n00b starting to Piece armor together

[mr0072003[501st]]

HI guys I posted a few weeks ago in the intro section of my Brow Box of goodness. I figured I would start with my BUILD thread and kkep it updated as I cotinue my progrss. BIG thanks to DON, who recently posted his weathered version of the shadow trooper, is helping me out. The good thing is that he and I are the same size so I used his parts for measuring. Well this weekend I started to cut up the forarms and parts of the legs. I was able to glue one set of forarm completly and only half of the other.

 

Here is what I started with

 

 

Here are the forarms. Will finish glueing today and start on the Shoulder bell today (trimming).

[crazas[TX]]

I really love the shinny look of a new armor!!!

Keep posting pics of your progress

[RaiderNick[TX]]

If you haven't done too much work yet I would suggest that you butt-join it instead of using the overlaps. It looks better as a finished product. If it's too late at the very least you should butt-join the shins since the AM shins are backwards and that's the only real way to remedy it.

[mr0072003[501st]]

Yeah it may be to late for the forarms, but I will look into it for the shins. I really was trying to do my best to not scuff or damage the armor so it can stay nice and shiny. But with Butt jointing on the horizon and scuff marks slowly making their way on to the armor, the weathered look is looking more and more like the route i will HAVE to take. More pics in a bit

[LadyInWhite]

If you mess up your shine, I'm happy to help you re-shine! Good luck with this, Peter! Looking forward to trooping with you

[Griffin-X[501st]]

You are doing fine. Keep posting your progress and we'll all help you out.

[izzi[TX]]

A bit of Novus will buff out most scuff marks that happen during construction.

 

-iz

[mr0072003[501st]]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Here are some more pics as promised.

 

Shoulder Bells Before cut

 

Shoulder Bells after Cut (FYI dont use masking tape) It took me a good hour to get all the goop off.

 

Also one question. Are these the correct peices for the biceps? I was watching some videos and did not see the dimple thats shown in the pic.

[RaiderNick[TX]]

Those are the right pieces. Technically there's only supposed to be the thumbprint on one side, but on the AM its on both.

[mr0072003[501st]]

Great! Thanks for the info on the Raider Nick. Now I will start to cut those and glue them. I will keep everyone posted.

[THE TROOPER[501st]]

Awesome bro ill be right behind you...cant wait..its like watchin american chopper...now back to the popcorn :icon_bow: awe man wheres the smileys that are eating popcorn?????

[mr0072003[501st]]

OK guys here are some more updates on the build. Noticing now all the differnces between the different kits now. So its intresting to see how other have theres set up.

 

First off was triming the edges off of the Biceps. Here is a before shot of the front and back:

 

Here are the after trimmed shots. of the front Bicep pieces: The first one is closest to my should and the gap is there for a shoulder strap later.

 

 

Here is the front and back of thr front bicep peice. back side does not have the gap.

 

 

Now it was time to trime the sides of the front biceps as my arms are skinny. So some tape, measuring and cutting!

Whola!

 

 

Next up is the back of the bicep peices. Before trim

Here they are after some grinding around the return edges and some test fitting:

 

Now to trim the edges of the BICEPS as I am a SKINNY dude. I took off an 1inch. As you can see the edges are all jagged, but I have fix for that. Pics on that Later

 

Here are some comperason shots with the rear biceps one that is cut and the other that is not. You can I see I had to hack a lot off to fit my skinny arms.

 

Trimmed off more of the return edges after I cut the inch off. This helps with connecting the pieces together.

 

You can see now that the pieces connect much better now.

[mr0072003[501st]]

Next was glue time. Now my buddy that was helping introduced me to some better type of adhesive. It melts the plastic together and causes we less of a mess.

 

I was not able to document the first part of the glue process of the biceps, but was able to get the second part of it. Here it is glued and magnets together. Man these magnets are crazy strong!!!

[RaiderNick[TX]]

Looks good. You might want to use a heat gun to reshape the shoulder bells and biceps as the AM ones are a little too "square".

[mr0072003[501st]]

thanks for the tip Raider Nick. I plan on bending all edges once it all put together. Thats a whole another nightmare.

[nodoner]

lookin good pete! you'll be done in no time

[JeepGrrl[501st]]

Looking good dude!

 

I'm a fan of Plastruct, I use it at work as well on ABS models. I helped build a white AM kit and now am building my black AM, and I've noticed that the black requires a good bit more plastruct than the white to achieve the same result.

 

I learned a neat little trick from a guy in my garrison – he uses a plastic syringe fitted with a flexible taper tip, like a capillary tip, to apply the plastruct. It goes on much faster than the brush in the bottle. This comes with a warning however – you need to use a very fine tip to control it, but the tip can get clogged with melted ABS as you touch it to the piece. To dislodge a clog, make sure you pull back the syringe to reduce the pressure before you squeeze the tip to get the clog out. At an armor party, one of our guys shot himself straight in the eyeball with a decent amount of plastruct that way. He quickly got his eye under running water and there is no lasting injury, except for the fact that he will never live it down.

 

Can't wait to see your finished rig!

[mr0072003[501st]]

Looking good dude!

 

I'm a fan of Plastruct, I use it at work as well on ABS models. I helped build a white AM kit and now am building my black AM, and I've noticed that the black requires a good bit more plastruct than the white to achieve the same result.

 

I learned a neat little trick from a guy in my garrison – he uses a plastic syringe fitted with a flexible taper tip, like a capillary tip, to apply the plastruct. It goes on much faster than the brush in the bottle. This comes with a warning however – you need to use a very fine tip to control it, but the tip can get clogged with melted ABS as you touch it to the piece. To dislodge a clog, make sure you pull back the syringe to reduce the pressure before you squeeze the tip to get the clog out. At an armor party, one of our guys shot himself straight in the eyeball with a decent amount of plastruct that way. He quickly got his eye under running water and there is no lasting injury, except for the fact that he will never live it down.

 

Can't wait to see your finished rig!

 

Yup i have that too. My budy lent me his, and its awesome. I will post pics later.

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

ABS glue or weld is good good stuff, as long as you never every want to take the piece apart again. I recommend using it in certain places, but not everywhere.

[RaiderNick[TX]]

ABS glue or weld is good good stuff, as long as you never every want to take the piece apart again. I recommend using it in certain places, but not everywhere.

 

What he said. For instance, if you are butt-joining, use the abs weld on the inside shim and e6000 on the outside cover strip. This keeps the structural integrity inside but allows the outside to have a nice clean look.

[trooper[501st]]

Nice work buddy keep the ship steaming along.

[DizzyStormtrooper[501st]]

This helped me on my AM build, its almost mandatory for AM kits lol

 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/10434-pandatroopers-am-build-threadam/

[mr0072003[501st]]

HI guys Just wanted to update this thread a little. I have completed many things over the past few weeks. I completed the Thermal Detonator, have completed glueing and cutting all of the pieces, that needed it. I have complted the snap system for the front and rear chest plates as well as the shoulder bells and biceps. I have halfway completed my ab and kidney plates, but still need to add the buttons snaps for the cod and butt peices and thighs. After that it will be closing up any loose parts and trimming parts to allow for bettter movement, all of the strip peices, getting Foam for the forarms, ammo belt, batterpacks,...and anything else I may have forgot.

 

also I have a feeling I peices together the wrong thigh pieces and afraid that they are backwards. Can anyone confirm?

 

[mr0072003[501st]]

as promised more pics....

 

Here is a closer clearer pic of thighs I think I glued incorrectly.

 

here some close ups of the snap system etc

 

as you can tell, i made a mess with the glue. I let it happen as I am going to go weather (i think) unless someone here knows a good polish that could get these rough parts sanded and buffed out again. I just dont know with black. My wife wants me to stat shiny. I am still on the fence about it. I teeter back and forth on it actually.

[izzi[TX]]

Yeah, I think you did glue with the wrong side overlapping on the thighs... However, if you have some spare black ABS left you can make finishing strips and just glue them over the top. It'll make it look even and correct.