Timberwoof

Huh. My newly-entered text is okay, but what I copied and pasted looks like what it looks like.

I found the German-language section and noticed that the Umlauts and Ess-Zett (ß) are broken all over. Let's see if I can reproduce what I see: I can make these on my keyboard and they look okay while posting: ä, ö, ü, Ä, Ö, Ü, ß look okay. But this is the sort of thing I see: heißt er E6000. That looks like a Unicode byte pair not getting displayed as an Ess-Zett (ß).

I was thinking about all the stuff I learned about TK armor and had to coach my friend whose eye for detail I enlisted when I needed some photos taken. When I suggested a collection of TK Armor Fitting Wisdom, Harbinger said it would be a great thread. I figured I volunteered to start it, so. Introduction This document presents Tips for Troopers, Handlers, and Photographers when doing the final fitting and photography for the approval submission photos or for preparing for a Troop. There’s a section for each role. No matter your role, you should read every section; it’s helpful to know what everyone needs to do. Some parts of the fitting may involve personal space and limits. We can act like adults about this. Trust your teammate; honor your limits. Troopers, Technicians, and Photographers are a Team: we all work for the Legion. This is a living document: If you have an idea to improve this, please suggest it. Advice for the Trooper This is not build advice. I waded into the depths of build advice, and with only an idea of what questions to ask, just the advice on trimming return edges is voluminous, confusing, and often contradictory. Here I talk about How to be a Good Trooper for your first photo session. Your Technician and Photographer are there to make you look your best. Do what they ask and thank them for it. Above all, have fun, or else. Undersuit Wear your undersuit pants tightly. Droop in the crotch will make it harder to make the codpiece fit right. (The Anovos “M” tights are loose on a small-to-medium waist. If you can find Underarmour or the like on Amazon that has no stripes or logos, get that.) Thighs, Shins, Boots Fiddle with the velcro strapping system until you figure out the best position and length for the thigh suspension straps. Step on a chair to raise your foot so you can fit the shins. Chest and Back Help your technician tighten the chest and back: Press against the top middle of your chest so your tech can press on your back and set the shoulder straps. You can reach your crotch strap; let your Tech do the side. They can see whether it meets up nicely. Belt You can’t snap the belt by pushing on the ammo box. You have to poke a finger behind and press directly on the snap. The drop-boxes can get lost behind the points of the thighs. Your tech will help you. Shoulder Bells, Biceps, Arms Gloves first, then the big parts, then the wrist guards. Check for ease of movement. Can you do curls like a weightlifter? Helmet Check that your helmet is centered left and right. Your eyes will be in the inner corners of the eye openings. Can you look straight ahead? Close one eye at a time; can you still see the thing you’re looking at? Look at the inside of the helmet. Can you see the same features left and right? Advice for the Handler Chest and Back Tighten the shoulder straps as much as you can. You want the chest and back to ride as high up as they will go so the codpiece doesn’t sag. Assuming velcro, let the trooper press on their chest; you push the back and do the shoulders. Check that left and right shoulder ends meet up symmetrically. Let the Trooper do up the crotch snaps, then you do the right side closure. Do the front and back meet up nicely? (Ideal is no gap, no overlap.) Check how the neck seal lies. It will get scrunched when fitting the chest and back. Try to avoid folds and sticky-outy things. Are the back-kidney and kidney-butt joints straight and not too wide? (Ideal is no gap, no overlap.) Belt You can’t snap the belt by pushing on the ammo box. You have to poke a finger behind and press directly on the snap. You may get better leverage by standing behind your Trooper to give a reach-around. It’s a cooperation thing. Make sure the belt is reasonably tight and rides reasonably straight all the way around. Check that the Dermal Thetonator is centered. Pay attention to the drop-boxes; they can get lost behind the tops of the thighs. Thighs, Boots, Shins In that order. How far you can mess with the trooper’s thigh straps is a matter of trust and comfort. Shins fit easier if the Trooper puts one foot on a chair. You can also check movement that way. Shins sometimes ride up, so check this for the photo. Cover strips on thighs and shins line up facing directly forward and back. Shoulder Bells, Biceps, Arms Once the shoulder straps between chest and back are set, adjust the shoulder bells. Check that the bells are rotated front/back so the gap is even and not too big. Check that shoulder bells don’t stick out too much at the bottom end. Biceps should go as high as they can. Have the Trooper raise arms up and down like a weightlifter. Do the biceps and forearms bind? It’s okay to undo the lower bell straps so you can do the straps to the biceps. The lower bell straps go over the biceps. Forearms need to be rotated so the ribbly thing lines up with the pinky. Can the trooper do curls like a weightlifter? With the arms at the sides, side seams on shoulders, biceps, and forearms go straight out. Cover strips on biceps and forearms line up front and back. Integration Having the Trooper walk around will reveal problems. Advice for the Photographer If you're an expert, forgive me for teaching the basics. Check lighting, focus, background. Lights make highlights and shadows: this is good. If you can zoom in, stand a reasonable distance away; roughly 4 meters is good for portraits and will avoid weird wide-angle effects. Vertical format. Try shots from chest height. Zoom in to fill the frame, but don’t cut off the trooper’s feet. Having read the rest of this Wisdom, you’ll know some details to look for. Keep the list of needed shots. It’s okay to ask the handler to fix something. It’s okay to ask the trooper to adjust their pose. For the action shots, it’s okay to suggest poses. If you have the opportunity to walk around the neighborhood and want to, go ahead and shoot the Trooper in real situations. Have fun!

In his environmentally conscious Hybrid.

That photo was after the first attempt at fitting. Walking around revealed problems, which we addressed for the second try. Very important for me was to completely tighten up the shoulder joints. It's a three-handed task, so I pressed in my chest piece while my friend pressed in on my back and tightened up the shoulder connections. (Velcro is a good first step: It's adjustable.) With the shoulders joined up the whole chest-cod-back-kidnet-butt assembly rode higher. We were then able to lower the thighs a bit. The shins keep riding up; I think I will reduce the return edges at the bottom end. I'm beginning to think that there needs to be a collection of TK Armor Fitting Wisdom (I suppose I could forage through these threads for material), or that The Collection of TK Armor Fitting Wisdom, which I have not yet found, needs to be pinned somewhere. I'd be pleased if there were a patch for TK Armor Technicians which handlers and helpers could be awarded and wear with pride and recognition.

On Monday I got a friend to help with checking fit and taking pictures. After the first bunch I went back to my car to fetch my backpack and lappy. Walking around was comfy enough: there were some steps and a garage door to duck under. The biggest problem was the biceps; we made that strap a lot tighter. I suspect that this backpack is not canon: https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Storm-Trooper-Backpack/dp/B0118E28YM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1516122719&sr=8-1&keywords=stormtrooper+backpack+for+men

Headdesk. After a few weeks of no new activity on my build, today I was finally able to wrangle help for getting my armor to fit well and all the standard photos. When I perused here I found this, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted to do before submitting to my GML! So soon there will be another day of careful armor fitting and shooting.

The last time I tried to send the webmaster a message, the site was down so I could not find the right address.

I see it happen a lot that access to the site bogs down or ends up in a Server Error 500. One time I got specific php error messages with file names and line numbers, which is odd if the server was set up not to do that. I have real-world experience with setting up and maintaining LAMP servers. I don't mean to butt in; I'm sure you have your experts madly trying to solve the problem. That said, can I help?

I redid the right bicep; it's glued and set and back in the box with the rest of the armor. Are there any other obvious fitment issues I need to take care of for my actual submission photos?

I missed for a week at least. It didn't help that it was in a bag in a bag.

Yeah. Especially if it had accidentally gotten armed and exploded. ABS shrapnel everywhere! =:o

Usually. I had already assembled it and put it back in a plastic bag so it can be safely stored in the box. Somehow it ended up in that bag of mold scraps, and i had been walking by it several times a day for a few days while madly looking for it. It's visible in that image. Sort of.

I found it. Can you Spot the Thermal Detonator?

I did. The right side was correct; the left was obviously (now that I'm an experienced builder) wrong. E-6000 is the correct glue to use. I gently pried the parts apart (planning ahead of time which side keeps the cover strips!), cleaned off the glue, glued the parts together correctly, clamped, taped, and clamped with magnets. Two clues I missed when putting them together were that the bicep parts are a cm or two wider at the top end than the bottom, and the bottom ends are not 90° to the main axis. IIRC, those were among the first parts I worked on.

Thank you! I'd much rather have that noticed now than later!

Dress Rehearsal I would like some advice on fitting. Here's me with my completed Imperial Issue belt and holster and reduced return edge on the shoulder bells. I cinched up the shoulder straps on the chest and back and made the codpiece and kidney/posterior fight tight with a little overlap. The whole chest and abdomen feel comfortable. Overhead lighting is two LED strips; that gouge in my kidney pate is a reflection. The camera is at ~35" above the floor, half my height. That's why you can see those snaps. In my right hand is the remote control: no assistant. There are some minor issues I know about and intend to attend to when I do my Real Photos. The belt is not fastened right. That's Really Hard to get right on my lonesome. And the Thermal Detonator has gone missing. (The next step is to tear my work room apart piece by piece to find it.) There are some pieces that are walpyjod: the back and kidney don't meet quite right; the shoulder bells need to be rotated forward. The arms need attention too: the biceps need to be actually attached to the shoulder bells, which I have not figured out how to do on my own. And argh, the right ammo box fell into the thigh while I was taking the photos. I find getting into this armor frustrating, what with all the details that need attention. In comparison, I can get into and out of my fursuit by myself fairly easily, even with the zipper in the back! Are my expectations in line with reality? What concerns me the most is the fit of the thighs and shins. I'm 5'10" tall and weigh 145#. I used to have Thighs of Steel and a Skater's Butt from playing hockey, but I am basically an elf. The thighs seem big and clunky and I think the shins are too high. Where is the bottom end of the shins supposed to go, and where the knees? How well (tightly) should the thighs fit me? Here's my helmet: I added grey to the ends of the frown and tended to some of the overspray. At this point I'm aiming for Basic. Advanced levels will require $ for boots and wrist guards. Later. Off-Topic: Here's my fursuit, a commission (Further Confusion 2013): And here's my space suit, which I made (MileHiCon 2017):

I tried my armor on for a photo shoot. I found my thermal detonator missing. Distressing, that is. Wouldn't want that to fall into the wrong hands.

The first thing you should do upon opening your Dremel kit is to photograph it. This will be the key to unlock Achievement: Repacking your Dremel Kit.

I Dremulated the other three screws with the thinner cutting wheel. One of them needed deburring. The results make me happy: No more sticky-outy screws. And the pads lay much better inside the helmet. They are much less likely to come loose now. I told them that if they did not stick to the inside of the helmet, I'd smear some E-6000 on their behinds. Nothing like the threat of some white armor discipline to get the pieces in line. I also started reworking the belt. Now to check my checklist of things that need attention. • smudge on ammo belt - sanded off; done • shoulder bell return edges cut down - done • tiny gray paint triangles on the frown - done • holster attachment to the belt • recombobulate the chest armor assembly with everything as tight as it will go. (I'm an elf.) • check it all for fitment • photos • resubmit

I got a Dremel 4000/34, which comes with a nice starter variety of bits and attachments. I even read through the instructions before plugging in that little beast. I had fun dremelating the Anovos ammo belt to prepare it for the Imperial Issue cloth belt. I used a cutting wheel to cut away at the insides of the rivets. This worked very well: it heated the rivet which melted the plastic that was holding the other side in place and burned just enough of the cotton belt so that I could remove the rivet with a pair of pliers. It isn't exactly the procedure I had in mind, but it worked. I sliced off the square button covers off fairly easily with a boxcutter and flat screwdriver. I ground down the lumps and glued some reinforcement to the insides of the ammo belt where it will be riveted to the new belt. I practiced some ancient Anglo-Saxon words because I cannot find my anvil and tool for setting the snaps. The tool I did find is a bit too thick to do it quite right. No, it needs the correct anvil and tool. Sigh. I decided that in the lull between projects it would be a good idea to tidy up my work shop. That'll learn me! I did cut down one of the four helmet ear screws. That did what I wanted, but I think the biggest, thickest wheel was not the right one to use. I'll try it again with a thinner one. High speed and intermittent cutting is probably the best approach here. For delicate and finish work on a helmet or armor, I'd still use a file, sandpaper, and that fun 3M sandpaper sponge thing. Power tools, back off!

TYVM

Yup. Best practice would be to bevel the cut ends of the bolts. American bolts are better in this regard than German ones. On my BMW motorcycle, the bolts will thread only if you get them juuust right into their threads. Guh.

ROTK - probably not Return Of The King.

Aha! Hold the screw tightly with needle-nose pliers as a heat sink. Or unscrew the screws, one at a time hold them with pliers and cut them with the Dremel (easier than a hacksaw), and put them back in. That is actually a secondary concern: merely technical and objective. For the helmet, my biggest concern is the frown, for that is subjective.