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Hello and Hallo, I can't believe that I finally got to this point where I get to introduce myself to all of you again -- this time as a TK...! Because I get a whole new post for myself, I decided to use this space to talk about my journey to the 501st, how I chose my costume, as a way to say "thank you" to all those that I've already thanked several times before, but will do so again, because their help was so very much appreciated, and of course to explain why I chose to be TK-66744. I hope this is at least a bit enjoyable to read My journey to the 501st Legion starts with a 12 year old Luca, who isn't that much of a Star Wars fan, but has just discovered the wondrous (and kind of terrifying) world of fanfiction. Younger me decided to get an account (which soon gained me the nickname "Morgi") and slowly started to fall in love with the Star Wars stories and through that Star Wars in general. Honestly, without that fanfiction, I probably would not be this much of a Star Wars enthusiast. One fanfiction in particular caught my eye back in December 2015. It was a story about Darth Vader and the Empire with some truly amazing Stormtrooper characters. You could find me every single Friday waiting for that next update. The author soon let the reader know, that she herself is a member of the 501st Legion, talks about trooping and all the amazing people. I wanted that and decided to keep saving money until I finally would get to buy my own set of Stormtrooper armor. In the meantime, I wanted to meet members of the 501st and to get to gush over those characters, to admire those Vaders and Stormtroopers not only through a screen. Somehow that dream of meeting those characters never worked out. The dream to become a member of the 501st Legion myself grew instead -- what better way to meet a Vader or a Stormtrooper than being inside that armor yourself, right? At age 17, I got fully immersed in the topic, watched videos about the 501st on YouTube until they could only offer me those short clips that had about seventeen views and were from 2009. I was hooked. Instead of studying for my graduation, I decided to watch Star Wars movies and 501st videos until I came to the conclusion that I would buy my own armor. I researched on here and finally decided to go with an RS kit. At the end of May, two days before my oral exam in history, the first box arrived and my mother had to take that box away until the first of June, so that I could actually focus on the exam. During the whole month of June I worked on my armor using those nice videos and tutorials online. My birthday gifts consisted of a neckseal and similar accessories. At the beginning of July I then decided that I would need to get more specific help than that material could offer and I got an account on here. The next month went by in a blur with daily updates on my build thread and an absolutely amazing support from all the members on here. Thank you very much! In fact, the build went well enough, that when I met up with Tino (T-Jay) towards the end of August to take my Approval Pictures, the GMOs had nothing bad to say about my armor. At this point a huge thank you (again) to Tino for the hours that he's helped me so far and continues to help me. You've become an absolute cornerstone in my journey to becoming a TK, from advice on regards to trooping, over help with my armor and the approval pictures to helping me choose my TK number (you're right. Using the number you get when you look up "Morgi" on a mobile phone number pad is kinda neat ). Oh, and of course a huge thank you for showing me all your props! Those were the first screen accurate props that I'd ever seen (12yo me would've been horrified that it took me over five years to make that dream come true, haha) and I'm still blown away by the experience...! Long story short: At the beginning of September I then got the happy news that I've been accepted into the 501st Legion as TK-66744 Thanks for all the information on here, the individual help and the continuous support during my build! There's nothing more for me to say, except that I'm looking forward to meeting more of you, to being a part of the Legion and to finally have that first troop at the beginning of October. Thanks for reading all of this, I know it's a tad longer than most posts here Luca/Morgi/TK-66744 German Garrison

Thanks for the warm welcome, guys! I really appreciate it Thanks! A long, long, long story? Well, I sure hope so! Given that I'm only eighteen, I'm sure there's tons more to come -- maybe EIB or Centurion? A new armor? Who knows, but let's hope it'll become a long, long, long story Glad you enjoyed reading all of that (perhaps it's gotten this long, since a fanfiction with over 200 000 words was my inspiration to become a TK?). I'm looking forward to having fun! Thanks! Danke! Ah, I appreciate that bit in German and I'm glad you liked it. (There's over a thousand members in the German Garrison and its still growing. I'm sure you'll get to see many more of us German newcomers on here in the future, haha) Another newbie, wohoo! Thanks, I'm glad to hear that! Never too late to join the party You already heard the story in person, I'm glad you like the written version as well, haha And what a world...! There's still so much to discover and I'm looking forward to it Thanks, I'm sure I'll have a blast! ... And once again I've written a whole essay in what was supposed to be a quick thank you A huge thank you for all the kind words, it truly made my day to open this forum to another notification.

Alright .. recap time. Last Thursday I picked up everything from the chrome guys. That was a total of 20 hours by car. Personally, I wouldn't do it again unless there is a valid reason, although the highway to the east was very, very empty and almost always unlimited. You could podrace a bit there. Anyhow. The chromers did a good job, with some parts needing to be remade. But it's not a huge drama. Then I spent the days (Thursday evening, the entire Friday + Saturday) with the strapping. So the Saturday at the con itself. Thanks to my supporters kept the booth running. On Saturday I gave Liam McIntyre an extra set of gloves with handplates (whatever he should do with them, but hey. I don't need 2 pairs and he thought it was cool - Mission accomplished) and an embroidered shirt with a Pyre helmet + Commander Pyre - Build Crew and my logo on the back. Even then I thought "he won't wear it anyway". Then Sunday .. the moment of truth. In the livestream on Instagram I then pulled (got) everything for the first time. The video is on IGTV: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CTt0cl4KfWc/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link You can also see Liam's reaction directly there. Incredibly awesome! And he actually wore my shirt! Just awesome. The rest of the day I took photos with a lot of people. Then there was the moment when Liam stopped by my booth and looked at all the props. He celebrated everything - which I celebrated a lot :-D :-D :-D He also signed the helmet from the inside In general, I can only say: I didn't think that everything would work out like this, but the stress was absolutely worth it. Sunday was definitely one of the best days of my life. Here are the pictures A new helmet is needed for the CRL. The helmet is already gold chrome-plated and will then get the black details at some point in the days. + taking photos for the CRL of the individual parts

Sorry for being late to the party and once again welcome to the Legion, TK-66744. You wrote a great story and it really tells how much you wanted this, Luca. Now you have reached this goal and you have taken your first step into a larger world. Enjoy your time as a Stormtrooper and have fun out there.

Congrats Luca, glad to see you made it. After your first troop you will surely find more little things to improve. That's part of this hobby, so don't worry...

Thanks @gmrhodes13, thrilled to be here

@Morgi thank you. Lol yeah I took my time, but I'm here now finally and it is a great feeling. Ready to get trooping!

Thanks Chemi, definitely interested in Expert Infantry and Centurion. I kind of feel like I'm cheating though, since I didn't put my armor together myself. There are so many talented troopers here that put in a lot of hands on hard work to build centurion armor from scratch. I did get some advice on the new member discussion thread that it would be fairly simple to make and ESB armor by building another helment so I may start there to get my feet wet with my armor skills.

The only reason I pointed it out was the model was showing a recess, but if you are on top of it disregard the comment

No, those usually mess up the mesh even more... It's not a hard fix to do by myself and I can make it easier to print in one go. The abdominal boxes have not merged with the abdominal armor as they should have. I'll be done with that today. I'd rather do it myself and have full control over the outcome

Wow! You got that together pretty quick lol. Missing some metal paint on the handle by where the selector switch is, not that anyone would notice. If you do decide to weather it, be careful around the T tracks and handle. Those shouldn’t have “metal” showing.

SHOULDER STRAPS Lol. Ok, back on task. So, if you look at my signature block, you can tell that I've been relatively busy with a few other costumes. I got the IOC costume approved up to Imperator, and became only the 8th Mudtrooper Specialist in the Spec Ops Detachment. But this TK... this is why I got involved with the 501st and I've got my eyes set on the level 2 and 3 approvals that I was originally aiming for, Expert Infantry and Centurion. Now with that said and to provide a little update since I've been rather sporadic on my updates, I've got my abdominal armor ready for final paint and set how I want it, so now I'm moving to the chest, back and arms. I've talked to a few people about these pieces and for some reason, the shoulder straps seem to be a little tricky. Unlike the OT kits that have a shoulder strap attached to the top of the chest and back, the Anthology armor has much larger trapezoids that the straps physically slide into. Not surprisingly, this has become a bit of a thing with anthology era costumes. For example, please see the following pics for my Muddy back armor, followed by the back armor trapezoid from my Jimi kit: So, it's not totally unforeseeable that I could cut through the fiberglass and file out a slot in the back armor for the straps to go through, but the angles of this particular piece just don't seem conducive to that type experimentation. Essentially, I've got a shoulder strap that sits 1cm tall, but there's only about a cm. to work with underneath the trapezoid. Even if I cut everything out, it would cause the shoulder strap to curve downward at almost a 90 degree angle towards my shoulder. If I use the rigid straps that were supplied with the kit, it would look unsightly. I may be able to cut out a slot and hog away some of that block under the trapezoid, but I almost feel like I'd be creating a weak point and the "juice may not be worth the squeeze. Since I'm not painting this for another month, I may just get everything prepped and then take one last look at this to make an informed decision. However, the solution I came up with is pretty cool, so let me show this. This is the shoulder strap I modeled as a template for rubber casting. I have another that I've made some screen accurate additions to that recently came to light, but for the current shoulder strap setup, I'm going to use this design rather than bust out something that looks different. Here's a sneak peek: I'll post the reference photo later. Also, I'll get this molded and cast probably about the same time I decide whether I'm cutting out the trapezoid. For the time being, I want to show the setup that's closer to what most people will be using. So the main issue people run into while strapping this part is finding way to connect the chest and back armor at the shoulders without getting the webbing in the way of the shoulder strap. Essentially you have a hard part and soft part fighting for the same real estate. Here's a pic: You don't want the weight of the armor resting on the shoulder straps, but it has to go to the same place the shoulder webbing is occupying. I decided to essentially split the difference. I had a bag of small leather rivets I was never going to use, so I decided to attach the ends of the shoulder strap to the webbing. Additionally, I know a lot of people use snaps to connect their webbing, but I've had too many issues with them popping off the armor. Industrial strength Velcro typically holds very good. Ok, so you might be able to see where I'm going with this. Essentially, I eliminated the two pieces fighting for the same space by forcing them to share the space. By hard mounting the front of the webbing to the front of the strap they both lay flat under the chest while remaining secure. Additionally, though they're attached, the two inches of black Velcro provide a solid anchor and keeps them separate from the shoulder strap. The white Velcro does provide a second anchor point, but the weight of the chest armor is not supported by this 1" strip. Additionally, while wearing the armor, my shoulder kind of pushes everything up into the Velcro strips: Once I had the front set, I trimmed the strap to length and sewed on the back armor Velcro. Despite the two pieces being fastened together, this kind of shows how they're independent from each other. If you go back up to my side photo, you can kind of see how the black webbing goes underneath the back armor while the straps go on top. This is probably getting confusing, but please follow my descent into craziness for just a few more minutes. Here's the installation pics: So, in the end, I've got a secure fit, the armor is suspended by the black webbing and the flexible shoulder strap fits directly into their trapezoids as intended. If I keep the rear set as is, I'll likely secure it with magnets or a small piece of Velcro on top of the back armor; either way will work great. I believe the preferred method will be to fish the straps through the rear trap similar to my ICAT/ Muddy armor, but I'll make that decision later. Regardless, I think this is a pretty good solution. Finishing costumes in the apartment has set me back a little, but I think I can get everything fit and ready for paint before we move into the house next month. This week I intend to finish the torso armor and begin on the arms. If I'm lucky, I should be able to get this primered by the end of the weekend. Thanks again for viewing.

Handle was a little sticky, so I sanded it down and repainted it and it was good. Masked off the bolt and painted it silver Masked off the t-tracks, scope, back cap and handle, then painted them semi-gloss black. Then it was unmasked, and I glued on the power cylinders, and here's it now. I'm currently debating on whether i should weather it lightly and make some sort of lenses for the scope. I think it's looking pretty good right now though, and I like it.

Thanks man, very useful Sent from my GM1900 using Tapatalk

Earlier this week I got the happy news that I have been accepted into the 501st Legion -- without even having to do any further work on my armor. Thanks for all the help and the well wishes, guys! TK-66744 reporting for duty If everything goes well, I'll be doing my first troop at the beginning of October and I can't wait for it! Meanwhile Tino has given me lots of advice and tips for trooping, which I'm very grateful for In the meantime, I've been waiting to get all the proper access and I've been trying to see where I can improve my armor a bit further to make it better to troop in. For that I spend an hour inside the armor (getting help from a few friends for suit up and observations) and tried walking around, climbing stairs, exploring my field of vision and my range of motion... Due to that I noticed a few other things that should make my first troop a bit more comfortable. I took away a few millimetres of plastic at the sides of the crotch piece, so it doesn't cut into my thighs as much and I worked out some padding, such as behind the sniper plate, to keep it from sliding into my thigh armor and the padding inside the helmet. Tino showed me a way to pad the front of the helmet, so that I can still wear my glasses and gave me some of the padding that he used. It works perfectly and I'm very happy with my improved vision inside the helmet. One last improvement was getting some fabric glue for my belt, so it wouldn't fray. The glue is invisible and fairly flexible, which is good. Now I've only got to wait and see if it also manages to hold up during trooping. Thanks for the idea, Rich! And here are some pictures:

Remnant Scout poking in and saying hi. You all making some cool stuff in here or what?