Daetrin

Dang, this is amazing! Great work

I don't have the latest data, but it used to be that the time to create an FO suit from trimming->done is over 100 hours, vs. much less for an OT TK. @Sly11 & @Dark CMF, sounds like this would be a great poll to run soon? Usually once a year we have a "what armor are you wearing" poll to track this over time, I think a 'how much time did you spend building your suit' sounds good too. TBH, maybe making it a Google Form would be much easier.

The #1 reason I created this place was because I was tired of people in and out of the Legion give me a lot of bad advice that was advantageous to their or their friend's pocket book, and not my best interest. There is a reason why the "where to buy" threads are so well read, and that we (FISD) was the pioneer in publishing that data. Stay on it and you won't go bad. Not saying there aren't other good makers out there, but they may or may not make our quality bar and it's at buyer beware. At the least, you should know the lineage of what you are buying.

For sure - this looks promising so interested to see how it turns out.

It really comes down to person's individual costume. IMHO, it's like snowtroopers that way - some people look awesome & others not so much. For sure some one will do this and we'll have a different CRL. As for various armor types, even in a modern military there can be an overlap of equipment that is fielded. Not sure how it is now, but in my era for instance we had just regular BDUs and M16A1s, while the regular army folks had summer weights & M16A2s. My first unit still had jeeps for years before humvees trickled down. It's very conceivable in a huge empire like this that older, functional armor would still be around, especially in the outer rim. Just because new armor gets fielded doesn't mean that everyone has the cash to upgrade immediately. Heck, look at the USAF - the B2 didn't exactly replace the B52 now, did it? Yup, they are flying airplanes older than 85% of the US population.

As many have said, it just depends on the garrison. Like others, mine is that for formal events it's canon only, but for others you can break out the fun. Cons are an excellent example where people just go nuts at times. As for those book references, if you ever want them to be official you'd have to create the costume and help get the CRL done. It's certainly possible and we have several that are from games, etc. (e.g. Battlefront). In the end though, if it's just various add-ons but the armor is the same, that you'll likely find is that there is a single base URL with "options" for various looks.

Damn - beat me to it! Truth - can't wait to see it Reece - lead the way!!!!

As Andrew points out there can be some back and forth between the prop makers we rely on and our standards. There is no point in making a standard that it impossible or extremely hard to achieve without a lot of money or custom work. On the other hand, the prop makers have certainly responded to the increase in our CRL and EI requirements over time. They do not ship plastic belts, oversized black ab-plate buttons, and single piece back plates like they used to because we no longer allowed them at L1 CRL. So Andrew is correct that the positive path is to push the state of the art forward in concert with the suppliers as best they can be met.

I think for reference, but man that was one awful movie. Not sure how it could be saved. Then too, I to think TROS would benefit from additional footage...

Thanks! That is the best compliment I can get. The main reason I started FISD back in 2006 is because there was complete lack of transparency around armor in the 501st at the time, and it wasn't uncommon for new members to be led astray to bad recast armor, or only to find that once in the 501st people would tell them where to get the good stuff (by which point you had already plunked down $1500 on armor from eBay). Providing current and prospective members with accurate information so they can make informed choices has always been our mission, so I'm glad to hear we are still achieving that 14 years later

Wow - this looks great! Really complete on the photo set you shared - hopefully you'll get good news soon.

Awesome

Are they meant to invoke the feel of clone troopers?

Looks great Glen!

That does look cool!