CommanderZel

Vern, I think you've made it clear that you don't want to indulge terrorists by being fearful. I respect that. That being said, a lot of people are very afraid, and you need to respect their very legitimate fears. The level of daily violence occurring in the world at this point is spectacular in its scale. We had the Paris bombings just a couple of weeks ago, and we've had too many shootings at public venues in the US in the last couple of months alone to keep track of. We had a shooting, what, two days ago? Gun violence, especially in the US, is reaching a point of absurdity. It's true that nobody is shooting anyone with prop weapons. I think that's fairly obvious. The question here is whether or not troopers should be putting themselves at risk from law enforcement by carrying very realistic weapon props. There are very real threats which are making people legitimately afraid of trooping with weapons or trooping at all. Nobody is being oppressed here. Nobody is having their rights violated. This was a polite request from LFL to refrain from trooping with blasters. That doesn't mean you can't own one, and it doesn't even mean you can't troop with one. All it means is that they're asking you not to. Everyone involved is just as free as they were before the request.

Essentially LFL has asked that 501st members refrain from bringing any props that resemble guns to troops until further notice.

Well if ANOVOS holds true to their reported shipping dates, it should be sometime within the next month that we finally see the controversial hardware. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

One could also implement a written accent system, just like just about any language that is't English. We may not have seen any written accents (probably because they don't exist, but it is a fictional alphabet) but that would be one way of taking care of the pronunciation indication. That system could be additional markings to denote sound changes in individual letters or extra characters to represent more sounds. I guess the real problem is that nobody really reads anything in Star Wars.

As an actor I've got a good deal of experience with the IPA, but I haven't ever seen (heard?) anyone "speaking" Aurebesh. My understanding was that it's only an alphabet and that it exactly mirrors the *Latin alphabet in terms of character values. I've never seen it assigned phonetic values.

Wow, those are excellent! The foam inside the legs had never occurred to me! That's exactly the kind of thing that I was talking about. Thanks for sharing!

Hello, all! I'll be getting ready to start constructing armor soon (within the next month or two, hopefully), and I've been thinking about what all I can do to really make my armor a little bit extraordinary. I'd like to collect ideas for non-electronic modifications for TK armor that don't affect the way the armor looks, but change the way it works (hopefully for the better). I'm talking about things like plasti-dipping the inside of your helmet, adding bells and whistles to the inside of the armor to make things fit better or give storage space, structural support tips, basically anything that I might not have seen that will make trooping just a little easier. I think that the best way to figure most of this stuff out is by building the armor and then seeing what needs fixing and coming up with solutions, but I'm sure that the folks on here have lots of great tips and tricks, so I figured I'd ask. Alright! Anybody have any super cool mods they want to share? Even if it's just the idea for a mod. You don't have to have done it already. Fire away!

^for real. There are a lot of places where things like that should be talked about, but unless the 501st is involved in an aid effort or something I don't think this is one of them. In addition to that, people can care about whatever they want, especially when they're spending hundreds of dollars to do this. If someone is an accuracy buff, let them be an accuracy buff. People on here are going to argue about accuracy vs accessibility no matter what, and that's just kind of the name of the game. Yes, the 501st exists to help people. However, it also exists as the premier star wars costuming community. The 501st does have certain standards to uphold on terms of accuracy and quality. Also, I think I saw a tantive 4 build complete with cracks and everything a while back, and I think that's something you can get approved. My understanding is that as long as something conforms to the CRLs it can get approved. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

I'm with DDay on this. I'm not a 501st member yet, but my feeling for the CRL has always been that it's a standard for accuracy above anything else. To my knowledge, CRL changes only really happen to accommodate new information regarding screen-used armor. I feel that spending an extra $30 or so isn't really all that much to ask when it comes to modding a TK to 501st standards. It feels almost irreverent to change the CRL just because ANOVOS decided not to give us screen-accurate ANH stunt belts.

What we've seen isn't really a question of quality outside of the armor thickness. It's totally possible that their armor is too thin and fragile to troop in. In that case I'd say that it is definitely low-quality armor. However, apart from the armor thickness and the two assembly problems, the big difference between this armor and other armors is a question of style. EIB and Centurion are (in my understanding) almost exclusively aesthetic standards which require screen accuracy to achieve. But that's really up to the assembler, isn't it? Someone could build their ANOVOS kit into Centurion right away and it'd be a perfect Centurion, if a little thin. On the other hand, someone could mangle their kit beyond repair and fail to meet even basic approval. It seems to be a rule of thumb that "no kit is ready for approval out of the box." These kits aren't any different, and the only quality-based question is the question of the quality of the plastic. I don't think there's any such thing as a low-quality EIB." I may be misunderstanding you.

The whole point of EIB is to be a standard of quality. Every EIB trooper has just as high-accuracy armor as the next. That's the point.

Oh, alright. Makes sense! Thanks! Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Well that's an idea! Alright, I've been put at ease, I think.By the way, I keep seeing people say "echo." What does that mean? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

If it came down to it I was thinking about skipping fiberglass and just going straight to bondo-ing up the inside of the higher-stress areas. I don't know what that would do to the natural flexibility of the plastic, though.I'm encouraged by the idea of 1mm plastic being sturdy enough to troop in, but my understanding is also that TM uses exceptionally high-quality materials, and if the quality of the ANOVOS plastic is lower than the quality of the plastic used by TM... I'm just worried that the armor will be too fragile, as I'm sure I've made apparent. Any other expert opinions? I just don't know enough about plastic. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Honestly, I think that the belt and TD issues have been made clear and don't need to be discussed much more. TD will pass basic approval, but will need modification to pass EIB or Centurion. The belt is inaccurate and either needs to be replaced or modified to qualify for any level of approval. What I'm more worried about are the actual qualities of the armor. We've seen very, very sharp pulls thus far, and my understanding is that that level of detail may cause the thickness and quality of the ABS to plummet. Should we be worried about the armor being too fragile to troop in? At that level of detail (which is sort of unprecedented, as far as I know) are we going to have to worry much about reinforcing our armor? Structural issues are much more important to me than accuracy in this situation. Durability is kind of the biggest deal in terms of trooping (from my understanding) and, as others have said, the kids aren't going to know or care. So let's collectively move on from ragging on the TD and belt and talk about things that could actually be real issues. I certainly don't want thousands of new members to join up with armor that breaks down after the first troop.

Okay, I will admit: the CWFBSORNTACP edit is very funny. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

Well the problem is really just the fact that they're producing for corporate American capitalism. When the economic system you produce for is as consumption-driven as ours, the quality of product produced is completely irrelevant. It's all about quantity in this case. That being said, I do have faith in ANOVOS and their ability to put out a medium-quality product. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

That's kind of what I figured, but why does that really matter if the webbing happens on the scrap ABS? Paul said there was some on the forehead as well, so I should go back and look again to see if I can spot it, but if it's on the ABS that gets trimmed off in the rough trim then it doesn't really matter, does it? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

I've never had any experience with vacuum forming, so I really don't know what I'm looking at or for when it comes to those videos. Would someone be willing to link a video of a more professional vacuum forming effort? I think I see what Paul means about the "webbing" and the "manhandling," but I don't have any idea how that's different from a more experienced effort to vacuum form.

I'm not familiar enough with the TD, so what exactly is wrong with their build? Genuinely curious. In addition to that, I don't know if they're sending the TD built or not. Anyone have any insight into that?

It looks like the heavy blaster has a monopod! This is from the new EW gallery and I immediately thought of your build so I thought I'd post it here in case you want it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm sure Disney is aware of the 501st's reputation, and I doubt that they'll do anything to disrupt it in terms of the previously established vendors and systems. After all, who will march in the Disney star wars parades without the 501st? SWW are over, but they're only going away to make way for new and improved SW events, and while Disney is huge, it doesn't have the ability to throw together an ensemble like the 501st. And it's certainly not in Disney's best interest to disrupt a community that does so much good, especially for kids. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk

We've also talked about the ANOVOS "sanitation" before. Back when ANOVOS was going to be using PVC, we talked about how it might be interesting to have a bunch of "idealized" TKs running around. Even if the ANOVOS armor is unique from other armors (and from my understanding, all armors are unique) won't it be refreshing to have something new on the market? Sure, it might not be exactly accurate, but all that means is that it won't infringe on the accuracy market held by our vetted vendors. I think that a bit of sanitation isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just something new and a little different. A little diversification never hurt anything.

Wow, I really can't believe I missed that. My bad.

Right, but is there a specific painted bar position for centurion status? The CRL only indicates that only one is to be painted. It doesn't say that a particular bar should be painted rather than the others.