Stormtrooper - Thigh & Calves
The instructions really give you the best guide to putting the thigh and calves together but here are a few pointers that your instructions may not provide and for some are a matter of preference.
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The calves of the FX armor fit a really large thigh so you may need to cut them down to fit you. Take your time and properly size it to your leg because you only get one shot at this. Notice how much overlap you have when you put a thigh piece set around you leg. You should have some one measure how much overlap is there and then mark it on the armor. Take that amount off all the way down both the left and the right thigh piece and cut it with a bandsaw.
I prefered to cement my thigh pieces together instead of velcro as the instructions suggest. I couldn't think of any reason I would ever want it apart again. I have worn the armor quite a bit and I have yet to regret the decision.
The cover that fits over the right knee can be mounted by using rivets. All you need is a rivet gun and a box of rivets from the hardware store. You can even buy white rivets that match your armor.
I found after wearing the armor for four hours at at time, the weight would make my back hurt. To help distribute some of the weight and make it easier to remove the thighs, connect the thigh pieces to a garter. The garter is a belt worn around the waist with webbing straps hanging over the left and right leg.
The garter is just some webbing I bought at the fabric store and some buckles. I bought enough 2" black webbing to go around my waist, with a little extra, and added a 2" heavy duty plastic buckle (also found at the fabric store). The straps are 1" webbing with smaller 1" plastic black buckles. It look me a little playing around to get the length of the 1" straps so my thighs fit comfortably but now it is a quick on and off with no adjusting.
To connect the thigh piece, just attach the clip at the bottom of the strap to the buckle clip reciever inside the thigh piece. The buckle clip reciever is connected to a short strap that is riveted to a piece of styrene. The styrene is cemented to the inside of the thigh. This method is used so the rivet isn't visible on the outside of the thigh.
To assemble the calves you will need to use industrial velcro to be able to put them on.
I had trouble after, wearing my armor a while, with the top of my right calve chaifing the back of my leg. I bought some 1" foam at the craft store and just cut a small block of it and mounted it with velcro. Now my calves don't chaff or turn.
The knee cover should also be attached with rivets. Avoid velcro on anything that could be concidered a permanent placement. If you don't need to detach something to put it on consider riveting. The less you have to worry about when trooping the better.
