Centuri

while waiting on my flightsuit and cummberbund to get made, I have a few more things to sort out. heres my TD connection. I made a bracket out of ABS sheet which will fit right around the belt and connects to the inside of the TD box with 4 magnet housings. Very secure yet simple to take on and off. I'd be interested in others feedback on this, and also if there are any issues with this passing Lancer approval.

You've done a great job! To me everything looks like its sitting comfortably and everything is well proportioned.

thanks for the feedback team. will go with 5 ribs/6 stitch lines. MJ - wil get back t oyou soon with numbers

I also had trouble finding 1 3/8 (35mm) elastic. The standard off the roll sizes here are 32mm and 38mm, so i went with 38. I'm keen to know if this is not acceptable for Lancer.

Thanks Jim - appreciate the comments. i have 5 weeks to getthis done - always helps to have a deadline

I have switched focus to the soft parts now that i have most of my armour complete. I want to have the jump suit and cummerbund done before i strap up the main body armour. I made a pattern for the Cummerbund from paper using patterns found on the forums. I made several modifications to fit me correctly. the final size for the main part is 35 inches wide (plus 2 inch overlap) and 11 inches high, with the cod piece being 9 inches high and 9 inches wide at the top. hers the test fit.

haha yes indeed, thats Gonzo, Kermit and Animal from Master Replicas. My wife and I have a thing for all things Henson.

thanks guys. heres the latest test fit. shoulder bells are strapped up (but pinned at the top for this fitting) I mocked up some pouches using paper templates to make sure they were the right size. my pouches are slightly smaller - 6 inches high, 5 inches wide, 1.8 inches deep. thats about 85% of the standard pouch size (7x6x2-2.5) Side comparison with previous test fit - the chest armour, shoulders and back plate are all sitting much more comfortably. call me picky, but i always do at least half a dozen test fits of the main armour parts before the final cut and glue

Thanks Patrik, shoulder bells are just taped on in the test fit. i plan on making them adjustable using the same strapping system as the other arm bits. will do another test fit once i have my jumpsuit and vest.

here are my chest and back plates trimmed with the return edge shaped and sanded. Heres a before and after comparison of the back plate:

as you can see in the pics above, the chest and back are a bit big on me. I'm a small fella so I decided to trim the armour a little. OK, i trimmed it alot - I trimmed the armour where the side strap goes on a slight angle according to the below reference image: - I also took quite alot out of each side of the chest plate. flicking through the reference images, the sides should be straighter and the curve at the bottom a bit sharper than on the SC chest plate. I also wanted to square off the neck opening at the back to match the screen used backplate.

thanks Kels, is it strange that i have a dedicated armour shaping frypan? heres my first test fit of most of the armour, yes my overalls are blue, my flightsiut is about a week away.

you've made a great start! looking good so far mate

yes its much more friendly on the armour than using a heat gun. I found that the water needs to be at boiling temp to work well. as always test on scrap abs or offcuts first.

also make sure if you are gluing styrene onto ABS that you have the correct glue. PVC pipe cement won't work on styrene.

next step - straps. I've never been a big fan of using velcro, so i came up with an alternative method for the elastic straps. I wanted to make them secure yet adjustable so i decided to use plastic triglides on each side. I picked these up at a local fabric/haberdashery store, and made shure they were the right size for the elastic. I also needed to add a loop to thread the elastic thru on each end, so i made them out of scrap ABS and used the PVC cement to glue them on. heres the finished strap on the bicep armour. the elastic threads through the hole in the bicep plate, then through the triglide, through the ABS loop and then back through the triglide. biceps, forearms and knees all done using this method. Doing it this way means there is no velcro (and better yet, no sewing) required.

Next step was to shape the forearms to fit better, they are a bit too wide out of the box. I used the old Boiling water in a frypan trick, heating the plastic in boiling water just enough to be able to squeeze it into a better shape. I will likely use the same method for the elbows and shoulder bells. Before and after comparison: and here's a close up of the top edges showing the return - getting better at that! So after a night working on these, here is the end result.

I made a couple more mods to the forearms. I wanted to make the side edges straighter after looking at some pics of the screen used armour. I also noticed the return at the front of the strap hole is sharper, so i penciled the lines and made these adjustments with my dremel. heres the markup and before and after comparison. a rather subtle change but looks better IMO and because I'm a smaller trooper, I figure trimming a bit here and there shouldnt hurt

thanks guys! I wanted to have a go at doing the return edge like Pandatrooper has done on some of his SC parts. it certainly gives a more polished final look. I thought I'd test with the forearms (i tested on scrap sheet first). I dont have a heat sealing Iron, but decided to try with my regular household iron. it seems that with the right combination of temperature setting and pressure, it can work pretty well. heres the forearms before (left) and after (right). I cut off the front edge to be flatter and wider and then attempted the return edge. The return edge came out OK i think for my first attempt, a bit of light sanding and buffing should finish it off.

OK so Helmet and boots are done. Time to get stuck into my SC armour kit, many thanks to Pandatrooper for his very informative thread. I made a start with the tank on the back. For the tank topper, I put a couple of small sheet metal screws in from the bottom as well as using glue to secure it in place. For the red stripe on top i used some red signwriting vinyl that i had spare, which was alot quicker and tidier than painting it. for the black detailing i used black vinyl. I secured the Tank to the back plate with a rivet and washer through the hole in the tank topper, and a single rivet at the bottom.

cheers for that - i think i have solved it. i just took the centre round one out, and it fits quite snug with just the 4 on the sides while still leaving some space between the top of my head and the top of the helmet.

yes indeed, this one looks like a recast from an ABS kit - not sure which. to my knowlege there are 2 Fibreglass kits currently available, MLC and Cucblack's. The faceplate on my fibreglass MLC kit is one piece, this faceplate on yours looks like 2 parts joined together. If it is a recast, looks like it can still be worked into a decent looking helmet, the good thing is that it is already trimmed out, but you may still have a fair bit of work to do.

and done, the completed interior, except for the fan and black material for the vents.

Visor installation heres a photo of the inside of the faceplate. I don't trust using hot glue for visors, so I used an epoxy putty to create some support for the visor. there is a left and right housing plus a bit in the middle at the top of the snout. once cured I fixed the visor in place with a single screw into the centre. you can also see the magnet placement in the pic above.

oh wait! i do have a couple of progress pics... Chin Cup I received a chin cup with my MLC helmet, its fibreglass as well. I did a little trimming to match the chin cup on the screen used helmet. LINK to reference image Then i sprayed it gloss white. heres the strap and cup installed. the strap is secured using snap domes (see pics above)