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And with that - goal achieved! Thanks everyone - this is a huge relief for me and the web team.

Oooo, Secret Areas. Thank you; I will.

Everybody needs a shiny crate. This is mine, a Sterilite 32 gallon container. It's big enough for my entire TK armor kit. It has lovely moldings that just beg to be painted. I liked it so much I got another one for my fur suit. Wheels are so much nicer for dragging around a con hotel.

OK, I think I got everyone settled. I did a bulk update but for a bunch of you, your PP email addresses are not the same as your PP ones, so I can to do it manually. Thanks for your patience & support.

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. Still working on re sizing my arms. Just finished the right bicep and have moved onto the left today. You can see the size difference now with the new on the left and the old on the right. I am amazed at how much more material I was able to remove and still have them fit! The difference now is that they fit snug enough to stay on my arm on their own but remain comfortable. I got the drop boxes on today as well and I think the belt assembly is done. I cut two strips of 2 inch white elastic each 10 inches long. Looped over belt and marked a hole 1/2 inch from end. Punched a 1/8 inch hole through, marked the hole on the box while aligning top of box with bottom of belt plastic. Drilled 1/8 hole in back of box and riveted in place. I also marked and cut out around snap location on elastic. Final result. Planning on adding e6000 to glue strap to back of belt once I get a couple of clamps freed up. The mail man was kind to me this morning so I have something else to work on while I wait for glue to dry. Hope to get started on the legs in a couple days. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Last week I got a friend to help me suit up and photograph me. Today I got a very nice email from my GML. Now I await my TK ID.

Forgot to mention, also working on a case. Got a plastic tube today with suitable dimensions. Was clear plastic but I'm gonna spray it matt black. Just need to find some thick foam for the inside, had a look while out today but no luck Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

Ok, so the grace period after finishing the blaster has ended, and I'm now making some extra improvements haha Not sure what this part is called, but it's the part that the spring in the inner tube wraps around. I didn't have anything here before, so the charging handle had rubbish stability as it was just glued on and with a nail going into the hollow inner tube. I've seen some people use marker pens for this part; I managed to get some wood, 18mm diameter, to slot into place. I've just cut it down to size, sanded it, and starting on the paintwork. Hopefully with this set into the inner tube, then the nail from the charging handle set into the wood, it should have much greater stability Sent from my SM-G925F using Tapatalk

Wow. Another superb set of TM armour. Looking great. :-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's kind of where I'm coming from... why am I a Stormtrooper? Obviously I'm more skilled than the average soldier/sailor at taking out the enemies of the Empire. Grunt or Officer? Planet? family? They all come in to play if you go down the womp rat hole...

Thanks man! Even though I'm disappointed about the MTK helmet, the new RS is sooooo nice.

Must be some mistake or every TK in the Legion is in trouble...interesting to hear the clarification when it comes.

Time for an update... I originally toyed with the idea of using a dremel to cut a recess into the top of the counter and place a photo of the counter numbers in there. Then covering it with the "ruler" window I made. But I was really nervous about using a dremel to cut a perfect rectangle and there wouldn't be much room to get a file in there to clean the edges. So I had a new idea.... I've got some spare plexiglas scraps laying around so I cut one of these scraps to the same dimensions as the top of the counter. Then I sanded the same thickness off the top of the counter. This way when I glue this plate to the top of the counter, the counter (as a whole) will still be the correct dimensions. Using the measurements from the Hengstler template, I marked the plexiglas with the locations of the counter window and the reset button. Then I cut out the rectangle for the window and filed it down so that my ruler window would fit inside. I actually had to make a second ruler window because my first was too thin now that it was to fit inside this new top. Luckily I still had lots of ruler left. (Now there's a sentence that possibly no one has ever used before. A friend of mine and I like to pay attention to unique sentences that may be new to the world.... "Luckily I still had lots of ruler left." This might be the first time anyone has ever said those words. I decided against cutting out the area for the reset switch. There's just not much plastic between the reset hole and the window hole and I didn't want to break things. So the reset button will be glued onto the surface later. I can re-enforce it with some little nails to help stop the reset button from breaking off. Next, I borrowed SIMpixel's counter number template from his build and made a few modifications of my own using Photoshop. I had some test numbers printed out at my local photo store. This example shows two different font sizes along with white borders and no white borders. The idea is to cut out the numbers and glue them to the counter. Then glue the new counter top and window onto the top of the counter, over the numbers. And that's what is drying right now so I don't have any photos yet. Also, I may as well mention that this progress didn't go exactly as planned. For my first attempt, I ended up gluing the numbers in the wrong location and glued the top onto the counter, also in the incorrect location. I had everything upside down. Of course, I only noticed this after filling all the edges with green stuff and getting it all perfectly sanded smooth. I had to pry it all apart, sand down the glue and green stuff and start again. Luckily I printed out several counter samples and I could also reuse all the parts after sanding off the old glue. That's it for now. Mark

It really takes a lot for me to remove the helmet. I've had issues where I really wanted to remove it and did not. However, if I am terrifying a child, I will show them I am a person under that helmet. Only as a last resort. At the last con I went to, a service dog was very upset by me. The owner asked me to let the animal see me and I complied. The dog realized I was not a threat and was not intimidated by the rest of the troops. I don't remove my helmet easily, but sometimes it is necessary. Real life sometimes calls for it.

I also pre-ordered a while back, via their payment plan. Since they've had so many delays on various items and ensembles, it was a way to throw my hat in as an interested party while still keeping the cost minimal. I still have a couple payments left. I'm vaguely curious if they'll have it ready to ship before I make the final payment. *heh* The scope of their product is far, far smaller than an outfit like Hasbro or WalMart, so one of the problems they've had to deal with is that they have, more than once, had their relatively small item runs bumped at one or another of the factories in China they contract with in favor of a larger production run (and thus more money) for another client. Add in problems with prototypes requiring partial or complete reworks, Lucasfilm or Disney or both being dissatisfied with packaging or safety or a multitude of other things they have to sign off on at each. incremental. step. of. the. process. and you get things several years on the side of uncomfortable for them as a company. Add to that, when they started their Star Wars products, they were still doing their old business model of announcing a product, with pictures of a prototype (usually a fan-made version), to gauge interest in the form of pre-orders. Then they'd delve into a variable period of research and development and prototyping and, finally, manufacture to demand. With the Star Wars license, they were reaching a far wider customer base than their previous Star Trek and BSG niches, and many of those people didn't understand that when an item went up for pre-order, nothing existed yet. Add in a lot of problems they've run into with the products themselves and satisfying the rights-holders, and they've had to drastically rework how they do things. They still take pre-orders, but it's further into the R&D stage, and they've already contracted for initial runs with the factories, based on what they estimate demand will be. And the most irritating par tof all this for us, the potential and actual customers, is that their normal transparency is hindered by order of the rights-holders. Disney told them to stop telling us about the problems they ran into. Apparently, they feel it's better if we are just left waiting and wondering when something gets bumped later for a fifth or sixth or tenth time. So, as was stated upthread, try not to concern yourself with when your ANOVOS order will arrive. Just know that you'll get it at some point and work on other projects in the meantime. For the First Order Stormtrooper, there's still the undersuit and gloves and neckseal and boots and weapons and all the various glues and fillers and paints and other assembly/accurizing/finishing materials to buy. That alone is plenty to keep a body busy for a while. For those of us who either want the consistency and (theoretical) accuracy of the commercial product, or lack the ability to do that scale of fabrication at home, or both, that loss of control is the price paid for having someone else do that work for us. I'm hopeful they'll make their current estimate... But not hanging all my future happiness on it.

Back & chest armor modified Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They could be rainbow coloured really. Wearing a cotton glove under your rubber ones prevents swampy hands and stinky gloves. They are a must wear.

The final result:

First Troops over the weekend! Still planning on updating this thread soon with detailed pics of the build, especially the inside of the torso, for anyone interested