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Hi Dan, and thanks for following up on this! Not a lot going on in the D.O. dept. right now so I will get working on this ASAP.

Yep, I can confirm a lot of love went into this suit. The sum of all these improvements will help to get the higher levels and you deserve it. Note to FISD staff: could someone please tell this overachiever we do not have level 4? Looking forward to our next meeting, Luca. I then might have something to hand over to you...

I'm back at it -- at least with posting. I never really stopped finding small stuff that I could do in order to improve the smallest of details. Shout-out to all who endured months of messages and updates, and especially to the one person, who asked me if I was aiming for lvl 4 Weathering I did add a bit of weathering! Either by taking black rubber and making streaks on my armor with it, by using soaked newspaper to darken a few parts, or simply by wearing it and watching the weathering appear. I love it! It adds a sense of realism, especially when we look at the black marks all over the screen used armors. Trooper Box My trooper box got a bit of decoration. The overall appearance was heavily inspired by Tino's (T-Jay) Stanley: Still, I gave it a bit of my own twist and made it a little less fancy. Additional Upgrades Here we've had a few changes. The first was a slide-system to help keep the top of the ab- and kidney-plate aligned, after the kidney slipped down during a troop back in November, causing the butt plate to flare out. Additionally, this caused the armor to fit my thinner frame better, as it held everything better in place that the lose strapping could. Once again, thank you to Tino for helping me figure out a solution, I owe you some chocolate or something The second was me putting extra strapping around the buttplate, which helps pull it in more. Due to me being a bit too thin for my armor, you could often see the inside of the buttplate before this change. Now it's snug and form-fitting. The third change is a bit absurd to most, I believe, but it fixed something that annoyed me on most pictures of me in armor so far: the small gap at the top of my thigh. Due to me accidentally angling the cuts at the top, there's always been a small gap there, which doesn't really fit the overall design of a TK, in my opinion. Since I was already working with ABS paste, I decided to go ahead and fill that gap. Next improvement was fixing the back of the shins. As you can see in the picture below, the shins used to not align properly in the back -- partly because RS shins just have a weird shape, and probably also, because I didn't align the two parts properly, I believe. This fix was a bit more difficult and I'm still not 100% happy with it. I'll just wait until I've trooped in it, to see how well it holds now and if I need another approach. The last change that I can think of right now was moving the S-trim around the helmet, so there's no longer a small gap at the back of the helmet. Whilst I was at it, I also gave my helmet a bit of a paint touch-up Ohhh, and Biggi (Swoby) gifted me some very cool hand cuffs for Christmas! Whilst I'm sure there's been a few other things, these are all that I can think of right now. As the trooping season starts back up in Germany, I'm planning on doing an ESB conversion, so that's where I'll probably start a build thread soon. Towards Spring/Summer I'm planning on applying for EIB and possibly Centurion with this armor. Additionally, I've been helping out a few TKs in my Garrison, which has been really fun -- hopefully I can convince them to try for EIB as well. That's all from my side so far, thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to feedback!

It would be great to give you the Centurion Badge with "Nothing to add" . I would recommend you to, when ready, post some photos into the Request Pre-Approval section again to receive last feedback .

In my initial build, I used mostly the elastic straps and Velcro that came with the Anovos kit. I did use Trooperbay's Full Bracket Set (Stormtrooper Sandtrooper Full Bracket Set (trooperbay.com)) that I bought separately. I just recently purchased their EZ-Snap and Elastic Strap Set (Ligne (Line) 24-EZ-Snap Tabs and Elastic Straps Set (trooperbay.com)) since the original elastic I used is getting stretched out. I haven't installed the new straps and snaps yet but I'm looking forward to seeing how they work.

Well Luca, you have certainly put a lot of time into your armor. I have no doubt that it is an armor with which you will achieve the Centurion badge(we will see your apps). Congratulations on all the hard work you are putting into getting the perfect armor. No doubt it will be an honor for the German Garrison to see you parading with its members...And maybe, who knows, I will also have the honor of parading with you....

The 501st Nomination period has ended. Please join me in congratulating Andrew Franke @Sly11 as the FISDs Detachment Leader for another term! Congrats Andrew!!

Congrats Andrew

Thank you very much, Tino! Of course you'd know best (aside from myself) how much love went into this suit -- at least two messages a week regarding this white plastic over the course of half a year might have given you some idea Ohhh, I'm very much looking forward to it. After all, I need a lvl 4 blaster for lvl 4 armor Soooo... If this is all the feedback and improvement you guys have to offer on here, I'm looking forward to receiving my Centurion certificate with a "nothing to add" for armor improvements... or to some lengthy comments about small details (best before I apply) Actually, my goal was to only get Centurion without any DO remarks regarding further improvement (not that that would stop me from small improvements, haha) but now that you're basically challenging me, I might need to re-think my stance regarding the first lvl 4 approval

Good luck Dan! Looking good!

IMO it's not necessary, I have not seen that there is much friction in that section. I my case, just sand it fine and it will work well.

mmmm sounds like a good idea Lol.

Okey Dokey, down to the last little bits. I'm trying to fix the gap between the shoulder bells and the chest armour/bands. I've checked to see if i should shorten the strapping from the bell to the band but it is already very short and when connected, touches together: so i'm not sure that shortening it any further will will fix the issue. I've checked to see if the bell out edge needs to be flush/trimmed at all and it has already been done: The only thing i can think to do at this stage is to trim the bottom edge of the bell but i'm not sure if this is a good idea/allowed? Can anyone offer any advice?

Congrats Andrew!

Not sure why I had added the raised edge on the biceps or why I'd missed that. I probably assumed it off the forearms and legs and was going off my kit I had on hand. You can use some bondo to blend it flush and it shouldn't be an issue. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Hey guys, thanks for tagging me. No hard feeling so far. I've gone over it in another thread but I'll reiterate to get everyone up to speed. When I designed these I was by no means a tk expert, I worked with Andrew franke our dl to get it as good as it could be but with all things it's easy to overlook some details especially when you're trying to replicate something uneven. Also these were designed to be for vac forming. I had lost the source files and only applied a smooth modifier to the saved stls to get some "roundness". I'm currently working on some v2 files but I'm always looking for feedback on these things. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Rigged up the rest of the vest for the thighs Test fit for strap length…

When adding padding to the interior, it's important to figure out how much (if any) you want in the top. Many times we see troopers with pads that are too thick, causing the helmet to sit too high (as seen in the first image below). Our field of vision is not the best to begin with, and you may find yourself constantly tilting the bucket forward just to be able to see. Not just inconvenient, but potentially dangerous- as you can trip. Note in the second photo how low it sits on the chest plate . If I could suggest one more thing it would be to use pads that are removable. Even if you have a fan system (recommended) it gets hot, so during a troop we sweat. Sometimes a LOT. Being able to take them out and wash them as needed will prevent a smelly bucket.

Well ladies and gents, it begins tomorrow, I will setup and submit my basic photos to my GML tomorrow. Once I have my ID I'll apply for EI then begin the road to L3!

I'm super excited to begin the journey to L2 and possibly L3! I have wanted a TK from RS for a while now, I've also wanted to join the 501st for a long time as well. So this will be exciting for many reasons! Thank you for the kind words my friend! I look forward to advancing and asking any questions that come up!

Congratulations