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Assembling a WCA Clone
As the garrison build moves on the time has come for the less-than-fun part of the project: The documentation. Unfortunately I haven't kept up well with myself, so some of these parts are already revised from what you see here.
Please note: this is a "no frills" kit. I'll be very up front... I am not the handholding type. I expect people to do their own research, study reference, and figure things out. If you want an easy, well documented kit, this is not the armor you are looking for! For better or worse, this page is as close to a tutorial as is ever going to happen.
Good luck!
Thermal Detonator
I get a lot of questions on the thermal detonator. It's really easy... Take a piece of 2" PVC pipe. Cut it to length. You can see how long it needs to be based on the lines in the belt and butt armor. It's a little bit longer than the distance between the 2 lines in the butt. Maybe 1/2 - 3/4 over that on each side?
I've never actually measured it... In fact, I don't really ever measure anything. I just took the pipe, held it up to the armor, and marked a line where it looked right and cut it.
Get 2 test caps from the plumbing aisle at your local hardware store. They look like this: [1]
Glue them in. Paint it white. Done. There are no buttons.
Seriously, that's it. Now you see why I don't include them and don't give you specs on building them. It took you longer to read this text than it will take to build the part! :)
Fitting the Suit
Trimming the armor to fit is tricky. I tried to accommodate as many body types as I could, but in doing that I've made it a bit challenging.
The torso is the key part. The chest/back, ab/kidney and cod/butt/belt all need to fit together a certain way.
I usually start with the cod/butt, since that one doesn't depend as much on other parts.
You can fit the cod/butt 2 ways. Either seamless on the sides and pull it on like a diaper, or separate parts that connect together when you assemble it. While the seamless route does look better, I've made mine come apart on the sides. It makes transport MUCH easier when you don't need a huge bin.
Fit the cod/butt so that it is comfortable. The cod piece should... um... "scoop". You'll know what I mean when you put it on. Yes, this makes the waist higher than you would think, but that is correct. The clones have VERY high waist lines in TCW. Almost every WCA suit I've seen has left the ab plate too long on the first pass. If the cod isn't touching your crotch, it's too low.
If you have a bit of extra storage in your own abdomen, this part may not be true for you! If you belly is bigger than your hips, you'll need to make the cod/butt bigger too. The ab plate fits in behind the belt, so you need to make sure there will be room for that.
Next is the chest/back. Trim out the neck, armpit and belly lines, but do NOT take in the sides or shoulder strap areas. Leave them full size for now. Tape the shoulders together so that you can sit it on your chest. Put that on along with the cod/butt.
See the gap between the top of the cod/butt and the bottom of the chest/back? The ab plate needs to be that long. The curved top of the ab plate should nest pretty well into the curved cutout in the chest. The bottom of the ab plate should just meet the top of the cod/butt. It should not overlap that line. The belt covers the gap.
For the skinnier clones: You may need to pad out the cod/butt and ab/kidney to suit the chest. It can really only go so small, and those other pieces need to fit a certain way. On my wife's Cody, the entire ab plate is lined with 2" foam, even after trimming as small as we could!
Once you've gotten the ab/kidney trimmed for length and diameter, you can trim the chest. You'll want it pretty snug around the ab/kidney, so that the ab plate doesn't ride up.
The rest is pretty easy.
The forearms are long. Trim from the wrist to wherever they need to be. You should be able to take your helmet off with the armor on, so if you can't, the forearms are too long.
The shins get trimmed from the top, as do the thighs.
Which leads us to pictures...
Assembly
There are as many ways to build a kit as there are clones. Spend time on clonetroopers.net. Read threads. See what works and doesn't work for others.
Whatever you choose, it's got to be something you are comfortable doing. For example, I use plastic dissolved in acetone for my filler. Some folks don't like using that much harsh solvent, so that may not work for you. It's all about doing your homework.
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