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I dropped by a local auto chain, O'Reilly Auto Parts, to see what gloss white choices they had for the helmet. I learned that a different store location could color match and mix paints, and they could also put the paint into an aerosol spray can which was good since I don't own an airbrush or any type of sprayer. I went to the second location and was met by a super helpful salesperson, Jason. He took a picture of the white on the back armor plate which I had with me, but there was no auto paint that was an exact match. He then pulled out all the white color samples and we started to compare them. The best match was a Monaco White from Hyundai. Jason mixed up the paint and before putting it into a spray can (which costs a bit more), he gave me a sample 1oz bottle with brush applicator. I used a piece of scrap armor and did a test paint. The before and after pictures are below. Before, scrap armor only: After, Monaco White is in a square above the word "Test." The line above the arrow is a shade from the layer of paint applied to the armor. I'm very happy with the color match. Thank you, Jason!

NEW In Memoriam Detachment Leader Executive Officer Provost Marshall Detachment Affiliation Legion Elections Hall of Fame FISD Meme's Around the Detachment INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS FISD Tri-Fold Brochure Common FISD Acronyms and TK Glossary Pre Approval Forum 3D Section Field Exercise Award Imperial Attaché Program Master Armorer Award Fire Teams EIB & Centurion: What do these terms mean? Need Help Ask the Deployment Officers Advance to 1500 Advanced Tactics Awards Newsletter Editor Staff List 2025 Follow FISD Remembering Gary Fisher, who has recently joined his mother in the Force. He was not only Carrie Fisher's constant companion but also a cast member of The Last Jedi. "You left pawprints on our hearts and we are forever changed" "Buckets Off" Greetings Troopers, Welcome to a new season of First Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment. For a recap of the previous season read my last newsletter here. As we've not had an election we'll be getting a bit of a head start, both by not having to have an election or a handover, but also as the team is carrying over everyone is already settled in their roles. This year there is a certain amount of if it's not broken don't fix it. The teams all know their jobs well and will continue to do so. However we should always be looking to the next generation. If you think you what it takes to help run the Detachment please do reach out. I also want to congratulate one of our DO's who was elected as the CO of Costa Rica Garrison this term. So congratulations @TKSpartan! With a lot of unexpected work at the end of last year I have 2 primary focuses for this Term. The first will be to pay the bills. We already had costs associated with the Detachment, and with the move to our new server this has gone up. The first job will be to work out what our annual bill currently is, and then with that known we can look to cover that. More news on this soon. The other focus this year I'd like to look at our CRLs. We have had a back log for a while now of some changes to look into for various CRLs. Again the first task will be to make a list, then we can prioritize and begin to address these. It's worth mentioning that a to do may not mean an actual change, and also most are reasonably minor in nature and are more focused on clarity than major changes to the costumes. Finally there will be all our usual programming and merchandise. We have a fun few ideas in the works, and I'm sure we'll have more to come. Make sure to keep an eye on the forums for more information. With Unquestioned Loyalty Chris Pearson TK-10991 "themaninthesuitcase" Detachment Leader Greetings fellow members Congratulations’ to our Detachment leader Chris, for continuing on this term. He has a good plan, and we are all looking forward to getting that underway. I would like to draw attention to some of our propaganda materials and programs and that can help us all with supporting the Detachment and utilising our unofficial motto of ”Troopers helping troopers”. These are always detailed further down in every Newsletter addition, but at the beginning of the new term it’s good to draw attention directly to them to help kick the year off with a bang. FISD Tri Fold Brochure Our Tri-Fold brochure is the perfect accompaniment to any troop or con. They are excellent for any unit to place on a table set up offering a great conversation starter, and the perfect takeaway reminder if someone is considering joining up. The Tri-folds are also the ideal tool for all our attaches to spread the word, so please utilise as much as possible. It truly is a great recruitment tool, and includes both OT and FO TK’s since the update we did 2 terms ago. They include the basics of our Detachment, important contact info and a good summary of what we do and how we can assist. This is currently available in English, German, Swedish and Spanish with plans to continue the language expansion as much as possible. These are available on request, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like the file. Go print some out and see how they can work for you. If you would like to assist in translating into another language, please reach out to myself or Chris our DL. As to FISD award schemes and programs, we have several. For those that love to assist in armour building or bringing something to the table for our membership these are a few or the programs. Master Armorer Program Updated last term for more ability to help and be awarded for your service. This is all about assisting and passing on knowledge of armour builds with new and existing members. See the link for further details https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/forum/182-fisd-master-armorer-program/ 3D Contributor Program If you are a great designer of 3D files and wish to share at no cost with our membership, then you could be inline for an award. Check out the section to see who has been honored and what they have given. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/forum/206-fisd-3d-contributor-program/ Attache program Our eyes and ears out there in unit land. Helping fellow troopers and showing them to way to FISD. An invaluable resource for the detachment. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/15252-fisd-attach%C3%A9-program/ Let's also not forget we have higher levels of costume accuracy that you can attain. These go over and above basic approval and are handled by the detachment, not your local garrison GML. Expert Infantry Level 2, and Centurion Level 3. These are not at the prop replication level, but are generally visible upgrades to get you looking your best with minimal additional cost. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/35371-eib-and-centurion-what-do-these-terms-mean/ Until next time, happy trooping. With Unquestioned Loyalty Andrew Franke TK-11469 "Sly11" Executive Officer Greetings Troopers! With the Elections out of the way, at least for FISD, I'm happy to report you are stuck with me for another term. Congratulations to @themaninthesuitcase for staying on for another term. I feel he has done an amazing job considering how he end up in the position. Several new things are happening, I'm hoping to expand the regional distribution system to possibly a regional creation system, but we'll see how it goes. For now, let's cover the old business first! Old Business "FISD EIB Coins" EI coins are still available, but the numbers are dwindling. If you are eligible, please look into it. In order to buy one, you have to have an approved EI costume and you can not have ever bought an EIB coin from any pervious runs. EIB coins are a once and done coin. If you have this one and would prefer one of the older versions, I may have an option for you so please dm me. EIB v11 coin run is open "Advance to 1500 Keyring/Zipper pull" This run is Closed, and the order has been placed. I tried a new to me vendor that was recommend by a few on staff, and unfortunately after we had placed the order I was informed that they don't do drop shipping, so everything is coming to me, and we'll see how to break down the cost to get it to the distribution points. I feel this process has been working well for members, but this time around, there may be some additional cost involved. My apologize in advance More information can be found here. "FISD Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 patch" This run is now closed and the order has been placed. As with the Key Chain/Pull tag, this is the same new to me vendor, so we these will more than likely ship to me together, and we'll have to figure out cost for regional distribution vs. me shipping directly. More information for the run can be found here. "2nd Annual DMBO Sale" The 2nd Annual DMBO sale is closed. I've messaged everyone about the merch they were eligible, and have started shipping some of it. I still have several of the Standard Logo (Glass) coin, the Dual Detachment, FISD Member (Blue Glass), and both OTTK and FOTK patches Large and Small that are available. So while the run is closed, you can find info about those items here, and you can DM, FB PM, or email me if you are interested. More details can be found here New Business "FISD Stepping Out Challenge Coin" This run will is open until 24 Feb 2025, to give me some time to make sure all the money is collected and accounted for before the close of the Legion Term. Information about this run can be found here. FISD Attachés have the options to buy a special version of the coin above, but you have to have been an Attaché prior to the run open date. This was not a piece of merch being made to inflate Attaché numbers, it was created as a reward for the current Attachés, so please do go and sign up to be an Attaché just for this piece of merch as you not be allowed to order it. Mor information can be found here: Click Here Lastly, I'm interested in hearing your ideas. While I have several of my own, and staff has dropped many ideas and suggestions on me, I'll like to hear from the Troopers. I've put up a poll to get an idea of what folks might be interested in for merch this term. Most of the poll items are standard fare, but there are a few outside the box. Please vote, and if you have an idea, add it in the comments. I'll leave this poll open until Legion elections are completed. We are hopefully running out the gate with our next "Secret Merch Item", I'm excited to share it with you. You can find the poll thread here. As always, questions, comments, thoughts, suggestions, please feel free to reach out With Unquestioned Loyalty James Silvius TK-12953 "jsilvius" Merchandise & Branding Officer OK so you look at your Legion profile and it shows that your detachment affiliation to FISD is pending, or otherwise incorrect. Why does this happen, and what is detachment affiliation anyway, and what will FISD do about it? The answer is that detachment affiliation is only ever used once a year, and for one purpose. The only time the Legion ever uses it for anything is to determine who can run for DL and who can vote in detachment elections. That's it. Otherwise it is pretty much ignored and not used for anything. The process of validating detachment membership is cumbersome and time consuming because people use different email information between their Legion and detachment logins, and that there is no way to bulk update the rosters. For a small detachment it is not a big deal to do this manually, but for a detachment the size of FISD with hundreds and soon thousands of 501st members, it's impossible. Fortunately we have technical folk both on FISD and in the Legion web team. Once a year they take a feed from FISD's database and do a bulk update on the Legion database. This occurs right before the election cycle starts and is done once per year. Pro tips: 1) Ensure the email address you use on the Legion & FISD boards are the exact same. 2) Ensure that your FISD profile has the correct TKID. 3) IMPORTANT! You MUST be in the right security group. It should be "501st Stormtrooper" in order for the automated system to pull you over. This thread is where you get your detachment access updated. 4) If after the bulk update is complete and your profile is still not updated, and you are 100% sure your info is in sync between the two boards, then ask for to the Legion web team. They should get feedback on why this isn't working. 5) If all else fails, ping the FISD staff. Which basically means that we'll simply tell the 501st web team to bulk approve everyone 6) If still you have no luck you can contact the legion web team directly via email: [email protected] To check detachment affiliation go to the 501st holocron here, login using your 501st forum username and password, click on YOUR PROFILE DATA, then look down the lower part of the page for YOUR UNIT AFFILIATION, then under DETACHMENT AFFILIATION. If you do not see FISD listed reach out to your GML (garrison membership liaison) as they can add it if you are an approved Stormtrooper. If FISD shows as PENDING contact our DL Chris @themaninthesuitcase and request a manual update. FISD Detachment Leader With only one accepted nomination for FISD Detachment Leader congratulations continuing in the role Chris Pearson TK-10911 "themaninthesuitcase", looking forward to another great year in the detachment. Costume Approval Information New Members - Legion Elections 2025 During the Legion election period the membership database will be in lock down, during this time new member applications through your local garrison/outpost/squad can not be finalized, you may however still submit them but they won't be processed until the end of this cycle. This does not affect the addition of any new costumes to an active members roster/profile, however it does affect any membership status changes ie: active / reserve / retired and any personal information updates. The period of membership database lockdown for 2025 starts January 27th and ends February 17th More information on the elections can be found on the legion forum here (for those with legion membership access) Who's in charge here? Please welcome for the 2nd time, TK-69826 to the Stormtrooper Hall of Fame, January 2025! @TikiTechie Troop log can be found here. Brilliant pic! At this pace you'll hit within the year! Great work trooper! With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador You can find the full meme thread here Blast-A-Trooper Finally after many years of asking the Blast A Trooper files have been shared on the legion forum, sharing here for anyone who may have been looking for them https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_W3-wBM3Gsp5EN_juDwPSCVYhLcpv_MD *NOTE* unfortunately for those of you Down Under due to our PLI (public liability insurance) restrictions we are not able to run Blast A Trooper events as the insurer do not allow the firing of projectiles at our members (I know right, foam darts, ouch ) Thread here Request Edited Signature Banners/Profile pics/Fire Team Logos Troopers! I want to help out the community and the people that doesn't have the time or have the necessary tools or skills to create a cool Signature banner or have the background of your Action Photo removed, or even if you have a request for a certain Profile picture! I don't know how popular this will be, or what requirements I will need, but we will learn as we go and if it turns out to be popular and it gets too much for me - I'm sure that we can find a few more that are willing to help out! Thread here With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador Trading Card Archives For those with FISD detachment trading cards please consider sending two to Paul @Daetrin keeper of our detachment archives. Address and more info here With Unquestioned Loyalty Paul Hoeffer TK-8020 "Daetrin" Detachment Founder Keeper of Archives INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS For a full list of FISD awards programs head here. *Now Available in Swedish* Want to spread the word about FISD?, you can with our FISD Tri-Fold Brochure. Originally these were done in a limited run by the member who created them, but nowadays, we have moved this to a print your own service making them accessible to all countries around the globe. Files are available to all full 501st members on request by contacting our DL Chris @themaninthesuitcase you can find more info here Currently Available languages: English - Spanish - German - Swedish Are you new to the FISD and wondering what the heck all those abbreviations and strange sounding terms mean? To help you @justjoseph63 has started a list of the most commonly used ones that will give you some insight. If you have ANY questions about a particular term that is not listed or suggestions for new ones please contact Joseph. You can find the list here. Pre Approval Forum allows future Troopers the opportunity to submit photos of their completed build to be reviewed by the Staff, Imperial Attaches and others in preparation for forwarding it to their GML for approval. Any and all advice/suggestions given will be specific, constructive, helpful and respectful. Please note that this program will NOT take the place of your local GML, as Detachments are not chartered for costume approval and can not override a GMLs decision, but is instead a peer review program designed to help you look your best and offer guidance and positive feedback. For more information on this program, please visit the link here. Don't forget to visit our 3D section when next surfing the FISD forums, there is plenty of useful information to potentially help you on your next TK adventure. You might be feeling may generous and share with our community a new TK related 3D file and maybe win yourself a 3D contributors award so check out the details below and be part of the in house 3D community. Here is a link to the FISD 3D Contributor program. Don't forget to create a troop log here on FISD and get awarded for your adventures The list of accomplished troopers keeps growing, so get on board and register your troops today Simply start (or update!) your troop log, keep the running total in the title, and post (at least!) a date and name for the official 501st event where you wore your TK! Once you've hit a milestone count, go over to the "Field Exercise Awards -- Post your milestones here" thread to request your profile be updated! Simple, right? Also if you would like your troop photos shared on our social media channels please add the following to the first post of your FISD troop log: I give permission for FISD to repost my photos on social media in an appropriate fashion. Award Recipients January - February TK-19456 "ZanderCage" Brandon - - - - - - TK-82666 "WhiteWalker" Mike - - - - - - Are you an approved TK that spends more time on the boards than the average Trooper? Do you enjoy using your knowledge to help out future and existing Troopers? If so, we would like to invite you to join the Imperial Attaché program! Members of the I.A. team are chosen to help out not only those here on the boards, but on a local level as well. Our aim is to have at least one in each and every Garrison, Squad and Outpost in the entire legion to be the eyes and ears of the FISD on a local level. If you are a 501st approved Trooper who wishes to join the ranks of the Attachés, please get in touch with me and/or visit: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/15252-fisd-attaché-program/ For a complete list of Imperial Attaches, go here. Some of the benefits include: Access to exclusive Attaché merch, including patches. You may also be in the running for an Imperial Attaché Award. An award for those attaché's who have gone above and beyond [minimum 1 year of service]. You can find a list of prior recipients here. Imperial Attaché Outstanding Achievement Award Fellow troopers! Please give a warm welcome the two newest additions to the Attaché roster: SAUDI ARABIA Saudi Arabian Outpost TK-50000, Omar @OAB1 SPAIN Spanish Garrison Canarias Squad TK-27022, Jason @TK27022 Is the Attaché position vacant for your Squad/Garrison/Outpost? Interested in becoming an Attaché? Contact me by PM or apply in the thread below: With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador Master Armorer Program FISD has many wonderful programs to help members build and submit costumes for our detachment, whether it be a classic Stormtrooper, a First Order Stormtrooper, or even one of the new Imperial Armored Commandos. While our Expect Infantry and Centurion programs get most of the attention, FISD staff wants to relaunch the Armorer Program (Currently called the Master Armorer Program). What is the Armorer Program you ask? Well, it is a program designed to recognize those troopers that go above and beyond to assist themselves and others in getting costumes built, submitted, and approved. One of the goals of all the detachments in the 501st Legion is to help members build and submit costumes that meet and hopefully exceed the minimum requirements of the Legion’s CRLs. Currently the Master Armorer program has the requirement of helping a minimum of 5 members achieve Expert Infantry status. The member must have spent at least 30min physically helping another member with cutting, gluing, sizing, etc, just because they want to help (no money exchanged). The definition of an armorer is “a maker, supplier, or repairer of weapons or armor”. So while we certainly love the feedback that members provide to others on the forums, and the extra steps some do by having video calls to help walk people through issues with their builds, this program requires hands on work. The new program will have the same physical help requirement, but we are going to move from a “wins” system, (where a win was help an individual for 30 min or more) to a points system, and we aren’t limiting it to only Expert Infantry builds. While we are pushing the Advance to 1500 to try and achieve 1500 Expert Infantry members, we recognize that the goal of the detachment is to get FISD members build, submitted, and approved. So we will be awarding points for Basic builds as well. Currently there are 3 levels of the award, FISD Armorer, FISD Senior Armorer and FISD Master Armorer. The new program will add a 4th level at the beginning called the Apprentice Armorer. The point scale will be as follows. 5 points - Apprentice Armorer 10 points - Armorer 20 points - Senior Armorer 30 points - Master Armorer The Armorer candidate would earn points based on what level the member costume they assisted with achieved. If you help with a basic build, you get 1 point, if you help with a EIB build you get 2 points. So a person to basic you get a point, help them again to get their EIB earning another 2 to a total of 3. The thought again here is that we want to help build as many stormtroopers as possible. If you love building armorer and love helping fellow members get their costumes built, then this is the program you’ve been searching for. We look forward to awarding more members with this award as we know how much we all love Troopers helping Troopers. More information can be found here Armorer Rocker Patches Rocker patches are now available for the Armorer Program, there is currently just the one patch, and members are eligible to receive two of them once they reach Level 2, "Armorer". More information can be found here Want to setup a "Fire Team? the Fire Team program is completely optional, and is intended to help form a common identity and spirit of camaraderie among 501st Legion Stormtroopers in the same geographic area/garrison that troop together. Fire Teams are not officially recognized by the 501st Legion nor the FISD, although they will be able to access a Fire Team sub-forum on the detachment website. You can find more information here. For those interested here is the original discussion on the creation of Fire teams here With Unquestioned Loyalty Mark Ryner TK-4584 "captsafe66" Fire Team Relations So what exactly are and levels? These programs were designed for those who choose to take their armor above and beyond the minimum requirements for basic 501st Legion approval. It gives you the chance to show a level of dedication and pride that takes your armor closer to being as "screen accurate" as possible, without as much extra work as you may realize! You can find more information on the programs here. For those unaware it is possible to achieve extra awards at Expert Infantry for each additional version costume you have approved, additional awards are not issued with another Expert Infantry number (you are only issued 1 Expert Infantry number) but you will see a star above the award on your profile and the thread title will show [APPROVED] 2nd, [APPROVED] 3rd, [APPROVED] 4th and so on. Multiple EIB award recipients and info here NOTE If you are approved with a "2nd Version" of a particular costume that you are already approved with you do not receive an additional award, there is only 1 award issued for each costume version ie: only 1 x Hero, 1 x Stunt, 1 x HWT, 1 x ESB, 1 x TFA and so on. If you have a second/additional version costume approved you will see "2nd Version" and [APPROVED] added to the thread title, no additional profile stars (more info on profile awards here) For those of you who have a particular issue (or issues) before or after submitting for Expert Infantry / Centurion level approval, in order to get you an answer faster you can now privately contact the entire Deployment Officer team at one time! Questions about fitting, repairs, CRL standards/requirements or anything pertaining to reaching Levels 2 and 3 are not only welcomed, but encouraged. Keep in mind that no question is too small, and that your queries will only be seen by the D.O. Staff. We are here to help in any way we can, so please feel free to send us a message by clicking on this link: @Deployment Officer Team and we will get back to you A.S.A.P.! More info here This area lists all those who have gone above and beyond basic approval toward screen accuracy and obtained EIB or Centurion or both. FOR January - February the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment would like to congratulate the following. Expert Infantry Badge Award: None this month Request your free EIB certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. Multiple EIB award info here Expert Infantry Honor Gallery here --------------------------------------------------------------- Centurion Badge Award: None this month Request your free Centurion certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. If you see any of these Troopers around your Garrison or Squad, be sure to congratulate them! With Chris remaining as our Detachment Leader I will still be looking after the newsletter (sorry folks ), As always if you have any interesting stories or photos please send me a PM. Here's to another great year in the detachment With Unquestioned Loyalty Glen "Q" Rhodes TK-85421 "gmrhodes13" PRO, Newsletter Detachment Leader (DL) Chris Pearson (themaninthesuitcase) TK-10911 Detachment Executive Officer (DXO) Andrew Franke (Sly11) TK-11469 Chief Deployment Officer (DCA) Mario Reyes (TKSpartan) TK-48117 Deployment Officer (DCA) José Mª Sánchez (Chemi) TK-30173 Deployment Officer (DCA) Gerald J Gyorffy (Doggydoc) TK-96004 Provost Marshall (DCoG) Steven Sheades (starsaber25) TK-10466 Provost Marshall (DCoG) Caleb Mask (MaskedVengeance) TK-73692 Provost Marshall (DCoG) Arthur Wong (giskard8) TK-39093 FISD Diplomat (DPRO) Tony Jobe (ukswrath) TK-10116 FISD Diplomat (DPRO) Tim Waychoff (Dark PMF) TK-51878 FISD Diplomat (DPRO) Christoph (Danny) Lauber (Ripper_L) TK-55550 Fire Team Relations(DCoG ) Mark Ryner (captsafe66) TK-4584 Merchandise and Brand Officer (DMBO) James Silvius (jsilvius) TK-12953 Trading Card Specialist (DPRO) Eric Ho (Hoda) TK-77520 Newsletter Publisher (DPRO) Glen Rhodes (gmrhodes13) TK-85421 Content Editor Support (DPRO) Adam Wolf (Revlimiter) TK-89400 Content Editor Support (DPRO) Jeff Salt (Wingnut65) TK-50297 Special Unit Director-Valkyries (DPRO) Vicky Mandlmaier (Vicky_Velocipanda) TK-50893 Attaché Ambassador (DPRO) Jonatan Östling (Nairy) TK-23592 Social Media Relations (DPRO) Luca Hahn (Morgi) TK-66744 Personnel Officer (DPER): AC (NoVATie) TK-5597 Systems Administrator (DWM) Mathias Rodstedt (Locitus) TK-2959 Systems Administrator (DWM) Eric Brager (Darth Aloha) TK-9674 Systems Administrator/Detachment Founder (DF) Paul Hoeffer (Daetrin) TK-8020 Imperial Propaganda Machine (IPM) Brian Long (Tilheyra) TK-47933 Facebook: www.facebook.com/whitearmor - - - Facebook Group: 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment (FISD) Official Twitter: www.twitter.com/FISD501st or @FISD501st - - - Instagram: www.instagram.com/fisd501st Discord: https://discord.gg/FmQZ2qW8gx - - - Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fisd501st.bsky.social On behalf of the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment Command Staff and the Imperial Propaganda Department

Thanks so much, Gerald. I really appreciate the help 🙌

Looking great. Good luck, Hanson!

Here is the shield, this one is big, but not too heavy about 2.5-3lbs, I made it as light as possible. So this should complete the IAC weapons

Thank you everyone for the hard facts, that's exactly the input I'm looking for before I spend the money.... Now to continue the saving up part!

Congrats @TikiTechie great picture. Also @TKSpartan as a new DO. And of course Chris as Detachment Lead. Looking forward to the year!

The sniper plate was one of the trickiest parts. I have a WTF kit I just had to use a ton of heavy duty clamps and even then there's still a gap. Still got approved level 3 with it

Way to go Chris! All your work totally paid off

Congratulations Chris

It took a while as I was caught on other projects, but here is the finished baton (Shield is almost finished). The paint turned out well with a very close match. Lights are very bright and although you cannot see the effect here (I placed the lights in steady mode for the pictures) they are blinking to mimic the effect of the sparking. I placed here the originals and the background removed so that you can see the reflection on the table. There is an on/off switch on top exactly as the baton in the reference pictures. It's driven with programmable LED strip. It's a bit purple on picture, but in reality it's a bit more white and blue. I had to dim the LEDs for the pictures to not be overexposed

I open slightly with a flat head screwdriver, then use the post of the screwdriver, hit with hammer, it will splay open. You can have some gap on the front, here's an approved EIB

Wow, incredible work. Can't tell at all it's printed. Out of curiosity, exactly how tall are you? I have been slowly slowly working on a FOTK for years, and have now been swapping some parts out for 3D printed.