Wook1138

Thanks... and yes, I need larger gaps.

Last major weathering hurdle - the bucket. There isn’t much reference for the left side or back so I took some artistic license. I still need to attach the Hovi mics and install the lens. Reference

If you are getting ABS, then no painting is needed. For the paint runs, I used ABS paste to simulate paint. Actual paint never matches the colour of the plastic exactly and the ABS paste is very durable, especially during the weathering process. Congrats on your new armour! Enjoy the build!

Weathering of everything but the helmet and soft parts is done. I also removed the paint run line from the helmet and redid it with a better colour. I also added the cheek crack and some random spots of HDPE green to simulate paint chips. Of course I won’t have as many chips as the non-screen capture reference pics since they are way after the fact, but they do give ideas as to where the paint may have chipped off. Overall the weathering is stronger than I planned, much stronger, but I’m generally happy with it.

You are doing a great job with this. I like how you are using the lighter colours to keep it subtle.

Update on weathering. It is a slow process but I am adding washes of black acrylic paint and burnt umber acrylic paint over the armour to build up the dirtier areas. Just the arms and helmet (hard parts) left to do then I can dust the armour with a couple layers of airbrush. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I happened across this pic. Looks like the trooper second from the right with the white pauldron is wearing the captain’s armour - aside from the cheese grater hand guards. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is the second try. No black added yet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

First crack at weathering - let me know what you think. So, I’m trying to find a balance between what looks good on camera and what looks good in person. I found that my previous test looked pretty good in person but seemed pretty soft in pictures. Because of this I decided to punch up the weathering a bit. I started with the shins since I tend to weather too much and the shins are typically the dirtiest part. Started by using a sponge to apply burnt umber acrylic paint. I kept on dabbing until the paint was pretty much dry. Wiped away most of the paint with a damp shop towel. Did the same thing with black paint but only in some areas and used more of a wash than applying paint straight out of the tube. I did two coats with the airbrush. One layer was a brown-grey colour and the other is sand coloured. So, four different colours in total were used. Final Reference In sunlight with a clean thigh for comparison. So, then I jumped into it. First try was too dark. So I had to tone it down with white paint. Compared to shins. Closer pic with flash. The shins look too different than the chest. The shins are richer in colour and contrast. Question is, which gets redone? I think I will give the chest another go tomorrow - it looks too "painted on" anyways. Or am I letting the OCD get the best of me?

Dude, you forgot your belt.

Wow!

Final push before I can start weathering. Here are some of the things I finished up. Tube stripes. All the painting will be done by hand. Here, I am measuring out the spacing for the stripes. First coat. Yuck, I hate doing these things. Oh, I also did the vocoder. I forgot to mention that I composited original photographs over photographs of my helmet in Photoshop to place the stripes and vocoder details. Had to place and drill the holes for the Hovi mics . The HOVI mics in the reference picture do not seem to match where the holes are marked for the AP helmet. So, I had to adjust. I also painted the tips of the Hovi mics white as per the reference picture. Taped off an area for the crack/paint run on the top of the helmet. The colour was supposed to match HDPE green plastic colour of the original helmets. But this is a bit dark, I will have to tone it down with some white paint. I also cut some tubing at some funny angle to help redirect the Hovi mics . It is difficult to get them to point in the right direction. Also final trimmed and sanded the legs and arms. I also added all the snap bases. For sanding, I use 220 grit, 320 grit, 400 grit, and 600 grit. All the return edges were sanded this way for comfort... especially in the upper thigh area. And then the next day... Ammo pack and some final strapping. Still waiting for the tube stripes to fully dry before I can clean them up. Ammo pack riding low. Single cap rivet Arms ready to go. Once some glue drys. I just noticed that the captain does not have bicep hooks. I guess I'll have to change that sometime later. Come on paint... dry. Once I can do a full test fit and if things seem good then I can finally get dirty. Oh, and glue the silicone hand guards to the gloves - tomorrow. Then tomorrow came... So, the tube stripes were finally dry! So I clean them up a little bit and quickly assembled the helmet. I did not install the lens yet and the Hovi mics still need some adjustments. I will also also need to add the HDPE green colour to the crack on the cheek. After some research I think I found a very close colour match to use on the helmet. I will redo the crack on the top of the helmet as well. I cobbled together a makeshift thigh garter. 3 inch elastic and 2 inch nylon webbing and a buckle. And a bunch of tape. So I was finally able to do a test fit. My makeshift thigh garter system did not hold up very well and the thighs have dropped a bit in the pictures. The shins have also rotated, I will need to add some Velcro to the boots and the insides of the shins. I also noticed that I will need to hot bath the back tabs on the shoulders so they don’t stick up so much. I meant to add these parts as well. However, my bucket did not have any fans in it, I had forgotten how hot it gets without the fans. So this fitting was short-lived. Hot bathing the tab. The one on the left has been adjusted for comparison. Overall, the fitting seemed pretty good. The true test will be walking around for an extended amount of time to test how the return edges will feel. So, it’s finally time for the weathering. Woo hoo.

Yeah, I'll probably do that to create a darker base layer(s) when I actually do the armor. I also want to get that dusty look that the Fullers Earth gives. I tried the same process with the airbrush and using washes of acrylic. I did do a quick layer of burnt umber as you mentioned - I will do more next time. As for the airbrush - I use the incorrect nozzle/needle combination. This causes the paint to splatter and spit a little. Gives a gritty texture. Anyway, here is a test - the airbrush is on the right. It needs a bit more contrast (darker burnt umber) in a few places. It doesn't read as strong on camera (especially in sunlight) - but it looks pretty realistic in person.

Weathering test number one. Although I like the look of the subtle weathering one gets with Fullers Earth, I worry about the durability and, more importantly, I need to be able to carefully control the pattern of the weathering. I feel I can do that better with paint since I have experience painting and zero experience with Fullers Earth. Try one is using regular art acrylics and a shop towel to dab the paint for texture. I used burnt umber, black, yellow ochre, and white. I started off drawing a pattern and filling it in with dark grey. Then I did a coat of brown. Then a coat of sand colour. After each layer I rubbed off most of the paint with a towel. Well, I wasn’t happy at all with that. Too dark. So I wiped the piece clean with some mineral spirits and tried again. Outline pattern. Paint in area. Dab with towel and spread some paint around. A layer of brown/tan colour and dab with a towel. Rub away some paint once dry. Flick some brown and yellow at it. Rub off some of the specks. I needed to use mineral spirits for the flecks as they were pretty stubborn. In sunlight at a distance. Sunlight, bit closer. Not terrible. I will try the same thing tomorrow but I’ll use an airbrush.

Lol. Spoken like a true sandy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is funny how these things come together. After picking away at little things for what seemed like forever - I started adding some strapping and viola, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just need to finish some arm strapping and the basic build is done. For various reasons I am not using the original bracket strapping system for the chest. So I glued in some snap plates about 4inches up from the lower return edge. Added snap bases near the top edge of the ab. Taped chest to ab to double check alignment. Realized I need to shift a snap base. Test fit. I’m trying to get the placement if the chest with relation to the ab to match the reference (more or less) but still fit okay. I did need to redo one chest to ab strap because the chest was slightly skewed. Reference Left side (mirror) pic. More gap than I would like, but not terrible. Right side mirror pic. I’m using a plastic reinforced nylon strap for the right connection. It doesn’t overlap but it does cause the two haves to offset like this. May need to revisit this. And back. The gap between the back plate and the kidney plate is a lot less here than on my first TK. I’ll need to hot bath the shoulder tabs at the back to bend them down a bit - they are sticking up about half an inch or more above my shoulders.

Minor progress these last few weeks. Life with young children is not conducive to building armour - plus we’ve been away on vacation for a bit. Oh well, here are some more check boxes that I’ve checked off. I managed to get all the holes drilled for the original bracket strapping system and tested some of the connections. I also did some more minor reshaping of some return edges with the always scary heat gun. Drilling holes. Glued 3 button plate. Glued rivet covers on belt. And started painting a bunch of screws and rivets white. Started to add the canon bracket strapping. I managed to get the screws counter sunk a bit. I have seen other people use elastic along the left kidney to abdomen connection. They also used a extra piece of ABS to support it. I tried the same method, but once I got the split rivets set, a gap formed. The elastic got stretched a little a now won’t retract due to the ABS support. This is a lot more gap than I want. Not too happy. I changed out the right ab snap for a “Tandy”-less snap. Added some bits of ABS to the inside of the thighs. I will ABS paste the outside. The screen used thighs appear to be filled as well - probably paint. Reference Snap bases for shoulder straps. I also added a snap base opposite the right ab snap (not shown) 25mm coverstrips for back of shins. Adding Velcro before gluing. I’ll see how that works. Just waiting for one snap base to set. Happy belated Father’s Day. My wife ordered me a couple of helmet bags from Trooperbay. She even knew that one should be TD. Just when you think they don’t care...

Rats! You even reminded me of this run and I totally forgot. It looks awesome! I am now consumed with envy and regret.

Congrats! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking very good, sir!

As much as I prefer Tandy... . Will do. At least for the right ab.

On to snaps and belt. First off - Belt: I used the standard measurements (various builds and the Billhags diagrams) for placing the snaps on the ab on my first build - the left side of the ab calls for 59mm from the return edge as shown below. this is way too much for this armor. I went with 40mm instead and it worked perfect. The right side stays the same - 28mm. Usual measurements By the way, taping the anvil to the back side of the armor works great for setting these snaps. Also reaming out the holes helps the snaps (male base) to sit flush. The left belt snap (tandy line 24) and two snaps for the posterior. Right ab to kidney connection snap and the right belt snap. Once I've centered by belt to the armor, I taped it in place. I took a sharpie marker and marked up the snaps on the armor - then I pressed the belt to the snaps to leave an impression of the marker on the belt. The belt is level and placed just below (but touching) the center button panel. This leaves nice marks where the snaps should go. I did this process twice - just to be sure. Belt in place. I still need to trim and glue on the rivet covers. I used Tandy small single cap rivets to attach canvas belt to ABS ammo pack. The docking bay 94 captain actually has a low fitting belt - it looks like is has fallen down post-weathering. I will need to reposition this belt for SWAT application - but I am told that I need to have the belt here for basic approval. I find it weird that something good enough for L3 approval is not good enough for basic. Oh well. anyway, I was going to install another set of snaps to allow me to easily adjust this in the future - but I forgot and put on the ammo pack before adding the snaps.

Thanks! Chest is for the TK. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, the belt looks low on the DB94 captain. Do people usually install where the belt should normally go and then move it if applying for SWAT?

Oh yeah. Thanks! Let’s try this again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk