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Caleb, this is beautiful

The AP knee is a bear. I removed mine and boiled it to reshape. A little hard to tell, but the outside edge (closest to the pot) is bent waaay down from where it was. They came on the same plane from AP. Mine needed to be reshaped to have that outside edge angled down toward the boot by a lot. In doing so, I cracked the knee here. But it relieved some stress. I was then able to reclamp things and get the sides to line up correctly. Notice the gap at the bottom of my knee. It's not excessive, but was required to get everything to line up correctly. It's about a 5mm gap. I then drilled a hole at the end of the crack and backed it with a small piece of ABS scrap. Possibly some cover strip. Then I added ABS paste and let it fully cure for 24 hours. And then I sanded it flat and polished it back up with Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. This isn't photoshop trickery. It really came out this smooth. If yours doesn't crack, this is about 15 minutes of work. Maaaybe 20. It was quite easy to do, I just got over aggressive with the reshaping.

HELLO THERE!!!! Hoping you all had a lovely holiday. It’s a New Year. And the right time to post this! This is something that’s been discussed for a long time, past couple years actually. Interest was gathered. Names were thrown about with great research. Support was discussed. It’s been something I truly wished to see come to fruition here for our Detachment. I feel it’s important on many levels. We have many Detachments with women Sub Unit Teams. It’s about time FISD had one don’t you think?? Here’s what we have so far… JRS - Black Widows IOC -Firebirds Path Finders- Recon Fatale Krayt Clan- Scarabs MEPD - Desert Foxes Blizzard Force - Snow Angels Spec Ops- Sirens Clone Trooper- Bad Banshees IGC- Ravens ACD- Iron Maidens FISD- ? Bounty Hunters Guild-? Underworld- ? The Flagship Eclipse-? Sithlords -? Sovereign Protectors- ? I did a whack of research on numbers. Women Sub Teams in our Legion Detachments. Their names. Actual Percentages of women in the legion. What benefit such things offer our lady members on a whole. As FISD being the largest Detachment with a fairly low number of members identifying as female, I felt it was about time we had something that would in hopes, allow for more inclusion or be more welcoming. To support more women in builds and address issues that may stop them from coming to our forum or costumes in general. Please do not mistake my posting in any way against our men here. Our men are beautiful. Helpful. Insightful and knowledgeable. This is about EVERYONE having a safe place to discuss and build. Yes. There IS a place here for this exact thing. Some questions our lady members wish to ask , are personal. Very. And very much related to body parts our male counterparts do not have to consider nor deal with. Sometimes it’s daunting to cross that bridge and ask how do you squeeze a hormonal rear into armor not designed for a female curve. Discussions happened with this Detachments Command team, and we unanimously agreed this needed to happen. And was very much supported. The men here all supported me in this endeavor. An open/very accessible sub forum section will be created where any identifying woman can seek advice from other women. Women FISD staff. Other ladies in armor. Women addressing all things women because let’s face it- as lovely as our men are, I can see some cringing discussing binding breasts to fit a chest plate. Hormonal weight gain problems. And how that might look or be addressed. Or, how do you other ladies combat a menstrual cycle while in full armor. Let’s say you’ve encountered being sexualized. Or victimized. Had to remind another “cosplay does NOT equal consent” And you’d prefer a woman to seek advice from. Or… maybe you had a poor experience with a fellow woman member, and you wish to discuss it with another… Or. Let’s say you are 50. Had 3 children. Maybe don’t feel as pretty as another. You struggle with body image. You’ve seen a 30 year old hot blonde get 100 likes on posting herself in armor, yet you are 50/60. And overweight. And have been ostracized for wanting to be a trooper. Or ridiculed in your costume if you posted one. You struggled to build. Shim. Re fit. And were made fun of. Or. You gave up because all you could access for help here were male builders. So you left our forums. Downhearted. This sub unit forum/ team is not intended to be negative regarding our men. Nor a place for feminist platforms/agendas. This is always only about equality. Inclusion. Support. Help. Safety. Costume building for women. As is our entire Legion itself. This Detachment is extremely low in female to male ratio, and there is no real reason for that…. I questioned SO MANY WOMEN as to why. As the only Female member of Command Staff here, It’s always been my intent to change that percentage…Somehow. To encourage and welcome. Safely. Openly. Kindly. Equally. So. Let’s get back to the Unit itself. The most popular name choice was “Vaders Valkyries.” Now. That being said, names can be submitted. We can vote. We can look at many things. I’ll put this up here for an interest thread, and then proceed accordingly. See the comments. Listen for feedback. Please respond kindly and respectfully. I/we look forward to hearing from you all. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Adam I still have a TD with your name on it for once I finish my TD master thread. After approval. Also I have a meme already created and ready to go for my TD obsession.

Hello there Chris, and welcome to the forum! You're certainly in the right place for assistance with your first self-build TK! And I see you have an excellent stock of tools ready to go! Have you been spying on Joseph's supply list thread? I especially love seeing the Tamiya masking tape! I'm sure you're super excited about your MonCal kit, and we'll all follow along on your build! Out of curiosity, was your AM armor just too big on you, even trimmed to your commissioned size? If it were me I wouldn't quite give up on it yet; cool be a cool project to refine for your body type. Heck, at some point I probably need to snag a pair of AM or AP shoulder bells which will be large enough for sufficient coverage, compared to my ATA armor. Here's a thread that has a lot of good information from a long history of builders. Always good to harness the experience of others!

I’m completely in!!! Let’s enjoy together as Vader’s Valkyries

If you want more photos of thermal detonators on-screen I have you covered. The TD part of my build thread (link) has additional close-ups of the shots shown above. Hope this helps! One other quick observation; the shoulder bridges in your very first photo appear to extend a long ways off of the chest piece, which makes me wonder how much overlap there is on the chest piece (adhesion security) and if there will be a lot of excess on the backside. Good luck with your build!

This is a great idea!!! Let´s make more fem colleagues participate in the detachment, great initiative!

Hello everyone from east San Diego County. Last year I built a Tie Pilot and a Gunner kit from Walt. They both turned out ok, but I ran at it without seeking much help and neither turned out as well as they should have. Since that wasn't a great experience, I bought a commission ANH stunt TK build from Dave's Darkside Depot. Dave's work was as amazing as his reputation held up, but the AM armor just doesn't look right on my regular stormtrooper sized body. So I got wise and came here to hopefully get it right. I have a Moncal kit that ships this week and I I'm ready to rock. I'll start a build thread as soon as it arrives and rely on your kind and competent input as I go. Onward and upward.

Looks like you are just about ready to go, a couple of tips, when in doubt check our gallery areas and measure twice and cut once. If ever in doubt don't be afraid to ask questions, that is why many of us hung around after being approved to give back to the community. Looking forward to seeing the BBB photos soon

So many TDs.

Cool cool. I also noted my own supply list along with purchase links towards the beginning of my PDF compilation of my build thread. Sounds like a plan with your AM armor. Heck, depending on the ABS color match, you may even be able to use your AM helmet with your MonCal armor, but I believe MonCal's plastic color is a bit creamier than AM. Oh, and just a little side note since I'm personally obsessed with thermal detonators--both AM and MonCal/FAC have screen-accurate sized detonator tubes which are roughly 68-69mm in diameter. (Most other US and Canada based armor makers use the imperial measurement standard 2" pipe.) This means you have two great options to choose from. Personally I like Dave's AM detonator tube and control panel better and the MonCal one. Dave's plastic tube comes in the correct gray color by default, and MonCal supplies a metal tube that needs to be painted. The MonCal control panel is also a tiny bit smaller than Dave's, and yes, I've personally built both styles, as well as some from several other armor makers. If you have the funds and desire, I'd also opt for Ukswrath's detonator clips over the ones that either AM or MonCal provide.

Another male here who isn't qualified to provide input on this matter other than to say that inclusion of and support for all our female-identifying peers should be of utmost importance, and I'm happy to see progress with this sub group initiative. Lets see this, and the larger FISD community thrive!

Congrats on your delayed Christmas present! We wanna see photos of you kitted up, Alan! And once you're ready to submit your 501st application, you can create a pre-approval thread to gain initial feedback prior to submitting your GML (Garrison Member Liaison). Were you ever able to connect with fellow German guilders? In case not, I'm paging @Morgi. p.s. Luca (Morgi) likes memes.

I did remove that. My forearms have thin strips on the inside to hold the two halves together. Then the resin strips over the seams. I had to also sand my resin strips down a bit from the bottom as they were to thick otherwise.

Thank you so much for that catch! That should be a very easy fix to place the black elastic strap underneath the white shoulder elastic. I appreciate it!

I wish I had that multiple screen set-up! I'm mostly using my phone for everything

Helmet arrived today. I guess that means it’s time to get back to building, hopefully I’ll get motivated soon. LOL

Are we certain that wasn't an impersonator requesting the certificate? @Morgi doesn't post without memes. But don't worry, I gotcha.

This initiative will 100% happen. Like anything on FISD there is a plan, discussions have been had, and will continue to, so we get the right fit and feel and a home for all our beautiful TK women. Lots more to reveal in the near future, but suffice to say this has the backing of the entire staff and we hope to build something great and further expand on our community.