Armor part - done!

Some lesson's learned:

-The belt box cutting is hell. A dremel works best, but be careful. Be thankful that most of the SA stuff comes pre-cut.
-Have a lighter handy to melt the end of the webbing, or else it becomes unmanagable.
-Don't mess up a rivet. Trust me. To remove a rivet that is not properly washered, or whathave you is like an hour long, profanity-ridden process.
-Have a full length mirrior handy while doing the belt part. It's really the only sure way to make sure the boxes are even.

In other news, I picked up some medium vinyl for the boots, as well as the boots themselves (men's, from target, $18.99). I got fabric for the cumberbund, elastic, velcro, etc - All the ingredients. Also some semi-gloss spray paint for the blaster - which I started on last night, cleaning all the mold release off with acetone and scrubbing it, then letting it dry.

Tomorrow will most likely be sewing machine shopping, but hopefully I'll be able to get some work done.

adventures in riveting

I'd reached an impass with what I could do without a riveter, so we finally went out and got one. All told with rivets it cost us about $22, for the tool and approximately 100 rivets. We got the Arrow brand riveter ($17.99), and the Arrow brand rivets ($4.89) - 1/8th aluminum, short length. These were a perfect size to connect both the back tank, and the belt pieces together. The only other addition I would recommend - and really it's a must - are the washers for the back of the rivets. You only need these when riveting through cloth, but honestly without them you're going to ruin the straps as well as your evening.

I'll be going back to get the washers tonight so I can finish the belt. Thank goodness I had the blaster to work on as well else I would have gone nuts. :P

Progress made - 3/29/06

I'd done a lot of the velcro to date, but last night I finished up the sewing of it. A few things of note:

-Sew the velcro with the hook side down, not into the hook side. The thread kept getting caught and I'd have to start over.
-A good square with an X in the middle shape for sewing velcro seems to work best.

The pieces that went into the side of the chest and back were surprisingly difficult to get through the pre-cut holes, so you may want to extend those a touch if you get the SA kit. But I just shoved them through in the interest of not cutting any more than I had to out of the ABS.

All peices of the armor are now done, and I need to move on to blaster or boots or cumberbund. One of those will be started this weekend, is my hope. If not started tonight.