Captain Jack Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Hello brothers. I changed my display name tonight. It was Dirt Bag lol. I changed it to Captain Jack. That's my name over on FISD. You will find out why Captin Jack as we go. Anyway as some of you know I bought Dirty Boys old rig off of PAC know as Desert Punk. It's been a challenge so far but I'm slowly getting there. I wanted to start a post and put some picture up so you guys could see where I'm at. And so cantina security would stop asking for pics lol just kidding bro. So here again is the start. The brown box arrived So next I opened box and made no changes. I just put it on. Lol it fit about as good as a wookiee in a yoda costume. Going to have to make some shims for the sides. So after some adjusting I had it looking like this Do you guys think its ok the back plate is a little far down my back? Christmas came and I guess I was good because look what he brought me I love my AP helmet. Thanks Mark I had two cracks at the top of the ab plate so I did the old T-shirt and super glue trick to fix I work on Swimming pools for a living so I used swimming pool signs for my shims and such. The one I am using says please shower before entering pool LOL. Thought it was funny because we are dirty. To reinforce the ab plate crack area I cut a piece out and used e 6000 to glue it down Next I bought a cheap white trash can for the side shims. I glued it underneath the kidney plate and also underneath on the ab plate I know I know this was before I got my rare earth magnets. I still use these magnets along with my rare earth as well So after glueing it looked like this Next I cut out a shim to double layer this shim so it would sit flush. I cut this from the shower before enter pool sign. I glued the two shims together with e6000 And it turned out like this I bought a hooby co heat sealer to do the return edge and I thought I took before and after pics but sadly I didn't. I will take pics when I do the other side. I do have a question before I do the other side. Do you want the ab plate and kidney plate to be tight against your body? or do you want some room in there? Thanks gots more pics to share but Going to head off to bed. Hope I am doing ok so far. I look forward to being a member of the MEPD. Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong. Thanks again brothers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandman Tigui Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Doing great with the mods bro, congrats!!! If you can, I'd lower a bit the back plate. As for the tight or loose fit I'd go for a snug fit not to tight not to loose just a fit that you feel comfortable with and that you can flex without moving like C3PO. 😉👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trooper1 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Nice job! Can't wait to see this armor in action again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Thanks guys that mean a lot. Jay I hope you weren't affected by the water problem up there in West Virginia. My thoughts and prayers go out to West by God. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smally Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 A nice start, Matt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Yes sir, looking good. The shower before entering goes for the armor too.... Just kidding, you are correct, we are dirty.... Looking tight in the new bucket, it's gonna be hard to weather that thing at first , but you'll be glad you did when its done. I may suggest that when you start to do the weathering, that you carry it from the new material, onto the rest of the armor as well. This will help it blend in better. Good job too adding the shims and spacers. Not 100% sure, but I don't think the return edges are a must on the shims... Ok, ok. Now I will lay off on the pictures... Lol, just kidding... MORE PICS... Lolz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Oh yeah, and nice TK boots... Good find, those have been hard to come by... I guess they just started going again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE TROOPER Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Lookin good bro....Truly an awesome rig to start out with too. Cant wait to see it back in action also... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCRIBBLER Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 @ Matt - So far, so good. Looking forward to seeing the end result of your project and having you eventually join our ranks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted January 14, 2014 Author Share Posted January 14, 2014 Thanks a lot guys for weighing in. I have read a lot of your threads and its great to have your insight. It means a lot. Jason I know I don't have to do the return edge on the shims. I just want to go the extra mile and make it look as uniform as possible. Here is a pic of a shim I added to the left thigh. After I added the shim I again did the return edge to try to make it look as natural as possible. I knew I would have trouble matching the weathering so............. I took all the weathering off so I could make it my own. Here is some before and after. One is the old weathering still on. The other is the one I cleaned up. I haven't started weathering anything yet. I am going to go the fullers earth route. For my MP38 pouch I need to put something in there so it looked real. So I went out in the garage and found.......... Tree tie off stakes lol. I cut them to size and added black duct tape to the tops. I like how they turned out Ok guys got plenty more to share. Hope I continue to head the right direction. Thanks again for everyone's help so far. I'll post more soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandman Tigui Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Amazing filled and weathered pouch man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 Yes good idea filling the pouches. Really good idea starting from scratch on the weathering. Looks good Matt ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Hey Matt, how's progress? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Still working on it. Shimmed both calfs. Now working on right side shim for ab plate.. Got all weathering removed. This is last shim then I'll post pics of test fit. If all approve then I'll start weathering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 Sweeeettt... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 Ok here is some more work I've got done. Shimmed the calfs. Next I worked on the right side shim. Once again I did return edge to look uniform. Then used Velcro to close it. Thanks Trooper1 for your help. Next I did the hand guards. I decided to use e6000 and elastic. Then I put Velcro over that. Now I can slip them on and off with ease. Was worried e6000 would let go but so far so good. Then it was time for a test fit. After test fit I realized a few things. I need to cut opening in helmet some. With neck seal and everything it was really tight on and off. I also need to heat up forearms and open them up a tad at the top. The big problem I had was the shoulder bells. I hooked them to my harness system to holds up ab plate and kidney plate. The shoulder bells wanted to walk the harness system off my shoulder area. Not sure if I was donning something wrong. Any input would be great on the shoulder bells. Also please look at pics and tell me where I need to make changes. I want to get some input before I attempt to weather this thing. Thanks a lot guys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted January 31, 2014 Author Share Posted January 31, 2014 Ok I think I figured out shoulder bell problem. I had the elastic way to tight. Don't need to pull it just hold it in place lol. Move along Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted January 31, 2014 Share Posted January 31, 2014 Looking good brother ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 It been a bit since my last post. After my last post I talked to Tim (Tytlinez). He brought to my attention the shim on my thighs and the overlap would look much better if I went to butt joint with a cover strip. After some thought I decided to give it a go. I heat up the ridge on the thighs and flattened them out as much as possible. I also used my trusty hobby iron to try to flatten them out. Here is what it looked like after this process. One on left has been flattened. The one on the right hasn't. You can see the ridge and shim on the right. After I flattened it out I gained enough that I didn't need the shim anymore. Next I used scrap ABS and mixed with 100% acetone nail polish remover. I made a paste and filled in to hide the ridge. I made it way to thick in the beginning. It needs to be about like paint so you can paint it on. After applying I thought I had totally screwed up. There were times that I thought about giving up and buying new thighs. I read DarthGrace SWAT thread and he inspired me to push on. So I filled and sanded and filled and sanded and sanded and sanded. Lol I'm sick of sanding. Here are some pics of the process After working on the thighs I decided to do the same on the calfs where I added the shim. This if you remember is what it looked like. And here is what looked like after ABS paste is added. I cut some cover strips and added them to the thighs and calfs. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It wasn't easy at all. In the end I'm glad I decided to do it. But none of this matters if you guys don't like it. What do you guys think? Does it look better. Worthy of MEPD? Fingers crossed. Also now I need to paint them white so I can get them Dirty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tytlinez Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Bravo!!!! Wow my friend, you went the extra mile. It looks much better for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Thanks Tim that means a lot coming from you. Glad you talked me into it. Looks better and fits better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantina Security Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 For sure bud, that really looks great. How hard was the abs paste to sand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 To be honest it sands fairly easy. I applided it to thick in the beginning. It's basically liquid plastic. So I thinned it out to thickness of paint and painted it on. I bought a small detail sander at harbor tools freight for about 30 bucks with the sanding pads and all. It worked great. Still had to sand detail areas by hand. Used 120, 240, 400, 600, and final was 0000 steel wool. The final steel wool was key took it back to shiny plastic. If you ever need to use ABS paste PM me. I can tell you what not to do. In the end I'm glad I did it. My super picky side just kept messing and messing with it. That's why it took so long. Lol. Here is pic of sander. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darthgrace Posted February 14, 2014 Share Posted February 14, 2014 wow! You are making amazing progress. Make sure you round the edges of the cover strips. Looking good. It fits well and everything looks like it is tapered down so it fits the contours of your body. That was my biggest problem with my thighs and something I want to fix on my forearms. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Jack Posted February 15, 2014 Author Share Posted February 15, 2014 Thanks so much Chris. Your SWAT thread inspired me. Hope I can get this thing done lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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