First Build - ROTJ Bikerscout

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Thanks for the encouragement!

I made only a bit of progress over the last days, but i'm still happy about it. And glued on the T-Bits in the right direction 😅

The rectangular greeblie is on the longer side of the TD even if the perspective of the picture makes it look like it isnt

I got a couple of questions concerning the thermal detonator.

So this is what came with my kit:

I added the second picture as I am unsure how I would get the curve that the thermal detonators have with a material that is so flexible?

 

However, since I want to do this build right, I also thought of going the more accurate route and wire wrap some tubing (also because it sounded like a fun little project).

Looking through shaunpugs and striders posts on that left a bit of a question mark.

I know they are using HDX extension cords, which unfortunately do not seem available at my local hardware store chain. So I looked at them online but it is kind of hard to tell which is the right kind. They split the cables, but most that I found seem to be just one solid cable. Could someone tell me what I need to look out for with the cables?

And looking through the various WIP Threads and not yet finding anything: How do you clamp the Thermal detonator Endcaps to the tubing while the glue hardens?

I thought of using a screw clamp, but I am a bit afraid that that is a bit too much force.

 

 

[DukeOfNachos]

ok, about 90% of the way down page one, there's my TD build, @nateopotato found that some nice 1-1/2” sink throat pieces could be cut and have a nice tight fit into the tubing. with this, just glue/clamp the throat pieces to the end caps, once dry push into the tubes, and viola!

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1 hour ago, DukeOfNachos said:

ok, about 90% of the way down page one, there's my TD build, @nateopotato found that some nice 1-1/2” sink throat pieces could be cut and have a nice tight fit into the tubing. with this, just glue/clamp the throat pieces to the end caps, once dry push into the tubes, and viola!

Thank you! I have your WIP Thread Bookmarked, but must have not seen this, when reading through it. Will see if I can find these at the hardware store when picking up new tubing

[DukeOfNachos]

https://a.co/d/bKd4dz3

US Amazon link (hopefully should redirect to the EU one)

 

[Aradun]

Just be aware if you’re planning on going the wire wrap route, that it will add noticeable weight to the TD. The end result is that the added weight may pull down on your belt. I personally found it to be somewhat uncomfortable and bothersome. It’s a cool project, especially if you’re goal is film accuracy, but I suspect you’ll be more comfortable with your current TD.

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19 hours ago, Aradun said:

Just be aware if you’re planning on going the wire wrap route, that it will add noticeable weight to the TD. The end result is that the added weight may pull down on your belt. I personally found it to be somewhat uncomfortable and bothersome. It’s a cool project, especially if you’re goal is film accuracy, but I suspect you’ll be more comfortable with your current TD.

Thank you for the input! It is something I am mulling over.

Thought the go the middle route and even send RS a message if they would sell only the tubing of their armor (as it seems to be a cast of a wire wrapped one). They replied insanely fast! Unfortunately though, they dont sell single parts.

In case i decide to go to the wire wrap route, I did some searching and comparing to others peoples build. Could someone help me and tell me if these kinds of cables seem to look correct?

Nr.1.: I think this is the closest to the very accurate take by shaunpug/strider?

https://www.amazon.de/InLine-16651Y-Netzkabel-Netzstecker-Stecker/dp/B072MWHPBQ/ref=sr_1_8_mod_primary_new?crid=2THRRFS9BVS1N&keywords=usa+verlängerungskabel&qid=1684862589&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=USA+verlän%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-8

Nr.2 and 3 are available at a store very close to me (which I personally would prefer over ordering off of Amazon) but it seems a bit hard to tell what shape they are in.

https://www.obi.de/autoelektrik/obi-verlaengerungskabel-12-v-24-v/p/4694980?preselectedKp=true

https://www.obi.de/sprinkler-systeme/gardena-verlaengerungskabel/p/9419144?preselectedKp=true

 

[Aradun]

It’s tough to say without having it in hand, if the wire is roughly 1/8” or 3.175 mm in diameter, you should be good.  It would be best to check out your local store.  Sometimes when the two wires are molded together, one wire will be smooth and the other wire will have ridges or lettering embossed on it.   That first selection from Amazon looks to be flat, you want to stay with round or it may look off.

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19 hours ago, Aradun said:

It’s tough to say without having it in hand, if the wire is roughly 1/8” or 3.175 mm in diameter, you should be good.  It would be best to check out your local store.  Sometimes when the two wires are molded together, one wire will be smooth and the other wire will have ridges or lettering embossed on it.   That first selection from Amazon looks to be flat, you want to stay with round or it may look off.

Thank you for your quick reply! With the diameter, do you mean the diameter of the whole cable or of one of the two cables once their split? From the other build threads I would have estimated that the cable should be 1/8'' once it was split, or is that to thick?

Also I really appreciate your help and your input gave me the idea to just go with both methods. If I put on the end caps as dukeofnachos and nateopotato did, the only thing that I would have to redo if I am unhappy with one of the options, is the ziptie.

 

 

[Aradun]

1/8" once split.

[Retrofire]

On 5/24/2023 at 10:25 AM, Aradun said:

1/8" once split.

I know Aradun has mentioned it but I want to add that I had a wire wrap for awhile and they are very heavy. They look good and are accurate but require some extra support. I used clips and two rare earth magnets sewn into my belt to keep it restrained. After dropping it several times and repairing it...several times I went back to a lighter TD tube. I'm not discouraging you whatsoever but just want to suggest that you add some additional support to your TD and belt to keep it in place.

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It took me some time, but here is an update.

Since I started this thread my intention was not only that it would be helpful for me, but that others could get some help out of it. Just as I learned a lot from other WIP Threads. So here is my detailed approach to the Thermal Detonator with a lot of pictures. For readability I made the pictures quite small, but clicking on them should enlarge them again.

First off, since I wanted to take the previous comments into consideration I made two TD Versions that could be switched out easily, as I only have one set of TD Endcaps and one TD Box. So I made one wire wrapped TD, and one light one with the tube I got with my Kit from CfO/sskunky.

 

Since I wanted to go as accurate as I can, I wanted to reshape the belt clips. Even if you cant really see them. I tried the method that I saw in RS Build Videos.

If anyone doesn't know about them. Here is the link to the playlist. I think they are really helpful even if you're like me and building a different kit: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLylZBXOeIZgnyUtHfmAZlMFPlQXtZCrgH

I had little success with it as it broke at the wrong spots like you can see here:

 

Instead I took them to work and used a grindstone that luckily had almost the perfect shape. Which was fun, quick and super easy.

As that is not something all people have acces to, a rightly sized half-round or round file would do the same, just a with a bit more work.

Next up: Wire wrapping. I got a 32 mm / 1 1/4 inch diameter tube (outer diameter with wall thickness), and 2,5 mm cable,that I could split, that probably is meant for speakers. The actual size of it was closer to 3 mm, so 1/8 inch, which they luckily sold by a meter so I was able to just cut off enough for my purposes.

(links if you're interested, or german based and want to recreate : https://www.obi.de/kaltwassersysteme/pe-verlegerohr-32-mm-x-10-m/p/8207953 and https://www.obi.de/kaltwassersysteme/pe-verlegerohr-32-mm-x-10-m/p/8207953 )

I cut the tube to something between 30 and 35 cm / 12-13 inches, and used 3 meters / ~ 120 inch cable. Once split the cable was enough for both sides.

And glued the beginning down with hotglue

And glued the endings once wrapped. I wrapped tightly but left a bit of slack, so I could push it around to drill for the beltclips.

Spraypainted it, did not have the stickyness problem bikerScout007 mentioned in the new video, but it did flake off easily, so I sprayed some clearcoat over it. Here is a quick comparison foto once i drilled holes and added the beltclips (with rivets on the right one and screws on the left)

I wanted to do the solution DukeOfNachos posted above, but since the inner diameters of the two tubes were different I tried a DIY approach with some spare ABS. Here are the thingies I put into the tubes:

I glued a magnet on both sides, the side you see was more or less just to hold the parts in place while the E6000 cured a bit. Added Magnets to the TD Caps as well:

And this is how it looks like once i pushed them down the tubes, and added a lot of E6000

Make sure to align your magnets correctly, before the glue is cured. I almost made an annoying mistake here 😅

And finished product. Note on the first pick you can still see the ziptie, as I didnt pull it all the way down.

Quite happy with it, the End Caps are easy to change, but still hold on quite tight, and the only other thing to do is cutting the ziptie and pulling a new one through, if I end up prefering the lighter method.

The weight difference of the tubes, without endcaps and middle part, is quite large. The one that came with the kit had only 70gram / 2,5 ounce with beltclips and the wire wrapped one came in at 390 gram / 13,7 ounce. I'll see how the difference feels once I finish the belt, and what possible solutions come up then.

I hope this helps someone, if not: I am sorry for the wall of text 😅

Next up: Holster

 

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In the same vain as the previous post, here is my approach to the holster.

First off,  I oriented myself a lot on bikerScout007's video

Fortunately for me the CFO/Strider kit comes with an already indented holster. So it is very easy to figure out where to cut:

Now for getting the two parts together: After trimming I was left with a curved line on the part with the cutouts. After playing around with the dremel unsuccessfully, I just lay normal handsanding paper flat on the ground and dragged the part over it. 

Since I could not get a connecting piece with the full length to bend the way I wanted it to, as is done in the video above (don't have a vice at home, and did not want to take the heat gun and everything to work with me), I tried going for two small pieces. As I could bend them using two pliers.

 

I glued them first to the cutout part and then once the glue was cured I got them together. Once everything was cured I added glue in the cutout line where the two connect. I hope it'll hold

You can also see the magnet that came with the blasterworks rubber blaster. This one is glued down with E6000.

And here is everything all put together:

 

[Aradun]

Great work so far, and thanks for taking the time to provide such great detail! It will be of immeasurable help to future scouts! Keep it coming!

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Thank you Dennis for the encouraging work. As I wrote at some point, I wanted this Thread to be helpful for others and not only me, and also it is quite fun to document the process

Unfortunately life got a little too busy lately to keep going, but that's how it is. My first deadline that I set for myself (a larger comic con in the area I grew up in - in December) is out of the window anyways, because I have to work that weekend. Which also means its no stress to be slower 😅

I received my Endor Finder Gloves though and have fallen in love with them. I remember that as a kid I already loved the look of them, and its a weirdly nice feeling to now finally be able to put them on.

However I got a bit insecure about sizing. They fit perfectly around hand/fingers, but I was unsure about flaring. I know flaring is mostly a level 2 requirement, but I am trying to be as accurate as I can and since there are still leftover gloves from that run I'd like to tackle this now instead of stumbling over it in the future if, or when, I go for a Lancer status.

So I hope it is okay to ask: Would this amount of flaring be okay for Level 2 clearance in the future?

(I found it easier to size the pictures down for readability of the thread. Clicking on them should enlarge them to their original size)

Also, I plan on going for a weathered look of the costume once I'm finished building it. The only Idea I had so far was to put them on when (or probably rather if) I ride my bicycle around in winter. Any other good Ideas? Or just ignore it and they will get a used look over time anyways?

Edit: Also sorry for the somewhat blurry pictures. I recently noticed that my cell phone camera is pretty scratched up. It is the only camera i have though for right now.

 

[Chopper]

The actual gloves also flared. Try putting them on with the forearm armor over them.

For weathering, the way to go is with spray can misting. Check the post from May 11, 2017 in Strider's build:

With spray misting, less is more. I've seen people overdo it, so be mindful of how much weathering you're applying.

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2 hours ago, Chopper said:

The actual gloves also flared. Try putting them on with the forearm armor over them.

For weathering, the way to go is with spray can misting. Check the post from May 11, 2017 in Strider's build:

With spray misting, less is more. I've seen people overdo it, so be mindful of how much weathering you're applying.

Thank you for the two pictures!

The second one the gloves look more snug than mine, but if I compare it to the first it looks alright.

Unfortunately, I dont have the forearm armor finished yet. Or rather, I dont have strapping on it just now.

 

I have Striders Tutorial bookmarked. I didn't mean the general weathering. Re-reading my previous post I think I wrote that part a bit unclear. What I meant was, getting the gloves to a point where they have a used look. The only idea I had so far was using them outside of trooping, like for example as a winter glove.

[Chopper]

You don't need to do any specific weathering to the gloves. Just wearing them over time should be all you need. 

[Aradun]

The flare on your gloves looks fine. As Chopper said, the originals were flared as well. As to weathering the gloves, that too will happen over time. The leather will dull over time and will get scuffed a bit while you troop. I wouldn’t recommend weathering them by wearing them during the winter as you may end up overdoing it and damaging the leather, especially if subject to snow, salt, and rain.

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Forearm, Biceps, Knee Armor and Gloves

I finally had some time over the weekend to work more on the armor. I used Bikerscout007s method that he showed in his video. http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/topic/23804-pathfinders-armor-party-part-1-the-armor-build/

I don't think there is much to add to this method, but I thought maybe someone is preferring still images over video. I hope the following is helpful

For readability I made the pictures quite small, but clicking on them should enlarge them again.  Also, sorry for the somewhat blurry photos. My cellphone camera is a bit scratched up, but I looked through the pictures and thought that most are still readable.

What I found out for myself: Check your trimlines before starting!!

I didn't and had to redo some of the strapping. Not a big deal, because Mickeys method of using hotglue is easily removable/redoable, and I also quite enjoyed the process, but still. More to this later.

For the Biceps Pieces, I really took the time to measure out where to put the cuts. I am usually not that careful but it helps in this step. In the Image you can see that I left 1 cm of space from the top and 1,5 cm from the side (Equals to ~0.4 Inch and 0.6 inch). Which is roughly the same measures Mickey used and which looked good to me on my biceps parts.

With the knee and forearm pieces I had the problem that with my dremel cutting bit, and my poor dremel skills, I went out of the indent very quickly. As you can see here:

I had 2 Ideas to circumvent this, that worked for me:

One was cutting from the inside. Obviously, one has to be careful and check again and again that you dont cut too far.

The second Idea was to use a small file. Once the cuts were large enough, I got in with a file and did little by little. Very helpful as well towards the end. Especially on the forearm pieces as with my set from CFO the indent is a bit to small for the 1 Inch elastics so I had to go a bit into the ridges. As you can see here:

With that I wanted to take away as little as possible. As you can see in the following picture my file has teeth on one of the short sides which I used. I've never seen files without that, but might be something you should look for when choosing a file. Since I learned how to file in my job it might be obvious to me, but I still wanted to mention: Make sure that you mostly file with the small side so you elongate the cut instead of widening it.

For the knee armor I went for the optional second strap as i just like the look of it. I tried Mickeys method to use a 3mm hole punch, but it didnt quite work for me. I had a an extra piece of ABS glued to the backside, so the stress of the rivet wouldnt tear through the plastic over time. I guess this was a bit too thick for the hole punch as I got stresslines into the plastic. Nothing horrible, also looked like it doesnt need fixing right away, but after the first piece I simply drilled the second part with a 3mm drill bit.

Hole Punch:

Drill:

Following is a quick picture of the hotglueing down the elastic. Which, at least to me is way better explained in Mickeys video than any of my pictures could

But some thoughts about it: First off, after I cut the elastic I put a lighter to the cut so the threads wont come out. Secondly, I was curious wether the hotglue is so hot that it might warp the plastic. For anyone having the same doubts as me: For me nothing warped even though I used very liberal amounts of the stuff! It holds perfectly well, it was super easy to pull off the elastic one day later when I had to redo some of the strapping, so I really liked it. I dont know how it compares to using velcro, and obviously it is not as easy to change the length of the straps on the fly as with velcro, but I already had a hotglue gun before this project so might as well.

All of them together:

I also couldn't help myself, I had to put on the first wearable parts over the overall 😅 so here is some quick pictures my roommate took. Lighting is horrible and you cant see much, but I'm still happy about them.

I would still encourage you to try on your parts, because for me I found out two things. First, I really like that with mickeys method the elastics are not cutting your arm or leg off, but at least with the forearm and biceps I will velcro them to the suit further down the line to prevent any sliding.  And second, here was when I realized that I did not like the trimlines on my knee armor and the forearm armor. I simply pushed the elastics to the sides and redid the trimming

Redoing the knee gave it a bit more slack, but since they have two straps that worked for me.

Before:

After:

For the forearms I had to redo the strapping. I simply found a corner that was not enclosed by hot glue and pulled it of the glue gently. The elastic didnt tear and that also showed me that the hotglue can stand a lot of force while trooping before pulling off/breaking.

 

Gloves

I got the Endorfinder gloves that still have a zipper. After thinking how I could safely remove it without opening up all the sewing lines I came across this post:

Mentioning to use barber/Moustache scissors as they are quite delicate and fit in between the leather. I had one that came with my beard trimmer years ago. It would work perfect, mine were waaay to dull though. I tried with the lexan scissors which I use to trim the armor and surprise: Worked like a charm. The remaining threads were easy to pull out until the end and were gone with a quick cut.

I hope this wall of text and images for one of the more simpler steps in building this armor helps someone. Might have gone a bit over the top this time😅

Enjoy your sundays!

 

 

 

 

[CatfoodRob]

I find the knees slide down when trooped, fo I sewed a square of Velcro into the appropriate place on my overalls and glued Velcro inside the knees , thus the elastic is just for show really, the knees ( and forearms) are held in place by the Velcro and always stay in correct alignment . 

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On 9/18/2023 at 9:11 AM, CatfoodRob said:

I find the knees slide down when trooped, fo I sewed a square of Velcro into the appropriate place on my overalls and glued Velcro inside the knees , thus the elastic is just for show really, the knees ( and forearms) are held in place by the Velcro and always stay in correct alignment . 

Thank you! Yes, I thought as much. I assumed if i get the elastics tight enough that everything sits appropriately and doesnt slide while trooping, it will get uncomfortable over time. Or at least I have that with any skate protector gear 😅

I left it as a future problem for now, as I want to finish all Armor and Softparts before tackling the velcro on the suit. My sewing skills are subpar so I want to avoid misplacing velcro and having to do it again

[Aradun]

Great work! For the knee armor, it appears that the one knee piece as some very minor stress cracks from attempting to use a hole punch with the reinforced abs behind it. Keep an eye on that to make sure that the pull from the elastic doesn’t increase the stress on the abs and further the cracks.

Robs suggestion to add Velcro would be a good remedy. When I troop, I do not use the riveted elastic band anymore. I leave it in place but tucked into the knee armor and use Velcro as Rob suggested to further secure the knee armor in place on my flight suit. It also makes it much easier to kneel down for pictures with little ones which happen A LOT on troops. I found kneeling with the strap in place created a lot of tension on that strap causing it to stretch, weaken, and fray at the rivet. After replacing the strap once, I’ve left it in place, but no longer use it.

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This is going to be a longer post.

Over the last 2 Weeks I was finally able to have the time to work some more on the Armor.

Please Excuse the blurryness of the Pictures. Still didnt get a new phone, but I will take pictures in the future with someone else's phone. I had this phone for a couple of years and its the first one to have the camera scratch so much, only by having it in my workpants 🤷‍♀️

Prep Work:

For the Belt and Chest/Back/Tank. I cut the Slits for the Strapping with the Dremel:

I can't add much to what Mickey did in his Video. I can add on however, if you're Insecure as me: All of these Cuts are for 1,5 Inch Straps, If youre using a cutting disc with a 1,5 inch diameter, you don't have to go little by little. Also dont try to file the Cuts bigger, just do another Cut. The Webbing is thick enough. I was afraid to do too much and spent way too much time on my first Cuts 😅

I then bent the belt with a heat gun, going from the inner part of the belt to the outer parts. I cut off a bit of excess material again and drilled a 3mm/1/8 Inch hole.

Staining the Webbing:

Here is the end result of tea staining the webbing with a little cut of piece i purposefully did not stain.

I used 5 Bags of plain blacktea that I steeped in 1,7 Liter (thats the highest amount my water kettle can fit) for 5 Minutes. Pulled the Bags out, and put all of the webbing in for 2.5 Minutes in total. I wrote this down on a note so i can get the same color once I have sewn the pouches.

My advice: If youre doing this, its easier to use way more water, instead of freaking out and trying to stir almost 3 Meters of webbing in only a small amount of water/tea.

Belt Strapping

I looked at a lot of different build threads, the RS Videos and Mickeys Video. I decided for the Belt I'd go with Mickeys Method as to me it seemed the best one to do any kind of readjustment work. The following you can probably see better in Mickeys Video, but I thought maybe someone is helped by seeing pictures of it.

I had some help by my Partner, who recently got a new sewing machine. I got reaquainted to using a sewing machine, but in the following pictures you can probably see I still need some practice 😅

Because of that this is why I started with the Nylon part of the Belt as its hidden by the Thermal Detonator anyways.

So first Pictures are the Nylon Webbing that I measured out to my size. Had the belt above my hip and over my belly button. Halved the long nylon Piece and attached 6 Inches of Velcro to each side. Which is probably way too much, but my weight has fluctuated over the years, so I wanted it to be as adjustable as possible.

Stitching on the Velcro:

And the Rivet:

 

And the final Results. Would love some Input as to positioning of the dropboxes. Right Now the Strap is just clamped/safety pinned to the nylon. I feel pretty okay about the position but wanted some feedback before finally attaching the straps to the nylon.

I do plan to rivet and not sew the strap to the velcro, as I run into the problem that with were I think the straps should attach to the nylon I would have to go through a layer of nylon, velcro and webbing. And I'm pretty unsure if the sewing machine can manage to do that, as it was already hiccuping with just nylon and velcro.

Chest/Back/Tank

This was done with a lot of help by my partner. And after working on much of the armor alone I was pretty happy to have help in this case. Just getting the front and back affixed to each other was tremendously easier with someone else there. Also... I need to practice getting in and out of it. I still needed some help for that today 😅

This is just the two parts affixed with a piece of sticky velcro. With the sanding bit of the dremel I got rid of the edges after that picture. I guess when I cut it with scissors the plastic bend upwards a little.

After trying different glues that all didnt stick, and as I did not have the patience to wait for E6000 to cure, I simply used hot glue for the shoulder bridges.:

Not necessarily happy with how they look in this picture, but they are alright when its worn.

Here is an overview Pic of the different attachments. Again I followed Mickey method, and with the adjustable side of the parachute Buckle, its not even sewn on. The adjustable part so far stays fixed without having to sew it shut.

Tank Rivets:

And the detachable shoulder bells with velcro on one set of the ziptie-anchors.

And here is it as I just put it on:

I'm unsure whether the shoulder bells still need a bit of trimming, or if I should trim off a bit of the bottom part of the Chest. However, with both I thought it would be better to wait until I finished the flakvest and the cummerbund.

And obviously I couldn't help myself put throw everything on once it was done. The Helmet is an Altmanns I got years ago, and It started me on this path

Still plan to take a shot at CFO's Helmet Kit soon.

That picture also helped me to see, that both biceps and forearm armor are sitting too far in the back of my arm. I will figure out some velcro attachement to the flight suite once i tackled the softparts and the boots.

Thanks for reading

 

[Chopper]

Your dropbox and belt positioning looks fine. I used snaps to attach my drop box straps in the back, but if you want to use a rivet, go for it. Just don't forget the backer plate so it doesn't pull through the fabric.

For the shoulder bridge covers, the hot glue adhesive will probably work for a little while, but you should plan to replace it with something more permanent in the future.

I would not trim any more off the bottom of the chest armor.

Your shoulder bells appear to be in the right ballpark. Good call on waiting to trim any more until you have your flak vest finished.

 

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Finally finding the time to get back into this and started working on the boots again.

I'm following cheesewhooppys Tutorial (https://forum.501stpathfinders.com/topic/19708-biker-scout-boots-tutorial/)

Found it pretty difficult to get the vinyl shaped to the boot without it creasing. Found this tutorial that so far seemed to help me get somewhere with that problem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6L4bY9NnqM&ab_channel=MortimerCreative)

Ran out of thumbtacks so will have to report in if it ultimately helped or not 😅

Looking at the different tutorials though I got a bit insecure about the fabric I am using. It has quite a bit of texture. I looked at the CRL and it doesnt mention that being a problem. However, when going through other peoples WIP Threads I thought I read somewhere that it might be a problem.

So as a quick question before I go on with that fabric. Is this too much texture?

Also finally got a new camera that does not produce blurry pictures