label with which armor maker, many are different shades of ABS so good not to mix them up. 

[Armor9[TK]]

Thank you for this info.  Have you ever tried the acetone with PVC?  Does it dissolve it as well?  

 

Would using a small amount of ABS paste on a PVC armor crack be very noticable? 

 

Thanks. 

[revlimiter[Staff]]

Reportedly, acetone WILL desolve PVC, so it is worth a try with some scrap armor bits.

[Armor9[TK]]

1 hour ago, revlimiter said:

Reportedly, acetone WILL desolve PVC, so it is worth a try with some scrap armor bits.

 

Thanks, I'll try a test piece.  

[FN1313[TK]]

Now I haven’t had to fix cracks in plastic armor yet, but I know with Fiberglass one recommendation was to take a small drill bit a little wider than the end of the crack and drill a hole there that then spreads the crack into a hole that isn’t going to crack further because of what it does to surface area. Then you support and fill with fiberglass and resin.

Would it be of any added benefit for preventing further cracking to do the same drill technique?


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk