Pre-Approval Request for Fiscus

[mfiscus[TK]]

INFORMATION:

Michael Fiscus

Great Lake Garrison

Homemade belt

Keep Trooping Neck Seal

Keep Trooping Boots

6'

185 Lbs

ANH Stunt

Walt's Trooper Factory 

Special thank you to @gmrhodes13, @JBar, Michael R and Todd M for all of their help and encouragement throughout this build!

and to BlueBantha, since he has a lot of same info as me, I copied, pasted an edited. 

 

The primary ammo belt for my kit did not ship with the kit and arriving next week, so there will be some belt tweaking when it gets here.

Working extra hard in the gym to close the gap on the midsection, otherwise I shim.

Trying to get to it finalized to support a charity event on Sept 22nd, as the requester and to troop at the event.

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You do have quite a lot of room between your shoulder bells and shoulder straps, perhaps tighter strapping. Your white elastic is being pulled quite a bit, doubling over the elastic can sometimes help to reduce this. Looks like you could also clean up the top of your vocoder as it's not well defined

        

 

When taking your back photo don't tilt your head downwards as it shows a larger gap between your helmet and back

Shoulder strap not central to backplate, adding elastic can help

Gap between back plate and kidney, perhaps tighter strapping

Try to have your armor pieces at the same heights

Detonator should sit central to the belt, too much clip showing

             

 

You have quite a large area on the side between your ab and kidney, you could add side shims to reduce this

Sniper plate should not be angled backwards, hitting your thigh

Swoop on shoulders normally faces forward, you have it facing backwards

        

        

A good how to here for side shims

You took a little too much material from the bottom corner of your thigh ammo strip, you could trim the end so it's as noticeable

 

 

Swoop

For ANH S/H and ESB as mentioned in the CRL for basic approval, shoulder bells are interchangeable.  However, note that many (but not all of) the originals contained a "swoop" (slight curvature on one side) at the bottoms, which should ideally face the front.  Some armor makers have incorporated this detail into their molds, but some have not and many times troopers get them backward.  This is not a requirement at any level.

 

                                                                                  <--- Front

                                                                       

 

These are just suggestions and not required for base approval although your GML may require them.

For Level 3, Drop boxes are vertically aligned with the end of the ammo belt with minimal gap between belt and box.

 

            

 

For Level 3, the corners of the plastic ammo belt shall be trimmed at a 45 degree angle that meets the outer edge of the cloth belt.

   

 

A few adjustments (and a belt) and you should be good

 

Belt references.

The top of the ABS belt shall sit at or just above the bottom of the central and vertical ab button panels.  A slight overlap is suggested, but not required. 

 

    

 

Good luck

 

[JBar[TK]]

Best of luck getting approved this week. With the belt and costume tweaks you're looking really close. I know it's a lot to consider every time you suit up. I'm always catching small details I can improve on for each submission post. Keep in mind for approval it all depends on your GML. Hopefully you can send your info over when you're ready and get a quick response. I know how that feels trying to get something approved for a deadline.

 

Do you have any closeups of your sniper plate? gmrhodes13 made a good catch that the plate is angled up and I'm wondering how it's attached. It's definitely a finicky part of the armor

[mfiscus[TK]]

Appreciate all the feedback, will be working on this most of the day today.

 

Sunday to do list

Swap shoulder bells

Decrease gap at shoulders, tighter strapping?

Try to have your armor pieces at the same heights (redo strapping)

Shoulder strap not central to backplate, adding elastic can help

Gap between back plate and kidney, perhaps tighter strapping (redo strapping)

Detonator should sit central to the belt, too much clip showing, bender time

Clean up vocoder paint

You took a little too much material from the bottom corner of your thigh ammo strip, you could trim the end so it's as noticeable

Shim the sides (ab and kidney) per tutorial  (is this required for initial approval?)

Re-glue sniper plate with less angle in

Look up more for back photos

Redo ammo belt to spec (monday)

 

Edited September 15 by mfiscus
Added question

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

9 hours ago, mfiscus said:

Appreciate all the feedback, will be working on this most of the day today.

 

Sunday to do list

Swap shoulder bells

Decrease gap at shoulders, tighter strapping?

Try to have your armor pieces at the same heights (redo strapping)

Shoulder strap not central to backplate, adding elastic can help

Gap between back plate and kidney, perhaps tighter strapping (redo strapping)

Detonator should sit central to the belt, too much clip showing, bender time

Clean up vocoder paint

You took a little too much material from the bottom corner of your thigh ammo strip, you could trim the end so it's as noticeable

Shim the sides (ab and kidney) per tutorial  (is this required for initial approval?)

Re-glue sniper plate with less angle in

Look up more for back photos

Redo ammo belt to spec (monday)

 

Shim the sides (ab and kidney) per tutorial  (is this required for initial approval?) Not normally but your GML can confirm, some are a little strict.

You took a little too much material from the bottom corner of your thigh ammo strip, you could trim the end so it's as noticeable Agian entirely up to your GML

 

Position of sniper knee plate

On the sides the ridges should follow the inner ridge, with little gap under the front

 

You could also add some foam behind the sniper plate to help hold it away from your thigh

[JBar[TK]]

I would reach out or just submit as is for you sides and thigh ammo box. That's a lot of work for something your GML may not even require to change. For shoulder strapping. I find the tightest elastic strapping possible and you may want to fold in half part or all of the white elastic for a more firm hold. I may have posted this in your previous posts but here is mine:

You can see where I've overlapped the white elastic. I used one snap on the front and back but you may want two on the front and back. I also have the underside snap close to my neck so it doesn't pull down the edges as easily.

Also just pushing up your bicep can give more slack to your shoulders which will help with the tugging.

 

Again for the shims and thigh ammo box I'd wait for your GML before doing anything drastic. I'm not a GML but I feel like there's no reason to sweat and you can make further changes when applying for level 2 or 3.

[mfiscus[TK]]

Thank you everyone for your guidance. I have made most of the suggested modifications and it is fitting better, still need trim the thigh ammo plate to correct my over trimming. Did the side shims, but want to make the seams a little more seamless.

Some of the fitting will need to be switched from velcro to snaps line up better and I'm knocking those out a little every day.

I will keep practicing the suit up process to get it looking a little closer perfect, but rewatching ANH hope, I feel pretty good about where I'm at.

TK 18635 is approved and ready for my first troop this weekend, but I think I will be tweaking this armor more as I wear it.

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Congratulations, looking much better.

 

One other thing, drop boxes should align with the ends of the plastic belt, add a small amount of glue under the elastic can help keep them in the correct position  

 

For Level 3, Drop boxes are vertically aligned with the end of the ammo belt with minimal gap between belt and box.

 

            

[JBar[TK]]

Finally back in town. Congrats on your build!