mr0072003

Are those sneakers that IO is wearing 501 approved

AS you mentioned the back was a lil crocked. Once your totally done, post some more pics of the back. We want to make sure you are squared away trooper.

I Thought I was the only one!

yeah I think that straping the straps down to your rear plate may help in the crockedness... But dude its looking great and I really like that belt you have. NICCCCSHHH

Too Cute.. a little Jawa hand or something just randomly in the pic... LOVE IT. :laugh1:

STEP - 6 Ok last part - Now that its all fitted and ready to go you will need to glue your peices together. This is one of the peices that actually gets glued on both sides and not left open. First you need your ABS Glue Then you will need to sand the part that the glue will go one. Do this to both front and back parts that will be glued together. This will help the ABS adhere. Here is an example. Once you have sanded it, apply your ABS glue. Dont go crazy with it, just enough. You will have time to move and adjust for about 30min or so, but I would not wait that long. Once your happy with the placment, get your Earth Magnets and clamp the one side together. Use as many magnets as you can to get a nice even set. Here is one side glued Let it set for the day or at least 4 hours. Do both left and right Bicep. Once its dry repeat to other side. Here are both glued and magneted together on the last side Once the Glue is dried on both sides, remove your magnets and clean up any mess left behind from the ABS and your DONE. Thats it folks, you can use this basic method to trim down and glue your parts together. Hope this helps other out there. Sorry for no Pics of the biceps after this, but I forgot to take a pic before I added cover strips.

To be honest, at the time I had not experience in scoring at the time and I knew I was going to use cover strips anyway (even though I was doing overlap), but in case I did not I wanted straight lines. AFTER making cover strips using the scoring method, (which is much cleaner as you mention) I realized that would have worked here. But as for being easier and faster, no way, dremeling it took less than 45 sec, and to sand it (took more time finding the small wood black ) was no more than a minut or 2 of sanding.. nothing to bad, but will aggree it woud be cleaner to score, but its a pain in the butt (at least for me)

aghhh I see something else... I was going to suggest to move the front chest plate back more, but it looks like its already pretty much slicing your neck in 1/2... .so you may also need to trim down the neck area. BUt this also may mean to cut the Cod and but portions off as well... But lets not get crazy here.. Bu this is the best pic I could find of my Cod peice cut off... it helps for mobility and may help you out as well...

Sorry for not getting back to you in time Jim, this thread got lil buried and I forgot about looking for it until tonight. What Toddo suggested is exactly what I would recommend. Here are some pics to help.. (A tut is coming soon for this BTW) FRONT CHEST - No matter where you cut if at all, just make sure its at the end. THE BACK Trust me its trial and error.. even with that it still took tweaking and looking until it was right.. here is proof of one of my first test runs. and with a little effort..will eventually look like this

Love the T-Shirt technique. I am wondering if I can steal this part of your build and make a seperate HOW TO - Re-enforce weak point with Super Glue and T-Shirt. This type of technique can work on other parts, and can really help someone in a picnh if they dont have other ways to re-enforce weak spots. LMK

YEah the 30mm looks good, and may look proportion to them guns your walking around with. The one thing that sucks is the cover strip is not Magma color like the rest of the armor is.

Step 4 - Cutting the edges to match your mass or lack there of. So using your painters tape, tape one side of the bicep. This will be so you can use a marker or pen to mark your cutting point. Shown here is the front bicep being taped. Do the same for the back part of the bicep as well. Here I have them both lined up and marking lines as where to cut.(PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BACK PART OVERLAPS THE FRONT PART). Something not pictured here is me test fitting them on while taped together. This part is key as it will help you determine where to cut. For me it was a lot as I have Pencile arms. For some, they may not even have to do this. With your lines marked on the back peice of your bicep.... These lines were based on how big I wanted the "Cover strip" part to be. I opted for the OVER LAP method, hence why I wanted to get this sized down first. Now just use your dremel and cutter bit (not the one show in this pic, thats the grinder bit) and cut away. This is where the dremel really saves time. Now that it's cut, you may notice the lines are not as straight as you may like. Considering this part will act as a cover strip (if going with the over lap method), you may want to clean it up. So to clean it up, get some 400 or 800 Sand paper.... Wrap it around a small wood block or similar like so.. Start to sand like so... once your done it should look like this. Repeat this step to both sides as well as both back peices. Step 5 - Cutting the Front pieces. Now peice both parts together (Front and back) and overlap them to the point that it fits nicely around your biceps and mark to see how much of the front needs to be cut. You determine this by making sure the overlap portion goes over the front without any extra making the part bulg out. Mark it and cut I had to hack off a lot for my pencil arms. Point being that this measurment will differ for each based on your body type. Also if the lines are not straight just use the sand block method mentioned above and clean it up. Here they are side by side next one side that is NOT cut. You can see how much was cutt off. Repeat to both sides Now that they are cut, butt them together with the back half and check fitment and overlap. (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE BACK OVERLAPS THE FRONT) Thats it next up will be Gluing and using earth Magnets

How to Glue your AM Biceps Together - The Begginers Step Things you will Need - AM Biceps peices Front and back a total of 4 Peices - ABS Cement - I used the regular color, but I suggest the black ABS Cement - Dremel with Grinder and Cutting bits - Earth Magnets - Painters Tape - Sand Paper (400-800) - Small wood block - Womens nail file Ok so you got your new AM kit and you are wondering where the heck do I start. One of the easiest parts to put together will be the biceps peices. So dig around and look for your peices. Here is what you should have: Step 1 First thing to do will be to clean up the return edges. Here is a before pic of the bottom part of your biceps. This is the back peice. Here is a before pic of the top side of your biceps, also the back peice. This part is the closest to your shoulder Now get your Dremel with cutter tool out and cut as close as you can to the edge leaving just enough return edge. When your done, it should look like this. AS you can see, the cut is very rough and needs a bit of clean up. Just get some sand paper or even better a womens nail file. This helped TONS and kept my lines straighter. Notice that I went into the notch. This is so you can pass your strap system through, but thats later in the build process. STEP 2 Now lets work on the other side, the smaller side. This side you will NOT need to cut into the notch. Becuase of this I opted to use the grinder bit over the cutter. You can see I cut close to edge but still leaveing some return edge. Here are both left and right back side peices cut. One peice is showing the top and the other is showing the bottom. You can tell the differnce as one side has the notch cut out and the other does not. There is the womens file I used too Step 3 - Front Bicep Peices. Here is a pic of what the front part of the biceps look like. (Note AM kits have dimples one both sides) We need to cut the return edges here as well. (At least I did) Here are some before pics. Bottom only Here is pic of the front return edge already grinded down on the top part. I sadly did not get a close up of this side before I grinded it down, BUT if you look at the first pic on this post you can see the return edge there very easly. I used sand paper here to clean up the edges. Other side of the front part. Return edge was grinded down with the grinder bit Bottom portion being test fitted (its the best pic of this I could find of this part). Note that the part I am mentioing can hardly be seen is its the back peice I am reffering too. Next steps continued on next post. I ran out of pics I can post on this particular post.

If you can show us some pics, that could help me try to help you. Hopefully we can get you squared away ASAP!

Great Pics man... Love the Second one, you look straight Bad ARSS!

Nice pics and looking good so far!

Thats what I used. But be careful not to use to much, as it will melt your plastic if you use to much!

I have a Arakyel Lid. The only draw back ( a small one) is the wait time from when you order. BUT you have to understand this guy is all the way in poland, and most likely has a real job, and makes them to your specs, not just some cookie cutter helmets. His padding is TOP Notch.. even my buddy who is not on the boards and super picky aboutt stuff, was like this is LEGIT. I took it to a work thing this week, for a 70s party. Just the Helmet and Gloves, and a had a Lady chase me down the hall to find out where to get it. Told her it was Fan made. ;P

This is True.. my buddy used too much ABS cement on his TS and it warped a bit. So yes again use what you are comfortable with.

I went with black....but its a preference thing I think. The CRL stated it can be either. Check the Shadow Troopers ref page and see what you like.

If you have the funds and means for one, I would suggest I dremel with a Carbon Cutting blade (the black discs) that usually comes with a dremel anway. I found that the AM armor is nice and thick (Which is good) but tuff to work with. I never even went the scissors route, as I knew the Dremel would be perfect. It cuts the time in half, BUT, and here is a BIG but, its Dangerous if you're are not careful, and it leaves a Big mess. I purchased a good battery power Dremel and was perfect for me to go out far in the back yard and hack away. Just mark your lines and once you start you will be amazed at how straight you can cut ABS and fast too. Here is the best pic of my Dremal and some of what it can do. (FYI - Dont use masking tape, It leaves goop. I was cheap and a rookie and learned the hard way) The other advice I would give, was I used Black ABS cement (sadly I learned that there was black until I was almost done). It's used for pipe fittings. Don't use the regular stuff that comes with the kit. Not that it's not good, trust me It is, its pretty much holding all my armor together, BUT I had glue marks everywhere. So when I was done, I was spending days slowly and carefully using Goo Gone to scrape it off. Save your self the headache and use the black ABS Cement (if you go with this instead of e6000). The only reason I did not like e6000, was because it took a long time to cure. The ABS Cement could hold your armor together in about 3 hours after you set it on. but wait longer to acutally TRY it on. Your choice but just some options to think about. Also try not to use to much, a little goes a long way. And Sand the area before you apply, it adhears MUCH better when done.

Nice man!

Butt Jointing them would be my only suggestion. But Toddo's got you, and your in good in hands with him!

Can you post a pic?

FREAKING AWESOME... Love it ... your kid is super lucky and he is like "I am sooo cool" and knows it... his friends will be GREEN with envy!