AsBlondeAsLuke

Ah, no, didn't scuff the boots on purpose. They actually scuffed up all on their own simply by wearing them for fittings. I've yet to wear these particular boots out on a troop. I did notice the requirement had been removed, but these boots were so delightfully scuffy looking I couldn't resist. What girl can resist a fabulous pair of scuffy Stormtrooper boots?

Thank you, Steve. I appreciate the support.

Hi Matt- Glad the build thread was helpful to you. Not sure how old your daughter is? But, no matter what the age, you should get her involved in the build as much as possible. She will need to learn to care for her armor and do the inevitable emergency fixes on troops. Plus, what daughter doesn't want to learn how to use a Dremel with their Dad?

Ah, thank you Mike! I will get it corrected.

Name : Diana Wolf Torres TKID : 95020 Forum name : BlondeAsLuke Garrison : GGG Mandatory Information: Armour : RS Helmet : RS Blaster : SciFire EIB Thread: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/27414-tk-95020-requesting-anh-stunt-eib-statusrs-383/ Optional: Height : 5’6†Weight 118 lbs. Boots : RS Boots Canvas Belt : RS Hand plates : RS Latex Electronics: Aker Voice Booster Neck seal : RS Holster : RS __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Armor Photos Full Body Front Full Body Back: Right - Arm Raised Right - Arm Raised Detail Left - Arm Raised Left- Arm Raised Detail Armor Details Ab/Kidney Attachment- Button Orientation Butt/Kidney- Detail: (Minimal Gap) Shoulder Bridge - Front Shoulder Bridge - Back Back / Chest Connection Thigh Pack Attachment Knee Plate Drop Box Back Cod and Butt Plate Attachment Hand Plates Interior Strapping Forearms - No Return Edge Helmet Details Front Back Right Side Left Side Hovi Mic Tip Detail Lens Colour S-Trim Blaster Details Blaster - Right Blaster - Left Blaster - D-Ring Accessories Detail Neck Seal Thermal Detonator - Front Thermal Detonator - Back Holster Attachment Boots - Scuffed Action Shots \( (Reloading.) (R Thank you for your consideration.

(bowing) I'm not worthy. Ah, and not to change topics just when we've won Steve over to our ribald sense of humor, but just wanted to make sure everyone saw J.J. Abram's challenge today to the 501st? Reposting it here simply to spread the word. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152630343079214&set=vb.109162604213&type=2&theater Took a few minutes today to answer the challenge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pitiKe4fpMM&list=UUKHteoghaTkXe0KrfAA4DGQ Other garrisons have been doing videos as well, and passing on challenges. SCG did a great video with a callout to Mary Franklin at LFL, which she already accepted. https://twitter.com/marylfl/status/501157997385510912. Our great founder did a video as well. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152684587630917 So, just a little nudge to encourage folks to give a good showing on behalf of our Legion.

Yes. Yes. A whole crowd shouting Star Wars questions to my cod.

Our new slogan: Talk to the cod.

The wire is long enough and it seems to help having a greater distance from the microphone to the Aker unit itself. It could magically solve all my audio problems! Just wondering if the speaker source emanations might throw people off. Steve, thoughts?

Thank you, Derrek. Steve, I'll have you know I had this little tidbit written out in my update about how I was thinking about all the places I could try to hide the new Aker system on my person and one of the places I considered was my big roomy cod. However, I took it out just because of you. See? I have been such a model citizen of the Empire lately.

Thanks, Steve! The whole process has been so much easier and more fun than I thought it would be when I was first faced with that terribly intimidating box of parts six months ago.

I made it my goal to finish my Centurion pictures by the end of the summer. There were only small little jobs to do on the armor itself, but finishing the new helmet took most of the summer. Our summer was filled with visitors and travel and we only just returned from dragging the boy to faraway places so he could brush up on his foreign language skills. School is starting up again, so we've returned home and life is returning to normal. I have a backlog of pictures from work completed over the lazy days of summer. On my EIB submission, there were two areas on my Scootch bucket that needed correcting to make it Centurion worthy. Heck, even if it is just going to be sitting around my living room, I still wanted it to be right. So, I corrected the areas between the teeth where it was painted grey and should have been white instead. Took less than two minutes with a bit of white paint. And then I added in the wee little section of the frown section I'd somehow missed before. Whew. That does look a lot better. I threw this picture in simply because when I had the two helmets side-by-side I noticed how different they look from the back. See how they have a completely different curve on the bottom? The RS on the right has more of a bell shape. Moving onwards, more photos... I was reading the August FISD newsletter and noticed a change in the EIB CRL for TKs: CRL Change Announcement A small change has been made to most of the Expert Infantry sections of our Costume Reference Library. For the kidney plate the following wording has been added: Squared cut-out sections at the lower left and right corners of the Kidney Armor.The cut out is roughly 15 mm tall from the bottom and 10 mm in from the side.This was a change I had been wanting to make to my armor since it was mentioned as a recommended, but not required, change on my EIB application. My engineer was not thrilled about the idea because we had to move hardware to make it happen. Since the area is mostly covered up by the belt, he just didn't see the sense of it. Of course, it is those little details that eat away at me so I was positively thrilled when it became a requirement. "Honey, now we have to change it!" It took about two hours since we had to move shims to cut these these pieces and the remnants of that can be seen below the rough cut for the notch. A lot of work to add in wee little notches, but I'm thrilled to have this detail now in place. Yesterday, I installed the padding and configured the fans into the RS bucket. I started pulling pads out of the old bucket to test the fit in the RS, but then I felt bad scavenging parts like a Jawa. Part of me said I should leave the second helmet fully functional in case I need it in an emergency like an exploding Death Star or something. I started installing the new motorcycle padding into the RS. The medium pads fit my head tightly enough but still allows extra room for air circulation and audio gear. See that gap in front? That represents how much too big this thing is on my head. It doesn't look so bad when I am fully suited up because the armor makes me look bigger all around. But, take a look at this old fitting picture... \ Gah. This was taken in early February 2014. Notice how oversized the bucket looks when I'm not wearing the shoulder pieces. It emphasizes the need for a smaller helmet designed for a woman's head like the one Kevin is making for the Jes Gistang armor. At first, I was not in favor of the idea of having to buy yet another helmet to go with the Jes Gistang armor. But, now I totally get it. A regular helmet would look disproportionate with form fitting armor. Since a regular TK calls for a full-sized helmet, I put some extra foam from Michael's in front to "mind the gap" and used the extra trim to cushion the nose. The trim piece on the nose helps hold the helmet up on my head. All the padding is in there with velcro so I might still move pads around. I did have some difficulties getting the Echo fan system to sit properly so I'll need to noodle around with things some more. I also ordered a new Aker sound system. With every troop, I've had audio headaches, or more specifically, the audio gives me headaches. Screech! Feedback! Ugggh. It's awful. As Kyle said: "A bad audio day can ruin a troop." No kidding. Starting to feel like my Aker system is possessed by Sith demons. I am a glutton for punishment, so I did decide to go with Aker again. (Not sure why, but I did. I rather despise the thing.) I noticed it came in white and thought stormtrooper white would be cool, however didn't notice it was a different model number. My bad. (1508 vs. 1506.) When it arrived yesterday, I was eager to try it out and see if I ended up with any feedback issues. However, I noticed something different right out of the box other than the color. Hmmm... size does matter. (The different microphones are my failed attempts at resolving my audio issues.) The Amazon page said it was 10 watts, but whoa, this thing is... ahem... a bit large? My husband said it sounded louder. But, the wattage is the same. So, I'm not sure if it possible? Maybe it has a bigger speaker? Loud would be good because too soft audio was one of the many issues I had with the old Aker. I always feel like this guy. Yep. I've got some bad stuff going on the old bucket. Another interesting purchase I made over the summer are these stackable Lego looking things for my boots... Way back before I started building my armor and I was still just lurking on the boards, I remembered reading about the concept of making yourself taller with shoe lifts. At the time, I dismissed the idea. And, then I read about "shoe lifts" again in this article in Esquire for Men, (a decent read for when you are in the throne room.) I found an online version of the article: "We Tried It: Shoe Lifts for Men." In the article, the 5'7" author gives his impression of shoe lifts and talks about celebrities like Tom Cruise who use them. OK, I'll admit I was intrigued by the article. I had been at this picture from my last troop and realized I'm not that much shorter than Kyle. Yet, nobody ever seems to make comments to him about "being a little short for a stormtrooper" or calls him "puny." So, what if I added just two inches to my height? It would make me 5'10" in armor instead of 5'8." It's all in the details, right? I did more research online before I bought them. You actually need bigger boots if you are going to wear these things. http://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Fox-Height-Lifting-Inserts/product-reviews/B003N2SJFK For most folks, this would more than than an investment of $11.95 for the lifts. You'd have to buy a new pair of boots. Ouch. Fortunately for me, I have an extra pair of boots. The boots that RS sent with my armor were huge. I gave up on getting them to send the correct size, and purchased boots that fit from TK Boots. Other than being too big, though, they were nice boots. And, with impressively large feet, I would look taller. (I almost made a cod joke there, but resisted the temptation.) These are my TK boots sitting next to my RS boots. (Yes, my TK boots got a bit stretched out since I was storing my T-det in there. Note to self: don't do that.) The inserts just barely fit in there and you can see how much larger these RS boots are than my current TK boots. So, if you are going to consider these shoe lifts, you definitely have to go at least one size up, maybe more. Hmmm... now how do they look? Obviously I can't wear these things if they look ridiculous. The boot on the right has the inserts in and the boot on the left has no inserts. They are invisible. Now... can I walk in them? I started walking around the house and it felt different, but not bad. It was like wearing a solid pair of cowboy boots with a sturdy heel. I have joint issues so I can't wear silly girlie heels for any length of time, but I can do a sensible heel on a boot. This felt like a boot heel. I walked around the house in them for a while to make sure I liked them and then headed upstairs to see if my husband could notice a difference. He noticed a difference right away. "Wow! Your legs seem to go on forever when you wear those things!" Huh. Maybe Tom Cruise is onto something. Since it seems unlikely I will go through another growth spurt at age 45, maybe these shoe lifts are the next best thing. Looking forward to trying them out on a troop sometime and seeing if I get anymore "too short for a stormtrooper" cracks. Although knowing human nature folks simply say that because it is the only line from the movie they can remember. Did a bit of paint touch-up to the buttons on the side. The paint seems to keep coming off of these things. Anybody else have this problem? Couldn't think of anything else to possibly fix. Changes are now complete. So, today we took my Centurion pictures. We set up the living room for the pictures and created background with a beige sheet hung up with armor clamps. My son is reading over the list of shots we need to do. He volunteered to help since he does photography for the yearbook, and also because he got in trouble earlier in the day and was trying to suck up to get back on my good side. He's a teenager now so he always has that: "Oh yeah, I'm excited" look all the time. Getting suited up for the Centurion pictures. Dog plunks down in the middle of the photo shoot area and starts rolling around. "Mom, the dog is being too cute," my son complains. Uh, really, that's an issue now? But, promptly runs around away when I turn on the Aker system. She hates that thing. (Well, that makes two of us.) Watching me get suited up is much too boring for my son. He falls asleep. Sigh. Thanks for the help, son. It's OK. I'll scare the heck out of him once I'm fully suited up and startle him awake. Too much fun. Stormtrooper selfie. Time to put on the bucket and wake up the boy. So, pictures came out nice and clear and I'll upload them tomorrow. The boy tells me I am "not funny." The engineer comes down and acts like J.J. Abrams for the entire photo shoot. We took a new action shot just for fun. Here it is. I'll post one more note after this since I created a list entitled: "Top Ten Things I Learned During My Build." But, the circle is now complete. The journey that began last December finished today. Although someone very wise once told me the greatest part about building armor is you are never truly done. Thanks for reading. - TK- 95020

Like the rest of you, I like both sets of boots. The ones with the heel have a certain appeal to them and I always want to be a bit taller. Adds to the Stormtrooper intimidation factor.

How exciting! What is involved in the approval process?

Without there being a CRL, does the "correct pair" come from the few comic images of Jes Gistang available, then?

It's the standard armor, but it took a lot of trimming to make it fit.

Hi Jen- 008 here. Your build thread is very informative. My set has yet to leave the cleverly packed box since I've been traveling. But, it's exciting to see your rapid progress and how it is coming together. Starting to think I'll need to take up beer drinking, though, if I'm going to build this thing properly...

OK, so I have a question. What is the "correct pair?"

Tim, you were such a steadfast supporter over the past year even while patiently waiting for your own armor to arrive. And, then, you delighted, informed, educated and amused us with your build thread. I continue to learn something everytime I read it. Congratulations. Very well deserved.

Trooper of the Month! Congratulations Tim!

OK, don't want to provide any spoilers here, but Berbs or Jason, did you open your t-shirt and look at the back? Won't post a picture until you have seen it for yourself.

You, sir, are an absolute genius. Let us review: 1) You managed to keep this a secret 2) You correctly referred to the special woman in your life as the "love of your life" 3) You purchased her armor as an expression of the love between you All signs of genius. Well done. Looking forward to seeing you both in armor!

Congratulations Jason! Nothing more exciting than seeing the UPS driver bringing a box of new armor up the driveway. I wanted to run out and help him bring it in, but thought I'd contain myself and let the nice man do his job.

Thanks! So excited to start building. My husband said 8 is a very lucky number.

Look what arrived today! A box from Kevin! ---------- Thanks Kevin! Woo hoo!