Darth Aloha

The kid's faces at my first troop. -Eric

I heart you Rob. -Eric

Gee Officer Sandy we're down on our sniper knees... Once you're a TK you're a TK from your first huff of E-6000 to your last dying day... I feel sithy oh so sithy... Everything's free on coruscant for a small fee on coruscant.... That's all I got. -Eric

Hmmm you could have used 220 grit and just rubbed some dirt in the wound along the way. Please log into MEPD.net for an example. -Eric

Stairs suck. A lot. You can't see small children but you can step on them very easily. I've jogged in my armor but a full run would just make all my snaps come apart. Jumping sounds challenging depending on the leap. Some can sit (Ingrid) but I cannot. i also can't chug a beer without a crazy straw. I've tried. Bending down to pick stuff off the ground is tough. Kneeling is out of the question. Aloha, -Eric

I'll let someone who was actually there (Ed?) post the photos from Star Wars Reads day in Hawaii but this one cracks me up every time I see it. Who put the bounty out on Pooh?

As they say back in NY where I grew up.... FY,YF'nF! All is well now in my universe. Gloves, aker, icomm, drop boxes, vader chestbox, and a ton of other costume related things were in the lost box. I am now a much more pleasant person to be around. -Eric

What was it I said recently? "RT-MOD: Taking over FISD one giant sized trooper at a time." Have fun... post more photos... and let us know if you need help. -Eric

The question at hand is not should you cut your cod. That is obvious. Just don't do it. What Trooper1 and I are asking is if was once ever mention of a split cod in the CRL. -Eric Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes. Yes you do sweetie. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mathias? Tell the truth... Does my armor make my an impolite person look fat? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You should glue snap plates to the back of the belt and then put snaps in the canvas. That way you don't have to mess with the fake rivet covers. Once you troop a few times and make sure you're dialed in, then you can contemplate maybe cutting off the ends of the plastic belt and using a more traditional rivet and rivet cover method. But please don't do something that drastic until you at least wear your armor a couple times and also have the FISD folks give you suggestions based on your photos. Some of us are a little too long in the torso to fit well into other armor.... or too girthy... I refuse to shim my armor. -Eric

Chilling is right. It is in the low 60's and pouring (it's like that every day where I live) which is pretty cold when you don't have any heat... or insulation. It's a fair and funny question. How do you lose a thigh pack and not the whole thigh? I blame Mathias. I took it off to reposition it properly to satisfy our DO. Or rather to make my thigh pack look better. I put the split rivets too high above the ridge. It's a common thing with the RT thigh pack. It's a total slave Leia to get it in the right place. Before I reattach it, I moved houses. Now the box is missing that contains it and a bunch of other costume related stuffs. -Eric

Ah so. Right. The plastic belts were riveted onto the canvas belt. To cover the rivet head the costume makers fashioned these little button-esque covers. I have more examples but this is the first one I found: ----------- See the buttony thing all the way at the end of Han's belt? That's what I'm talking about. For reasons only known to Rob (who isn't taking any more orders these days btw) he molded the rivet covers onto his belt. Not only did he do that but he did it in the wrong location for the size/scale of the belt. I was dumb and riveted right into the fake rivet covers for the sake of 2-3 days of trooping away from home. What you should do (and yes I'm shoulding all over you) is use snaps. Glue a couple snap plates on the back side of your RT-MOD belt and then hammer a few snaps in the canvas belt and voila... your belt is attached to your... belt. Me? I'm replacing it with a more screen accurate belt because I already f'd up my RT-MOD belt... which would have been fine in the first place. Aloha, -Eric

For those that do not know... the RT-MOD belt has built in fake rivet covers molded into it. There was a time when I had my plastic TK belt velcro'd onto the canvas belt. I had intended to glue it on someday but after my first real troop earlier this year the belt popped off. Thankfully there was a Sith Cheerleader standing there to pick it up off the ground for me. I spent the rest of the troop with a hand on the belt. That night I had more trooping to do... and I was away from home so I borrowed a rivet gun and did something I regret. I covered the rivets with some AM rivet covers that the rivet gun owner had laying around. It worked fine enough after pouring hot glue into the rivet cover. All fine until I lost one of the AM rivet covers. I wouldn't care so much but the end fake rivet covers are in the wrong place entirely. Too far outboard. So... before traveling to Oahu next weekend I ordered a new belt from ATA (actually two... one for a TD someday.) Here are some photos of the two belts. I'm not sure the camera captures it but there is a slight color difference. ATA is a little more on the bone or creamy side of things. RT's is way more white, but not as wide as ATA's. ----------- Now... to trim some rivet covers and remove the RT belt... which me luck. Aloha, -Eric

I have a big zap a gap drip on my chest plate... it was that moment I decided to go TD for my next costume. It was my first time using it. Ironically I bought a tube of E-6000 today for no reason. It's sitting next to me as I type this. -Eric

It was my can (so to speak) Jay is opening. It's clear to me that per the CRLs we do not require the ab/cod to one piece. As far as being "correct" for approval you can have it either way. For what is the right thing to do as far as screen accuracy and having a great looking costume I think it should be one piece. It just so happens that RT-MOD ships as two parts. I wish it wasn't. I did a wicked quick search in the det and staff areas here and I didn't see a pointed discussion on the matter, but ab and cod are not easy words to search for on ip.board. A question to guys like Daetrin and others with low userid numbers... Was there crl wording once upon a time requiring ab/cod to be one part? Aloha, -Eric

I am quite possibly F'd out of centurion. My knee pack is missing. Really missing. -Eric

No no no... don't worry about that. I want to do cover strips for my next suit and I'm right now I'm more cheap than lazy.... untrimmed is less dough. Let Rob trim your kit. You won't regret it. Aloha, -Eric

Two words: Cover strips I'd have to take my armor completely apart and redo everything since RT-MOD is overlappy. My next RT kit I'm getting untrimmed to do cover strips. -Eric

I think a cool mix of lazyness and that slave Leia mother Darth Life has stood in my way of Centurion thus far Look over there Mathias... something shiny! -Eric

Wow. I have 8 days to get my kit ready for Centurion before I end up voting myself out of the possibility. My punch list: Two more coats of paint on my blaster (I'm so bored with that build) Redo thigh pack attachment Try using an ATA belt instead of super long RT belt Fix dropbox placement Finally attach my Gazmosis holster and rid myself of the pleather number I have now Find a way to Mathias so insanely drunk from afar that his 3 day hangover impairs his judgement Wish me luck and stuff. -Eric

What he said.

I wouldn't touch a nylon snap plate glued with E-6000 for 24 hours. Leave the magnets or clamps on for maybe even more. They'll likely pop off otherwise. To answer your question about what I learned? I learned to use more E-6000 than I thought I should initially. I learned to us double magnet clamps on curved areas. Also that using thin nylon is better (not sure about elastic frankly) than the stupid thick stuff I used. Check out my RT build thread for my silly nylon snap plate process. People (Vern) say that E-6000 melts plastic when it comes in contact with metal. That wasn't my experience but I was still very very careful not to touch metal and glue. I even thought about putting clear nail polish on the back of the snap and letting it dry, but I came to my senses. Tape is probably the easier option. The plastic plates just seem liked a total PITA and way less forgiving than the nylon ones. I also sucked at cutting up plastic for sale signs. Lopping off 1.5 to 2" of nylon from an easily acquired roll seemed super easy... cause I'm lazy. However lots of people use plastic snap plates happily. De gustibus non est disputandum. Aloha, -Eric

Bumfodder. Leave it to Ingrid to add a new an impolite person related word to my vernacular. That's tough to do. My bottom related lexicon is rather extensive. -Eric