Musesoldier

Tucking in is a good idea. I just figured that most guys wore it on the outside. Fortunately, I have a heat gun, but its from the Uline catalog, so its pretty industrial and can get really hot. Low and slow is definitely the way to go.

Here are a couple images to show how my current strapping method works. Eventually, I'll have to clamshell the ab and kidney together with the six side rivets, but that shouldn't be a problem with the belt. When everything (Ab/ cod piece, kidney, butt, and thighs) is snapped onto the belt, it is fully supported and seems pretty robust. Any other details like screw heads should be easy to add later for officer deployment and will only be for aesthetics. The suspenders attached to the back brace are used to hang my shoulder bells and biceps as well. If my back plate drops far enough, I may have to separate the suspenders where they cross between my shoulder blades, but that shouldn't be hard at all.

I believe that will help, I was able to close up the gap a bit by unfastening them and dropping the chest and back. I have to reposition some snaps for the ab plate so I will have to buy a new back brace belt. I'll take the opportunity to try and shorten the hangers and lift the butt plate just a bit. Any tips on finding a neck seal with a longer skirt around the collar bone and shoulders? My current one wants to come untucked when I let the back hang down farther. I found a few recent threads where this was recommended. My suit is ATA armor, but between the required sag and my own bad posture I will definitely have to get out the heat gun and flatten the chest and back around the collar. Do you have any tips for heating and bending? I am afraid of warping the compound curves and contours around the collar.

I am having trouble aligning my Ab, Kidney, and Butt plates to eliminate gap between the three. For the rigging to hold all my armor in place, I am using a back brace with shoulder straps. Using elastic, nylon, snaps, and some sewing I have created snap plates and hangers to attach the armor to the back brace. Working from the front, with the ab and cod piece choked up all the way to fit under the chest plate, the kidney plate sits too low. Unfortunately, the butt plate sits about as high as I would like it, and I do not think I can move it up much more. I do not know how to adjust the back and kidney plates to create alignment across the top of the ab and kidney while closing the gaps between the back, kidney, and butt plates. I can rework the rigging to move the kidney up and align it with the back and ab plates, but that would create too large a gap between the kidney and butt plates. Moving the ab down would pull it out from under the chest and leave a gap between the kidney and back plates. I tried dropping the chest and back to over lap the ab and close the gap between the back and kidney but doing this leaves a lot of under suit around my neck and shoulders exposed. What is the right way to move the pieces around to get good fitment all over? I am about 6' tall, so I expect that the armor should fit with enough finesse.

So I found this supply list on the FISD page; Elastic- 1 inch wide black for shoulder bells, etc. (4 ft.) 2 inch wide white for ab/back plate shoulder connection (1 ft.), 1 inch wide white for drop boxes, (1 ft.) 1/4 inch wide white (1 ft.) for shoulder straps. Nylon strapping- 1 inch wide black, at least 6 to 8 ft. long. 2 inch wide black (48 inches) for high tension areas if you are using the double snap method. (NP) Before I go out and buy all this nylon and elastic. I wanted to know how these supplies might vary for a sand trooper build since our belts and shoulder straps are both different from a white armor build.

One of the last pieces I need for my armor is the pauldron. I'm having a hard time nailing down prices for this piece, and I was wondering if the pauldron from trooper bay going to be the cheapest? I don't mind waiting on one from somewhere else, but saving a little coin would be nice.

I actually hoped to use a decorative cover strip over the armor to give myself more meat for the velcro/ hooks to attach to. The only way to get the two halves to meet all along the middle is by overlapping the bottom few inches, or by squeezing the middle together with my hand. I couldn't get the whole thing to overlap while keeping a straight seam along the front due to the curvature of the plastic. I did a little sanding on the top and bottom of the back seam to try to shrink the gap but it didn't do much at all. The curvature of the pieces still opens them up pretty bad. From what you guys have said, it sounds like a cover strip and some good Velcro should hold it them together with out pulling apart while I walk or move?

That's what I was hoping would work, but the gap just seemed to be a little too much to close up with Velcro or hooks because the top and bottom touch, so the decorative cover strip would be too wide at the top and bottom and too narrow in the middle. Although my under suit wouldn't show through, the bulge where the separation is would still show in a small degree.

My first time building armor has been relatively uneventful. Until now. While assembling my shins I got the sides sanded and trimmed to about 10mm front, and 13-5mm rear. after taping the shins up to see how they fit, I found out that the back of the shin piece has a gap right in the widest part of the piece (just above center middle). Here are a few photos to show what I am talking about. You can see the gap in the back of the shin where the two halves refuse to join in the middle. By either, overlapping the bottom I am able to close the gap or by squeezing the outer half with some pretty major force. I hoped that closing a small gap at the bottom of the front butt join that I could make the gap smaller. So by working the tape a little, I managed to get the major gap shorter by eliminate the gap in the front bottom of the shin, but It did not solve my problem completely. Will I be able to close the gap in the back with Velcro along the rear cover strip or hook and loop clasps? I haven't taken a heat gun to the pieces yet, but If there are any other gap closing techniques that I missed can you guys let me hear 'em?

Thanks for the many words of wisdom. I had talked to another member who lives down the street and he connected me to someone (local GML?)who was able to give me a few more tips too! Aside from trooper bay's tutorials what are some of you all's other personal favorite build threads, most of what I have found are documentations of the build process v.s. explanations of the build process.

After getting my armor in (from ata) and fetching a few of the supplies I need, I suddenly got cold feet about continuing. I know I should start on the arms and legs, and I know the tools and supplies I need to get started, but I just can't bring myself to start cutting and gluing. Do you all have any advice for starting on my first set of armor? More specifically what technique is going to be the least stressful for a beginner to trim armor with?