Into this:
For a full walkthrough of my build process, keep reading.
Foreword
I've made these instructions both during the construction of my suit and of a commission, so the photo location, part color, and detail of the photo may go back and forth, please bear with me.
I'd also like to thank Props by Vrogy for providing me with the vacuum forming bucks and the aluminum buckles. Seeing as I don't have immediate access to a CNC (yet) I made a quick and cheap dump mold to cast some urethane buckles when I need them. Not only that, but he sparked an interest in using CNC to make bucks for vacuum-forming. He's got a lot of cool stuff on his Facebook page, be sure to check it out!
Reinforcing the Pieces (Optional)
After putting together my own suit and reinforcing it with fiberglass and resin, I found it to be mostly unnecessary. The plastic itself is fairly strong and in most regards won't see much flexing to warrant the reinforcing. Having split the boot guards significantly reduces the chance of them breaking and allows them to bend with your ankle.
Materials
You'll also need to get elbow and knee pads of your choice. I went with some harbor freight hard knee pads and some flexible knee pads that I made into elbow pads. It cost me something like $8 total to buy them.
Assembling the Greaves
You'll need to gather these parts, duck cloth, knee pattern, knee pads, strap adjuster, pop rivets, washers, and two strips of webbing (9" and 13" long)
Using some small clamps, hold the front and sides pieces together. Take some superglue (I use this brand) and spread it into the seams. This is used to keep the pieces together while you drill and rivet.
After you have them assembled, if you want to have your rivets stand out in their aluminum color, paint them your base color now. The reason you're painting now is because painting after riveting would be difficult to mask off. If you would rather your rivets be the same color as your armor, hold off on painting.
The green color I use is Krylon Colormaster Hosta Leaf Gloss. I've tried a variety of Rustoleum colors, all of which seemed just a little off from the color I was going for.
Once you have the greaves painted, drill holes in the same places I have. I wasn't exact with where the holes went, I just left enough room for the rivets to have enough spacing from the edges after they're inserted.
Using the knee pattern and your black canvas or duck cloth, cut out four of the pattern with a half inch border around each piece. Leaving the bottom and a one inch wide gap on one side of the top, sew two of the pieces together as shown. Turn it right side out, tuck in the bottom and sew it shut. Take 9 inches of webbing and loop an adjuster as shown and box stitch the ends together. Tuck in the side (roughly in the spot shown in the picture below), insert the webbing an inch and sew the side shut. Do this twice so you have one for each greave. Be sure they're mirrored so you have the strap adjusters on the outsides of both of your legs.
Insert the square side of the fabric into the top of the greave and mark where the holes will need to be for the rivets. Using a leather punch I punch a large enough hold to fit the rivets through. Insert the rivet into the drilled holes, through the punched fabric, then a washer over the exposed end of the rivet. Holding the washer in place (as it could come loose while popping the rivet) start popping the rivet gun. It may take more force than you expect, so be careful not to pinch your fingers between the handles like I have. Repeat this in the other three holes of the greave.
Taking the small kneecap piece, drill out four holes as shown. It doesn't need to be exact, just enough to look nice.
Hold the fabric up against the greave and fold it over to see where the kneecap needs to be placed. Once you've done that, mark where the holes are, punch holes, and rivet as you did with the greaves.
With the knee, drill four holes in these spots, mark the holes on the fabric, and punch. Before you rivet it together punch a hole in a 13 inch piece of one inch webbing and punch a hole through a end and use a flame to melt the edges and keep it from unraveling, just a quick singe. You're going to have this on the opposite side of the adjuster, so when you're popping the rivets, insert the rivet through the knee, the fabric, the webbing, then a washer over that.
Notice the strap on the right side being inserted before the washer. Be sure to do this on the opposite side for the other greave. It won't be a problem if you miss that, it just makes it easier to tighten if it's on the outside of your leg.
Assembling The Boot Covers
This will be the easiest part of the armor to put together, just rivets and strapping and that's it. For each boot cover you'll need these parts, eight rivets, two strap adjusters, two buckles, eight washers, and four strips of 1" webbing (two 20" pieces and two 4").
This one is really easy to see where you need to drill out some holes. For the bottom section, take both 4" sections and punch through both ends about 3" apart. This will let the boot covers flex when you walk rather than snap off. Rivet one to each of the middle holes, the left and right holes are for cosmetic rivets.
Trying to explain the strapping of black buckles on black webbing is a little tough, I'll try and explain it using this picture. This is the angle from the back. Weave the 20" piece of webbing through the back of the female side of the buckle and out the front, leaving 2.5" out the back. Box X stitch this shut. Leaving 6" of space between the buckle and the adjuster, weaving through the back to the front and then through to the back again. Leave 3" of space and put it through the back on the inside loop of the male side, then through to the back of the outside loop. Keeping it tight, weave it through the adjuster.
Punch a hole 2.5" from the female buckle and then 1.25" from that...and then do this all again. Three more times. You need two of these for each cover. Once it's all put together, you could of course adjust the positioning of the strap adjuster or trim off some of the extra webbing, this is just a good starting point.
Here's how it'll look altogether. Before you rivet it, be sure to insert the straps from the bottom half underneath the long, complicated straps. Ta-dah! Wasn't that easy?
Assembling The Shoulders
The shoulders won't require any glue to assemble, so go ahead and set that aside. Drill out all the round dimples on the two panels and the angled piece.
Gather these parts, duck cloth, shoulder pattern, strap adjuster, washers, rivets, 2" webbing (two 3" pieces), and 1" webbing (5", 6", 7.5", 12").
The hexagonal piece won't need any work before being assembled, maybe some edge clean up, but other than that go ahead and paint it. Paint the other three pieces as well.
The strips of two inch webbing 3 inches long are going to be used to attach the panels to the main shoulder pieces. Loosely line up the two pieces on top of the webbing and mark with a sharpie where the holes line up. Punch through these spots and rivet to only the panels for the moment.
Take the 5 inch length of one inch webbing and connect the shoulder from front to back. You want this to have a little slack; this will be used to keep the top flared out a little when it rests on your shoulder.
You can now rivet the panels to the main section with the rivets going through the main section, two inch webbing, one inch, and then a washer before punching. Be sure to have the one inch webbing oriented correctly when you rivet it together because once it's popped it will not spin.
Using the shoulder pattern, cut out two of these from your duck cloth. These are directional, so the left shoulder will be mirrored from the other. The strapping isn't sewn in exactly, so roughly position it in these spots and mark. Take the 6" strap and box X stitch it to the strap adjuster; this is on the left in the picture, the 12" piece on the right, and the 8" on top.
Before sewing these straps in, sew the two pieces together. Sew in sections, leaving the straight edge at the top open and the two spots for the lower straps open. Trim off the excess, leaving about a quarter inch all around.
Turn the piece inside out, insert the straps, and sew it shut.
Lay the hexagonal piece on top and mark the two wholes at the bottom of the shoulder bell. The bell will be riveted directly to this.
With it marked, punch it, rivet and you're almost done.
Attach this piece using the adhesive of your choice; super glue, hot glue, contact cement. I use an X of super glue, roughly place it center in the lower section of the shoulder pattern, and press the fabric into it.
Mirror the shoulder pattern and strapping pattern and you've got two completed shoulder bells!
Assembling the Chest
This is the big one, but it's a little more straight forward than the last pieces. Take all the pieces and paint them before we start.
Take the two front rib pieces with the little notch in them and superglue into the bottom corners of the chest piece, then drill through the assembly as shown.
Take your chest, back and other rib pieces and drill and slot as shown
The collar needs to be superglued to the back piece and the back rib pieces and then two holes through where each rib meets the back. Some of these holes are for cosmetic rivets rather than to hold this together.
Rivet all four rib pieces to the correct side, they should fit together fairly easily like a puzzle.
Assembling The Shoulder Straps
The shoulder straps are mostly surplus ALICE pack straps with some modification to make them a fit to the armor.
Cut an X inch strip of two inch webbing and slice it about X inches down, one of the little buckles will fit through this.
Sew it down directly to the strap at the back and trim off any excess.
Remove all the other strapping equipment at the front, save these for another project or trash them; they will not be reused.
I have these buckles which were milled from aluminum. You could make some of these out of some 6mm craft foam and it'd work just as well. It doesn't need to have strength as it's only cosmetic. Now is the time to slide it onto the black strap.
Cut a X inch strip of one inch webbing and sew it down X inches from the front of the two inch strapping. This will help keep the two inch webbing aligned over the shoulder strap, and adds a more finished look to the strap.
Once you have the webbing all taken care of, sew it down at the front and trim off the excess.
Take the back of the strap and line it up with the back panel, marking where you need to insert the strap.
Use a dremel to cut this slot out, or anything you can really think of.
Slide the strap in and pull it tight, marking through the hole where you need to punch the strap.
Put a washer over this, pop it and you have the straps attached.
On the front of the chest, cut slots above and below the channel slightly over one inch wide, just wide enough to fit one inch webbing.
Punch the end of the strap and flip it over on the other side, riveting it to the chest.
Insert the screw into the top hole, slide the strap through the top slot now, and mark where you need to punch through the strap. It needs to be fairly tight, but not so tight to be difficult. You can use this to strap on small ammo pouches to the front, but you'll need to be able to fit into the channel.
What I did here I will be modifying as it makes it a little too tight and more difficult than it needs to be to get in. In the future I will change this to reflect the buckles I will put in. As of right now though, I just punch a hole through the shoulder strap where it looks right and fits right. Then put the nut over the end.
Sewing The Undersuit.
WIP
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