I've had to make a bunch of changes to my costume to get it approved. Several of them are still in process but I want to keep y'all updated with my progress.
1. Gloves- those are painted and stitched up. I'll post them up here tonight. My Mike M. replacements that I'm going to use for approval should be here sometime mid May.
2. Girth belt- my straps were about 6 inches too long so I ordered a 40" belt to replace the 34" one I have now. I think the straps were right at 12". Should also be here mid May.
3. Toe spikes needed to be weathered. I figured they'd eventually get weathered naturally, but I had to add some artificial to get it going
4. I'm still struggling to rearrange my armor in a satisfying fashion. That should hopefully be taken care of tomorrow. I may need to take an inch off my flak vest or pin it back so it looks shorter for the time being.
5. I need to trim back my sidearm holster so you can see the trigger guard of the sidearm.
6. I need to paint my sidearm snaps and rivets black.
7. I had to order a replacement pouch for my ammo belt, the CRL went from 3 snaps to 2 so it is currently unapprovable.
8. I need to take steel wool to my jetpack and tone down the darkness of the green. It is currently too dark to be approved but I think the steel wool should work its magic. Should more or less match the gauntlets and helmet and be lighter than the armor.
9. The vertical crack on my helmet shows up too much, I'm just going to get rid of the silver on it entirely and paint the whole thing black
10. I need to adjust my collar plate location, since where it is it's pressed up against my neck and makes the studs too low on my shoulder, my cape too low, and my back plate visible. It's caused by the jetpack harness straps tugging on the backplate just enough to cause a sag, so I'm going to move my collar plate down to account for the slight sag.
Based on Jeremy's feedback I
think that's everything that needs to change for basic approval. Thankfully I'm still on track to be approved before the Solo premiere, which was my original goal.
Anyone reading my thread who is going to go for approval soon, just be aware that the requirements are much, much stricter than they've been in the past. Don't assume that just because it's how people have done it for years, it will still fly. I followed paint up threads till my eyes bled, researched day and night for every piece of my costume, and there is still something incorrect about probably 60-75% of it, and probably 30% incorrect enough that it is unapprovable as-is. The 3 snaps vs 2 snaps is a big one, people have had 3 snaps on their ammo belt as far as I can remember. MoW gloves as well, I know many people who have been approved with MoW gloves throughout the years and they will no longer fly for approval.
Stay tuned!!!