Update 11/15/2016 (PIC HEAVY): That armour came quick, I got it a few days ago and just got around to posting my progress since then. I have pretty much my entire kit, minus a back apparatus for my helmet hose(s) to connect to and probably some leather half chaps for my shins.
A lot of people have mentioned that these plates are small. I tried them on and they fit very well. The back plate feels a little small but lines up with the collar plate in size and I can’t say much because I don’t have a back plate with my current kit.
My idea for strapping the chest and back plates together is to use this leather belt I picked up from Wal-Mart for $6.50 in the women's section. I cut it in half to connect my back plate with my chest plate. I weathered the belt with some light brown paint. After I had weathered it, I found it is faux leather and doesn’t smell very good burnt. I’ll run by Lowe’s tomorrow to see what kind of hardware I can find to connect it to my plates.
The first thing I did was flat black the backside of my plates. This is something I’ve done since putting an acrylic black paint on the inside of my helmet; to me it makes the overall armour cleaner with no white showing. I then painted the metallic coats on the front of the plates a let it sit over night (roughly 8-10 hours).
The next morning before I left to work I applied several coats of hunter green to my plates and let it dry while at work.
After I got home I applied another coat of paint and set out to working on weathering my soft parts. I used mostly flat black and dark brown spray paint to weather my “deer” skin gloves. I choose these gloves because they remind me of a trapper and would work well with my overall beast hunter approach to this kit.
I kept one glove untouched so you could see the comparison between fully weathered and brand new. After all my paint had been applied I used a little bit of acetone in a few areas to make it look like a stain here and there over the years.
I’ll be running this flight suit through the wash once more. The greens were made with some paint, grass stains where I smeared it into the grass, or pine branches I rubbed it all over. The browns are from some paint, dirt, mud, and rubbing it over all the rocks outside. The greys are from doing an oil change in the flight suit, dust from my garage, and rubbing it across the asphalt outside.
My hard leather green bracers also got the same weathering effects with flat black, light brown, and dark brown paints. Also smeared in garage/shop dust. Buckles still need to be trimmed to my arm size with flight suit on.
The next day when I got home from work I heated my knee plates up and bent them to the shape of my knees. I also added a rusty brown to all the spikes on my shoulder bells and then the weathering process began across all my plates. I mostly used a dark brown and flat black spray paint to smearing into the scratches/grooves.
In addition to the paint I swept up my garage and used the grime to smear into my plates. I then used some potting soil to add my grime and weathering to my plates, especially in the crevices. This is where dirt would build up in real life from tromping around the woods.
A trick I used to get the dirt to stick was to heat the back of the plates up with a heat gun. This got the paint on the reverse side sticky and the grime adhered better to the plates. My plates are now done; as far as weathering (the appearance as though I may have slid down a hill in kit, brushed up against a tree or bush, and similar scratches one would get hunting prey). I’ll be working more on my back plate apparatus for my helmet hoses. I’m strongly considering only having one hose and a filter on my helmet instead of two.
My flak vest is made from a leather jacket that used to have “earthy” frills down the backside. I cut the sleeves off and marked out approximately where the bottom abdominal plate would be to make the flak vest shorter.
I will be using straps instead of buttons to secure the back of my flak vest, so I can fasten it over my flight suit. The collar was also adjusted so it doesn’t press up against my neck.
Below is sort of how my armour will look when secured to the flak vest with velcro.
What should the spacing be between the plates (i.e. the abdominal plate to the chest plate and the abdominal plates to the kidney plates)??
The CRLs say a girth belt is acceptable, but I don't see any reference pictures for one?
