Not your average "help me scale" scale help request, IM M4 chest

[FWBulldog]

I started to pep'd Robo's M4 chest brace at the default scale, and realized that my head will never go through the opening. My head it 7 inches, and the pep'd opening is 5 inches across:

So I pulled up the latest Pep Designer 3.1.0a, and used the new feature that lets you measure between two points. Sure enough, 5 inches (127mm):

So I thought I'd just increase the scale until the opening was wide enough to fit my 7 inch head, but if I do that the measurement between back and chest becomes huge, 15.5 inches! I'm only 11 inches thick.

The default scale puts the inside chest measurement at about the right dimension (296mm=11 inches):

I haven't found any pictures of a person wearing just the chest brace, so scaling it via the picture/measure method is pretty hard.

It's not clear to me how the chest brace works with the chest/back. Does it all become one piece? I know most people join the chest/back pieces before they glass them, and cut them apart later. I'm cool with that. But what do you do with the brace?

It seems like I have to get the scale on the brace right, and apply that scale to the chest/back. But if I scale it to fit my head, the chest will be massive.

Any advice? (and yes, I've spent hours searching the forums)

 

[bamboodia]

I'm not doing a MkIV but I'm guessing it's same idea as the MkIII neck. The piece is cut in two and then joined back together when fitted.

 

[JFcustom]

True.
Since the brace piece must be scaled the same than back and chest, to fit inside their both, I think the simplest answer is to build your brace as if you had a common small melon, and then do something like that :

Once painted, glue velcro flaps to attach both parts together...

 

[FWBulldog]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll just have to finish the pep, split the brace, and see if the scale works. It doesn't take very long to pep the brace, so if I have to scale up it isn't a huge deal. I'm 6'2", so I think I'll probably need to make it a little bigger.

 

[Onephattsi2]

Im 6'2" also, im not sure How the scale on your piece is set up, but i had to scale all of muly upper body parts to 26.6 from the default 25.4 to get them to fit correctly

 

[FWBulldog]

Im 6'2" also, im not sure How the scale on your piece is set up, but i had to scale all of muly upper body parts to 26.6 from the default 25.4 to get them to fit correctly

The chest brace default scale is 24.5. Did you have to scale that to 26.6 as well?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[TryChick]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll just have to finish the pep, split the brace, and see if the scale works. It doesn't take very long to pep the brace, so if I have to scale up it isn't a huge deal. I'm 6'2", so I think I'll probably need to make it a little bigger.

FWBulldog,
So I'm curious as to where you ended up splitting the brace, how you reconnected, and how you attached the chest/back to it. I'm at this point now and am searching the forum and rest of the internet and am not really coming up with good images, advice...

 

[Onephattsi2]

FWBulldog,
So I'm curious as to where you ended up splitting the brace, how you reconnected, and how you attached the chest/back to it. I'm at this point now and am searching the forum and rest of the internet and am not really coming up with good images, advice...

I can take some pics of my brace for you...... I split mine right at the center of the shoulder.... Then I reconnect it with Chicago screws....

Sent from my HTC One X

 

[TryChick]

I can take some pics of my brace for you...... I split mine right at the center of the shoulder.... Then I reconnect it with Chicago screws....

Sent from my HTC One X

That would be awesome!

 

[Looch]

I would suggest making it in the proper scale and then just removing some of the foam on the sides of the neck opening, as opposed to the front or back.

 

[Onephattsi2]

That would be awesome!

Here are a few pics of how mine goes together..... I can't put it on by myself is the only drawback. But I didn't want to chance a magnet coming apart while wearing it...

Its hard to really see, but what I did was cut the brace in half.. and made an overlap between the two piece, drilled 8 holed in it, and put 4 short and 4 long Chicago screws through it, 4 to bolt the brace back together, and 4 to bolt the collar pieces to it. There are two Chicago screws on the back of the chest plate that bolt the collar pieces to the chest..... Then the back simply velcros to the collar pieces at the top to hold it in place, and there are two Chicago screws on the sides of an overlap on the chest to screw the back and chest together. Holding the back in place...


Sent from my HTC One X

 

[TryChick]

Here are a few pics of how mine goes together..... I can't put it on by myself is the only drawback. But I didn't want to chance a magnet coming apart while wearing it...

Its hard to really see, but what I did was cut the brace in half.. and made an overlap between the two piece, drilled 8 holed in it, and put 4 short and 4 long Chicago screws through it, 4 to bolt the brace back together, and 4 to bolt the collar pieces to it. There are two Chicago screws on the back of the chest plate that bolt the collar pieces to the chest..... Then the back simply velcros to the collar pieces at the top to hold it in place, and there are two Chicago screws on the sides of an overlap on the chest to screw the back and chest together. Holding the back in place...


Sent from my HTC One X

Thanks for the pics. That helps. I ended up separating mine about where you did and added two underlapping tabs to the back section that slide into slots I fiberglassed into the front part of the neck brace. The tabs and slots work pretty well, but I'm using snaps and elastic to hold it the front and back pieces together, and I don't know how tightly the two pieces will stay together. I was thinking of drilling a small hole all the way through the tabs and slots and dropping a steel screw with a fairly flat head into the hole from the top of the brace so the bottom of the head rests on a disc magnet with a hole in it that is glued or recessed at the top of the hole. The screw would be dropped into the hole and the screw head would rest on the magnet so it couldn't back out, hopefully keeping the two sections together snugly...It would make it more secure than what I have set up now and hopefully easier to put on.