Ketchup

Got my tank topper greeblie painted and mounted on Tuesday: My cat was supervising...she's a big help. And I mounted the tank to the back plate! Today, I mounted the T-bits onto the biceps I am absolute crap with pop rivets, so my dad helped me get my thermal det clips and the magnets I'm going to use to protect the det from falling off (or getting swiped). So that makes the thermal detonator done! I don't have many pictures of the actual assembly process of the belt, because I needed three hands for that process (or at least it seemed). But here it is! It doesn't sit quite right because I'm wearing my favorite fluffy PJ pants... but it's wearable! Definitely not my favorite part of the build. I heated up the belt to form it to my waist, very gently with a heat gun, that does wonders for making it lay properly! That's it for now! Just need to strap up the biceps, forearms, and knees, and the armor is sorted! (Which I intend to do tomorrow.) Sorry this isn't terribly detailed, but I tend to get in the zone when I'm working and don't take a lot of progress shots as I go.

It looks matte to my eye, but I don’t think they’re too picky on the sheen, so long as it’s not gloss. I’d err on the side of flat/matte myself, though.

I used some 1.5 inch elastic lightly tea dyed, and sewed it into a loop with velcro on the bottom, so it's anchored to the velcro on the straps. For my T-bits, I used satin black because it's what I had on-hand. Edit: looked when I got home and I used matte black, so a bit flatter than satin.

Thanksssss... I’m slow, but I hate having half-finished projects around. Need to find a better way to host images. The share from URL tool here isn’t letting me link from my imgur or OneDrive and it’s driving me nuts. But I got my tank mounted today! Did it real quick after work. Been trying to chip away at small tasks one at a time.

I started a new thread in the correct section of the forum! Go check it out if ya like for my most recent progress:

Hey guys! After a few years hiatus, I’m back working on my build! Right now I’m getting my parts all ready to wear so I can do preliminary runs at Dragon Con. My kit is made up of MC and SC parts. I had an MC chest/back assembly, buuuuut I messed it up so I acquired a SC chest and back. So without further ado, pictures! HFor some reason, my forearms had extra return edges on them... So I trimmed those off using some plastic snips. I have also joined the chest, back, and shoulder bells, and made the cloth shoulder bridges. Still need to make the side strap, but my sewing machine is currently set up with black thread and I don’t want to switch it to white just yet. I don’t like how loose the bridges are, so I’ll probably tighten those down after Dragon Con while I make my fit and finish improvements before submitting. I also got the tank striped, gonna paint and mount the tank greeblie today. And I got my T-bits painted. That’s all for now! I’ll post today’s progress some time later.

Gave the page a like and a share! Thanks for all the effort that went into it!

Bumping this thread up so I can find it and upload pictures later. After a long hiatus, I have continued my scout build! I acquired a SC chest/back set because I messed up my MC one, and it's almost done, just need to add the side strapping and mount the tank. Then I will get to the belt assembly. After that, I just need to strap up the biceps, forearms, and knees. Then she'll be ready to wear! I plan to do some test runs at Dragon Con at the end of the month to see what's going to work for the build. Then it will be adding the final details like the riding patch and butt flap, and making sure all is well for application! Really excited to be back in the saddle. Can't wait to get home and post some pictures for you guys.

I am making progress with my yellow armor, and have let him know about the aforementioned AT-AT driver. I will be going up to Loveland this week to show him my yellow armor in person, and hopefully will be getting new pulls out of it. I will also tell him about your other guy, Navajo Bro. This should be made right for everyone.

Got my little Hole in the Ground resin blaster this weekend! I've started doing the cleanup work, and I'm quite pleased with it. Some bubbles and such, but that's par for the course with resin casts. Here you can see the scale difference between it and my rubber Kenner. It may be heavier than, say, a hyperfirm, but it's a heck of a lot lighter than the Kenner! Hopefully it'll last me a while until I can invest in a hyperfirm. (I have one of their E-11s and it ROCKS)

I have a rubber Kenner recast and just got one of the Hole in the Ground blasters. I know all the disadvantages of a resin blaster, but I needed something quick and the price point was low enough to justify it. I plan on installing magnets in it at some point to help it from slipping out of the holster and breaking. Some day I will invest in a hyperfirm (and build up a blaster collection in the process, lol), but it is not something I can hold out for... I suppose it depends on your timeframe. If you want a blaster pretty quickly, and easier on the budget, I would say go for it. I have a few friends that use them, and that's how I found them, so they came recommended.

Thanks man! I will keep it in mind for the future, as I do not own an airbrush. But I have mixed up pax before for makeup purposes, perhaps it is similar.

I found some 45 mm / 1 3/4" webbing on etsy! Ordered some and it should be in soon...

Busting my hump to get this together for a ton of events coming up this month and the next! If I'm lucky, I may have it together for a dry run this weekend. (Sans flak vest and suit alterations, because I don't have time for that this week.) Working on it has helped soothe some professional disappointments for me the past week and a half, so progress has been steady. Sent an email to MC early last week about the yellowing on my kit (as I feared, it has affected almost all the parts). No response yet, but in the meantime I decided to paint it using the same Krylon Fusion gloss white I'm using on the helmet. This paint is awesome, very little prep work needed and it is sticking really well to the ABS. Overall, I'm pleased with the look I'm getting with it, even though it has meant extra hours on the build. The knee on the bottom was significantly yellow. The knee on top was nested under it and only has yellowing on the edges (for now). I didn't take a lot of pictures to document the before/after paint progress, unfortunately, as I tend to get into building mode and don't stop to take many pictures. The picture below shows the knees after a coat of paint. The pictures really don't do the yellow justice, thanks to lighting. But all the pieces had yellowing about as bad as the belt picture I posted above, which does illustrate the drastic difference pretty well. The biceps were just as bad as the belt. I masked off where I glued on the T-bits so the JB Weld would have more purchase, and you can kind of see the difference in this picture: With T-bits installed: So yeah, it has been a chore, but now I've painted pretty much everything except the chest and back/tank. Those I will paint once I dial in the chest straps. At least my belt is looking a lot better: I installed the boot holster, Panda-style, so the holster straps to my leg and has extra ABS shims to support it on the side of the boot. The boot stands up perfectly straight on its own thanks to this! I am very pleased with how it has turned out. Four silver rivets in the corners, 1/8" in diameter, with 1/4" grip. Lancer spec. Rubber Kenner recast...not Lancer spec. LOL. Although, I found a nice little resin blaster from Hole In The Ground for $45, which was recommended to me by a local Garrison member. I think I will keep the Kenner recast for general trooping purposes because it will be easier to hold and more durable. (The scale one for LFL troops, of course!) My goals for today are to get as much of the TD built as I can (my left side greeblie and TD clips are around here somewhere, I just don't know where...), and get the chest and back strapped together. I still need to find 1 3/4" cotton webbing, though. :/ Any help there would be appreciated.

I have a Chicago screw to mount the tank, that's why the hole is so big. I suppose I can use that for now until I can rig something to rivet the tank to, that I can then ABS weld to the back plate. Thanks guys, you always pull through when needed.

I've got the top of the tank figured out, yeah. But it's the bottom that's killing me because Lancer specs require a single rivet on the bottom of the tank, which I've seen done before, I'm just at a loss to figure out how they did it. Lol. I suppose I could rig something out of extra ABS to shorten the distance, but I'm still left with trying to figure out how to fill the diameter of the hole. Bleh.

I'm trying to mount the tank onto my back plate, with a single silver rivet at the bottom (per Lancer spec). I've seen it done before on MC kits but I'm at a loss to figure out the size of rivet I need. The hole that came pre-drilled is maybe three times too big for any rivets I have (1/8"), and there is a good inch between where the hole is and the backplate, and my longest rivets are only good for 1/2" maximum. I haven't been able to find any rivets that are that long. :/ Is there a way to find rivets that long, or do I have to do something special?

My scout kit gets babied, it stays under blankets the vast majority of the time. The only thing I can think of is ambient sunlight in the areas I work. My living room is all sunlit and my dining room is lit by incandescents only. By contrast, a friend of mine just finished her MC kit after having it for seven YEARS and it's still white as snow. I have decided to just paint it white, but the belt is one piece and is subject to the most flex, so it will crack and chip eventually. I talked to another armor maker about it and he told me to test a scrap of the plastic to see if it is actually old ABS by bending it. I have yet to do that, but I plan to on the pieces I cut off the shoulder strap.

I'm seeing what I can do about the yellowing before I go too much further. If the kit is going to keep yellowing at this alarming rate, I'm going to get a new one.

I am also a member who knows Cal personally. Great guy, often gets in over his head. I knew that full well when I ordered my kit, and knew that it would take forever to get it. All of us in MG know his projected wait times are crap. That said, he really needs to stop telling people max 32 weeks when it takes much more in reality. I only recommend MonCal kits when I know someone isn't in a hurry to get their stuff, or values quality over how fast they're getting their kit. There are tons of variables and YMMV. (For example, I recommended SC armor to a gal who wants to join, because as a handler, I know from experience that MC biker kits are an absolute PITA if you're a size C cup or larger. I've fought the bund-armor gap with a couple ladies in our garrison. For myself, I ordered the MC because I'm small-chested and didn't feel like trimming an SC down to a woman's size so I don't get bruises on the insides of my arms.) Now, I haven't tried to talk to Cal yet about my latest problem yet, but I woke up this morning and discovered that my belt has yellowed. It has never been outside, I've always kept it my box-o-parts, and I'm not sure if the rest of the armor will follow suit. The quality on MC kits are historically above standard, but this is one of a few instances where I'm thinking the quality is declining. My friend has a MC TK that has all sorts of things wrong with it. Another friend got boots from him and they were falling apart after less than six months of trooping. I'm honestly a bit intimidated to try and get anything fixed, because I know how long it takes to get your stuff in the first place.

Been too long since I've been on, but I *have* been working! Put a good four or five coats on my lid, it still needs a couple of good coats before I can call the main coat done. Gotta work fast, though. The dome is starting to spread such that it's hard to close the faceplate over it. I also painted the snout, but didn't manage to get a picture of it. Woke up to a setback this morning, though. My belt has yellowed, and it's never seen the sun. :/ Pretty disheartening, and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about it. I can reverse the chemical reaction using retrobright and a UV lamp, but it'll only be a matter of time before the belt yellows again, especially under trooping conditions. I'm really hoping that the rest of the kit didn't get pulled from this batch of plastic, or else I'm going to have some serious issues. I just want to get this thing done. *Groan*

Thanks guys, I was trying to do it as four pieces before, instead of trying to sew them together first. Hopefully doing this will help. Out of curiosity, any tips on dealing with the fly on the pants? I don't want to sew the patch on such that it restricts how far the fly opens.

Trying to graft suede onto an already-assembled garment is proving more than I'm capable of. Before I tear my coveralls apart so I can get everything to lay flat and not crumple under the suede, is there anyone that is actually good at this that I can either a) send this to or b ) walk me through it? I've delved into all the tutorials I can find on here and nothing is working... (I'm basically trying to come up with a pattern/method using scrap fabric before I cut into and poke holes in my suede.)

I'm actually a lady who doesn't like the two-piece option. I practically de-kit when I go to the bathroom, anyway, so it kinda defeats the purpose, plus it drives me nuts when the shirt gets untucked or twisted around (as it inevitably does).

Thanks everyone! Gonna go ahead and put those little extra touches on my lid. ^-^