Great Lakes Garrison & Base

Forgive the late posting, but I got a box on Monday! I've been busy getting my tax paperwork together...ugh.

I'm sure that most can relate to the anticipation that lead up to this moment. I had been waiting all last week for the box to arrive. It only had a short journey from Canada; it was only about a 6.5 hour drive by car. HAHA! It went to Seattle, where according to the USPS service it sat until Saturday. Well of course it was in Grand Rapids while I was at the armor party in South Haven--I'm glad I went to the armor party instead though! Fortunately, I had talked to the postman earlier in the week, and he was nice enough to redeliver on Monday.

It's here!


The box looked okay on the outside. So, I let the box sit for a good hour before I dared to open it. I forced myself to eat some lunch, take a shower, just breathe. I hadn't been this excited since I was a kid waiting for Christmas to come. I was so pleased to see that it was meticulously packed inside, nothing melted or anything like that!

A little afraid to open that box.


That's a lot of plastic wrap.


Hello bucket.


It took my a long time to unwrap all the pieces, but it was really fun. And is where the hangup was: there are a lot of parts for this thing, and I had a tough time getting decent photos. So this is the "front" view, but obviously the leg pieces are left and right halves. The eagle-eyed reader will note that I'm missing a sniper knee. Fortunately, there was an "extra" knee back at the armor maker's shop that is now on it's way to Seattle...

Front-ish view.


The pull looks really sharp to me. Not sure because I haven't seen too many TK's in person, but I'm pleased with how it looks. I may have held up the pieces to check sizing--it's a near perfect fit. The biceps are just slightly big, but not enough to trim I think. The abs / kidney pieces look like I won't have any side gaps--which I am elated about.

Might be cheating, but I ordered the bucket assembled.


"Back" view 1.


"Back" view 2.


"Back" view 3.


Pinky, if you are reading this, I didn't take your advice--I had to try the bucket on! It's a really tight fit to get my fat head in it, even felt a bit claustrophobic for a minute. Anyways, I needed a better avatar...

Heat gun!


I'm feeling just the slightest bit overwhelmed with my project. Don't worry, I won't let it sit untouched. I just want to try gluing some scrap plastic to get a better idea of how the E-6000 works before I start putting it together. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! More soon!

EDIT: Typos.

Looking good. E-6000 is a godsend... It's holding together 3/4 my mando build! XD It does have, in my experience, a rather long full-set time, but once it does set and harden, you need a welding torch or an act of God to get what is attached back off! Take it from me when building the hunting spear from said Mando, measure and check thrice before you attach or use said glue.. The blade of my spear is now marginally cockeyed, and I can't get it to come out >.<

Thanks, I will definitely be careful with the glue...

Thought I would post some blaster pics too. As tempting as it is to sand and repaint it, I'm going to just add the D-ring to the Hyperfirm and just call it done for now because I don't want to start too many projects. Eventually, I would like to build a custom blaster, and the Hyperfirm will become the beater blaster. I hope to get this completed by the weekend so I can cross it off the list. If the Hasbro turns out pretty well, maybe I'll give the Hyperfirm a little attention.

Hyperfirm + D-ring 1.


Hyperfirm + D-ring 2.


Many thanks to Zod and Tonka for helping me get this sawed in half. I really would like to maintain the ability to take the blaster apart, so I'm following a tutorial posted on the FISD by Pandatrooper. This is going to be a work in progress for a bit--will be the side project while I'm waiting for glue to dry on the armor.

Hasbroken.


Anyone know offhand what the image width limit is for the forums? I noticed that it's cropping stuff on the right side.

Eric, I am glad to see you finally received your armor. I can't believe you actually waited as long as you did to open it. I don't think I could have forced myself to do anything other than opening the box, when my armor first arrived.

I look forward to seeing your progress in this thread.

Haha Eric, yeah I'm not sure what I was thinking! What's one more hour though...

Also, I cropped my images a bit more, so they shouldn't be clipped on the forums. Looks like a 652 pixel maximum width.

Looks like you are off and running

eoastrooper wrote: Front-ish view.

Flip the ab plate the other way. The vertical row of buttons should be on the viewer's right.

Oh, and swap the hand plates.

eoastrooper wrote: Might be cheating, but I ordered the bucket assembled.

Not cheating at all. I wish I'd ordered that option.

We recommend painting the interior of the helmet black, though. It reduces the amount of reflected light from the outside, and also helps reduce any glare from the inside.

I agree with Eric, I ran down the USPS driver and found her in my neighbor hood after I got the piece of paper. Then I ran into the house and opened it up and then.... stared at it for 2 months good luck man. Its definitely fun to build!!!

Oh, and I would have went for the pre build on the bucket as well

Hey Crimson, I was hoping no one would notice the abs plate orientation before I fixed it this morning! (I discovered my mistake late last night and was just too tired to get everything back out again.) Also, will do on the handguards.

Will look into painting the bucket interior black--not sure how well that will go on assembled bucket though. The foam pieces have velcro on the back and the lens plate is just screwed in--so those are easy to get out of there. The mesh on the teeth looks like it's hot glued in place. Do you use spray paint or brush? Seems like it would be tough to get a can of paint in there to get all the nooks and crannies. Either way, it's gonna be one heck of a tape job...

Interior of bucket.


Wags, I promise that I won't let it sit for 2 months. I think it will be fun once I get started...

Longshot--don't let me catch up to you now! Only kidding, man!

Since it's already assembled, I'd suggest the brush technique. Doesn't have to be pretty, since it's all interior, but any little bit should help.

Crimson wrote:Since it's already assembled, I'd suggest the brush technique. Doesn't have to be pretty, since it's all interior, but any little bit should help.

I agree with brushing. I brushed the inside of my Biker Scout helmet. Like was said - it doesn't have to be pretty, just cover up the white inside.

Crimson wrote:Doesn't have to be pretty, since it's all interior

Haha, you don't know me very well yet--even interiors must be pretty!

Thanks, will put it on the to do list, though I doubt that anyone will be able to see through the green lens material I just got--I sure can't! . I might tackle this later when I'm painting the bucket details for EIB...

Whoops, Lumpy--sorry I missed your post. Non pretty interior duly noted, but I'm not sure I can overcome my obsessive German nature...

eoastrooper wrote:Whoops, Lumpy--sorry I missed your post. Non pretty interior duly noted, but I'm not sure I can overcome my obsessive German nature...

Haha.. I hear ya on that one. You can use black acrylic paint with a sponge type brush to put it on. works like a charm. And the smell goes away quicker then a rattle can.. lol

I think you might be ahead of me already...but we have both "taken our first step into a larger world" (you have been watching the movies over and over again, right?)

You are doing the right thing with the build thread...(something I neglected to do so far )Maybe we'll end up trooping the same event for our big premiers

Keep up the good posts, man! It's motivational

LongShot, I haven't watched ANH for a couple of weeks--the rebels always win anyways, and they take way too long to do it!

Just keep plugging away, man--I'm sure we'll be trooping together soon. Let's shoot for a LongShot premier, maybe a double one. Anything else, and I may have to stage a trooping strike...

Wags, thanks so much for the tip. /bow

It's been a little while since your last post. Any progress yet? Or are you still staring at a pile of plastic on the floor wondering what you got yourself into?

Mowskwoz wrote:It's been a little while since your last post. Any progress yet? Or are you still staring at a pile of plastic on the floor wondering what you got yourself into?

Slow progress, man. Work has been kicking my butt (in a good way though). Freelance is usually either feast or famine...

But yeah, after about a week with plastic armor spread out all around the living room, a friend suggested that I make a work area in the basement. So I'm set up down there--I just need a little more free time to play. I should be ready to glue the arm pieces this weekend after a little more sanding. I'll post pics when I get that far.

I got some elastic and webbing finally to play around with the strapping. I also made a bunch of test snap tabs, and I think I've perfected my mallet and anvil skills. And, I've spent *way* too much time tracking down the right material for the tabs. I tried styrene, but it seemed to crack pretty bad when snapping and unsnapping. I found some .040" ABS here in town, but it seemed a little thin--no problem that I already cut out 80 squares of it when I decided that, haha. So, I ended up getting some .060" ABS from the place that G-man recommended. I feel pretty good about the material--it's actually the thickness that the armor maker advised me to use.

I did a Frogtape build of the ab / kidney / cod / butt to measure for the belt size, which I've ordered and received. I think the undersuit is the last thing on order that I haven't gotten yet--should come by Friday. But yeah, I keep thinking that I have everything I need, and there's just always one more thing! I know I need gray paint for the thermal detonator yet...

Anyways, I've done a bunch more stuff--switched out lenses on the bucket, bought a sewing machine to alter the neck seal and finish the ends of straps (still trying to figure out the machine btw). I think what I need to do is focus on crossing off a couple of easy things on my list. I've been targeting the hard stuff and hope to see some speed gains soon. I'm getting antsy to see progress, myself!

Ripcode helped me do a tape up of my armor today--I'm really really happy with how it looks. What do you guys think?

Front view:


Back view:


EDIT: Fixed links!

These pictures will show the result's better than the Red X's ....