Cricket

Take your time, no worries!

Count me in for the group pic!

Nice and clean! Great work on the lid. Go slow on the ears. I'm sure that with the detail you're paying to the build so far, you won't have any problems! Sorry to hear about the scrape, but you know now that it's part of being fully initiated as a TK. Mine was a quarter-sized blood blister on my thigh due to two n50 magnets slipping off of my desk and falling onto my leg at the same time. The magnets quickly found each other, my flesh got in the way. Keep up the good work!

Thanks, troopers!

Welcome Veronika! There is certainly no shortage of info here in the FISD, so I completely understand how overwhelming it can be to get started. I'm 5'4" and 108lbs (about 49kg), and I was able to cut my RS Props kit down to fit my frame. During the course of my 8-month build, I worked mostly alone (although with HUGE virtual help from the troopers here in the FISD). I learned how to make cuts/trims to every single piece of my armor to get it to fit properly (read everything you can in here!). You're not as small as I am, so you shouldn't have to reduce things as much (lucky you). So if I can do it, you certainly can, too! The key is to keep the pieces in proportion to each other. When I began searching for armor, I read good things about ATA (Affordable Trooper Armor), RS Props, and TM (Troopermaster) all being able to fit smaller body types. I've been very happy with my RS kit (and their customer support is amazing). If you haven't read it yet, make sure you look through the Where to Find Armor post. Great tips in there. Good luck with your build, take your time, and HAVE FUN!!!!

Oh, hey, it's me again. In case anyone is interested, my EIB application is here.

TK-10401 Requesting ANH Stunt EIB Status [RS] Name: Christine Lee 501st ID: TK-10401 FISD Forum Name: Cricket Garrison: Georgia Garrison Build Thread: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38416-crickets-rs-stunt-build-for-the-vertically-challenged/?st=0 Armor: RS Prop Masters Helmet: RS Prop Masters E-11 Blaster: Hyperfirm Height: 5’4” Weight: 108 lbs Boots: TK Boots Canvas belt: Kittell Hand Plates: Trooperbay Electronics: Voicebooster, IComm, ixradio throat mic Neck Seal: Darman Holster: Trooperbay My belt is curved and won't lay flat. Since it is difficult to show how the boxes are lined up when worn, I had to press down on the belt to illustrate that the drop boxes are lined up with the ends of the belt. I appreciate your time reviewing my EIB submission. Thank you for your consideration!

Looks great! I love my RS armor- I'm sure you will too. Congrats!

So, I received the news last night, and this morning it is finally sinking in that I've finally reached a milestone on my TK build. It's a bit overwhelming, actually! At any rate, today is my birthday, and beginning my first full day as TK-10401 is one of the greatest gifts I could have ever received. That being said, I would have never accomplished any of this without help the troopers in the FISD. Super duper special thanks go out to Pandatrooper (Terry), AsBlondeAsLuke (Diana), and UKSWRATH (Tony). Their build threads and tutorials helped guide me immensely on the path of my build. Diana and Terry are really the trailblazers of bringing a kit down to size! Oh, I also can't forget to thank all the people at the two armor parties I attended last year for their assistance! Those parties are fun and motivating to say the least. #GGIBG That's me on the floor, trying to figure out what to cut. I felt so overwhelmed! Trying to figure out how the shins should line up... Making my first marks on the forearms... and my BBB full of white plastic is on my right. I'm singling out zv288bot (Jorge) for a massive THANK YOU for all of his help, not only on the board, but also behind the scenes and in the real world with advice, encouragement, guidance, and creative inspiration. Jorge, as always, you rock man! Also I want to thank lucnak (Luc), illusionz_09 (David), Alay (Sarah), Addertime (Michael), CTID (Marc), 68Brick (Brad), The5thHorseman (Germain), sylverbard (Mark), TKZombie (Christina), MoSc0ut (Jim), and Daetrin (Paul). You all took your time to not only follow my build, but also to offer many tips, suggestions, and some tough love along the way. You guys are the best! And I can't forget to thank all the troopers who chimed in with words of encouragement during my journey. You might have only said, "Looks good!", but it didn't go unnoticed. It was those kinds of comments that helped to keep me motivated to continue, even when I was ready to jump off a bridge. So to Dark CMF (Tim), Rob .T . (Rob), fragarock (Frank), Racermouse (Rasmus), Rich330 (Rich), KaiserW (Eric), Pretzel (Preston), Alexx_G (Alexander), Tolo (Eric), Sandmann66 (Olli), bowski477 (Jill), JAYJAYN (Jay Jay), Kacrut (Louis), storm shadow (Steve), douglasthecook (Doug), Jaltrooper (Jon), Gwithian (Stephan), Sgt. Bilko (Scott), Eynonz (Thomas), A.J. Hamler (A.J.), jedha-trooper (Daniel), and Sly11 (Andrew)... I appreciate all of you more than you'll ever know! So now, although this milestone has been reached, my journey will still continue. Onward for EIB and Centurion, then going to dirty this kit up over with the MEPD. My next TK kit will be here in a few weeks, which will be a Hero build. And when those are complete, I'll be assembling a Jawa with the Krayt Clan (that build is currently patiently waiting for me in a box here in my office- I even have a C-3PO head to assemble). Because everyone loves a Jawa, right? Oh, and there's the whole troop thing I need to do as well! haha... Now onward... I hope to meet some of you at Celebration this year! Glory to the FISD and Long Live the Empire!

You'll be there soon, too! You're doing an amazing job.

Paul, you so totally rock!!! Thank you!

TK-10401 requesting access please! https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=23755

TK-10401 reporting for duty!

I don't mind putting my weight out there. It'll help others to get an idea of where I sized the kit down to. I'll take care of that now. And thanks for the compliment about the index. I have to update it to include the last few posts.

Sooo... who is up for some pics? I submitted these to my GML this morning. I still have to make some adjustments on things (my helmet has waaaay too much padding now... it sits oddly on my head, and I can only see through the frown mesh). My blaster seems to want to pull my kit down to the left. My left forearm needs more trimming. That's the bib of my neck seal popping out around the shoulder bells. Wish me luck! A little action.

Finished!

With as much as I wanted to keep the original thighs as long as they were, I couldn't do it. The tops were poking too much into my hips. The top inner curve had to be trimmed quite a bit to allow for comfort while walking, so it's definitely narrower in that area than before. The thigh kept clipping the codpiece in a major way when I walked. With the armor on, I marked the thigh in the area where I could see/feel the plastic consistently hitting. It took several mark/trim attempts because I was being very conservative with my trimming. I can't wait to get the armor re-strapped so I can share pics.

You should absolutely read through all of Ukswrath's build here (lots of amazing build pics and tips) and Diana's build here (a great build for short troopers). You'll find them important as referral sources as you build. Thighs are held up with a garter belt system or suspenders. Lots of choice on how you want to go on those. Remember that what's important is how your kit looks on the outside. What you use for inside strapping/rigging is entirely up to you. Trim all of the returns off of the wrist end of your forearms. The areas near your elbow have detail that you don't want to cut off. I think I ended up removing an entire divot off of the end of one of my forearms to prevent armor biting at the wrist. You'll also need to remove all the returns off the bottoms of the shins (don't take anything off the top of those). I've cut my cod to accommodate my shortiness. You'll find that you may need to take a little off the top of the ab as well as reduce the size of the cod based on your body type. Looking forward to seeing your build!

Still plugging away on other things while waiting for the ABS paste to cure on my returns. Got outside cover strips installed on the right thigh today. Tomorrow I'll have a new completely finished piece! Woo! I got stalled on some of the fine-tuning I need to do on the inside fit of the left thigh. You know, that whole butt plate shaping thing was a bit of a detour and my armor is still in pieces right now. So I decided to finish a little detail on the left thigh that I promised myself I would do. Behold, the ANH overtrimmed left thigh notch! (Apologies about how dirty it is. It will get cleaned up soon.) It would be difficult to tell at first glance that I had to completely cut away the original notch. I'm pretty proud of this little alteration. Heat sealing iron FTW!!!

hahaha! Oh, I think when I build thread is this long, this kind of thing eventually pops up. Did you see the discussion of Diana's codpiece over at her build thread? And who knew that one day I would be discussing butt issues with stormtroopers? #bucketlist

hahaha!!! For the record, yes, I can get a little OC with certain details on my build. I didn't reshape the ab/kidney/butt plates just due to some alignment issues, though. I wasn't hugely fond of the fact that the butt plate kept popping out there, but I was going to live with it actually. (Too bad we can't use gaffer's tape for the higher level award badges- that would have made for an easy fix!) The problem was that there were some serious stress cracks developing in the armor- two in the butt plate return that were not part of the bracket holes, and one in the kidney in one of the center bracket holes. Repairs needed to be done, and I hadn't even trooped in the armor yet. If I didn't go about reshaping the plates, I would have the same cracks developing again in the same areas eventually (and sooner rather than later). Something I'm learning about my armor is that it is not forgiving at all. When I sew a fabric dress or costume, measurements can be approximate sometimes. Fabric can be pulled out, tucked in, or stretched to fit, and the result can still look great. But this armor... it either fits or it doesn't. It's truly a three-dimensional customized puzzle with attitude. A very fun challenge, to say the least!

It took me all day, but I FINALLY got the kidney and butt issue solved!!! So happy that my butt plate isn't popping out now! Hours of patience, one pair of chemical gloves, four HUGE pots of boiling water, half a roll of blue tape, a few (okay, a lot of) swear words later, and here's the result (all taped together temporarily): Kidney/ab/butt, no belt. With the belt: From the back: I ended up trimming off some of the bottom of the butt plate during my initial investigation about why things weren't fitting. And it's a good thing I did because I would have needed to anyhow because of the thighs. I don't have the garter on, so I was positioning each thigh on my own so you could see how it all will come together: What a major PITA this was. But I'm thrilled that it's all looking better now. Tomorrow I will be doing repairs to the butt plate returns and the kidney returns- which is a stroll on Tatooine with a flamethrower compared to this challenge. As you bend and shape the pieces in the hot water, the returns get all warpy and they'll be ironed out with a heat gun. Before on left, after on right: Time for a beer (or three)...