svache

Jeroen Joosten 80866 EIB Letter

Looking at those two pictures, I don't think it should be too hard to fix that, would it be?

lol that Pickle stormtrooper is too funny xD

Thanks Matthias, I see what you mean, will take a look at that as well =) Thanks so much Jenny, Charles and Phil, it's a learning process in my opinion, we can only grow from comments like these

Interesting to see how the topic was about the question if EIB was becoming obsolete and slowly turned into the question if bigger troopers could reach Centurion I received my EIB status today and I couldn't be happier. My armor is mostly built to go Centurion as well but because of some mistakes in the build, that will have to wait until they're fixed. They will be fixed, no doubt, but if we did it correct the first time, I would have copied the pictures and pasted them in a Centurion application today as well. I am 6'1" and weigh about 185 lbs (ok, maybe 190 at the moment lol). Most of my weight is carried on my waist (my arms and legs are quite thin, my pants size is 34-36 (varies) but my waist is 42-44, just to give you an idea). I am currently sporting an AP armor which is a bit on the smaller side and it shows. We will try to fix it and get it all the way up to Centurion but if the size issue remains, then it's no Centurion for me, at least not in the AP armor. So, with that, if I indeed will not be able to fix the size issue with the armor and it would prevent me from getting Centurion, I am very happy that I can at least carry the EIB badge so, in that sense, I wouldn't call the EIB obsolete at all Either way, I will still try to get the armor done according to Centurion standards, it's just the size that is kind of worrying me at the moment.

Thank so much Phil. I just read your comments in the EIB thread and we'll make sure to improve all those things as much as possible when we're working on the build again

Oops, sorry Phil, I missed your comments when I was writing the other post (I took my time lol). Thank you too for the comments, we'll take those as well with the improvement of this build

Sorry for my late reply, I was outside the house for a bit so couldn't reply earlier. Anyways, to come back to the comments First to Charles's comments 1. The ammo belt is correct, we will have to take the rivets out, place them in the correct location and fill up the gap. 2. When we did the shoot, we did notice the shin cover strip was slightly loose in the bottom, we didn't notice the thigh. Thanks for noticing, I'll make sure to inforce that. 3. The kidney and shims is a bit hard. I have some loose baggage at the sides (I would say it comes with the age but I have had it all my life lol), so we'll have to figure that one out. 4. Yep, it's the supplied green lens, I ordered a new one Sunday night so I expect that to arrive somewhere this week so I can replace that. It is indeed very flinsy, I didn't see anyone shoot with nerf bullets yet, but you never know what kids may do. Plus I have one bad eye, I better keep the other in tact 5. Thanks for the tip of moving the snap inside the shoulder bell, we'll take a look what we can improve on that part. 6. You're absolutely correct, we noticed this during the shoot so it's on the to-do list to get it all nice and glued up again. Eric: lol you told me before you're not a fan of the original strapping haha. Perhaps we should indeed take a look at taking the strapping off between the chest and ab, I agree there's more chance in bringing the chest down with just elastic (plus it would probably also give me more freedom of moving my neck if the chest is a bit down). Mathias: Yeah, when I went with AP, I never thought it would be so much smaller than some of the other armors (per example, the armor in my avatar is Edwin's TE2, which seems to be better for my size (see also this image, where I'm wearing his armor: http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/5112/18502242254050715109328.jpg )). Sadly it's not just my length, but also my waist span that does this. - Will fix the ammo belt, that should be fairly simple to do. The hardest part may be filling the gap but I've seen it done before so I know we can do it =) - I'm uncertain what exactly you mean with the shoulder bridges. Could you point me to the picture so I get an idea what to look for? - Will try on the paintjob.. I have VERY shaky hands when I have to do something like that but will try my best - As for the shins, I just took a quick picture with my phone to show how they close. The shin in the picture is the right one (no sniper plate): Thanks so much all for the comments. We can (and will) work on them to improve the built (just not today, today I'll celebrate the EIB status ).

Wow I'm surprised but very, very happy with the fast approval! Very awesome! I will come back to you on the comments (don't have too much time right now, will have to bring my daughter to school in a bit), I love the constructive way they're given, they're really helpful (that was kind of the scariest part, what kind of critic would be given..) and Julie is correct, we're going to fix those for sure

@Phil: Of course it's always nice to get great comments like that but at the same time I also know the pictures will be looked different at with the EIB and centurion applications. No worries, I know there might always be something that has to be adjusted, no problem, it's a way of learning. Others may see things that we have overlooked ourselves, it's one thing to build a TK, it's a whole other to actually go that extra step and go for better screen accuracy. There are only a few (if even there is even more than one) EIB's within our outpost (I actually think Eric (Darth Aloha) is the only one with EIB) and there is no Centurion at all in our outpost, so it is pretty much a learning process for those of us who are looking with me at this built. It might not always be fun to get critics but as long as they are honest, constructive and not demeaning, then there should be no problem other than to go back to the drawing board and fix what should be fixed in other to get that extra level Another way to think of it is basically looking back at how things were when still in school. If the teachers only tell people how well they do and never tell them what they do wrong, nobody would ever learn anything. It's the mistakes people often learn most from We'll see how it goes =)

Armor= AP Helmet= AP Blaster= Hyperfirm Height = 6'1" Weight = 185 lbs Boots = TK Boots Canvas belt = Trooperbay Hand Plates = Karin's (Sonnenschein) flexible ANH white rubber hand guards Electronics= Aker + IComm Neck Seal = Trooperbay Holster = Unknown, used from Daetrin 79 pictures below, hope it covers everything. Some pictures may show Centurion specifc requirements instead of EIB requirements, hope that's no prob Bucket off: Front, bucket on Left side views Back view: Shoulder straps.. not an EIB requirement but it guess it shows what's the next step Detail on detonator Right profile view: Front details: Gloves / flex. rubber (latex-like) handguards: Helmet details, handpainted frown, earbumbs & vocoder. Decals are AP specific ANH handpainted style decals: Some more side detail (holster) pictures: More helmet details (eyes are indeed sometimes visible, but that is because of the very bright flash.. normal view obscures the eyes enough): S-style helmet trim: Action pictures: Some more detail on the neck seal and shoulders: Lightly scuffed boots (like some of the other details in this thread, not needed for EIB but you know the idea ). Sniper knee Ammo pack with rounded corners: Crotch & buttplate details on the snaps and such Some more detail pics of the front & belt: The inside, built with the original brackets Some blaster pictures: D-ring on the Hyperfirm blaster (and a (blurry) scope decal): Ok, one more action pic to finish it all

Thanks @Tim, yeah we've been looking at that as well.. the problem is not really the shoulder straps, it is held by two snaps on each side so we could easily adjust it to become a bit bigger.. the problem, however, is with the brackets. The brackets make that the chest is actually fixed to the ab plate. If we give it more space as it is now, it will only give me a lot more space in my back because of the brackets and that kind of looked funny lol. I'll probably upload my EIB pics tonight so you can see how the inside was built and see what I mean

Yeah true, the thighs were a bit rotated, should be better when we submit the EIB pics.. I know I've seen them on straight Thanks for all the cool comments people

Thanks so much guys (and gals!) Yeah we thought about it but the problem is a bit that the forearms are very narrow and doesn't leave much room. We're currently thinking there might be a way to make it a little bit spacier and then we might be able to do this You're correct, though. I didn't notice it on the pictures until after you mentioned it, in some pictures it does indeed look like the forearm shifted a bit during the picture taking.

lol Eric.. next time you'd better fly over to our island when you're bored like this, there's still lots to build hahaha

Tonight I submitted the pictures for my approval into the 501st (and just got approved ) and I figured I'd share them here as well.. perhaps you guys see some things we have missed somehow that needs some improvement or anything. The armor is build to go for centurion but I'm not quite there yet (so far I know I have the wrong mic tips and wrong neck trim, thankfully that's easy to fix. The drop boxes also need to be moved a little bit). It is AP armor, the blaster is a Hyperfirm E-11. I'm between 6' and 6'1" tall, so that kind of explains the black since AP isn't the biggest armor around. The armor is build with the original bracket system (the ones they used in the movie).

Very nice! I also like the fact that the armor will be passed on through Make-A-Wish, that's even better. Glad to be a part of this, and it's awesome to have seen my name in the lid

lol I was actually asking some of the troopers here in Hawaii about this. They confirmed it should indeed be possible to add the D-Ring, seeing the pictures in this thread makes me even more convinced it is possible, awesome! +1 on the numbers, that looks pretty neat!

I haven't build my armor yet (the armor is scheduled to arrive today by mail) but everything together including shipping (but not including the building materials such as snaps, velcro, glue, tools etc etc needed) costs me a little over $1800 USD so far. It probably could've been done a bit cheaper but oh well

Looking good with the cog there And yeah, I hear what you're saying about not having enough time. I have had my family over for three weeks last year and four weeks earlier this year and there was still not enough time for them to do everything they wanted to do haha. I agree about the kids, that makes things a lot more expensive. Since we have a little girl, it is a bit harder for me to visit my family in Europe, before I could just pack my stuff and go but now I can't go without her (seeing how we don't have a baby sitter and my wife is a night nurse). Glad to see you had some fun on the island here, hope the vog (volcanic haze) wasn't too bad the first few days you guys were here

I have read about this story when it just came in the news and felt very sorry for her, especially since I was bullied as a kid myself and because I am currently father of a young girl who is also crazy about everything Star Wars. I'm happy to see you guys do this for Katie, I'll send a donation as well

That's actually interesting stuff, looking forward to hear more about this

You're welcome! And yeah, she's representing all right, she's so proud of her temporary tattoos (she has Vader on the other arm lol). I just took a picture, it's amazing how it's still in good shape: http://imageshack.us/a/img145/3186/20121005102136.jpg Hmm I never realized that alcohol bit.. Guess you got a valid point there, Julie haha! But, at the other hand, I do think the show at the end of the evening at PCC (Ha, Breathe of Life) is pretty cool.

Hi Jason! You should stay a week longer on Hawaii for when the Halloween fun starts, plus there's a small convention going on the 19th-21st Anyways, if you haven't already added it, I'd say a visit to Pearl Harbor should be in the to-do/to-see list if you're into that kind of thing. If you like shrimp, go visit the North Shore, they have some very good garlic shrimp there (and if you don't like it, you should still visit it, it's such a big contrast with Waikiki). Something else you might like is the Polynesian Cultural Center, it's quite touristy but everyone I took there with me, always liked it. There's actually pretty much to do and to see here.. when I have family over for 3-4 weeks, they still don't have enough time to do it all lol. http://www.gohawaii.com/ might be an idea to take a look, there's quite a few of activities listed there, based on what your interest could be. From what I understand, the outpost usually takes visitors out for a drink. If so, chances are I'll come down too Btw, kind of unrelated question but since you mentioned the Star Garrison patches, I was wondering.. what did you guys made the Star Garrison temporary tattoos with? I received one with my aker/icomm and gave it to my daughter 2 weeks ago.. now, 2 weeks and many showers later, it's still on there haha. It's awesome quality

I moved to the US a little over 4 years ago and never had the flu shot in my life. Back in the Netherlands, where I'm originally from, they simply don't administer them to people who are not at risk (only those in specific medical situations, and those over 60 get it there). I am, however, considering to get a flu shot for a few weeks now but am a bit reluctant because of all the negative stories I've heard so far. One thing that makes me kind of wonder, though, is that you say something about possibly exposing others when not getting the shot but, isn't it so that someone with the shot can still carry the disease and spread it to others? Isn't it so that those at risk can only be protected if they themselves have had the flu shot? This is at least what I always have been told by various people in the medical field.