Darth Aloha

Ho'omaika'i 'ana.... Traitor -Eric

Bicep Fitting Me: I just don't know if I should trim these biceps Wife: If you trim them make sure that you are able to lift a beer to your mouth for the Halloween party. I'm so glad I put a ring on that woman. Looking at these screen caps from Jesse, I'm thinking that the biceps on the ANH stunt braddahs were fairly tight to the arm. They look much smaller than I had expected. In fact they seem like a much smaller diameter than the shoulder bells. Given that RT-MOD is for larger troopers I think my bipceps could use some trimming. They don't seem as ridiculously huge as the AM biceps, so I may surrender my tickets to the gun show. It also seems that the bicep is WAY up into most stunt trooper's armpit. That allows the elastic to go around a good portion of the bicep. Here is me with one bicep a smaller diameter than the other... one is out of the box RT and the other is "trimmed" I think I already know my decision but I think out of the box bicep is too large for my arms. I think it will look more accurate if I trim off a bit of my bicep. Here are a few photos of how much trimming in the biceps I'm thinking of trimming off. It's pretty much the width of the overlap. Here are my next questions... When fitting biceps, how far do you push them up into your armpit? How tight should they really be? After looking at countless build threads I'm thinking... pretty darn tight. Aloha and thanks -Eric

E-6000 is the glue you seek... you just can't be in a rush I tried JB weld, 3M DP-1080, DP-460, CA, System 3 epoxy, standard 5 minute epoxy and more... and the easiest to work with is E-6000. Long open time, slightly flexible when cured, and easy to re-do if need be. Aloha, -Eric

I actually own two of them. One with the flexible shaft thing and one without.... oh plus the two at work I'm just a nervous nelly. I turned into Woody Allen as soon as the box arrived. Like I said in a prior post... I need to remember that its ABS not porcelain. Maybe once I start trimming these biceps I'll have some extra material to practice on. Righton. I have a metric crapton of sandpaper around to clean up after Rob's harried trimming. I tend to drink Big Wave on tap mostly... I'm more of a Longboard in a bottle guy... or whatever happens to be on sale. Beer here is expensive Thanks man... I'll try to keep it as updated as often as I can. I expect to make some progress this weekend as the wife and baby boy will allow More about bicep fitting in a moment... Aloooooha, -Eric

Ha. Thanks man. Sandpaper! I need to stop being afraid of scratching the shiny white goodness. I'll put the paper on sanding block and I'm sure all will be fine And those are the wrist ends of my forearms. I'll leave them for now and trim if it looks goofy. Aloha, -Eric

Initial Thoughts Here are my initial thoughts on the RT-MOD kit as delivered. I have never seen so many stamps on a box before. The ABS armor is much lighter than I expected. Maybe because my crappy ESB eFX helmet is so heavy I assumed it would all weigh more. The box from Rob only weighed 13 lbs (6 kg). I also need to stop babying it. It isn't made of porcelain Rob should put green lenses in his helmets and switch to s-trim. He does put two of the three ear screws in and sends along ear rank decals for you to decide where to put them. The vocoder decal is much better looking than I assumed, but it will get painted eventually. The padding he uses is very comfortable. But all that aside, I'll be making it Centurian-able this winter after some Trooperbay retail therapy. I like the RT-MOD helmet very much, but after lusting after buckets this whole year I think I need a bumpy mishapen one someday. While I doubt any other armor would fit my tall frame as well, I'm glad it is pre-trimmed to save me time and anxiety. However I think Rob was rushing to get my armor out (ordered in July and shipped in Septermber) and it seems a bit sloppy. I'll post photos of what I mean soon. Luckily I have lexan scissors to clean up some of the mismatching of halves. I thankfully don't need to add shims to the ab/back but I do need to lose a few pounds... stones... kgs... etc. Rob's assembly instructions kinda suck even if you were going to use the ton of velcro he ships with the kit. The "canvas" belt he ships is made of while pleather. Yuck. I have no idea if I should trim my biceps... photos to follow later today. First of Many Questions What is the best tool to smooth the roughly trimmed edges of my armor? Metal file? (not ready for dremel action yet) Is this too much of a return edge on the forearms? Aloha and thanks, -Eric

Initial thoughts as soon as I am able to contain myself.... Aloha!

ZR, I think when you link to an image it does open it in a new window... all links made with the URL bbcode might do that... so that's cool. I could see lightbox being annoying when the linked images are HUGE... but the complaints are a little surprising given the proliferation of lightbox-esque image viewing in the world. They way images are handled in most forum software is clunky and typically an afterthought, but I'm also a total picky pants when it comes to such things. The bigger picture (so to speak) here is that if this is my only real complaint about FISD, life is pretty good. Thanks Lucas. Aloha, -Eric

In the coming days I am planning to mount a campaign to urge ZeroRoom to add this line to the theme file as to possibly enable lightbox for linked images. Aloha, -Eric

Shiny! That's one proper looking trooper right there Your FISD ego trip is well deserved. Quick question.... Do the tops of your thighs catch on the cod when you walk? Aloha, -Eric

Aloha kãkou, I found FISD a year ago after i took the Vader beach photos. I first posted here some time around the new year when I started saving my pennies. I ordered my armor in July. Now according to the Canada Post website my armor is somewhere in the US. If you believe the postal lies, it should be here in the next couple days. Let my 10 month journey be a lesson to all you other instant gratification junkies. Patience is the key to this hobby that I only have mere a retail connection to. This isn't my intro post but I have not wanted to be a stormtrooper since I first saw A New Hope. I wanted to be Luke and as a 5 year old, I had the white thermal long underwear to make it happen. I was once on the other end of the costuming spectrum. I loathed Halloween until last year when I put on that craptastic rubies Vader helmet and flowery board shorts. Then.... I interacted with kids. My wife and I are going to a Halloween party this year, but I am most excited about going out trick-or-treating. We live right down the road from a subdivision where a 1000 people show up from all over the island every year. Folks that live there spend 100's of dollars on candy for the event. Due to my lack of armor I will start with all the bits and pieces I have collected throughout the year. I think the photo is missing a few tools like my exacto, snap setting tool and of course the e-6000. The two items I have not purchased are an aker/iComm and a belt. Rob of RT-MOD mentioned something about a belt in one of his emails. He may have sent one with my kit. The photo below does not show my TK Boots but you will them listed below. Click on the photo for a version without numbers. Below are closeup photos of each item with links to their venders. Click on a photo to see a larger version. This would have been easier if ip.board supported tables 1. ANH Holster - TK8280 2. Hasbro E-11 Blaster - Droopy Doo 3. Undersuit - Pinnacle Aquatics Lycra Suit (Actually I took it from work) 4. Helmet Fan - TK-4261 5. Neckseal - TK409 6. Screen Accurate Chinstrap - Karin 7. Line 24 Snaps 10/pack (black) - Tandy Leather Factory 8. AB Buttons - Vader Dave 9. Thigh Garters - Mightytank 10. E-11 D-ring - Karin 11. Brass Round Head Fasteners - Office Max I'm pretty sure they're the wrong size 12. Heavy Duty Snap Pliers - Amazon 13. Static Burst Box - scout trooper This was a total impulse buy. 14. Black and White 1" Elastic - Ebay 15. Thermal Detonator Clips - TK 4702 Jesse is a magician. 16. Magcraft 3/4-Inch by 1/8-Inch Rare Earth Disc Magnets - Amazon 17. Nomex Flight Gloves - Ebay Because no one should troop in Hawai'i wearing rubber gloves. Even up in the mountains where I live. 18. Unpainted Rubber Hand Guards - Karin 19. Rubber Chemical Gloves w/Painted Handguards - Karin 20. Pop Rivet Gun - Ace Hardware 21. Lexan Scissors (curved and straight) - Amazon 22. Boots - Totally Killer Boots The last size 12 on the shelf. I would probably still be waiting for these but sometimes timing is everything. As of 9/22 the status of my shipment was: "International item arrived in destination country" Here's hoping my armor shows up today. Aloha nui, -Eric

Oh aha... I see it now. It only shrinks as far as the minimum width of the post. Gotcha. It looks like an image will only shrink to about 750 px wide with the minimum width of a post around 800ish. Neat thanks. I probably wouldn't have even thought about it but I've been using a wide aspect monitor lately and been keeping app windows narrow but on top. Ok... next question... would you guys consider some lightbox action for linked images?

Ed... you look great! So great that you look just like Julie (who always looks awesome) Great costume. I'm sure it will be an easy approval.... in spite of that pesky traitor to the empire thing. Aloha, -Eric

FISD Team, I may be having a false memory but I think ip.board once resized images linked in posts with the IMG tag. Did I make that up? If not... would it be possible to enable that feature again? Aloha and thanks, -Eric PS: ACP > System > System Settings > Forums(tab on that page)> Topics, Post and Polls > Automatic Resize Image Force Size

Done

Nicely done! Aloha, -Eric

You know... I've been on the pac501st website often enough but never noticed the boards. Thx! Aloha, -Eric

Yow! AM is some big honk'n armor. Edwin: I'm going Oahu in the next couple weeks before Halloween. I can bring my RT-MOD chest (arrives tomorrow) if you want to see it. Aloha, -Eric

Nearly there with my hasbro.... finally. Now is when I would like to curse the centurion requirements which came out after I purchased my hasbro conversion kit. If I had known I would have gone right to droopy's full resin version. C'est la blaster. I painted the ejection port this morning using bobojuice's tinfoil spray paint receptacle brilliance. I found a cheap pack of assorted brushes at Ace hardware. I have no idea what size brush is good for what. I haven't painted anything this small since I was a kid building models. Even then I sucked at it. As I was washing my brushes I splattered my gun a bit. I think it will scrape right off. The speckles are mostly on the scope. Some photos are from my iphone of the Jorran-esque paint methodology. I don't think I'll intentionally weather this blaster. If the black layer happens to come off, so be it. I put two layers of satin black on the gun. One hanging from the top and the other hanging from the bottom. I still have some black touchup to do where the spray didn't get into a crevice. Somewhere in my garage is the reticule sticker. The biggest lesson I learned was to clean up the e6000 more than you think. It REALLY shows up once you paint it black. There's some goop visible on the right side between the stock and the barrel. I also put the short resin t-track on the wrong side. Oops. I also noticed a paint drip on the barrel near the muzzle when I was out in the sun If I had access to a hobby store (there isn't one on island) I would have purchased some model putty and filed in some of the bubbles in the resin. Aloha nui, -Eric Painting the under layers Paints Painting the ejector port outside Mostly finished with the requisite Karin gloved hand

Mr S.... Looks like you're off to a fine start. Keep us posted with your progress. I thought it was Eddie Vedder at first. Aloha, -Eric

------ There's this nutty thing above for ski gloves/boots... for $20 I'm not sure how hot it gets... but I bet you could open it and disable the heating element. People like to build these --------- after rinsing. It consists of PVC pipe with holes and a blower. I would think that you could easily build something on a smaller scale to drop your gloves on after a troop to dry out. The air doesn't need to be warm.. it just needs to move. Some people ----------. I friend of mine uses a vacuum to pull air through the PVC to dry his suit. Aloha, -Eric

Oh the peer pressure... I can't handle it I won't do it justice with my camera phone.... pics soon when I remember to bring a camera home from work. Aloha, -Eric

I'm stoked you like it Aloha nui, -Eric

Catch Rob soon... he's home and pulling armor. Or at least he was last week. Aloha, -Eric

Thanks man. My hasbro is all sealed up and painted or I'd take you up on your kind offer. Aloha! -Eric