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By @revlimiter Here by popular demand is MaskedVengeance's ever-illusive "Troop Log" 24 September 2022: Not-A-Troop Kit-Up in a Basement/Garage, ANH-S 15 January 2023: Not-A-Troop Kit-Up in a Basement/Garage Photoshoot, ANH-S Total: 2 Breakdown ANH-S: 2 01: Kit-Up in a Basement/Garage The Lead-Up: On the night of September 23rd through 24th, 2022, I attended an overnight armor party in the dining room to continue armor assembly in preparation for my first Not-A-Troop Kit-Up the next morning. The night started off with some cover-strip bonding and every individual [armor] piece in attendance was excited to participate. The whole crew stuck together like glue. Clampers eventually got locked in with their duties and my ABS definitely got a workout. Participation waned a little as the hours stretched on, but strong energy from several dedicated members continued into the early morning. Until the incident. A little after 5:00am a knife got pulled and all Mustafar was let loose. Blood was spilt. It looked like all hope was lost and that the Assembly of Armor would have to disband. But I, the fearless recruit, persevered, shedding all calls for medical attention. The weight of magnets were shed and I belted out/up. The Kit-Up: At approximately noon, after moving to a friend's garage, my 501st buddy helped me suit up for the very first time, blood still dripping as evidenced on the floor beneath me. Shoulder bridges and drop boxes were absent. Arm strapping called in sick. Achilles Thigh Ammo pack was neither raised nor lowered. Belt dangled, snapless, by elastic bands. ANH holster required ESB mods. Rotation and spacing issues were prevalent in the formation. A substitute bucket was called up, sporting a minor league lazy brow, and an orange pauldron crashed the party(foul). But I had done it. I Not-A-Troop semi-Kitted-Up for the first time. (If it could even be called Kitting-Up with so many assembly atrocities). Mission accomplished, for the glory of the Empire. Hopefully I'd be able to Kit-Up again sometime in the future. 02: Kit-Up in a Basement/Garage Photoshoot On January 15, 2023, fours months after my first Not-A-Troop Kit-Up event, and after three years of anticipated participation, I finally FULLY Kitted Up for the first time ever. During my previous Basement/Garage Kit-Up several components of were absent, but this time every piece was in attendance. After all, this Not-A-Troop Kit-Up was a photoshoot for the upcoming Basic, L2, and L3 productions. It was time to look my best. @paradoxb3 was in attendance once more to provide dressing and image capture support, and after several hours of setup and shooting, we were all set. Fun ensued. Great conversation was had. Everybody in attendance loved the program. And thus my second ever Not-A-Troop Kit-Up came to an end. My next planned Kit-Up is scheduled for the week of April Fools... By @Morgi Yo @jsilvius

Bravo sir. Bravo.

https://i.imgur.com/FMkuWyo.gifv (Link above is a gif of Vader saying the circle is now complete)

Hey all.. First, apologies for my unexpected leave of absence. In addition to a couple of health items that needed to be sorted out and my internet going down for a time I am back. I have lots of catching up to do, so please bear with me! (I really did miss you all)! I'm now ready for service and anxious to dive into the deep end to keep this party going!

It feels soooooo good to have this wrapped up

LOL! Well, I do hope so.

Did lots of work today: Forearms, biceps, shoulders, shoulder straps, calves (inside and outside), thighs (inside and outside), back plate, kidney plate, and butt plate. All cut. Very little to trim so I can start resizing and glueing. Gained a little confidence today lol

The thing here is comparing Disney Parks FOTKs to Screen accurate FOTKs, Even the Kylo at the parks isn’t fully Screen accurate. The parks make their costumes to be wearable by many individuals and they don’t claim Screen accuracy as the 501st does. They just provide a fun atmosphere. Yes it’s better for ease, I for sure understand the issues with the yoke being one piece, but the other thing to remember is most of the armor in movies recently is urethane for flexibility and mobility. This is why they can go no seam no problem. That being said, I say no modifications to CRL just because vendors don’t meet the CRL standard. The accuracy is set forth by screen references that have been heavily scrutinized and as for now they stand as they are. Maybe some time in the future we get a new movie or show with a different version or so that will allow amendments to this, but for now the only arguments for the seam allowance are from a cartoon completely different character, a theme park, and a vendor. None of which are screen accurate or are a completely different screen version. I wish the seam was on screen costumes, because that was the most crackable part of the armor and I hated the repairs, but knowing it wasn’t I knew that it was a requirement that I needed to maintain with my armor. Honestly it also gives me pride knowing the armor I had was higher quality in accuracy than even Disney’s. The last thing I would also say is I don’t really see a true purpose to a “Disney Parks CRL” other than accommodating a single vendor style. The 501st aims for Screen Accuracy, not theme park accuracy, or some other type of accuracy. We aim for the source and that’s what makes our costumes really stand out. Sure seeing a Stormtrooper in general is cool, but there truly is a difference when the detail is accurate. I know we are talking about a seam, but if you give a mouse a cookie… Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yoooo - day 1 trim. Forearms, biceps, shoulders and shoulder straps. Not too shabby for this noob *cheers*

Update on the wrist return edges (trim down).

I recently found that my helmet had discoloured after 10 years of trooping, it's been on a shelf for the last 2 years because of Covid. So I remembered reading about Retr0bright, purchased all the ingredients and gave it a go. After applying a coat to the yellow areas I placed outside, in the sun on a mid 20's (deg C) afternoon for 2 hours and WOW could not believe my eyes, after washing off what was left of the mixture I was left with a pristine helmet once again. I can definitely recommend this stuff Retr0bright (FYI) I used the second mix mentioned Lorne's Variant Recipe

Hi Sean! There are several products and techniques that troopers use, and below is a list of some of them. Armor Yellowing Yellowing Preventative Measures by Brandon Make Aged ABS White Again by dashrazor Reversing UV Damage on TK ABS (external) Trooperbay Whitening Gel (external) Additional Yellowing Discussion and Resources Combat holster staining thigh armor: suttontech post & Daetrin post I hope this helps!!