menschie

Upper right ab snap not supposed to be painted...as per movie worn costume. Specifically, it’s to remain unpainted. I’d produce a photo but I’m on my phone and about to shut it down for the night.

Upper right snap?

Very good idea! This was was easier for me, plus easy to put on new ones when they get worn out.

Shoulder bridge elastics always creeping up and coming off the back plate. I hate when it happens to me, and there's no way I have any idea when it's happening. Did this...was easy enough. The shoulder is the only place that I use velcro (industrial strength, e6000'd to the ABS) and so it was easy to tuck it under. For those with snaps, you could easily have 2 sets of snaps on each connection and put the elastic in between.

Great response! I feel the same. Was just wondering if something had changed on that front, because it's been very silent, as I'd fully expect it to be, based exactly on the scenario that you gave. Also, there's not too too much in the "various types of armour" topic about SDS. Not enough to educate on it's background or to give a would-be buyer the backstory they may want. Anyway, that's all been hashed out in the past, and I don't really want to engage it. Thanks Daniel!

I'm actually really interested in this post as well, as, through my own research I don't prefer (that's what I tell my kids to say in stead of the word "hate") Andrew Ainsworth. Of course, his armour has been the topic of many discussions, much about it's shortcomings etc. etc. etc. Given all of this, SDS armour has been a no brainer "no fly" zone for me. All that said, I've seen 3 sets of SDS armour pop up in EIB submissions the last while, without even a nod to the elephant in the room. Not going to lie to you ... kind of head scratched a bit. Really curious what others thoughts are on this? I can tell you that RS props is beautiful armour. All the glorious imperfections of the original! It comes build to EIB, and with a tiny bit of fitting and securing of the drop boxes, Centurion. My only advice is to make sure and get the leather Imperial Boots with the armour, and not the plastic ones. After a day of trooping you'll be thanking me for the advice!

I have my drop box halves held together by rare earth magnets on each side. In one of my boxes I keep my box key, and in the other one I keep a challenge coin. I user TrooperTalk, so I have a phone mounted off to the side on my app plate, so I guess if I ever really needed I could yank it out of there.

I can imagine the stress of buying that eBay armour and realizing that it's not what you expected. However, fast forward a bit, and here you are on the precipice of Centurion! That's awesome! Your'e almost there! For my drop box position, I used velcro on the back of the elastic loop to keep it where I want it (e6000'd the velcro to the elastic and to my canvas belt). For suggestions ... I also like hiking up those thighs a tad. Great job man!

I emulate what everyone else is saying ... that RS Prop Masters armour comes, basically, EIB (lvl2) right out of the box...with some minor tweaks for lvl3 (which always includes aligning and securing the drop boxes on those builds). Anyway, this is about basic approval, which is a very very easy one. Excited for you man! You look amazing!

Hi All! I’ve been getting a lot of offline requests to share how I got TrooperTalk to work really well lately, so I figured it makes sense to create a topic with all my info in one place. I just want to say, I absolutely love TrooperTalk. It took quite a bit to get it to the place where it’s useable for me, but it was well worth it! Now, it’s just not useable, I personally think it’s amazing. Here are the details. FYI, I got an iPhone 5 just for using this (a white one no less). When I troop and am using the background chatter, I have a USB battery plugged into it to extend the use for the entire troop. My settings: I’m using the mic that came with my Aker 1505 (it's better than the more expensive after-market one I bought). I’m sure there’s better out there, but it works really well. Voice volume (in app setting): -20 I have "voice volume threshold" at 0.05. I found that higher than that, as soon as my mic wasn't perfectly positioned my voice wasn't always coming through. I went with a slightly higher static burst volume (-25), especially for louder environments. Lowpass: 1540 Highpass: 2070 Radio Distortion: OFF Compression: 0 Don't play with voice pitch either. Just creates unnecessary distortion and latency (lag): 1.00 Echo Delay: 0 Voice Static: Unchecked So, with these basic settings I think it still sounds really really cool, and more importantly, it's way more usable to me. Easier to understand me, etc. etc. Very importantly, there is no feedback and not even any tinny feedback tones in the voice, when used with proper dampening and mic position. A really nice by-product of having these settings off is that your phone battery will last way longer, and the voice lag is very close to gone. On dampening: In early days, once my helmet was on, it loved to feed back. When I had my mic plugged straight into the Aker, with no helmet on, this wasn't an issue, as those high distortion-y sounding frequencies weren't being pinged so harshly. The sound of the app, mixed with the smooth parabolic surfaces of the helmet's interior are a recipe for feedback disaster. I was able to completely solve the feedback only with a 3-pronged approach of app settings, sound dampening inside the helmet and mic position. The dampening setup: Instead of hanging the Aker amp around my neck, I velcro'd it to the chest, at the speaker side. So, the velcro is directly over the speaker. I put a bit of foam inside the chest plate, just below the neckline, blocking sound from coming up through the neck and into the helmet. I bought 1/4" x 3/4" x 10' insulating foam tape, and I covered all the surfaces of the inside of my helmet, from about the temples down. Even the foam surface will be uneven with lines going different ways for extra dampening. Remember to cover ALL of the surface in the front of the helmet around the vocoder…even the rounded ones, cavities etc. The only place I didn’t dampen, was the top, rounded crown of the helmet. I found it wasn’t necessary, and I didn’t want any insulation up there to hinder the fans keeping my helmet cool. One more tiny but very important bit of feedback…even with total helmet dampening, when I have it loud, there will be a little tiny bit of tinny feedback in the voice when my mic is put directly in front of my mouth. However, when I have the mic a little bit off to the side of my mouth there's absolutely none. Solid as a rock. With voice static and/or radio distortion on, there's still more tinny feedback tone than I'm comfortable with. However, I find that it still has pretty close to the same quality of distortion through the app and the tone of the voice that I'm looking for, without them. I don't hear a lot of "stormtrooper quality" voice gained by either of those two features to even think about justifying the noise that comes with them. I'm very happy with the sound of the voice! Trooped with this, outdoor, in a very loud setting with kids, with my Aker cranked yesterday. No issues. Everyone understood me. Used 10% iPhone battery in 1.5 hours. Thanks again to Andrew for such an amazing app, and for those who’ve also helped by testing the settings and got back to me with their feedback!

What?! Are you saying that there are people who can sit in armour? What is this strange magic you speak of!?

Do, or do not. There is no try. LOL!

Good job! Lvl3 must be on your mind now!

Yeah, I was nervous about ordering mine a few months ago. It came quickly though. I was surprised! I’d definitely order again from them.

Congratulations and welcome!!! Good times!

Hey hey! That's my fellow garrison member right there making me proud! Looks amazing and I can't wait to troop with you and see it live! Congratulations and welcome to the FISD!!

Hi Jeff! For basic approval, my GML asked for: Body: front, back, left and right Helmet: front, back, left and right Boots Shot with no helmet (to show that it's you) Action shot "Other detail photos" Hope that helps a bit.

Hey Jeff! Exciting times! Welcome!

Awesome job! Sailing up to Centurion! Just a couple of things that I'll mention ... especially for centurion: all the pics of the right drop box look like it needs to come out a bit, so that its outside edge is flush with the edge of your belt. It's close, but not quite there. If it were me, I'd move that belt up a tiny bit higher as well, so that it covers the ab plates a bit more. New female snaps on the inside of your belt, directly below your existing snaps, may work to make it just about perfect. Again, beautiful job on that armour. You should be proud!

Josh, beautiful job on your armour. Looking like you're a hair away from Centurion, let alone EIB. I look at the beautiful painstaking job you did on the teeth in the helmet, and can see you're a stickler for detail, have an artistic flair and are willing to take the time necessary. That's always impressive. Can't wait to see your Centurion application! Your lenses are showing blue for me. Likely just a strange pic, but still.

Congratulations. Looking forward to officially welcoming you to the 501st soon!

Hey Jesse! You're so close! Really looking forward to typing a massive "congratulations" in here to you!

I hear ya, and I do understand where the GML's are coming from. I think it's less about EIB and more about making sure they're doing the Star Wars franchise and their garrison proud when their out in public on their first troops.

Thanks so much for the very kind words! Jim, I think we've gotten there with TrooperTalk!

You may be right about some of the feedback given, but I suspect the GML from my garrison would have asked for most to be addressed, at least to some level...just a heads up for Patrick.