[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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

[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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!!

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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.

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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!!

[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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.

[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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

[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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!!

[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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

[New to MEPD, starting ANOVOS build]

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!