Ah, I see you fell for my clickbait title.
Ever since the phantom was unveiled, I have been carefully planning my clone build. Once I got my hands on one, I stenciled it for exact dimension and took photos from every angle. I went home and this is what I came up with at first: (shown with belt etc tacked in place before final assembly)
Same chassis dimensions, same leg loop system with T-hooks, same utilibridge setup with comfort channels, and I was planning on adding the same lineman's. The issue was: it just was not as comfortable as my old kestrel clone no matter what I did. In fact, the real phantom was significantly more comfortable than my imitation. I think the issue may be the mil-spec mesh I used, as well as the way I welded the body to the webbing. I will work on this later and figure out where I went wrong. In the meantime, I have overhauled my kestrel clone saddle to accept the phantom upgrade features while retaining the roomy comfort of the kestrel. I also took the opportunity to upgrade my waist belt etc. I had some microadjusters on the old saddle which I removed as well to replace with comfort channels. Here is what I came up with:
Ever since the phantom was unveiled, I have been carefully planning my clone build. Once I got my hands on one, I stenciled it for exact dimension and took photos from every angle. I went home and this is what I came up with at first: (shown with belt etc tacked in place before final assembly)
Same chassis dimensions, same leg loop system with T-hooks, same utilibridge setup with comfort channels, and I was planning on adding the same lineman's. The issue was: it just was not as comfortable as my old kestrel clone no matter what I did. In fact, the real phantom was significantly more comfortable than my imitation. I think the issue may be the mil-spec mesh I used, as well as the way I welded the body to the webbing. I will work on this later and figure out where I went wrong. In the meantime, I have overhauled my kestrel clone saddle to accept the phantom upgrade features while retaining the roomy comfort of the kestrel. I also took the opportunity to upgrade my waist belt etc. I had some microadjusters on the old saddle which I removed as well to replace with comfort channels. Here is what I came up with: