Kyro

General thoughts: - Ribbed gaskets should be required, given how freaky the kit looks without them. However considering the problems we had with the rubberized ones, I'm less concerned about the material and more about the look. - Internal strappings should stay out of CRL. That's harder to enforce and stiffles future innovations. Someone may discover a better way to strap it together. Just make it look right. - I don't see a huge issue with TK boots working for base approval, given how difficult we sometimes find boot sourcing to be.

TK 5934 requesting access. http://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=14802&costumeID=124

I have my doubts that that's the case. Or at least I hope it isn't just a glorified Boys Club mentality that's holding things up. The backplate objection is a reasonable topic of debate, but it should have been settled weeks ago with clear feedback given to all the applicants and Kev.

Frankly I think the Legion is unnecessarily dragging their feet on this one, and I don't know why. We've ironed out trickier issues in much less time. Nevertheless, I'm Georgia Garrison's CO and will be gladly greenlighting Bobby's wife Shannon for trooping with us, with or without an approved CRL and official TK number. We've made bigger concessions for other fangroups, and I will not sideline a capable and willing volunteer from contributing to our activities while Legion waffles over comic book references - which are already notorious for their art variation. Should Legion arrive to a solid conclusion about what modifications need to be made, I'll certainly work with Shannon to make her kit Legion-approved.

I have an ATA helmet. Used spray PlastiDip on mine. Turned out great.

I fully support PlastiDip on the inside. I don't think you'll need to do much besides sand the inside first. And your worse case scenario will be having to remove the PlastiDip - which scrapes off pretty cleanly.

I picked up this exact mic and tried it out. While it made my voice a lot louder and clearer than the mic that came with my iComm, it did have one flaw: the moment I started walking it was picking up the clacking of my armor. It also had a slight habit of picking up what some of my other troopers were saying if they got too close to me. So you may want to dampen the sound a bit if you use that particular mic.

I used PlastiDip on mine. It's cheap, sprayed on easily and has done a great job at keeping my helmet cool and looks much neater. I've been told that it's best to spray before cutting, but I did it afterwards and didn't run into any serious problems. I just packed the teeth with silly putty, sprayed, and pulled the putty out. Even if anything escapes your teeth/eyeholes, the spatter rubs off pretty easy.

You could probably get away with increasing the distance between the shoulders of your chest and back plates - allowing the chest to drop a little. I have longer snap straps with several snaps on them so I can adjust the fit when needed(lunch).

I get mine on Amazon.

Yeah I'd wished I thought of that. Luckily I found a cheap solution: silly putty. It fills the 'teeth' holes quite nicely.

I did not. I gave the inside a good sanding, but it seems to be sticking wonderfully.

I tend to side with Plasti-Dip. It's original purpose was adding a plastic hand grip onto tools. It's designed with skin contact in mind. Krylon, not so much.

A garrison friend suggested spray PlastiDip for the inside of my helmet. The end result is a semi-rubbery black plastic coating to the inside of the helmet. So far it looks fantastic, but I don't have pictures yet since the project isn't quite complete. I've not taken it out trooping, but I'm told it helps with heat immensely. You can find PlastiDip in a can(for dipping) or a spray. I found mine in the spray paint area of Lowes for about $5. One can should be more than enough.

I use Eastbay's Evapor stuff myself. I highly recommend it. It was a lot cheaper than Underarmor and works very well to keep me reasonably cool in Atlanta's sticky heat.

I actually took a piece of scrap ABS from my ATA suit to Sherwin-Williams and asked them to color match it. They pretty much nailed the color. It'll be a touch more expensive than spray paint, but I think it might age better.

Did you ship it to the hotel itself? Where did you go to pick it up? Clark Howard had mentioned some time ago that he ships his luggage, rather than paying the airline fees. I'm intrigued by the idea.

I found a big black plastic box in the automotive section at Wal-Mart for $17. It's so generic it didn't even have a brand name. I picked it because the size came out to just under the airline charges for oversized luggage. The dimensions were roughly 18x13x32(somewhere around 33 gallons), which I figured would be small enough for me to argue my way into not being charged double. With some very careful packing I can get my armor + blaster inside, but not the helmet. Unfortunately during several packs and re-packs it occurred to me that should TSA ever open my case, there is no way they will be as careful with my armor as I am. Everything will likely be crammed back in and slammed shut. The idea gives me cold sweats, so I'll soon be springing for something with some extra room inside.