Daetrin

See you when you come to Seattle. We are getting larger every day.

Oh, and my thought on FRS is again just like the motorcycle, to allow several troops to talk to each other at close range, privately.

The original helmets consisted of 4 main parts: cap (head), face, and 2 ears (well, yes there are 2 aerators as well). There are a few makers who use 5 total pieces to make molding easier. The key piece is that they look right, as only accuracy minded folks would ever know whether their helmet is made from 2 or 3 main pieces, as you shouldn't be able to tell externally. For a full count it would be (on most helmets) 1. Cap 2. Back 3/4. Two ear pieces 5/6. Two aerators 7. One piece lens, but some use 2 separate lenses 8. Brow trim 9, Neck trim 10-16. 6 ear screws Again, in the end as long as it looks correct from the outside, then you could make it out of however many parts as you want. The majority of people vac form the helmets which were recast from an original helmet at the root, which is why the follow the same number of parts as in '77.

Hi Everyone, I wanted to let everyone know we have some new staff on FISD. Steve (starsaber25) has joined us as Deputy Provost Marshall. He has been a solid member of the FISD community as an attaché in Empire City Garrison. He has a stellar reputation of solid judgment, calm under fire, and all around nice guy. He'll move to full Provost once his training period is over. He has the power now, so you'll have to be nice. Forum Upgrade Team Anyone who has been through a forum upgrade knows it's a ton of work, both on the coding as well as the graphic side. We have a few new folk who are now on board to help with the coding/graphics areas. Please help me welcome - John (henselmonster) TD-11787, Florida Garrison and is now our Forum Design Specialist - Rick (Caligari) TK-82166, Garrison Titan now part of the Forum Upgrade Team Other new IPM staff - Jeff (wingnut65) TK-50297, Tamp Bay Squad, is lending his artistic and design talents to creating new L2/L3 visual guides. This is much in need of a refresh, and his attention to detail is much appreciated. He's now a full Combat Photographer - Christoph Daniel (Ripper_L), TK-55550, German Garrison. As our Forum Content Editor At Large, Christoph will be leading the drive to make the forums better organized and simpler to understand. Another attache who has stepped up, we are very excited to have him on board. Please join me in congratulating these fine folk and wishing them well in their new roles!

Howdy! (that's how we say hello out west). Best intro in a long time - I almost coughed up my coffee reading it. Your EI should be pretty easy I would expect - can't wait to see it come through

Eric, I'm blown away, each one seems better than the next. Not sure who will win this contest, but I can promise you your work will be used, somewhere, somehow.

Well, ideally it would all be self contained right? Nothing is worse than taking your bucket off and there are a bunch of leads that you have to dangle with, or hide wires once you put it back on. That's the trick. One of my garrison mates had aerator speakers that where loud enough, and everything - batteries, fan, microphone, and speakers, were 100% self contained in the bucket. If there is no way around something 100% self-contained, then you can actually locate batteries elsewhere in the costume. The thermal detonator comes to mind as having a lot of space to put electronics including batteries in a self-contained unit. If you do that, then any lead coming in to the helmet should be designed in such a way that you can easily clip/unclip it yourself even with gloves on. In the past the wish list for helmet electronics boils down to: - Amplified external sound (external speaker) - No sound (ambient) - Cellphone (take calls) - FRS type of system (trooper to trooper) - Music device Microphone - Off - Always on (e.g. while talking on a cellphone) - Push to talk Actually if you look at motorcycle Bluetooth speaker sets, they do most all of this but PTT. Sena makes probably the top line for this and I have one in my motorcycle helmet. https://www.amazon.com/Sena-20S-02-Motorcycle-Bluetooth-Communication/dp/B00L15WWCW/ The trick is that this is a big thing that is externally mounted. You'd have to get chin mounted switches for a TK helmet to toggle between modes. The PTT seems the hardest option. I think John Danter proposed a TK ear that had a momentary switch on it if you wanted PTT. I think as voice recognition gets better, in a perfect world it will be like your Amazon Echo, you'd just use voice commands. "Alexa, call my wife". "Alexa, turn helmet to FRS". I dig the idea of a screen for sure. I have bifocals or 2 pairs of glasses as my reading/distance are separate. With a screen, I can just wear one, or none at all. I've never used an HUD, but I have used HoloLens a bit and found that I just adjust it so that I can use my distance glasses and it worked out perfectly. For voice modulation, some want none, some a lot. One of the leading TK voice options allows you to adjust this to your needs, so I presume this would be analogous. Can I ask for more? How about an easy way to adjust volume without having to take the helmet on/off, so I can easily keep my voice lower inside, then louder when I go outside.

A good start?

Hmm... that would make the most sense.

Correct. The UKG is part of the 501st, not the other way around.

Looks a little Attack of the Clones to me, but maybe that's the angle...

Well, this is just a regular ANH. The pack is an optional accessory and isn't needed for approval. Basically you can wear the pack at canon events once it is added to the CRL.

No, since there was no other candidates, there was no vote needed. The roster is only ever used for voting/elections, so won't be updated until January 2018.

Probably, we'll see more when the film comes out. But, if it's only the helmet, then it may just be an option as there is no point for a new CRL for one item. Thanks for the photo - I'm sure for many TFA folks out there it's a relief if they can re-use the armor.

No worries, I understand. If you want to keep the base armor ANH, then having this as a fun accessory set to use at cons/informal troops makes sense. But you are right, if you want 501st approval it is looking more and more that you will need to modify the ANH suit with ROTJ details, just like you need to if you are doing other Battlefront suits, e.g. adding the door trim, etc.

Rick - PM replied. John, that may work out perfectly as it's near impossible to find anyone with both graphics & coding skills, and usually a partnership is better (while I can do basic graphics, nearly all of my professional career I worked with UI/graphics folks and loved it that way). PM inbound.

Using Peter's design on a shirt & Pretzel's design for a patch is certainly a viable path forward.

Hey everyone, So, it's time to start the upgrade cycle of the FISD boards. It's been ages since the last upgrade and assuredly the latest version will break our skin. This is an open call for anyone who has time to volunteer & help with the UI. You'll need a good eye for design, and some mad skillz with CSS/HTML and updating forum skins/themes or wordpress templates. Having good coding habits like commenting your work should be presumed. We'll also need someone with some graphic design skills as well. Preferably more than just a photoshop jockey We're hoping for someone who can not only do logo work but deal all of the image elements needed for the skin. The work can be tough, but the pay is good (you get the undying gratitude of the masses). Want to apply? Let us know here, or else PM myself, Darth Aloha, and Locitus. Thanks troops!

Not perfect, but probably in the "good enough" category. Let us know how it prints!

I'll let Tim comment. He's on a small vaca, so will be back soon.

"In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not." - Steve Scott Actually people have actually done costumes first and the text CRL was done later. Yes, there is risk but it happens more than you'd think. Reese - when is your 501st approval coming, btw?

FYI that Tim will be the POC for getting this CRL to approval, so he will provide all future updates.

Very sorry for your loss. I hope you catch the bad guys.

In truth, I'm really blessed to have Tim & nearly all the staff carry on another year. It's a huge advantage to have a team that is fully functional and works well together out of the bat, rather than rebuilding from scratch.

My understanding is that while Rustoleum is what is specified, Krylon is best. TK4205 was not happy using Rustoleum IIRC for the TFA