scout.trooper Posted June 16, 2014 Author Share Posted June 16, 2014 Whew! Been a while since posting but busy busy! Solved my tank-attachment issue by going to the local hardware store and showing one of the employees what I wanted to do. As soon as I pulled the scout back plate out of the bag, he asked "Is this for a stormtrooper?" I said, "Scout trooper, but yeah." He was more than happy to help! I was going for a nut and bolt solution, but he said he had a better idea and brought me a screw used for electrical components with an oval top (see below) It fits like a dream! The only downside is that I get a little gap between the tank and the back plate. Even though there's a gap near the bottom, the top is right up against the back plate like it should be. Put a rubber washer (found in the plumbing aisle, not the screw aisle... who knew?!) on the inside to prevent the plastic from cracking. After all that, I did my first riveting job (with some help!) to attach the rest of the tank to the back plate. Completed the duck cloth covers for the shoulders. Had to do this several times as I just couldn’t get the right size down. So, several attempts later, I finally made a pair I was happy with. Hand sewed both of them and the elastic holding them together. Decided on Velcro to hold the front and back plates together, so I started by sewing “knots†for the slots on the inside of the back plate. That way, I’ll only have to worry about detaching the Velcro from the front side instead of the back to get out. These knots are just the elastic folded over 4 times and sewn together. Hand sewing that much elastic really isn’t as hard as it seems… as long as you push your needle in between the rubber strands (instead of through them, which causes a lot of resistance), then its easy going. Hand sewn with love. I’m getting better at stitching! (I cook too, fellas! ) Finally, I attached white Velcro to the inside of the front chest plate (had to cut around the grey sticker indent). Then hand sewed on the opposite Velcro to the elastic and sewed an “X†down the middle for good measure. (Yes, I’m wearing a band-aid because I stuck myself with the needle real good… don’t judge ) That’s all for now… plan to tackle some flight suit mod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin-X Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 Nice progress update! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted June 18, 2014 Author Share Posted June 18, 2014 Finally starting on sewing the flak vest now. Ripped the sleeves off and laid them out, then cut a duplicate out of the left over material I had from the shirt. I drew my lines to be sewed. My bund has approx. 1" lines so that's what I made these (drew the lines with chalk). Waiting for the use of the sewing machine... Thanks to Thing's instructions, I started the sammich with the batting in the middle. I think I found someone with a pants tailoring machine who is willing to help me sew the suede patch on to my flight suit. I did a mock-up of the patch with paper as shown below, but I realized that it's a bit too small. Without bund With bund Really, what I was trying to measure was where the black elastic straps go underneath the riding patch. All the research I did on the forum says that the elastic straps should be half way between the belt and the knees. Here's a pic of the new mock-up I drew on the flight suit with chalk (just imagine the belt where the bottom of the bund ends) Can anyone give me any feedback as to how the legth looks? Straps too high or low? Patch too big? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted June 20, 2014 Author Share Posted June 20, 2014 I'm tentative before continuing with the belt... Problem 1) I'm in the process of losing a lot of weight so I want to construct the belt so it can be tightened Problem 2) Ever since the velcro has been separating from my arm/knee armor, I don't trust it I think I have an interesting solution. I have this belt that I've used for years and is easily adjustable without coming loose. I would like your feedback to see if I can use it or not. Here's a pic with the belt that my kit came with and my belt below it (it's white-ish in real life... the pic makes it look kinda green): Here's the kit belt: And here's my belt: Here's my belt with the drop box belt: THe costuming standard for the belt is: "The rest of the belt that fastens at the back of the waist is made out a textile material." Does specify what size or if minor ribbing is okay. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnigmaEngine Posted June 20, 2014 Share Posted June 20, 2014 Since I was too large for the amount of material provided by SC for the back of the belt, I picked up some white canvas and interfacing, and my dear mother sewed up one to my measurements. It has a little ribbing for added strength, but it's only two relatively subtle lines. To my eyes, the material you've got is fine. But isn't it supposed to be 2" wide? It looks kind of slim. Just my two cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 Yeah, you're right, Enigma... need that 2" width. Well, easy way to fix that is to just cut up the original belt, pull out the clips, then attach them to the 2" belt that came with the kit. On the left side of the belt, I'm going to sew velcro on the inside so that when I size it, it'll stay put. Here's a pic on the placing of the velcro. Now I had a big problem with the curve of the plastic part of the belt... it was way too straight and very stiff that I worried once I put the rivets in, the stress would pull them out of the holes and the belt would fall apart. My solution to this was to get a garbage can rubber band, wrap it around the belt to curve how I wanted it to, then throw it in a hot car for 30 minutes at a time while checking the curve each time (and to make sure the belt didn't melt!). After about 3 hours total time in the car and allowing it to cool in the position seen above, I pulled the rubber band off and the curve stayed where it was! YAY! Now to take some stress off the rivets, I've added velcro to 4 points inside the belt with corresponding velcro to be sewn to the belt fabric (it's hard to see in this pic, so I added dashed lines to show where the velcro is). More sewing to come. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted August 4, 2014 Author Share Posted August 4, 2014 No updates for a while because I've been hard at work on the scout. Because of this, it's going to be a doozy of a post! Made some new greeblies and glued them on: Finished up the belt. Attached the drop boxes by doing the snap button/velcro combo with a rivet down the middle for good measure. I then sewed the button snap/velcro to the drop box straps. It's on there pretty damn good. I did it this way because if I have to resize the belt later (which is what I based the whole belt design on), I can always stitch-rip the seams and re-sew them on. Due to my epic clip failure (ie. tried to drill thru the steel clips, broke the drill bit which almost ended up in my forearm), I decided to use my newfound snap buttoning abilities to sew some clips for the belt and det pack with some leftover belting: Made my anti-camel toe attachment by following Aeruk's post. Instead of sewing the snaps to the craft foam (because I thought it would rip), I used some leftover fabric to make a cover for the foam and sewed the snaps to the fabric. It looks like a Dr. Scholl's insert... "Dr. Scout's... Are you toe-in'?" Before: After: Trying to revive my fav pair of boots by turning the black soles into tan for trooping. Used Plasti-dip spray paint on the soles after covering the boot with a paper mask. In the process of attaching the vinyl. Was going to finish it today but it was super cloudy and didn't get that hot. Was pleasantly surprised to find out that I no longer need to modify the bund (yay!). Now just trying to figure out the best placement for the pouches. These are with the far edges lined up with the edge of the chest armor: This is with the pouches half-way past the edge of the armor: I think the first one is the way to go.. though to me it looks like the pouches are too close to the middle bund ribs. My knee armor keeps falling down. I'm trying to figure out the best place to add snaps to the armor and flight suit. Had an epiphany about putting foam underneath to close the gap between the armor and my knee. When I'm done with the mod, it'll probably look something like this: I'm thinking about adding snaps to 5 points on the knee armor (is 5 overkill?) where the black x's are: Thinking about using a cheap plastic garbage can as plastic shims between the snaps and the plastic but it might be too flimsy. Found an old novelty street sign that I might be able to put to use (haha): It's pretty thin but sturdier than the garbage can. Bought some motorcycle helmet foam for my helmet. They came with the cap and cheek pads The test run went pretty well as I didn't have to rip out any of the old foam (yet) It's soooo comfy! The only problem is that the cheek pads jut too far forward so that I can't really talk and that the front of my helmet barely closes. I'm thinking about ripping out some of the foam at the back of the head to push it further back away from the face. Wow, that's it for now. Still have to do the following, but then I'm done!: -Sew flak vest -Attach pouches to bund -Put pads in helmet -Attach snaps to flight suit legs -Finish boots and attach holster Till next time, troopers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin-X Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Wow, what a lot of great updates. I agree on position 1 for the bund pouches, closer is better. Also, glad the bund is fitting now? That's cool! Also, great find on the lid padding. You have really done a lot of work and it will soon pay off! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted August 5, 2014 Author Share Posted August 5, 2014 Wow, what a lot of great updates. I agree on position 1 for the bund pouches, closer is better. Also, glad the bund is fitting now? That's cool! Also, great find on the lid padding. You have really done a lot of work and it will soon pay off! Thanks, Jim! Yeah, the bund was a bit (but not super) tight when I got it but I was in the process of getting into trooper-shape anyway so a few sit-ups later (minus some pies) and it fit. It was good motivation! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobaben Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Okay, so I've read this entire thread, and now I don't want to do this anymore. ...kidding... Great work, Scout! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted August 21, 2014 Author Share Posted August 21, 2014 Okay, so I've read this entire thread, and now I don't want to do this anymore. ...kidding... Great work, Scout! Haha, hey if I can do it, anyone can do it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin-X Posted August 21, 2014 Share Posted August 21, 2014 Trust me, a lot of us felt the exact same way about ourselves. You build, live, and learn. Then, pay it forward! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scout.trooper Posted August 29, 2014 Author Share Posted August 29, 2014 Another pic heavy round of updates! Here's what I've been up to... Failed on the boots, trying to turn the black soles tan. I actually got pretty far, too, before realizing that the paint started to peel off the soles. How far I got: Peeling... I figured these weren't worth finishing if I only get 1 troop out of them. Went back to my trusty first pair of boots. Got a cheapo plastic garbage can and cut a rectangle out of the curved side of the can to use as my support for the boot holster. Before riveting, I added an elastic leg strap to hold up the holster. Sewed on my pouches! Did some major work on the flak vest. Trust me, a lot of us felt the exact same way about ourselves. You build, live, and learn. Then, pay it forward! Taking your advice to heart, Jim, the encouragement I've received in helping build my flak vest has prompted me to write a tutorial "If I can do it, you can do it, DIY flak vest" which I will post on the build forum (provided I did everything correctly!). Picking up from an earlier post, with the sleeves ripped off, fabric copies cut, and lines drawn, I get on to the sewing. Starting with the left sleeve, I lay it out on the floor with the lines side up. The top of the "L" will be the end of the sleeve closest to your elbow while the opposite side will be sewn back on to the vest. Then, using the long hoizontal line as a "hinge", I separate the two pieces of fabric. I then pinch the two seams together where I will sew it shut. The lines are now on the bottom facing up (as shown) I sewed it together. I used a single straight line stitch... nothing too fancy What was just done was sealing the end of the sleeve. When I folded over the sleeve when done with my seam and the "L" lines facing me again, I have a nice, clean looking sealed edge. I then added the quilting back inside my sleeve sammich then started doing my lines. I ran the stitch over the top of the chalk lines so I could make sure it was straight and, magically, when I was finished, the chalk disappeared! Magic! I then sealed the sides and bottom of the sleeve. After that, I fold the sleeve back into it's original position (from when it was ripped off the shirt), and sewed the shortest edge together (the part under the arm). I then flip this inside out to hide the edge (if you look at a t-shirt, you can see what I'm talking about). Then I prepped the back of the vest. I cut a line down the middle and got the velcro ready. The shirt was a bit large on my so I did not need to worry about adding length to the back. I double-stitched the cut on the back to hem it and did the same to the bottom of the vest and the collar. (My machine doesn't do a hem stitch... womp womp). Velcro attached: Turned the shirt inside-out and put the sleeve through the arm hole. Pinned it in place and started sewing it back together. After the initial straight line stitch, I did a zig zag stitch over that just in case. Ta-da! Length tested on the right and left side. Just below the shoulder bells... perfect! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin-X Posted August 29, 2014 Share Posted August 29, 2014 Nicely done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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