Armor, Gauntlets, Suitcase

A VERY busy night over here at the project workbench, and I'm pleased to say that I got an awful lot accomplished for a school night. With the time crunch officially on, I'm very proud to say that I think I'm actually ahead of schedule. As a lifelong procrastinator, this is a great relief to me. I actually HATE being in a mad panic, so it's very nice to see things coming together so soon. The light of the tunnel is upon me.

First up, I had to pick up a suitcase yesterday. I was going to buy a fully rigid suitcase, but then thought better of it when I saw the price tag. The idea here is that I need something that I can use to transport the suit, without it being crushed. I have a couple of suitcases, but they are all of the sport/duffel bag style. No rigid walls. I got this at Target for like 100 bucks.



As of tonight, all of the armor has been glued onto the body suit. I am missing 8 pieces from the back side, and I don't plan on adding those in. They will never be seen, and they will only serve to hinder movement further.



I needed a way to secure the cod piece under the crotch, and based on some pictures I saw online, I figured some good old fashioned shoe strings would do the trick. I'm sure some thin cord would have worked as well, but I don't know where to find that stuff. Shoe string, I know where to find.



Here you can sort of see how I attached the shoe string to the back of the cod. I basically spun the string into a little pattern, with the theory being that it is less likely to just slip out from under the cod if it's wound up like that. I first glued the string to the cod, then glued a piece of fabric down on top of that to keep it in place. That Dap stuff is REALLY strong! I love it!



And then it was on to the gauntlets. I picked up a small bottle of liquid Dap today from Lowe's. The gel stuff is a little too thick for delicate work, and I didn't want to risk getting too much goo into the channels on the gauntlets for the fins.



Here is what the gauntlets look like prior to having the fins added.



Knowing how error prone this type of work can be, I taped up the gauntlets to protect them against spilled glue. The stuff eats right through the plasti-dip, and ruins the finish. I've already seen it in action a couple of times.



No surprise, I actualy did drip a TON of glue ALL OVER the gauntlet on my first try. The inside of the cap was wet with glue, and I didn't notice it. So when I went to brush the glue in using the brush that is on the inside of the cap, I didn't notice the stuff dripping onto the gauntlet. FORTUNATELY, I had laid down that painters tape to protect it. If I had not, the finish would have been ruined. Funny, as I had ALMOST not taped it up, thinking it was too much hassle, and that I would just be careful. No such luck!

Here's the first gauntlet finished.



And here is the completed pair.



There is still a little work needed to be done on the fins, which I may end up blowing off, but for the most part, these are done. I may also need to trim the velcro so that the fit better. I guess they are not really done. There is still some work to do after all.