Zons new armor

[Zon]

I just got my AP armor today. I really don't want to screw this up. What's best to use to cut and trim the pieces?

[iconoclasta_88]

Is AP made up of ABS? or is it styrene?

What I use for tryming any kind of plastic is actually just a cutter knife (industrial) and sometimes whenever possible I use industrial scissors, and then sanding it by hand. This way might be a bit slower and tiring, but I prefer it like that. But thats me... For drilling I do use a Dremmel tool or just the drilling/sewing tool from my swiss army knife.

I know lots of ppl prefer to trim and sand with a Dremmel... I just feel a bit insecure with it. But it is another way to do it for sure.

Lets have someone else come with other suggestions and then you can have a good idea of the choices you have.

saludos

[godzilla]

I used a dremil with a cutoff wheel to trim my AP down to about 1/16 away from where I needed to eventually

be then sanded. Use blue painters tape to keep track of where your cutting / sanding to.

I used proweld to join the abs where the strips attach and E6000 for heavier gluing like when

you mount the snaps for the strapping.

Tim

[Zon]

I used a dremil with a cutoff wheel to trim my AP down to about 1/16 away from where I needed to eventually

be then sanded. Use blue painters tape to keep track of where your cutting / sanding to.

I used proweld to join the abs where the strips attach and E6000 for heavier gluing like when

you mount the snaps for the strapping.

Tim

Thanks! I figured a Dremmel would be a pretty good tool for the job, but would really want to stay away from edges with it. Is proweld better or the same thing as ABS glue? And what grade sandpaper should I use?

[ARAKYEL]

To my AP I used super glue and fine-grained sandpaper.

[Zon]

To my AP I used super glue and fine-grained sandpaper.

Sweet.

[godzilla]

Thanks! I figured a Dremmel would be a pretty good tool for the job, but would really want to stay away from edges with it. Is proweld better or the same thing as ABS glue? And what grade sandpaper should I use?

Proweld is a styrene/ABS glue that you brush on the seam of 2 joints and because its the consistency of

water it gets sucked into the joint, fusing the 2 pieces together. I would avoid superglues cause they don't actually

bond the plastic together.

There are other brands. Tenax is one. Most good hobby shops should have it.

Use your own judgement for the sandpaper grade, nothing too course. Plus use a block of wood

with the sandpaper wrapped around it to sand straight.

Take your time and if your losing patience, walk away and do it another time. Believe me its better to take longer

on this stuff than rush through and mess it all up.

Good luck,

Tim

[Zon]

Proweld is a styrene/ABS glue that you brush on the seam of 2 joints and because its the consistency of

water it gets sucked into the joint, fusing the 2 pieces together. I would avoid superglues cause they don't actually

bond the plastic together.

There are other brands. Tenax is one. Most good hobby shops should have it.

Use your own judgement for the sandpaper grade, nothing too course. Plus use a block of wood

with the sandpaper wrapped around it to sand straight.

Take your time and if your losing patience, walk away and do it another time. Believe me its better to take longer

on this stuff than rush through and mess it all up.

Good luck,

Tim

I completely understand about taking time. I stared trimming and sanding today and got what seemed to be a small amount of work done in a lot of time. Walking away is something that I will have to get used to doing. I'm the kind of person that once I start something I want to finish it, so it'll be a challenge. Once I get everything cut and sanded I'll head out to the hobby shop, get the glue, paint, and straps. I figure if I don't have that stuff now it'll force me to spread out my work. I appreciate your advice. I'm sure I'll be talking to you soon when I run into problems..

Aaron

[pandatrooper]

Aaron, if you haven't already - check out Stukatroopers AP build. Great info and step by steps there.

I used curved plastic scissors (from a hobby shop for cutting RC car bodies) and an xacto for the score and snap method, then sand the edges like Stuka and my kit came out great. I use the same method on all builds. I also use Plastic weld and E6000 for assembly. Plastic weld melts the 2 surfaces, where as E6000 is a tacky to tacky adhesion that allows a little more flexibility.

There's also a lot of AP build threads on FISD if you want more reference in this forum here

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showforum=37

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showforum=36

I will guarantee you'll run into frustration when you get to the thighs and shins on the AP kit in terms of alignment. Many build threads have solutions, so check there for info. But don't be afraid to ask questions too.

Good luck!

[SCORCH]

just be careful...I had a hard time with mine and sliced a good chunck of my baby finger..now I have hardly no feeling in that finger

[godzilla]

Plastic weld, thats the other plastic welder brand, Its just like the Proweld and Tenax I mentioned.

Any of those will do. Make sure you clamp your pieces and run this stuff along the seam, It'll get

sucked between the two pieces your trying to "weld" that way, It's called "capillary" action.

http://www.hoslotcarracing.com/image/Chemistry/PlastructPlasticWeld.jpg

http://www.woodcraft.com/Images/products/843546.jpg

http://www.nscalesupply.com/TEN/TEN.html

Aaron, if you haven't already - check out Stukatroopers AP build. Great info and step by steps there.

I used curved plastic scissors (from a hobby shop for cutting RC car bodies) and an xacto for the score and snap method, then sand the edges like Stuka and my kit came out great. I use the same method on all builds. I also use Plastic weld and E6000 for assembly. Plastic weld melts the 2 surfaces, where as E6000 is a tacky to tacky adhesion that allows a little more flexibility.

There's also a lot of AP build threads on FISD if you want more reference in this forum here

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showforum=37

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showforum=36

I will guarantee you'll run into frustration when you get to the thighs and shins on the AP kit in terms of alignment. Many build threads have solutions, so check there for info. But don't be afraid to ask questions too.

Good luck!

[Zon]

Glad I checked back today because I probably would have trimmed everything according to the "guides" on the armor. Luckily I started with things that wouldn't need adjusting (shoulder straps, the details on the ab section...)

I've already come pretty close to cutting off at least two fingers, that's when I know I've been working too long. I haven't tried that score and snap method. I've been cutting with snips, using a dremmel to get close to the lines and then sanding.

Thanks for those links! I had seen Stukatroopers site before but it was while I was starting my armor search so I didn't really have context for what I was seeing. Now, for better or worse, I know what I got myself into.

[godzilla]

"Shoulder straps, details on the ab section." Are you not making this suit into a Sandtrooper?

Tim

[Zon]

"Shoulder straps, details on the ab section." Are you not making this suit into a Sandtrooper?

Tim

Without question, Sandtrooper. I know I don't need either one of those things or the drop boxes. I started with those to get a feel for cutting and trimming so when I got to the important parts I wouldn't screw up. This is my first attempt at anything like this. I'm not really a do-it-yourself kind of person, so practice, patience and advice is how I plan on doing this.

[Zon]

I'm having a hard time knowing how much to cut off of pieces (arms and legs). Is the best way to put the two pieces on and take away little by little until it seems to fit or is there a better way?

[FIVE]

I just got my AP armor today. I really don't want to screw this up. What's best to use to cut and trim the pieces?

Carefully!

Very, very carefully!

(thank you... I'm here all week...)

[pandatrooper]

I'm having a hard time knowing how much to cut off of pieces (arms and legs). Is the best way to put the two pieces on and take away little by little until it seems to fit or is there a better way?

Depends on what fits you. If your lower body is thin enough, you can make the front of the shins and thighs more screen accurate by leaving 10mm or 12mm on each side of the thigh (from the indent of where the cover strip would go) that way if you butt join them together, you get a total of 20mm or 24mm on the front of the thigh. This would allow you to put a 20mm or 24mm ANH style cover strip on the front.

Now for the back, you would wrap the armor around your thigh, and when you think you have the right size (don't make it too tight, leave a little room for flex / padding) make a pencil mark where you think the center of the back of the thigh would be, at the top and at the knee. Then you would cut both sides along this line, also creating a butt join. You shouldn't rely on the marks or indents on the back of the thighs as that may not fit you.

If your thighs are bigger, you may need to make the allowance bigger at the front, and say use 15mm per side if that's what it takes. You have to tailor it to fit your body. In general, people try to keep the front more screen accurate, and have the back less so - to suit their body type.

Now you can assemble both halves by using shims (extra plastic) to hold the halves together, gluing them inside the armor. Most people glue / clamp the front and let it set overnight, then do the backs the next day.

The same would apply for the arms, except the arms use 15mm - 20mm cover strips, again depending on the size of your arms.

The Stukatrooper tutorials cover this type of assembly. At the end of the day, don't cut anything until you've taped things up and tried it on for size. measure twice, cut once!!

Good luck!

[Zon]

Depends on what fits you. If your lower body is thin enough, you can make the front of the shins and thighs more screen accurate by leaving 10mm or 12mm on each side of the thigh (from the indent of where the cover strip would go) that way if you butt join them together, you get a total of 20mm or 24mm on the front of the thigh. This would allow you to put a 20mm or 24mm ANH style cover strip on the front.

Now for the back, you would wrap the armor around your thigh, and when you think you have the right size (don't make it too tight, leave a little room for flex / padding) make a pencil mark where you think the center of the back of the thigh would be, at the top and at the knee. Then you would cut both sides along this line, also creating a butt join. You shouldn't rely on the marks or indents on the back of the thighs as that may not fit you.

If your thighs are bigger, you may need to make the allowance bigger at the front, and say use 15mm per side if that's what it takes. You have to tailor it to fit your body. In general, people try to keep the front more screen accurate, and have the back less so - to suit their body type.

Now you can assemble both halves by using shims (extra plastic) to hold the halves together, gluing them inside the armor. Most people glue / clamp the front and let it set overnight, then do the backs the next day.

The same would apply for the arms, except the arms use 15mm - 20mm cover strips, again depending on the size of your arms.

The Stukatrooper tutorials cover this type of assembly. At the end of the day, don't cut anything until you've taped things up and tried it on for size. measure twice, cut once!!

Good luck!

Okay forgive me if I'm being a little slow here...

I've been to Stukatroopers site a number of times and once everything is cut to fit I know how to glue everything together from his descriptions and pics. I get how to make the pieces shorter in regards to length, I'm unclear on how to cut the pieces so that they fit in terms of large or small enough to fit around my arms legs. Everything came in halves so if I understand what I should do is take one half of the calf piece, as best as I can, locate the center (leaving room for padding) as it is on my leg and cut on that line, and repeat for the other half. Use that method for the quads, biceps, forearm, etc...

[FIVE]

No, you're not being slow at all!

You start looking at all these "pieces" and before you know it you just feel like re-watching EP IV and calling it a day.

I'm not sure what you mean by "find the center."

You want the front to always look better than the back. So, on the front I advise you to match the overlaps up just perfectly so that the "cover strip" will just cover them. They shouldn't be any wider than the finishing strip in other words. Then, on the back, you can go wider if you need to.

Look at my submission pictures... you can see on the back of my thighs and calves one calf was much too small (better now) and the thighs have an ever-so-slight shim built in. So the finishing strip doesn't cover the whole width of the overlap.

Am I making sense?

Is this answering your question?

You want to measure twice (like everyone says) and cut once for sure.

If you're putting the fronts together "perfectly" as I described above then you can cut those perfectly (without measuring on you) and then glue them. Then you can slip the pieces on and see how much you need to trim or shim on the backs.

Look at my build thread.

I even RIVETED my pieces together THEN put the finishing strips on!

Hope that helps...

[Zon]

No, you're not being slow at all!

You start looking at all these "pieces" and before you know it you just feel like re-watching EP IV and calling it a day.

I'm not sure what you mean by "find the center."

You want the front to always look better than the back. So, on the front I advise you to match the overlaps up just perfectly so that the "cover strip" will just cover them. They shouldn't be any wider than the finishing strip in other words. Then, on the back, you can go wider if you need to.

Look at my submission pictures... you can see on the back of my thighs and calves one calf was much too small (better now) and the thighs have an ever-so-slight shim built in. So the finishing strip doesn't cover the whole width of the overlap.

Am I making sense?

Is this answering your question?

You want to measure twice (like everyone says) and cut once for sure.

If you're putting the fronts together "perfectly" as I described above then you can cut those perfectly (without measuring on you) and then glue them. Then you can slip the pieces on and see how much you need to trim or shim on the backs.

Look at my build thread.

I even RIVETED my pieces together THEN put the finishing strips on!

Hope that helps...

I think I'm getting there... I was thinking that I needed to have the pieces cut and fitted to me before I glued ANY of them. What I should do is glue the fronts, make them look good, and any size adjustments I need to make, make on the back side of the armor.

The finishing strip is the small additional strip of ABS you use to cover the joint that makes it ANH accurate? If I didn't use that strip is the pro weld gonna leave the joints looking unfinished?

[pandatrooper]

I would use the ANH cover strip, looks a lot more finished.

[FIVE]

Yep... you've got the idea!

And yeah, pandatrooper is right... the finishing strip really makes a huge difference in how good it looks!

[Zon]

I agree that the finishing strips add a lot to the armor. I could put those on once I have everything sized and glued though right?

[FIVE]

You bet!

[Zon]

Got it. I'll probably be back in a day or two when I run into another issue. Good to know you guys are here though!