mikelbrierly

Next up on my list was some modifications I needed to make to my armor. Getting the sizing right has been tricky and I'm sure will be an ongoing process. (part of the reason I'm using the velcro at the beginning so that I have room to adjust the sizing as needed.) The first thing I realized I needed to fix was the return edge on the forearms. In ANH there was no return edge on the sandtroopers. (correct me if I'm wrong on that). This actually turned out to be a HUGE help with my arm flexibility. The return edge would catch on my elbow as I bent it in certain positions, and it could either really hurt or crack the armor if I wasn't careful. So getting rid of it is a double-plus! NOTE- these photos may seem out of order, since me removing this return edge is from the armor I'm doing for a friend in tandem with my own, but I took off my return edges as well. Also just so everyone knows, I AM moving forward with the snap system, and as soon as I feel comfortable replacing the dreaded velcro, I will. Here is the beginning of my snap plate collection. (those snap buggers are surprisingly expensive!!) The next mod I wanted to fix was how painful the calves can be when they dig into the back of your knee! I opted to go the route of cutting a notch out of the back of the armor (which I have heard was done on some of the screen used suits) to give my knee a little more room to move. I tried to use the heat gun on it at first to bend it back and that was bad idea... So after I mangled it, I cut off just the TOP return edge, to see if that would work... That turned out to not be enough to fix the pinching, so I went ahead and did the full notch, this did the trick for both shins. Another uncomfortable thing about the shins I found was the way that my boots (admittedly a little too short) would push up the calf amor as I walked. To fix this, I wanted a system to keep the calves as far down on the boots as possible. This is what that solution looked like for me. Those pics are a little hard to make out, but what I did was I used the velcro/elastic piece from the hand guards as a connection to pull the shin down, and attach via snap to the boot itself. Here's some more pics to clear that up. First I sewed on a male snap to the loop on the top rear of my boot. Then I sewed a female snap on the elastic end of the hand guard velcro piece. (which snaps onto the boot) This is what they look like mounted on the inside rear of the calf pieces. I found the velcro to be better than the snap system because you have more granular control of how tight you want it to pull depending on where you arrange the velcro. Then when you are putting on the shin pieces, you can reach in and pull the elastic snap down, and attach it to your boot! So when you move around, the shin armor will always settle back into place. I am aware that having tall enough boots might fix this problem, but even so, it will at least give you more space between your calf and thigh for your leg to bend, so maybe it will come in handy for someone else! The last change I made that I'll post about here was the shoulder straps. I noticed that the gap between my shoulder bells and my chest piece was far too wide to match the suits used in ANH, so to fix this I tightened up my shoulder bell elastic by shortening it. This succeeded in pulling the shoulder bells in closer, but it also caused the shoulder straps to fold out and look super wonky. My idea to fix this was to create much firmer, sturdier shoulder straps. (At the cost of not being stretchy.) To start, I grabbed some 2 inch white elastic, which was better than the inch and a half I had before, and I got some plastic grid reinforcement from hobby lobby to stiffen it up. (the grid has been cut to size) Then I measured out the correct distance of my snaps for the shoulders... and placed the plastic grid inside my doubled over elastic shoulder strap. Then I popped in my snaps where they belong... And then I sewed in my snap that connects to the shoulder bells. (sorry this picture doesn't show the snap). This is a comparison of my old shoulder strap with my new one. The reason for the second set of snaps is to add another layer of rigidity to the straps while the shoulder bells hang on them. I don't want them to swivel in the wrong direction at all. Here you can see that the bells sit in a much more natural position, without warping the shoulder straps at all. Next up, Thigh adjustments!! PS- I also decided to try and "make" my own latex hand guards by using the plastic ones ANOVOS provided. I have started putting the first few of MANY coats of liquid latex inside the hand guards used as a mold. We'll see....

Profile gauge! Genius! Where did you buy yours from Diane?

They're just some chelsea boots I found that were a lot cheaper than TK boots, hence they are a little short, but I think I can make them work! If not I'll just save up my pennies for the better ones.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been back at it after finishing school, so I'll post my progress in a couple series posts. Quick note - I am still definitely going to be doing the snap system in the end, but for starters I'm going to go with the velcro for most of it so I can get sizing really dialed in. After getting all my edges cleaned up nicely, I wiped down the inside of all my armor with clorox wipes to remove any leftover mold release that would keep the velcro from sticking to the inside. Installing the knee boxes was fairly straightforward I just centered the middle box with the cover strip and put a dollop of E6000 near the rivets to hold it in place. The one problem that I could have potentially had was the vague ANOVOS instructions on this part. It seems to indicate that it is the right leg on one of the diagrams, and then says it's the left in the other. I get the feeling that these instructions were quickly thrown together seeing as how there are quite a few errors. Speaking of ANOVOS mistakes, I moved on to the kidney piece next, and this is what they have to say - 20 cm from the edge is twice what it should be. Here I marked where ANOVOS says to rivet, and then the correct placement. Getting the strapping ready for the kidney piece. I now know that I need to place symmetrical rivets on the ab plate to join these pieces, but for now I'll start with the ANOVOS velcro way. I made sure to melt any frayed edges I cut/drilled into the straps. Finished with velcro on kidney plate - Next I installed the snaps I would need for my belt (according to ANOVOS placement, which as you will see later left me with a fairly saggy belt) Also on the ab plate I wanted to get my 3 button sandy thingy installed, and I decided it would be easy enough to make with the scraps I had laying around! All I needed was a dime, and I used some white caulk to give it the "vac-formed" look by softening the edges. Shoulder straps! Doubled up elastic with some (crappily) sewed on snaps did the trick. I used some of the ANOVOS strapping for this part, I just cut off the chest to back part of the "T" shape. Here's the laid out internal strapping with the velcro And my first suit up test!!! Thanks to my wonderful fiancee, without whom I would be unable to get it all on. Haha Saggy belt I'm a happy camper!!! I've waited such a long time to wear this white armor!!! (Soon to be dirty!) Next post I'll talk about some of my initial feelings wearing the armor (mostly pinching), and what needs to be adjusted and changed, and I'll post photos of the progress that I have so far on that. Also I'll post the little rig I made for keeping the shin armor down as low as possible over your boots! Thanks for reading and helping everyone!

Alright you guys have swayed me. Haha I will start out with the snap strapping system, i'll just have to measure twice for sure. Haha. And Chris thank you SO MUCH for those diagrams!!! They will be infinitely helpful I'm sure of it! Can't wait to get back at it!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I should have a little more progress made this coming week. Jason that's a good point, but I beleive they just need to be visible, not necessarily functional right? So technically you could go PO or SWAT with velcro strapping I would assume? And good luck Damon!

Thanks Damon!! And I am planning on using the Anovos provided strapping, especially because it's so adjustable with the velcro, that way I can get the sizing dialed in before I plan on using a more permanent strapping system. One thing about the Anovos strapping to note though, is that they say for the split rivets on the side to place them 20 mm from the edges, and it should be 10, so when you get to that part, take a moment to search online for the correct placement. Good luck!!!

I love the weathering!! It looks so gritty!

Thanks everyone! And thank you Jason!! I had no idea, that sounds awesome though! I almost want to try it just for the sake of trying!

So very true. Haha. Out of curiosity, do you know of a thread that shows how to make ABS slurry/paste? I wouldn't even know where to start

Thanks everyone! Calf pieces!! The calf piece cover strips are exactly 20mm wide (in the front only), and there is a lot of extra plastic on the front of the inner and outer calf piece, so I needed to cut that down to match the cover strips. I measured 10mm from the "ridge" on the front, and marked it with a ruler to be cut. (The clamp/flexible ruler method is awesome, thanks to whoever figured that out) Handy-dandy workbench edge Now the front is half of the cover strip, perfect! I did that on both left leg pieces and then did a test fit with some masking tape One thing I will note here that might screw me over later is that I tended to err on the side of tighter than looser on all the pieces, I just personally hate the look of "saggy" armor, but I might be wicked uncomfortable.... we'll see. Here is where I ran into my first problem... I tried my best to mark where it fit best, then divide that line in two, and cut an equal amount off of each side, but this piece had waaaaay more plastic on one side, and it turned out a little diagonal and "spiral-y"... How bad does it look to you guys? Am I in need of a new calf piece? The other leg went quite a bit better, especially with the measuring and carefulness I measured the circumferences and there is about a half-inch discrepancy on the bottom of the legs, I'm hoping that's not too bad in the long run. I can't wait to get this stuff dirty!!! The thigh pieces turned out to be a lot easier than I thought! Or maybe the calfs were just a lot harder than I had expected. but here's the pics from that process, same as the calfs, and I still have the left one to do. More to come on those when they're all done The last thing that I worked on was to get my inner coverstrips in place on all the armor pieces I had finished, This part I did with E6000 for the long lasting durability and flexibility. I figured that if my armor cracks or breaks where the superglue is holding, the E6000 will keep me together at least for the rest of the troop. All of the coverstrips came from the extra flashing off of the armor, and there was way more than enough, I could probably do 2 sets of armor with the flashing from one. So that was nice. I used a set of magnets that I thought were earth magnets that I bought off of amazon, but they weren't quite that strong, so I used multiple at a time and that seemed to work out pretty well. That's it for now, thanks everyone!

I'm curious as to what is wrong with the ANOVOS belt? The four holes leftover after removing the holster?

I have definitely been referencing that thread by Tony, it's incredible! Sets the bar for how-tos pretty high. And I'm sure if Anovos offered a TD it would come with an accompanying price tag. I'm happy to put the work in myself and have a truly unique and personal set of armor

I realized a couple things I forgot to add to the earlier posts, The boots I got are pleather chelsea style boots from H&M, I painted them with Angelus White Leather paint. The only potential problem I can see with them is that they are a little short, hopefully my shin armor doesn't ride up too much. On each piece of armor, there is a number that corresponds to the instructions provided by ANOVOS. When I took the plastic covering off, I didn't want to lose track of what's what, so I put all the stickers on the inside of the pieces where they wouldn't be in the way or lost. Another note on the numbering, If you are unsure at ALL about a piece, double check to make sure that they labeled them correctly, I found that the inner biceps were mixed up. The thumb print indent goes on the left bicep, not right like they said. Also the outer forearms were wrong. There are 12 indents on the right and 11 indents on the left, definitely double check those pieces. Also I did quite a bit of research on glues and gluing, and I have opted to go with the risky move of CA glue of the outer cover strips, But reinforced with E6000 for the inner cover strips. Hopefully this method works out... Here is the superglue that I'm using, I picked this one because of the 15 second working time, and the fact that it is "impact tough formula". Also I have had good experience with gorilla glue. Also I'm a total dingus, I sanded all of my armor after cutting with a sanding sponge, and just shredded the crap out of it, when all along I could have just been using a block of wood inside a WAY cheaper sheet of sanding paper (150 grit worked for me). On to the build!! ------------------ ------------------ I started with the forearms, but I have better photos of the gluing process from the left bicep. Here you can see the handy reference to triple check that you have the right pieces in hand To test fit this piece, I just taped it all together with masking tape, and pulled it on my arm. It was super close to being good already, I only had to take a tiny bit off of the outside piece. I measured the circumference of the smallest part of the bicep so that I could compare it to the right one so they were consistent. I made sure to sand and clean all the areas that I would be gluing, and also sanded down the corners of the coverstrips just a bit. To align everything, I either taped or clamped the strip in place on half of the surface so I could glue the other half- Once I have a little bead of superglue under the cover strip, I start the clamp parade and let it sit for about 5 minutes just to make sure that it's completely cured- Then on to the other half of the strip - Once both strips are glued on the one outside bicep piece, I managed to use a deep-throat clamp to get to the hard to reach middle part, and clamps on the outside - I made sure to sand the inside surface as well, just to prep it for the cover strips I would later glue in with E6000. ----------------- I used this same process for all of the gluing, so I'm not going to go into to much detail unless I ran into issues with these future pieces. Here's the forearms. I'm hoping that the shape is good, I used a heat gun on them to make the strips line up to be glue-able. How do you guys think they look? Sorry for the long post! I'd love any input/criticism! Thanks everybody!!

Thanks for the replies everybody! Scott, I'm glad were going through this adventure in tandem! Good luck!! Mike, I didn't realize that the provided button strip was incorrect! Thanks for the catch, I'll look into getting the right one. Jason, good point, I didn't realize at first that the ear screws were not countersunk screws, I'll swap those out.

Good point about the inner cover strips, I'll have to dig the plastic scraps out of the trash to make those!

I'll try to make this a little more interesting and informative for anyone following, and especially for any other noobs with anovos armor looking to get all rigged up. A little history on the ANOVOS Classic trooper- - Anovos as a company runs off of pre-orders or crowdfunding for most of their projects. (Hence the long wait times). - Initially they played with the idea of releasing the armor as fully PVC, but quickly reverted back to ABS. (I believe the folks over at the RPF actually changed their minds, also the helmet may still be PVC, I'm not sure...). - The neck seal was originally going to be a shiny non-breathable material, and they thankfully changed to a duller, breathable one. - The PDF assembly instructions released were created by Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas, the same dudes that did the San Diego Comic Con First Order Stormtrooper figure booklet, and the Parts of Star Wars website. - This is quoted from their update emails - "We’re also considering mitigating your risk with a protection plan that would provide you at-cost replacement parts. No more worries about making a cut too deep or gluing the wrong parts together! More on that as the program develops!" that would be awesome!! - The helmets molds were milled in aluminum so there was no "degredation of the molds" throughout the process. Now here's some pics! ** I apologize that I already cut these puppies out before I got any pics, I just couldn't help myself, and they made it so easy by providing a built in cut line on EVERY piece. This is technically going to be a triple build for me since 2 friends of mine also purchased the kit, and they are not of the crafty persuasion. . So I'll fill in the gaps with photos from those kits ** Here is the belt after I removed the holster and drop boxes, I'll have to figure out how to fix the 4 holes in the canvas... This is the only imperfection I can see in the helmet, the ears don't seem to be high enough to cover this cut mark The helmet looks awesome, asymmetrical in the back, and the decals are on point. (I might paint over them entirely if I try for swat) The armor is all covered in a protective plastic that was a pain to get off. I found that using a little duct tape to grab the corner of it helped to peel it off. And this is my tool setup thus far, the dremel has already proven invaluable, and I blew through 2+ sanding sponges on the rough armor edges. Definitely getting more of those next time! I have read a lot about the awesomeness of E6000, and to me it sounds like the main advantage over CA glue is its flexibility and its reposition-ability, but I love the idea of the quick setting CA/superglue, so I'm going to try a little combo of both, CA glue dots on the ends and center, and then E6000 for the rest. Thoughts? As far as items I'm going to need for TD that didn't come with the anovos TK... - TD sniper kneeplate $20 - Shoulder Pauldron $80 - E11 Blaster (Resin Kit from DoopyDoos) £39 - MP40 Ammo Pouches $39 (for both!) - Small Spanish pouch $12 - Fullers Earth for weathering $7 - Grey paint for converting helmet decals to TD Just to shout out to a few of the main resources I have and will be using -- https://trooperbay.com/ http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/ And a big thanks to Tony (ukswrath) for talking with me and my 2 homies at star wars celebration and getting us so pumped on joining. So stoked on this experience!!

Rad! Thanks guys, And thanks for the Image tip!

Joining the 501st has been a dream of mine for about 15 years now, and I am so happy that it is that much closer with the arrival of my anovos armor (and affordable too!). I'm hoping to document my build, and take any and all input along the way. I'm hoping to have a Seargent Alley Check V2 by the end of all of it. I'm assuming this is a good place to post for builds? Hail Vader!