Shoulder Loop concern

[Hikuro1983]

I’m a fairly big guy and there’s a huge gap between ends of the chest and back. I’m using a white cotton fabric per the crl but the level two states using the cotton webbing which won’t work for me.

The CRL states

• The chest and back armor join together over the shoulder and the gap covered with a loop of white fabric.

anyone got any advice or image of what they did in this case?

[Chopper]

Hey Hikuro, could you give us a photo as to how it looks on you without the bridge covering? 

There's plenty of other big scouts out there, so I'm certain we can get you ship shape. 

[Hikuro1983]

1 hour ago, Chopper said:

Hey Hikuro, could you give us a photo as to how it looks on you without the bridge covering? 

There's plenty of other big scouts out there, so I'm certain we can get you ship shape. 

Sure, one side has no loop fabric, the other side does.

right side of your screen will have no fabric, left has fabric.

upper angle, you can see how far back that's going...we're talking roughly 5.5 inches.

fabric

no fabric.

[Chopper]

What maker armor are you using? Is that SC?

The front armor seems low, we should try to bring that up a bit.

Just to give me an idea on sizing, what happens if you leave a 1" - 1.25" space between the front and back armor shoulder joins? Can you get your head through?

[Hikuro1983]

45 minutes ago, Chopper said:

What maker armor are you using? Is that SC?

The front armor seems low, we should try to bring that up a bit.

Just to give me an idea on sizing, what happens if you leave a 1" - 1.25" space between the front and back armor shoulder joins? Can you get your head through?

Yes it’s SC, andWon’t be able to get my head thru very well if I raise it up and would have to heat and shape at that point as the Armors position right now rests right around the rib cage.  So the end points above would then start to stick upward versus following the contours of my body as they are now. I had the two parts looked at by a fellow scout who thought the positioning where they are now seemed appropriate.

[Hikuro1983]

Here's adjusting the top straps at 1.5 inches give or take a 1/16th or so.

molded it a bit with heat to keep the top ends down a bit to fit more contoured with my shape. Hopefully this'll work. the downside is I don't have enough of the same strapping to match the loops as the shoulder.

[BikerScout007]

I would go much wider on the side straps and bring that Chest armor up.   It doesn't need to sit as low as it does.  Bottom of the armor should come down to the bottom of the pectoral.  Like I always say, the chest armor is more of a bra than something that actually covers the chest.  

[Retrofire]

It’s looking much better. My advice before you call it good is to simulate having your vest on top of your shirt. Remember the chest goes over the flight suit and vest so it will add a bit of thickness to your overall build. Make sure you have a good range of motion with your shoulders. Take a knee, sit down, stand up, etc and make sure it’s comfortable. If you need a little more strapping you might be able to reach out to Matt at SC for some or even check around here. The lvl2 spec permits 1.5” elastic as an optional replacement so that’s an option too. Might be a little easier to find.

[Hikuro1983]

4 minutes ago, BikerScout007 said:

I would go much wider on the side straps and bring that Chest armor up.   It doesn't need to sit as low as it does.  Bottom of the armor should come down to the bottom of the pectoral.  Like I always say, the chest armor is more of a bra than something that actually covers the chest.  

I did bring it up so the gap between front and back is 1.5 inches. If I make the gap to the sides wider than that makes the top go down further and back to square one.

 

2 minutes ago, Retrofire said:

It’s looking much better. My advice before you call it good is to simulate having your vest on top of your shirt. Remember the chest goes over the flight suit and vest so it will add a bit of thickness to your overall build. Make sure you have a good range of motion with your shoulders. Take a knee, sit down, stand up, etc and make sure it’s comfortable. If you need a little more strapping you might be able to reach out to Matt at SC for some or even check around here. The lvl2 spec permits 1.5” elastic as an optional replacement so that’s an option too. Might be a little easier to find.

At this time I have no soft parts until Wednesday and rather tight on time as this needs to be finished before Friday. So adjustments needed can happen after the weekend. 

[BikerScout007]

1.5 inches sounds pretty good to me.  I'd go with that.  but like Pete said, try it on with the vest.

And don't worry about how long you go with the side straps. They can be as wide as they need to be.

[BikerScout007]

For instance, check out how long my dude's side straps are:

 

[Hikuro1983]

So, soft parts won't be available until Wed evening, I did raise it up to what was suggested earlier closing the gap at 1.5 inches

better image to illustrate that. However the loop I need to make doesn't cover at all So you guys are saying to raise it up even more so probably 1 inch gap so it's actually more pectoral like Chopper says.

Or can I take 2 of the 1.5 inches stitch them together to becoming 3 inches to create a larger loop to cover up the armor a bit more?

24 minutes ago, Retrofire said:

It’s looking much better. My advice before you call it good is to simulate having your vest on top of your shirt. Remember the chest goes over the flight suit and vest so it will add a bit of thickness to your overall build. Make sure you have a good range of motion with your shoulders. Take a knee, sit down, stand up, etc and make sure it’s comfortable. If you need a little more strapping you might be able to reach out to Matt at SC for some or even check around here. The lvl2 spec permits 1.5” elastic as an optional replacement so that’s an option too. Might be a little easier to find.

Because of the time crunch I can't wait around, I have my own I bought recently it's just a different pattern design than what was given. If I have to replace that I will to keep it more consistent, that's not a big deal. The problem is I don't wanna keep making adjustments again and again wasting material when I have 3 days to get this thing done.

[Hikuro1983]

So here's an idea that was suggested by a garrison mate, I switched the cotton webbing out with black elastic to give it a stretch when putting it on and it confines back to it's original or close to position, this means the edges of the armor met back up versus having a gap. This also raised the armor considerably btw.

With black elastic.

1.5 cotton loop now covers and raises the armor in general higher up requiring me to unhook and rehook straps to get in and out of armor which isn't difficult at all. Increases tightness when putting it on but it's not uncomfortable.

[Chopper]

Nice! Sounds like you're well on your way. Good work.

[BikerScout007]

Much better my dude!

[Hikuro1983]

armor pops out of the loop but I guess that's just gonna take some adjusting. Anyways, thanks guys, got my shoulders strapped now so I'm gonna just wait for my soft parts to arrive this week.

[Stroker]

1 hour ago, Hikuro1983 said:

armor pops out of the loop but I guess that's just gonna take some adjusting. Anyways, thanks guys, got my shoulders strapped now so I'm gonna just wait for my soft parts to arrive this week.

Glue them down. That's what a lot of has done that use the zip ties on the shoulder bells. You got this!

[Hikuro1983]

3 hours ago, Stroker said:

Glue them down. That's what a lot of has done that use the zip ties on the shoulder bells. You got this!

I’ll probablh do a do of Velcro. These have to stretch to get my head inside