HOWTO: Armor Fitment for skinny OTTK's

[Morgi[Staff]]

This is to show a few ways to modify your armor, if you're too slim for the usual size.

 

 

Trimming

 

Although this may seem like the most obvious solution, unless you're smaller than the average TK (smaller than 175cm) as well, extensive trimming might lead to weird proportions. 

 

If you decide to trim your armor, here's a few things you should look out for:

 

For forearm armor, you should trim the back of the armor, as the front might have a raised ridge for your cover strip. Make sure to angle the cut as necessary. Leave enough room to get your hand through the wrist opening comfortably. You might need to reshape the armor with heat afterwards.

 

With the bicep armor make sure to cut equal amounts from front and back, so that the raised armor part/thumb print remains centered. Here you should rather leave some extra space than end up with a too slim bicep as that usually ends up not looking good. 

 

Regarding the thighs, you should have the same approach as with the forearms, making sure to only take away extra material in the back. When trimming, make sure to keep the back of both thighs looking similar. The coverstrip should end up pointing at this "corner". You might need to cut off extra material at the top once you align the bottom ridges.

 

 

The shins should also be trimmed solely from the back, since in the front you have a raised area for the coverstrip. Make sure to test the fit whilst wearing your boots as they might give you extra width to account for. It's better to go slow and trim bit by bit than to rush and take off too much. 

 

Although I do NOT recommend trimming the torso, if you feel the need to do so, make sure to trim equal amounts off of all plates to keep the overall balance. Once you get to a point, where any piece of the armor fits you should not trim any other torso pieces. If you've got the notches in your kidney plate, you will either need to reform them after trimming, or you cut away enough material so that you do not have any notches. At the very least for your back and your chestplate you will need to reform the return edge for an authentic look, so make sure to learn that skill beforehand with a separate piece of ABS scrap before reshaping any armor parts. For heatforming a return edge you should either have a piece of smooth wood in the correct shape to bend your armor over whilst forming or you can use a heating iron. 

 

Padding

 

Instead of filling out your armor with body mass, you can also add padding. Usually small pads are enough, but you can also fill out your armor pieces across the full length. 

 

There are different types of padding you can use. Either store-bought or foam that you cut to the right size. Depending on what you like best and how much flexibility you want to allow your padding you can either use firm or softer padding.

 

 

Ideally your padding is black to blend into your undersuit. However, should you use different colored padding you can easily use a marker to turn it darker. Should you use a marker, there's no need to color the whole piece, only what is visible by looking into the piece of armor.

 

 

I prefer to attach my padding with velcro wherever possible, as that allows me to exchange and adjust padding size, thickness, and firmness for each troop. Should you gain or lose weight this will allow for an easy exchange of padding. Additionally this allows you to keep spare padding in case the one you're using rips or otherwise gets damaged.

 

 

Strapping

 

When you're too thin for your armor, it's easiest to spot the difference in mass between the armor plates, where you can spot the undersuit. Therefore you should aim to have the least amount of undersuit visible. Not only does that get you closer to an authentic look, but the armor hides your actual body mass better than your undersuit. 

 

A specific strapping that you can adjust is the shoulder strapping. By moving the chest and back closer together it'll be less likely for another to simply look through any gaps between your armor and your body. You might have to cut away from the neck area a bit more so your armor doesn't cut into your neck. 

 

 

Additionally you might face trouble regarding the ab-kidney connection. If you're fine with your armor overlapping (not acceptable for higher levels), you should make sure that the abplate overlaps the kidney. This way the overlap is less visible to others. 

 

 

Alternatively, you can opt for a rigid strapping for the connection, forcing it into position and shape without the body mass to fill it up. This can look strange when worn if you're a lot skinnier than the armor, but might work out well if it's not that noticeable. Additionally, this qualifies you for higher level approvals. 

 

I personally went for a rigid strapping that allows for adjustment. That way I can switch between Centurion level armor and what feels most comfortable to me. As you can see in the picture, the strapping consists of two slots and two ABS pieces that fit them. By making the gap in the slots the exact size as the ABS pieces it mostly stays in position when trooping.

 

 

Lastly there's the buttplate to consider. Due to it's position, it's easy to see the inside of the buttplate if you're too slim. To avoid that you can either heatform the armor and adjust the curve to the rest of your armor, or you can have an additional snap from one side of your buttplate to the other, going across your body. This keeps the plate flush against your body whilst giving your entire lower torso section a better hold, as this past might slide down without the friction of your body preventing movement. V-tabs can help your buttplate stay in place as well. 

 

 

Paint

 

To avoid people seeing the contrast between your undersuit size and your armor, it might be helpful to color the inside of your armor black to help your undersuit blend in. I personally haven't tried this yet, so I can't guarantee good results. Should I ever attempt this, I'll share my progress and let you know if it works as intended. 

 

Trooping

 

You should take some time and a second person to help you adjust your strapping, padding and movements so your armor parts don't lock into each other. Especially the sniperplate can easily end up inside your thigh and cause you problems. Try out different poses that look and feel good for photos or videos. 

 

 

Additionally, make sure to carry some snacks with you if possible, for example by putting a pouch inside your chest plate. Many skinny people do not have many calories to burn or might end up with low blood sugar. Should that happen to you, simply eat a glucose, notify a handler or fellow Trooper and move back to the break room for some proper nutrition and some water. Here I've collected a few things that might be helpful to carry along:

 

 

If you're too small and too skinny for your armor, you might want to take a look at the following threads for advice on how to downsize your armor:

 

 

 

 

I hope this helped! If you've stumbled across some additional advice, please share it in the comments and I'll link your input here! 

[Sn4k3]

I'm 184cm tall, and 70kg, overall, a skinny guy, and i use padding in the arms, not the torso neither the legs.

In my case i do not need to trim the armor.

I hope my example helps in some way

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