Timberwoof

Shins are reglued. Pictures would be boring. But I would like your opinions, please. Here's my customized Hasbro E-11: Multiple Choice: • If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix it!? • Paint that awful orange tip black! • While you're at it, paint the U-shaped chamber slot gray! • Index your trigger, dumbass! • How'd THAT armor get past your GML? • Can we come over and watch TV?

Yup. I checked my submission photos and I can now easily tell that I had them wrong: On the right, the ankles both curved farther down than on the left. They didn't ask me how to do the part numbering scheme.

That looks awesome. I tried a similar thing for an entirely different costume project, a space suit. I sewed black vinyl onto the backing material in stripes about an inch wide, then stuffed strips of foam rubber inside. Hemispherical strips would work better than the rectangular strips I used, but since it had to curve around shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, it tended to bunch up. Probably real elastic material would work better. How did you you get the sewing machine foot consistently close to the rope? You'd have to sew with the rope on the narrow side of the foot, but that still limits how close you can get.

AUGH! D'OH! I was reading someone's Anovos build thread and saw an entry about the weird numbering of the shin pieces, and that they had put them together the way recommended here. I couldn't tell what the descriptions of the curves of the parts meant, but reading about the ankle protection on the outside made me suspicious. I checked my shin pieces and found to my dismay that one side had wimpy ankle protection and the other side had … better ankle protection. AUGH! D'OH! D'OH! D'OH! D'OH! D'OH! D'OH! D'OH! So I carefully peeled the shins apart. E-6000 is good that way: it will, with some persuasion, let you do that. I'm probably not going to reuse the velcro; that started unsticking anyway. I peeled off the glue on al the parts, filed down some unevenness in the mating edges, and started off gluing the front cover strips to the outside halves. The second tube of E-6000 is different from the first one I got. This stuff claims to be flexible and transparent like the first, but it's also self-leveling. I think I'll figure out soon enough what that means. Other progress is mostly in cutting down return edges: front end of wrists, tops of bicepses, and shoulder connecty parts. I also plan to replace all that velcro with snaps. I scavenged the cut-off ABS for suitable flat sections from which I plan to cut 1" x 2" rectangles. These will get drilled to receive two snap halves, then glued in place. The existing elastic I will re-use to join the armor pieces. I think elastic will work better (as in more comfortably) than non-elastic nylon strapping. And I might as well use white elastic for the shoulders while I'm at it. The back-kidney-butt and right kidney-codpiece connections are probably straightforward: Make the parts have tight connections. (I'm 5'10" tall, perhaps a bit short in the thorax and longer in the legs. Stand up straight, Timber!) The chest-codpiece and back-chest connections are a little trickier. I think I will set up the shoulder joints to butt tightly together as I am an elf right on the border of S and M. (That's in t-shirt sizes!) Then I'll try on the armor and mark how the chest overlaps the codpiece. That will guide how those straps should go. I may build in a little tension there. Nobody likes a saggy codpiece. Going will be a little slower form here on out as next week I start my new job.

Workage confirmulated. Safari on MacBook Pro with Wifi and iMac with wired ethernet. I had been seeing the same error message as was posted in the screenshot. I'm concerned that that error message was so visible: that's a security risk. Please check your PHP setup and make sure that errors do not get reported to the web site visitor.

I'm going to the Half Moon Bay event on Saturday.

Saturday!

If Only I Had Known Read Ukswrath’s thread all the way through before you begin. It is filled with tidbits that you will want to know ahead of time. There’s plenty to read until BBD. Get more magnets and clamps. I got 20 thin ones; 20 thick ones would have been better. Read the Centurion approval threads. Learn from other people’s errors. Oopses Peel the protective film off before you glue things together. (Don’t worry: It peels off. Then you can reglue the parts.) If it doesn’t feel like it fits that way, then maybe it doesn’t fit that way! Fo your approval photos, get someone to help. The TK Armor is not easy to put on yourself and get right for inspection. Additional Advice The Anovos strapping system is okay for initial fitting and your submission photos. But you will probably want to upgrade that. The Anovos belt is silly. Get a good one like Imperial Issue. Get Centurion-approved boots even if you don’t now plan on that level. The Sterilite 32 gallon tote is perfect and is a good thing to practice masking and spray-painting on. Thanks To The fine troopers in FISD who encouraged and advised me along the way. My friend Razek the Dragon who took time off from his vacation to help me suit up and pay attention to and fix all those finicky details. He earns a 501st patch!

After fine-grit sanding, how do you make it shine?

I'm gonna buy my photographer and setter-upper a t-hirt and a patch.

Hang in there, Frank. I had to do adjustments after my first submission too. Based on that and reading comments on other submission, I tried to gather up all the tidbits into one place. It's a ton of stuff! I hope this helps.

TK-60361 requesting access: https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=26832

Trooper Woof Howl: Aa-Ru!

I just completed my Anovos ANH TK Stormtrooper. Non-Star-Wars, I have a toony wolf fursuit for which I made a space suit inspired by the early Apollo designs and the Russian Sokol re-entry suit. If this Space Cadet ever shows up at a Troop, arrest his tail immediately; he's wanted for piracy.

Oooo, Secret Areas. Thank you; I will.

Everybody needs a shiny crate. This is mine, a Sterilite 32 gallon container. It's big enough for my entire TK armor kit. It has lovely moldings that just beg to be painted. I liked it so much I got another one for my fur suit. Wheels are so much nicer for dragging around a con hotel.

Last week I got a friend to help me suit up and photograph me. Today I got a very nice email from my GML. Now I await my TK ID.

How much does taking off the helmet break the magic? Fur-suiters take that very seriously, especially with kids, and we hate being photographed with head off. I once gave a photographer such a crusty look that he put down his camera. But everybody knows that Strormtroopers are human people, and for a scared kid, that's okay. We just can't eat while in uniform.

That's twisted.

Instead of photos, I can only see gray No Entry signs, even when I try to open the images in a separate window. Do you have the permies set right?

I've been researching which return edges need to be trimmed and which don't. Some things are clear; some are ambiguous. At the bottom end of the shins, there should be no return edge. I was worried that I had too much on mine, as they ride up, but when I examined closely, I saw that I had done it mostly right. I got rid of some less-than-nice edges: the file is my friend, as is a 20-grit and a 320-grit 3M sandpaper sponge. At the bottom end of the forearms, return edge is optional for levels 1 and 2, but banned for level 3. So I decided to trim these edges off. It was easier than I expected. With my right (dominant) hand I reached in with an Xacto knife and scored the return edge as I rolled the forearm along on the table. The tricky parts were at the joints. I cut the edges smooth across the "thick" part with the ribblies. With square pliers I snapped the thin return-edge and filed and sanded them smooth. What do do with the bottoms of shoulders and tops of biceps is ambiguous, with some recommending these be trimmed. The shoulders on mine have 2-3 mm return edge, reasonably smooth, which makes sense to keep as that's supposed to be a thickish piece of armor there, so I left those alone. The tops of the biceps are hidden, so this is entirely a question of fit and comfort. As I am an elf, I will leave them be fore the time being. One builder trimmed the edges of his codpiece, for reasons, but my thinking is this: it is an armored area and ought to be thick (even if no one will admit to looking at it), and it needs some structural strength. (I understand the reasons. For other reasons, I wear a cup when costuming, so that takes care of that. ) All the other return edges stay; I had already smoothed them all with file and sandpaper during construction. The one issue that remains is the top end of the thighs. I've seen a lot of approaches to trimming them and I'm not sure I like any I noticed. IMHO the shape needs to match. Of course, if the wearer is shorter than the intended model, something must be done. But I' a standard-issue Elf: 5'10", 145#, so this ought to fit without a lot of change. I had success with making sure the shoulders were cinched up good and tight, lifting the whole torso up a good inch, and making sure the shins are low on the boots. These things can be adjusted … after some walking around under the keen eye of an experienced trooper.

*nods* Seeing as how I have zero Trooping experience, I'll defer to my betters. I suppose that in going from fursuiting, with my own unique costume that I designed and commissioned according to my imagination, to 501st Trooping, with a costume I made to existing specifications, I've learned to look at the armor suits in a whole different way.

I'll buy a donut for any Trooper whom a spectator noticed having the wrong number of rivets.

The number of rivets, however, matters. I have seen a diagram that specifies four rivets on the belt for one type ad two for the other.