gmrhodes13

A great thread for the first time builder

And this is why we always try not to troop alone in public, or without a wrangler/handler or without notifying officials prior to attending

Looking good May be your photo but looks like you may have over trimmed your large ab plate, small ab plate looks like it needs trimming more. Also did you need as wide biceps as your cover strips are very small compared to the raised ridges. Should strap appears to be sitting high, you may want to tighten the strapping so they sit better on the rear. You can see the loose elastic under your shoulder strap better on the image below. Normally if they cover better you can also trim 1/2 the larger ridge but appears yours are just covering the backplate. Posterior is being pushed away from your kidney, V tabs can help this Note the elastic helps keep the shoulder straps stay flat. NOTE: As seen in the photos below, there are no large tabs on the rear of the shoulder bridges. This is not specifically mentioned in the CRL, but removing them is highly recommended if possible. V Tabs With a heat gun (or heat in oven) you bend strips of ABS plastic into the shape of a V, only glue one side and the other remains free to allow movement when you bend. Just helps stop the butt plate from pushing back from the back plate. Thigh ammo strip corner a little too much You may need to do some hot water bath work, your shin rears are not sitting very flat, left is not covering the velcro completely You can also post here for pre approval feedback before submitting to your GML

NEW In Memoriam Detachment Leader Executive Officer Merchandise Officer Hall of Fame FISD Meme's Around the Detachment Trooping Opportunity INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS FISD Tri-Fold Brochure Common FISD Acronyms and TK Glossary Pre Approval Forum 3D Section Field Exercise Award Imperial Attaché Program Master Armorer Award Fire Teams EIB & Centurion: What do these terms mean? Need Help Ask the Deployment Officers Advance to 1500 Advanced Tactics Awards Social Media Newsletter Editor Staff List 2023 Follow FISD Michael Culver, a British actor best known for his role in the 1980 Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back, has died. He was 85. Culver's agency Alliance Agents announced in a statement on Facebook Tuesday that he died Feb. 27. No cause of death has been revealed. "We are very sad to confirm the passing of our friend and client Michael Culver," read the statement. "A career spanning over 50 years with notable roles in Sherlock Holmes, A Passage to India, Secret Army and, of course, one of the most memorable death scenes in the Star Wars franchise." Our thoughts are with his family and friends and wish them all strength during this difficult time, rest in peace. "Buckets Off" Sascha Schütz entered the Hall of Eternal Legionnaires on May 20th 2022. It was a heavy loss, felt deeply by those in the German Garrison who knew him. Because of the pandemic situation, he did not even get to troop a single time in his costume. Sascha joined the German Garrison with his Biker Scout, which he had built with great effort, since September 2021. He would have loved to participate in an event, but unfortunately it did not happen, and his fellow troopers mourn the loss of the opportunity to welcome him at his first event with them. He had fully internalized the spirit and purpose of the Legion. He embodied the ideals of the 501st Legion: he put smiles on people's faces and hearts, and celebrated Star Wars as a part of our lives and shared that joy with others. All this made it truly tragic that Sascha never got the chance to troop in an event. Condolences to his family, friends and garrison "Buckets Off" Greetings troopers! A month already, time flies when you have a lot to learn. You would not believe the amount of paperwork! In the last month we managed to fund the forum email system into the next term so a big thank you to all of you who donated to the Imperial propaganda effort. You should have all received your forum banner now, so if yours is missing please do reach out. We've also made a start on the CRL for Captain Enoch, with a few builds being worked on and hoping to be the first in Legion. This is based on the Night Trooper draft CRL, so if any of you are working on a build please make sure you are involved in the CRL so there are no surprises. This term I am also hoping to get some of the past CRL work completed, so do keep an eye out for changes. Merch wise the gears have been turning and things are now starting to appear soon, but I'll leave that to the DMBO to announce. There are some exciting things to come this year, TDs included. With Unquestioned Loyalty Chris Pearson TK-10991 "themaninthesuitcase" Detachment Leader Greetings fellow members, Chris is off to a great start as our new Detachment leader, and has taken to the role well. I am honoured to accept the position as his XO, and will continue to assist him in getting up to speed as quickly as possible. Hopefully everything appears as seamless as possible so far, all considering. Chris has a good plan for the continuation of CRL work, as there were a few things we simply ran out of time getting finished last term. The future of a couple more new CRL's this year is exciting, as is the prospect of adding to existing CRL's (unfinished work from 2023). I think we are in for a fun year for all, so please keep an eye out for announcements, the newsletters, and please visit the forums so you don't miss out on any of the action. With Unquestioned Loyalty Andrew Franke TK-11469 "Sly11" Executive Officer Greetings Fellow Troopers! Lots of exciting news on the Merch Front, so let's get right to it! Old Business I know it feels like it has been forever since we did this run. The end of the year holidays and then the Chinese New Year didn't do us any favors. The last word I received was that the coins were en route to Pfab from the Factory, so we should start seeing them here in the beginning of April. Any further developments will be posted in the sales thread, found here: Secret Merch Item The Rocker run had a bit of a set back. The lettering was not centered correctly in the proofs that we received. The vendor has gone back to the factory to get this corrected before they go into production. Updates will be posted by @MaskedVengeance in the sales thread (below) once he has more info. Rocker patches. The Banner patch proofs were sent, and the look good. I approved them and they are scheduled for production. I don't have any dates as of yet, but I'll update the sales thread below once I do! Stormtrooper Banner Patch The Interest Thread for the Memorial Patch for Terrell Reber of ATA, has closed. . We are currently inquiring with vendors to find a mix of good price and high quality. Once we have selected a vendor we will open the sales thread. Thank you to everyone that expressed Interest. New Business Now for the new business! The OP rules for Merchandise and Branding changed at the end of last year. We lost a Merchandise slot, but gained what are called "Standard Logo Items" or Branding items. These items are meant to be generic representations of the Units. They are only allowed to have the Approved Unit logo and the Approved Legion logo, and they include items like T-shirts, coins, patches, and flags/banners. As MBO for the past 3 years, t-shirt is the second most requested item that I get. So for the first FISD Branding item, we are going to do a T-shirt run. The design above is just for attention and is not the final design. We are currently running a poll to get feedback from members on what color shirt, logo placement, and what variant (2 colors, long sleeve, hoodie) they prefer. You can find it here: FISD Branding Item Poll FISD OT and FO vinyl stickers are available again from Assassin Graphics. FISD Racing Shirt For those that read the Legion forum, you already know that there was a bit of a dust up about Garrison/Outpost Logos usage permission. I fear that I may have caused some of that because of the request we made for our next racing shirt. The staff (and by staff I mean @revlimiter doing all the work and us asking him to make changes to the final.final(2).Imeanitthistime_final.pdf) has been diligently working on creation of the next iteration of the FISD Racer, and we have locked down the design, but we are still working on permissions for logo usages and selecting a vendor. While I am not going to reveal the shirt here, be on the look out 1 May 2024 for an Interest thread to be posted with the majority of details. We will run the Interest thread the month of May and the sales thread the month of June, so stay tuned! Okay, just a tease... There is still more to come, we are talking about a Baseball Hat, a "war" banners, different coin options, patches and even a badge lanyard. So lots to look forward to this term. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments or concerns about FISD Merch or Branding, my "virtual" door is always open. Hit me up, you can reach me via email, forum DM, or find me on Facebook. With Unquestioned Loyalty James Silvius TK-12953 "jsilvius" Merchandise & Branding Officer If Darth Vader ever made a music video, it would look a little bit like this! What an awesome shot! Please welcome TK-20177 to the Stormtrooper Hall of Fame, March 2024! @Cybergrunt Troop log can be found here. Congrats Bill on 190 troops! Sooo close to that legendary badge! Other HOF recipients can be found here. With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador You can find the full meme thread here This Month's Screen Saver New desktop Screen Saver/Backgorund alert! In this months Screen Saver/Background release, from left to right we have: TK-66979 (Alan), TK-21476 (Lucas @lugalleg), TK-89400 (Adam, @revlimiter), TK-10492 (Brandon, @elwessbrandon) Members from Fire Team Rio Bravo! Trading Card Archives For those with FISD detachment trading cards please consider sending two to Paul @Daetrin keeper of our detachment archives. Address and more info here With Unquestioned Loyalty Paul Hoeffer TK-8020 "Daetrin" Detachment Founder Keeper of Archives LFL Retail Moratorium Lift While there is currently a retail moratorium on character appearances in effect, it is being lifted May 3-5 at retailers selling Star Wars Related merchandise during the May the 4th fan holiday. We are also happy to allow appearances at theaters screening The Phantom Menace during this time. All fans, costumed or otherwise, can participate with venues of their choice within this window with the restriction that costumed appearances must not be used in the advertising for the event. Although these appearances will be treated like an open invite, we’ll leave it to the fan groups to independently organize around these events as they see fit. LFL will not need to approve or coordinate these. Please note that retail locations should not include restaurants, bars, or venues with no apparent reason to feature Star Wars characters. In the coming weeks, we may send out a list of ‘preferred’ retailers and theaters who would welcome fans to participate at their venues within these event windows, but you are all still welcome to make plans with appropriate retailers or venue hosts of your choice regardless of whether or not they appear on the list. *REMEMBER* Always follow your garrison/squad/outpost guidelines when in comes to organizing Disney/LFL promotional troops, only command staff should deal directly with LFL. INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS For a full list of FISD awards programs head here. *Now Available in Swedish* Want to spread the word about FISD?, you can with our FISD Tri-Fold Brochure. Originally these were done in a limited run by the member who created them, but nowadays, we have moved this to a print your own service making them accessible to all countries around the globe. Files are available to all full 501st members on request by contacting our DL Andrew @Sly11 , you can find more info here Currently Available languages: English - Spanish - German - Swedish Are you new to the FISD and wondering what the heck all those abbreviations and strange sounding terms mean? To help you @justjoseph63 has started a list of the most commonly used ones that will give you some insight. If you have ANY questions about a particular term that is not listed or suggestions for new ones please contact Joseph. You can find the list here. Pre Approval Forum allows future Troopers the opportunity to submit photos of their completed build to be reviewed by the Staff, Imperial Attaches and others in preparation for forwarding it to their GML for approval. Any and all advice/suggestions given will be specific, constructive, helpful and respectful. Please note that this program will NOT take the place of your local GML, as Detachments are not chartered for costume approval and can not override a GMLs decision, but is instead a peer review program designed to help you look your best and offer guidance and positive feedback. For more information on this program, please visit the link here. Don't forget to visit our 3D section when next surfing the FISD forums, there is plenty of useful information to potentially help you on your next TK adventure. You might be feeling may generous and share with our community a new TK related 3D file and maybe win yourself a 3D contributors award so check out the details below and be part of the in house 3D community. Congratulations to Helvio "Kuroi_Sabato" TKID: -----, for his excellent E-22 files and instruction manual. Not only has he put a good deal of time and effort into these files, but he has offered them free of charge for use to FISD members. Thank you sir, we award you with the FISD 3D Contributors award, congratulations! https://drive.google.com/file/d/15BcYD-rOJrIrJWRauFvmXZXC3CUOMSfB/view?usp=drive_link Here is a link to the FISD 3D Contributor program. Don't forget to create a troop log here on FISD and get awarded for your adventures The list of accomplished troopers keeps growing, so get on board and register your troops today Simply start (or update!) your troop log, keep the running total in the title, and post (at least!) a date and name for the official 501st event where you wore your TK! Once you've hit a milestone count, go over to the "Field Exercise Awards -- Post your milestones here" thread to request your profile be updated! Simple, right? Also if you would like your troop photos shared on our social media channels please add the following to the first post of your FISD troop log: I give permission for FISD to repost my photos on social media in an appropriate fashion. Award Recipients March - April TK-87665 "Stardust665" Angie - - - - - - Are you an approved TK that spends more time on the boards than the average Trooper? Do you enjoy using your knowledge to help out future and existing Troopers? If so, we would like to invite you to join the Imperial Attaché program! Members of the I.A. team are chosen to help out not only those here on the boards, but on a local level as well. Our aim is to have at least one in each and every Garrison, Squad and Outpost in the entire legion to be the eyes and ears of the FISD on a local level. If you are a 501st approved Trooper who wishes to join the ranks of the Attachés, please get in touch with me and/or visit: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/15252-fisd-attaché-program/ For a complete list of Imperial Attaches, go here. Some of the benefits include: Access to exclusive Attaché merch, including patches. You may also be in the running for an Imperial Attaché Award. An award for those attaché's who have gone above and beyond [minimum 1 year of service]. You can find a list of prior recipients here. Imperial Attaché patch Imperial Attaché Rocker Imperial Attaché Outstanding Achievement Award ATTACHÉ AMBASSADOR Hello there! Our list of attachés is growing, and I'm pleased to announce that we now cover 3 additional attaché positions in the world! @dejango (Wisconsin Garrison), @JEAN LOUIS (French Garrison) and @Georgia Haywood (Outpost 42 New Zealand Garrison) Thank you for serving the Empire on a higher level with unquestioned loyalty! For the already existing Attachés that haven't done the Sound off for 2024, please do so! With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Attaché Ambassador The FISD Master Armorer program is an optional, detachment only incentive award to recognize individuals who have directly helped another 501st stormtrooper to achieve Expert Infantry status. Some people spend countless hours helping others, and want to reward their results as well as incentivizing new people to help as well. To register a “win” in the program, the assistance must have provided hands-on help trimming, building, and/or fitting of said armor for the person who was awarded Expert Infantry status. More information can be found here Want to setup a "Fire Team? the Fire Team program is completely optional, and is intended to help form a common identity and spirit of camaraderie among 501st Legion Stormtroopers in the same geographic area/garrison that troop together. Fire Teams are not officially recognized by the 501st Legion nor the FISD, although they will be able to access a Fire Team sub-forum on the detachment website. You can find more information here. For those interested here is the original discussion on the creation of Fire teams here With Unquestioned Loyalty Mark Ryner TK-4584 "captsafe66" Fire Team Relations So what exactly are and levels? These programs were designed for those who choose to take their armor above and beyond the minimum requirements for basic 501st Legion approval. It gives you the chance to show a level of dedication and pride that takes your armor closer to being as "screen accurate" as possible, without as much extra work as you may realize! You can find more information on the programs here. For those unaware it is possible to achieve extra awards at Expert Infantry for each additional version costume you have approved, additional awards are not issued with another Expert Infantry number (you are only issued 1 Expert Infantry number) but you will see a star above the award on your profile and the thread title will show [APPROVED] 2nd, [APPROVED] 3rd, [APPROVED] 4th and so on. Multiple EIB award recipients and info here NOTE If you are approved with a "2nd Version" of a particular costume that you are already approved with you do not receive an additional award, there is only 1 award issued for each costume version ie: only 1 x Hero, 1 x Stunt, 1 x HWT, 1 x ESB, 1 x TFA and so on. If you have a second/additional version costume approved you will see "2nd Version" and [APPROVED] added to the thread title, no additional profile stars (more info on profile awards here) For those of you who have a particular issue (or issues) before or after submitting for Expert Infantry / Centurion level approval, in order to get you an answer faster you can now privately contact the entire Deployment Officer team at one time! Questions about fitting, repairs, CRL standards/requirements or anything pertaining to reaching Levels 2 and 3 are not only welcomed, but encouraged. Keep in mind that no question is too small, and that your queries will only be seen by the D.O. Staff. We are here to help in any way we can, so please feel free to send us a message by clicking on this link: @Deployment Officer Team and we will get back to you A.S.A.P.! The 1500 unquestioned loyalty! This area lists all those who have gone above and beyond basic approval toward screen accuracy and obtained EIB or Centurion or both. FOR March - April the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment would like to congratulate the following. Expert Infantry Badge Award: Tim "TrickyT81" TK24881 EIB 2nd EIB approval GREAT job on your approval, now on to Level 3! Request your free EIB certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. Multiple EIB award info here Expert Infantry Honor Gallery here --------------------------------------------------------------- Centurion Badge Award: Tyler "iSmilebak" TK82278 Centurion 530 Outstanding job on reaching Centurion, Troopers! Request your free Centurion certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. If you see any of these Troopers around your Garrison or Squad, be sure to congratulate them! Last month we started into the Legion year with a post showing off our fantastic Valkyries. Thank you to everyone who shared their picture(s) with us, so we ended up with almost 50 photos! Definitely an amazing Women's Day for this Detachment. If you missed it, feel free to contact me at any point on the forum, I take picture submissions all year round and am always looking forward to showing off our members! Talking of showing off our members, keep your eyes open for another picture request coming soon. We might still have over a month until June but we will start looking for Pride pictures soon. All the information will follow shortly. If you've been active on Discord these past weeks, you might have noticed that we're now offering video chat meet-ups on our server. The dates and times will be announced a few days in advance both on the Discord, as well in our Forum Thread. We talk about everything FISD, Stormtrooper, and whatever else might come up. I'm looking forward to seeing you! With Unquestioned Loyalty Luca Hahn TK-66744 "Morgi" Social Media Relations With Unquestioned Loyalty Adam Wolf TK-89400 "Revlimiter" Content Editor Support With Unquestioned Loyalty Vicky Mandlmaier TK-50893 "Vicky_Velocipanda" Content Editor Support I'm always on the look out for interesting stories or posts, please drop me a message if you have anything of interest. For anyone interested in having a look through any of the older newsletters they can find be found here. With Unquestioned Loyalty Glen "Q" Rhodes TK-85421 "gmrhodes13" PRO, Newsletter Detachment Leader (DL): Chris Pearson (themaninthesuitcase) TK-10911 Detachment Executive Officer (DXO): Andrew Franke (Sly11) TK-11469 Chief Deployment Officer (DCA): Mario Reyes (TKSpartan) TK-48117 Deployment Officer (DCA): José Mª Sánchez (Chemi) TK-30173 Junior Deployment Officer (DCA): Gerald J Gyorffy (Doggydoc) TK-96004 Provost Marshall (DCoG): Steven Sheades (starsaber25) TK-10466 Provost Marshall (DCoG): Caleb Mask (MaskedVengeance) TK-73692 Provost Marshall (DCoG): Arthur Wong (giskard8) TK-39093 FISD Diplomat (DPRO): Tony Jobe (ukswrath) TK-10116 FISD Diplomat (DPRO): Tim Waychoff (Dark CMF) TK-51878 FISD Diplomat (DPRO): Christoph (Danny) Lauber (Ripper_L) TK-55550 Fire Team Relations(DCoG): Mark Ryner (captsafe66) TK-4584 Merchandise and Brand Officer (DMBO): James Silvius (jsilvius) TK-12953 Trading Card Specialist (DPRO): Eric Ho (Hoda) TK-77520 Newsletter Publisher (DPRO): Glen Rhodes (gmrhodes13) TK-85421 Content Editor Support (DPRO): Adam Wolf (Revlimiter) TK-89400 Content Editor Support (DPRO): Jeff Salt (Wingnut65) TK-50297 Special Unit Director-Valkyries (DPRO): Vicky Mandlmaier (Vicky_Velocipanda) TK-50893 Attaché Ambassador (DPRO): Jonatan Östling (Nairy) TK-23592 Social Media Relations (DPRO): Luca Hahn (Morgi) TK-66744 Personnel Officer (DPER): AC (NoVATie) TK-5597 Systems Administrator (DWM): Mathias Rodstedt (Locitus) TK-2959 Systems Administrator (DWM): Eric Brager (Darth Aloha) TK-9674 Systems Administrator/Detachment Founder (DF): Paul Hoeffer (Daetrin) TK-8020 Facebook: www.facebook.com/whitearmor Facebook Group: 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment (FISD) Official Twitter: www.twitter.com/FISD501st or @FISD501st Instagram: www.instagram.com/fisd501st Discord: https://discord.gg/FmQZ2qW8gx On behalf of the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment Command Staff and the Imperial Propaganda Department

Shepperton Design does need a little work to bring it up to CRL specs You will find a lot of info on SDS armor and updates in Dave's threads:

As mentioned before some armor makes won't allow the full amount of ridges on the plate due to the chest raised areas. You should not be penalized for having what you have in that image That is quite a large area on both sides, some EIB WTF. You can see in this image (even though it's from the back) the armor has been trimmed to match the shoulder straps And here This one appears to have trimmed the inner neck area as there is still some return edge on the sides. You could have a look at these troopers build threads to see how they have positioned their straps, or other WTF build threads Kris B MintImperial Adianu Having extra material on the sides of your shoulder straps is perfectly fine

Definitely a difficult product to apply, I've used it in the past and ended up picking up little pieces of gold leaf for months

Won't know for sure until the CRL is finalized, there has been little input there to date, but I would think it would be L2 or L3 and not required for basic.

I would match angle cuts (first option), should straps normally follow the angle of the tops You can setup both chest and back plate against a box, about your width, tape or clamp in place and then you can test what curve you will need of the shoulder straps and if they need any twist.

Feedback left

Coming a long nicely, you can trim off half the larger tab on the rear (if you wish). Elastic loop is added on the rear to help keep strap down NOTE: As seen in the photos below, there are no large tabs on the rear of the shoulder bridges. This is not specifically mentioned in the CRL, but removing them is highly recommended if possible. As for radius of the straps, it changes person to person, give it a rough curve and check it lays flat on the backplate when worn (and glued on the front) Most armor will allow 1 larger tab and 4 1/2 to 5 smaller tabs glued to the chest

Great to see you at this point, nice work, almost there. I do have a couple of areas you may want to address: First thing your images are a little bit small so hard to zoom in on details, make sure you try a bigger resolution/size when sending to your GML Chest / back plates appear to be sitting quite high, note the step down to shoulders Gap between forearm and bicep, you may be able to adjust playing with the strapping biceps down a little, forearms up a little, it may just be your height and arm length, don't stress too much about his area Shin sniper plate appears to be leaning forward, may just be the photo Sniper plates do look a little odd on the ROTK You may want to adjust the rear top ridges, trim the angled ends, compare with the reference below they are straight. Just comparing the sides between ab and kidney, looks like your right black area is curved top and bottom, the left is straight. Small gap between TD plate and back Belt open on left I think that's about it but I'm no ROTK expert, hopefully more will chime in.

Armor workshops are usually held by some garrisons, you will need to check with your local garrison if they have one anytime soon. Although the armor may have been 501st approved does not guarantee it may be again as CRL items may have changed over the years, please check the ANH Stunt CRL against what you will be purchasing https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TK_anh_stunt Costume Approval is also carried out by your garrison GML (garrison membership liaison)

Very nice, could you share the info of the voice changer for those who may be looking for one

I find that padding to be very firm and can give me a headache after a while. I went with yellow foam, 10 mm piece on the top and 2 x 2" pieces on the sides, once on it keeps the helmet from moving, but what ever works for you, there is no right way (unless you want to go screen accurate) 1. Should I add more padding around the sides or maybe find a hard hat bracket for the interior? I find a block of foam on the sides stops the helmet from moving and you can bend without it tilling. 2. I have a power source and the IComm, is it better to store that in the back of the helmet (maybe even out the weight) or on the interior of the chest piece? Depends what room you have in the helmet. I have my aker and icomm behind my chest because I have neck issues and can't have the extra weight in the helmet 3. I noticed it is pretty hard to hear in the helmet. Is a hearing assist module worth the cost? If so, what type of headphones do people use with theirs? I tried it for a convention then ripped it out, it picked up so much background noise I found it was better without hearing assist but some swear by it, comes down to personal choice. https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/525724448/9v-hearing-assist-system-sha?click_key=5f58302ac0aa60a1c48f034aed75f6b451343f39%3A525724448&click_sum=fc01c65c&ref=shop_home_feat_1&sts=1

It's definitely an area many have to play with, appears you have the width in the sides/wings and also the neck.

This may be helpful There is no standard size for the piping in the CRL. References;

It is quite an old thread, 2010, moved to outdated section of the forum, copy and pasted below: HOWTO: Make your FX armor Expert Infantry I get this question asked a lot so figured now was a prime time to write it up. Obviously the helmet has to go in toto, but since that's an all-out replacement and usually taken care of in one fell swoop, and the fact that most already have swapped out their helmet, Id like to focus solely on the armor. Despite what people may say, making your FX armor EIB acceptable actually takes little effort, money, and time. You can pretty much buy everything you need for $60 and an hours worth of work, or if you have time can do it for about $20 and an afternoon. Lets break it down! 1. Replace the ab plate buttons The ab plate buttons that came with the FX kits are the wrong size and color and need to be replaced. Fortunately this is pretty easy on the FX kit and you have several routes you can choose from: 1. Easiest way buy them completed. You could contact other armor makers and buy pieces separately 2. Next Easiest - buy plain buttons and use decals You can buy plain buttons from Tandy. They need to be 7/16" in diameter. You can then buy decals from TK-4510 instead of painting them for $3 Button Decals : https://trooperbay.com/trooper-abdominal-plate-decals 3. Least Easiest - buy plain buttons and paint yourself As above, you can buy a set of 9 buttons from Tandy and paint them yourself. Painting guide: http://whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=8117 Where to buy paints: trooperbay https://trooperbay.com/costuming-supplies/painting/humbrol Maximum cost : $20 Effort : 10 minutes to 30, depending if you buy or build 2. Replace the plastic belt Like the ab plate buttons, this is a pretty straightforward fix if you buy a belt or you can save some money and make your own. Making a Belt HOWTO: A guide to making a canvas belt : http://whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=665 Maximum cost : $40 Effort : 20 minutes or more, depending if you buy or build 3. Correctly mounting your holster While most holsters have full straps, in A New Hope (which most troopers do) the belts are actually fastened from behind using rivets. This is a very cheap mod and you there are many ways to achieve this look. If you are doing an ESB trooper, simply wear it on the right instead of the left ($0 cost and time). If you are doing an A New Hope trooper this look can be achieved by simply cutting off the outside strap (free, 5 minutes) and then fastening the holster to the belt like shown in the picture below as a guide: You can use rivets, Chicago screws, or even snaps. The rivets need only be seen on the outside, and you can even use velcro if you wish on the inside to make it more secure. Maximum cost : < $5 in materials Effort : 10 minutes or less Pretty easy so far So far it's been pretty easy and the above steps will instantly make any FX based stormtrooper look more accurate and impressive. Some choose to stop there, but there are two more mods that will need to be done to make that FX kit Expert Infantry. 4. Cutting the butt plate While the cheapest mod to do, this is really the only one people hesitate on and it often takes two people to get it to hang correctly. While there is a seam line on the back of the FX back plate, it's too high and the cut should actually be lower down, about 1/4 to 1/2" below the belt. You can see this in several shots. http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv261/pbpicsandvids/TK-RightSide.jpg http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s58/kwdesigns2/NEW TK Build/KevsEIB7.jpg While the pictures above only show the strapping for the kidney to the butt plate, some people (including myself) also use a strap that goes around the front of the waist to keep the sides from flaring out. Ideally one could use a heat gun to properly shape it, but a strap works well too. Also depending on your body type you may have to put a little bit if padding in the butt plate to get it to sit correctly (OK, maybe just me and my small butt :-)). Regardless of whichever route you go, this is an inexpensive mod in that the cost is just those pieces of velcro or strapping that you use to secure it. The time is the biggest factor, as while cutting it only takes 5 minutes it can take up to 30 to get it to sit correctly. 5. Shimming the side gaps Of all the armor makes, the FX has the largest gap between the ab plate and the back plate. Fortunately this is pretty easy to solve with some extra plastic sheets. While clones advocate a seamless join, FISD is not so picky and simply using a plastic shim is acceptable. There are several routes that people use: 1. Buy spare ABS/HIPS from whomever made their kit (guaranteed to match the armor) 2. Buy spare ABS/HIPS from a plastics store (perhaps cheaper) 3. Use spare ABS/HIPS that they have laying around. The plastic belt that gets replaced by using a fabric belt is often an ideal candidate for this. 4. Buy a cheap plastic sign from a home improvement store and paint it to match Here is a simple fix that a person used as a starting point. Remember it just needs to look good from the outside though it's always a good idea to make these changes more robust as time and budget allow. Conclusion And that's it! It may seem a lot at first, but after going through it you'll wonder what all the fuss was about. Whether you decide to buy everything you need or create all the pieces from scratch, these changes will really make your FX armor kit pop and breath new life in to it, allowing for many more years of enjoyable trooping to come. Where to go next I'd like to encourage those that haven't taken the plunge to make these changes to do so. Making your FX Expert Infantryman qualified actually is relatively inexpensive and not that hard. Not enough you say? Yes, there is even *more* you can do to pimp out that FX kit, from adding side snaps on the ab/kidney to adding return edges to the chest and other parts, but these aren't required for EIB. What do you think? Everyone - we on FISD staff would love to hear what you think of the above. Was it easy to follow? Did you like the changes once done? Let us know!

A few threads which may be of interest, some items may have changed due to CRL updates, we don't see many FX builds these days, best to check them against what you have in your hands, CRL's here https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:FISD_CRL This thread will help you find accessories and build info Thread on using 3d party host for images due to forum attachment restrictions

You could reach out to your local garrison, most garrison events are listed on their forums although not everyone can see on some as they are only open for members to attend, really depends what garrison rules you have. https://www.501st.com/members/displayUnits.php Some allow wranglers and recruits to attend events (some don't). Here, lots of research, LOTS OF RESEARCH, research is the key to this hobby

Hello and welcome aboard, note one post is all you need as they are normally answered quite quickly posting many of the same can get cofusing. Good luck with the research, hope to see you with a build thread soon

If the tube stripes are stickers you could carefully lift and pull off the front ones and lean forward (from the top) a little more. I have used tape in the past to help pull the stickers off to move. You do have big gaps to the ear so I would add a few more stipes, note the first reference below has 16 stripes. DO reference guide: Ideally at Level 2 tube stripes are approximately 1 cm (5/16ths) away from the cheek, and should also lean toward the front.

You may want to try before you decide, having some give in some areas is a good idea, especially ones that move, keeping armor in particular lengths apart may cause armor bites once you move.

If you reference the ROTK images you can tell it's outside over inside, it's pretty much the same with most costumes (same as the thighs) Note position of the cover strips too, closer to the outside