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Sorry for the delay on checking on my own thread. My working world has been so crazy, I've lost my free time lately and may have to find another streak when I can work on all of this, but I did have a nice round this winter of making progress. Yep, it's a misalignment issue. I'm still not sure I understand how to adjust for it. Glen, I think you are right on the cover strips on the back. I'm just not sure how to fix it. Chemi's velcro suggestion is what I am going to try first. That is probably the easiest and shouldn't risk damage. I am curious, about your material in your shot to keep the shin from going any further. I'm not sure I understand it from that shot. My issue is that it feels like with my misalignment, I need the shin to shift up on one side. But I'm not sure. The problem is with both shins so whatever I do I'll have to do to both.

I agree with @Morgi My experience has also been from the range of 1 hour all the way up to 11 hours. The longer troops are rare. Most of the time you'll have a good idea with the parameters of the troop being established in the announcement of the troop. However, troops like parades can through you wild cards. My longest troops while kitted have been parades or sporting events. These days my longest troops tend to be the 2 hours range. I've been working on ideas and hacks for surviving the longer troops and noting them with this thread. And yes, access to water is the key. I've got emergency water bottles galore in my tub, but it's good to get a lay of the land when you get to a troop to see where you can get water or have water stored.

Here's the dressing issue I'm struggling with. The calf alignment. (Ignore the bad belt and thigh parts in the pic. I bumped into the couch during the pics and Alyssa didn't notice those while aiming for the calf pieces.) When I put the calves on, even when I hook them and make sure the hooks are in place, the calves slide up about an inch each. How to get around it? Use some velcro to keep it up in place? I feel like I don't need to cut them as you can see if I don't have them on and hold them the way they are supposed to look, they might be the right cut. Maybe?

This is a check for shoulder bells. I sewed the button in on the elastic straps and sewed the snap closer to the shoulder bell. Each by about 1". This brought the shoulders closer to the chest/back armor now. Is this gap better for centurion?

Articulated Hydration Conduit I still have a few more ideas and addendums to post here over the coming months. I'll try to drop one in once a month if I can. Here's one that I can't believe I forgot about. I used this fun name of Articulated Hydration Conduit for nothing other than your old fashioned reuseable and flexible drinking straw. I've used one of these in my Scout costume pouch for years. It occurred to me to have one for my TK. Many of my ideas and hacks here have been things for fun troops or longer non canon troops. The straw is a good one for when you are off to the side on a troop where you are keeping the costume pretty pure on the inside too or if you are all in on a B.O.A. Troop as I like to call them (Buckets On Always). I found at some sporting events; there was nowhere to take my helmet off out of the line of site when I could get a drink from a bottle of water. I didn't want to get dehydrated, but I also didn't want to ever take the helmet off. Thus, I carried along a drinking straw. This is a reusable plastic straw. It is flexible. I bought a couple of them so I could take the caps off and put the cap on each end of the straw. That way those were never exposed when not drinking from a water bottle. I wrapped a little bit of black tape and slapped a cog on there to make it imperial, but also identify the end which I drink from. The straw is wrapped in a double sided black velcro cable tie. I used about 11 inches of length. That's enough to wrap around most water bottle widths. This is wrapped around the straw. Then you simply mount a small strip of velcro of the bottom of your chest armor. A quick easy and well hidden spot to store it until needed. It's nice to help mark your water bottle if there's a bunch of them all together. You'll know which one is yours as the straw is attached to the bottle. Wrapping the velcro around the bottle can also hold the caps while you drink from the straw. Note: It's probably best to put the cap on the water bottle if you aren't going to use it. That would be in case it got knocked over, it wouldn't spill. You'd still use the velcro wrap to hold the straw with caps on the outside of the water bottle. You get the idea. Unfortunately, the TK has less room to slip the straw right up on the helmet. At least it is for me. I could do it no problem on the TB. For the TK, I just slide the straw up under the helmet, then tilt the helmet to side and have my mouth find the end of the straw. The helmet doesn't come off and you get your drink. I currently use a 13" straw length. I may trim off the end of it some by an inch or two. I went long at first because I could trim it if I needed to. I'll see on troops if I need it that long or not. And there you have it. The Articulated Hydration Conduit for trooping.

I have some more updates to post here over the coming days. After making a couple of terrible fraction measuring mistakes of my own accord, I finally got in the right sized 3/16 white elastic to replace the more discolored ones I had on. Here is the white elastic on the right and left shoulder bridges.

I've had some work deadlines keep me from doing the armor stuff but had a moment here to show my gloves. The hand plates are now sewn to the gloves on all points. These look ok? I'm waiting on my new white 3/16" elastic to arrive to put on the shoulder bridges. I ordered the wrong size previously and had to re-order. At least I'm fully stocked with a variety of thin white elastic in different sizes.... Once that's in, I'll post some pics to check a couple of the alignment items mentioned previously. So moving along.

OK thanks for the feedback on that one. I will swap the old 3/16" elastic with a newer one when it arrives. I'll have it go over the back plate piece like the screen shot.

Thank you for that link on the multi tool! I never considered one or those. I have the larger ones for many of my outdoor hobbies but never thought about a small model for trooping. I think my armor's ammo compartments are about 1.25" width. So that particular model could work at a slight angle but that gave me the idea to look for another one that might be a little more narrow. Appreciate the thought on that one! Happy to share any links on any things I drop in here on ideas if anyone wants them. Just let me know. Hope to have a couple more new hacks and ideas to drop in this thread next month!

Ammo Belt - Micro Tin Kits This is a new idea I'm trying for my 2026 troops. I have not trooped in this yet and I will post when I do for results. I wanted to try an alternative to my micro med/repair kits and put them in the Ammo belt. I know some folks have used the ammo belt for some storage before, but I had this idea for how to organize mine and not be visible for any kinds of troops. I was inspired by the notes in the Star Wars Ultimate Edition book that described what was in a stormtrooper ammo belt. I wanted to update my tool kit but also add rations and with a tool kit. I got a set of small 2"x1" tins with lids. These fit nicely in ammo compartments of the belt. These tins were painted white and then I added the cog sticker along with a theme sticker to identify what was in the tin. Depending on the troop, I can swap out what I think I will need in the belt. I have some different items I can swap out here in the belt. It's almost like a video game. I choose what I want to equip before I go out. In this lineup, you'll see I have a vial of water, a flashlight, a medical kit (medicine and band aid), a tape kit (contains a few strips of white duct or white electrical tape), a tool kit, and a tissue tin kit. (Over the last 20 years of trooping, I have found from time to time that I might need some tissue on a troop for a variety of reasons. I decided to add a tin kit for this.) I then added a strip of white duct tape on the back of the tin that was the same width of the tin. I cut the tape end off so it was about 1" longer than the tin. At the tip of the tape, I added a small piece of ABS that the tape covered at the top. The tiny ABS piece gives the tab just a little weight to make it curl forward. That way when the belt is on, the tape tabs don't stick out and aren't seen. And I can reach in and just grab the tab with my fingertips and pull the tin out. I could always take the belt off and get all the tins easily, but I wanted to be able to access them quick without needing assistance or have to take something off. I still have to test these tab pull outs on a troop, but I'm hoping they work. Here's the pic of what's inside each one. (I have a mini utility tool for cutting I am adding in here and working on how it will fit too.) I moved all the medicine I had in my micro kit to this tin. I did the same for the tool kit and added mini screw drivers too. The water is a something I thought would be good to have. Trust me, it's not for hydration. That would be laughable. However, a small thing of water could be helpful if I don't have any water close and need a gulp for taking some Advil. This small amount of water could also be used on a small armor cut or helping dab some tissue to wipe off a mark on the armor. I'm sure there's other uses for a small amount of emergency water that I'm not thinking of too. The water vial is not magnetic but fits fine. I just used velcro on the bottom of the bottle and a little piece at the bottom of one of the ammo compartments. I found a brand of flashlights called Olight on Amazon. They make a standard model in black and a Pro model in other colors like white. I got both to try them out. The Olight Pro is nice and has more light modes but is a hair too thick for fitting nicely in our belt compartments. The standard black Olight fits in fine! The lights are magnetic and also have a clamp so you could clip it to your armor if you wanted. The light has 3 levels of light and modes for spot, flood, and red light. After a troop is over and walking back to the car at night or if you need a little light on a troop, I have found this useful. The red light is nice if you clip this light on the back of your belt, so you are seen in the dark. The padded clamp is strong on these lights but not enough to put a dent or mark armor if you clamp it on. In my belt, I used the same earth magnets I used on my power packs on my back plate (see post above in this thread). I used the same concept of wrapping the magnets in some white duct tape to reduce the magnetic pull. I used double sided gorilla tape and put in one magnet in the middle and one at the bottom of the ammo compartments. This keeps the tins from falling out and keeps them in a balanced vertical position. I wanted "rations" to be an option on a longer troop. I found these Kind mini bars fit snug in the compartments but do fit. They also taste pretty good for an energy bar! I trimmed a little off of the bottom part of the wrapper so that doesn't stick out, and I can use the top of the wrapper as my tab to pull it out. If I know I'll have access to a water bottle on a troop from a host, but need a little energy, I'll simply drop out my mini water and put in the ration(s) instead. Or I might drop out the tissue tin and keep the mini water with the ration. It's nice to be able to swap out the pieces. Here's what it looks like installed. I don't think any of these will be visible to anyone when the belt is on. I still have to test this to verify. I also did a weight check on all of these with my food scale. Total weight on most of the combinations is anywhere from 3.7 - 4.2 ounces. Even with all ammo compartments filled, it should be light enough to not affect the belt position. Again, I'll post notes here to verify this works fine on a troop once I use it. I plan to just leave the tins in the belt since the magnets hold them fine. I have a pouch in my tub that has the other tin kit options if I want to swap them out. Hope this works! I really like this idea.

I was preparing to do a minor suit up for some dressing issues and wanted to revisit one of the items in my list - the white elastic bands over the shoulder bars. It looks like RS Props used 5/16-inch elastic on my kit. I've got new white elastic coming that is the same size just in case. I have both 1/4-inch elastic and 1/8-inch elastic. The 1/4 inch is a little too wide and the 1/8 inch is too thin. The 5/16 inch that RS uses looks like it's just right. Here's my questions. 1. Is 3/16-inch the right width for white elastic bands? I didn't know if there was any discussed specific width mentioned anywhere. 2. The RS elastic has had a couple of years on it and a couple of outdoor troops. So, it's a little off color now. Is that an issue? You can see the color difference between white the new white looks like compared to what is currently on the shoulder pieces. If it is better to have the new white, I'll use the 5/16-inch elastic once it arrives later this week. 3. I think I saw some application pics that some folks had the elastic go over part of the back plate as you can see in the image below. The other side it just goes over the white elastic under the shoulder pieces. Based on the CRL, it looks like it is fine to have it over the white elastic, and it doesn't have to go over part of the back plate. Or am I off on that? Thanks for any thoughts on these pieces. I may be over thinking these, but I feel better for asking. :)

Glen, I once tried rigging my TD back in early 2000's in first troops to put things in, but I did not have a nice set up like yours. I was always shaking my rump to make sure what I had in there was in there with the rattle. Yours is way better than what I did. I got too paranoid about not having eyes on that TD and dropped it as a storage option myself, but to Anthony's point if I did smoke, that's a great idea for placement! Anthony, yes, the micro kits can be stored in all kinds of places. I liked them in the wrist for quick access. But I think I'm going to transition those to a newer idea this year. I'll show you what I'm doing next on the inside of my ammo belt shortly. The micro kits remain micro and spread out a little, but I think it looks neat. Thank you for the video share! Totally going to check that out.

Andrew, Tony, and Anthony thank you for the notes! I love it! This is what I was hoping to inspire. Andrew and Tony, great additions to put in my tub for my main repair bag. I'm already going to copy some of those! Anthony, interesting idea on the drop boxes. I've heard of something like that, but I hadn't run across a pic example of that before. Thank you for sharing. Does the drop box close and stay closed by velcro? I have another post I'll be doing soon is on using the ammo belt for storing mini kits kind of based off of what I saw in the Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition. I may be dropping my micro med and micro repair kit for what I'm doing on these next. More coming.

Traveling Tub Dry Erase Mini Boards This is another idea I wanted to share that is a small one, but really helpful. This is something that was a long time coming. For many years, I always seem to find something to change or need a reminder to do or bring for the next troop. By the time I de-kit and get home, I've already forgotten what I needed to write down. And thus, I'll run into same problem again. I wanted something where I could write down my note to self that was fast and easy. I found a set of small magnetic 4x6 dry erase boards. These are just the right size. I velcored these to the inside top of my trooper tubs and velcroed a dry erase marker next to it. (I probably could have used earth magnets since these boards are magnetic, but it was easy enough to go with velcro.) Now it's easy to take quick notes during or after a troop to make sure I don't forget something that I need to bring the next time. I can simply either add my notes while it's mounted in the tub or just take the little dry erase board off and mark my note down and then put it back in the tub. The next troop, I can wipe it clean and it is ready to go.

Thank you both for the recommendations. I'm going to ponder my options some more on the Han snap. I'm leaning towards removing part of the return edge first before cutting more off or re-drilling the snap. In the meantime, I worked on the V-tabs this week. I made the cuts for the pieces. I went with close to 3"x1" pieces. I made three of them so I could afford to mess up on one. I made the cuts and then did the heat bends to first make the "U" shape. After the U shapes were made, I then used heat to bend the V portion. I messed up the first tab by bending too much, but I learned and was able to make the v portion better on the second attempt. I painted the inside of the V black and then used E-6000 to mount them to the inside of the posterior plate. I was careful with clamping this time! Next, I will do a partial kit up to check the 3 dressing issues that I had: Calf alignment, posterior plate alignment, and positioning of the thin white elastic that holds down the shoulder straps. Pics coming for those with questions. I'll come back to the Han snap after these are done.