Great Lakes Garrison & Base

Hey all, I'm still a newb here. I have been researching armor on the FISD forum and had some questions for you local troops. I am 5'10" and 195-200lbs. Most of my weight is in my mid-section/chest. My legs are are not huge but at the same time, there are not super skinny. I have pretty muscular calves. My arms are pretty skinny.
What I'm worried about are the leg pieces on the suits. I have contacted the maker of the RT-MOD and he stated the size of leg and arm pieces. His leg pieces should fit me with out a problem but the arm pieces sound like they will be too big. He also stated that if I can fit into the FX thigh and calve pieces I should be able to fit into the rest of the makers as well. Is that true? I self-measured(probably not as accurate as having someone else do it) my legs. Calves are just about 16 1/4" at the largest point when flexed and my thighs are about 22 1/8" at the largest point when flexed.

I'm right now torn between RT-MOD & TM. I'm worried about having to shim the calves. I have heard it doesn't look that good.

What armor do you guys use?
Do you think my legs would fit in TM/TE2/AP unshimmed?
Anyone have a set of the RT-MOD/TM/TE2/AP that I could see to possibly test fit the pieces in question?

Help me GLG, you're my only hope. ~Eric

I had the RT Mod stuff. Just sold it off a few mnths ago. the new RT bucket look real nice. The parts should be fine. The arms on mine were just fine. I had to cut a bit to make it fit me, but most people have to cut armor. I would get pics, but my home PC is FUBAR right now. I am at work and no pics on this comp

If you shim properly, then you won't be able to notice. Talk to terrell here on our boards. He did a great job with adding shims to another persons armor. Mine are not as great, so you can see them. But there are a lot of people that shim their armor, so I don't think it is that big a deal.

I have FX armor and still needed to add shims to my leg pieces.

I wear FX armor with RT helmet. 5'8", 175lbs., so I'm one of the smaller troopers around these parts. I've had to cut the ever living tar out of my armor pieces -- thighs shortened by about 2", slimmed down considerably, forearms definitely cut down -- probably about 2-3" each. I also trimmed the shoulder bells about 1.5" inches to give the illusion of longer limbs.

I'm working on a set of CAP armor right now, although not with any sense of urgency. I've only done the rough trim, but visually, it's smaller than the FX, so I haven't had to cut down as much.

There's a tremendous amount of variance in the raw pieces to start with.

Mowskwoz wrote: I'm right now torn between RT-MOD & TM. I'm worried about having to shim the calves. I have heard it doesn't look that good.

What armor do you guys use?
Do you think my legs would fit in TM/TE2/AP unshimmed?
Anyone have a set of the RT-MOD/TM/TE2/AP that I could see to possibly test fit the pieces in question?

Help me GLG, you're my only hope. ~Eric

Keep in mind that a set of TM armor is about double what a set of RT costs, but TM is the best (for now).

Your shins should fit in any armor makers shins, but your thighs will be tight in everything but the FX and RT. I can't say about the TM, but it is a little larger than the TE2 and AP, but I don't know how much larger.