jinxed

Update: Finished the shoulder bells, and construction on biceps, and forearms. Mostly happy with them. Picked up snaps, webbing, and some nomex gloves. Started tweaking the ab / kidney / butt interface. Taped together to do a cursory fit and realized the return edges on the back are digging in hard. Reduced those considerably and massaged the ABS to a better shape. My kit from Moncal doesnt have kidney notches, but from my initial fit, the sides of the kidney match the abs, and the butt plate is flush with the kidney. So not sure if I should "create" notches and trim the butt plate back some? Also ran into a snag with the 3 button plate. The buttons are nearly as wide as the raised portion on the abs, so if I trim it fit without overhang, I would eat into the buttons. That said, I pulled some scrap from the bin and had a go at moulding my own. Theyre not great, but they do fit the space better. I just softened the scrap with the heat gun and pressed it down over a few of my RE magnets stuck to metal bracket. Not the sharpest detail, but it actually matches the kit. Sadly once trimmed it still is not flat along the edges. I may try again to see if I can push it down a little flatter. That or try to rig up a small vac table??? And yes, the kit supplied 3 button on the right was pulled with dimes.

It's taken me nearly 9 years, but I have finally started to build my (hopeful) TD armor. Still incredibly intimidated and feeling way in over my head, but I think progress is going well? I'll let more experienced eyes be the judge of that. I cleaned off the accumulated dust, dug into the box and laid everything out to see what I was in for. After taking stock, I dug into the cobwebs of head to remember everything Moncal schooled me on when I picked up the kit about trimming it. It went like this: Look at piece for 20 minutes, run upstairs to the computer and read the forums for an hour, return and trim. Rinse, repeat. went from this: To this: Then I got to work on the arms. Cleaned, sized, and glued all the backing strips. Now I'm to the point of gluing on my first cover strips and I'm hesitant. I originally planned to do the angled "fence slat" corners, but thought it would look odd and inconsistent with not all of the strips ending straight. So I cut them to size and did a slight rounding on the corners. It looks good to me, but I dont want something like this to prevent passing a basic or higher inspection. Thoughts? Again, thank you to everyone for the immense resource and help. Brad