My First Build

Hi Guys,

This is my first build using the SDS armour, a lot of you might have already seen these images from the UKG forum but wanted to show my work and progress to all.

Now I know what a lot of people think of Ainswoth, and I wont go into politics (life to short) but he has given me some great tips. Also Graham Roberts has been super invaluable and is worth his weight in Jaffa Cakes!

I will say the detail and images on this forum have been a great deal better and easier than other forums I have read and will certainly help "upgrading" my armour as time goes on.

Right enough of the brown nosing...

The Kit as it arrives;

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The Battle spec helmet half way done. Now this comes with a separate mouth/chin piece which you cut out and glue on (a major pain). With hindsight I believe there was enough detail already on the mould just to paint it.

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Two images of my finished Lid, I had a friend paint the ears & a little disappointed I must confess so perhaps the stick on mouth piece is a better idea? Anyway the impression I got from Graham was the rougher it is the more screen accurate it is... Happy days!

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One thing I realised once building you never have enough clamps!

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Shins pre trimmed.

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The strapping
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Then Graham paid me a visit...

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Since this picture was taken I have rounded off the top thighs and made them a little more flush. The drop box's here are connected with velcro but have since changed them to elastic.

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Now the SDS kit uses the shoulder straps as the main support and to connect the shoulder bells. Now with Grahams advice we/I have ditched that idea and going with elastic straps under the main straps to take the weight. One bit of advice Aniswoth suggested to me was putting hot glue in the cavities of the main shoulder straps to strengthen them.

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That prettymuch brings you all up to date. All I think I need to do is sort out the straps over my shoulders get my boots sorted and then its part time. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Your progressing quite quickly here now..

Things i noticed straight away that need your attention, if only to make the overall look of this kit better.. and thats why we are all here

The helmet; raise the brow in the center, i guess this was built by AA and they always look a little off.. also the tube stripes are too far down they should be closer to the cheek crease. The ear cap stripes are a little too thick, if you can redo them i would. Its a bit in your face with the wide black paint.

The thermal detonator is too wide, another AA thing. The total width should be around the 7.5 inch mark, so you can cut it down quite a bit.

Ditch the AA strapping using velcro, there is no give. Always use elastic for maximum comfort and minimum costume failure. Vecro has to give and as soon as you bend over things will ping off.

Now these are all things that you can change over time and maybe things that Graham has suggested too..

Keep us upto date with the build and have fun

Rob

Im a bit scared about what you mean by this ... "Since this picture was taken I have rounded off the top thighs and made them a little more flush" [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

What have you done??

G.

Dont Panic.. Its noting a lot of sticky tape and blue tac wont fix!!

I have just rounded the centre seam at the very top to make it less square is all.

I also brought a shed load of elastic blk & white and poppers today. I'm not brave enough to tackle the shoulder straps on my own.

I also glued the second strap onto the chest piece today.

Im in Wales now for a couple of days look after my poorly mum so I can't do any futher "mods" for a while.

Robster!

Not bad,not bad at all.The brow trim is an easy fix.take off the brow rubber and trim no more than 5mm off the cap front.(Please ask graham for a lend of hes curved scisors for that job.)

Trim.
from left to right, left being no mm going to 5mm in the centre and down to no mm on the right. a nice slight curve.

Small Update..

Thats some good advice on the brow I was thinking I would have to take the whole thing apart and rebuild it. I was not looking forward to screwing those ears on again. I also own a pair of those round scissors but will let Graham do it. Then its fault if it goes pete tong!

I have striped the paint off the ears and ready to repaint the blk lines..

I have also added a blk mesh on the inside frown.

Nearly there boys..

Cool it's easy to do the ears with a sharpie - loose the frown mesh for accuracy

Or keep it for trooping.
Looks like you are really coming along mate! Graham knows what is what he'll steer you right, although I am with him- what have you done to the thighs??? Pics please.

Ok this is all I did......honest

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just rounded the seam.

Also I ordered a pair of TK boots which arrived this morning...

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Hay Guys some good news just got cleared with the UKG here are some pictures. A little advice though you will notice my chest plate is a little wonky any ideas?

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Nice one Robmeister!

Not sure what you mean by a wonky chest though mate???

well done mate looks good,a nice fitting suit.I have no idea what you mean by a wonky chest?

Wonky chest? I don't see it either?

Nice suit by the way

Thanks guys,

if you look at the top pic my "boobs" aren't parallel, is that then how it should be? or nothing to worry about?

While I have your attention I have been wearing my armour around the house today my left shin with the sniper plate keeps rotating to the left, then I have to keep turning it round myself every 10 minutes and on a troop I think that would drive me nuts! any way of preventing that or is that part of the parcel?

Also stairs are fun....

Sometimes my left shin moves a little too, i dont let it bother me.. a little velcro on the inside and at the top of your boot will fix this if it really bothers you..

Great looking suit there, a fantastic job on the build.