Strapping Extremities

In addition to the thigh pieces, I also worked on strapping for my arm pieces, and a garter system for the thighs.

First, I'll mention that I did finally receive my soft parts from ANOVOS on Good Friday. But since my office was closed, I didn't actually get them until the following Monday. The ANOVOS undersuit is actually more loose than the stuff I purchased on Amazon, but still fits well. The rubber gloves are what I'll be using to certify for EIB for the 501st.

Now let's talk about the arms. I basically did the arms up per the ANOVOS instructions. I used some longer pieces of H&L tape inside the shoulder bells to help with adjusting placement for the bicep pieces.

After fitting, I decided there was too much inside edge in the shoulder bells for comfort; after all, these were some of the first pieces I trimmed and haven't been retouched until now. I removed a bit of it not only helped with the margin between the bells and the biceps, but also improved flexibility of the bell pieces to give them more give.

As for the thigh pieces, in preparation for finishing this project, I decided that, like many out there, I didn't want to attach the thighs to the inside of the ab plate as per ANOVOS instructions. Instead, I decided to create a garter belt system like many troopers use, but incorporate the parts from ANOVOS to make the build easier, and more adjustable thanks to the H&L tape.

I rummaged around and found an old untrimmed (full length) web belt that was a "field find" from my paintballing days. The first thing I did was unravel it and apply a fresh coat of dye (I used some leather dye I already owned). I did end up taking off the buckle and belt tip for this project after the pictures were taken.

I let the dye dry overnight and then put the belt through a few wash cycles to knock out excess dye - no need getting that on the inside of my armor pieces. Once it was dry, I trimmed the belt for size, leaving me a sizable amount for the next part of the project.

Next, I made loops to fit over the belt that would hold the ANAOVOS snaps for the thigh straps. Because the snap plates were longer than the width of the belt, I didn't have to worry too much about making these too small to fit over the belt. I took two 6" strips of web belt scrap, folded them in half, and then used a leather punch and small leather rivets (again, stuff I already had) to create the loops. I used CA glue on the edges of the webbing to keep them from fraying (I did the same with the actual belt as well).

The snap plates themselves were wider than the webbing; therefore, I removed 5mm from each edge of the plates to fit them to the web loops, using the old score & snap method.

Finally, I attached the plates to the side of the loop that would face INSIDE towards my body, using E6000 cement and excessive clamping. The reason is because the straps were designed to fasten to the ab plate, and the snaps open opposite to the hook tape that fastens to the loop tape to be attached to the inside of the thighs.

Once I'm done reshaping the thigh pieces, I'll be testing this system out to ensure it will stand up to good trooping. Until then...