StoutScout

I feel your pain brother! I've been ready to go since August, but alas still no helmet (ordered 7/7). The waiting is the hardest part...

I just used a pair of scissors and cut the leather loop off that was holding the clip. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

I used Testors 1238 Gloss Gray Spray Enamel on mine. The color is great, but the results have been just ok. I've had to do several touch-ups due to paint coming off in spots. Perhaps I should have used a primer first?

I second the Imgur suggestion as well as the advice on the length of your cummerbund. I also feel that your shoulder bells might be a bit too low, I cannot see your flak vest.

Congrats! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Glad you are finding this helpful. I really didn't have to do any modifications to the SC armor. The only parts where my smaller stature really came into play was with the flight suit and the boots. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

That is an awesome approach Inklegg! Thank for sharing. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Most use sticky hook velcro on the armor and sew loop velcro to the elastic. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

This past weekend I attended an armor party and had a blast. While there I got some good tips on how to finish off my flight suit, the dreaded riding patch and butt flap. Try as we might we could not get the sewing machine to work, so after about three and a half hours of wonderful hand sewing I finished attaching the riding patches: The butt-flap is cut and ready to go. Here it is pinned in place (it will be hand sewn tonight): Finally I got my Wampa Wear gloves in the mail last Thursday. Amazing quality and amazing turnaround! Hats off to them: I just have a couple of minor tweaks to make and need to get my helmet shipped to me (should be here really soon!!!) and I'll be posting my pre-approval pics!

Welcome! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

I finished the Flakk vest tonight. As promised I snapped some pictures of the process I followed to create the sleeves and complete the vest. For the sleeves, first turn the shirt inside out and take a seam ripper to remove the sleeve: Once all of the seams on the sleeve are removed I laid it flat along the bottom of the shirt, taped it to hold it in place and cut out a copy of it: I doubled up the 1/4" batting that I had and cut it out in the same shape as the sleeve: I then created the "sleeve sandwich", pinned it, then sewed it together along the perimeter: Next I marked lines (1" apart) to use as a guide to sew the details into the sleeve: After the lines were sewn, I recreated the original circular form of the sleeve by sewing the ends together (make sure to do this with the sleeve "inside out"): Now with the sleeve still inside out, place it in the inside out shirt but don't pull it through (if that makes any sense...). Pin it into place: Sew it onto the shirt: At this point I turned the shirt right-side out, cut out the neck a bit, cut it up the back and sewed velcro on either side. Back side: Front side: Now all I have left to do is the riding patch, butt-flap, add velcro to the flight suit, and then play the waiting game for my helmet and gloves which should be here in the next week or so!

Tonight was a milestone of sorts. I attached the holster to the boot, which means, barring any unforeseen issue or a minor tweak here and there, I am done working on my hard armor! After I finished off the boot, I started right in to working on the last of my soft armor parts, the Flakk vest. I've been intimidated by this piece as well even with the the great tutorial on here. But there was no more putting it off, I dove in and am happy with my results so far: One sleeve is complete! Hopefully tomorrow I'll get at the other and complete the vest. I'll take detailed pictures while I work on the next sleeve and post them once it's finished.

Way to go! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

I took Mickey's suggestion and shortened he cummerbund (by completely re-doing it!). I'm happy with the result of the new bund (new one on the right compared with the old one): Next I worked on the lancer knee straps. First up was gluing some extra ABS supports into place: After the glue dried I gathered the tools necessary for the job: I cut a length of elastic and taped it into place. Masking tape has been the unsung hero of my build! I left the elastic taped in place, held it firmly against a scrap piece of wood and slowly drilled into the knee armor using a 1/8" bit: Here is the resulting hole: I removed the tape and slipped a 1/8" rivet and backing washer into place: Took the rivet gun to it: The completed rivet from the outside: ...and inside view: Final step for lancer was to paint the rivets white: UPDATE: The new Lancer specifications changed the need to paint the rivets white. THEY NEED TO BE KEPT SILVER

Yeah my clips are more for decoration than functionality. While the will hook the TD onto the belt, I have little faith they will keep it in place. The magnets provide a system that keeps the TD firmly in place but also allow for easy removal when necessary. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

The Tools Needed thread has a bunch of good info scattered around in it. http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?/topic/15234-Tools-needed-list Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Belt Time! I honestly think I was most intimidated by this piece. My goal was to again follow Pandatrooper's method of taking the heat gun to the plastic, bending it and created a tab to glue the belt together. I just made sure to take my time with it and am very happy with the results. First thing was to cut slits in the belt and side boxes and glue in some snaps: Next was the creating of the tabs. Cutting the plastic, taking the heat gun to it, bending it and finally gluing them in place: Once that was dry I installed sticky back velcro into the boxes (so I could play around with fitting it), sewed velcro on the belt straps, and added snaps to the front and backsides of the side box webbing. In this picture you can see the snaps on the backside: In this next picture you can see how I sewed in the magnetic washers for the TD to connect to: Here the TD is attached and you can see the rivets installed as well (washer backed of course!) And finally the obligatory "holy sh*t this actually holds!" picture: Next up is adding the extra "Lancer" strap and rivets to the knees as well as some re-work on the cummerbund...

As promised, lots of work on the TD and belt this weekend. TD post first: I've been doing my best to follow Pandatrooper's build taking many of his ideas and attempting them with my build. I have found out that I am no Pandatrooper! This included making my own clips, installing magnets, and reinforcing the end caps. I'll start with the latter since it worked out the best: I found these cheap $2 closet pole end caps at Home Depot and they seemed perfect! I trimmed them down a bit and glued them onto the TD end caps: They pushed into the end of the TD tubing perfectly and held tight even without glue. I of course did glue them in place as you will see in pictures that follow. I wanted to attempt the strong magnet connection to from the TD to the belt similar as Panda did, I bought a set of magnets from Home Depot for about $10 and installed them. This was a real pain in the rear to do... (you can also see here that I have painted the SC provided tube a darker grey) Next up the clips. I bought some $3 sheets of aluminum at Hobby Lobby and went after them with my Dremel tool. The cuts aren't perfect, but in the end worked out ok... (the piece on the right is what the magnets from the previous section were riveted to) The clips were bent, painted black, and screwed into place on the TD tube: Here you can see the screw with the nut inside the tube: The caps were glued on and the back part of the TD attached: Back view: Front view: ***************************************************************************** UPDATE: I decided to redo my TD a couple of months after posting this thread. Check out the updated TD post here *****************************************************************************

For those following along I decided to trim down the elastic to fit into the chest/back slots, it works well for now though I'll probably move to webbing later on. Since my last post I started to have some fun with E6000: Bicep greeblies glued: Tank greeble glued: Tank decals applied, attached to back, shoulder bell T-straps created, shoulder gap loop created: Next up is TD and belt...

I'm getting ready to start on my belt and had the exact questions. I just want to verify that by doing the "continuous loop" method it basically makes the parachute clips functional in decoration only, i.e. unclipping them does not separate the boxes from the belt. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

I started working on my hard armor this week by rounding off the sharp corners, sanding down the sharp edges and working on the elastic strapping which is mostly complete now: I do have a question about working with the white elastic that attaches between the chest and back armor. Basically the armor (SC) arrived with the slits cut in both the chest and back, but the slits aren't as wide as the white elastic provided with the kit. The slits are about 1 3/8" while the elastic is around 1 7/8" as you can see in the following pictures. I couldn't find anywhere in the CRL or the Lancer specs that specified the width of the white elastic. So my question is, should I go ahead and just take the dremel to the slits and widen them, or would that make them too wide? Or should I just trim up the elastic to fit into the existing slits? As you can see I can fold the elastic in to make it fit, but this isn't ideal for putting the armor on.

Yesterday was BBB day!! This is an SC kit and it looks great! Hoping to get some feedback on the TD tube color. Having read through Retrofire's build thread who also uses this kit it seems to me that the TD tube needs to be a little darker? Any specific shade suggestion (no fifty shades of gray jokes please! ) Also looking for recommendations on what piece to start with first. Thanks!

Thanks for the great advice! I should be able to trim the bund down a bit without too much trouble, but won't do so until I get the armor and belt as you suggested.

This week I finished off the cummerbund and pouches. The pouches are just pinned in place so they are crooked and probably a little too high. I still don’t have my hard armor yet so it’s hard to judge exactly where they need to go: Here is the finished codpiece. I used a 1cm thick stabilizing foam and buckram for structure. I am very happy with how it turned out: The finished pouch. It took a couple of iterations but I’m really happy with how they turned out. I scaled them down by about 10% to fit my body size: I had a little fun with the boxes for the inside of the pouches. I used foam board and Star Wars Duct Tape to create them:

I used that stabilizer as well and it worked great! I also added a layer of buckram for added structure.