Back to the Grind (and Score and Snap...)

My son is all right, with a cast and a temp pin in his arm for the next 4-6 weeks, but already getting back to what 4 year olds do, thank goodness. Needless to say that I was occupied basically the whole weekend taking care of him. I finally got a moment to myself tonight.

But while I was spending some time with my son while taking the afternoon off from work, I decided I would try the score & snap approach to trimming the armor, or at least breaking pieces from the molds. And having already seen Trooperbay and others do it on YouTube, I gave it a shot on my thigh pieces, Pieces 20 - 23. All in all, it worked, with very minor slippage of the knife and workable rough cuts.

I cut around the inside arcs of the armor pieces, scored those lines, added relief scores, and popped them out like Trooperbay's method and what I did with the Dremel for the arms. When the score didn't want to split, I just scored it more until it popped. Since the pieces still need to be measured, cut, and fitted before final assemble, any roughness on the cuts doesn't concern me.

After the kids went to bed, I was able to get back into my work space and continue work on my forearm pieces.

One thing I immediately decided to do, based upon the fit and a reference shot of some film-used armor from posted on whitearmor, was to remove the elbow-side edge returns for easier wear and movement. I did this by making some rough cuts with the Dremel cutting disc, popping out those parts, cleaning up with the sanding drum, and finishing with some hand sanding. At the same time, I rough trimmed the strips in order to prep them for after the pieces were assembled, and to make removing the edge returns easier. Results were great.

The key is to fit, adjust, and refit. Remember: tape is cheap; armor is not. If you're like me, you'll probably use a lot of tape fitting and refitting as you go along. That's fine. It's better to measure twice, three, six times, etc., than to accidentally take off too much and permanently screw up a piece, or try to shim it back to fit.

EDIT: also, read this post for clarification between "edge returns" and "inside edges." As the arms pieces include no actual "edge returns," read the above and remainder as referring to "inside edges".

On the left forearm, I removed these edges with the pieces taped together; on the right, I removed them with the pieces disassembled and then taped them together to ensure a final fit. Either method was fine, I discovered.

With the final edge returns removed and the fit finally good, it was time to start assembling the two halves for each arm. I started with the front edge of each piece (the side with the ridged edge). I applied the E6000 to the alread-attached strip, placed the other piece on the strip, checked for alignment, and clamped/ set magnets. Because the raised edges form a valley inside the armor, I was limited with clamping as the larger clamps wouldn't fit into this valley on the left arm; the mold on the right arm was more forgiving and I was able to use two larger clamps on it.

Because I'm going to need to coerce the other edges together using larger clamps, and because I needed all my magnets for the front edges, I decided to only glue the front edges tonight. The back edges will get glued tomorrow once the front edges set, allowing the clamps to "muscle" the back edges together.

You can see the thermal detonator in that shot. Because I want to try to line up the strips on the biceps with the strips on the forearms as best I can, and I can't do that until the biceps are done gluing on both edges (and I REALLY didn't feel like starting to measure and fit the thighs yet), I decided to move away from the limbs for a moment and work on the detonator with was an easy build - and one I modified for extra use :)

I started by reading the instructions and the 501st ANH Hero specs, which go a long way towards telling you exactly how this piece should be assembled, even if you're not planning for 501st approval. After I understood the build, I put one of the caps on the end of the grey cylinder - this would be the left cap. I put the right cap on, dry a line to mark its edge, and carefully removed it. The caps have a super tight fit, but I want to be able to remove the right cap so I can use the cylinder as storage while trooping. After the cap was removed, I used the Dremel sanding drum on low to carefully sand down the right edge of the drum, hand sand with a small piece of sanding paper, and repeat, enough that I could remove the right cap without the contact becoming too loose.

After sanding the edge down to an acceptable level, I put the right cap on and went to the nearest door jam to draw a straight pencil line onto the tube, to line up the metal clips (the door jam trick is something I learned when I built model rockets with my dad as a kid). With the caps and line in place, it was easy enough to place the clips on, mark the holes, drill pilot holes with the drill, and screw the clips on. Later I will probably replace the screws with short machine bolts, nuts, and locking washers, so I can store stuff int eh cylinder without poking it with the screw ends.

With the clips installed, I cleaned up the edges of the control piece and sanded its back. I then placed it onto the grey cylinder (Just resting on the edges of the clip, facing up when attached to the belt, with the round part towards the trooper's right side) and marked with pencil its resting location. I sanded down the area on the grey cylinder for better cement adhesion, applied E6000 to the back of the white piece, placed it on the grey piece, and taped it down with masking tape.

I'm a storage container now, too! :D

Finally, I also took out some of the return edges in the armpits of my bicep pieces for better fit, in a similar fashion as the forearm pieces.

That was it for the night. Tomorrow I'll finish gluing the forearms and perhaps cut out the shin pieces so I can begin working on the legs as I finish up the arms and biceps.