MakeNoiseMan

Troop #20: January 24th, 2020—Ontario Collector's Con, Mississauga, ON Retro-actively posting an event from January; to be honest, I don't remember much about it. It was just over eleven months ago, yet it feels like a decade has passed. But I do have a picture! So, voilà, Troop #20!

NON-TK Troops: December 19th and December 22nd, 2019—Toronto and London, ON What a year. I hope you all are healthy and well! I wanted to catch up my troop log even though there isn't much happening at the moment. Since this thread is also a troop record for personal use, I hope it's okay if I include some troops where I'm dressed as something else! Of course, I won't count these toward the official tally for badges. Both of these events were premieres for Rise of Skywalker last Christmas. The first was the Canadian premiere in Toronto, and it was super memorable! Right up there with Pride 2019 and Weird Al for magical experiences that I never thought I'd get to do. I was dressed as Plo Koon—I'm all the way on the left in the group line-up. And some other cool shots. A good-looking crew! That same week, we had a smaller event at a local theatre for charity. Smaller theatre—but comfier chairs. I was Plo Koon at this one, too.

Troop #19: November 30th, 2019—Windsor Santa Claus Parade, Windsor, ON One more parade before the year wraps up! This time in Windsor. Great times! Only two more events left this year. Both of them are Rise of Skywalker premieres—I can't believe how quickly that arrived! Happy holidays, all!

Troop #18: November 9th, 2019—London Santa Claus Parade, London, ON A chilly but (thankfully) dry evening to walk through downtown London! We were behind a float with pumping tunes so dancing was abundant. Also, it was a ton of fun to Christmas-ify our costumes. That's me in the back with the Santa hat.

Troops #16 and #17: October 27th, 2019—Hallowe'en Family Fun Day + Halloween Spooktacular, Windsor, ON Jinkies, I have neglected this log! Time to catch up. Two troops back-to-back on October 27th, both in Windsor. I love Halloween. Tons of kids in costumes. Great times! Here is the group shot from Family Fun Day—aaand I missed it, in true stormtrooper-aim fashion. The second photo is proof of my attendance. Imperial family photo. I am the one on the far right. We left Family Fun Day and headed straight over to Malden Park for Windsor's 4th Annual Halloween Spooktacular. We even met up with some superheroes at this one!

Hahaa fantastic!! I looove those hand-on-the-head shots. Classic Chewie. Definitely looking forward to next time! And congrats on the armour!! If you need a hand, let me know. AP is a great choice. Though it may get hot in there with all the fur ... [emoji848] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Troop #15: October 5th and 6th, 2019—London ComicCon, London, ON The convention closest to my hometown of St. Thomas, ON! This was the first time the 501st and sister groups attended this con, and it was awesome to have such a successful showing! Doing Blast-a-Trooper with my bestest-TK-buddy, Pat. Good times, brother! But I'm still gonna stand behind you. Sucker. He paid me back for that when he was out of costume. I also got to test-run my two new costumes for Rebel Legion. Make no mistake, though—UNQUESTIONED LOYALTY! TK first and forever. The first is Plo Koon, seen here on the far right: And the second is a generic Jedi outfit for times that require good visibility, like range-handling and keeping an eye on this (SPECTACULAR!!) Galactic Academy trooper, Nate. I'm on the far left. "You will forget Order 66." So THIS is what it feels like to be on the other end of the blaster And some other great photos of the garrison, including the Michigan troops and mandos who came up to joins again. Look at these two snowtroopers!!

Troop #14: September 22nd, 2019—Windsor ComicCon, Windsor, ON I was only able to attend the second day of this, but what a great convention! Awesome turnout of con-goers and costumers, and some folks from the Michigan garrison even came up to join us. Good times! I'm the one on the far right. Some photos from my Blast-a-Trooper shift. Still my favourite thing ever, though I have had to treat a few armour cracks by this point ... "Maybe we can come up with a diplomatic solution?" "Nope, she prefers aggressive negotiations!" And some awesome photos of the rest of the Canadian and Michigan garrisons. I am particularly fond of George's Punisher TK here. SO cool!

Troop #13: August 17th, 2019—Aviation Fun Day, Breslau, ON I missed logging this one! Retro-actively adding it. This was an awesome event at the Waterloo airport. People came to look at a bunch of cool jets and hang out with some Star Wars characters. I don't have a ton of photos—there were about 15 characters present—but here are some of me with Han and Chewie. Tons of fun!

Thanks guys!!

Thanks so much!! I appreciate your time and feedback. The journey doesn't end here, I'll definitely keep tweaking as per your notes. Have a great day and thanks again!!

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS Ab/kidney connection, left side (with me in the photo ) Ab/kidney connection, right side (closed tighter, and tab'n'slot painted black) Thermal detonator, back (sticker removed) Left hovi-mic tip, visible white interior Right hovi-mic tip, visible white interior Thanks thanks!

Thanks! Will do! Thanks so much for your time, I will get those updated asap!

Thanks thanks!!

Thanks guys!! Updated with photos of boots.

Hi, everybody! Thanks for taking a look at my submission! Name: Brendan May 501st TKID: TK-61596 FISD Forum Name: MakeNoiseMan Garrison: Canadian Garrison, Vindicator Squad Mandatory Information Armor = Authentic Props Helmet = Authentic Props Blaster = Quest Design Canada Optional Height = 5'10" Weight = 195lbs Boots = Imperial Boots Canvas belt = Authentic Props Hand Plates = Authentic Props Electronics= Ukswrath's Hearing Assist/iComm + Aker amp/Henry's Helmet Fans Neck Seal = Geeky Pink Gaskets Holster = Authentic Props Link to EIB application: On to the photos! FULL BODY Front Back Left side Right side ARMOUR DETAILS Ab/kidney attachment, left side Ab/kidney attachment, right side Butt/kidney, not fixed Hand plates Hand plates, flexible Shoulder bridges, front Shoulder bridges, back Back/chest connection, left side Back/chest connection, right side Thigh pack attachment, left side Thigh pack attachment, right side Knee plate Knee plate, left side Knee plate, right side Belt/drop boxes, back Left drop box, back Right drop box, back Cod/butt attachment Cod rivet Butt snaps Interior strapping Kidney plate notch, left side Kidney plate notch, right side Wrist end of forearms Boots, left side Boots, right side Boots, back HELMET DETAILS Front Back Left side Right side Hovi-mic tip detail Left hovi-mic tip Right hovi-mic tip Lens colour, back-lit S-trim *Note: In this photo, the S-trim is on backwards. I have fixed this, but the S-trim is glued on now so I am hoping this older photo will suffice. Current S-trim (glued on) BLASTER DETAILS Left side Right side D-ring ACCESSORIES DETAILS Neck seal, front Neck seal, back Thermal detonator, front Thermal detonator, back Thermal detonator, screws Holster attachment Thanks for your time! If you need any more photos, please let me know, I'll be happy to provide them.

Thanks guys!!

Hey everybody! Move tube stripes closer to cheeks The paint dry, I peeled the stencils off and cleaned up the messy bits. I think my first tube stripes were a little nicer, and I may return to these and fiddle with them further, but at least they are the correct distance from the cheek! Extend paint job on tears This was a quick one! I just painted some extra black around the edges, and then filled in with some grey afterwards. Done! And .... that brings me to the end of my list! Now of course, we all know a kit can always be improved further. I appreciate the continued feedback you guys provide. It is my intention to implement these additional tweaks, however small, down the road (like when I have the cash for more snaps. ). For now, though, I am excited to get my L3 application submitted, so I'll photograph my suit as it is now. But I do still welcome the input and critique! Even tiny steps toward greater screen accuracy help sell the magic at a troop. TO-DO LIST BEFORE L3 SUBMISSION General suggestions: Remove excess paint from one frown tooth Move tube stripes closer to cheeks Extend paint job on tears Make sure forearms aren't twisted in submission photos Remove excess paint from ab buttons Remove excess plastic from ammo belt Squeeze D-ring on E-11 to proper dimensions Centurion-specific suggestions: Swap Ukswrath's hovi-mic speakers for AP-supplied mic tips Bring shoulder bells closer to chestplate/shoulder bridges Correctly align drop-boxes to the edges of the ammo belt My goodness, it is satisfying to cross items off of lists. No matter what the list is! With my to-do list completed, I added a final step and cleaned/polished my armour up for submission photos. After all the work, may as well look our best! Submission time! I am going to visit my parents this weekend and they are going to help me take the photos, so my application won't be in until Sunday. All the same I am very excited to finally be reaching this "last step" of TK armour creation (again, though, as if it's ever really finished). As always, thank you EVERYONE who chimes in and supports build threads. From beginning to end you troopers have made this such a wonderful experience. Rock on TKs!!

Hello again! I accidentally left something off my to-do list from my EIB feedback: General suggestion: Remove excess plastic from ammo belt Remove excess plastic from ammo belt Trimmed that puppy down, sanded, and we're good to go. Squeeze D-ring on E-11 to proper dimensions This is the smallest I can squeeze it—I think it is now good enough, though. It used to extend wider than the butt of the gun itself, but now it's within the dimensions. Bring shoulder bells closer to chestplate/shoulder bridges I had previously made shorter elastic straps to connect my shoulder bells to my shoulder straps: In addition to that, I sanded down the inside of my shoulder bells further so that they would sit closer against the biceps, and by extension, reduce the gap between them and my chestplate. Here is a comparison (the inner bell is updated, the outer bell yet is not): Happy with the result! That just leaves a bit more painting. Almost there! TO-DO LIST BEFORE L3 SUBMISSION General suggestions: Remove excess paint from one frown tooth Move tube stripes closer to cheeks Extend paint job on tears Make sure forearms aren't twisted in submission photos Remove excess paint from ab buttons Remove excess plastic from ammo belt Squeeze D-ring on E-11 to proper dimensions Centurion-specific suggestions: Swap Ukswrath's hovi-mic speakers for AP-supplied mic tips Bring shoulder bells closer to chestplate/shoulder bridges Correctly align drop-boxes to the edges of the ammo belt

Hi, everybody! Hope you all are doing well. The time has come for me to stop procrastinating and submit for L3. I have been having so much fun trooping, I sort of forgot that my suit wasn't quite finished yet! Seriously, though, I am thirteen troops in and am having SO much fun. This whole journey from construction to costuming has been one of the greatest rides of my life so far. Without further ado, here is a compiled list of the feedback I got on my EIB application. General suggestions: Remove excess paint from one frown tooth Move right ear further back and correct screw alignment of ears Move tube stripes closer to cheeks Extend paint job on tears Make sure forearms aren't twisted in submission photos Remove excess paint from ab buttons Squeeze D-ring on E-11 to proper dimensions Raise Hengstler on E-11 Centurion-specific suggestions: Swap Ukswrath's hovi-mic speakers for AP-supplied mic tips Bring shoulder bells closer to chestplate/shoulder bridges Correctly align drop-boxes to the edges of the ammo belt Pretty manageable! A few have already been taken care of, even. However, there are a couple of items that I am going to remove from the "general suggestion" list for now and hope that I can still qualify for Centurion. The first is the placement of my ears. As detailed throughout my build, my ears were a real struggle-point. Because of this, my bucket isn't super pretty underneath them. Changing or moving my ears will be a pretty complicated endeavour, and I think I will save that for a last resort. If they are a hold-up from L3, then I'll get er done, but if they are acceptable as they are, I'd rather leave them be. The second is raising the Hengstler counter on my E-11. The whole blaster came as a resin-cast one-piece, so I am reluctant to start cutting it apart. If it qualifies for L3 already, I'd rather not compromise the integrity of the construction. If not, I will cross that bridge when I get to it. With two items set aside, I am ready to start tackling the remainder! Remove excess paint from one frown tooth Here is the tooth in question. Presto! Move tube stripes closer to cheeks Here we can see my previous tube stripes sitting too far away from the cheek (Shame! Shame! Shame! Ding ding ding). Washed them away with mineral spirits and Q-tips (they look like my tears). And boom! Quick wipe with paper towel and the tube is squeaky-clean once more. It looks so naked now. My new stencils, correctly spaced a No.2 pencil's width from the cheek, and with the "leaning" stripes near the chin. A coat of white paint to seal the edges (which I forgot last time—not a fatal mistake, but will save a ton of time cleaning them up!) and then some tastey Humbrol 14 Gloss Blue. I still have a couple of coats to do, I'll cross this one off once it's %100 done. Remove excess paint from ab buttons Donezo! Swap Ukswrath's hovi-mic speakers for AP-supplied mic tips Easy switch. I will re-install Ukswrath's speakers for trooping because they are awesome. AP's mic tips are great, but needed the white paint along the rim. Correctly align drop-boxes to the edges of the ammo belt This one I corrected a while ago, as seen here in this photo with my hero Weird Al. And that's where we are so far! More to come. TO-DO LIST BEFORE L3 SUBMISSION General suggestions: Remove excess paint from one frown tooth Move tube stripes closer to cheeks Extend paint job on tears Make sure forearms aren't twisted in submission photos Remove excess paint from ab buttons Squeeze D-ring on E-11 to proper dimensions Centurion-specific suggestions: Swap Ukswrath's hovi-mic speakers for AP-supplied mic tips Bring shoulder bells closer to chestplate/shoulder bridges Correctly align drop-boxes to the edges of the ammo belt

Troop #12: August 23rd, 24th and 25th, 2019—FanExpo Canada, Toronto, ON This is the biggest one of the year for our garrison! TONS of fun. Standing with so many other Star Wars characters never gets old. I am the TK right behind/between Gree and Cody. Forming up for our TK march—which was a BLAST. I'm the fifth one back in this photo. We marched the perimeter of the convention centre, stopping at three points for photos with the public. What was even cooler was riding the freight lift up to the street level. It was dimly-lit with concrete walls, a little wobbly and straight out of a Star Wars movie. "Someone start messing with the lightswitch." I'm the second from the left in the back row in these photos. We were all feeling a little short to be stormtroopers here. I'm the one on the right. And some other great-looking members of our garrison! This is Al, and he's an honorary member of our garrison cosplaying George Lucas himself. He gets stopped all the time. Can't wait til next year!

11 troops in and loving it! Requesting 10-Troop badge, please and thank you! Milestone and troop log: 10th troop date and event: July 8th, 2019 - Weird Al "Strings Attached" Tour, Budweiser Stage, Toronto, ON

Troop #11: July 28th, 2019—Pride London Festival Parade, London, ON My second time in a Pride Parade! Just as fun as the first. Different, though—the giant Toronto parade felt like a party all the way along. The London parade was much more oriented towards families and kids. Both parades were fantastic, but it was a serious joy to see so many young children wearing colourful shirts and yelling "Happy Pride!!" as we walked past. The turnout was super, too. It was awesome to see so much support from all ages. I'm the rainbow-y TK. Here are some other great shots of our squad! Happy Pride, troopers!

Troop #10: July 8th, 2019—Weird Al "Strings Attached" Tour, Budweiser Stage, Toronto, ON I'm a little late posting this, but here goes! Holy cow, guys. I don't even know where to begin. I'll try not to get too sappy, but this one requires a bit of backstory. I am a HUGE fan of Weird Al. My dad loves him, so my brother and I grew up with his parodies. Naturally, "The Saga Begins" has always been a personal favourite. This is a photo of me with some friends, wearing costumes, performing the song in a talent show when I was about 10 years old. I'm the one in the robes. Since joining the 501st in February, I have had more opportunities to live out childhood daydreams than in my whole life beforehand. My first con, hospital visits, Pride in Toronto—all amazing. This one, though, was extra special for me. Here's a stage-side photo from the concert. I'm the trooper here on the right-most side, next to Chewie. This experience was INCREDIBLE. I arrived in Toronto at about 4:30pm, and we weren't onstage until nearly 10:00pm. We had about 15 minutes with the tour manager to go over the (mercifully simple) dance routine and to find our spots to stand on-stage. After that, we were left to practice on our own. At about 9:30pm, we were moved backstage. Had some fun photos with the crew working there (plus a few for ourselves). I'm the one in the very middle. I'm on the far left. Then, it was showtime! I have never seen so many people. The cheering was overwhelming. Al was awesome, of course. It was a serious challenge to stay still and forward-looking while he was RIGHT there on stage, three feet from me. At the slow part near the end of the song, the crowd all pulled out cell phones and shone their flashlights. They looked like stars, tinted green through my lenses. It was unreal. Afterwards, we did get a brief chance to say hi to Al and get a photo with him. Right after the concert, VIP-ticket buyers could go to an outdoor lounge area to meet Al. Any 501st characters that could stick around were welcome to troop. Vader, another TK and I went down in costume to take photos with people as they waited in line for autographs. I'm the one on the right. Once everyone had gotten a turn, I hopped in line myself and got to speak to Al once more, a little longer this time, and thank him for the opportunity. I also got his autograph inside my chestplate. Since my armour was my ticket into this incredible opportunity, it seemed only fitting that it be the item I get him to sign. I coated it with clear nail polish so that the marker won't smudge. Bit of a lengthy post here, but I just had so much to say about it! If you ever get the chance to sign up for a Weird Al show, do it. It's a lot of waiting around—hours—for about 5 minutes on-stage, but it was worth every minute. Utterly unforgettable. I am so so grateful to be a part of this Legion of memory-makers. Rock on, troopers!!

Woohoo! Congratulations on both your kit order and your health! Welcome to FISD. Post lots of pictures! Tons of great people here with expertise to share. And we all like watching TKs getting put together. Have fun and enjoy the build!