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@Morgi Now to my narrative from the past several days. @justjoseph63 Sunday morning before I later tested positive. But the next night I got 7 hours of sleep, so... I started my ESB conversion! And had great conversation with @revlimiter and Luca about merch stuff. Feels good to be back on the boards with you fine folks!

And yeah my 1,000th forum post is a meme.

I probably need to add more memes before posting!

Congrats FISD memes!

Added the fabric and gaffers tape to the chest and gaffers tape to the biceps and shins pill holes: Next I decided to Frankenstein my v1 R2Dan functional metal holster onto the base of the Denuo Novo non-functional resin holster. I started by cutting the “metal” part of the resin off of the base, which turned out better than I expected: Think this is going to work pretty good: Then I added filler to correct issues with the cutting process. I also had to shorten the base by about 1/2” since the v1 metal is a bit shorter: And added white paint: The white really brought out the imperfections, so the base is going to take more filling and sanding. More to come on this later.

Sooo close, Scott! Little tweak and you’re in!

I normally only polish if I have a high profile event, then I use Tcut (auto polish), great for getting larger marks, scuffs and scratches off. I've only had a couple of cracks in my ATA which is 10 years old (now a sandy) for that I glue strips of abs behind the cracks, scuffing with course sandpaper, and apply JB weld, I find that holds really well and can be sanded if you get any runs. Inside the armor get's wiped down with anti bacterial wipes, again when ever it's been a sweaty troop. I noticed my Stunt helmet had some yellowing, no surprise there been outside with a lot of troops over 39.5deg C. I mixed up some Retr0bright, I've read about it but never used before and it's pretty amazing stuff, mixed, applied and out in the afternoon sun for 2 hours (low 20's deg C) and I couldn't believe my eyes, back to pure white once again. I used to carry quite a big bag of tools and replacements but found over the years it is rare I have any issues, lost 2 snaps over 10 years, now I use industrial elastic and soldering iron to create the holes, gives a little more strength, also a dab of E6000 can give a little more strength around the hole. I also carry some white gaffa tape, just in case, plus it's screen accurate One other update was adding an external AA battery to the Icomm unit, the internal battery can expire after a few years, replacement was going to cost $25 just for shipping, Andrew has a nice upgrade for an external battery I always charge everything before a troop, also check for any missing snaps and to make sure everything is still there.

I don't know if I'd say "wizardry," Jim, but thanks for the sentiment! So this is something that will be documented in my build thread once I complete it, but since you asked, below you'll find a quick write-up of that eventual ab-kidney reinforcement and hardware section. I was very pleased to receive compliments on the reinforcements from @justjoseph63, but I'm not sure if you're asking about that or the rivet hardware and caps. First, I knew that I wanted to reinforce the edges of the the ab and kidney pieces so I began by cutting some spare black ABS. I used black to minimize visibility through the ab-kidney seam. I used this same plastic for my v-tabs between the kidney and posterior armor pieces. I then positioned the reinforcement strips how I wanted them, and added tape guides. This would help my rough sand the ab and kidney pieces appropriately, as well as placement when gluing the strips down. Here we have the edge reinforcements after several days of letting the E-6000 cure. An additional benefit of adding these plates was that it mostly straightened out the ab and kidney pieces, which initially had some misaligned curvatures. At this point I then glued down the strapping kit that I received from Justin (Rascal). I don't have photos of this process, but essentially I taped the ab and kidney pieces together to keep them static and then glued one side of the ab-kidney connection. Once the glue had cured, I glued the other side. In case it's not obvious in my other photos, I used the non-stretching nylon strapping on my right side, and the elastic on my left side with the rivets. Here we have some close-up photos of the actual hardware I used. Taking a page out of AJ Hamler's book, I sourced some screw caps (will add purchase links later), but unlike AJ, decided to also use the snapping base. However, doing so required that I find smaller diameter washers that still had an appropriately-sized inner hold opening, since they needed to fit inside of the cap base. After spending perhaps hours at multiple Ace Hardware stores, I finally find the right size (brass washer shown on the left). The result after using a small chisel as a rivet wedge: Moving onto the alignment tabs, which I actually haven't completed yet (have one finished one of the two). I wanted a system that would foster flush alignment of the ab and kidney pieces while also accommodating some flexibility. I thus landed on a triangle tab, which would enable some verticle movement the further away the ab and kidney pieces moved from each other. The triple photo below illustrates this, with the center photo being the default "ab-and-kidney-touching" resting position. If the kidney were to pull away from the ab, it could shift up or down as shown in the first and third photos. At the end of the day I had to implement a miniaturized version of what I had initially envisioned, due to strapping placement. For a full-sized version I could have build this into the actual reinforcement plates, with a single triangle tab sized nearly as tall as the kidney piece. Detailed progression photos of the two ab-kidney retention systems. On my left rivet side I would use the triangle tabs, and on the right side just some basic tabs to keep the ab and kidney from bulging out (but no protection against vertical misalignment). And here we have the final results. Hopefully this helps you out with your build and submission, Jim! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any additional questions! Go get that EIB!

Wipe the insides with a clean rag. Get rid of that moisture, immediately! Clean with a soft washcloth and warm, soapy water if needed. Any liquid soap will work fine, I use dishwashing soap. Make sure everything is dry before storage. Cracks needs to be fixed as soon as possible. I use CA glue and spare pieces of plastics for a quick fix, and ABC paste made from spare pieces melted in aceton for a more permanent fix. If possible, repair from the inside. If the repair is visible on the outside, I sand it smooth with incrementaly higher grit sandpapers, and finish off with Novus polish. Scuffs is just battle damage and bonus weathering. It looks awesome (and movie accurate!) after a few troops. But if I want to shine, I rub away the scuff marks with an eraser, and then I wipe the armor with a soft cloth and isopropyl alcohol to get rid of any grime. I finish with Novus polish. Novus should work on all plastics, also PVC, but take a look at their website to be sure. It's novuspolish.com. Thighten all screws, nuts and bolts before storage AND before the next troop. Nothing is more annoying than losing a chicago screw on the holster in the middle of a troop. If you have an emergency repair kit (and you should!), check to see if you need to refill it. @Nairy: Yellowing has nothing to do with polish, but UV and heat. All white armor will turn yellow over time. Exposure to the sun will accelerate it, so do not store your armor near a window. I also advice against storing the armor near a heat source. But you can turn yellow plastic (temporarily) white again with a hydrogen peroxide and UV treatment. The tricky part is that it is difficult (and expensive) to submerge the armor in peroxide. The common way to solve this is to make a creamy peroxide gel to smear on the armor, that sticks to the plastic while the sun does its thing. Search "Retr0bright" for a recipe. Or get a ready-to-use mixture, like Trooperbay's ArmorWhite.

Novus polish is excellent and specifically designed for polishing plastics. You can buy it in a 3 pack which is Novus 1,2 and 3. ! being a spray for quick polish or final polish, 2 for light scratches and 3 for heavy scratches. I use Novus for all black marks and scratch repairs. As far as repairs on the job, i always carry tubes of CA glue and spare small pieces of ABS and HIPS. These can be used behind your armour where you find a crack. Good to stop it from spreading specially on return edges.

Here is a picture of my ab/kidney rivets.

If you have any scraps of ABS or other plastic and don't have access to a heat gun you can heat some strips in an oven until it goes pliable then pick up with pliers or clamp and place over your raised posterior/kidney plates and push down.

Wait, I'm at 195 this month... I can do this. Also hit this milestone Yay, I did it! But now the important question: should this be celebrated or should someone start an intervention? Shout-out to @MaskedVengeance, who started the January meme chaos, @gmrhodes13 who was a driving force behind many of these late night meme sessions, and @TKSpartan who gave me the idea of trying to reach 100 Memes in one month. As evidenced, I went a bit beyond that goal, but it was super fun! Now, I probably will dial back the amount of memes shared on here, because 200 Memes in one month was pure insanity and I've got absolutely no idea how I did it All Memes counted together, this meme marks the FISD hitting exactly 500 Memes this month. Wow. Thank you so much to everyone who has participated during this, whether it was one meme or 202 memes. This is truly incredible. Over 150 Memes by Glen, 66 by Caleb, @revlimiter with a strong 45, @jsilvius with 12 memes... and many others chiming in as well Oh, and @Nairy? I gotta agree -- it's a wonder the Imgur Database hasn't crashed yet in light of these numbers

-edit- wow, that's tiny. It says @Doggydoc @Nairy

Hello again. The photos are perfect!!! Almost there, Trooper!. We need one last effort, Scott. -L1: The white control panel raised ribbed pad faces the rear, with the controls/round washer style detail closest to the right end cap. According to the CRL, we think that the TD should be a little more turned to the front. Reference Images We think that simply bending the clips down a little will do the trick. In addition, this will help to lower the TD a bit, right at belt height, which is more screen accurate. Thank you for your effort and patience, Scott.

I use the sponges used for doing the dishes (the ones with a yellow and a black side, if that makes sense) and some water to remove the black scuff. For bigger repairs, it's always good to keep some leftover white plastic from building the armor. If you mix some little pieces of that with aceton, you get a paste that you can use to repair cracks in your armor. Put on the paste, let it dry, then sand it down. For the white screws, I just use a white paint pen (Google says the right translation ist touch-up pen?). Hope that helps

It looks like your shins could sit higher, as they are quite far down on the boots! Apart from the alignment of the dropboxes towards the end of the belt, they could also be lowered! Great looking armor my guy!

Looking good. The blaster is very nice too. Best of luck!

I have updated the photos using a different hosting cite, they should be bigger now. When I get home, in 2 hours or so, I'll get you the other picture of the ad/kindey you requested. Also, I am not sure why the old pictures are still in the original post, I deleted them but they stayed, sorry for the double pictures.

BRILLIANT!!!

Hi Scott! I will be the DO who will review your application. In order to move along, I would like to ask you for a favor. The full body images(the side views of the blaster as well) have a very low resolution, which does not allow me to see all the details, could you change them for higher resolution ones? That would be great. You can edit the first post and change them there. I also need you to add the following photo: -Close-up of ab/kidney rivets Thanks!!!

Reaching out to your local garrison should help you, many hold armor workshops which is great to see armor up close, I believe this would be your local garrison There is a lot of information and yest it can seem daunting at first but with research you should get on the right path. This thread should help you on your way Good luck and hope to see a build thread from you soon

GET. THE. CENTURION 500. PIN. DESIGN. AND. MODIFY.

True story: when we marched in the Rose Parade back in 2007, on the bus ride there nearly everyone was standing in armor. On the way back, *everyone* found a way to sit!

Welcome my friend! Also, believe it or not, we do create bad memes Should I create a tutorial? I feel like I should create a tutorial. There's been way too much disbelief lately

I finally got to use this template!

According to your legion profile your TK has been retired, you would need to speak with your GCO or GML if you still have a TK costume. Hang tight on general 501st access, A.C. will be along soon RETIRED COSTUMES TK - Stormtrooper: ANH Stunt TX - Swamp Trooper SL - Darth Vader: ESB TI - TIE Pilot: Original Trilogy TR - Royal Guard: ROTS TR - Senate Guard: ROTS

Posted in pre approval. Any info is greatly appreciated

Sneak peek

Not mentioning any names

I'm looking forward to my own application