wegotdeathstar

Holster is trimmed and attached to the boot. I decided to rivet the side part of the holster. Here's a shot of the washers I printed in PETG: Helmet starts next! It's all coming together.

Thanks, @Chopper. I'll trim down the holster and pick up some Oatey cement from Ace. Thanks also for the reminder, @Aradun. I was thinking about 3d printing some nice circles with black PETG to blend with the boot liner. I appreciate your help, as always!

Working on my holster now. I have a couple of questions for the armorers. First: my holster seems to be quite large relative to the size of my boot. See here: I'm considering shaving off ~3cm from the top, 2cm from the bottom, and another 2cm from the front and back (combined) to give it a smaller shape similar to this photo so that it fits my boot a bit better. Do my markings look correct or do you have other suggestions? Second: are there any issues with riveting the front part of the holster from the back side of the holster (the part touching the boot)? I'm not sure how I'd get my riveting gun in there otherwise. Thanks for your help! I really appreciate the advice.

Perfect. Thanks for the info.

Right on. Thanks!

Thanks, @Aradun! I appreciate the help. One small question, do you recall what thickness foam pad you used for the cod? Would 3mm provide the right amount of structure? Thanks again!

Thanks, @Chopper. I'm planning on tackling the holster next. I've got boots from Crowprops and was planning on using a backing washer for the rivets. Should I also use a plastic backer on the inside of the boot similar to the belt? Thanks!

Finished the belt today. I still need to do a pass with fine grit sandpaper over the edges. I was pretty excited to finish the belt and decided to try on everything that I have: Note: I'm wearing my old 3d printed helmet by SurfinBird There's a lot of fit issues to take care of, but pretty dang fun to put it all on. Still to do: • Holster • Butt flap • Cod (searching forums for a tutorial now) • Flak vest (wife surprised me with a vest from KriptonTop) • Helmet • Add hook and loop to the suit and armor for secure placement

Sounds good, thank you!

A couple questions for armorers regarding the belt and dropboxes: Should I be trimming the belt to line up with the boxes? (Pink line for reference) Also, should I trim off this "lip" on top of my dropboxes? Thanks, all!

Finished up the TD. Made a cummerbund following the pinned tutorial. Very straightforward! Definitely follow the advice and measure, measure, measure! I also received my helmet kit from MonCal/Far Away Creations! Very excited to start on this after finishing up the rest of the suit. The kit looks very well made. Belt up next!

Chest and back armor and the shoulder bells are nearly complete. Just need to add the white circle to the tank and paint the grey bar on the chest. The shoulder bells also need straps, but I want to wait until I have the vest done to get the right fit. I created hook and loop sandwiches to attach the chest and back armor. Started with two loop pieces with sticky backs: Attached a single hook piece with a sticky back: Attached a black loop piece with a sticky back of equal length. I also 3d printed some anchors with sticky hook pieces: For the bridges, I used Panda's technique and it worked well. Started with 1" canvas slightly less than 2x the width of the shoulder. Joined these with 2cm of elastic: Cut small holes in the elastic: I slipped the bridges on after attaching the hook and loop sandwiches: Final result: TD and belt are up next!

Well, my first attempt at a vest didn't quite work out. The neck ended up being way too wide and the shoulders wouldn't lay flat. In hindsight, I wish I had waited to alter the neckline on my actual vest and not the prototype. I ended up cutting off too much from the pattern. Unfortunately, I don't have enough material or a pattern to make another run at it. I do think the pattern I bought would have worked fine, though. Lessons learned! I did buy a heavyweight black t-shirt and will make another run at making a vest using this tutorial. A bit of good news, though! My boots from Crowprops came in and they are absolutely outstanding. Extremely comfortable and fit really well. I also finished tailoring and adding the riding patches and thigh straps to my flight suit. I still need to attach the butt flap. Next I'm planning on assembling the chest and back armor and the shoulder bells.

Thanks for the info @Aradun and @Chopper! I'll alter my pattern a bit around the neck until I get the chest/back armor on and the modify the neckline from there.

Hi, all. I've been working on creating my vest and wanted to share my process. This is the first time I've ever sewn something from a real pattern and I am positive there are much better methods out there. I think I got to a good place in the end, though. I honestly have no clue if this pattern will work for a vest or not. I figure if it doesn't turn out I can look into purchasing or making another. I started by purchasing some cheap muslin cloth from JoAnn's for a prototype. I think it was $5 a yard. I then purchased this pattern kit (also from JoAnns) for a raglan shirt. I chose to make option A because it had shorter arms. I neglected to take any photos, but here were my next steps: Cut out the patterns. I used the XL pattern because you can always go smaller. Overlay the patterns on the muslin fabric and cut those out. I added 1" to the pattern for the back of the shirt along the fold. This would result in 2" added total for the velcro. Sew the sleeves to the front of the shirt and then the back Sew the sides and sleeves. The pattern kit has a helpful video to walk you through the basic steps. Here is the final result: My next step was to modify the shirt to better resemble the shape of a vest. I started by cutting the neckline to a shape that sort of mirrored the shape of the armor. I took 10 inches off the bottom of the shirt to make it more of a vest. I didn't go too wild with this because I wanted to make the final adjustments on the real vest and this will save some fabric. Again, I can always go smaller. Here's the cut lines for the neckline and trim mods: I then disassembled the shirt with a seam ripper and laid the pieces over their respective patterns. I took a marker and traced my new pattern. I cut along the newly traced line and have updated patterns for my vest. I'll be working on creating a real vest using my updated templates next.

Tank is attached to the back piece. Still need to get out my wife's Cricut and cut out the small white circle for the tank topper. I also dyed my pouches. Hot water and 5 black tea bags soaked for 1 minute. They look darker in the photos than in person. Almost done with my vest prototype and will post that soon. Pouch on some white muslin fabric.

Thanks, @Chopper. I stopped at Ace on my way to get groceries. I think this washer is a much better fit.

Currently in progress: Attaching tank to back piece Dye straps, pouches Mocking up flak vest with muslin before trimming shoulders on armor Quick question: I've had the hardest time finding the right size washer for the top of the tank. Does the outer diameter of this look too big? Thanks for the help!

Another Michigan trooper! Really great job on your blaster and boot.

Good to know! I shaved a bit more off the tank, but would need to trim quite a bit more off for the bottom to be flush. It's not noticeable at all when looking at it directly. I've approximated the spot for the rivet with an X on the bottom of the tank. How's the placement?

Right on, thanks @Retrofire! I think I'll try closing the gap by another 3-4 mm if I can do so cleanly. After that I'll install the rivet with elastic and washer before attaching the tank at the top of the back piece. Am I understanding correctly that I should glue the bottom of the tank to the back piece? Thanks for your help!

Thanks, @Chopper. I need to redo the back pattern. I'm having the hardest time making the right shape. I've started working on my tank and fitting it to my back piece. I know it's okay for there to be gaps, but I would like it a little more flush. I have two questions: 1. For Studio Creations armor, is the bottom of the tank supposed to sit flush on the bottom "hump" and a rivet goes through both? I can provide further clarification if needed. 2. Sort of depends on the answer to the first question, but I'm wondering if I should attempt to close the gap for the bottom of the tank. It's about 7mm from the edge here. Thanks!

Drawing a rough pattern for the riding patches. I'm thinking the curve towards the bottom should be a little more gradual. Thoughts? Still need to tailor the arms a bit. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome. Glad to hear it's holding up!

Been chipping away at some armor pieces over the last few days. Hoping to do a decent job documenting for future scouts to follow along. Upper arm armor The sides felt a bit flimsy and so I added some 3cm x 6cm ABS scraps to reinforce this area. It added a bit of rigidity and I was happy with the result. I glued these on with gorilla glue and clamped for a couple minutes. I attached adhesive loop to the inside of the armor and then stitched black hook to 2" elastic. Forearm armor This was pretty straightforward. Cut holes, attached adhesive white loop to the armor and sewed black hook to the 1" elastic. Knee armor Same deal here. Adhesive white loop inside the armor and black hook sewn to the 3/4" elastic. Question for armorers: I approximated the location for the optional upper strap based on this photo. It's approximately 15mm from the top groove and 10mm from the outer edge. Does this look right? X marks the spot