ROTJ SE

Edrrak Nolat

Active Hunter
Howdy! Well after all the cargo hold buys/sells and a ton of PMs, here's where I'm at. When you rip into it (and I encourage you!) please remember this is for trooping 501st events, not display in my home (sadly) so I feel I can sacrifice a bit on accuracy.

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Well look at that paunch! I swear it didn't look so large while standing there, haha.
The knees are sagging because I hadn't sewn in the velcro on them yet, and in fact this fitting was to determine where to fit them.
Also, I had somehow lost some of the magnets for the backing of my chest pieces and thats why the pieces arent lined up right.
Looking at the pics right after putting them on, it felt like I could pull the armor vest a bit tighter and looking at the pics it looks like I could easily so that I may consider.
Oh, and I know the spats need a LOT of dirty-ing up!
I intend to wear a black balaclava till I can install a chin skirt. This is with a BM bucket. The MR covers some more, but Looking at the pics I quite prefer the look of the BM to the MR on me personally.
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I am VERY happy with how the tubes turned out. Granted the glue keeps coming looose on the gauntlet so may have to figure out what size screw to put in to hold them firmer.
On the jetpack, I have a vest, not harness. Thinking I can/should try to shorten the straps. The JP looks like it hangs a bit low/far away from my body?
Yes the belt pouches, like the spats, need to be weathered.
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I'm thinking the shift to my left is due to the straps not being the exact same length so maybe when I shorted I can even that out also?
I need to put the strap under my crotch connecting butt to crotch plates.
Need to figure out a solution to attaching braids.
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Again, weathering of the belt pouch and spat.
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So, I need to figure out how and where to run the wire for the chest lights to the battery pack. Thoughts?
REALLY need to figure out a way to keep the girth belt in place partially on the cod, and the ammo belt higher so it doesn't slide. Velcro? Snaps somehow?
Huh, just realized the gloves need weathering also. Good thing I intend to get some new MoW gloves since these are way too much on the short size.
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Huh. Is my ammo vest too short? Also what size screw are you using on 1/4" tubing to hold them in place.
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Love the positioning on the belt pouch. Covers the elastic I had to put between the cod and butt plates.
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Many thanks to Verbal21 for getting me most of the way here. Additional nod to DarthVorhees who did all the paint jobs for Verbal before I came into possession.

On a sad note, while helping me take things off, my gf held the JP by the magnetically held rocket, and the JP took a 3 foot drop to the floor. One of the thrusters popped in half (fixable) and the main mounts in the JP itself cracked and shifted. I was able to push it back into place, and it should be fine for trooping, but looks like I'll be keeping a hawkeye for a painted ROTJ jetpack in the cargo hold.

So please, helpful ideas are welcome! Oh, I did have a big question. It was **** warm in there! How do you keep cool?

Thanks in advance for all the help.

~ Kevin
 
Definitely. Going to use the CuteLucca tutorial to weather the soft parts.

Just need to get all the pieces in their places first before I have my condo board get mad with me taking over the courtyard for a weekend.:cheers
 
Made some progress on the knees.
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Weathering. Spent a couple weekends just researching all the different ways to approach it! The pics show the comparison to the untouched spats. Figured I'd start with that since they can't ever be TOO dirty, right?
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Would really love your feedback before I go off and do all the other soft parts.

Thanks in advance!
 
It's been a long time, I know, so I'll have more updates soon, but short version is had work changes, got married, had a baby, but now I'm 501st-ing again. The SE went out the window and ROTJ is on deck. But I am having 1 major issue that is driving my handler (wife) and myself insane. It's also the last piece I need to get squared away before I send in approval pics.

I purchased a metal harness (hurray!) to replace the vest I was using since you can see in the previous photos it's choking me, more than a little bit. While I know I have to trim off a lot of the spare webbing on the shoulders and waist when I get it settled, I am having MAJOR problems getting it settled! I know photos would help but I'm at work so will try to verbally explain.

Looking at reference pics, the flat cross bar on the harness that the bottom of the jetpack "hooks" onto lies below the bottom of the back armor piece. Easy. And with all the reference photos, the closest way I can describe the correct position of the JP is the base of the missile, e.g. the housing it sits in, should be level with my shoulders/neck. Also easy. But I can't seem to get the upper/shoulder harness to sit correctly so the straps line up with the armor holes to come out looking correct, AND the straps that come off the webbing don't seem to be long enough to reach my top jp hooks. The pack already had several holes in it from previous owner's attempt to get hooks in and I've added a set as well. It's all a hot mess at the moment, and I/we're so frustrated I'm skipping trying to rush it to completion for our daughter's daycare's Halloween event on Thursday and will just go JP-less.

But my question is this:
Can anyone recommend to me how to get everything lined up and fitted correctly with a metal harness so I don't have to drill yet MORE holes into my JP? I intend to use duct tape to hold the hooks on in a temp fashion during fitting for positiongin but considering I seem to be so far off on the harness I'm not even at that stage yet.

If everyone else is getting these types of harnesses and while searching here and on BHG I'm not reading about people doing major modifications to them, I figure I must be doing something wrong. I've been searching and searching but while I can find lots of pictures of the harness without armor, attachment areas, etc, I am getting no joy on the actual fitting of the harness.

Help?

~ Kevin
 
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