greenyone

Me too. In my desperation to avoid sewing them I tried Liquid Stitch and Fabric Fusion for velcro attachment points on my suit and webbing. Both products simply don't work on velcro (IMO they don't work very well on fabric to fabric either). My guess is that they are made to get into and penetrate the fibers of fabrics to create a decent bond... whereas the velcro usually has a smoother plastic backing of some sort that those adhesives just can't bite into. Oh, and both of those products take eons to dry.

I think the general consensus is a 6" tall, 5" wide by 2" thick pouch, with the face of the flap being 6" tall to be flush with the bottom of the pouch when closed.

These fit the standard xacto style blade holders. 5 for just over $5. https://www.amazon.com/OLFA-9166-KB4-F-Chisel-5-Pack/dp/B000BNXOOU/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=27OLCJ1W6GYF4&keywords=xacto+chisel+blade&qid=1569866467&sprefix=xacto+chi%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTFFWU0tGT0MzVVhJJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNDI0ODk1MURPRjdDS0hZWUY0UiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMDg4ODU2MjlRSFRMWFo1V1NBMiZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

A lot of helmets come with trim lines kinda molded into the plastic. I'd guess if yours does not you are going to have to improvise. Maybe put some painters tape along that edge and free-hand it in pencil...erase if necessary and repeat until it looks nice an uniform. Whatever you do, I'd prob cut on the outside of your line (leave a little extra plastic than you intend to have when finished), then slowly and carefully sand it down into the desired shape.

Welcome Kevin, I'd guess that Toronto falls under either the Capital City Garrison or Canadian Garrison. You should reach out to both and see exactly what demographics they each cover. Then you can make a decision based on your location to see which one you want your primary affiliation to be with. Once you have that figured out, they should be able to get you on their forums and such as an official recruit until you costume is approved.

Just my 2 cents. Bondo (or any body filler for that matter) are going to be the easiest to sand and shape, but I'd guess a 2 part plastic epoxy (similar to the one you pictured above) would be a stronger gap filler and be less prone to cracking when dry. Not to mention that stuff is specifically made to adhere to plastics. You can still use a thin coat of bondo to smooth things out though. If you can find the 2 part plastic epoxy in white it may make your life easier when it comes to paint coverage though.

Seeing how you'll have the boots apart for new holster, maybe you could pass the rivets through the anti-droop strap thing instead of sewing it.

Sounds like you may be unsure if it's an ABS part from SC. If that's correct...Is it possible it's a styrene holster from another builder? I ask because the thermoformed styrene parts seem to have a tendency to crack moreso than ABS.

Finally got around to posting this. 1st troop was a Make-A-Wish fundraiser.

IMO...Yes...Absolutely!!! It's probably best practice to have your armor on hand before making most of this stuff. You never know where plastic parts will sit/hang off your frame... and most of the soft part sizes seem dependent on that.

I drew mine on with a fabric marker. Makes a crisper line than chalk and the ink is a light blue that just washes away with a damp cloth when the sewing is complete. As far as the spacing goes, you may want to make the lines slightly more spaced apart than the specified 1 inch. Reason being, the padding/batting adds depth that can make the lines look too close after it's all sewn up. Another TB on here suggested in one of the threads here on the forum so I tested that concept with some scrap material and it turned out to be true after sewing and re-measuring. After doing the test I found with my fabric and batting I had to add 1/16th of an inch between the lines to get it to look like 1 inch ribs after it was all sewn up.

I don't think you have to sew them shut, but doing does a better job at hiding them. I sewed mine shut and cut out the inner pocket.

Ordered soft parts are always going to be fickle even when the materials and construction are of good quality. It's not what everyone wants to hear, but unless you either have an onsite taylor or made the stuff yourself, it's going to be difficult to have any of these parts fit your frame perfectly. Case in point, I bought an inexpensive sewing machine and after several attempts at each soft part finally got to a point where I was satisfied with the fitment and construction of each. The flak vest was a bit beyond my novice abilities (sleeves present a much bigger challenge than bunds, cods etc..) so I commissioned one from the popular Etsy seller based on the measurements he requested. It's of amazing quality and construction but the sleeves were still too long. I was able to make that altercation at home with my newfound basic sewing skills...but I can't imagine having to go through that with every single soft part let alone just 1 of them. With all that in mind, I'm in the "buy an inexpensive sewing machine and have a go at it" camp.

There is another smaller female TB builder that reached out to Studio Creations about a smaller sized armor kit. She had reached out to them and was told they were considering taking a set of molds and cutting them down for the smaller folks. Not sure if they ever did that but you can read about that here: Might be worth asking her or even contacting SC to see if it ever came to fruition.

I agree that the straps would sit against your hips a bit better if the slots were skewed a bit, but once you have it all together using the provided indents it seems to work out just fine. I did something similar to Corey's. except I opted to use 4 pieces of cut straps instead of 3 like his photo shows above. My thought process was that having the front straps split behind the front faux belt buckle (instead of folded over and sewn) would give me a little bit more adjustment with the strap angle then having them connected like his. In the end they seem to be at the same angle anyway though.

That's a good question as it's not specific in the CRL wording. The photos do show them square to the box indents though. If you are looking for lancer approval maybe one of the experts can chime in. If just looking for better fitment for a standard 501 approval...maybe run that by your garrison GML and see what he/she says about making that kind of altercation.

Greg, you should probably start a new Biker Scout WIP thread too so we can all follow your progress there.

Looks great. I like the glasses case belt clip solution. My GML was not satisfied with the light shade of gray of the SC hose out of the box. You may find the same with yours. If so this works good. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Krylon-COLORmaxx-Gloss-Classic-Gray-Spray-Paint-and-Primer-In-One-Actual-Net-Contents-12-oz/1000460333

"Do you have a spare piece of the patch? Maybe wash that with some other things and see how it holds up." This is the best suggestion I've heard on this subject. Not everyone has the same suit with the same leather or faux leather. TEST!!! Don't assume something that works for persons suit is going to work with yours.

It's a pretty snug fit with the molded foam insert now. I did glue a small black velcro strip along the trigger guard of the pistol and some corresponding white inside the holster too. Now I can slip the gun into the foam for a no-wobble fit and the velcro keeps it from lifting up and out. I did smear a bit of rubber cement between the foam and the plastic (once dried) to keep it from lifting out with the gun when drawing it from the holster. Here is a crappy video. https://photos.app.goo.gl/LXytLjNwVYf1Q5vW7 There is a guy in my garrison that has been making Inferno Squad and Tie Pilot kits for years (among other kits too). I think he only takes orders/commissions via his facebook page. Anyway he just put together molds for scout trooper kits based on Mr Poopies 3D-printable armor files. Meaning, he printed the armor and created molds from them for the purpose of thermo-forming ABS kits. He said for the holster, he used a scout blaster to get the sizing right and he plans on offering that rubber cast blaster as an optional accessory with his kit. It would be nice if all the armor makers would do the same. Once I see his kit in person and see how his blaster/holster fits... I may commission him for a new holster and matching gun If anyone is interested in his kit you can find him here: https://www.facebook.com/radu.plucinsky

A friend who has one of those new fangled resin 3D printers made me a pistol from a popular thingverse file. The resin print looks absolutely beautiful compared to a traditional filament printed part...however it does not fit well in my studio creations boot holster. It's pretty loose in there which leads me to believe it's either not accurate or just too small for that holster design. In brainstorming for a solution to make it fit in there snugly I came across this stuff. Foam molding clay. I'm trying to make this work in a non permanent way that can be reversed in the event that I upgrade to a better fitting pistol in the future. So I tightly wrapped the pistol in plastic food wrap (Saran Wrap) to try and bridge any of it's details that the foam would creep into. That seems to do an Ok job, but I followed up with stretchy electrical tape too. I don't want the foam to adhere to the inside of the holster either so I used some blue painters tape to line the inside surfaces of the holster. After that I grabbed a handful of the foam clay and packed it against the inner walls of the holster, the took my wrapped pistol and jammed it in there. The foam is super light weight. It's advertised as being like EVA foam once dried. (24-48 hr air dry time). It look a little massaging with wet fingers to pack it tightly around the pistol. A little more tape to keep things in place while it dries. I'm hoping the whole foam plug easily pulls out of the holster once dry as the foam does not really seem to have any adhesive quality to it. It says you can trim and sand the dried product too. If this works out I think I'll just use some silicone or rubber based cement to semi-permanently attach it to the inner walls of the holster. Fingers crossed.

I'm a fan of E6000. Great adhesive, but at the end of the day it's still an adhesive. That being said, all adhesives tend to fail over time. Especially in high stress areas like a smooth plastic belt. My 2 cents: I work a a lot with styrene variants of plastic. Mostly ABS and HIPS. Assuming that belt is ABS (which seems to be the most popular armor material), my suggestion would be to solvent weld those pieces together rather than gluing them. Same goes for the rivet holes. You could tape up those holes on the backside of the belt and fill in the holes with a mixture of solvent (acetone) and small scraps of ABS in a glass jar to form a thick white melted plastic slurry. Then just drop it in the rivet holes, give it a day to completely harden up and sand it flat. You'd never know it was repaired and you'd have a ABS to ABS welded repair rather than a glued and puttied one that will probably form cracks or separate over time.

If you don't want to mess with the alterations you can just order a replacement belt from SC. $67.00 (+shipping/tax). They are pre-trimmed, so you just drill the two holes for the rivets and you're done. https://www.studiocreations.com/howto/bikerscout/forsale_bike_replacementparts.html

You should move your photos over to Flickr. They seem to allow more free space than Photobucket. It looks like you are suffering from the 1 piece under-suit crotch sag. This seems inherent these type of flight suits, coveralls etc.... The extra material in that area makes it easy to get the whole shebang up over your shoulders but does not lend itself well to a form fitting under-suit. I fought with this too. Not an easy modification, but I actually separated the my RedKap suit at the waist and look out that extra material. Basically the sewing version of hiking up your pants. The zipper makes this a real fiddley job, but a taylor or seamstress that knows their way around a sewing machine should have to problem with that alternation. The downside to this is that it's now more difficult to pull up over your shoulders when suiting up. It's do-able though. You kinda gotta wiggle the suit up over one shoulder at a time to get in it. Best of luck.

I don't have a WTF helmet, but if it's of ABS construction this method shouldl work the same. I used the popular Hobart shield. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VECKRO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Really nice shade of darkness with excellent optical clarity but It's really really stiff plastic. I had concerns with hot glue not being able to hold it when bent/curved into the back of the face. I took some scrap .125" thick ABS sheet plastic, solvent welded three small pieces together to make it .375 thick. Then used a file/dremel/sandpaper (whatever you got) to shape it in a way that fits nicely on either side of the eye hole. Then solvent welded them in place, offered up my lens and drilled some small shallow holes in both. After that it was just screwing it in place with some small .25 length wood screws and washers. I cut out 2 lenses from the Hobart shield and keep the spare in my trooper box. Easy swap if/when the lens gets scratched up.