Sound and Fury(ious Repairs and Overhauls)

BACK FROM THE DEAD A****LES!!!

I'm just kidding, I love you guys! But seriously, I'm FINALLY UPDATING THE BLOG WITH NEW INFO.

Happy belated May the 4th!

It's been too long since my last blog post. But like many, I'm never done working on my armor, and never done fiddling around with things, especially with people enabling me.

Armor Repair

Anovos armor is dainty in that it is thin in many places and likes to crack. Higher CRL approval requires some edge returns on torso armor to give the appearance of thick armor; lamentably, this often leads to cracking, which is especially true with the thin Anovos pulls.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I reinforced the kidney plate with epoxy and fiberglass mesh to keep it from cracking, but the return edges just want to crack anyhow, especially near the ridge portion that runs up the back. Because the previous work prohibited me from repairing it on the inside of the edge, I had to work on the outside instead.

Although not as desirable of a repair, after sanding and polishing it's not terribly noticeable, especially when assembled next to the back plate.

Also thin are the ammo belt pieces for the main belt and thigh ammo pack.I reinforced these with thin, long scraps of ABS, CA glue, and much clamping. For the main ammo belt, I'll need to go back later and fill in some small cracks before they grow larger.

For the thing ammo pack, it had been cracked near the rivet hole during a photo shoot.I had to grind out the rack, fill with ABS paste, sand and polish; I also reinforced from behind with ABS strips and CA glue.

During the course of may troops the right cheek of my bucket developed a bend line. So I sanded it lightly, added some ABS paste, shaped, smoothed and polished. The ABS paste left some very tiny bubbles that I may fill later.

I had some tabs on the edge return of the butt plate that kept the armor from popping out too much compared to the kidney plate. Lamentably, this only caused the edge return to crack a lot, even with reinforcement. Thankfully, there was still plenty of inside edge return to apply a copious amount of Scrap ABS and ABS paste. I had to thoroughly paste the top as well due the edge return becoming uneven after cracking and repairs, to smooth the surface back out.

And... I got another crack in my chest plate, just past where I did all the reinforcement, of course. If what I did for the kidney plate pans out, I might due that to the chest plate as well, especially with a sanding block to help smooth and mold. Some edges of the chest plate have become uneven during past repairs, so I might just kill two birds with one stone, and thicken up that edge return for the entire edge.

But that's a topic for another blog post.

Fans/ Bucket

My bucket was a mess. I overbuilt it and it was hard to don and take off because the opening was narrower due to the oversized bracket. For reference:

I decided to move away from a bracketed design and instead use tape and hook & loop straps to secure fans and wiring directly to the inside of the bucket. Some of this had already been added, so there was plenty of fuzzy loop tape at strategic spots in the bucket. Hearing assist leads to the mics are held in place with copper tape, although it's admittedly not as resilient against EM noise from the wireless mic - but more on that in a moment.

I also (finally) replaced the wonky Anovos helmet harness and went with pads. Because my head is long, the top of my head needs to rest directly against the top of my bucket for me to see correctly through the eyes. however, placing pads front, back, and to the sides offers a lot of stability without compromising stability.

(Later I removed the forehead pad since it was causing my forehead some pain during my second May 4th troop. I'll need to troop without it, but so far the bucket still seems pretty stable and more comfortable without it.)

I'm also messing around with alternative fan methods. like using micro-fans instead of big blowers. Two micro-fans don't move as much air as a big blower, but they kept my bucket cool enough in the warm WonderCon main hall and made so little noise that I didn't need to use my hearing assist at all.

Even during 89 degree heat that I was in on May 4th, the mini fans did pretty well, but the analog speed controller I'm trying out is somewhat wasted upon them since they don't blow much air except at max speed. I'll be adding modular disconnects between the fans and controller so I can swap with the big blower fans and experiment between speed, noise, and cooling. Without the bracket, I can swap fans whenever I like.

As for the aforementioned wireless mic, I actually don't use it too often. The main reason, as I discovered at Comic-Con last year, is because in large groups it's possible that one's mic will pair with another's receiver, or vice versa. Nothing irritates me more than another person's voice cracking wise form my chestplate. Running a corded mic into my chest plate is the only way to guaranty that the voice coming out of my amp is MY OWN. Plus I need to run the cable from the sound glove anyhow, so it's a necessary evil.

Speaking of which...

TK-Talkie Sound Glove+ Update

Back in December of last year I started playing with TK Talkie firmware v3.15, a beta firmware that supported... a sound glove. Of course, the case (which I received from TK-Talkie) wasn't designed to support a sound glove, so I improvised by adding an RJ45 female jack to the case as a dongle, after wiring all the necessary pins on the Teensy board.

The sound glove itself is just a series of buttons attached to the hand, underneath the normal glove, using elastic straps. For my glove, I used four microswitch buttons and Cat5 cable, with each pair soldered to a button. Of course it connects to the TK-Talkie with an RJ45 male end.

I might change this design later to go with the TK-Talkie fashion of connecting sound gloves, which is 4-conductor 3.5mm jacks. v4 supports up to 6 buttons total, so typically 3 per glove (3 + ground = 4 conductors).

Initially, I had some issues with the buttons breaking off the wires, so I CA glued them onto scrap ABS backings, which I then sewed onto my elastic finger loops, for extra reinforcement.

My setup is slightly different, but here's Mr. TK-Talkie with his own sound glove for reference. I keep my buttons on my first knuckle on my left hand, whereas he puts them right on the fingertips of his right hand. It's just a matter of personal preference.

 

v3.15 was a beta version and worked well enough for the Hollywood Christmas Parade and our troop for an Anaheim Ducks game, but couldn't be configured with the app being a beta implementation (more of a proof-of-concept). Sound files had to be specifically named in a specific folder to work, so it was possible to change sounds, but couldn't be controlled per profile.

v4.00 on the other hand, paired with the v2 assistant app, adds those features and more. Sounds can be swapped on the fly. A button can be set to use the PTT/ Voice Activation/ Sleep function, used for two sounds, or used to adjust levels for various sounds on the box, like effects, voice, loops, etc. You can read more on TK-Talkie v4 here.

I was able to play with the v4 firmware and v2 app on May 4th, during troops at a children's play center and a wedding. It was endlessly fun to play the Imperial March on a whim, to tell people to "Move along, move along," or to inspect a wedding gift and verify that "These aren't the droids we're looking for."

There are endless possibilities, especially when one considers multiple profiles you can create on the TK-Talkie and then swap on a whim with the app. Look out San Diego Comic-Con! So even a basic TK can have some fun with the sound glove, on top of the other functions that the TK-Talkie supports and adds with v4 firmware - which I'll probably discuss at length in the next blog post.

Until next time, carry on troopers!

Upgrade: Copperhead (RF Noise Shielding vs Wireless Mic)

Welcome to 2017!

In my last post of 2016, I mentioned how running the wireless mic in my helmet made a lot of radio/ RF noise in my hearing assist system. I decided to tackle it in a couple of ways. I did this work before the end of 2016 but only now have enough time to put words to the blog and write about it.

The first thing I tried was to add EM shielding to the mic lead wires from the mics under each of my bucket ear pieces. I did this using tinned copper metal braided sleeving from Amazon. I cut the length necessary for each lead wire and carefully threaded the wire through the sleeving as I expanded and contracted it to increase the sleeve's diameter. This was really tricky and a giant pain, but I ended up getting it done as you can see below. After installing the sleeves I used already-placed shrink wrap to seal up the frayed ends.

After testing, though, this proved to not be too effective. In hindsight, if I had to do it over again, I probably would have used shielded cable to start, but I'm not sure it would have been more effective than the aftermarket shielding I used.

Knowing the shielding may not do the tick, I resorted to my second and more extreme option, one used by musicians using wireless pickups: copper tape.

Copper tape is very conductive and a great way to create EM shielding to prevent noise on lines, create small Farady cages, etc. Since most of my cabling will be tucked behind the wiring bracket I created for my fan system and mounting the hearing assist system, it was the ideal place to install the copper tape, especially since the wireless mic would be mounted on the other side of the tape, with the tape protecting the cable side from noise.

After removing some H&L tape and other hardware, I tediously covered one side of the bracket with copper tape. I decided to do this on the side facing the inside of the bucket as to not require removing all of the previously installed hardware. If I had to redo the entire bracket, I'd probably put it on the other side, but it is what it is, and not visible when I'm wearing the bucket. Plus I don't have to worry about the (remote) possibility of wires shorting out on the copper tape.

After the tape was on, I re-added the H&L tape for the hearing assist and wireless mic, reinstalled the bracket into the bucket and tested.

And wouldn't you know it, throwing a ton of copper tape at the issue worked. There was still a little noise with the bucket off, but with the bucket on and my head in the bucket blocking the rest of the RF noise, it works much, much better than before.

You can also see above that I moved the battery for the bucket systems into the forehead, for two reasons:

1. It makes putting the bucket on easier since the opening is now slightly less narrow without the battery in the back of the helmet (especially since I'll need to worry about the wireless mic now when donning the helmet).
2. In its new home, it keeps my forehead from running into the blower fans also mounted in the forehead (which ended up being an issue during a holiday troop).

Now that EM noise from the fans and RF noise from the wireless mic have both been solved, I'm effectively done messing the the bucket for now. Next, I plan to try out a TKTalkie system that I'll mount int he chest plate with the wireless mic receiver and Pyle Pro personal PA.

And eventually obtaining the hand plates and doing the other stuff for Elite Infantry :P

One more note: you may have noticed that I changed the name for my blog. This is because I changed my 501st nickname across the board to better reflect my TK persona and my personal TK logo. I'm leaving the URL as-is because it would break every older link to the blog if I changed it without paying for a URL redirect service. So for the time being, you can still find the blog at obsidiustk.blogspot.com

Until next time...

Upgrade: BRING THE NOISE (Hearing Assist & Fan Upgrade)

A Short Novel (and apparently my 50th post!)

I'm trying to remember how this rebuild began, but I think it started when I bought my blower fans a few months ago. I bought them while I was working on my initial fan system for the bucket, but since the build was almost complete, I decided to store them for later.

During one of my troops a couple of months ago, in a hotel no less, I had issues with the helmet fogging due to humidity. The small fans I originally started with just couldn't move enough air to fight the humidity. Eventually it got better as the event went on, but for the first few minutes I had a bad fogging issue.

I messed around with the blower fans and discovered that, in my bucket, they were way louder than my little fans. I wouldn't be able to use them without some sort of hearing assist system.

Then a few weeks ago I discovered the Velleman Super Ear Amplifier Kit - MK-136, a solution which apparently many troopers use for hearing assist, namely because it has two microphones that feed into one stereo headphone jack. It was pretty cheap at the local Fry's ($8), so I picked one up along with some replacement soldering components.

Finally, I wanted to ditch the 4x AA batteries the old fan system used, since they didn't have as long of an operating window as a rechargeable USB battery bank.

So my goal was threefold: replace the old 30mm fans with blower fans, assemble and install the hearing assist system, and run everything off of a USB power bank.

This was supposed to be a moderate bit of work, but it turned into a trek - no pun intended. What I expected to take a few hours ended up taking over a week to do. Hopefully some of my knowledge could help someone in a similar situation avoid some pitfalls for a smoother build. Overall it came out great, but it took some extra time to get there.

Phase 1

I didn't want to start this project until after I was done with a troop for BlizzCon. Once that was done, it was time to break out the soldering iron and carefully assemble the MK-136. Below are the results.

I made the following modifications:

• Instead of soldering the mics directly to the boards, I would obviously need them on the bucket, so I soldered them onto some lead wires recovered from an old DC power supply.
• I eventually cut these wires to insert some 3-pin quick connectors in-line in order to make bucket maintenance easier.
• I soldered a lead wire with a a 3-pin connector where the battery box would be connected, to prep the module for USB power. 
• Before I did this, I temp connected the battery box to the module to test it. It worked the first time. This is a big deal for me because I usually mess something up on the first try, but this just worked. Everything had been soldered together correctly.
• I added the 3-pin female connector to the battery box for testing. Later I'd use a lead wire connected to a USB-A male connector for the USB power bank. 

I used 3-pin connectors, as opposed to 2-pin connectors, in order to better keep track of polarity. The 3-pin connectors can only connect one way, making it impossible to accidentally flip the connector.

After soldering and testing, I cleaned the excess flux from the board with rubbing alcohol. Once cleaned, I used some 2" wide shrink wrap to protect the entire assembly. To shrink the wrap, I used my gas stove range and some tongs, carefully warming the wrap over the flame until it was inform and tight.

With the soldering for the module done, it was time to mount the microphones. Taking a page from UKSWrath and other troopers, I placed the mics under each ear piece (after ensuring the left mic was on the left side and vice versa) after drilling out a large hole for each mic, and miniature holes on the black stripe on the earpiece in order to help with the mic's pickup. The mic was secured on either side with low-temp hot glue.

To mount the mics, I had to remove the foam and screws as originally installed by ANOVOS (and reinstalled by me after I blacked out the interior of the bucket). Since I'd need some room behind the mics for the lead wires, I had to redesign this part. I decided, instead of mounting the eye visor to H&L tape attached to the foam, that I would instead mount it to the screws used to attach the ear pieces. To do this, I needed to replace the existing screws (which I'd already replaced with the correct screw types) with the same screw types - but with a longer length of 1" (twice as long as the screws I previously installed).

After cutting the new screws to length, I installed them with washers and bolts. I then placed the visor in the helmet and marked points on the visor (using permanent marker) to drill holes for mounting each side of the visor. This was tricky and I had to adjust the bottom holes since the visor was a little high at first, but it worked out. I then used these holes to put holes into the ANOVOS helmet foam so that I could use it to help cushion the mics from the visor.

On the screws, the order of parts is: earpiece, bucket halves, washer, bolt, foam, visor, washer, vinyl locking washer.

Phase 2

A few things happened after this. I wired the new blower fans to a USB cable (black for ground, red for +) and a switch, which I mounted into the helmet using H&L tape. I then connected the fans and the hearing assist to my power source, an Antec LifeBar 3.

Originally, I was hoping to use 2x smaller USB banks, mounted on each side of the bucket similar to what I had done with the AA packs I originally used. However, this meant I'd have to double up on charging the banks and remove the harness to get to the batteries. In addition, the original banks I tried didn't have any LED power indicators to let me know how much charge remained. They were also defective. So I returned them for something better.

Running both the hearing assist and fans from the same bank, however, presented a new problem: EM noise. While running the fans, EM noise created from the fans' electronic oscillation would create electrical feedback into the hearing assist module, and into the headphones.

Now I needed a low-pass filter. This is basically a capacitor and resistor in-line with the circuit, which acts as a settling pool for the current to reduce or remove EM noise. They're not hard to make, but knowing the capacitance and resistance needed can be tricky, especially with a module that can have a variable output for speakers/ headphones.

I thought hard about this roadblock, about creating a low-pass filter that would filter out any noise not within a normal hearing range. Then, with the help of my IT and ISP knowledge, it dawned on me: just use a DSL filter.

For those unfamiliar, a DSL filter is used between analog phone equipment, like a phone or fax machine, and a phone system that also has a DSL modem/ router. DSL equipment uses higher frequencies, which can impact regular voice traffic under the 5KHz range. The filter keeps the DSL frequencies off of analog gear.

I grabbed a spare DSL filter and decided to test in in-line between the USB power bank and the hearing assist module, with the module acting as the "phone" side and USB bank as the "line" side. I started by cutting the phone lead in half so I could strip some bare metal for testing by holding the leads in-place.

I connected everything, started the fans, and then connected the hearing assist module.

And it worked. I tested it at varying volume levels and, although not perfect, it cut out almost all the EM fan noise.

Now that I know it worked, it was time to remove the casing (to better fit it into the bucket) and integrate it with the hearing assist module.

EDIT: For my EU friends and others who just want to piece something form components, as far as circuit diagrams go, a full DSL filter will look something like this (click to enlarge):

The basic DSL filters I'm sourcing, which work fine, looks something like this (although it's hard to tell the exact component values as they're not well labeled on my components):

(END OF EDIT)

With the casing removed, I de-soldered the telephone lines and RJ11 jack. Then, I cut the pinned lead from the hearing assist module in half, and soldered the filter in-line.

I wrapped the module in 3/4" shrink wrap the same way I wrapped the audio module, although the wrap was barely big enough to fit over the big caps used on the filter.

Phase 3

More things happened after this.

Even with the hearing assist system and the low-pass filter, I was still picking up a lot of mechanical noise from the blower fans with everything mounted in the bucket. I was at another impasse.

After much thought, I decided two things:

• The tiny fans did a decent job on most days and were quiet, but couldn't move enough air around when things got hot and humid.
• The blower fans would move a lot of air, but at the cost of being able to hear easily.

So I decided to use both fan systems - a low-speed system and a high-speed system. I moved the blower fans from where I had mounted them (behind the Hovi tips) to my forehead (which I can do since I'm using the ANOVOS harness system instead of helmet pads). The original fans would stay in place on the existing fan harness, and I would run lead wires up the inner top of the helmet to power the blower fans (I used a bit of 4-conductor scrap USB cable for this, with red & black wires for one fan and green & white for the other). Both fans would use the same USB-A jack for power (since the 2nd port on the power bank would be for the hearing assist system) but would use two separate slider switches I already had available.

To get the hearing assist module and filter ready for mounting, I put H&L tape on them, along with the corresponding point on the fan mounting bracket. I did have to remove the wire between the module and low-pass filter and replace it with a longer wire so the filter could be installed on the back of the harness (with the wiring) and the module on the front (so I could have easy access to the power and gain while wearing the bucket).

I got both fan systems wired to the same USB-A cable, and installed two switches. Everything worked... for a bit.

Phase 4 (Final Phase)

The wiring with this installation was a mess; too many wires were soldered together, the USB-A cables were too stressed, and the thin 24-gauge wire in those cables wasn't up to the task. This caused both fan systems to loose power. Instead if having two working fan systems in the bucket, I now had no working fans in the bucket. The design was sound, but the implementation needed work.

I started over with the wiring with the following modifications:

• I installed screw-down terminal blocks onto the mounting bracket to help keep wiring clean and make installation easier. This would reduce the amount of soldering, cold solder joints, and wire stress.
• I used three blocks total: 2x 2-terminal blocks as positive blocks for the low (radial) and high (blower) speed fans, respectively; and a 1x 4-terminal block as a grounding block for everything.
• I spent $8 on an on-off-on 3-position toggle switch that would be used for both fan systems. There wasn't really a need to have both systems on simultaneously, and using one switch for both systems would reduce the amount of wiring.
• I replaced the stiffer USB-A cable I was using with thinner, more pose-able cables in order to make connecting the system to the power bank inside the helmet easier. Thankfully, the wire gauge for the red and black power leads was of a similar gauge to the old wires, but would still require reinforcement.
• I used solid-core copper lead wires between components and the screw-down terminals. I soldered tinned stranded wire from the fans and USB-A wires to solid core wires, and then screwed those down into the terminals. Solid core is more resilient and easier to screw down, and would overall improve the life of the wiring through wear and tear. It's also stiffer and easier to cable manage.
• I installed plastic anchors for the USB-A cables to eliminate stress at the solder joints (fastened with spare Chicago screws I picked up to fix a missing screw from my holster). I also installed more tie-down anchors to help with cable management.
• I re-did all the quick connected for uniformity, and added quick connects on the hearing assist module for the mic leads, to make work and maintenance easier.

Finally, everything worked, although I have to be careful when I put the bucket on to leave enough room for the blowers to work. I may add some stiff foam to the forehead as a spacer between my head harness and the fans.

Mounted, everything looks clean, and works great. You can see the blowers near the forehead, the hearing assist module and controls on the left side of the bucket (right side when it's inverted) and the LifeBar wedged between the back of the bucket and the back of the head harness (secured with H&L tape). In the top of the bucket I installed more H&L tape to have more mounting options for the LifeBar, blower fan cables, and other possible future hardware.

Earphones for the hearing assist can be tricky. With all the holiday shopping I don't have time to pick up a good pair of helmet speakers (as used by motorcyclists and skiers) as recommended by squad mates, but I was also recommended an inexpensive pair of RCA headphones (only $5 from my local Fry's) that work in a pinch. Of course, this means I have to put on the headphones before I get the bucket on, and then tuck the spare cabling into the bucket's chin, but until I have a chance to research and perhaps install some helmet speakers, they'll do for now.

Other mods (aka H&L Tape Is Our Friend)

In addition, I recently acquired a wireless microphone and receiver on sale at Amazon. I used H&L tape on the fan bracket and the mic to install the mic into the bucket, but have it easily removable for charging and storing.

For the personal PA, mounting the wireless receiver directly onto the PA makes it stick straight up, putting pressure on the 3.5mm jack due to the curvature of the chest piece. Instead, I used H&L tape to mount the receiver to the plate, and then used a small 3.5mm extension wire to connect it to my Pyle Pro.

Update 30 Nov 2016: after some advice from a fellow ANOVOS Builder FB group member and additional testing, the 2.4GHz feed used by the wireless mic creates RF noise on the hearing assist, which causes a mild to moderate radio buzz on my headphones, even with my head between the mic and the hearing assist module. I may try to create an RF shield for the hearing assist module, or may just revert to a wired mic int the meantime. Any further mods will be covered in a future blog post.

I also added more H&L tape to the inside of the chest piece for my elastic shoulder straps. I've been having issues with the back of the ABS shoulder straps popping out of the elastic loops, and realized that ti was because there was too much space between the chest and back piece at the shoulders. the extra H&L tape allows my to pull the elastic shoulder straps in to close the space off and keep the ABS shoulder straps in their elastic loops on the back plate side.

I might also fasten a holiday hat to my bucket using some magnets from the build :D

I still need new hand guards, new Hovi tip mesh, some thermal detonator modification, and a frown repaint on my bucket before I submit for Centurion, but I'm thinking about finally submitting for EIB this month or next. In any case, any work done to the armor will be documented here for reference. If I don't have any updates before year's end (I don't foresee any happening), then to my readers:

Happy Holidays

and a

Happy New Year!

Until my next update...

Personal Touches: Blacking Out the Bucket & Replacing Screws

Last week I wanted to get the PlastiDip in my bucket before I did an unofficial troop for the birthday party of my cousins-in-law's son, who was having a Star Wars themed birthday. Apparently they were joking about having me get in the armor (or so I found out after I'd done the work), but I was serious! In for a penny, in for a pound...

Anyhow, I actually like the ANOVOS helmet system, minus the fact that I had to completely redo the H&L tape they used for the harness as the adhesive on the tape was woefully unfit for the task (I covered this in a previous blog entry). The part that irked me about the system was the H&L tape, but in this case the stuff that secured the harness to the inside of the bucket. When I went on my first troop, some curmudgeonly kid hit me hard in the back of the bucket (before the wrangler could scare him off) and caused the strap to come unglued from the inside of my bucket. The inside of the bucket wasn't prepped right for good adhesion, plus I had to move the strap anyhow for better performance. But before I replaced the H&L tape, I wanted to remove all the hardware and PlastiDip the interior.

The PlastiDip can help add a little strength to the helmet (or a lot of strength if you go with the brush-in PlastiDip layered with cheesecloth like some troopers have), but it also reduces the amount of reflected light when wearing the bucket. I wanted to get this done before installing new H&L tape for the helmet harness. So I took out the fan system and began with ripping all of the tape and foam out of the helmet's interior, and removing the lenses and screen behind the teeth. I put the adhesive stuff on some aluminum foil in case I wanted to salvage anything.

There was some cracking on the bucket underneath the gasket, so I had to repair one spot by adding a backing of scrap ABS with some CA glue. There was also some other minor cracking in other areas that I may have to address later.

After all the hardware was out of the helmet, I started masking everything I didn't want sprayed or affect by overspray with blue painter's masking tape. I started with the eye sockets, then some on the inside of the bucket over the teeth, then on the outside of the eyes and teeth, then around the neck.

(I also removed the Hovi mic tips and masked over the screw holes, but forgot to photograph it.)

After the masking was done, I wrapped the outside of the helmet in newspaper and secured it with more tape, making sure that all my edges were secure.

Once I was satisfied with the masking, It was time to spray.

Before I began spraying, I scuffed the inside of the helmet with some 350 grit sandpaper - finer than the 100 or 150 grit, but enough to give better adhesion for the PlastiDip. After a light sanding and dusting, I started spraying the PlastiDip in even coats, waiting 20 or more minutes between coats (or overnight since you can reapply any time). I also sprayed the foam pads that go over the screws that secure the bucket pieces together, as they're also originally white.

A cardboard box helped hold the bucket while drying.

Over the course of two evenings I coated the inside of the bucket as well as I could. The front bottom of the bucket proved most tricky as it has a lot of crevices to cover, which is tricky to do without a lot of overs pray.

Since I was revamping the bucket anyhow, I decided to replace some of the ANOVOS screws in the bucket with more screen accurate screws, which happen to be #6 flat head flat drive screws. The problem is that most screws of this variety don't come short unless you order them online. At the hardware store, the shortest they had was 2", which meant I needed to trim at least an inch off each screw. Dremel tool with cutting disk to the rescue. I cut them to the same length as a screw I removed from the bucket after the last coat, but be advised that screws on one side of the bucket are slightly longer than screws on the other side. We're talking 1" vs 3/4", but it's a major difference when working in tight margins, and made putting the new screws in a little more difficult in the end since some where shorter than the original screws.

I forgot to photo the next step since my phone was low on power, but I scuffed the screw heads with some 150 grit sandpaper and painted the heads white. The next evening, after the paint had dried, I installed them into the helmet using washers and #6 nylon nuts. After installation, the paint on the screw heads was slightly scratched, so I'll need to re-paint these a touch when I submit Centurion pics (I need to retouch the armor rivets anyhow).

The screws removed from the bucket will actually be used for the thermal detonator, as they're more screen accurate for that piece. I may also be trimming the TD to make the length more screen accurate as well. If so, it will be content for a future blog post.

Back to the bucket, after the last coat of PlastiDip was dry, everything looked very professional.

Now it was time for the moment of truth - to see if all of my masking had prevented unwanted spraying. I carefully removed the paper and tape and was not disappointed. There was no over spray on the neck seal, teeth, eyes, or other seems, and the job turned out great!

I had to mask over the teeth in order to prevent over spray. To blacken them on the back side, I took some Testor gloss black and painted them by hand. The gloss black is shiner than the PlastiDip's satin look; thankfully, when the screen is reinstalled, it wasn't noticeable at all.

Speaking of the screen, I still plan to re-paint the frown on the teeth towards preparing for Centurion certification, so instead of re-fastening the screen with hot glue, I simply taped it to the inside of the bucket with black electrical tape, so I can remove it later when I perform that paint job. The tape is holding fine for now.

I purchased 15' of 3/4" black H&L tape from a local electronics store. Though slightly narrower than the 1" tape that ANOVOS uses, the adhesion was much better. After re-securing the foam with some extra double-sided tape, I used two strips on top of the foam for each side of the visor (I prefer the visor to separated eyes to help prevent fogging and increase air flow into the bucket around the eyes). Then I used more H&L tape to re-secure the harness to the bucket.

I used the ANOVOS H&L tape as the removable straps for now (hence the white H&L tape for one side of the fasteners) as I would have to tediously remove adhesive from the replacement tape to be able to use them for both sides.

I was now ready to face a bunch of kids wielding pool noodles.

Pics altered and cropped for the benefit of the kids.

Check out that pinata :D

Here I am with my smallest trooper

My older trooper got into the spirit too :D

Overall, the PlastiDip and new tape worked great! One strap did became un-fastened (but NOT un-glued) after I took quite a few pool noodle blows to the bucket, but this was easily fixed and not what I normally expect to do while trooping.

The armor will need some work though, For starters, one of my thigh shims is cracking, again. So I'll need to make more ABS paste and redo the seam again, after sanding down the joint a little and applying some CA glue to strengthen it. I'll also have to re-rivet part of the holster strap since it doesn't even appear that ANOVOS tapped the rivet to begin with. At least I have plenty of Tandy leather rivets from other costuming projects.

These are either simple fixes or otherwise well documented already, so I actually don't anticipate updating this blog until I:

• Repaint the frown on the bucket
• Work on the thermal detonator (it's a shade too long and I want to replace those screws)
• Shim my kidney plate for girth (some slight pudge aside, I actually have slight scoliosis as well)
• Replace the ANOVOS belt with a better one, and/ or
• Replace the hand guards with latex versions

All will be required for me to get Elite and/ or Centurion certification, especially the belt (as I'm told that it won't even pass for Basic certification going forward, even modded as I and others have previously done; be warned).

That being said, the next update may not be for a while, but when I have time and/ or the funds, I'll start making improvements towards Centurion. Until then...