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From Joe Fera Thought you all would like this. As we all know, Terrell Reber (owner of ATA) and his wife, Traci, lost their battle with Covid last year, leaving behind a 16 year old son. A year ago this weekend, Terrell started thinking of coming out of retirement when he found out a mutual friend of ours has been hosting immersive Star Wars themed fundraisers since 2015. Sadly, he never got that chance, as he passed a few weeks later. Today, their son, Tyler, suited up in his dad’s armor and took his dad’s place trooping with the Great Lakes Garrison at this year’s fundraiser. link to video on our Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/100000143623914/videos/pcb.1115694322395526/1144135676480500

Why isn’t this on the national news, what a great story. Good kid who apparently had great people to learn from. Such a good way to honor him.

I need a specific style of gray bucket padding for an upcoming project, but after looking at literally hundreds online I have had no luck finding anything even close. It may be out of production or is made for a specific type of helmet (bicycle, motorcycle, ATV etc.) for all I know, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask if anyone has any resources. Thanks!

That's your forum profile, not the membership profile, try this one https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=35839

For sure! What a fantastic father-son connection and a way to honor his legacy. This should be broadcast more widely. Maybe talk to the Legion PRO?

Alright. So while waiting on the new belt boxes made an attempt at matching some of the chipping from the show/cardboard standee. First one here tried to eliminate the background:

So everything is now at least rough-trimmed to within an eighth-inch or less of final. There are places where the .060" ABS is helpful, and places where it's a headache. It is definitely a decent kit if one were to want to trim it to the instructions, slap velcro on where they say, and call it done for something to wear for Halloween or to ComicCon. But to get it even marginally close to film-accurate is going to take almost as much work, Tony, as your Alpha suit did. @ukswrath, @gmrhodes13, @Sly11 -- I need eyes-on, here. Experience, familiarity, judgment calls, known parts, and, if possible, measurements... First of all, thickness. I'm eyeballing the film suits' biceps and thighs and calves as having chonky return edges at the overlaps. 5-6mm or thereabouts: With the overlapping parts being about half that. From there the edges thin out to the more typical-looking return edge of the same 2.5-3mm that the overlapping tabs have, and that the shoulder bell and codpiece and inner chest all have. From the thickness seen in the "J-cuts" at the top of the bicep... The lower edge seems to be consistently thick around the front...? ...but thins by the time it gets to the back... (I note the shoulder bell looks to be more in the 2-3mm thickness range, like the overlappy bits of the biceps, thighs, and calves -- and that that looks to be the same as the gap in the front-bicep seam...) The tops of the thighs and calves, now, definitely vary in width, getting fatter around the overlaps: The tops of the calves clearly thin out at front and back, as seen above and here: I have been able to find no clear angles looking at the bottom edges of the thighs close to straight on, but I presume they're similar to the rest of what's seen here. Meanwhile, I've been straining my eyes at the bottoms of the calves to try and determine how the hell the spats are attached (Is it just that bit of glued-on mesh fabric at the front? What is that fat tab in the back and how is it attached? Just to the inside of the spat as a spacer/guide?) But I do notice the bottom edges of the calves are the same as the top, and the thighs, with the spats being the thinner thickness all the way round except for where the flap attaches. Looks like the main piece starts widening around the lowest point of the curve up to where the tab is. And the thigh and calf seams look to be a lot less gapped than the ~3mm of the biceps. More like only about 1-2mm... So I have to build up a lot of edges and the softness of the pulls (and, in too many places, lack of material to work with before it gets into thermoforming wastage) does not help. Rather than applying filler topically, that can crack or flake out -- even the Poly-Fill -- I'm going to rough up the soft "corners" on the return edges of th ekit pieces and see how ABS paste works. If it fuses well, it'll be essentially one with the piece. Probably also use that to hide the stacking of layers in the reveal edges. The good news is that the thinness helps with pieces like the knees -- which, surprisingly, match the thick-in-the-middle-to-thin-at-the-ends taper of the originals: I just have to build that edge up to something more square... But, because of the space inside, I can make an attachment system more like what you have in yours, Tony. Lastly for this post, the chest... I won't get into edge thicknesses of outer and inner here -- that'll be later. What I want to know is if anyone has ID'ed the tab and latches used to fasten the outer chest to the inner: As far as I know, they all had this, including Phasma: The tabs look like found hardware, not custom-fabricated. And the post-and-grommet friction fasteners remind me of some sort of maritime locker closure, but I don't know what to call these stupid things, so none of my searches have yielded the right thing yet. Does anyone know what was used, or where to find something similar?

If you have 2 kidneys, you will need to sell one...