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AsBlondeAsLuke

501st Stormtrooper[TK]
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Everything posted by AsBlondeAsLuke

  1. Tim! Great to hear from you. As always, your advice is pure gold. I waited until I achieved Centurion to do my cards, for exactly the reasons you said. I wanted those cards, but knew I would never be happy with my picture until my armor was up to Centurion standard. As it turns out, I loved one of the action shots my son snapped during the photos we were taking for the Centurion approval pics and it was perfect for the cards. It was well worth the wait. I will have to say I don't get to hand many of the cards out for the simple reason there are no pockets in the TK and we don't often have handlers with us. So, I end up trading cards with other folks in my garrison and carrying them in my pocket for when I meet fellow Star Wars fans around town. Although, last weekend I trooped as a Jedi for a holiday parade and I had pockets in that costume. I'll admit I ended up giving out a few of my stormtrooper cards to some die hard Star Wars fans I met there. With regards to another build, my next project is going to be the Episode 7 armor. I already contacted TrooperMaster Paul and Kevin (KwDesigns.) They both need more ref material before they can build. We need more trailers. But, once those kits are available, I am hosting the Ep7 build parties at my house. I'll keep hosting parties until we all get our kits done. I'd love to form a whole squad of troopers in the new armor. Just like in the movie trailer. I'm the short one you see in the middle. See? There's our new squad. (And, suddenly, thanks to the magic of J.J. Abrams, I'm not too short to be a stormtrooper.)
  2. Ah, thank you. I do love my white jacket. I think I drive Kyle crazy with the thing on troops since I'm so fond of it and love showing it off. My favorite part of it is the inside which Dave Filoni was kind enough to sign for me with one of his amazing signature drawings. It was especially kind of him considering I'd smacked him twice in the back (completely unintentionally) during the group with my blaster. When you are a new trooper, it is hard to figure out how to do that "buckets off" shot because you are used to taking your helmet off with two hands. But, suddenly, your blaster is in one hand and you have to take your bucket off and you've got your sound system on... Next thing you know you're jabbing Dave Filoni with your blaster, (repeatedly as it turns out...) He was very nice about it, although I did feel bad for poking him. Maybe that's why the stormie on the inside of my jacket looks like they're copping an attitude. Here's the group picture from that day. I'm the little mini Lego trooper there barely visible behind Boba Fett. )
  3. Hey! It's my favorite Vader! Thanks again for the fans. Looking forward to trying them out this weekend. Everytime we're out on a troop, there are always so many laughs. This is one of my favorite pics. I call it "the four ninjas." Easy to guess which one is Vader. Hey, at least we're all in our balaclavas, (which at one time I swore I would never wear.)
  4. It has been a year since I started my build. So, in honor of the big day the brown boxes arrived on my doorstep, I'm doing an update. Events since my Centurion in late August: I opted not to do the Jes Gistang female stormtrooper armor. I loved the idea of armor that fit well and was designed for a woman, but didn't like the "femme trooper" branding. Not for me. Armor for women is a great concept. Would be great one day if there is female stormtrooper armor that could be separated from the concept of a "femme trooper." (Won't even begin to comment on the bare midriff video.) So, the branding and the image ruined it for me pretty quick and I sold it. But, it found a great home and I know the folks who are building it now will do an amazing job. Just not for me. This weekend will mark my 15th troop with the Golden Gate Garrison. I learn something from every troop and they all reinforce my belief that the armor is never done. Another member of my garrison, who has been doing this a lot longer than me, recently said to me about trooping: "You know you're doing it right when something falls off." Hah! Good advice. Can't say I've ever had any pieces fallen off, but I've had plenty of bits that rub the wrong way and I always earmark them for: "Gotta' fix this before the next troop." There seems to be one of those every troop. Always something to do. My armor has held up beautifully. No cracks. No dings. Just the right amount of weathering you'd expect with regular trooping. And, I've marched in long parades. I've done troops in very cold temperatures. In very hot temperatures. Climbed up and down stairs. I've traipsed through dark muddy alleys at night with my fellow TKs, (now, that was good fun.) I've dodged large piles of horse dung. And, the parts have held. In the beginning, I was slow getting the armor on and figuring out what pieces went where and I'm still not as fast as some of the guys who have been doing it for years, but it gets easier everytime I do it. And, I'm sticking with my belief that "the armor is never done." I've adjusted and sanded my arms a number of times to eliminate "bite" in the crook of my arm from holding my blaster for hours at a stretch. Here's a typical picture of armor bite after a troop. I used to get bite in a lot of other areas, too, but have been sanding and Dremeling away all the sharp little bits that dig into the flesh after too many hours in armor. Trying to do the same with the arms, but they're tricky. You spend so much time arms up and locked, holding the blaster. (If you do it right, you should look like the stormie in the 501st logo.) Whenever I make an adjustment, it is always a balance between trying to get the perfect fit and not affect the screen accurate look. I've worked on my helmet a number of times to adjust the padding. My head is swimming around in there. After moving around the pads and foam, I switched to a hardhat helmet liner. (picture below) I've used it on three troops now, and it holds the helmet very tightly. Almost too much so. At a recent Toys for Tots troop, my head was perfectly secure in my helmet and an overzealous Marine grabbed me in a headlock. It was one of those requests that went like this: "Hey, can I do a photo with you? I have this great idea for a photo..." GRAB! As my head was being twisted at an angle that no human neck should go, I was shouting: "Hey! This is not OK!" At the time, I was more worried about my RS helmet cracking like an eggshell, but it would have helped if my helmet could have popped off more easily. Might have freed me from the headlock. Or not. She was a very determined Marine. I've since loosened everything up in there since the band was adjusted very tightly that day. I have another Toys for Tots troop this weekend. Don't think my overzealous Marine will be at this one, but there's always at least one wacky photo request every troop. (By the way, for those new to trooping, a great answer to these sorts of photo requests is: "No." or "That's against Imperial regulations.") This is what my bucket looks like on the inside these days. Not as pretty as having padding in there, but at least it doesn't spin around like a scene in Poltergeist when I turn my head. The liner holds my head tight so the helmet moves with me. I switched out my Echo fans for regular fans. The Echo fans kept me nice and cool on hot days, but I always felt like I was scraping myself on the big screw that holds the fan in place when I twisted my helmet on and off. And, you can't reposition the fans since everything is fixed on a band. It basically only sits in the helmet one way. Plus, I was sometimes getting fogging issues, even with antifog on the lenses. So, one of our Vaders gave me a spare set of his fans and I'm going to try them out on my next troop. They were super easy to install and there's lots of flexibility in where they can go. Right now, I have them close to the visor to help with the fogging. Might be too drying for the eyes. We'll see. Everything is on Velcro so they can move. Ah, where would costumers be without industrial strength Velcro? I moved my Aker to the side of my chestplate so I could move the volume up and down easily. This helps tremendously in dealing with feedback. I have yet to find the perfect mic. Still searching. Recently tried a dual transponder throat mic, but husband said it sounded like mush. So, the search continues. Thinking it might be nice to try one of those mics that you install directly into the helmet (like the Vaders do in their helmets.) This would eliminate the problem of mics shifting out of place when the helmet goes on. The best part about trooping has been the friendships I've made with other people in the garrison. As fun as being a stormtrooper is, I think my favorite times are the moments I spend before and after a troop laughing and joking around with the people from the garrison as we get ready and talk about costuming. Or, the times we go out for a bite to eat after a troop and talk about anything and everything under the sun. Here are a few pics from some of my favorite troops. This was from a Star Wars themed wedding where Yoda officiated the ceremony and Vader walked the bride down the aisle. We were waiting for the bride to arrive here. I am the... yes... the short stormtrooper. Oh wait! There's two short stormtroopers in this picture. (Thank you, Adam.) How nice. I'm the short one on the left. This picture was taken off the Instagram page for local radio station Alice 97.3. I'm the trooper on the left holding local radio host "Vinnie" of "Alice and Vinnie" under trooper arrest. This troop started at 6 AM, (arrival time 5 AM), and it was very cold that morning. You wouldn't think it gets that cold in California, but it does... Even with an extra layer of thermals on, I shivered in the dark and cold. This picture was taken later on in the morning, when the sun finally came up. It was an awesomely fun troop, though. Would definitely do it again. United Airlines employee day. Second trooper in from the left. United Airlines day was so incredible. Adam (toybiz) and I ended up getting grabbed and pulled onto the tarmac by the ground crew. We were asked to walk in front of the crowd just as the "Patriot" planes were taking off to go join the Blue Angels in San Francisco. The rest of our garrison had either gone to lunch, or left early, or was elsewhere taking pictures. It was just being in the right place at the right time that we were standing there just at the moment when the planes were taking off and suddenly they decided it would be cool to have stormtroopers as part of the action. So fun to walk in front of the big crowd. Not sure if any of them were even watching us since the planes started taking off, but hey, we looked good. Building and painting the Scootch helmet RS bucket Comparing a completed men's vs. woman's RS suit
  5. Wow! I give this fellow credit! Imagine walking around a con in those flippers! I notice the flippers are on his belt in the top picture. But, wow, whoever he is, he looks amazing. Nicely done. And geez, you get to carry a BIG gun.
  6. Walter, so thrilled you are working on your build again! Finally! You are so close to being done! Just raided my spare parts bin in the garage because I have a whole bunch of extra ears, but they are all stunt ears. Let me know if you need anything else to get your build done. We have so many spare everythings left over from our build.
  7. TK-Damian, those are high words of praise indeed. Thank you. If I can be of any further assistance to Almudena, please let me know. It is very challenging to size the armor down for a woman, but well worth the effort. Once I achieved Centurion, I finally did my cards. (Thank you, Trey!) I adore my cards. I feel so... collectible.
  8. 19 pages of awesomeness? My huge ego and I thank you, Andrew, and I'm glad the build thread could be of help to you in the start of your journey. With regards to the distance, I received some amazing support on my build from Germain in France and Derrek in Germany, (who gave me the nickname "Blonde As Luke" ), so friends come from all over on the FISD. Now, with regards to the leap over to the dark side, no, my engineer decided that the demands of his work and his devotion to surfing would make it impossible for him to become a stormtrooper himself. He also continually claims he is simply "not into Star Wars." Yet, this is the same man I catch watching Robot Chicken videos on YouTube (the Star Wars ones) and he told me last night he dreamed of a surfer named Mos Eisley. I have hope for him yet.
  9. I did switch to a different mic (an omni-directional) one since the "line up with the white line thing" with the Aker since that was driving me crazy. But, it is not loud enough, so I want something better. Thanks for the tips and I'll check out the mics you recommend. What about the mics that you install directly into your bucket? This would eliminate the problem of things shifting and moving when you slip your helmet on and off your head?
  10. Ah, well, ba@ll breaking is what I go for at all times, so I'll give that a try. I ended up placing my Aker in the lower portion of my chest plate, too, since placing it in the center didn't allow me to easily reach in and make volume adjustments when I get feedback. I've still been getting feedback issues, but I think maybe my fans have been bumping the mic out of place when I squeeze my bucket on. I just installed new fans and moved them closer to the top (by the visor) so this should hopefully make the mic a little happier.
  11. Just doing some audio research since I can never seem to get my Aker loud enough, could you really place this thing into your bucket? Wouldn't you get feedback? I thought in reading the instructions that came with the Aker it said the mic and the speaker had to be placed a certain distance away from each other in order to prevent this issue.
  12. Wow! What a great issue! Makes me want to go sandy someday. Very inspiring. OK, I have to ask my dirty vode: what is the difference between "micro-binoculars" and "macro-binoculars"?
  13. Yes! That was me. They were telling me how they looked at the set you built, and we were discussing how much we all liked your build thread. Three? Keep going and you will be able to start a squad soon.
  14. Hey Jenny, just catching up on these threads. Did you ever finish yours? Set # 08 went to another 501st member in Georgia. I decided to stick with my TK, which I've been getting a lot of use out of lately.
  15. Wow! Congratulations. And, yes, your armor is truly impressive. I especially love the painting of your helmet. Beautiful.
  16. I picked the RS ABS over because of preference for the color. If you've ever painted a kitchen or bathroom, you know there are a hundred different shades of white. The ABS has turned out to be a lot more durable than I thought it would be considering the lightness and thinness of the material. It bends and flexes in my hands and I have accidentally dropped pieces a number of times without incident. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
  17. Ah yes. I couldn't get past the first ten seconds. But, you did provide a fair warning and I thank you for it.
  18. Sorry, laughing too hard to come up with an adequate response...
  19. Heh heh. I'm just looking at those shins and thinking: "ouch, armor bite." Submission or no, by the end of the day Hydra was hurtin'.
  20. Working on straightening out my PhotoBucket. Seriously, who took all these pictures anyway?!

  21. Thank you. Outstanding. I will get you back on track building one way or another. We'll see you suited up as a member of GGG sooner rather than later. The trick is to convince the wife how good she will look in armor and bring her over to build armor with us. Women look awesome in shiny white armor.
  22. Mathias, when I opened up that certificate, all I could think was: "Wow. That is a beautiful sight." Thank you.
  23. Welcome back! Excellent. Glad you took a break. Looking forward to meeting you.
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