The Aren't You A Little Sort For A...Biker Scout (WIP)

[darth larsen]

looking good!

[StoutScout]

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:

 

 

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UPDATE: I decided to redo my TD a couple of months after posting this thread. Check out the updated TD post here

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[Spanky101]

Your thermal detonator looks great from the back.

For what it's worth, if you are still looking for a great looking blaster for less money than most charge, then check out Max`s Sci-fi. I am pretty sure you can`t find a better one for that price. They can found on FB.

Looking good so far, keep it going!

[StoutScout]

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...

[Retrofire]

Nice work Nick! You will appreciate being able to put the TD on separately and it helps to cinch up your belt without fighting the TD. Looks great and I can't wait to see your pre-approval pics!

[Chunk]

What purpose do the magnets serve if you hav clips to hold the TD on to the belt?

[Retrofire]

What purpose do the magnets serve if you hav clips to hold the TD on to the belt?

 

For me they hold the TD tight and keep it centered on the back of the belt without having to fuss with adjusting it. My belt clips really aren't tight enough to keep the TD from moving about when I'm trooping.

[StoutScout]

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.

 

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[Nexous]

Just went through this thread, you work fast Nick. Awesome work, excited to see the finished product

[StoutScout]

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

[StoutScout]

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.

[StoutScout]

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!

[StoutScout]

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!

[Lowercase6]

Dude, this is so awesome. Thanks for sharing. You're a similar frame as I, this will help me greatly.

[Inklegg]

I know your TD is already done, but wanted to share my "trick" since you said it was a pain. Maybe it will help someone else.

 

I put my magnets with zip ties in heat shrink tubing, heated it to shrink it, then just zipped them around the tube.

 

 

 

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[Shada]

Inklegg - that is so much better than my approach, which was based on Pandas and involved a lot of cutting into the tube.😃

 

 

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[StoutScout]

That is an awesome approach Inklegg! Thank for sharing.

 

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[StoutScout]

Dude, this is so awesome. Thanks for sharing. You're a similar frame as I, this will help me greatly.

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.

 

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[Lowercase6]

WOOOOO! It's on now! The armourer I asked said that it was indeed too light and I had to disassemble and paint it to match my chest rectangle. I painted mine a light/medium grey. Before you paint give the tube a wash with hot water and soap and let it dry.

 

 

Quick question, maybe I missed it, if so I apologize. What brand/color paint did you use for the tube? Also what type of paint? If you don't mind sharing I'd appreciate it greatly.

[StoutScout]

Quick question, maybe I missed it, if so I apologize. What brand/color paint did you use for the tube? Also what type of paint? If you don't mind sharing I'd appreciate it greatly.

 

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?

[StoutScout]

There have been a lot of questions lately about how the 2 piece bund/cod assembly goes. Here's how I did mine as well as how I keep my bund in position by velcroing it to my flak vest (note I have yet to actually troop in this so we'll see if it works out, stay tuned..)

 

Front of the cummerbund with pouches sewn on and cod in place:

 

Back of cummerbund:

 

I have a line of loop velcro at the top of the bund with hook sewn on the top of the cod. Here you can see the cod attachment pulled off of the bund and folded back:

 

What's with all the excess loop velcro on the back used for you ask? Well I have a line of hook velcro sewn on my vest as shown here (there are a couple of strips so I can adjust):

 

Here is a picture that attempts to show how it all comes together:

 

Finally, like many have done, I sewed some loop velcro on the inside of my bund and some hook to the end of the elastic thong which goes together like so:

[StoutScout]

My DVH Blaster arrived today! This seems to be the newest version of the blaster with the magnets embedded in two spots, one at the front under the barrel (as was the case in V2) and the new spot on the circular "transistor" on the handle of the gun. Darth Voorhees added this second magnet to accommodate armor types where the barrel magnet could quite reach the holster.

 

Blaster with external magnets in place on front and handle

 

Blaster with external magnets removed

 

 

Blaster in holster.

 

Here is an underneath shot with the blaster in the holster. I have SC armor and I try to point out the gap between the armor holster and the blaster.

 

 

With my holster already attached to the boot, I needed to figure out a way to install the external magnet. It was as simple as just positioning like so:

The magnets are so strong that it still does a great job of holding the blaster in place through both the vinyl of the boot and the plastic of the holster.

 

Using E6000 to permanently attach the external magnet.

 

Now all that is left is continuing to wait for my bucket to arrive (ordered 117 days ago and painfully still counting )

[Kal'Verec]

I'm a newb to the stormie side of the SW groups (I've been a Mando for 4 years) so I'm learning so many little things about this armor. Seems like you're doing really well with all of it! I absolutely love those boots by the way; they are beautiful!

[StoutScout]

I'm a newb to the stormie side of the SW groups (I've been a Mando for 4 years) so I'm learning so many little things about this armor. Seems like you're doing really well with all of it! I absolutely love those boots by the way; they are beautiful!

 

Thanks! The boots were really fun to work on and are probably the best part to do first while you wait on other parts of your armor to come in.

[StoutScout]

I decided to go ahead and add the second magnet to my holster. It wasn't really necessary and I mostly just added this modification out of shear boredom while I continue to wait for my helmet to arrive. As you can see in my previous post, with the SC holster the magnet under the barrel of the blaster doesnt reach the 'ledge' inside the holster. To solve this problem I needed to create a ledge that was higher up inside the holster. To do this I took my trusty lexan scissors to an already broken white plastic laundry basket. In the picture below you can see that I cut a curved portion of the handle of the basket. I then glued the external magnet for the blaster to an end of this new ledge piece and you can see it in the clamp:

 

 

Next I glued it inside the holster and let it dry in place overnight:

 

Here you can see the newly installed ledge from underneath with the blaster in place:

 

Here is a top down view:

 

I now have two points of magnetic contact keeping my blaster in place. I'm very happy with the results.