Morgi

[32] 28.10.2022 -- 18th Leverkusener Kunstnacht Reporting in for a very special troop, as this one meant traveling to troop with my old Squad and a lot of Troopers that I'd missed trooping with. The Empire was alerted to a showing of imperial art, so we arrived in numbers to cheer up the visitors and protect the artwork. For the first time since my first troop over a year ago I got to troop with my attaché TK-61276 and even though we had gotten to see each other a few times over the last year, this was the first time we were both in armor once more. In between taking pictures and conversing with citizens ("yes, the Scouts are definitely worse shots than us Stormtroopers"), we also got the opportunity to admire the displayed artwork and talk with the photographer behind these amazing pictures. After the event there was time for relaxation outside of our armors and it was awesome to get the chance to catch up with everyone, especially TK-61276, TI-8646, ID-11813 and ID-56347 (who doubled as my driver and let me stay on his sofa once more, thank you, Captain!). Got a lot of wonderful ideas for future posts on here thanks to @T-Jay -- I'm sure he's already looking forward to my endless messages about them. TK-66744 signing off

Of course I did! Us fun-and-crazy TKs gotta stick together So many amazing pictures and memories, it's awesome to see how far you've come in one year. Congratulations and here's to the next successful year of TK Mischief

I'm back Well, it's been a while, but here's the last few things I have to do. That is an excellent point. A few things are a bit off on this helmet and I got a list with things that I'll either re-do or fix when I build a new helmet in the future. For now this is the best ear-fit I can get based on the shape of the back-and-cap, so I'll leave it as-is for now. As long as I don't have an ESB E-11 I won't have to worry about higher levels after all, and I'm sure it won't be an issue for basic Holster Well, although Caleb already brought up the wonderful idea of simply switching the straps, a wonderful friend and fellow Trooper (TK-70815) took it upon him to craft me an entirely new holster as a gift. Due to... reasons... I decided to stick with my old belt for basic approval (not acceptable for higher levels!!!), so I simply took out my ANH holster and added the ESB one. Looks and fits nicely. Gloves and Handguards Despite some really excellent reasons as for why I should sew the handguards onto my gloves, I decided to go with rubber gloves and an elastic strap for now. I'll probably change this in the future, but as of now both versions are acceptable for higher levels, so this is easier at the moment. I bought the gloves online (heavy duty chemical gloves), removed the print with acetone and went over it with a black permanent marker to fully hide the lettering. It turned out really well and as I repeated the process with another pair of gloves as well, I now always have a spare in case my gloves (ANH or ESB) rip. For the third time. Yay. Trimming the handguards was a matter of a few minutes, simply removing all extra material and return edge, before cutting it to size, as they were a bit too large for my hands. Then I glued an elastic strap from one end to the other, so I got a tight hold. I'm currently considering gluing some velcro into the handguards and on to the gloves, so there's even less of an opportunity for the handguards to slip, but this already holds very well. Next Up My next step will have to be taking approval photos. For that I will need to repair one or two things on my armor and I'll need to find the time and space to actually take pictures. I'll keep you updated on that. Thanks for reading!

[XX] 22.10.2022 -- Photoshooting Belgium How far are you willing to travel for a few pictures with your friends? Yes. After a long journey we all met up Friday evening in the Netherlands with ID-14447, so we could stay the night before continuing on to Belgium for an imperial photoshooting. Unfortunately, one of us had lost their car key the previous evening, so we used up our morning breaking open their car to get at the costumes before we could even continue on to the Netherlands. Proudly representing the Empire, we unfortunately had a lot of curious citizens surrounding us and continually walking into our pictures. Aside from that, we all had a great time and got some amazing pictures out of it. The pictures shown right now are behind-the-scenes by DZ-41122 (Pati_seine_Bilder), as we're still waiting on the official photos. Looks awesome, right? [XX] 23.10.2022 -- Photoshooting Netherlands As one photoshooting wasn't enough and it's pretty rare to get everyone together, we headed out early on Sunday with four TKs, one officer, our photographer and a supporter, as well as several Clone helmets for a spontaneous photoshooting in Dutch nature. (Again, only behind-the-scenes pictures, this time taken by our supporter.) We even spent about half an hour inside the water, freezing off our toes and finally getting some confirmation that TK boots are waterproof to the extreme -- as in, they did an excellent job keeping all the water inside our boots once we got in far enough. Having a litre of cold water slushing around in our boots wasn't the most comfortable feeling, but it was very much worth it. Two Videos for your entertainment: Taking off the boots | Walking through Water TK-66744 signing off

One? I'll raise you two It's 1:20am, what am I even doing?

Reasons why I haven't applied for Centurion yet: A ) after a troop, I need to repaint the rivets B ) after I've repainted the rivets, I troop By the time I apply for Centurion I'm gonna have used up my white paint

Thanks for the inspiration just now Also, it was about time that I made another meme with a TK in it

It's certainly a bit more difficult, but not impossible -- so far there hasn't been anything where we didn't manage to get up on our own and we've done a lot of fun stuff: I think I'll call this "they said it was impossible" Honestly though: if you're reading this and thinking "Oh, that sounds fun!" please try it with another person who can help you, in case you get stuck halfway through. It took me one try to sit down and get up. One try to lie down and get up. But four tries and a cramp in my foot to kneel in armor Also, just because it works for me and my friends doesn't mean other people won't end up with cracks in their armors. Maybe I'll take the time to write a "how to" in the future for sitting and kneeling in armor, but even then depending on the armor, fit and build you can still end up with cracks.

Well, I layed down on a bench, beach chairs and swings, stuff slightly above the ground. It's easier than laying down on the ground. EDIT: just because I don't prefer to do so, doesn't mean it's impossible to lie down on the ground -- TK-71384 is famous for posing that way Yeah, RS armor is super sturdy -- my friend group (Chaos Division Fireteam) and I have done basically everything in those armors: Playing soccer, falling down, laying down, sitting down, running around, climbing stuff and so on... you think it, we've probably done it. Shout-out to my TK-sister @Swoby who's even more adventurous than I would ever dare If you're curious about my shenanigans, there's either my Troop Log or my Instagram ( @lucamorgi ) -- gotta recommend the second, there's way more shenanigans

Thank you, Sir Honestly, it's not just natural weathering-- there's a fair ton of artificial weathering with advice by @T-Jay, I clean certain types of weathering and it's wonderful to see the progress and know where certain marks came from... beautiful, gotta love some weathering! Not sure if I want to clean it for my application Glad you could be converted to the weathered side of the FISD, I hope you enjoy your stay -- oh, and thank you for your kind words, I'm happy you enjoyed the read-through!

I'm very slim myself and face a few difficulties with my armor due to that, so I might be able to help at least a bit. First of all: it's more than okay to work with padding and not have the armor as close to your body as possible. I know everyone says otherwise, but it's just gonna look weird if the proportions don't work for a TK. So try a bit of a looser fit with padding first and work yourself down from the broader measurements, if you find that looks better. Especially as that helps avoid the second problem: the thighs not looking similar. If you cut your thighs the way they are right now, you'll be left with a shorter thigh in the back on the right than on the left. Currently something I'm still having issues with regarding my Centurion approval, as I got told they have to have a symmetrical curve in the back. Honestly, that is only possible with slim thighs if you either add a shim to the right thigh or cut off more on the left one. Especially if you're taller, even shorter thighs might look a bit too short. Same hight in the back Do I have a good solution outside of this rant that's been a pain for six months now? Not really. Try bigger thighs to avoid extra work, improvise with padding and remember that you can always take away more if you're not happy, but adding material because you don't like the TK-stickfigure look is gonna be a lot more challenging than adding padding everywhere. I personally have padding at the top of my thigh for a good front-back gap to my body that's fairly unnoticeable and I've got padding at the bottom of my thighs for a good lineup with my shins. Here's a picture from my most recent troop, where I've added in the lines of my body. If you position your padding correctly and have the thigh in a realistic position, most gaps are easily hidden due to the dropboxes, the holster or simply the first impression matching what people want to see. Hope this helps at least a bit and good luck

So he said, naively, and continued to ignore said application for the next few months. In my excuse, I moved to a place where there's seemingly only the three other TKs in a 100km radius, so not a lot of people who could take pictures of/for me. Maybe I'll get around to it at some point, but it's actually not that much of a priority right now, as I'm hoping to get my ESB TK approval pictures taken soon and I'm about to start a Clone build. Also, I got to help a few recruits and if you're building a whole TK in six days, that's enough to keep me occupied. Trading Card Box Certainly not CRL-conform and I'm still facing a bit of improvement potential right now, but it's a good way to transport them and people just love trading cards. Additional Padding Always trying out new ways to improve the armor fit and this one might have been the most helpful in a while: thigh padding. I've got X-legs and some firm padding on the lower inside of my thighs helps me conceal that fact really well. It's not perfect, but it's a lot better. Butt-Kidney Strapping Yes, I'm back at it. Although I certainly liked having only the V-tabs, I found that construction to be too rigid for activities, such as sitting down. Therefore I removed the middle tab and replaced it with glued elastic straps. Holds just as well, but it's far more flexible. Knee Rivet Placement One of the details that doesn't get mentioned in the CRL but is constantly remarked on during EIB/Centurion Approvals is the placement of the knee rivet -- oftentimes it's too close to the edge, aimed for a perfection that doesn't exist with Stormtroopers. Unlike with other such fanmade perfections (eg ear gaps) this one gets called out regularly, so I decided to change this one in advance. Not sure if I like the new placement though, the other looked better in my opinion. Official Approval Why am I even aiming for Centurion anymore, if I have the approval by Brian Muir? The man who sculped the armor complimented mine and signed it for free. I'll wear this autograph proudly and am so grateful for this opportunity Weathering One year of trooping and 31 troops left their marks and I'm proud to say that I finally reached a point where I will have to clean some of the black marks as well, and not only all the colorful ones. Still, it just adds something wonderfully realistic. I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I prefer this to the shiny, polished armors you see on many TKs. Haven't seen a single polished armor in the movies, after all

Every 501st Interaction right now: For those curious what I'm talking about: The Census™ is completed once a year to make sure all your data is up to date and to show that you've trooped at least once during the last year

[31] 01.10.2022 -- Annotopia Lüdinghausen Back to the beginning: the Annotopia Lüdinghausen was my first ever troop and now, one year later, I got to troop it once more thanks to the wonderful ID-11813 and DZ-41122, who offered me a place to sleep and transport to the event. As it had been last year as well, the Annotopia was rainy, windy and muddy. Starting off cloudy the weather got worse and worse until we had to stop the parade due to a heavy thunderstorm. We didn't let that stop us for long, and as soon as it cleared up, we got back to trooping -- only to get the news that we would not be getting water by the organizer. With that announcement the troop got officially dismissed and we were free to continue trooping on our own or go home. Myself and a few others chose to go back in costume for some food, softdrinks and the amazing photo opportunities offered by the castle and fellow costumers. After a lot of fun, we decided to eventually take a look at everything out of armor as well, before heading off to a nice evening with several other troopers. TK-66744 signing off

Thank you! [29] 24.09.2022 -- Cosplay Tage Speyer, Saturday Speyer is the meet-up for the German Garrison, easily featuring over a hundred troopers in official capacity and a few dozen paying for their own entry. After participating in this, I now know why so many of my fellow troopers insisted that you had to troop Speyer at least once. The entire city (and especially the museum) were flooded with troopers from all over Germany. I chose to start my day early and participated in the Opening Show of the German Garrison and Rebel Legion, putting on a small Star Wars scene for the visitors. Although the Empire sadly lost this time, we still gave a great showing with some troopers even falling to the ground in their armor. If you want, you can watch the whole thing on YouTube by clicking this link Afterwards it was time to get trooping. This was our first Chaos Division Fireteam Troop, so we got shared duties to make the most of it, like standing at the Death Star wall for photos with the visitors or patrolling the area, oftentimes joined by our fellow troopers, especially TK-19551 and TK-248. In the afternoon we participated in the German Garrison parade and the group photo shoot, before taking a quick Detachment picture and afterwards a small photoshooting on the roof of the museum, almost missing the deadline for the changing room because we were having so much fun. picture credit: @pati_seine_bilder Official German Garrison Speyer Parade Video [30] 25.09.2022 -- Cosplay Tage Speyer, Sunday The second day we woke up to rain and had to move the Opening Show inside. Once more the Empire lost to an overwhelming Jedi Force, even if this time we actually managed to hit some Jedi. Afterwards we headed out for some casual trooping with friends, getting to meet up with many for the first time in months. This also marked our second official Fireteam troop, even if TK-71384 chose to spend it as a Shadow Trooper, accompanied by the Shadowstorm Search and Destroy Team. Instead we had two TK recruit join us, as well as TK-19551 and CC-75367. We made the best of the fantastic photo opportunities and got to meet many new friends. Whilst participating in the parade for the second day, my shoulders and hands cramped up very badly. I somehow made it through the group photo with the support of my fellow TKs, before doing my last half-hour of duty with some friends nearby keeping an eye on the situation. As the day was as good as over, we suited down and went to get food with some other troopers. Despite the unfortunate incident towards the end and one more crack in my armor (moved wrong whilst suiting down), I had a lot of fun over the weekend. TK-66744 signing off

Got my 25th Troop, would love a badge update, thanks!

[28] 19.09.2022 -- Andor Premiere Cologne We got invited to the premiere of the new Andor series and got to see the first three episodes in advance after a short troop, where guests could take pictures with us. TK-18105 and I had to stay behind whilst our fellow troopers got changed, because one of the influencers arrived a bit late. Aside from holding up a premiere because we had to go change, it was a lot of fun and I'm glad I got this opportunity. TK-66744 signing off with TK-8646 in the middle

[27] 18.09.2022 -- Noris Force Con Fürth, Day 3 Starting the day off by chasing yesterday's Jawa all over the premises (up the stairs as well, which surprised them), the halls filled slowly with everyone sleeping off last night's aftershow party. I took the time to listen to one of the panels, before going back to my patrol. Soon enough I ran into TK-19551 and resumed trooping with her. We found not only the droid above, but also several other R2-units, some mouse droids, Chopper and, most importantly, the protocol droid known as C-3PO -- both as a costume and the actor Anthony Daniel's. When we found yesterday's Ahsoka, she had a small surprise for us, turning us into the most fashionable troopers of the day. Wearing this outfit we got a bit of attention, some fun photo opportunities and took a picture with Brian Muir before heading back to the Endor bunker where TK-23115 played the Cantina Song live, so we could dance to it whilst dressed up. Afterwards we headed back to the star guests and I had the incredible opportunity to get my armor signed by Brian Muir. Honestly, having him compliment my armor and sign it means the world to me and is probably one of the highest compliments. I very much hope I get to meet him and his wife Lindsay Muir again in the future. Stealing this amazing meme by @revlimiter to segue into the last part of the day, where I finally managed to convince TK-55550 to join us in white plastic for a few pictures, before all of us joined the Landspeeder crew for deconstruction and clean-up. TK-66744 signing off

This made my day If you happen to troop in Germany, feel free to contact me -- or maybe we'll get to meet each other at the StarWars Celebration in London next year?

You got a playground? I'm so jealous right now, that troop looks awesome

There's still a few entries to cover the weekend, so I'll try to get around to those first and then I'll go for that long-awaited badge [26] 17.09.2022 -- Noris Force Con Fürth, Day 2 space holder in case I ever find the group picture As we did the day before, TK-19551 and I went on patrol around the entirety of the con. This time, we not only ran into a few Rebels and Jedi, but also into a Jawa, who not only refused to show the contents of their bag, but also resisted arrest, forcing us to chase them down until we caught them in a pincher maneuver. Surprisingly they only carried their own stuff, so we let them go and got ourselves some speeder bikes for easier chases around the premises. With speeder bikes acquired, we protected the bunker for a while before going back to interviewing the star guests. I ended up talking with Alan Flyng for at least an hour about Stormtroopers and behind the scenes details regarding various movies. He was really nice and answered a lot of questions I had for my ESB TK build, having worn a TK himself during the Bespin shooting. After a small moment of fame whilst walking around the stage, we decided to make the best of the continuous rain during the convention, us TKs decided to afterwards enjoy the open space outside by having our own little "dancing in the rain" moment. To finish off the day, we got to arrest ID-14447, who had exchanged costumes with another 501st member for an hour and was now undercover as a bounty hunter, before we got ambushed by Ahsoka and her ever-loyal Captain. TK-66744 signing off

[25] 16.09.2022 -- Noris Force Con Fürth, Day 1 This troop marked not only my 25th Troop, but also the start of the busiest trooping weekend so far. After traveling through half the country by train on Wednesday, I traveled with ID-56347 and ID-14447 the other half of the county by car on Thursday, so I could troop on Friday. Once there, my attention got immediately caught by the star guests, where I spotted Brian Muir and his wife. I had the incredible opportunity to talk with them about working on StarWars and Stormtroopers for some time, before going back to escorting my two officers around the convention -- at least until I met TX-61220. Towards the end of the day, I met up with TK-19551 of the Swiss Garrison for some chaos. We stood guard for the Emperor whilst fooling around behind his back, danced at the German Garrison booth and found a balloon that we played with. Even Lord Vader joined in! TK-66744 signing off

Not sure if this is a popular way to do this, but I hand-sew my patches. Just gives it a bit of character and makes it a bit more personal, so I like it

[24] 10.09.2022 -- Fanfilm "Descendants of Order 66" Premiere Kiel After 16 years of work, the team who had worked on this movie finally got to show it in cinema for the first time and as some of them are members of the 501st themselves, they requested some support. We trooped outside of the cinema for about an hour and I ran into an old teacher of mine (left in the picture). I didn't approach her and she didn't notice who I was, but it was still very funny and awkward at the same time Having found one of the droids we were looking for, we decided to suit down to watch the movie. Honestly, 9.5/10, would definitely recommend, go check it out on YouTube! Those special effects are so very Star Wars, this might as well have been a canon movie. Afterwards five of us got back into costume to troop some more before meeting up with everyone for some food and talk. TK-66744 signing off