Awesome Thread for beginners....this thread has taken all of the guess work out of it for me. When I first started researching building a TK rig I was overwhelmed. There's a lot out there...like most noobs the first place I went was eBay...you can find anything there right? Wrong...you can't find the honest advise you need there. Then it was SDS ...WOW!...I can get a real stormtrooper rig?...but wait....theres more to this story...look at that price....they don't ship to the USA?...lawsuit? I better look into this further. On to the 501st and things started happening. I stumbled on to what would be my local garrison (Bloodfin) and emailed members there about there armor which led me here. Now I have a list of suppliers which gives me a choice...all I have to do is ask...and I did...AP will be the armor I end up using in the end... That guy responded quickly, answered all of my questions, and sent me a link on trimming. Besides that I think AP suits me best...(correct me if I'm wrong)....I'm 5'10...155 lbs. with decent artistic and handyman skills...I want something that I can eventually take to the top level, and of course there's the budget. My girlfriend knows all about the budget. I'm looking forward to this build and joining a community that loves the trooper. I'll be doing a TD build based on cantina captain. Other links I would like to thank include mepd.net and TK1336.com...he has a lot of resources on his site for the beginner. I hope other people like this thread as much as I do...See you on the Dark Side brothers.