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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.

Thank you Glen! I'm going to work on the V tabs. Colin's thread had the measurements and visuals I was looking for. Much appreciated. I'll drop pics once I build and try them out. I'm struggling with the Han snap and my options. I'm on the fence for both options. I'll think about those some more. It feels like the cut would be the easiest for me, but then I'd be .5" off balance from the other side and those rivets are in the right spot there. So I can't really take from it to balance the cut. I'm come back to this one.

I'm working on the next two items on the list. 1. The space gap of armor to the Han snap. To me, it looks like just about .5". I did a pencil line first before I was going to do a cut to make sure I'm in the right place. So the first question, is do I have the right amount to cut off? This pretty much cuts where the return edge is on this side of the ab plate. Is that ok? And do I need to balance the other side of the ab plate and cut a similar amount off or just this one side? I plan to put the armor on and put it on tight to see if I can still close the shell tight and not have a gap by the Han snap. I'm a pretty slim to medium build guy and I've only gained a couple of pounds this year which is unusual for me, but I don't think will affect the closure much. If it does, I'll be back to the gym and doing crunches! 2. I'm going to look at my kidney and posterior plate alignment too. It was mentioned for my Centurion recommendations that I may need to use a V-Tab to help make them align. I was hunting around on the forum for examples of these. Does anyone happen to have any good pics of these? I wasn't too sure of exact size, position, number, and placement of these V tab pieces to get those to help that backside alignment. I assume these get velcroed or glued (E6000) in place?

Thank you for meeting and discussing this on my behalf. I would do what you all request, but I won't lie I was sweating your decision. I hope that my efforts and examples will help others in the future to watch clamp dents. Oddly after I took the clamps off, the dents lessened just a little. It had to settle I guess. But I will move on to the next parts. Again, thank you for the quick posts to let me know so I don't get myself freaked out or working harder than I need to. I have a few more Centurion updates to do and I'll be posting those here soon. I'm on holiday break this week, so watch for more updates and questions. This trooper is moving forward. :)

Back Plate "Altoid Power Packs" This is a very new idea I will be trying out in 2026. I've had some batteries rigged in the back plate for a long time on troops but it was just haphazard velcroed pieces with no real order to it. I came up with an idea using Altoid tins. Note: I've not trooped with this yet. I have some attachment strength, positioning, and making sure they are not visible to work out, but I love how this came out. I will only troop with it if I have the front plate with my speaker and ABS bracket mounted on the chest plate to counterbalance the weight. It's not heavy on the back, but the power bank adds just enough to it. (I weighed the pieces, and the total weight is right at 16 ounces for all 4 pieces. I got a different USB Power bank that was even closer in size to the Altoid tins and only weighs 3.8 ounces.) First, I logged all the electronics I'm using which include: helmet fans, wireless mic, TRamp speaker, air pressure sound board in helmet, MP3 player on blaster, and sound fx/music speaker hidden in holster. I currently am using two 9 volts, two CR2032 batteries, one device charged with USB-C, and two devices charged by Micro USB. That helped me determine what I needed in my power packs. Here's what I did: Using Altoid tins, you can simply paint these black or white or whatever you like. I decided on black since it will go up against the black skin-diving suit. And it matched the color of the USB Power Bank. I then made some logo stickers to represent what is stored in each power pack. I wanted a symbol instead words or lettering. It looked neat. Then of course slapped the imperial cog decal on there on the right side. Each power pack stores what I need for power. You could make an internal liner in the case. But I found some folks on Etsy that make cheap 3D printed storage parts for Altoid cases. I got one the holds three 9 Volts batteries. Another one was a piece made for storing headphones - I used it for the two types of cables -Micro USB and a pigtail USB-C cable. The last case was a neat little mini tool chest that I use for brackets and screws but also for my CR-2032 batteries. Finally, I found a USB Power Bank that was as close in size to the Altoid tins as I could find. Then added the stickers to show was stored in each case. Next was the mounting. The Altoid tins work great for using earth magnets. I found small rectangular earth magnets on Amazon. It was so strong, I decided to wrap them in 6-inch strips of white duct tape to reduce the draw power. That worked great. I used two strips of 6-inch tape around them. If I troop and find it's a little loose, I'll drop one of the tape strips that wrap around the magnet to make them stronger. Small tests around the house don't seem to be a problem so far with the two layers of tape. I'll do a test troop in full armor at some point to verify though. I also need to see how much the screws/nuts rattle in the one tin. Test walking in the house didn't make much of a sound which surprised me. I used clear double sided Gorilla tape to mount the magnets on the interior of the black plate. Since these power packs are not too heavy, there's not a lot of weight for the magnets and Gorilla tape to hold the tins. I wanted it to be easy for someone to reach inside my back plate to easily remove the needed power pack without the tear and pull of velcro. However, I didn't want to use magnets on the USB Power Bank. I put just a little hook velcro on the back of the bank itself and then a piece of loop velcro in the back plate. rt Finally, the pieces in place. It looks awesome and everything is neat, organized, and labeled. I put a "safety hold" black rubber band around each tin. I don't think they'll pop open, but I thought that would be a good safety to have on them just in case. I really hope this works in my test troop. I'll post results once I give it a whirl. I did want to share this idea though. I'd love to see how others hide and store backup power and batteries on their armor.

Hi all, I've finished my knee piece over the holidays. And I think I have a problem that got me upset at myself. I've never had this happen before, but I got "clamp dents". I always put thick foam between the clamp points to avoid this, and it's never been a problem before, but I did let the clamps stay on the armor a little longer than I normally do because I was using E6000. So, two questions: 1. Does the alignment and placement of the sniper knee now look good for Centurion? 2. What do I do about these little dents (little one on each side and one on front sniper knee plate -essentially the gluing contact points)? I don't even know how to go about fixing those. Or are they so subtle that it wouldn't block Centurion?

I've got my Sniper Knee plate trimmed. I think I got this pretty good. I just drew a little pencil line on the angle I wanted and then sanded it by hand to get the angle. I had a firm folded piece of sand paper so it would go a little quicker. This did not take too long to do. It's no longer curved and not too sharp. Here's my question for when I glue the sniper plate back to the shin. What are the thoughts on using CA Glue again or using E6000? I'm leaning towards the CA super glue, but I wanted to see what might be best when I reattach this piece.

Shin piece update. I got the glue off. I tried the freezer and that did nothing. The thin residue was not coming off in that manner for anything. So, I went Unbonder. It did nothing with 2 min of carefully dabbing the glue spots. When I let the Unbonder sit 5 minutes, it helped some. I was able to get a flat exacto knife piece under the thicker parts and pop them off. But the Unbonder just wouldn't remove the thin residue glue. I also wasn't willing to let it soak a long time to risk any staining. My last resort was the dremel. I had to use really small sanding heads and carefully sand off the thin residue. Then I hand sanded the rest. After that was done I did 3 rounds of Novus Heavy scratch remover, Light scratch remover. and the Shine/Protect. I did 3 rounds of that. The sanding took 8 hours total over the weekend. Yowza! The results are below. Now that the glue is gone, I put the knee plate on again to pencil mark placement before gluing. How does this knee plate placement look?

Micro Med Kits My first troop I ever did was before I was a member of the 501st. I went to a Ren Fair in Colorado in the summer in the summer of 2001. I had the Armor FX and it was all velcro. It was near 100 and that kit fell apart after a couple of hours. I never considered having a repair or med kit for a troop. I didn't have the experience. A fellow trooper saved me with some white tape. I knew a med kit was a needed thing. I have a repair/med kit for each costume, but I've found that when I go to a troop like a parade or even that takes us far from our tubs, it's all about what you have on you if something goes wrong. In my TK, there's not a lot I can have on me compared to my Scout with my pouches. So, I created what I call Micro Repair or Micro Med Kits. I use our Challenge Coin sleeves and as my base for the pouch as it's thick and flexible. I used CA glue to glue the back side of the coin sleeve to a little ABS piece. Then I glued a black nylon piece to the top to act as a tab. The back side of the ABS has a tiny piece of hook velcro. I glued that on the ABS piece too just make sure it didn't come off. What I do is I tuck this micro kit in the arm armor. The black nylon tab can either be tucked in to hide it or have it out to easily grab it. (Think of it like Spiderman's web shooters, just angle your wrist out a little and grab the tab and pull out your kit.) In the arm armor, there's a strip of loop velcro where the kit attaches. This little kit is small enough to pull in and out as long as you have a little room at the wrist part of the armor. The ABS Piece is solid enough it helps you push it back in to the arm armor when you are done with it. I only take these on events that take me a good distance away from the storage tubs. They really don't bother my arm or are in the way. You also won't have them fall out and not notice. Because it's light enough, even the little velcro keeps it from falling out. I did have to experiment a little to get the right amount of hook velcro to make sure I can pull it out, but also that it won't fall down when arms are down. I don't really notice them, but haven't had long troops with them yet. This is a newer idea with not a ton of hours on them. Oddly, I've not used them for myself aside from Advil, but I've pulled them out for a couple of other troopers at an event. Here's what is in each micro kit: Micro Repair Kit: Roll of white duct tape, swatch of industrial velcro, cleaning wipe, sewing needles with heavy nylon thread both white and black, pencil erasure (to put the point of the needles and to use for scuff marks) and safety pins Micro Med Kit: Band-aid, tissue, $5 (for a bottled water if the situation occurs), and medicine pills (these include meds for headache, stomachache, heartburn, allergies, head cold, and a breath mint) I added some labels with the mini-imperial cog logo for fun on each one too. (Not pictured is a mini multi tool used for cutting if needed that is attached to one of the kits)

That's great Paul! Love it! I had never seen that rig before. This was what I was hoping to see for this thread. More great ideas for trooping. Thank you for sharing the pics!

I wiped down the armor after the goo gone with warm water. I try to always do a wipe off rinse any time I put anything different on the armor. I'm glad you reminded me though! Never considered the acid content in goo gone! I've started my prep to try Unbonder, but first I think it's better to get my planned placement of the knee piece. I can then pencil that in and reference that once the old glue is off. How does the position look here if I use this placement for the knee piece?