dogbertwrldrulr

Tomorrow is the big day for me! I am heading to an armor party for a suit up and to get help taking my pictures for approval. Got a checklist of everything I need and inventoried all of my stuff. I should be good to go! My next post should be the pictures I submitted for approval, and hopefully I hear back soon/quickly!

Got around to painting the grooves on the backpack today. @Chaos, how did I do on the weathered silver? I also noted as I was checking the color scheme chart that my pill on the chest was still gloss black so I repainted that with some flat black.

For your audio, are you looking for a pre-built solution, or are you willing to go homemade? If you're willing to go homemade, Adafruit has a sound FX board that can be pre-loaded with phrases and then triggered via 10 different pins. Each pin can support up to 10 different audio files that will play sequentially (first press first sound, second press second sound, etc.). They have a model that has a standard stereo jack output and another that has a small 2W amplifier built in.

I got my bubbled lens in today. The "bubbling" isn't as much as I thought, but its there and pretty obvious when looking at it. I don't know that I got a good picture of my flat lens in my helmet so I can't do a side by side comparison, but hey, one more item for level 2 checked off. The first picture is a comparison of the bubbled lens and a flat lens I picked up from OPLE for comparison. The nose needed some trimming on the bubbled lens and I found out the hard way that this plastic doesn't like to be cut. Fortunately the crack wasn't big and I was able to dremel out the nose cutout I needed and get it mounted. Here is the helmet with the lens installed. Is it obvious its a bubbled lens when it's installed? I have it pushed up next to the opening as far as I can.

My pauldron came in! I just need to get together with some others to do a final suit up and take pictures. I am ready to go! One thing I did notice on my pauldron is that is should be good for basic, but I don't know that it's good enough for Level 2. There seems to be some extra stitch lines on the 4th stitch starting from the leather on both sides, the leather doesn't have the black banding (not sure what to call it) on the outside of the collar (only the inside), and the leather parts are on top of instead of on the bottom. Someone else feel free to correct me though. I may provide comments back to the seller to help them improve their product if people agree with my assessment.

Awesome! Good luck with your build!

Can you clarify what you mean by the upper edge? Do you mean the upper edge of the horizontal groove? That picture shows (on the left shin) that the groove starts at the "point" of that triangular detail coming from the back, and on mine they were trimmed along that details lower edge giving me no good starting point to replicate it.

Also, is the Denuo Novo DT Specialist helmet L2 approvable as it comes? Or does it require much work? If you know and/or can say that is. Thank you!

I am not sure if it is high on your priority list at the moment, but I just had to buy a whole sheet of the rubber used to create the belt so I have a lot extra. I could probably cut you a length for cheap if you'd like.

As someone who just had to mess with my shoes, I would recommend adding a small flap of some sort to the top of the ribbed section that goes under your shin armor and then a small piece of velcro to hold it in place. Those ribbed sections come loose VERY easily even during basic suit ups and walking around.

@Chaos, I have a question on something for Level 2. One of the items I see people miss a good bit is the horizontal groove in the shins. Mine doesn't have it either so I have to cut it myself, but I want to make sure I am putting it in the right spot. I put pictures below of my left and right shin armor and where I think the groove should be. The left should be pretty straight forward as there is a lot of room and its clearly below the detail above it. My problem is the right shin. Whoever trimmed this armor seemed to get it a bit too close to that detail so they armor is not perfectly symmetrical. Is where I put the red line a good place for the groove? I'd like to triple check before I put the Dremel to the fiberglass. Any input is appreciated.

Minor update for the day... First, I sanded and painted my TD brackets. I thought the paint turned out so well and so glossy that I didn't even bother putting on the clear coat. I did try to test out the clear coat and I absolutely hated how it made the paint look. The black was smooth and glossy while adding the clear coat made it cloudy and lumpy and looked terrible. Got these mounted and put on the my kidney so the armor should now be complete and this would be the last construction item from the list above. Now I am just waiting on the pauldron, but I do at least have a tracking number for it, just waiting for it to make its way from Europe. In the mean time, I picked up some polish and began polishing and cleaning the armor and trying to remove any scuffs that I can. I also started sewing up "sleeves" for the armor so I can put them in the sleeves for transport and storage without them bumping/scraping each other. I'll post pictures when I am further along, but I have about half of them done.

Will do. I wasn't going to worry about it yet, but a few days ago, Chaos gave me a nice list of items I should take a look at. I was able to fix everything else and am now waiting on my last part to come in so I figured I would tackle it. I did hate the zip ties, but they worked, so this will remove an annoyance. Let me know if you want the 3D print files and/or links to the inserts I used. If you do go this route, be very very careful on the drill bit you use. I started small and worked my way up and I didn't realize in my bit set that after a while they stop going up by 1/64" and it went up by like 1/16" and one of my holes was too wide and the insert fell to the bottom. I ended up rigging something up to make the insert "hover" in the hole and just dropped super glue in there. It holds great now, but I would have preferred to have it bite into the resin like the others. The correct drill bit size for my inserts (M3 inner, M5 outer) is 3/16". This makes it tight enough so that the insert grips the resin, but not so tight that I can't get the insert in. Used a 3/16" flat head to get the inserts 90% of the way in and then a 1/8" flat head to finish them off and recess them a bit so I could dab some super glue in the slots to hold them in place. Now that I need more stuff to do, I have been looking over the Specialist (L2) applications and seeing where people are getting dinged. I already found a few things where I know I would have issues, so I may address those while waiting on my pauldron as well. Not required for basic, but anything to get a head start works for me.

Minor update for the day. Someone was nice enough to send me the files to print brackets for my thermal detonator. I had a local friend 3D print them for me in resin. Since my back already had holes drilled for the zip ties that were holding the TD, I had to match drill the brackets to those holes. I then installed M3 threaded inserts so I had something for the machine screws to hold onto. A dab of super glue near the edges makes sure they won't move. I drilled out the center of the brackets too so there was room for a through screw that actually holds the TD to the brackets. The tops of the holes had a wider bore to account for the screw head. I then installed the same M3 threaded inserts into the TD. I am testing out a high gloss black paint for these right now but will likely have to wait until tomorrow to see how it looks. Hopefully this is the last modification piece I need, then just waiting for my pauldron to arrive and take some photos. Almost there!!!

Got a number of comments from here and FB so I went ahead and made some changes today. 1. Fixed the belt issue. I used a plastic sheet to create a panel where I could put on some Velcro and adhere the belt. The sheet hangs down a bit from the ab and is clear so you don't see it even through the minor cracks between the belt and ab. For the sheet, I roamed around the craft store looking for something plastic and semi-rigid as it had to fit the contour of the ab armor. What I found was an ink blending mat. It was an 8.5"x11" clear sheet that has a decent amount of flexibility, but still very strong. I lined it up and drew where I wanted Velcro put on. Once the Velcro was holding it generally in place, I gently lifted it up and put a bunch of adhesive where it made contact with the armor (the Velcro is in the valleys). I used corn hole bags to press the adhesive in overnight. I then added the 3/4" strip of Velcro and glued it down. The plastic sheet I used apparently didn't like E-6000 on the Velcro which is why the Velcro strip fell off for the pictures above. I put some super glue on instead and that did the trick. The Velcro doesn't move anymore. 2. Next were the shoes. I had a couple things to fix here. First was adding in flaps to the top of the covers and adding some Velcro so it could adhere to the inside of my shin armor. I found some small strips of leather at the craft sore and cut it in half to get my "tongues". Considering I only learned to sew 3 days ago, it was a bit difficult getting the leather sewed onto the backs of the tops. I had to use a pretty big needle and some nylon thread, but I eventually got it. For good measure, I also sewed the Velcro to the leather tongues. Second was getting the fronts to fold down to contour the toe of the shoe. A lot of people recommended Velcro, but I didn't want to glue or sew the other pieces to the shoe and I didn't think the back of the Velcro would hold to the leather. I came up with another idea. I used metal landscaping stakes pushed into the opening in the seam at the end of the cover flap. I cut the metal to length, make sure it fit, covered it with shrink tubing (and end caps), inserted it, then bent it into shape around the toe. The metal is quite strong and easily maintains shape even when the covers are not attached. I thought it turned out quite well. 3. Biceps. It was pointed out that I was using elastic bands that were way too big on my biceps. I "borrowed" some hair ties from my wife and used those instead. My bicep armor naturally is kind of tight so I left some slack when gluing the bands in so it looks right on suit up. I don't really need these to hold the armor in place, so its just for looks. 4. Chest armor. Again, I had 2 items to take care of here. Repainting. After my successful repaint of the ab armor, I dove in and repainted the chest to get rid of the scratches that appeared at breast height. Now that I know to go light on the spray and do it when humidity is low, this one was a breeze. The left buckle under my arm also came off a week or so ago. I put it back on once the paint was dry. 5. Speaking of repainting, it was pointed out that my cylindrical greeblies on my left forearm are either supposed to be weathered silver or metallic black. Since I have no artistic skills to weather paint jobs, and spray painting is easier, I painted them the metallic black. Taking them off was irritating as the screw is really small and uses a weird drive size, but I managed. 6. Gloves. The gloves I had seemed a little tight, the inner lining had come loose from the outer, and there was a small hole in the gloves. I ordered a new pair and they arrived in just a couple of days (who knew Endor Finders was in Florida!). The new ones are definitely more my size and are fresh and crispy. I moved the hand plates over and we have new gloves! Now the only thing left is to figure out a better way to mount my thermal detonator. Its currently held in place with zip ties. Off to the forums to find a better way!

@chaos, Thank you so much for looking it over!!! I think this is a dressing issue, but I am going to try and put an internal strap on the left gauntlet to hold it in place better. When my wrist bends, the gauntlet shifts a little due to where the cutout is on the inside. Some velcro or something will hold it pretty well. I did something similar for my left gauntlet on my Fett as well. If TS-40 is acceptable here, I will probably paint them. I am laughably bad at detail type painting (or washing), and just spray painting them one color is much easier for me. Will do. I was not going to worry about this for basic, but since my pauldron is going to take a bit to get here, I will take care of this too. Took care of this last night. I sewed a leather flap to the top of the cover, then put velcro inside the shin and it holds it quite well now. I have to put all my bottom stuff on again to check that its good long term though. Right now, the zip ties are what is holding the thermal detonator on. I can try to find another method to adhere it, but not sure what to use. Can do. My wife and kids helped me dress and they weren't sure what everything was supposed to look like and I didn't notice some of it. I did just see the right forearm though and I can't believe I missed something that obvious. Can do, just need to find some long enough to cover the gap and have room to be glued in place. Eventually, yes, I would love this. I think I have some more items to fix to make sure its ready for that level of detailed look. Once I get all this fixed and have my pictures for approval, I can post those and ask you to look them over. That should have everything on this list and my list fixed and hopefully I will have some more experienced help getting me dressed so they know what to look for. Hopefully that is only a couple weeks away (just need that pesky pauldron from Europe)!

I made several changes and then did a suit up to see how it looked. I now attach the cod and posterior plates directly to the belt vice having them hang. The top of the belt now attaches directly to a piece of plastic that hangs down from my ab (not 100%, see below), and attaches via velcro directly to the lower back plate. I tightened up the strapping that holds up the thighs, but its still not great, I will likely have to get my thighs trimmed at some point as they are slightly long, but its not a roadblock at this point, just an irritant. There were several other minor fit issues that got fixed too. I'd like to get others thoughts on how it looks. Here are the things that I know need to be corrected (in no particular order): 1. Belt needs to ride up higher and stay attached to my ab piece. 2. Codpiece was/is crooked. 3. Flap came out on my right shoe. 4. The zipper on my neck needs to be all the way up. 5. I'm missing the latch on my left side (I have it, forgot to re-attach before suit up). 6. Repaint the left side of my chest to fix the scratched paint. 7. Turn the helmet lights on next time.

Understood. Right now I just want to get my thighs to stay in place, the rest seems ok for now, but I will want something better and will actively work on it. This resonates so much with me. I know fiberglass is going to weigh a bit more, but I was not really prepared for the weight of this kit. I have no problem wearing it, but the individual pieces weigh so much that its hard to keep that good fit. It's funny, the only piece that needed any major modifications was my belt (the guy I bought the suit from was smaller than me), but after I got that done I realized it sagged and connecting the belt to my ab made the ab pull down which messed with the look and then the codpiece was off and since the ab is connected to my chest, the whole rig pulled forward slightly. Now I am working the harnessing to try and make life easier.

Gotcha. I found some clear semi-rigid plastic yesterday at the craft store and am in the process of gluing it to the inside/bottom of my ab armor now. With the slight curve of the ab, I think it will maintain the rigidity that I need. The sheet is 8.5x11 with lots left over so if its a bit flimsy I can double up the section that hangs down that will connect with my belt. I made it so it went 2" up behind the ab so the sheet/glue has plenty of space to "bite" into the armor and hold it up. Once I have it complete and it actually holds the belt up I plan on posting pictures.

Some more progress tonight. I don't know how I missed it but my ab armor had quite a bit of metallic paint rubbed off where it met the chest armor. As this area is partially hidden and smaller, I thought it would be a good idea to test paint this area before repainting the metallic black portion of my chest armor. Here is what the area looked like before painting. This is after the first coat...it did not look good. Second picture is the repainted part next to my test piece that I used to check the color/look before painting the armor. As you can see, it turned gray, but had no metallic look to it whatsoever. It was also blatantly obvious where the armor had rubbed off previously. I am not sure if this was a poor spray application, too thick, or too high humidity (thanks Florida), but it looked terrible. Tonight when it was a bit cooler and had lower humidity, I put on one final coat that was as thin as I could spray it. This coat turned out great. Here it is next to the chest piece and its a perfect match. I still have to repaint the chest armor, but I am going to stop painting for a bit and work on my harness system. I need something to hold my thighs better and then for the belt to attach to my ab armor, which in turn needs to be supported by something better than a couple of elastic bands. Hopefully more on that this weekend when I get my sewing machine and start permanently attaching my nylon webbing.

Was the velcro sewn onto the boots, or glued? I like the look of your wrapping around the boots and may make that mod to mine as well. And where did you get the piece of leather for the tongue? Just a generic piece of leather?

Some questions on the harness system you built to hold up the thighs and ab/back. Is there any reason you built a second harness for the abdomen/lower back instead of just gluing/sewing the straps to the tops of the shoulder on the thigh harness? You could still make them adjustable like you have them, but instead of having a second harness, it could all be integrated into one. I am building a thigh harness now (ran out of 2" nylon) and was going to toy with the idea of mounting the ab/back to it and see how it turned out. I am thinking about having the female end hang from the top of the shoulder with just enough slack so it doesn't get crushed by the chest armor, then putting the male end coming off the ab/back. I could leave a lot of extra nylon as needed on the male end as it will naturally hang under the ab which in turn gives it a lot of flexibility to go up and down as needed. Alternatively, the female could be right off the ab like you did and the slack would go over my shoulders or tuck under and require minimal sewing at the top of the shoulder. I know you have your ab section soft goods attached to your ab/back so that may be why it wouldn't work for you, but thought I'd run it by you to see if there was something else obvious I may have missed or not thought of.

Can I ask how you trimmed your thigh armor? I read the whole thing and it says you pulled about 2" off the thighs. What is the best way to trim up the fiberglass and hopefully not destroy the paint job? And thank you for the document! I am going to try and find something to put on the bottom of my abdomen as I don't have a 3D printer and the center section is "deep" because of the external shape.

Nevermind, browser needed an update and restart. I got it now.

I can't seem to download the file, can you PM it to me? Or provide a direct link somewhere?