April 14th OC Squad Armor Party & Squad meeting; Improving the Helmet Fans

After self-submitting my photos to the SoCal Garison GML, I recieved an email the following Wednesday from the GML indicating that it would take a week to review my submission for approval.

I attended the squad's armor party and squad meeting on the following Saturday to meet with the squad, fellow ANOVOS builders, and to get some advice on some armor pinch, especially around my the back of my left knee.

The meeting went really well. The OC Squad of the SoCal Garrison was apparently only formed just last year, right before Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, with 17 members. For reference, I'm in line to be the 77th member of the squad. That's obviously some exponential growth within the past year, between ANOVOS builder joining the group, other builders joining, and current 501st members transferring from other squads.

For the pinch, there wasn't mush to be done in the way of trimming, and after consulting with fellow squad mates, I decided to put some foam near the pinch area to help prop it away from the back of my knee to keep it from pinch. The results were moderately successful. Obviously, there's not a lot one can do without affecting the look of the armor, but I apparently have more flexibility in my legs than most troopers, owing to the cut-outs in the back of the knees and a good armor fit. I'll take pics of the shin foam on my next update.

While I was giving advice to builders and trying on parts to test for pinch, I also worked on my helmet fans again. I decided that I needed to add some foam in order to reduce vibration between the helmet and fans, so I purchased some D-type door insulation from Home Depot. Lamentably, it only came in white.

So what was I to do? Coat it in black PlastiDip, of course, after cutting out the desired lengths to match the geometry of the blank's perimeter.

Because it was a hot day and I was spraying in the sun, the PlastiDip dried very fast, allowing me to get multiple coats done within less than an hour. I also used a pencil to help hold the pieces while spraying. I also took the opportunity to patch the places on the blank where the PlastiDip had separated when I was placing the battery boxes.

After all the pieces were coated to my satisfaction, I removed the adhesive backing and installed it onto the blank, on the side with all the electronics affixed.

Installed in the helmet, it looks very good. I forgot to take a picture, but I'll add this to my next build post as well. Until then...

The SoCal Garrison OC Squad Armor Party - Thighs, Abs, and Buttons

Yesterday was the armor party. And until my first big troop, it will be hard to beat this event.

More images by Wayne Kaataa:

More images by Roger Chacon:

And there's a whole album here from PumpMag Pictures.

Here I am talking to a friend of mine in her Anovos TK armor:

The party was coordinated by the Orange County Squad of the Southern California Garrison. Many of them were on hand to give build advice and talk about the 501st as an organization.

It used the food court of a local large high school. with each person able to use a whole table for his or her armor projects. There was plenty of work space, power, and wisdom to go around. And a droid:

And also, belt sanders.

At one time, up to four sanders were deployed, all in use at one time or another. I took advantage of these along with several other builders, many of who were first time builders such as myself. Having completed a bit of the build myself, I had several people asking me questions about how they should assemble and trim limb pieces; I gave them what advice I had and also pointed them to this blog. It cut into my build time but worthwhile to help out fellow builders.

Edit: DO NOT trim thighs for length until the end of your build. Mistakes were made. Consider the following a cautionary tale.

Although I wasn't able to get enough done in time to start fitting, I was able to get quite a bit done towards that end. First, let's talk about thighs. After talking with future squad mates, it was decided that they needed to be trimmed down from the top. At first I started small, but I was wasting so much time cutting and belt sanding that I derided to size up my left thigh first, and then make the same changes to the right thigh. I don't have many "before" shots of my left thigh (save in my previous posts), but here's an "after" shot:

In total, I trimmed almost 3" off the top so that the pieces wouldn't gouge into my hip bones when I flexed my legs or leaned over. I simply aped the contour line of the original armor to the length I measured up the strip, cut with the Dremel cutting disk, and sanded using the sanding melt. I repeated this on the right, except I cut much more off in one go now that I had a good idea as to how much to remove:

Cut... cut more.. and more...

I may also trim down the back top of the thighs, once I get more fitting done.

I also knocked out the back of the knees on both thighs and shins while I was at it, as well as cleaning up some inside edges to avoid armor bite.

How do you cut curves with a Dremel cutting disk?
Carefully.

Also, I was the guy in the green running shirt and compression pants. HI!!!

I cut out the shoulder straps and buttons as well, finally. These were the last pieces to get cut out from the molds:

Before belt sanding... and after!

The squad recommends to glue reinforcement ABS strips on the the inside back of these pieces, as they're prone to snapping in half lengthwise. I'll perform this step at home.

After trimming the thighs, it was finally time to start adding straps. because I need the ab plate to dictate the position of my chest plate, I plan to star strapping from the bottom up. However, as I forgot to bring a regular standard screwdriver (my Leatherman notwithstanding) I screwed up my first split rivet (on my kidney plate, so easy to remove if it comes to that, thankfully), and almost my snap tool as well. I salvaged the snap tool but decided to leave the strapping for after the party, where I have plenty of screwdrivers and also metal taps. I was, however, able to fasten the two snaps in the cod piece, and made sure the cod strap would fasten, so there's that (sorry, forgot to get a picture).

That was it for the day. They were wrapping up the event when I left with a raffle for, ironically, helmet fan systems (see my previous post). All were included, and had I won, I probably would have given it to a needy trooper since I'm well on my way towards making my own. I was going to work even more on my armor last night after the kids went to bed, but due to the Daylight Saving Time change (and my kids not adjusting too fast too it), combined with the COLD THAT JUST WON'T DIE, I needed rest. Until the next session then...