Fatalslink

KEEPOW 4 Pack Belts Replacement... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06Y3S2JQT?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share These are the exact width of jims molded pieces and fit beautifully for like 5 bucks. Plus you get 4 so you have 2 full shots at getting them right.

Happy Easter yall!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1G5E2mmIZR6Gy0NQG4YjQj2WnN0HQzUGa Helmet repaint so far. Before the Spraymax 2k clear coats. Much shinier than before...life lesson i guess to always just do it yourself lol.

Is this file for the support tab thing supposed to attach to the collar and glue onto the chest so it doesn't raise up from the chest when moving?

Poncho is velcroed onto a strip along the front and back, my wife just pulled it out weirdly when she helped me so it should be as simple as having her pay attention next time ?. Shins are clamshelled, i am building ones that are about 2 inches shorter for my next submission. I have a 3d printer, i printed the first whole suit as the first thing i ever printed, so i learned a lot through that process believe you me hahaha but will those fit on Jimmis set? For the thigh support do you mean how i strapped them to hold them up? They are on a separate belt i put in and held up with 1 inch elastic bands with poppers. Can you clarify a bit on what you mean by the belt construction? The boxes i knew i would beed to fix, i ordered some craft foam to fill them, my submission pics i just stuffed sanding sponges in them lol. The belt is held up by velcro along the entire belt and lower armor and rubber ribbing piece of the undersuit. I was thinking of adding snaps to some areas to hold it up better, i couldnt put the se14r in the holster because it kept sagging even worse so i knew i had to get that supported better as well. The chest buckle thing and back i dont really get what to do. Do i need to lengthen the upper rubber strips so the buckles are lower? The chest and suit fits right up against my body, i feel like so i dont understand how to make it fit better besides losing muscle mass and bone structure...I did notice the back neck piece is jutting out, but i dont know how to rotate that piece to fit closer, when it sits on my shoulders, it juts out, but i cant get it to go closer to my back neck without physically rotating and holding it forward.

Sorry, I meant cut off as in the forums cut off what i was posting lol. But I'm using rustoleum 2x flat and gloss black over rust filler primer so far, topped with spraymax 2k. Ive switched up my kit to a Jimmi, the 3d one was proving too flimsy and off so this is my rigging for it. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FbFTWLFYvaFT0i479A2M__uZ-tqKmU_J

@Chaos sorry i got cut off, I meant to ask if you had any thoughts on the chest and back fitment, it's pretty tight on me already, so do i need to lengthen the buckles or something to make it look right?

@Chaos this is what I got back now: Hi Mike, We’ve finished the first round of approval. Sorry this took so long but there was a lot for us to go through and discuss. Thanks for all the additional pictures you sent. There are going to have to be some changes to certain parts of the costume to make it approvable: 1. The helmet is going to have to get repainted. We hate to do this since we know helmets are a lot of work, but the gloss paint job is very bubbly and has a texture when it should be very smooth. In order to prevent it from bubbling again, I’d recommend sanding it down and using a primer such as Rustoleum Self Etching, then wait 24 hours for it to cure then sand it down a bit to get it smooth, then add your flat black to find any imperfections to sand down or fill with bondo, then coat again with the flat black and after 24 hours coat with the gloss clear coat. 2. On the helmet we saw dents in the brow and forehead which are going to have to be filled as well as any others that you might find when refinishing the helmet. 3. The chest plate and back piece are going to have to be adjusted fit wise. The back armor is sliding too far back which is causing your buckles to be too short on the front. Also, the prongs should be pointing more down where they are pointing more towards your helmet in the picture. This runs the risk of them getting caught in your helmet while trooping and could cause them to snap. This will be fixed by pulling the back plate up more and having it sit further up. I’m attaching a picture from Celebration 2016 to show where the buckles and prongs should be. 4. The left side of the back plate where you patched the crack will have to be filled and sanded more. In the pictures it's still somewhat visible and the paint could start to chip there easily. 5. The belt is going to have to be tightened so that it won’t slide down on you while you’re trooping. 6. The pouches are going to have to be filled a bit more, they should look more boxy but they are more baggy in the pictures. 7. Be sure to re-weather areas that you just fixed to make sure it matches with the rest of the costume. Some recommendations to help with wearing the costume: 1. If you slide down your shins more, it should help you with walking in the costume and hide the tops of the boots more. I saw in the video that your thighs and shins were touching every time you took a step. I had this problem on mine and I raised the thighs and lowered the shins and it worked better for my mobility. 2. When you’re suiting up, make sure the poncho area is even after you put on the armor. That area is easy to get caught when suiting up and needs to be adjusted after you put on the armor. 3. I noticed your shoulder bells are rubbing the paint off on your biceps, I would recommend adding soft material underneath (I used the soft side of stick on Velcro) the bells to cover the fiberglass to keep it from scratching the biceps. Nothing serious but will prevent major damage down the line. Looks great so far! You’re almost there to approval! If you have any questions let us know. Sooo...not even close to done yet...oh well, I've already been at it for 3 years, what's another 3 weeks lol

Undoubtedly lol but itd look freakin cool though yeah? Like a Shadow Ghost Trooper.

@Chaos I actually was going to do my armor in VantaBlack 2.0 as seen here (ill have to dig up the forearms and bicep i painted in it, they look crazy af. Buuuut it was too dark to see ANY detail, even in person, you had to run your fingers over it to feel any details...maybe ill do that on my second kit, it couldnt be approved since it absorbs 99% of all light and you couldnt see any details, but it would look scary as hell like a living shadow if i did do it. But the paint was like 50 bucks for 8oz when i bought it, so it would be an expensive paint job lol. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D18_PXwBkLgmHVtiUYVNa-sq4VHfOfj6

@Chaos ahh ok that makes sense, I wasn't sure which to follow but now I do, thanks for clearing that up! And the first time I painted my kit, I went with high gloss black with an hvlp gun with spraymax 2k over the top and didn't do any weathering at all because i wanted it to look shiny and brand new all the time like this photo https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DPmzg9jqFwylGZGHBHrw19jO6W-RZdfS/view?usp=drivesdk (another dt in the works in my garrison building at the same time as I am, his is gonna look better though im sure) but my wife said it was too shiny and hard to look at lol. So i repainted it with just rusto gloss black and got what you see today, which looks more battle worn and wouldnt stand out in stark contrast to the other dts in garrison.

@Chaos ahh ok thanks, I was trying to match the effect shown in this pic taken from the crl photos of the greebs. I'd thought it was something like what I did with the 2 tone paint scratched up. But I'll strip and repaint tomorrow in ts40. I have like 10 cans from all the re-painting I've done over the past 3 years of building this lol. I am also going to redo the forearm ladders like the pic you linked says to do as I feel they are too overdone at this point. Thanks for all the knowledge man!

@Chaos yeah, every time i look at my submission photos, i see something that i dont like/dont think is good enough, and i try to "fix" it before they have even given me feedback. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AOphMyVaA78ftbpD11S5AsVkwsPmJHF9 https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14DfJQgpUOq0nGh8z7LOA23nCmrV27U_M My 2 latest requests from GMLs. My back repairs i think are good enough, but im not 100% sure.. I did the "weathering" on the thighs to match the rest...ive been using matte silver mixed with filler primer to make it even more matte and watered down for the pin striping. I also got rid of my first submission forearm stabilizers and re-printed them in resin and painted them mirrorcoat aluminum with a black top coat and scuffed them up a little like what @Lt. Dan suggested. I think they look much better now, no print lines at least...

@Chaos ok cool thanks for the clarification on that. And my thinking behind that was no matter if it is Tom's files, PAD, KB, 850 (maybe) that by now all those makers should have accurate kits/files i would have thought, so the detailing should all be right and accurate, no? Or is there a big quality control issue with all the main makers of the files and undersuits? Like the undersuit i got from DSC which tailors it to you and uses approved materials and ribbing i thought, so it seems arbitrary to need to check the details on the approved vendor's items...unless people submit their suits and straight up lie about what it is/where they got it from? In this world, i can certainly see that as being a thing, so it would make sense to trust but verify in all the detailing so you sont have someone trying to tell you their helmet is an Anovos when really it's a Hasbro light up helmet ?. And thanks for the painting link, very good info, I'll try to make use of it, even if i have to repaint the whole fkn thing...

Nope, well i did paint them then i kept screwing with it and repainted the thighs and forgot to mask the grooves off so ill redo those tonight. Good catch thank you! And ok ill do them black if it looks better and scrape them up a little