Darth Aloha

Nicely done. You rock that FX really well. Your hard work is obvious. Congrats! Aloha, -Eric

Here are the photographer's web pages... you could email him maybe? http://www.missildinephoto.com/ http://www.modelmayhem.com/missildine It might take some men a few moments to even notice she's wearing something on her heard but the helmet in this photo is painful to look at.... If you go to the link Julie provided... just be aware its NSFW... Not Safe For Wives.... when she saw the hot stormtrooper she understood why there were bare boobies on my laptop right in the middle of the dining room Aloha, -Eric

I'd wait until it gets there. Even it I measured it for you on mine it's possible to glue the rear sight slightly differently. I understand tho... I tried to do as much as I could while waiting for my kit too -Eric (null)

Try cutting the forward end first and fit it onto the rear sight. I just scribed a line where the rear sight is after putting the front part in and cut without measuring at all... except when I cut the notch for the back of the rail of course. Make sense? (if not... I blame the wine) Aloha, -Eric (null)

Go ahead and leave. It's not as if you hold me anymore.

They may look a little big but until you get the whole upper body put together its going to be tough to really judge. I would suggest holding off on the foam too until you can do a proper fitting. Either way big biceps won't prevent you from getting your TK ID. Just be emotionally prepared for one of us to say "Brah... your biceps are huge!" Ok... by one of us I mean me... because TK5707 is the only other active member of FISD whose vernacular might possibly contain the word "brah"... and he's a much nicer guy than I am Aloha, -Eric

Odd that neither menu works for you with both browsers. I can see and use both menus in Safari and Chrome 16.0.912.75 using both FISD.2011.2 and FISD.2011.White themes. I'd like to blame ZeroShroom but he's also a mac user.... ok let's point the finger at him anyways. Aloha, -Eric

Tough to tell without a head on shot. Can you snap a photo with your shoulder bells on too? Did you trim them much before glueing? I made mine pretty tight and I've seen a bunch of AM troopers with big bicep armor, so I assume they come sized for those who have season tickets to the gun show. Aloha, -Eric

What is this "too picky" you speak of? I'm not sure anyone on these forums quite gets your meaning. Looking good! Aloha, -Eric

I might suggest leaving the shoulder bridge glueing until the end. That way you can adjust everything so it all lines up first. I glued mines on right away only to realize I put them too far down the chest and they barely reached the back plate. This is the price of being larger than the average trooper. Aloha, -Eric (null)

Search your FISD, you know it to be true. It also may depend on what armor you have. Some kits have different sized end caps and control panel. If your armor does not have an accurate thermal det, I suggest going straight for a Jesse thermal detonator kit with clips. Aloha, -Eric

ZeroRoom can attest to the fact that I have done nothing but whine and moan about the FISD search function for the last year. While I like to blame him for everything web related (he needs to remedy my online banking experience already!), it really is the fault of the forum software not our webmister. Most of the time I know the information is there but cannot find the exact thing I want. Here are two ways I increase the my likely hood of finding the information I'm looking for: Search only in topic titles Display results as posts not as a list of topics Step 1: Click on the advanced search cog Step 2: Change the "Match" pulldown from "Search title and content" to "Search only in titles" Step 3: Search your butt off (ensuring that your armor still fits after the butt removal via search) A good example of the usefulness of changing this paramater is looking for resin blaster builds. I searched for "resin" only by title and found what I was looking for. Snaps, strapping, rivet, holster, kidney, shin etc.... these words are so ingrained in our TK vernacular, only searching the titles will usually return a post where someone asked a direct question about them. If I am looking for a very generic term not found in a title, I will display results as posts not topic lists. Step 2: Change the "Display Results" radio button from "As topic list" to "As posts" I use the search by author thing sometimes when I know who posted the information I seek Please do search and search and search before asking. As a group we are more than willing to answer any and all questions, but with a little patience basic things can easily be found here on the forums. Aloha nui, -Eric

Are you using dritz snaps? If not... I suggest skipping the vario pliers. In general they suck (I bent mine from overuse) and they're unusable with anything but dritz. Even if you're not using tandy snaps... I highly suggest the tandy snap setting tool (on sale for $2.94 right now) and anvil ($1.99!) or even the sucky tool that comes with the dritz snaps.... just pound the crap out of it. Check out my build thread for my personal snap related whining.... or Jorran's snap thread of woe. -DarthAloha of the First Imperial Snap Detachment

R Tizzle to the M-O-Dee! Yes. Lots of photos if you please. Let us know if you need help. Post here or PM me anytime. Aloha, -Eric

Yeah I think the only way to get that stuff off is by mechanical means. You can try a razor sharp woodworking chisel but I'd fear for the ABS underneath. Maybe use a power sander first and then hand sand with lighter grits. No matter what you do go slow and take your time. Amen on E-6000. I'm kicking myself for some recent CA glue stupidity because I was impatient. Aloha, -Eric

"No time to argue! Throw me helmet. I'll throw you the whip!" That trooper looks like it just came in from the future to kill John Connor... it's the TK1000. -Eric

Well ZR... That was the biggest non-John Stewart induced laugh I've had in a while. The wife agrees.... about the funny factor that is, not my panties. Sadly you couldn't be more wrong about my undergarments. I live in Hawaii. I don't wear any... men's or otherwise. Aloha, -Eric

Like BananoJuan said.... Browse through the ANH build forum. There are a bunch of both ATA and AP builds. You'll get to see what thr kit looks like fresh from the brown box all the way to competesd. Also look at the EIB and centurion application forums for awesome looking ATA. Also... To echo others.... Even if you buy pretrimmed armor you'll still need to cut and fit it to your body. I had to it for my pretrimmed kit and I wish I had the satisfaction of trimming it myself. Take your time. Read as much as you can. The read some more. There's rarely a way to speed up the process of becoming a storm trooper. For some of us it took a year or more to go from "gimme!" to 501st acceptance. Good luck! -Eric

I suggest poking around the howto forum or use the search thingy to look for various ways to strap armor together. Aloha, -Eric

What the hell is wrong with you? I admit getting a little hot and bothered reading this thread. Entendre-riffic. Would kind enough to post the reference photos you're using for the front sight? (I'm having trouble with my droopy kit) Liar. The image photo below is obviously a reference photo:

Lol that's awesome. Thanks Paul. Color me schooled Closeups! Helmet too. Aloha, -Eric