Darth Aloha

The football loving monkey is an idiom that never ever fails to make me laugh in an out loud manner. Also accurate when it comes to holstering while helmeted. Aloha, -Eric (null)

Making Preparations for EIB Ok... I'm setting a goal for myself to be EIB before 2012. Heaven forbid the mayans or the incans or the scientologists are right and the world ends, I want to go down with my EIB badge. I'll be suiting up some time this week as time and wife allows to take my application photos. In the mean time I would like to run a few things by everyone to ensure I have everything tight and right. Obviously I'm listing some centurion requirements below.... just because I'm headed that way. I need to build my droopy blaster and put on the hand paintedesque stickers on my bucket. Aloha and thanks -Eric Helmet Ears shall have three screws per side, one above and one below the ear bar and one at the base of the helmet. Ear bars should have four bumps only, not three. Traps/tears and tube stripes shall have the correct ANH TK details. Correct 'Hovi mic' aerator tips. Ear bars shall have only one or two bumps painted in black (rank stripes). Neck trim shall be of an s-type profile rather than a u-type profile. Tears/traps shall be hand painted or use decals that emulate hand painted (with correct ANH TK details). Rob of RT-MOD uses two screws on the ear that have a more rounded head. I added a third screw at the base of the helmet where he put a rivet. Does this look acceptable? I can't say I'm stoked on my vocoder paint job.... but I've seen worse. Those are Trooperbay mic tips. Shoulder Straps No visible rivets are allowed. These shall free float in back. These shall be glued in front. The plastic shoulder straps need to be held down in the back via a white elastic band to the white fabric that connects/bridges the chest and back piece. It seems to me that the shoulder strap centurion requirements for ANH Stunt could easily be moved into EIB. Please ignore the velcro holding my shoulder strap on. Re-gluing is on my todo list. Abdomen, Kidney & Butt Plate Ideally there should be no gap between the ab and kidney plates, just a single visible seam line. Rivets on the left side of the ab plate: a total of three rivets equally spaced out along the depth of the armor and about 10mm from the edge. They may be painted white, or not. A single male snap on the top right corner of the ab plate shall be present. A single split rivet or brad shall be present on the crotch tab of the ab plate. It does not need to be functional. A separate kidney plate shall be present, split from the butt plate. 3 rivets shall be present on the left side of the kidney plate, equally spaced out along the depth of the armor and about 10mm from the edge. They may be painted white, or not. A separate butt plate is required, split from the kidney plate. Two male snaps shall be present on the crotch tab of the butt plate. They do not need to be functional. Belt Belt shall be canvas or canvas covered, leather and vinyl are not acceptable. There shall be three square buttons, one centered in the middle and one on each end of the plastic ammo belt. Drop boxes are closed in the back. The corners of the plastic ammo belt shall be trimmed at a 45 degree angle Thermal Detonator The thermal detonator needs to be attached via metal clips approximately 1 inch wide, and shall be all gray without silver stickers or silver paint. I'll be applying for EIB with my craptastic RT-MOD thermal det. I have a Jesse TD that I haven't found time to paint. I'll have it done for centurion.... but is this thang acceptable for EIB? Thighs The thigh ammo belt shall be connected by brads/split rivets only – but not by standard rivets. The bottom corners of the thigh ammo belt shall be rounded off. Lower Legs Ideally there should be no visible rivets or brads used to secure the sniper plate to the left greave. Holster Holster shall be worn on the left and be attached to the belt from behind instead of front, with no loops covering the outside of the belt. The holster will be affixed with two fasteners at the bottom of the belt instead of none or four. These may be rivets, snaps, or Chicago screws. (see belt photo above) Forearms No return edge on the inside of the front of the forearm is allowed. Too much return? This is how they came from RT.

In looking at the INC CRL... the centurion entries for the ROTJ and ANH E-11 and the SE-14R state the following: An E-11 is not allowed, only a flamethrower. For consistency sake, should the TKC CRL also explicitly state that neither the ESB E-11 nor the SE-14R are allowed for centurion? Yes... yes... yes... I am that bored and/or procrastinating. Aloha, -Eric

Gotcha. Thx! (null)

I am totally bored at work and combing through the CRLs.... and feeling über nit picky... I just noticed that there are no centurion requirements for the ESB Style E-11 in the TKC CRL. The ROTJ E-11 section states: Folding stock shall be in the extended position. Hasbro blasters are not allowed, even conversions. I'm assuming this is an omission? Or is an ESB-11 not allowed at all for a centurion TKC? If it isn't allowed I suppose it should say so? Aloha, -Eric

Heh I just logged in to post about this Funny. -------------

Something else to bear in mind is that the more than being larger.... the RT-MOD bucket is idealized and not derived from a screen used helmet. That means that it is smooth and uniformly shaped. Helmets with screen lineage are wonky, bumpy, and not at all symmetrical. I didn't know it when I ordered my RT-MOD kit with helmet that I would fall in love with the wonky look of a stunt helmet. If I had to do it over I would buy an MTK or TM to go with my RT-MOD... and probably will eventually. So if you care about accuracy (you may not know you do yet) or you love the way an accurte TK helmet looks... skip the RT-MOD helmet. But if you're lazy like me... getting a pre-built helmet from RT-MOD was one less thing to worry about. But I still had to buy green lenses, s-trim, new mic tips, and the hand painted-esque decals. Aloha, -Eric

If you're less than thin, like the troopers seen on screen, you would might want a fan sculpt kit like AM or RT-MOD. Armor with screen used lineage might be doable. It could require extensive shimming or expose large fields of black undersuit making your kit look oddly proportioned. There was a thread recently where a german guy wore a TE who was over 6' and thin. He looked fanfreakingtastic. You would probably be fine with either AM or RT. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) AM has larger diameter parts where RT's are a little longer here and there (yet still larger around) That may translate to more trimming for the AM. To me RT looks nicer out of the box than AM. Some of the AM parts like the chest, thighs, and shins may require work to look good. Both kits use the over lap method of construction but can be trimmed to use cover strips over joints. Good luck and let us know what you decide. Aloha, -Eric (null)

I agree with Mason. RT sounds like the better kit (not just because I think the AM chest looks crazy... and not just because I want more RT troopers out there) but you still may need to shim your forearms a little unless Rob is able to make custom parts. I have 12.5" forearms and any bigger would be tight. Since the forearms seams overlap you could just extend the inner portion a little to have more surface area to apply velcro to close them up. You'll enjoy the longer shins and longer ab section too. I have a 40" waist and the ab/kidney sections just barely come together. You may need shims for those too if your waist is bigger than that. When you email Rob ask him what measurements to send him. I had questions about the leg lengths and he had very specific measurements for me to take (doing the Captain Morgan pose even.) Let us know how you go. Aloha and good luck. -Eric

Hey man.... What are your overall dimensions? That might help determine if AM or RT are right for you. Maybe even a combo of both Aloha, -Eric (null)

Photos of this kit and news of the build caused me to instinctively put my fist in the air with pointer and pinky fingers raised. -Eric (null)

Thanks Mathias. That helps. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to really wing it. My vocoder is so very different than anything seen on screen Aloha, -Eric

On the subject of vocoders.... does anyone have a photo of a screen used vocoder taken from underneath the helmet? I poked around on starwarshelmets.com but couldn't find it.... or maybe you have a photo of your accurately painted vocoder from below? I'm having trouble laying out the vocoder on my RT-MOD. The lines of the vocoder aren't very clear... or even. Being tall lots of people will be looking up at my chin Aloha and thanks, -Eric

I'm going to try and guess what soldermaster is trying to say.... with a craptacular iphone camera... Here's my RT-MOD frown: Image link broken and unrecoverable Here's a photo from starwarshelmets.com of the Brian R helmet: Also from starwarshelmets.com check out the Dave M helmet: The first think you notice is that the teeth aren't set back quite as far or deep as the original stunt helmets. The "lips" (for lack of a better way to explain) are thicker. Also the way Rob trims the teeth... they are flat and squared off rather than rounded and chicklet-esque. Soldermaster? Is that what you meant? Aloha, -Eric

As another RT-MOD trooper I agree. I went with the RT-MOD lid out of lazyness mostly... it was already assembled... and looks damn good on me too. Although in the 12 months of my time on FISD (most of it waiting saving money or waiting for my armor to arrive) I slowly became enamoured with the bumpy warped look of a screen derived bucket. I didn't know it was going to happen but now when I look at my RT-MOD idealized I yearn for a better looking helmet. So if screen accuracy is important to you (you may not know it is yet) and you've got the motivation to assemble it... I suggest grabbing an AP, ATA, MTK or another readily available kit. Aloha, -Eric

Whenever I see an FX from the side I think: "I couldn't help it. It just popped in there." "We've been doing this all wrong. Mr. staypuft is okay.... he's a sailor... he's in New York..." ------http://www.awesomeoff.com/images/entries2/mainview/staypuft2.jpg

Steve... for something thrown together that's pretty bada$$. And I defy anyone to say the word "magma" without mimicking Dr. Evil even a little bit. Aloha, -Eric

One might say that it is fairly easy to steal our armor and pose as a TK. All it took was some kid in white PJs and a scruffy nerfherding smuggler to knock two of us over the head, take our kits, and wander around in disguise. Not only do we have some of the worst blaster aim in the galaxy, but a bunch of forest teddy bears were able to defeat an army of TKs with slingshots, rocks and logs hung from trees by vines. With that said... of course we kick more a$$ than any other two letter acronym in the legion. And yes you're stirring a pot Aloha, -Eric

(Boy do I feel old)

Well.... I bought a resin blaster kit from droopydoos and it showed up here a few weeks later. After I unpacked the kit I realized that the magazine was missing. I emailed them but received no response. A few days later another package showed up with the magazine part. They shipped it a few days after the original shipment. While I still haven't heard from droopydoos I'm stoked they sent it way before I emailed them. I agree about their terrible customer service... but its a fine product for those of us that are equally on a budget as we are needing something to keep us busy. If I boycotted every business that gave me less than stellar service, I'd have no where on Hawaii Island to spend my money. Aloha, -Eric

Awesome. The world always needs more RT-MOD troopers. Aloha, -Eric

Check out Jorran's thread of snap woe I too feel your dritz pain. Aloha, -Eric

Probably best to just email Rob directly... [email protected] He travels for work so it might take him a few days to get back to you. Aloha, -Ertic

Ha.... I thought man those look so similar to the nylon strap snap plates I used... oh wait a what what... they are mine I had two of them come off so far and they were both because of an uneven and rushed e-6000 application. The other eleventeen of them are rock steady. Aloha, -Eric

Interesting idea. I imagine you can get away with gluing the end nylon strap to the top of the thigh with e-6000. A bunch of us use nylon webbing as snap plates adhered with e-6000. Also... if it works to glue the elastic inside the shoulder bells it should work at the top of the thigh with nylon strap webbing. If you do decide to put a strip of plastic over the nylon as well, I suggest having it run down the thigh in the direction of the pull. That should provide better reinforcement than a perpendicular strip across the strap. What sort of plastic clip were you thinking? Like a backpack type squeeze release buckle thing? Post pics when you're done Aloha, -Eric