greenyone

The MC helmet came with the eye lens that I found to be useless. Similarly the SC armor kit came with 2" elastic webbing for the chest/back underarm connection. I really appreciate that these vendors attempt to include as much as possible to complete these kits however I think this is another one of those useless parts. The provided slots are barely over an inch. I carefully opened them up to 1.5" but even at that size this 2" strap looks pretty bad stuffed in there. Maybe SC has yet to revisit their parts inclusions from previous versions of the kit. I guess 1.5 elastic is on my shopping list now too.

Yes, that's a scary proposition for something that you could easily screw up and cost's hundreds of dollars. Maybe you could reach out to Jeff and ask him if that is something he'd be willing to do during the trimming process. That and not cutting the strap slots (which are pre-slotted as part of the kit now)

Samantha, I just received one of the 'updated' kits from Jeff at SC. I'm not a big guy at 5'8"-155 and this kit seems to be fine for me, however..some things to consider. I believe part of the update to the SC kit is the addition of the strap recesses/indentations in the chest/back armor. This could possibly cause you some issues if find that you'd need to trim the area where the front & back meet at the sides at your rib-cage to accomodate your size. If you read through this WIP (albeit a bit dated) you can see how this scout was able to adjust the chest/back for his body type with the previous version of the SC kit. The current/updated SC kit looks like (see link below) this and may be more difficult to trim and re-slot for the straps. https://www.studiocreations.com/howto/bikerscout/thechestback.html I"m not familiar enough with all of the kits to make a recommendation, but perhaps you should reach out to some of the smaller female scouts on here and get their opinion.

Yup. Appreciate it. I'm a charity event guy. So lancer stature doesn't do much for me at this point.

Thanks Corey, I realize that but I'm not looking for Lancer. Just a nice looking and hopefully durable costume for basic approval.

The instructions that come with the SC armor kit call for a "T-Strap' to connect the front/back & shoulder using 1.5" velcro. I see a lot of TB's use the zip-tie method for hanging the shoulder bell. I may ultimately do that at some point, but since the SC armor included strips of velcro I'm going to do that for now. Making the 'T-Strap' is simple but I need to find a way to make the strip to cover the gap where the 2 halves meet. Here is my take on it. Taking some of the same white cotton I used for my pouches (plain ol' Lipton tea dyed just a bit) I made a little loop, sewed one end to the 'T-strap' and on the other end put corresponding hooks & loops on the underside of the strap and loop. This all goes together and comes apart very easily.

Sent a photo to my GML and he said make the hose/tube darker. I look it apart and sprayed it with a Krylon Medium Gray. Think this is in the ball park?

Video of my springy end caps. https://photos.app.goo.gl/govwELr91UbyFrna9

Finishing up the TD. Bungee end-cap success, greeblies glued on and zip tie well....zipped. I had previously bought these black holster clips from amazon to allow the TD to be easily removed from my belt. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MR3CQCC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 After a little bending to better conform to the TD hose I riveted them on. Some scrap plastic on the inside of the hose combined with some small washers should keep the rivets from pulling through.

You know the saying "the squeaky wheel gets the grease"? Well I was that squeaky wheel with Jeff. Have you reached out to him to get an ETA on your kit?

I've seen a lot of solutions here on the forum for attaching the end caps to the thermal detonator tube. I'll add my take. I cut out some ABS disks, put a small threaded eyelet in the center and solvent welded them to the end caps. This small bungee cord will pass through the tube pulling them tight...and hopefully provide some give and snap back into place when/if they get snagged on something while trooping.

I think I ordered mid May.

The SC kit comes with stickers for things like the red detail on the tank greeblie and the white button. The button decal is quite a bit larger than the recessed button and I gave up on drying to trim it perfectly to fit in there. Then I tried some acrylic paint which looked a bit too much like it was brushed on. I have some clear resin/epoxy for doing resin inlays on CNC engraved signs. Mixed up a little of that with some white coloring and put a few drops in the greeblie. This stuff is self leveling. So takes the guess work out of it.

Starting with the easy stuff. Cutting a few pieces of self-stick velcro and attaching some greeblies with E6000. I always rough up the surface of smooth plastic before applying the adhesive. Gives it a little more bite...and some tape to hold it in place while it dries.

The long wait is over. My SC armor kit showed up today. Time to get to work.

Probably your best bet. Like Sibbel suggested, split it in the middle to remove some material. I'd probably add a support piece of ABS to the underside of the cut/seam. If you can source some 1mm thick ABS sheet it should make for an easy fix. Not sure if it's available to you in Holland, but I work a lot with styrene variants of plastic and I prefer solvent welding over glues and epoxies. I use products from Sci-grip. Sci-Grip #3 will solvent weld ABS to ABS for a permanent bond. Then you can hide the seam with some filler and sanding.

Not familiar with that helmet but... Have you mocked up all the helmet components? I'd suggest temporarily taping the face, visor and bucket together to get a better idea of what needs adjusted. You may find that the face plate needs pulled wider to fit the bucket or you may find that your visor is just too wide. If it's the latter and that is typical of the KS kit you may have to shrink the visor width. (which would probably take some ingenuity) But again...hard to say without all 3 major components fit together.

I've never paid that much attention to these details on others scout costumes...but now that I'm working on one of my own I would say that most kits I've seen seem have that 'flaw' to some degree. That being said...I doubt it would be an issue for approval. I'm guessing that area is just difficult to get perfect with the vacu-forming process.

I struggled with this also. I read that Barge contact cement is probably the strongest, but it's a contact cement....so very little wiggle room for re-positioning if you mess up. As others have said, ShoeGoo and E6000 are probably very closely comparable. I used E6000 myself on the recommendation of other TB's in my garrison that have years of trooping having used it on their boots. You just have to be patient and give it time to dry.

I've done quite a bit of droid building using HIPS. My suggestion would be to stay clear of epoxies, glues and fiberglass to make repairs on HIPS styrene. They all seem to eventually separate from the HIPS. I'd use a product called SciGrip #3 to solvent weld the cracks back together. Probably by using a small hobby paint brush to get it onto the cracks. Work quickly and hold the cracked pieces together for a few minutes for the bond to be made... Then after that sets up for a couple of hours I'd go back and make some reinforcement patches from thin HIPS styrene. Maybe 1.5mm / 1/16" thickness to go behind the cracks in the armor. You can try and heat it up (heat gun) and make it conform to the contours of the back-side of the armor piece being repaired. Once you have a nice fitting reinforcement patch, solvent weld it all into place using more of the Sci-Grip #3. Go easy on the SciGrip solvent. It's thin like water. So it will run everywhere and distort HIPS if you use to much or get it in places you did not intend to. Just a few drops behind the patch then figure a way to clamp it down for an hour or so. Once it's set you can go back and brush more of the solvent on the seams to get an even better solvent weld. https://www.amazon.com/Evergreen-Polystyrene-Plate-Set-White/dp/B0006O5IBG/ref=sr_1_19?keywords=1.5+mm+styrene&qid=1559506085&s=gateway&sr=8-19 https://www.amazon.com/Weld-Acrylic-Plastic-Cement-Applicator/dp/B0149IG548/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=scigrip+3&qid=1559506548&s=gateway&sr=8-3

It's fine for both bund and pouches if you are just going for basic 501st approval. However I believe Lancer status requires the pouches be made of natural duck cloth.

I have several pairs of USN issued coveralls. Mine were issued in the 90's and early 2000's. Assuming they have not changed since then, they are considerably thinner than the RedKap ones. They dye really well with "Rit Dye More" fabric dye. I documented that in my WIP.

Yes...And seeing how most of the seams are hidden inside the pouch (sew it together and then turn it inside out) your guidance marks will be on the inside of the pouch where they will never be seen. So don't fret about using something that won't wipe or wash off easily. I started with a mechanical pencil filled with a product for fabric marking...but could barely see the lines. I guess that product just does not transfer well. I ended up just putting regular pencil lead in the same .9mm mechanical drafting pencil. Worked great. Nice sharp crisp lines to ease in the sewing and crease ironing process.

Hmmm. I Had not planned on making them to sell. Prob have to charge $40 to make it worth my time. Could be much cheaper, but I don't buy plastic in large quantities at bulk prices....and I don't see a big demand for something like this to justify a bulk order of ABS sheets. (my supplier kills you with freight charges on 4x8 sheets unless you have a large $$$ order) Personally...if I were in your shoes I'd just grab a ruler and carefully mark out the fabric using the dimensions at the top of this thread. My plastic templates would probably only be worthwhile to someone like a vendor who plans to make and sell a lot of pouches and wants a quick way to mark up fabric.

Yes. But those were left over from the failed attempt at using the padding. They serve no purpose anymore.