revlimiter

congrats!!! Let the plastic hacking begin!

5/15/22 - ABQ Ambulance 50th Anniversary Celebration 14th troop for TK-89400, 4th troop for CDZ-5435 This was a last minute troop for me as I had to work. Not many signed up and I wanted to give some paramedics the TK smile (or frown rather). And my daughter wanted to troop, which always makes my day. The two Jawas had waaayyy more fun than the two TKs. I admit to being a little jealous. Though the white armor was much cooler in the 95* weather than the brown robes. Can you see that fatherly pride? Peak jawa antics!! This may have been better than TK-Jack and TB-Rose the day before.

Troop 13 on Saturday the 14th - UNM Children's Hospital Troop This was the first Children's Hospital troop in 2.5 years for ANY group. They called the 501st first. All future troops for all groups including us depend on our conduct and behavior. No pressure at all. I think we did okay. We visited non-ICU rooms, brightened up nurse days, posed for pix, and handed out some tiny gifts. We stayed away from upset kids and nurses who were afraid of troopers. We were model soldiers. Elevator selfies are required. There's a LOT more than four lights. And then we got up to the rooftop play area which we had to ourselves. (That's me kneeling.) Peak troop antics!! I'm flying Jack! (I'm Jack)

A thing of beauty!

I got my blaster finished about 3 weeks ago. I didn't post because I managed to lose the pix... heh. I uploaded them to the wrong folder. Anyways, here we go! Both LEDs glued to the muzzle with their stock holder. I considered some sort of light pipe to make the whole barrel light up, but this method was easiest and brightest. The Blaster Factory handle doesn't actually have clearance to allow the rotary switch to work in stock condition. All of the pins make contact with the inside of the housing. I dremeled the flat side like crazy (as seen above) and created just enough clearance to allow the selector to work. This was the first photo of my blaster actually blasting! It might not look like much, but that blaster makes pew-pew noises! I then shortened the wires up, built up the handle, and sealed the brain inside a protective wad of electrical tape. It lives just behind the bolt cover. I drilled and hollowed the back end of the blaster enough to allow the speaker and battery pack to fit. It pressure fits in there nicely, yet is easy to pull out for battery changes. The speaker is wonderfully loud in the back of the blaster. well... sorta. More on that in a sec. AAA battery pack from a flashlight. One of the many things I borrowed from Tino's excellent Lucky #11 build. This is the same voltage as the factory battery pack, but much much smaller in form factor. The one downside of this conversion - this was my only real option for battery placement. A small bit of spring was sacrificed. It's barely noticeable to anyone else, and enables fantastic PEW PEW noises, so it's a sacrifice I was willing to make. And then I got everything put back together and put the rear cap on and.... (pew pew). Yes, it was no longer PEW PEW. A lot of the speaker noise was coming out the back of the blaster. With the rear cap in place it was muffled quite a bit. I didn't want to further weaken the blaster by moving the battery farther forward either. So I started looking into tiny speakers. I got these tiny 20mm speakers off amazon which fit PERFECTLY in the 20mm recess inside the Quest Design blaster. I wired it inline with the factory speaker. There's no extra voltage going anywhere, so no extra sound is produced. I'm just splitting the amount of sound between the two speakers. The speaker goes nicely in the front of the barrel. It is also FAR less muffled. Noise actually escapes the plastic tube now! I made a decent fitting bolt cover out of thin aluminum sheet and started work on the clearing strip. Having that rear bit still in place let me get the angle right easily. One clearing strip! I then cleaned out the back piece for a metal inlay. BAM! A little glue and I have a metal bolt. It reflects the light so much more nicely than the painted resin. I gave it a little weathering and then... Finished! Again! For now! I'm seriously digging the metal handle and rubber grip. A bit dirty and in need of fresh clearcoat, but it's back together. And WORKING! So tasty. And here's a crappy vid showing it in action.

Sorry to horn in, but isn't that two inner thigh pieces put together? I haven't seen thigh armor that looked symmetrical like that. The outside edge should cover up higher, yes? While the inner edge dips lower for crotch room.

Those suits get worse the closer you look at them. One of the reddit threads had a really high res. You could see such thing as... - The shoulder bridges being held on by white rivets in the middle. - Huuuuuge ab buttons. - ANH style helmets... maybe hero ones? But the whole bucket looks odd. - White trim on the torso edges. That's just scratching the surface.

I highly suggest contacting Mark at Authentic Props (AP) who's also in Canada. My own armor came from him and it's absolutely fantastic. While I did get a kit instead of ready-to-wear, I believe Mark will trim and build a kit to order. He's on the list that Caleb posted right above. I also recommend Quest Design in Canada for your blaster needs. Outstanding quality. They have a website and also sell on etsy.

Looking fantastic! Good luck Georgia!

Congratulations on #100!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the first troop!

I *love* the remnant artwork and have considered doing one myself. I'll be following along on this one eagerly.

Congratulations Dennis!

I saw this a couple days ago on youtube. LOVED it!!! Best unboxing video of all time.

5/6/22 - Tony Hillerman MS Spring Carnival TK Troop #11 This was a troop at a middle school. Outside in a bricked-off courtyard in 92*F heat. It must have been 10* hotter in that courtyard. I was roasting. Not sure how the black armor guys were still standing. It was my first time trooping with a Vader, which was fun. But the kids could have cared less that we were there. Far less. They made their unhappy feelings known the whole time. But... well... they can't all be good troops, right? Onto the next troop. ..... which was later that night! 5/6/22 - Wine and Wishes Benefit TK Troop #12 - my first double troop day. This one was an auction benefit for Make a Wish. We were there to help celebrate a recent M-a-W which sent a brave local kid to the Disney Starcruiser. My first Chewie troop. At our Posts. Lined up to escort the young Jedi TK up to the stage. (I'm not sure of rules showing kid's faces, so I chose to protect identities.) Troopers get nomnoms too. TB and TK platonic relationships are complex and beautiful.

Wow, the subtle changes really transform that bucket. It looks incredible now! Fight the urge to redo

It's possible that old 3M hardhat was retired in favor of a new model. If a new welding bucket came out, they'd have new headbands for it. https://www.amazon.com/3M-Speedglas-Headband-Mounting-05-0655-00/dp/B00E83BLKI/ This one looks very similar. Wouldn't it fit in a helmet?

Just got my 10th mission in!

5/4/22 - May the 4th UNM Troop My 10th TK troop!!! UNM (University here in Albuquerque) puts on a May the Fourth event every year. They apparently started this well after I graduated, so I have no warm happy memories of seeing troops on campus before May finals. However, it was a GREAT time. My largest troop yet. They had tables with crafts, Star Wars-centric drinks, art, a photo booth, and a gaggle of troopers. The Empire (I'm cuddling my E-11). The Rebels Just the White Armor We were a force to be reckoned with. Our mission: spreading smiles. No one was safe. No one was immune. Rebel propaganda. Really. The photo booth was a green screen with a little printer spitting out strips of pix. Us TKs would occasionally pose with folks as we wandered. Some shared their film strips. And then we took over the booth for a few minutes. (I'M NOT AFRAID is me ) I got a couple prints off an artist's booth that I'm just in love with. These will get framed and hang proudly.

My 4/30 troop was also a biker benefit for kids. How odd. I wonder if it was a national thing? Loving the pix in your thread BTW. Fantastic!

4/30/22 - Guardians of the Children Family Fun Day 9th TK troop. 10th should be May 4th! This was an event put on by something like 5 local biker gangs to bring some fun to the kids. They had bingo cards to fill out by wandering to various tents. TONS of toys and bikes as prizes. It was a really great event! Like Toys for Tots in April. Imperials on deck. This blue dude is possibly named Bubbles? From a kid's show. The garrison agreed it was a Rebo family member. Rebo selfie One of the tents was a roping/rodeo thing. The Rodeo Queen was in attendance and roped up this fine specimen of a TK. Mystery Machine selfie was mandatory Batman and Catwoman. These two were FULL of sass. Sass. And lastly, a bucket selfie with Orbit, the mascot of the Albuquerque Isotopes team. Yeah, you're jealous. A selfie with Orbit is up there with a Gritty selfie. One of the finest team mascots on this little blue planet.

You would, of course, want to test this on some scrap vinyl, but there's a thing called Textile Medium. It comes in a squeeze bottle like many other acrylic paints and is something you can mix with your own acrylic paint to "dye" fabric. It will be rather stiff, but it shouldn't ever crack and will still be flexible. I've used it on car interior items many times in the past with great success. I painted some vinyl race seat shoulder supports with the stuff and never had it crack after several years of use. Maybe worth checking out.

^ THIS! Being able to talk just adds so much to the experience. I'd rank it even with having fans. And fans are an enormous help in any and all weather. I switch my low speed fan on immediately and am usually comfy that way the whole troop. My own bucket is packed. Ukswrath fans, mic, speakers and hearing assist, and the iCOMM static burst amp thing. I regret none of it. And lastly, this is a fantastic build!! I hope you get it all together for Celebration!

4/23/22 - Walk to End MS ABQ 2022 8th TK troop This troop was walk to raise money for MS research. First one they've been able to have in person in 2 years apparently. Dewback Ridge Garrison gave a nice showing. This was my first troop with only 501st members. No rebels, no princesses, no superheroes. Just Imperials as far as the eye could see. Complementary coffees were not turned down. And then we went and cheered on the walkers at the start/finish. Everyone was SOOOO happy and appreciative to have us there. It felt like we truly brightened their event with our armor. I don't have a pic of my favorite event interaction. A boy about 10-11 years old asked for a pic and we all crowded around. I said something like "Big frowns everyone!" And the instant after his mom fired the shot he spun around and asked "Which one of you said that???" to which I replied "me." "YOU CAN TALK!!!?!" "Well yeah, the Empire fills our buckets with tech." Then he sorta whispered "... you're real..." And that was it for this young man. He was transfixed. In AWE. At that moment he'd seen a real stormtrooper. I know that look because I've had it myself many times, but for a change I was on the other side. I was the real TK. My little black heart grew at least 5 sizes. I love being a TK.

Congratulations Mario!!! That armor is an inspiration!