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[Echo Darklighter]

Hide the rivets on a Legacy kit? I thought those were ok on these kits?

"Painted" being the operative word.  They don't have to be hidden, just painted to match the rest of the kit.

[Robidom]

Thanks for clarifying Cin, with any luck I should have a blaster WIP starting tonight or tomorrow, armor unfortunately still has to wait a bit.

[Robidom]

In soft parts and weapons mode for a while until my hand heals up and I can get back to the armor itself. The seamstress for my vest has unfortunately gotten overly busy so I will likely be handling that myself, getting started on weapons this last week or so, albeit slowly while I find all the parts and greeblies I need. Probably have a bowcaster pistol here soon, gonna need a bandoleer for extra ammo and rockets, there's a place in town I can find an ammo/girth belt, managed to find parts for gauntlets too.
Long story short- I'm working on several parts of my kit all at once, mostly looking for parts on a budget. Will be posting pics will happen soon.

[Robidom]

Here is today's progress, some time with an angle grinder and some cutting blades has sped things up nicely. Front half of the torso is nearly complete, just need to file/grind it down some more. So far it fits to just above my navel, so I'm spot on there. My armor templates seem to have disappeared in the move so I'll have to reprint those for the back half. Let's see what else... Oh! I have some rare earth magnets on the way, I plan on using those for modular kit parts and probably attaching my earcaps on my bucket when I get there, migh make battery changes easier. Any input or ideas is appreciated!

[Kris Jasra]

Arrrrggghhhh, rust!!! Evil stuff, I have to carry WD-40 and a scourer as part of my kit.

Apart from the rust infection, they're looking good.

[Robidom]

Yeah it's nasty, but also an easy fix. I brassed one plate and not the other, the non brassed plate got rusty so I know what I get to work on this weekend aside from everything else on this kit. All my plates are getting a brass coating anyway this just finalizes that idea. Brass and a good waxing outta keep any rust at bay.

[Robidom]

Progress made at the armor party, plates are FINALLY shaped, just a couple touch up areas. Now to get the back half done!

[Robidom]

Collar plates are done, just need to finish the back plates and get them mounted so I can test fit them, pics when I'm done with those!

[Robidom]

Back half of the collar plate is ground to shape, since I discarded the template that would have been the backplate in favor of a segmented back I'm free-handing it from here on out with the rest of the torso.


After a few cuts and a little hand filing I have this, which will be further cut to match the shape of the front abdominal plates when I'm done as well as having 2-3 more attached to it.

[Bjourk]

Love seeing another steel build!

[Robidom]

Oh just wait, I've been cooking up some ideas while I've been working for the rest of the suit that I haven't seen on anything else in the threads yet

[Robidom]

Got the basic shaping done on most of the torso last night.

I'm thinking I need to adjust the collar by raising it a bit so it and the back plates won't be sitting so low.
I will hopefully be getting the remaining plates for my back done this afternoon and starting on my legs, cheers for long weekends!!

[Robidom]

test fitting, looks like I need to take in the chest plates for a closer fit, and the collar needs to be adjusted shorter to take  up the whole works.

[Kris Jasra]

Yeah, chest and ab need to come up to close up the gap between chest and collar at the front. And the back definitely needs raising. Looking good though, I like the custom design.

[Robidom]

Thanks for the pointers Kris! The back plates (other than rear collar) are the only custom work so far, the rest is a scaled down Ronan Legacy template, so the gap between the front collar and chest is actually supposed to be there from my understanding.

[Robidom]

I'm working on templates for shoulders that will have the same overlapping curved chevron shape as the body armor but I've encountered a slight issue as for how to attach them. My plan is to have the torso armor 'float' versus being mounted directly to my flak vest, (thanks for the idea Cin!) that being said, I have no idea how to mount the shoulders. Ideally, I would like them attached to the rest of the upper body somehow with straps to hold them in place around my arms, I'm just not sure how to accomplish this so that my upper body armor is one big piece that I can simply remove and leave the flak vest intact in case I want to swap out parts or make adjustments. If anyone has ideas I would love to hear them.

[Kris Jasra]

One strap from front of armour - collar usually, to the front upper side of the shoulder, then strap from upper section of the backplate to the back upper on the shoulder - the two straps together will hold the weight of the shoulders and prevent any shifting of the top of the shoulder. Then if it needs it a loose strap round the upper arm to stop the bottom from shifting around.

My shoulders snap on to the main torso so I can switch out the shoulders if I want to. But it allows me to snap them in place at the back while it's on the ground, then put the torso on and fasten it up, then just clip the front straps of the shoulders on which I can reach easily on my own.

[Robidom]

I was considering integrating the shoulders into the collar with more plating but I like your idea better Kris, it's simpler and I wont have to do any extra steel work 

[Robidom]

Been working on some templates for my legs, not sure if I want all the pieces separate, or if I want to go full articulated legs. I just don't wanna get TOO close to the heavy side of the CRL's.

[Robidom]

I know it's been a while, but here is some new work been done to this kit- top half is brassed!

[Robidom]

Time to dust this WIP off and get it done!
A forced move resulted in the loss of my workspace for this kit and until recently I couldnt get my preferred fasteners to hold. But now I can get it going!


Here is the back plate assembly held together with gorilla tape for a fit check, I apoligize for the lack of pixels, this really IS the best pic I have at the moment.





Here's the collar and upper back held together (barely) with press rivets, the kind you normally use in leatherwork, which was my second mistake, the first is in the pic of the front collar, I had to fill in holes that I drilled for post screws that turned out to be much too big for this kit. The biggest problem was the rivets not holding, at all, so I opted for blind/pop rivets which you'll see below.

Why I never considered these in the first place I wish I knew, they're awesome!

Upper back and collar riveted together. I'll have to drill out the rivets I put in before I paint as this was a test to see how well they'd hold up.

I have to bring the back of the collar in a bit, thus the test fit, but hopefully I can do that without having to do any cutting, the clamshell design makes this pretty easy to put on myself and I want it to stay that way if I can help it. The chest needs to be opened up a bit as well, without my vest on it was a bit tight in the ribs so extra layers will be uncomfortable to say the least.

[Butston Freem]

I'm glad to finally discover this build thread. 
Awesome work!

[Robidom]

I managed to disassemble the chest plates so I can refine the shape more and eventually paint them, along with the rest of the torso. This is a better shot of the holes I made, the messy patch job, and the washer with the proper inside diameter that I need. My issue now is how can I attach stainless washers to non-stainless plates without welding? I have five of these holes between the chest and front collar plate so at least it's not the entire thing. I'm thinking either epoxy the washers right over the holes, or counter sink the holes enough that the washers fit flush with the surface THEN epoxy them in place.


I also found this in a box, forgot I had it. The plan with this is to dye most of it brown, add some more pouches, make a different buckle, paint the plastic clips on the large pouches so they look more metallic than plastic, and then weather it a bit more with the rest of the kit once it's done and wearable.