TB5K

Great shirt!

Dude! Congrats!! Welcome to the club! Great to have you and great work on the suit. You've done an incredible job.

Looking fantastic, Andrew. Great job!

Chicago screws you could potentially remove and replace...

Wow, man, you are killing it with this rebuild. I love seeing it get the royal treatment!

TB5K is an abbreviation of my old Facebook handle "Tardbot5000". It can easily be misinterpreted as a Biker Scout ID; "TB-5000".

Hopefully this will rage into the night. I'm booked for the 501st Medieval Times dinner that night but you can bet I'm gonna rush straight back to drop in on this! Looking forward to meeting you all!

Hey hitman. Awesome work! What exactly did you use for Bondo? You mentioned 'Microlight'. Are those two different products (bondo vs microlight?) Thanks for your time! -Aaron

Hey Happy Birthday Vern. I hope the Hengstler worked out for ya.

What's in the bucket... ???

My girlfriend's cousin was in Scotland at some games event and she sent us this. No idea who it is. Just thought I'd share.

More Pics, courtesy of Melissa Schilling

This mission report was initially posted on the Golden Gate Garrison by my fellow trooper Breezy (AR-80108): Mission Report Event Name: The Empire Strikes Brass! (Brass Tax 2nd Annual Star Wars Nerdtacular) in SF on 5/4 @ 10pm [AKA SF Assault 2013] Venue: Public Works Venue address: 161 Erie Street (Off Mission St. between Duboce & 14th St.), San Francisco, CA Event Date: Saturday, May 4th 2013 Event Time: 10pm-3am Attendees -Nate Barsetti AR -David Bowen (Mole) TB -Aaron Farmer TK Details We commenced SF Assault 2013 at 3pm from Basecamp in SOMA, and headed to Powell and Market, stopping to take pictures with people along the way. It was clear early on that we were causing some definite traffic impact as people hit their brakes and even stopped cars to take pictures of us. We waved to buses full of faces aimed at us with mouths gaping open, as they pointed and craned their necks. Folks on the street were constantly telling us, "May the Fourth Be With You", clear indication of how much bigger this holiday has gotten year over year. At Powell and Market, we boarded the Muni Metro bound for Castro St. Station. Upon arriving in upper Market, we made our first unofficial appearance at Lookout for their May the Fourth/Cinco de Mayo party. It was fairly low key, but we were able to get the obligatory picture with Drag Queen Slave Leia (aka "Frida Leia") After a comped pizza for the troops and our escorts, we began the slow descent down Market St., stopping at various establishments on the way such as Lucky 13 and Blackbird. It seemed we were being stopped every 50 ft or so, and cars continued to honk and jam on their brakes as they spotted us. As a few of our crew went in to use the ATM at Safeway, we came across a motorcycle club, resting and resupplying at the supermarket. They absolutely lost it in seeing the TB. One guy even had TB themed leathers and helmet. Hopefully someone got pics of that moment, because it was definitely pretty awesome. At Church and Market we took a right down 14th St, eventually making it to The Armory Club. Both Aaron and Nate know the GM there, and he was happy to have us stop for a photo op and some complimentary waters. We killed some time until we were scheduled to be at the Brass Tax Event. We arrived at the Empire Strikes Brass! at 10pm, as the core Brass Tax crew was finishing setting up. Brass Tax originally was a Burning Man crew that has been going strong since the late 90's and has a tremendous following in SF) The BM creativity was clear as partygoers began to arrive. Most everyone of the ~500 people there were in costume, and some were really pretty inventive. The music was insanely good during the night from the DJs, but the real treat happened midway through the night during an epic set by the SF Cantina Band. Full video here Somewhere around 2 am, it was clear things had hit their peak, and the three of us had been in armor for 11 hours straight. We began the walk back to SOMA. As tired as we were, we couldn't help but indulge night owls wanting a pic with us and the occasional horn blast from passing traffic. All and all, a really successful event, and Brass Tax was very happy with our participation. I forsee them calling us again for the 3rd annual May the Fourth Party, and I can only imagine it will be bigger and better than this year. We learned some valuable lessons about rolling around the city in armor, which we hope to craft into an even bigger and badder SF Assault in 2014! So come out next year!!! Event Requester's Comment: ----- Forwarded Message ----- Hi Nathan and others! Please see the receipt below for our donation of $250 on your behalf to the Boys & Girls Club of SF. We really appreciate you making a presence at our "The Empire Strikes Brass" May Fourth event. You added a great deal of authenticity and imperial authority to our party. Somehow the rebel scum still infiltrated our dance floor. Oh well, there's always next year. Thanks again for everything and kudos on some amazing costumes and really great personnel. You guys were a pleasure to work with. Hopefully we will see you guys again next year as well. warm regards, Taylor Heanue and Brass Tax

My first big troop with the GGG. It was great! I wish it lasted longer!

TK-55321 requesting 501st access. http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=15697

I wanted to jump up there and play my helmet on stage but thought better of it.

That was hilarious. I loved the 'Ewok Brazilian'.

Cool! Were you in costume? I'm waiting on a kit from TM. Looking forward to building it up from the begining. Fixing up this RT Mod has been incredibly educational and I feel much better thinking about that "first cut" on the TM. I'll be at the Public Works party on May 4th. Hope to see you there! -Aaron

Yeah I didn't think it was gonna happen but we kinda forced it. My crotch plate was all but unsnapped when I got out of the car among other parts of the armor. I had to do some buttoning up before moving along.

The clamps came off Sunday evening and I wore it out on it's maiden voyage to SF's DNA Lounge where they were having a SW Cantina party. But before leaving I wanted to do a few more tweaks and get the fans in the lid. First off I took a quarter inch off of the bottoms of the shins and tapered the edge and sanded them smooth so they would be more gentle on the boots. They held up pretty good. I still may put fabric on the edges to ease the boot wear even more. The armor definitely puts a crease in the leather from sheer gravity but the tapering helped from them chewing up the leather I think. I wore my TKBoots size 11s with gel inserts for this first outing. TKBoots come about a size large with a longer, narrower cut. As a normal tennis shoe wearing size 11 I decided to buy a size 10 AND a size 11 to compare. The 10s fit pretty good but I like the 11s with the gel inserts. In the 10s I can feel that narrow cut. The old fans were glued in originally. I bought a new set and decided to try a velcro system. I put the soft loop side on the helmet and wrapped the edges of the fans with strips of hook side. Worked out well and they're adjustable. I can pretty much point them in any direction. The armor bites were extremely minimal. Just an occasional pinch here and there. My friend drove us to the club and to get in the car I sort of sprawled out on the back seat. That got uncomfortable so I found another position that worked although I looked ridiculous: As far as the undersuit I got an inexpensive black diver skin on eBay. It has stirrups on the feet, and loops on the cuff. It zips up the front and has a small mock turtleneck cut. Very nice for 30 bucks. Unfortunately there is no crotch access so I took a pair of C9 boxers (with the duo dry wick-away tech fabric) and cut out the fly section, had my girlfriend sew it on the crotch of the diver skin and then cut a hole in the diver skin after the new crotch was sewn on. Worked great!! I was able to pee without taking anything off. The party was a fund raiser for Burning Man's 'Black Rock Cantina' camp. I don't go to burning man but if I did it would be with them. So many cool peeps and costumers. I met a Golden Gate Garrison 501st member, TB-9349. Good times!

I get it every once in while where the thighs meet at the top of the thigh pieces. Thinking about sewing into the undersuit those pads they have on equestrian pants...

And more toy sales. As Tim says, I'm looking forward to seeing how they interpret the evolution of the trooper.

JJ Abrahms is a huge believer in In-Camera and practical effects. He may be able to convince a budget to have hard armor on set. That is my prediction. Also he's a fan boy and would want to see them in real life!

Here's what the bottle looks like: https://www.google.com/search?q=E6000&num=100&lr=&newwindow=1&safe=images&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=FRR3Ub_GH-7FiwKC-oGoCg&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1696&bih=1118

Hey there James. E6000 is a plastic bonding glue popular among armor builders. I've just started using it and it's pretty great. There's tons of info about using it right here on the FISD if you do a forum search for "E6000". You can get it at any well stocked hardware store or hobby shop and they also sell it on Trooperbay. Good luck on your upcoming build!