Yeah... there were a few problems with the first (let's call it's Mk I hee hee) version of the knee and elbow joints.
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'Before'
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| 'After' |
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The inside (concave) bend was fine... they both articulate beautifully... but the outside (convex) curve left gaps between the articulated pieces.
Derp. Turns out... the wood bugs are better at this than I am. The pieces were too slim and gapped too much when I bent the joint.
Back to the drawing board!
I pulled the units apart... and set to work.
(As a side note, try not to pull riveted things apart if you have an option... it's time consuming and you have shards of little metal pointy-bits all over the place. You'll find them all eventually - especially if you walk around in bare feet - but in the meantime, it's a bit of a chore to do... I guess that's why you have my handy-dandy guide so you don't end up making those mistakes, yeh?)
I extended the 'length' of each piece, but kept the sides the same measurement by simply retaining the angled edges at the bottom of each piece and simply drawing a straight line from top point to top point.
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The line was (and the wedge was cut out from)
where the white paper shows through at the top of the piece. |
I then sliced a small wedge out of the top line by measuring a half-inch down from the middle point and drawing the lines back to each top point. You can see where the 'new' pieces wre cut straight across (picture to the left) and where the wedge was cut out of the top.
WHY did I include the wedge-cut?
You'll figure this out pretty quickly if you rivet the pieces
together and don't remove the wedge - if you don't cut the wedge, the pieces won't be able to articulate smoothly, as the bend of the pieces causes the piece underneath to cram into the on on top of it.
Trust me... a half-inch wedge is all you need and it works well.
Next comes attaching the pieces...
Each piece will articulate with the ones above and below it, that part's pretty obvious... but there's special way to do it... and once again, have a look at a wood bug / pill bug or armadillo. When they curl up their concave (belly) side must contract, with the plates sliding into each other (technically that isn't completely accurate, as they curl up to protect their softer underbellies, but I digress)...
So with the concave parts of the joint - to mimic this - the plates will be in a row, and the one above will be tucked behind the one below it in the chain.
Like so:
The trick here is that the plates slide over each other a little when the joint bends... moreso than they did when they were straight (as seen above).
As for the 'convex' side of the joint (the 'outer armor' of the armadillo, if you will) the exact opposite happens. The plate above sits on top of the one just underneath it... and each one in turn pulls a little away from the one above it.
As for how each piece fits to the other, you can rivet them together one side at a time, or one 'level' at a time... the difference is not really noteworthy, but be sure you make the pieces a) large enough that you can fit your body in them and b) small enough that they fit inside the armor.
I found this more problematic for the arms... there's a lot less room inside the bicep piece and I already had to scale it up to fit my arm... once I get to the armor arm pieces, I may change my
tune, but so far, I've kept them within both measurements (my arm and the armor)... they're tight on my arm, but I don't really plan to require them to be anything moe than cosmetic anyway.
... and as you can see, they have SOME range, but not nearly a full range of motion... about a 90 degrees or so of bend at the elbows, with a little more for the knees as they're larger pieces... so long as I can hold a tumbler full of amber-coloured alcohol to my lips, I'll be fine. =)
My plan is to adhere them to adjustable straps which will buckle to a harness. Trust me... it'll work. The thought is to attach the joint units to the clothes underneath, that way there a lot less chance of anything slipping.
Stay tuned!
