The legs are a bit more difficult than the arms, but nothing disastrous yet.
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I started off by taping the shins together to
see how they fit. They were a little loose, but nowhere near enough
to warrant cutting them down. Luckily they seem to be about the
perfect height & don't move around much once the boots are on. |
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Next I glued both of them IN THE FRONT
ONLY! Unless you have much smaller feet than I, you'll need to
leave the back unglued to put them on!
Notice that I'll have to trim the top and bottom a bit as they don't
exactly match up. This is common with many of the pieces.
|
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Once the front is glued, I put the HOOK side of the velcro on
the inside piece. i.e. the piece that faces outward. I simply
cut the velcro(industrial strength) the correct width. |
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Next I placed the LOOP side of the velcro, but it
was visible from the side. My solution was to only use the inner
half of the trim space for velcro. Since this is industrial strength
it feels like this will be more than enough. |
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While I wait for the Sandtrooper pieces to
arrive, I needed to get the armor ready for a Halloween party.
Because I just wanted the knee-plate to be temporary, I loaded up with
standard velcro. |
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Like everything else, start by taping the
thighs to fit them. The FX kit I got featured "larger"
thighs. It seems that a lot of people have to shim their thighs, so
these new ones are MADE to be larger & cut.
Tape the front first, then slide the piece on(with bodysuit!), &
see how tight you want it. Tape it the size you want it & do the
other leg. |
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I marked the INSIDE of the armor where it
needed to be cut & also put a piece of masking tape along the
line. I then used a blade to carefully score the ABS 3-4
times. It's tough to score the small bend in the armor, so I just
used a sharp pair of scissors to cut that spot.
Once that's done it's amazingly easy to just bend & snap the ABS
and the scored point. |
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Once you have the pieces cut & retested,
go ahead and ABS cement them together. |
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At the bottom, along the ridge, the pieces
won't sit exactly flat. I had to cut this a bit more so that the
whole piece was flat enough to glue. |
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Next comes the thigh, ammo belt. This
goes on the bottom of the RIGHT thigh piece. The instructions
say to use velcro, but most tutorials suggest ABS cement or rivets.
I decided to give rivets a try. |
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I started by finding the center of each end
& marked the back accordingly. |
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Next I used my dremel to cut the two
holes. Make sure that they're JUST large enough to fit the
head of the rivet through. |
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Here is a(blurry) picture of the 1/8"
rivets that I have. I got white ones, & you can see the white
head. This is the part that must fit through BOTH pieces of ABS to
lock them together. If the hole is too large, you can use a washer
to keep things tight. |
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Here's me testing on some ABS scraps. |
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It may be a little tough, but once you've
drilled out the holes you'll need to see where you need to mark the thigh
piece itself. Depending on how much "black" you need to
cover up, you can position this differently. |
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Just a front shot. It is be helpfull to
"work" the belt a bit so that it stays easier. Just make
sure you don't snap it at any of the joints! |
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I first marked the holes just below the
trim(per a tuturial I found on the web). The trouble was the the
rivet head was simply NOT long enough to reach! I then moved it
slightly ONTO the trim itself. Luckly the first hole is covered by
the belt. |
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The first side attached with just a little
effort & in my opinion looks great. |
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The other side was a different story. I
just could NOT get the second side riveted! I don't know if it was
the placement of the hole or the tension caused by the first connection,
but the rivet just wouldn't grab onto the thigh piece. After a half
dozen attempts the ABS holes were getting chewed up & stretched
out. I didn't have time at the moment to go shopping for longer
rivets(if they exist), so I just hit the toolbox & found the perfect
size bolt. I'll have to paint this white later. :( |
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I then added a nut to the inside. Not
bad for a temporary fix(Halloween is soon!), and it doesn't stick out far
enough to poke me. I might put some hot glue over the top just in
case though. |
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Looks OK in the end, but this was the first
piece that I thought I had REALLY screwed up. In the end no one will
even notice. |
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UPDATE!
I went to the hardware store to see what my rivet options were(the
white 3mm were nice, but too short), & found 3mm ones that weren't
white but are much longer! I guess I'll just have to paint them
white somehow. |
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I used a washer on the inside with the new
rivet because it was long enough, AND because the hole had become
stretched out from the first attempts. |
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It doesn't match like the short, white rivet
so I'll have to paint it. I think I read somewhere that whiteout
works pretty good. |
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The directions say to use velcro &
elastic to hold the thighs up, but I'm going with a snap system
instead. See the Snap System section
for further details.(coming soon) |
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Instead of snapping the thighs to the ABS
belt or lower torso, I took an old school crossing-guard belt &
riveted some nylon straps to it. With all of the armor from the
lower-torso down on, I carefully measured where the snaps should go to
hold the thighs at the correct height. Works great, & is hidden
behind the ABS belt. |
