indylead

I had things far enough along to check the over-all fit and position of the armour, cummerbund and belt. What I am interested in for feedback is the belt / cummerbund positions - once I haev this right I'll size the pouches. Known issues - arm piece locations, back armour piece, TD, various greeblies, boots!, riding patches and flap (made, just not attached yet), posture and beergut

OK, no posts in a while partly due to holiday and a 2000km trip by motorbike and partly due to no real visible progress (buts lots of sewing of velcro to elastic...) On return from holiday I had a large pile of boxes to open... I'm 37. I was like a kid on Christmas morning. Especially as I knew that big one was going to be... My bucket! Not sure if I can name names here, but I've already thanked the sender concerned for spotting this in a barn sale and sending it on So...ahem...OBVIOUSLY I had to try the bucket on to make sure it fitted. Next up ... Another great item - just as I wanted. Again, thanks to you -know-who-you-are. Cummerbund: This was made using the pattern kicking around on this forum. I made mine 11" top to bottom, with the vertical stitches 1" apart. This shows the inside with the stud fasteners for the codpiece. Velcro around the top to attached to undersuit, velcro on outside to attach to chest armour and pouches, and velcro up the back (with decorative stitching). This was my first 'big' sewn part of the project, and I'm happy to say it came out fairly well. I was afraid it might have been an inch or two short but a preliminary check seemed to suggest it was spot-on. I'll need to finish the belt properly for a size check. The codpiece was also took a bit of time to get right. I used pandatrooper's idea of embedding some plastic to keep things tidy, and again was fairly pleased with how it turned out. I ended up using the stud fasteners as I was unable to sew the thickness of material (the hems were in the way). Still so much to do, but enjoying the challenge and learning some new skills. Any comments or constructive criticism welcome!

First to arrive was a large box from SC. They had been great answering a few questions and keeping me fully up to date on progress of the order. Everything looked well-packed... ...and everything was present and correct. Thanks, SC Any screw-ups now are down to me. I checked the armour over, and only had to do some light sanding. Shoulder pads: As per Pandatrooper's build thread comments, I rounded off the corners of the shoulder pads (although I didn't angle them off in the same way). Then I added the hook velcro read for the connecting straps. Not a great glue job - since I was still trying to source E6000, one of these was epoxy, the other hot glue as I tried out options. For the knees, forearm and bicep armour I added the main elastic strap. These are simply the appropriate size elastic with loop velcro stitched to it. A comment about the SC forearm armour - the design seems to have been changed since pandatrooper's build, and now is much flatter on the lower edge. Undersuit: This started off as a Dickies coveralls. I removed all the external pockets then sewed up the thigh pocket and hole (to reach internal trousers). I used one of the pockets to make the mandarin collar. This is sewn on oneside, and velcroed on the other. I also folded down the top third of the collar itself, as it felt too high.

OK, so here goes nothing...I finally feel I have enough together to seek comments/feedback/encouragement on my build. I ordered pretty much everything with a lead-time a couple of months ago after my trip to Seattle (Shout out to anyone from Garrison Titan - a great bunch of guys and girls who made me feel very welcome and answered all sorts of idiot questions) Armour - SC - received and assembled Helmet - Altman - received Gloves - WW - received Undersuit - Dickies - received Cummerbund - done! Pouches - done! Boots - done! Blaster - VH - received Balaclava - Underarmour - received Approved and reporting in as TB-22512!

No problems with the speed of Jeff replying to questions, that's for sure! Will comment on the armour once it arrives