Fragarock's Scout Build

[Chopper]

The black strapping on the tank is for the Return of the Jedi Scout, which is a totally different CRL.

In the Mandalorian Scout CRL, there are a number of differences in strapping and other details, including an absence of tank strapping.

https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:Scout-Trooper-The-Mandalorian

Since the strapping is not a part of the Mando scout, you can try making a L- bracket shelf to hold the tank on, similar to what Pandatrooper did in his build:

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/9781-pandatroopers-sc-biker-scout-build/#comment-81496

 

[fragarock]

55 minutes ago, Chopper said:

The black strapping on the tank is for the Return of the Jedi Scout, which is a totally different CRL.

In the Mandalorian Scout CRL, there are a number of differences in strapping and other details, including an absence of tank strapping.

https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:Scout-Trooper-The-Mandalorian

Since the strapping is not a part of the Mando scout, you can try making a L- bracket shelf to hold the tank on, similar to what Pandatrooper did in his build:

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/9781-pandatroopers-sc-biker-scout-build/#comment-81496

 

Right on man. Thanks for the clarification. I see some folks have riveted, or glued the top, even used magnets. I presume a similar approach could be used to secure the bottom of the tank. Or maybe some kind of elastic strapping might do the trick, something that could be glued to the inside of the lower tank and pulled through into the back.

 

I trimmed the chest and back, cut the slits for the white strapping at the bottom/side of the pieces. Also did a rough test fit using some tape to hold the bridges together and that led to a bit more trimming. Can't do much more until my black strapping for the bridges comes in along with some more snaps. Wondering about the logistics of putting on the chest/back pieces. Are people putting these over their head and securing the shoulders, then tightening up the white elastic on the sides?

Started rough trimming of the tank as well. May work on the shaping/fitting of it so it fits nicely against the back some time tomorrow after my son's soccer tournament. I'll post some pics as well, once my phone recharges.

 

Thanks again for the input.

[fragarock]

I figured I'd tackle the chest and back assembly first. Get this biggest part out of the way first. 

Here's the chest piece as it came out of the box. RS guys trimmed it pretty well. I looked at reference photos and asked if there were known dimensions for the return edges which I should adhere to. There aren't so I sketched a line that looked reasonably close to the reference images, approximately 8mm although it tapers down in some spots.

 

 

For reference, here's the bottom edge of the chest which I did trim down a bit by approximately 10mm.

 

Here's the side of the chest, where the white straps go through. Again, drew a rough trim line.

 

Basic trimming then ensued. Cut off the large strips that I could get to with the lexan curved scissors which I think everyone uses. Once I have the main cutting done I fine tune using a sanding drum on my Dremel which gives good control, but makes a mess.

I then cut in the slots for the side strapping which ties the chest to the back along the sides. Again used the Dremel but with a sanding disc. Then cleaned up the opening with some sandpaper. I noticed that it's not plausible to cut a truly 1.5" long slice for the 1.5" strapping. The cut is smaller so the strapping will be taught as it goes through the opening.

 

For some reason I forgot to take pics of the back piece during the trimming process. Just have this bottom shot.

 

I taped the bridges of the chest and back together and tried this on for a rough fit. I found there to be a sizeable gap between my body and the upper part of the chest/back, at the bridges. So to reduce this I took some material off the bridges at both the chest and back. Most of the material was cut out of the back piece.

About 1/2 inch out of the chest bridge shown below. I'm waiting on new Velcro to be delivered, once I have that I can build out the lower white elastic strapping and test fit this again over the flight suit. Then make additional adjustments if needed.

 

Next I trimmed the tank. The piece had good pull lines which is where you see the pencil lines in these photos. First thing I did was mark a centerline down the middle of the back and another one down the tank to help align the two pieces.

Then I started off trimming along these lines, then slowly refined the trimming. First I trimmed the top of the tank to get the profile to match up with the back profile. Then it trimmed each side, slowly removing more and more plastic to get it to match up with the back profile. I think I moved the side notch at least 4 times during this process. The bottom of the tank was the last thing I trimmed down to a rounded profile. 

I think my trim lines are pretty good and the gaps you see will go away once I mount the tank to the back. I know the screen used kits had massive gaps so I think what I have is good. What do you guys think?

 

 

Here is the trimmed tank loosely set atop the back piece. The very bottom of the tank isn't going to get any tighter to the back without some heat forming.

 

Below you'll see the resin cast greeblies from RS. I'll sand these down a bit. I'm confused by the knobs. One is tall and one is short. Which goes into the large piece at the top of the tank and then what is the other one for....thermal detonator? 

Also, are there specific colors for these parts? Specific black, matte, semi gloss or gloss? What about the red stripe?

 

Here are the others. Pretty good detail in the casting. ROTJ costume for reference.

 

 

Any specific requirements for this rivet and washer? ROTJ in the first image, Mandalorian in the second. 

 

Finally, my boots arrived! These are from Crowprops. They are slightly big because they don't normally make a boot to fit my smaller US 7.5 size foot. So I had to go with the US size 8 equivalent which will be fine, just wear thicker socks. Boot construction seems solid enough.

 

There's even a nice little reinforcing band inside the right boot to wrap around your leg. Presume this is to handle the weight of the holster/blaster on the boot, keeping it from sagging. Flight suit bunches up a bit at the top of the boot. Maybe I'll add some straps on the bottom of the legs to hold them down, I'll figure out something.

 

That's it for tonight. I'll keep working on the tank greeblies and mounting brackets to attach it to the back piece.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chopper]

On 10/26/2022 at 10:15 PM, fragarock said:

I think my trim lines are pretty good and the gaps you see will go away once I mount the tank to the back. I know the screen used kits had massive gaps so I think what I have is good. What do you guys think?

I think your tank is sitting pretty good overall. The only portion I see that might need more tweaking is what I've circled in green, on the very bottom of the tank.

 

 

On 10/26/2022 at 10:15 PM, fragarock said:

Below you'll see the resin cast greeblies from RS. I'll sand these down a bit. I'm confused by the knobs. One is tall and one is short. Which goes into the large piece at the top of the tank and then what is the other one for....thermal detonator?

Those greebs are based on the same found part and usually they're the same size. One goes on the det box, the other goes in the slot on the tank topper.

You will need to sand down the taller one until it fits into the slot as per this example photo from Christina's build:  

  

On 10/26/2022 at 10:15 PM, fragarock said:

Also, are there specific colors for these parts? Specific black, matte, semi gloss or gloss? What about the red stripe?

 

Go with flat or matte black. The red stripe color is recommended to be "insignia red". You can paint it or use a stripe decal.

 

[fragarock]

Go with flat or matte black. The red stripe color is recommended to be "insignia red". You can paint it or use a stripe decal.
 

Thanks for the answers. I'm working on the bottom of the tank to tighten that up and get it attached to the back. I presume the pop rivet at the top of the tank is mostly decoration and the top plate can be glued down.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Chopper]

16 minutes ago, fragarock said:

I presume the pop rivet at the top of the tank is mostly decoration and the top plate can be glued down.
 

Yes, if you want to go that way, it not a problem.

 

[fragarock]

So almost a month has gone by and during that time I've been working on the armor when I had time. It's been busy at work, Halloween birthday planning and kids sports. I've been tinkering, making adjustments, finding out what doesn't work and fixing things.

Based on Chopper's input I went back to the tank and made some adjustments to the bottom so that it will fit better against the back. I did additional trimming on the sides to make this piece sit closer.

I created a shelf bracket for the tank to sit on. Scrap piece of ABS clamped into my vice, heated with a heat gun and bent over. This piece was glued to the back with E6000, using magnets to hold it in place. Prior to mounting this I placed the tank in position and marked a pencil line where the top of the tank should sit then set the bracket slightly below that line.

 

 

I thank prepared the strapping to hold the bottom of the tank in position. I decided to to internal straps on the sides and one on the bottom to be sure the tank wouldn't come loose. These straps have Velcro sewn on so they are adjustable and can be pulled really tight. Probably overkill but I wanted to be sure this would hold. I cut slots into the back armor and glued the Velcro/straps to the inside of the tank.

Next I prepped the tank topper to be attached to the tank. Previously I'd painted the topper in matte black using an airbrush then applied several layers of matte finish clearcoat. I painted the white circle and the red stripe using Model Master Insignia Red. The white was their generic white which happened to be available at the hobby shop. I drilled a hole in the topper where the rivet would be inserted then glued the topper down to the tank.

Make sure you use a rivet that is long enough to go through the topper and down into the bracket below. Set the tank atop the bracket and mark the hole location onto the bracket below.

 

 

 

Here's the attached tank.

And the chest/back assembly.

 

Next I trimmed the shoulder bells along the pre-marked lines that came from RS. Added the elastic strapping at the bottom of the bells, but up high enough from the bottom to allow me to trim off excess which I was sure would be needed. These pieces are really wide when viewed from the side, to match up with my smaller frame I heated them up and bent them so the were a tighter curve and less wide. 

 

here's the comparison between the original shoulder and the heat bent one.

 

Now, from looking at the reference photos from ROTJ and the Mandalorian, it was clear the stunt actors were fairly tall, certainly a lot taller then my 5'-5" frame. Because of their height and longer limbs, the armor pieces are more spread out, revealing the black flight suit below. I'd have to do some trimming to make my armor fit me better, like I did with my TK, scaling the pieces down where I could.

 

 

 

The chest and back were sitting too low on my chest. I'm short and also have a spinal curvature which complicates the way chest pieces sit on me. So to fix this, as much as I could, I trimmed the top ends of both the back and chest straps, taking about 1.5" of material out in total. This would bring the chest and back up a bit, closer and tighter under my arm pits, closer to the look in the reference photos.

Here's the tighter version after trimming.

Once I felt the chest/back re-sizing was completed, I tackled the strapping. I decided to permanently strap the top of the chest and back together, rather than leaving the right side open with a snap closure. I can still get my head through the opening and the permanent glued straps on both sides hold the pieces together they way I wanted them to fit. The connection is made from elastic strapping with a snap sewn in the middle to receive the shoulder bell. 

For the shoulder bells I used the same materials, elastic and snaps.

In this photo the two on the left are the chest/back connectors. The others are the should straps.

 

I did a quick mockup to decide how much a gap should exist between the top of the shoulder and the chest, settling on 3/4". In the photo below you can see the bottom of the bell is too low. I'm gonna have to trim it to make the whole thing smaller otherwise the bicep will be crammed in there on my arm, smashing into the shoulder bell.

So I trimmed off about 1/2 inch but it still wasn't enough.

 

Before I trimmed anymore I figured I'd better make the biceps and see how they fit.

Glued on the greeblies.

When I first tried them on I realized the strapping was way too loose so I peeled it back and reglued it tighter.

Then I was on a roll and made the forearms. Let me know if I need to remove more material from the top and bottom, seems a bit thick to me but I'm not sure. I also had to heat bend the forearms to fit around my skinny arms. Here you can see the trim lines before I cut.

 

Original width of these was 5.5". When I was done heat bending them it was 4.5".

 

So, I then tried all the pieces on again. I think the shoulders are good now. I trimmed a bit more off them and took 3/4" off the top of the biceps to make more room for these to fit on my arm. In the photo below the bicep is sagging. Can I used Velcro underneath the bicep, sewn to the flight suit to help hold this in place?

Also wondering what's the proper placement of the forearm. In some ROTJ photos it appears high up on the forearm, strap running over the glove as seen in the photo below. In the Mandalorian it's above the glove, presume this is due to shorter gloves being used. Generally I presume it should be up high, right at the bend in the elbow, the uppermost part/top of the forearm armor actually resting above the elbow. Not sure is there's a hard rule about this as the bicep and forearms seem to be all over the place in various reference images.

 

As I move forward I'll need to do the tank striping. Have the adhesive vinyl, just need to cut it out and affix it. Will make tweaks to the biceps and forearm placement based on any comments I get back. I did get my cummerbund althoug haven't opened it yet. Probably need to see how that piece fits in the overall scheme then jump into the belt assembly. Thinking down the road, may have to tailor the flight suit, it seems awfully baggy in the arms and legs. We'll see how the overall look develops as I get more done. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Aradun]

Hey Frank! Nice work. Here’s a great post on how to keep things like your biceps and forearms secure while trooping. It’s geared towards the ROTJ Scout so there will obviously not be things that apply to the Mando Scout, but you may find some helpful tips none the less.

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/w18894-some-tips-for-keeping-your-scout-costume-together-while-trooping/

Personally, I used Velcro to secure the biceps and forearms pieces in place. I used e6000 to glue the Velcro directly onto the suit and placed a 25 lb weight on it while it dried. I believe I may have cut up a brown paper bag and slipped it up the sleeve in case the glue seeped through, which it didn’t. Two years and no issues with it coming loose. It’s a lot easier than hand sewing the Velcro or seam ripping the sleeves to feed it through a sewing machine.

[fragarock]

12 hours ago, Aradun said:

Hey Frank! Nice work. Here’s a great post on how to keep things like your biceps and forearms secure while trooping. It’s geared towards the ROTJ Scout so there will obviously not be things that apply to the Mando Scout, but you may find some helpful tips none the less.

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/w18894-some-tips-for-keeping-your-scout-costume-together-while-trooping/

Personally, I used Velcro to secure the biceps and forearms pieces in place. I used e6000 to glue the Velcro directly onto the suit and placed a 25 lb weight on it while it dried. I believe I may have cut up a brown paper bag and slipped it up the sleeve in case the glue seeped through, which it didn’t. Two years and no issues with it coming loose. It’s a lot easier than hand sewing the Velcro or seam ripping the sleeves to feed it through a sewing machine.

Thanks for the input, I'll work on getting some velcro attached to the flight suit and the biceps and forearms, I like that idea. Random question, the back strap for the cod piece, what is it supposed to attach to? The belt?

[Chopper]

Attach it to the back inside of your bund.

[fragarock]

Happy Thanksgiving Troopers!

Yesterday I did a bit more work, getting the tank striping done. Used an adhesive matte black vinyl sheet cut into strips. I saw a few different thicknesses on others WIPs, I ended up eyeballing it a bit with stripes between 2mm-3mm wide. Eyeballed the placement as well. Hopefully it looks okay.

 

While I await the arrival of some black sew-on velcro to attach to my flight suit, figured I'd get to work on the ammo belt. This thing is really wonky, not sure if this is how RS sends all these out but mine was bent all over the place and pre-trimmed.....over trimmed in some areas above and below the boxes. So, I cleaned up the top and bottom, leaving just about 1/8" or less over and under the boxes. I also heated this with my heat gun to get it bent around my waste properly. Based on the reference Mando images, where the trooper has his belt over the cummerbund pouches, the end boxes of the belt should be directly at your sides. Once I bent my belt, it seems to align in the same manner.

Here you can see the overall ammo belt alignment. Wonder if this was an intentional costume choice or someone messed up when dressing him.

I was going to start the main belt strapping but realized I only have 1.5" webbing, and it seems too thin so I ordered 2". Should be here Saturday and then I can proceed. On others WIPs I've seen some ABS reinforcement installed in the back side of the boxes. My ABS is really thick and I don't think I need to do that. Is there another reason people have done this that I may be missing?

I'll have to hit the local hardware store tomorrow to get some washers for the rivets on the end of the belt, don't want them pulling out of the nylon webbing. 

 

Here's the cummerbund. Made by Kripton on Etsy. Fits perfectly as far as I can tell so far. The pouches are attached with Velcro and are removeable. I attached the loose end of the strap to the top inside area of the cummerbund. Again, it fits fairly well but I may need to tighten it a bit as I get further along in the build. Even came with additional sewn in velcro on the sides, presumably to help hold this in place on the flight suit. That's definitely going to be needed and I'll add more velcro in the front for support. From what I've noticed, the ammo belt bottom should align with the bottom of the cummerbund, so a semi-permanent attachment to the flight suit is a must.

 

First try-on of this piece, sitting too low, will need to skootch it up a bit so the ammo belt will actually align with my waist. Should the cod fabric be pulled tighter, is it too low? Generally the crotch in the flight suit is way too low, I don't want to deal with the hassle of getting it re-tailored so I'm hoping I can just tighten up the back strap on the cod, pulling it tighter. The bunching in the pants is bugging me too, the legs are really big for my skinny limbs.

 

As I work on the belt and have taken notes, I have a question about the back parachute buckles. Does the elastic simply get threaded through and over the top of the buckle? Is it not really secured to the buckle? Seems like the buckle could slide around. The photo below is from Christina's excellent build.

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chopper]

10 minutes ago, fragarock said:

As I work on the belt and have taken notes, I have a question about the back parachute buckles. Does the elastic simply get threaded through and over the top of the buckle? Is it not really secured to the buckle? Seems like the buckle could slide around. The photo below is from Christina's excellent build.

That's correct, the elastic gets threaded over the top of the parachute buckle. It is not sewn or affixed like you would with a real buckle -- it is purely decorative. You can adjust and slide it on the strapping as needed.

[fragarock]

Hi,

Could use some advice on trimming of the drop boxes. Here are pics of the boxes as they came from RS and pencil trim lines I added. I trimmed these down but do you think I should remove more plastic? Wondering about the top mostly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chopper]

This is how my RS drop box is trimmed, if that helps:

[fragarock]

Quick question before I get too much further into the ammo belt. The CRL says "webbing" for the belt and for the drop box hangers. Is this nylon webbing (thicker and not stretchy) or stretchy elastic webbing (like the black elastic used on the biceps? I think it's the nylon type but hard to tell from some photos.

Thanks

[BikerScout007]

2 minutes ago, fragarock said:

Quick question before I get too much further into the ammo belt. The CRL says "webbing" for the belt and for the drop box hangers. Is this nylon webbing (thicker and not stretchy) or stretchy elastic webbing (like the black elastic used on the biceps? I think it's the nylon type but hard to tell from some photos.

Thanks

For the dropboxes it's actually cotton webbing.  Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/COTOWIN-Thick-Cotton-Webbing，6-Natural/dp/B08Q873CZW/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=1.5+inch+white+cotton+webbing&qid=1669779733&sprefix=1.5+inch+white+cotton+%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-6

For the closure in the back, it's 2 inch nylon or polypro

[fragarock]

Made more progress in between work and getting ready for Christmas. First thing I did was go back to the drop boxes and trim off a bit more material from the top edges. I also trimmed more material from the top and bottom of the belt so the belt boxes are pretty much aligned with the top and bottom edge.

 

I used my Dremel to cut the slots into the belt buckle and the drop boxes. These are a little bit less than 1.5" wide, due to the forming of the pieces and not wanting to cut into the sides too much. Works out fine as the webbing fits snugly in the slot.

 

I attached the white nylon webbing which forms the belt strap, to the plastic part of the belt. I did this by wrapping the webbing around my waist (with the flight suit on) to get the size right, then adding 6" length on each end for some slop. I then cut the webbing in half and glued it into the belt, avoiding the back of the buckle because that's where the other strapping will need to come through. E6000 as usual. Once that dried I tried it on again, marking with a pencil where it fell in the middle of my back. Once I knew this point, I could then trim the excess material off the edges and install the velcro. I trimmed and then sewed on velcro to the back side, approximately a 4" wide strip, making sure it would be covered by the thermal detonator. Once that was done I installed the 1/8" rivets. These should be installed from the front side of the belt with a washer on the back side. Simply drill a 1/8" hole through the webbing and the plastic and slip the rivet through.

 

 

 

 

 

Then tried it on for size, aligning the bottom of the belt with bottom edge of the cummerbund. Early on in this process I realized I needed a way to keep the cummerbund from sagging. I glued velcro to the flight suit and cummerbund to hold this in position. Seems to work okay so far.

 

Next I worked on the front drop box webbing and buckles. From the reference image in ROTJ and Mando, the buckles hang approximately where the side of the cod piece meets the pants. For the drop box attachment I used 1.5" natural cotton webbing. This stuff is thick. It should be threaded through the buckle slots as shown and secured. Presume glue or sewing is fine, I sewed mine ensuring the back part of the strap was hidden behind the buckle. Note, the male portion of the buckle hangs from the belt buckle. The female portion comes up from the drop boxes.

 

I cut them to an approximate length based on trying on the belt with these straps hanging down for placement. I used the clips which came with the parachute buckles to temporarily hold them in place inside the belt cover. Once I was happy with their placement, I marked the back side of the webbing with a pencil and glued them in place behind the belt box then sewed the parachute buckle loops closed. Note, once you cut this webbing, the ends may unravel. To stop this from happening I sewed a stich line along the cut edges.

 

 

Next step is to do the long straps which run through the drop boxes. Again I cut this about 6" longer than I thought it would actually be. The pic below shows the right side drop box. Note the female buckle which ties into the male buckle hanging off the center of the belt. Other side is the same, just opposite.

 

The webbing straps go through the drop box, and are twisted inside which helps keep the box from sliding around while still being adjustable.

 

I again tried on this assembly, roughly marking where these webbing straps intersected the middle back side of my belt as that's where they need to attach. Once I had that it was time to install the snaps. In the pics below you can see that I used a leather punch to make holes in both straps, the snap will fit through here, tying the two straps together.

 

The finished side of the snap will face outward. The receiving snap will be connected to the white webbing on the back of the belt. As I had already sewed on the velcro to the belt, I decided to attach the snap to a small piece of nylon webbing which will then be sewn to the belt webbing.

 

here's the drop box assembly with the rear strapping secured in place by the snap. Note the long ends will be trimmed off when I try the assembly on again, see how the boxes lay, and then mark where the straps overlap each other.

 

Here's the assembly before I trimmed the rear straps.

 

 

Once marked, I cut the straps, sewing the cut edge to prevent fraying and then sewing the overlapping edges together for added strength.

 

And the complete assembly (minus the TD).

 

And trying it on.

 

And with the completed armor so far. Haven't filled the pouches yet so they're kinda flat.

 

The thermal detonator is next to tackle. This thing is so heavy but I'm gonna work with what I got. The end caps seem gigantic, I know they're supposed to be bigger than the gray tube but is this too big? It came from RS so I presume it's correct, just looks weird. Need to re-review how this thing goes together, have a vague memory of zip ties and some kind clips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Retrofire]

Hi Frank. Yeah the wrapped TD's are very heavy so you will want to add clips to the tube to bear some of that weight. The zip tie will go through the center of the TD as shown here: https://databank.501st.com/databank/File:Mando_scout_TD.png

Looking at the caps they look like they could use a sanding stick to round them out a bit more or maybe some trimming. The caps tend to run a bit larger than the tubes so I think you're fine there.

The TD greeblies can go on either side of the housing so you can make that determination when you get to that point.

This is a great build thread and I think it's great that you've been so thorough. It's threads like this that are a great help to those coming behind so thank you for taking the time!

[Chopper]

Frank, just a quick clarification: For the Mando Scout, you should not be using a wrapped tube, or the cast wrapped tube that comes with the RS kit -- that's for the ROTJ scout.

The CRL for the Mando Scout states: "Thermal detonator box with short corrugated hose attaches to the back of the belt". You should use some corrugated gray pool hose or vacuum tubing that's sized to fit with the RS detonator box.

[fragarock]

Thanks Retrofire and Chopper. I wouldn't have caught the subtlety of the flexible hose. I figured it was a generic term being used in the CRL. Gonna hit up my local pool store tomorrow and see what I can find. Also have some clips coming. Will start trimming the plastic parts down while I wait on the other components.

[Retrofire]

5 hours ago, Chopper said:

Frank, just a quick clarification: For the Mando Scout, you should not be using a wrapped tube, or the cast wrapped tube that comes with the RS kit -- that's for the ROTJ scout.

The CRL for the Mando Scout states: "Thermal detonator box with short corrugated hose attaches to the back of the belt". You should use some corrugated gray pool hose or vacuum tubing that's sized to fit with the RS detonator box.

Thanks for bringing that up @Chopper I thought the same thing when I read that in the CRL but forgot to add that to the post. Frank, if you can't pinpoint a hose at your local hose-mart I picked one up off of Amazon. I'm glad Chopper added that correction as I had a wrapped TD and I totally get what you were saying about it being heavy because mine sure was! I think you'll be happier with a regular tube.

[fragarock]

Success! Local pool store had some 1.5" silver/gray hose. Had to buy 6' of it but it was only $11. Trimmed it to 12" length, will evaluate how it looks proportionally on me and reduce if needed. I'll likely paint this or work on some way to weather it down, it's too new and shiny.

 

 

 

[fragarock]

Am I correct in thinking the knee armor only uses the 1" main elastic strap, not the smaller 1/2" strap or are both acceptable? Didn't see the secondary strap mentioned in the CRL or see it on some of the newer builds although it may have been on some of the first builds when folks converted their ROTJ kits to Mando. Didn't see it in the screen captures from the show either, looks like the 1" strap is above the knee (since the piece is upside down) and holds it in place.

THanks 

[Retrofire]

You are correct. You want either 3/4" or 1" ribbed strapping. The upper strap you mentioned is for the ROTJ Scout only and even then it's optional so if kits have been converted that's why you might see it.

Knee Armor Gloss white or semi-gloss. Moderate to heavy desert-brown toned weathering. Black elastic is used to secure the armor around the leg. Worn upside-down.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable): Weathering adheres to production sources. Black elastic measures either 3/4 or 1 inch and is ribbed.

[fragarock]

I have a thermal detonator! Just in time for Christmas.

Grabbed some 1.5" diameter gray hose from the pool store and cut the end fitting off of it.

I bought a few PVC drain pipe accessories from the local hardware store. The longer piece is 1.5" diameter and I'll use cut sections installed inside the hose as reinforcing where I screw in the belt clips. The smaller bits are 1.5" end fittings and will be used on the ends of the hose to secure the end caps.

I cut the PVC pipe lengthwise, not pretty but that's okay. Because it's 1.5" diameter, same as the hose, I need to reduce it's size a bit. Cutting it allows it to be folded in on itself, reducing its diameter so it fits within the hose. I didn't use this whole long piece, I cut it inti (2) 1" wide pieces which I then slipped into hose in the general area where the belt clips would attach. Friction held them in place pretty well.

 

This is the piece inside the hose.

 

Along the hose is a seam. I used this as a straight line reference for placing the clips to ensure they would both be in alignment. I marked each end with a red cross where the bottom screw of the clip would be installed. I then drilled a hole through the hose and into the PVC insert inside. After that, I screwed in the clip through the bottom hole and into the PVC insert inside the hose. Once that was done I put the top screw into the clip. Originally I used #8x3/4" sheet metal screws which is what I had on hand. But these are tapered, meant to be countersunk which wasn't easy to do. They would also create a catch point when trying to clip this onto the belt. Next day I replaced them with pan head screws of the same size which sit flush against the hose.

Kinda hard to see in this photo but these are the screws going into the hose and PVC reinforcing.

 

 

For reference, here's the clip I used which others have recommended. Before installing it, I bent it out a bit as it was too tight and would be hard to slip over the belt fabric.

Next step is to insert the PVC end pieces that I purchased. These will pop right into the end of the hose with just a bit of wiggling. They are friction fit into the hose. The flanges on the end provide a good surface for gluing on the ABS end caps onto the hose.

 

The replacement pan head screws.

 

I trimmed the control panel box and drilled a couple holes where the zip tie would come through. Even after trimming the ends of this box piece to received the hose it's still tight. You'll need to align the grooves in the hose with the ends of the box to make it fit better.

 

Then I inserted the zip tie so the clasp was on the back side and gradually tightened it up until the control box seemed snug and wouldn't slide around on the hose.

 

Last part was to put on the end caps. Took a compass to create an even trim line around these pieces. Made them 5/8" tall.

These then get glued to the installed PVC pieces on the end of the hose. I used E6000.

 

Last thing was to glue on the control panel greeblies with E6000. These were previously trimmed and painted back when I did the bicep greeblies.

 

That's it for now. I'm working on the knee armor next.