Acrylikhan

Great Job!!!! If you can, I hope someone will be snapping pictures of you on the troop! I'm looking forward to the boot WIP. I will definitely be watching that closely as I have US size 13 shoes

Nice!!!!!!!!!

heh-heh... thanks guys! Now, if you can find me a can opener to get a few more hours in the day, I think I could make some REAL progress. I started the glue up of the cut sections today at work. FINALLY! Even if I get this piece finished, I have to fix my vac-forming machine. We had a vac job for a client and we blew out the heating coils. I am modding the oven so that the plastic can sag more. I should be able to work with 1/8th-inch and possibly 3/16" plastics without them resting onto the heating coils. I also thinking of making improvements to the plastic holder too. So... even if this gets finished, the table needs its repairs, and upgrades. I should have some pictures tomorrow... or at least by the weekend.

Nice boots!!!

I can't wait to see what the boots look like all together. Great Job!

A good lead none-the-less. I'll check up on the manufacturer of the boot to see if they do/have tan-coyote colors. Ya never know...

When we left our story last time, the main part of the boot holster forming buck had been completed. Looks good, and fits nicely! The next step was to make "stencils," outlining the space that the buck for the second portion of the holster was supposed to look. The simpler the better. The details will emerge later. After getting the placementof the stencil cards taped into position, time for a test fit to see if the pistol will fit in the bounding area. It's kind of funny how we only need this very small area. I transfer the stencil pattern to an MDF board and cut it out. And then repeat... I originally was going to use RenFoam as I did with the base of the boot holster... but the foam I had was needed for another project. MDF will do nicely. The next part is finishing the cuts, and then start the glue up. This is very similar to the knee armor vac-buck I did almost a year ago. A similar method will be used here. Instead of using bondo or drywall compound to seal the edges after all the cutting and sanding, I will be using a sprayable urethane epoxy, followed by a high heat paint treatment. Good to be back... and I will post more as it comes available.

I wonder if they come in tan?

oooOOoo... *watches with great interest*

Can't wait to see your progress Tags!

Great job! And fun photos!

Thanks! I've got it back at work to start adding the final details. Everything seems to have worked out just great. A little weathering and some more greeblies and it should be ready to present for pictures.

Congrats!!!

You could have both... I'd stick with the droids for now. Get a camo T-shirt similar to the dyed BDUs and then have the graphic and the tagline.

Congrats!

Would the velcro be sewn in along side each strap? That would eliminate the straps sagging... not sure about screen accuracy. So far, so good. The fabric definitely looks closer to the CG texture.

Congrats Witness and Lonescout!!

Started painting. Flaws and all are popping out, but it will give the rifle that nice, banged up, well used, and loved look. The only problem was that the cans of paint I bought were mislabeled. It wasn't FLAT black. I'll have to apply a Flat clear coat after the paint sets. Oh, well. Looking pretty good so far. A little more work to do tomorrow, and all three sections should be painted black. I'll wait a few days, and then apply the flat clear coat, and then weather it. I will be permanently attaching the muzzle to the front barrel. That way, it won't get lost.

Full assembly. Repairs complete. 90% of all details are present. Hopefully, I will start painting on Monday. I checked over pictures from AOTC and ROTS. Yes, my gun is WAAAAAYYYYY oversized. But it fits me perfectly.

Grades are in. Lets put it this way... I know people who would have quit the project if this had happened to them. It's my own fault. I wasn't thinking and look what happened. Here's the deal. I cut the mating end, and the end that fit into the PVC pipe, separately. Then, I glue the two faces pieces together. That last part, gluing to faces straight together, is a structural no-no. Too much shearing, and then *CRACK*. I know what I did wrong, so let's correct it. It was an absolute clean break. The ABS detail cracked sort of along the same venue. That will be repaired in its own time. Here's the mating face: The hard part was getting this section OUT of the PVC pipe without damaging the pipe. I had used GOOP to lock this in place. I figured making a trough where I could seep some Acrylic Lacquer thinner into the seam edges, and then yank it out in one piece. I've used this method before. That's what the drywall screw is for. Lock the barrel in a vise, and get a piece of wood for a brace and use a crowbar to pry the section out. As you're pulling, use more thinner to continue loosening the glue. GOOP is almost solvent proof. It didn't work. Not even the slightest budge. It was worth a shot. Since that didn't work, I got out a Forsner bit, and locked it in place on the drill press. It was pretty much the same set up when I drilled the hole in the stock grip part. Managed to get the entire piece out with no trouble. You can see the 1/2" acrylic rod I used for the greeblie. It went fairly well, and didn't scuff up the PVC too badly. The remaining bits of the cylinder came out with little trouble. I think the new piece will be fused in place with Liquid Nails. Now onto the repair and redesign. The very back pieces is still good and reuseable. The lathe chuck was large enough to fit this piece in along with the attached greeblies. I used a boring bar and hollowed out the interior to the INTERIOR diameter of the PVC pipe. More on that in a minute. The nut will fit in flush with the backside and the front of the stock-grip. And the remaining part of the nut will be in a cylinder that will fit in the hollowed section. Which brings us here... The black urethane cylinder fits into the hollowed section on the mating end, and the remainder fits into the PVC tube. Now we have much more SOLID structure to work with. Both of these sections are urethane, and the great stuff about this one that I use, is that it has a unique property. When the same resin is poured on resin that has already cured, it will bond to itself. These sections will be bonded together in this manner. Which brings us to the coupling nut,... I altered the one that will be used in this section. There are gaps where the the nut does not grip into the hole in the cylinder. That area need to be filled. I will be using the urethane resin to encase the nut once it is properly positioned. The hexagon shape keeps the nut from counter-rotating. The ribs that I cut in are to prevent the nut from being pulled out from shearing forces. And there you have it. This should be much stronger that the last one. Now to get everything lined up, and then patched.

Very nice work! The boot covers look great!

A little too much. Just trying to make it durable. Tragedy struck this afternoon. I was fixing the mid-section mating portion, so that the bolt was not skewed. If you check out the last picture on the last post, the midsection droops. I was fixing that and - CRACK - The mate has broken clean off. Working on a solution.

This is how you construct a device that will incur a serious compound injury. I had to set up the 90-degree plate on the drill press table so that I could drill out the hole for the coupling nut. The table had to be swung out of position, the bracket mounted to the table and the stock clamped and centered under the quill. Thankfully, I made a target to center the quill and bit with. And luckily, everything went okay. The I pressed in the 1/2' x 13 coupling nut. It was a tight fit. By tomorrow, the plastic will have relaxed, and I'll check for any bulging areas. I did more sanding, too. Still a few craters here and there, but it is progressing smoothly. The threaded rod in the midsection is miscued. I will fix that tomorrow. It's just under 3.5" feet long.

That would work!

You've made enormous progress! Looking good!