Drewid

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I like it! Nice job

The inside view of the left bicep is incomplete. I haven't been able to find a glue that will bond to the rubber greeb that was provided. The only reason the rubber strands adhered is because they got trapped in the epoxy I laid down in the haste to finish before comic-con. Now that its over I can be a little more careful. From the reference images it looks like the outside greeb is supposed to match the color of the rubber strap. That's why I painted it a similar shade of green. This was a mistake made during the pre-con rush. After checking the CRL, it looks like I'll need to paint them all gray. Hopefully I can break the epoxy off and redo them.

So I didn't get it finished for SDCC. I had a few crucial bits break at 11pm the day before we left. But I'm almost there. I estimate about 8 to 20 hours total remaining. Biceps: Tank: Knees: Cod piece: Toe caps: Helmet: Pouch vest: What went wrong? Well, I couldn't attach the velcro to the belt or the knee straps. I can't find an adhesive that appears to work with it. The rubber greeblie on the inside of the left bicep also won't attach. Is there a trick to that one? It also doesn't bend enough to form to the contour of the bicep. I may have to fabricate a new part out of ABS. I still have to make the straps for the belt and the back/chest piece. Once I do that those pieces are complete. I made the visor on the helmet just a little too dark so that should be reworked and a new method used to install it. It's riding on my nose and that is fairly uncomfortable. I'm fairly sure that I'll use this helmet as a display piece, though, and build the bikerchick kit I have. I also need to finish the straps for the shins and attach the greebs to that. Then there is the belt buckle. That still needs to be fabbed too. All in all, though, I'm really close.

Coming into the home stretch before Comic-con. I think I'm going to make it. Suit: Check! Belt: Mostly check. It needs some small touch ups and a fastener. Armor: Mostly check. I'm done to the details and fasteners. The back and chest plate get painted as soon as the paint fumes clear in the garage. Helmet: Almost there Remaining ToDo's: Attach bicep greeblies Attach straps and fasteners Apply tint to visor Attach helmet greebs Attach foam supports in helmet, biceps, and shins Finish sewing velcro strips on the cummberbund for the pouches. Anyone have some ideas as to the best way to attach the shoe caps?

The Mr. B helmet has them as grooved impressions similar to the the front of the snout. I'm going to add mesh to make it black but still allow air through. After going through some other build threads I saw that others had done the same. Worse comes to worse, I have a second helmet kit

Lots of progress to report: The helmet is nearly ready for paint! I just need to work the insides a bit to house the visor lens a little better. I took more pictures of the process I did in case I got around to doing a detailed tutorial (or if anyone wanted one). I had the perfect drill bit for the task to install the visor greebs. I used 3/4" zinc hole covers that will be painted black. The bit is one of those stepper bits. To do the notch at the top of the visor, I found that scotch tape is the perfect width. Cut to to the right lenth, apply, and use that as the template. I think I need to sand it just a little further. The shins have moved to the painting booth: 1.5" painters tape served as my template for the shin straps. Marked the guidelines with a pencil and used a dremel cutting disc to make the initial cuts. I used a small routing bit for tile to widen the gaps a bit to allow enough clearance for the canvas strap. Biceps and tank have received their initial base coast (two layers of silver have already been applied):

I think I found my green: The one on the right seems to match well. Thoughts?

Okay. I'll test out the other greens I bought. They just seemed a little on the dark side. On the helmet, are the notches in the back to be cut out and meshed off as vents or is that optional?

I should have some pics ready in a week if that will work?

And rescued some pictures from the camera. This weekend will be a marathon session on the armor as I run into the last weekends before SDCC. The back tank is nearly ready for paint. I just need to sand some bondo additions down. I had to notch the indent where the topper goes in order for the greeb to fit. I also boiled the greeb to get it to lay completely flat. I've been picking up various greens for the camo scheme. I can't find anything that seems to match right. How is this combination? Also, does anyone have a recommendation as to how to lay the camo scheme down? Spray painting doesn't appear to work too well without a template.

Thanks Matt! I was thinking of trying plasti-dip on the inside squares. Since that's rubber it should bend, flex, and bond nicely. I hope anyways. I'll definitely keep your suggestion in mind. That would save me a bunch of time.

It is. I still need to pick up the green and the brown paints for the camo pattern.

Thanks! I was hoping I picked the right color. I'm hosting an armor party today so hopefully I'll have a lot more progress to report tonight. I do have some more pieces painted and the tank topper nearly complete. What is a good paint to use on the rubber belt piece? Will normal spray paint work or will that crack when the piece is flexed?

The paint came in yesterday. The test square looked close enough so I laid down the base on the smaller pieces. How does this look?

Here's a test shot of the biceps, shins, boots, and caps: And another part in progress:

Yes, the toe caps were included. Mine are currently painted silver and just waiting for the can of base coat to arrive.

My backup boots arrived yesterday. I'll use these until my CROW boots come in. The test fit worked out okay. I've got the rubber bungee straps for the forearm armor: The cotton strap for the boots: And two types of straps for the cummberbund. I wasn't able to determine what would look best from the website so I ordered both. I also have two types of fabric for it. I just need to decide which one I like best once I add some black dye to them to darken them up.

I'm also missing the color chart so I'm guessing on the colors based on the reference photos. I'm hopefully receiving my base paint today which will be Rustoleum American Accents: Fossil. Edit: I finally re-found this in the CRL section. You should be able to print this out to match the colors:

I picked up the rubber bungee straps for the forearms today and same spray paint for the camo colors. Two of the three paints I got are off. One is questionable. That being the base coat. It's a great khaki but I don't think it's quite right for this. I think I'm going to track down the Rustoleum Fossil that Darren recommended as a comparison. But here's a test shot of it: Yay! Pouches!

I got the gloves to fit tonight. After I finished removing all of the pockets on the arms and the velcro straps at the wrists of the shirt, the gloves fit fine. So, that's a plus. I think the insulation might become a bit too much over time though. I ordered what I hope will be the final set of straps required to finish the cummerbund. I also ordered a set of backup boots. Those items should be coming in next week.

I've been making progress and taking pictures. Problem is those pictures are still trapped on the camera. Hmmm, quick summary: -Both biceps and one shin piece have been bondo'd and require sanding. -The other shin piece still needs to be reshaped. -I started taking the pockets off the BDUs -I have a complete set of pouches now (many thanks to Grumpy!) -I'll be putting the silver coat of paint onto the chest plate today. -I'm having a small armor party at my house on Sunday. I expect many things to get finished then Major items remaining: -Boots. I'm worried the Crow boots aren't going to be done in time so I'm going to need to buy some temp boots until he's finished. -Camo painting the armor. I'll be picking up the base paint this weekend. -Straps and fasteners. -Cummerbund. I have all the material for it. Dyeing it tonight. Sewing next week. -Helmet visor. I'm going to hit an auto store in the next couple of days to find some green window tint. Otherwise I'll order some online. Minor issues: -The gloves. I have a pair of Grumpy's but it's going to be a very tight squeeze over the sleeve. I can barely get them on over my skin. I'll probably need to redo them at some point. ETA: Still should be good to go for SDCC!

Kevin, if it will help, I'm currently building this kit if you want to see the parts up close. I'm not sure where you are in L.A. but I'm just up in Ventura.

I picked up some gray marine vinyl from Jo-Ann's. I think this will work out better, especially since it's machine washable. I should have enough material for 2 sets of patches. Also, I bought some similar, yet different, fabric for the cummerbund. This fabric looks very similar to goretex but is cotton. I'm going to dye it tomorrow to get it to be a nice darkish gray. Unfortunately, I bought the wrong size of webbing for the vertical straps so I'm back on the hunt for that. My cotton webbing for the boots came in and it's perfect! I probably bought way too much but that's okay since I can make the straps for the chest and tank with it. I just got finished resizing and reshaping the biceps. During a test fit they looked way too big so I took about 2" out of them. I had to reshape one with the heat gun. One is gluing right now and the other will be done in the morning (I'm out of clamps). I'm also tearing the left shin apart tomorrow to resize that one. And then... bondo!

I have 6 yds of 1.5" natural cotton webbing coming in. I found it at an online store in Seattle. I went to local fabric store and picked up most of the rest of the fabric needed (or at least, what I think I need): For the codpiece: For the cummerbund: The material is upholstery fabric, cotton chenille. I intend to dye it slightly to darken it up but it looks like it should work. I think I need to get slightly larger webbing though. I bought 1" gray webbing. I think I need to bump that up to 1.25". The multicam fabric came in so now I have all the parts I need to finish the suit and pouches (assuming I'm not able to get a set from Grumpy. Those pouches are cool). There is a slight difference in coloration between the pants and shirt but the dye and armor should cover most of that up. The bicep and shin pieces have been put together. When putting the right shin together, I found a huge gap between the front half and the back half. I used a sealing iron and then a heat gun to attempt to reshape it. In the process, I ended up making a mess of it. I'll be doing the bondo work on those this week. I also discovered that the left calf armor is way bigger than the right calf armor. I didn't notice until after getting them all put together and glued. I can get the right piece on even though it can be a tight squeeze. I'll be trimming the return edge a bit just to give me a little more room. I made the expansion pieces as large as I could, too, on the right set without sacrificing the structure. I'm sure it'll be fine. I'll just add more padding to the left set. I also picked up a bolt of gray lambskin for the riding patch. The problem is (and I didn't realize it till after I bought it) that sewing lampskin on might make the pants unwashable. Does anyone has a better idea for what to use for the patch? I was thinking marine vinyl might work but I'm not entirely sure. The next major steps are bondo, bondo, bondo followed by a sanding storm. And then onto fabricating a belt buckle from scratch. I'll also be picking up the Krylon tan to continue painting the chromed pieces.