Firedog

I thought as much. That’s helpful information regarding the history of how these were previously made as I’m just getting into it and following current build techniques. I do think I could loosen the top of my thighs some, but I have been wearing boxer briefs underneath my compression pants and should gain a smidgen more room if I stop doing that, so we’ll see. I could even remove one side and use Velcro I have difficulty with them once I get out and walk for an extended period. Then I could dial em in to the sweet spot.

Thank you for your kind words, Paul. You mentioned not glueing the strips prior to trooping. What did you do in lieu of gluing them?

Congrats!!!!

Looking really good so far! Keep it up!

So, I said this was a dueling build, but there was no way I was going to be able to build both of these kits simultaneously and make my goal of first 1k EIB. Also, as I mentioned earlier, building my kit first would allow me to use those skills to build my son's. In addition to this, if for some reason I screwed up and cut too much off when sizing, he is smaller than me and I could have swapped out parts with his and still had plenty to trim off. All that being said, here is what I have been up to the past week. First, I worked on trimming return edges from appendages. As he wasn't here at the time to do any fitting, I began cutting the fronts of the thighs and shins to about 11mm on each side and sanded them down to close to 10mm as I still wanted a small amount of reveal on either side of the 20mm cover strip. And then, cover strip installation began Front cover strips on thighs and shins done. The two pieces without magnets had already been sitting for 24 hours and I needed the magnets, so I removed them and left the clamps just for my own peace of mind. On to the forearms. Here is where I have questions. My son takes after me at his age, as in there's not much to him. He's about 6' and 165lbs. His arms are a bit on the small size, but I don't really want to trim this armor down so much that he can't grow into it a little as he matures. If he's anything like me, he'll put on a little more weight in the not too distant future. You can see in this photo that there is about a finger width on the inside/outside of the arm, but in the next photo, you can also see that the forearms are a decent amount larger than his arm. Will this cause the armor to look wonky? I told him we would add padding to keep the armor from moving around. While we're on the subject of things fitting properly in two different directions. We worked on fitting the body pieces this evening. I trimmed off the ab, kidney, and shoulders to get this fit. While it fits pretty good in front and back, as you can see, there is a decent amount of room on the sides. I put him in my arm pieces just to get the overall visual. He's a skinny fella and I don't want him to be swallowed in armor that looks way too big for his frame. I have seen some threads where the ab and kidney are reformed to hug a little closer on the sides, but it seems a daunting and risky endeavor. Any feedback here is greatly appreciated.

I’ve never heard of either. My curiosity impels me to investigate.

LMAO...I had to go back and watch, as I didn’t even notice it the first 100 times I watched it.

That’s an awesome story, Matthew! It’s nice to have great women by our sides that support our love for the franchise. Welcome to FISD! You won’t find a better group.

Shawn Williams TK-12399 EIB Letter Joseph http://www.whitearmor.net/eib/certificates/12399-eib.png 305

Mine is from my years in the fire service. As a rookie, I had to don the “Sparky” costume on many an occasion for community events, school events, parades, etc. I guess this was my first experience costuming...lol. The kids always loved seeing Sparky. One day, while trying to come up with a name on another board many moons ago, I chose Firedog. It’s followed me around ever since.

Um...That patch just blew my mind! Kudos to the designer/designers and all that made this happen! I’m so glad I was able to be a part of this!

Good luck to you David! I know the feeling!

That can’t be the EIB patch. Too much paint on the frown!

Thanks Paul and Mario! I’m still smiling...lol

Thank you so much! I started this build with my eyes on first 1k, but due to being a novice among what I thought would be delays getting my blaster such, I had my doubts. Its amazing watching all the other EIB confirmations and while I was cheering on each one, I'd lie if I didn't say I got a bit more anxious with each one as well. This is an exciting milestone for me! Also, you were correct in your assumption regarding the elastic on the straps. I knew I would miss submitting a photo. Keep an eye out for my Centurion application in the very near future. I'll have to work these fixes in while building @McNuggies kit and blaster.

Hard not to talk you up! That’s what happens when you provide a high quality, innovative product and provide a great customer experience. Best advertising is word of mouth.

That is the kit I purchased. He has a thread in the Ongoing Sales area for these and the fans. I purchased the fans with the bracket and it works well, although I had to do a little trimming to get it to sit in the helmet like I wanted. The audio system is self-powered and rechargeable. I just have a USB battery for the fans in the bucket. If you look closely on the right side, there is a section of padding that I removed to put the flat battery pack. It is attached with Velcro. Additionally, the cable that connects to the USB power bank has a switch on it. Since this photo, I drilled another hole in the mounting bracket and inserted the main cutoff switch into the bracket.

I have recently installed Ukswrath’s TK audio and fan bracket in my bucket and am very happy with the quality of what he provides. The bucket is a bit of a tight squeeze to get into, but I managed to fit it all in with a decent sized battery pack to boot.

Thanks for the feedback, David. I chose to err on the side of caution on the frown, but may have been overly cautious. Unlike ABS, it is much easier to add paint than remove it...lol.

One tip I learned on the snap setting was to let the weight of the hammer do the work, barely tapping them. When I started, I thought more force would be necessary, but this resulted in misaligned snaps.

It could very well be!

That’s the piece of the puzzle I was looking for!!!! Actually, not really. I still can’t make out the whole picture. Such a tease!

Sooooooo close!!!!!!!

When your BBB arrives, you'll be like a giddy child on Christmas morning! Your heart will be beating out of your chest and you'll shed tears of joy! Well, at least that was my experience. I wasn't expecting my BBB until a Monday according to tracking, but my son knocked on my door early Saturday morning with a BBB sitting on my dining room table. It was an amazing feeling!

This was a long time coming. I have wanted to build my own set of TK armor and join the 501st since not long after its inception. After many conversations with my son about it, we decided to move forward. It has been and continues to be an amazing experience as I am already working on finishing his TK. A cool story is that another couple that we are good friends with were over for a small celebration of their daughter's birthday on the same day that I got my email from my GML about being approved. I had wanted to take a few new pictures for my EIB submission later in the evening when they were gone, but we got to talking about the 501st and the process of building armor around the table ( in the absence of the kids ) and I suggested, off the cuff, that I could put on my armor and present her with a special birthday cupcake from the Empire. When they began to sing Happy Birthday, I emerged from the room, cupcake in hand, and got to watch her eyes light up. She's a big fan of the bad guys...lol. Later on that evening after they had made it home, they messaged my wife and told her that was one of the best birthday suprises she had ever had! It really made me feel good to bring that kind of joy to a youngster and I'm looking forward to many more opportunities ahead.