TK-9820

My work on this was put on the back burner since I moved to a new home recently. After I finish my kitchen, I'll get back to work on this.

Ab, kidney and buttplate Working on a slot and tab style joining. I'll be putting in the appropriate rivets and button snap soon. Kidney and buttplate joined by removable elastic straps with button snaps The outer view of the above assembly Thighs and greaves I made a notch on the left thigh using Pandatrooper's tutorial. Finishing strip on the back of the calf. I think I used enough clamps. Assembled greaves with pre-curved thigh ammo strip

Shoulder bells and biceps: Trimmed shoulder bell Bottom edge of shoulder bell flattened a bit with a hobby iron Bicep glued together Plastic bridges installed along the inner ridge of shoulder bell and biceps Shoulder bell and biceps joined together with elastic and velcro. This set-up allows adjustment. Side view of bell and bicep joined Forearms and handplates: Forearms pieces assembled with the ANH handplates trimmed out The awesome ESB handplates from Paul

My first 501st costume was a TK. After putting together a couple of Sith Lord costumes and a Clone Trooper, I decided to come back to where I started. I decided to go ESB for my second build with an ATA kit that I got over a year ago. Somewhere along the way, I became fixated on return edges. This was probably due to some of the great threads seen here at the FISD over the years. Any suggestions or feedback along the way will be much appreciated. And here we go... It all starts with the wonderful boxes that show up on the doorstep one day. The back plate: Rough-cut Beginning to add return edges Adding button snaps White webbing with snaps for the shoulder bells The chest plate: Trimmed Adding shoulder straps with CA glue and clamps Chest and back connected with the white webbing and button snaps

The toughest part of this character's CRL is deciding which elements are going into it. There are different artist renderings of these types of Stormtroopers. Some have thigh ammo strips or rectangular indentations on the forearms while others do not. Shoulder bells vary in shape as well as the squintiness of the helmet's eyes. Agreeing on one version should be interesting.

I think the triangle underneath the knee cap is the way to go even if the Gentle Giant statue doesn't show it. If the Joker Squad armor is a homage to Clone Trooper armor and the comic image captures that shin detail, it would make sense to include that detail in fan-made armor. The knee cap would need something flat to rest against and the triangle would fit the bill. I've been working on item #4 (someone making the armor) for my wife since I caught Paul's first post in this thread. After I skin and smooth the polyurethane foam, I hope to vacu-form the chest, shoulder bells, biceps, forearms and shins/calves this weekend. It'll be a hybrid between the GG statue and the comic images gathered so far. Anyone who can grab close-up spy photos of the GG Jes Gistang back plate detail will be my hero. I'll break off into another thread for a Jes Gistang WIP maybe sometime next week. In the meantime, here's a little sneak peek: Since this is my first run at scratch building armor, it may work due to beginner's luck or it may be absolutely craptastic.

I've seen shorter troopers pull off a TK just fine in AP and ATA. You just need the patience and skill to trim it to fit. I'm 5'08" and I've heard plenty of idiots ask "Aren't you a little short...?" People just look for a reason to spout off a line to sound cheeky in front of their friends. Don't ask me how often I've been asked if I like donuts when I was working uniformed patrol. Bottom line of my 2 pennies: If you want to portray a character of your choice, go for it and try to do it well. Shorter TKs standing next to a Vader on a troop will make him (or her) look taller anyway.

I used the brush-on variety of Plasti-Kote a couple of years ago for the inside of my MR CE. It went on nicely with no brush strokes. I haven't been able to find the same stuff at my local Wally-mart for quite some time. It's just fun to trick out the inside of a bucket.

Troopers from the Central California Garrison got their chance to participate in the Weird Al Yankovic show August 1st. This concert took place at the California State Fair (mmm...funnel cake). This was the most fun packed into a short troop. We got up on stage and and danced our plastic butt plates off at the show's finale. At the end, Weird Al was kind enough to make time for a photo and autograph session with our members. Here's the video footage from that evening: Central California Garrison Weird Al Concert on YouTube

You won't be disappointed. Just got mine today and they are BEAUTIFUL!

Coming up on 2 years this August. I started combing through the FISD forum in April of '08 while putting together my bucketless FX armor with MR CE helmet. The ANH stunt (EIB) TK was my first 501st outfit followed closely by Pre-Armor Vader/ROTS Anakin. Darth Maul and Episode 2 Clonetrooper projects came next. I'm coming back full circle to TK with today's arrival of my sweet ATA kit which will end up being an ESB suit. (aiming for double EIB status!) Looking forward to many more years of service.

EIB #4 for the CCG! Very nice work and an explosive start into the 501st. Congratulations, Vern.

I use whatever Wally Mart carried last year. $10 for the long-sleeve shirt and $10 for the leggings. They now carry Starter brand that's about the same price and quality. Probably the cheapest way to go.

Congratulations Adam! Great work. That's EIB #3 for the Central California Garrison!

I knew there was a reason we let you carry the Garrison banner at the parade. Nice looking set of armor.

My TK ID is just my badge number in reverse. I try to use "9820" across all 501st forums for consistency (i.e. "SL-9820" on the Sith Lord Detachment forum).

Yes, rubber gloves are fine with the 501st.

Same problem experienced here. What worked for me on the cut & paste e-mail was to hit the space bar twice after pasting and then hitting enter. Seemed to work ok the last three transactions.

When did you see Star Wars in the theater for the first time and where? I saw A New Hope in '77 in my hometown of San Francisco. What is your favorite Star Wars movie? THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK What is your least favorite Star Wars movie? THE PHANTOM MENACE (the parts with Maul are cool) What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Creatively: costume & prop building / Spiritually & Emotionally: My Family What turns you off? Lazy folks & complainers What is your favorite curse word? Shazbot! What Star Wars Character do you love? Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (two sides of the same coin so I get to list both, right?) What Star Wars Character do you hate? That naysayer Rebel pilot at the first Death Star raid briefing How did you first find out about your home garrison? 501st.com What Costume other than your own would you like to attempt? Freddy Mercury or Hiro Nakamura What Costume would you not like to do? Oola What would you like to hear George Lucas say when you arrive at the LucasFilm Gates? Please allow me to return all the ca$h you spent on STAR WARS action figures and other LFL swag from the past 25 years. Go buy yourself a Porsche.

There is a great interview on one of the recent 501stCast podcasts in which a guy from Museum Replicas/Windlass talks heavily about the TK costume. Dean (TK-899) asks some great questions from the fan/costumer angle. The Museum Replicas/Windlass rep said they actually obtained complete suits from ANH to replicate them. According to him, Lucasfilm recently discovered a crate of this armor during some sort of move. The going price will be around $1800! Originally, they were going to do a flexible polyurethane TK based on ROTJ armor, but they abandoned that. They released an image of it in a handout last year at San Diego Comic Con. If anyone is interested in the Anakin costume and is a nut about screen accuracy (or close to it), I would not spend the $1600+ on it. You can piece one together yourself for half that cost (if that).

I can't wait for this one. This will be our first huge event this year.

Well, here you go... The News 10 Interview: http://www.news10.net/video/default.aspx?m...ject=1201263402 The KCRA 3 Interview: http://www.kcra.com/video/20237752/index.html A teaser clip with the band Goodness Gracious Me! Our Chewie is a guitar slinger. http://www.kcra.com/video/20238034/index.html The KCRA 3 Photo Slideshow: http://www.kcra.com/slideshow/20237085/detail.html?taf=sac The My58 Interview: http://www.kcra.com/video/20243916/index.html The Fox 40 Interview: http://www.fox40.com/videobeta/watch/?watc...e&src=front I've got to work on speaking on camera. Too many uh's and umm's came out of my vocoder.

My Garrison was asked to help promote the "Star Wars in Concert" performances that will be coming to Sacramento in October. We were shuttled to three different news stations for promo spots on our local morning news shows. I ended up riding shotgun in a Prius with all of my body armor on (deceptively roomy car!). Along the way, we became part of a live rock performance where Chewie strapped on a guitar and Vader rocked the mic. Here are some pics of our journey: Stay classy, Sacramento. This just got us so amped up for the upcoming show. Thanks for looking.

The side pieces that fill the gap between the ab and back plates are only required for EIB status. They can be made from the spare ABS strips that come with most FX armor kits or you can improvise using other sturdy, matching materials. If you go with rigid plastic, add a slight curve to them to make the parts fit nicer.

I went with line 24 (5/8") snaps on snap plates. The 1" elastic strip is reinforced with vinyl at the snaps.