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shwarzwald
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So today marks the beginning of a new TD build thread. From what I've been informed the kit I have is a TE kit with an hdpe helmet. This is a whole new ball park for me after working on a fiberglass clone. I have read many threads and gotten advice from a few members, however I will still look here and the fisd for guidance.

 

With that being said here is day one's progress.

Unboxed

Stared at for a very long time

Back to forums to make sense of which pieces are which

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I have a firm idea of what parts go with what and how they attach. However the thighs are throwing me for a loop.

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Thighs: deep swoops are the inner thighs. If you've done a clone, this will be a piece of cake. My recommendation even though you're only aiming for PO, leave return edge on parts that will need original strapping screws shown in case you decide to go SWAT. You'll need the chest and ab screws for PO. 

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14 minutes ago, Airborne Trooper said:

Thighs: deep swoops are the inner thighs. If you've done a clone, this will be a piece of cake. My recommendation even though you're only aiming for PO, leave return edge on parts that will need original strapping screws shown in case you decide to go SWAT. You'll need the chest and ab screws for PO. 

Thank you and ya think so? Also I will keep that in mind about the return edges.  Though I was going to try to keep as many as I could (except what would cause rubbing and such) because I was under the impression it helped the armor out a bit by keeping it more rigid.

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Lookup Mr. Nostripes on white armor.net. He sells the original strapping kits so you'll know what I'm talking about. Wrist portion of the forearms get completely removed. Everything else is optional. Just saving you from making the mistake I did. 

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1 hour ago, Airborne Trooper said:

Lookup Mr. Nostripes on white armor.net. He sells the original strapping kits so you'll know what I'm talking about. Wrist portion of the forearms get completely removed. Everything else is optional. Just saving you from making the mistake I did. 

I appreciate the heads up. I collected more supplies so I may at least start getting these fitted and hopefully get to glueing these pieces together before the week is up.

Also I checked his thread out( and another thread where someone used that set up) and it looks more complex to use the brackets opposed to snaps.

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Ok so day one ended with most pieces trimmed of excess overhang and such. However scissors, exacto knife, and mini saw all have proven to be largely ineffective an sloppy at trimming. Only thing I have left is my dremel with a few different attachments.

Does anyone have suggestions for the best way to trim these pieces up? Also for say the thigh pieces I need to trim them down to fit better. Is it best to go from the top down for those? Also I'm not large by any means, but is it normal to possibly have to add shims on the shins? (I use a bicycle to stay in shape, so I have larger shins.)

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If you have a Harbor Freight Tools  - I would recommend investing in a set of aviation shears http://www.harborfreight.com/aviation-snips-3-pc-62157.html

They can get the job done faster than scissors or an exacto.
If you do not know how to use them http://lifehacker.com/aviation-snips-are-color-coded-for-a-reason-use-the-co-1684150936
 

As for thighs - there are a few threads regarding big thighs. I know I had a similar problem and shims had to be made. I recall posting pics in a thread. But I cannot find it.
You do not want to make a large triangle wedge shim though. There is an image of what not to do somewhere in another thread. Which I cannot find either.

 

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Ah I actually was considering using those earlier today too. XD

Also I'll put the thighs on hold until I can further read up on them then.

On a better note though this thin hdpe helmet that came with my kit was easier to work with and I read up on tk-4510 helmet build thread and followed it to a point where I needed a small opinion from you guys before I went ahead and started drilling holes (or whatever. This thing is workable). 

I'm trying to figure out if I have this about where it should be before I put the rivot(or bolt,screw?) in ear to hold it in place and start on the ears. What do you think?

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Day 2 progress. Helmet has moved along pretty well. Ears proved to be quite a time consuming task. Also despite doing everything right the ears still decided to gap after they were screwed on. On a side note exactly how flush do the screws HAVE to be? I counter sunk them down a bit, but not sure if its enough.

Also should the brow sit higher or is where it is good? Any feedback from here would be appreciated. Tomorrow starts the task of painting it white.

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3 hours ago, Airborne Trooper said:

That was one of three tutorials I used while making the ears. Beyond that though anything else? Personal opinion? 

Between two forums I'm getting nothing. So no new is good news?

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I'm not a guru with MS Paint and don't have photoshop at work so here's my best I could do. You can see on those ears the mold line. I would trim maybe 2 to 3mm before the mold line, as I have indicated in red. Give yourself a buffer and slowly start shaping it with a sanding drum on your dremmel. That's how I've done mine. You have a ton of material left on your ears as it stands now. 

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Ah did I leave too much material on there? I was aiming for something like the captain at the roadblock. 

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Edit- Also thank you for some feedback. I'll probably trim them down a little bit more which also may help with the gap. After looking again I realize one ear shifted up a bit when I drilled the holes to place it. Hopefully I can fix that. For whatever reason the face did not have enough material on one side so it made it quite hard to place the ear.

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1 hour ago, Airborne Trooper said:

Very good link. So from the looks of it gapping is ok, but I should tone down the material on the tubes a little bit more.  Well in a few more hours hopefully I'll be posting new shots of the helmet.

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Ok so using what I saw and a bit of what was suggested I cleaned up the ears more, took more material off, and relocated one of the screws. I'm much happier with them now and gonna see what the white primer will do to this. (Gonna hit it with 800 grit and wipe it down)

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5 hours ago, Airborne Trooper said:

Much better! 

So aside from removing material I had to move both ears down. They both had shifted upwards when I made the intial hole.    Also did a test spray yesterday, so fingers crossed that paint will want to stick to it. I'll post pics later of that. 

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Alright  so day 3 and a good amount of parts are trimmed and starting to be fine trimmed. With that being said I would like to know just how important getting the cover strips exactly the right size? For example the shins from what I read are supposed to be 23-25mm. As it sits mine are closer to 30mm. Is something like this going to stop me from being approved? (It's going to fit me correctly and look good.)

(Also sorry for the potato quality pictures. My tablet camera isn't nearly as nice as my phone camera.)

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For the shins and thighs, what I would do is use the exact measurement on the front and then make it work as close as you can on the back. You'll see the front during pictures so you want that as accurate as you can get while the back won't be seen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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5 minutes ago, LoveMonkey said:

For the shins and thighs, what I would do is use the exact measurement on the front and then make it work as close as you can on the back. You'll see the front during pictures so you want that as accurate as you can get while the back won't be seen


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Alrighty then. I'll squeeze it down 3 more mm. 

Also! I forgot to ask since some piece need trimming to even fit. The forearms! I have seen a few build threads to where there were 11 boxes instead of 12. Now is that fine? And is it better to cut from the wrist side as opposed from the elbow side?

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Ok so after a bit more reading I think I can mostly leave the outside of the forearms alone. Trimming away almost all the inside forearm allows movement. However this may seem silly, but I dont know which forearm is for which arm. 

The inside forearms are different from each other. Which means I need to do some trimming to make them fit right. But that also means a little of the outer forearms need to be trimmed too. With that being said I marked them with what I think is the correct side and the proposed trim lines. 

Also both outer forearms match. Is one supposed to maybe angle a different direction near the elbow?

Edit- I also saw that  the left forearm had 11 rectangles. The right forearm has 12 rectangles. (Is this true? That would partially solve my issue and I would just need to trim the left forearm a bit more too.)

I would realllllly like feedback before I make an irreversible cut. (Reading other threads got me this far.)

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Well time waits for no one. While I'm awaiting feedback for those forearms I went ahead and moved onto other parts. So far we're on the third coat of primer (with sanding in between) (Also probably going to do many more coats) and left bicep has the inside cover strips glued in. 

After watching rogue one tonight with my father I intend on getting the right bicep to at least the same progress.

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(As you can see the gash above the trapazoid is all but gone.)

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Your progress is looking good.  Sorry for the delay but I'm sure the holidays has a number of us otherwise occupied.

 

As for my forearms, I have no idea how many squares mine has.  I just trimmed them down to fit and not cause armor bites.  As far as I can remember, I don't remember the CRL having any specifications on that number either.

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I can't remember on the top of my head and my armor is buried because I just moved. Unless you have super short arms, I would advice not cutting any of the putter arms down. If you need to, you can make the swoop deeper. I had to do it on mine because I got wicked armor bite. You can hold the pieces on your arm and check against the natural contour of your arm and muscle. Some kit makers make identical arms though. 

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