BH4548 Back again - sold my kit long ago - want to rebuild... [Progress Post - Pic Heavy]

[thrax]

Assembled the gauntlets and polished them up and attached hoses. I used some tarp rivets for the sleeve attachment and secured the parachute clips. Then, on the hoses and wire tied them on with some elastic strips to 'give' a little. I added some foam from a yoga mat for gauntlet padding. I glued in the aluminum dart parts that I got from ThinkBoxMFG.

 

[thrax]

I got a 'B'-grade jetpack from MoW and boy was it bad. I had a LOT of work to do on it and I'm still not happy with it. I painted it up because I wanted to make a 501st event, but ended up re-working it afterwards.

 

[thrax]

Added the foam helmet inserts and the ACH (military) chin straps all secured in with chicago screws. I roughed them up with 150-180 grit sandpaper and CA glued them into the helmet. I still have to add some mild adhesive to get the foam to line up better/flush against the bottom.

 

[thrax]

I used one of my old pelican cases for the Westar34's, but I like the gray case better.

I'll start on the DEC reproductions with LED lights when my wire and red LED's come in...

 

[thrax]

OK, for the chest armor, once again I followed Cruzer's build tutorial here on the TDH, but I used some different snaps that 'bite' into the leather. Once again, I used CA glue and roughed up the snaps and the back side of the armor before I glued the snaps in. To make the teeth of the snap sink in better, I created tiny slits in the leather with a small Exact blade.

 

[thrax]

My favorite part...I am installing a voice amplifier to the back of my chest armor. I bought a Croove brand voice amp for $25 and took it apart. The circuit board, speaker, and battery holder should all fit in the back, but I may move the battery holder to back of the other chest piece. I cut out the slits in the front of the chest piece and added the screen mesh that come on the Croove amp case that I disassembled.

This Croove voice amp came with a WIRED mic. I hate extra wires to keep up with, so I ordered a blue tooth mic adapter instead to use in the helmet (waiting on it to arrive). I'll keep you posted...

 

[thrax]

I'm hoping to get 501st level 2 certified. But, I need the chin skirt and haven't seen Chucko on here for a while

Here is my UNWEATHERED test fit...

 

[thrax]

Update: my Bluetooth mic came in, it's a bit bulky though. I don't like the WIRED one that came with the Croove, so I got the Bluetooth one cheap. I added an audio cable so that I could connect it to the mainboard in the right side chest armor piece and mount the Bluetooth transmitter in the left chest or visa versa (point of view).

I will use sticky-back velcro to mount the transmitter. next to the battery. The concept is that the speaker and mainboard (connections) will be on the left chest and the battery (power) and transmitter will be on the right, so there will be a pos + neg wire and an audio extension cable running behind the armor and just behind the leather flak vest. The audio cable will have to be shortened.

Anyhow, all I need now is an 18650 battery holder - I will have to 3D print one since most of them out there are only $3 but usually ship for $6-9...pffft! More to come...

 

[RevolverOcelot]

Do you have a link to Cruzer's knee tutorial?

 

[thrax]

Do you have a link to Cruzer's knee tutorial?

Here is a search I did on here. What are you looking to do? Maybe I can help...

Search results for query: Cruzer Jango knee armor

www.thedentedhelmet.com