Daetrin

Holy crap - that is awesome!!

This is probably one of the best reply threads out there, but I do want to add my own two cents Helmet Interior This is such a personal preference. I've seen people put more money in to the insides of their helmet (painting, fans, electronics, speakers, etc.) than anything else besides the armor kit proper. My own helmets are as sparse as you can get - a foam pad on top and some mesh taped across the frown. Nothing else. A very empty helmet means a lot of air flow and at least where I live (Seattle area) no need for fans at all, even in the summer. The more stuff you put in the bucket the less air flow and more need for fans. Back in the day few people had speaker systems so it wasn't really thought of as mandatory and I didn't stand out for not having one, but these days nearly everyone has one and you will stand out if you don't, hence me going to speaker-up this summer. Its expected nowadays and at some point I wonder if they will ever become part of a CRL. I'm 6'0" am around 180lbs. ATA fit fine, though I did get RT shins (e.g. larger shins) as the ones out of the box were too short for me. For the DLT-19, if you ever find a hyper-firm one, get it. I had one, loved it, sold it, and have regretted it ever since. It's nice to be able to drop it and not care. Regarding thighs, IMHO I think people should just velcro the backs until they have trooped a few times to ensure proper fit and only then glue the backs (realizing that the velcro gives a little more space and give). I've seen enough times where people had to figure out how to unglue them as standing at home for a fitting is not the same thing as walking up/down stairs in armor, running in armor, etc. You may also want to get nomex gloves for casual events where comfort is more important than accuracy. Love the face mask, btw. For the holster, take care that you get one that won't make black marks against your left thigh - mine does and it's a pain. Good points about the neck seal from Justin. I've never worn a balaclava and hope to never have to, TBH, so getting a good neck seal is worth it. If you really want to DIY, sew it directly in to the underarmor top so you never forget to pack it with your kit (ask me how I know ). This is one of the most fun build threads I've seen in awhile, we should get a thread going of the best of the best as reference. So far this is excellent for any new timer to read through, and even us old vets.

Excellent news This is the embodiment of a huge amount of work on the part of staff to bring this together, and I hope everyone appreciates it. :sith:

This is coming along nicely. For a CRL, getting the text in order should be pretty easy and fast as most of it we just copy/paste from an existing one and tweak. What takes forever are getting the images together and photoshopped, so usually on a new CRL we want those to be done first. Hope that makes sense and it would be cool to see this brought to life.

Not at the 501st level, which is pretty addicted to FB so far. Some units are moving that way though - FISD has a staff Discord that we will likely start opening up at some point for special topics. My garrison is creating one too. The newer generation of young people avoid FB like the plague and everything is on Discord, or Instagram.

And excellent beginning

Welcome & Howdy - good to have you here.

Great to have you here! I was just in Bucharest earlier this year, wish I had thought about the outpost as it would have been great to meet up. Best wishes on your goals and let us know if we can help.

The downside of airsoft is that you still have that opening on the bottom of a pistol grip. I have a de-ac airsoft and to be honest, it really does bug me. I've been trying to sell the think for years, but so far no takers. I think if you really want a de-activated, you should just save up and get the real thing if you want to be 100% accurate, but if not then the airsoft is not a bad option and on the plus the weight helps add to the realism.

Awesome - great to see another NW trooper

welcome to FISD

This is an amazing thread. I've pinned this for posterity. Well done

Or perhaps a variant. As has been noted, it's been part of the ANH-H CRL for many years now. It's kind of like our unofficial "mascot" as we have used it on our 5th year coin, trading cards, and even has been on the "face" of our coins since our initial run. As long as there is canon evidence, it will get in as an option. Otherwise no one says you can't troop with it at casual events. Heck, not a single TIE pilot in the movies has ever worn a side arm but its very common to see TI's trooping with more hardware than us.

It was a fair question. There are other people on this board who may be interested.

These are really nice

I don't recall getting one. I have the Alpha 75 patch, but no coin AFAIK. Would be great to see a picture of it.

My confusion is which item are you talking about?

Welcome Ana from another Garrison Titan member. Best of luck and let's get to trooping!

Awesome - can't wait to see what people come up with

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Former LMO, SpecOps DL, Garrison Titan member, holder of the most FISD EIB Awards and all-around nice guy Todd Maxfield-Matsumoto & other R2 builders in my garrison & the Pacific Northwest made it to the cover of the SeattleTimes today. https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/movies/how-building-r2-d2-and-star-wars-droids-creates-joy-and-wonder/ Talk about dreaming a dream and a lesson that persistence pays off - way to go!

3rd degree brown belt. In some martial arts in particular karate, each belt is one color, e.g. green, purple, etc. For brown belt because it is a big jump to black belt, so they tend to break it in to multiple levels. ichu kyu translates in to one rank below black belt.

For sure

2.5 year ago I got tired of watching my kids do karate and stepped out on the dojo floor for the first time. I had just lost my step-father to heart disease and realized how short life could be. Last night my wife and I achieved the rank of ichi qu - meaning one degree below black belt and the highest belt rank we can achieve before that milestone. I am 52 years old. Making the jump from 3rd degree brown belt to black belt is a very big step. We are now expected to practice daily at home for the next 4 months in addition to class time, and that's just to be able to interview for the prep course (10% of people who do not take prep course earn their black belt, 80% of people who do, earn it). The prep course is a 2 hour weekly class from 7am-9am where you don't learn anything new, but they critique you to polish what you know to black belt level, and is 10 weeks long. We will have to refresh and perfect 4 katas we learned along the way and master one new kata (seems easy, right. Ha!). Plus we have to master 8 standard bunkai, develop our own 4 new bunkai, plus 26 partner techniques both as attacker and defender, for 52 total partner items. All of this has to be able to be performed perfectly, on demand, from memory. Students thus put in usually 4 hours a week of class time minimum, plus usually another hour a day especially as things get closer to test time. I have no idea if my wife & I will be able to achieve this level of performance in 6 months, or 12 months, or even 2 years. But one thing is for sure I will keep plugging away until I get there! I say this to help encourage those who tell themselves "I'm too old" or "I'm too out of shape" that these don't have to be excuses, or stories we tell ourselves that just aren't true. Never give up on a dream, not ever, and don't let negative self-talk get in the way. There are many days I really don't want to go to the dojo and would rather stay at home in front of the TV with a beer. It is also true that I never once regretted getting my ass out to the dojo and taking a class. Does anyone else have a story like this? It would be great if we could share them and help motivate each other.