Morgi

Cotton gloves are the best piece of advice I've ever gotten. Ten hours in 27°C, those inside my rubber gloves and not a single problem. Rubber ones ripping... well, mine ripped during my 15th troop. And not just ripping, but straight up falling apart. I could only complete the troop by plastering the inside of my rubber gloves with tape and praying. Curiously, it wasn't because of the armor snagging, but instead all around the handhuards the rubber gloves were ripping apart (about 7-8 rips per glove). Might have been because of the way the handguards were glued, putting too much stress onto the rubber, might have been low quality gloves, who knows. I do know that I'll carry my ABS handguards and a pair of replacement rubber gloves to future troops.

Wooow... most nerve-wracking half-hour of my life, but I did it, got myself the 4-Day Ticket I'm looking forward to meeting you outside of a screen

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're missing out and should head over to any post by Revlimiter. Him not being at his post is always a highlight. (Where even is your post, @revlimiter?)

Moving away from the new TKs... Whilst watching the newest episode, I caught what looked like ANH TKs with ESB holsters. Due to me not having access to high resolution, I first played it off. Then I paused the movie and looked more thoroughly. ANH brow trims, shoulder bells (with elastics), broader TDs and a few other details became noticeable. Therefore I took a closer look at the credits and found a "thank you" to the 501st Legion, California Garrisons. Anyone want to share with the class?

Having taken a short break to build my ESB helmet, troop, work on real life stuff... I'm back with some armor updates. Replacing the Ab-/Kidney Rivets Back in April, I got the following feedback after my EIB approval: This meant, I had to replace the rivets. I started prying the rivets off, only to irreparably damage said rivets. Therefore I had to buy new ones. Cue hours of internet searches, only finding wrong or overpriced options everywhere, until I asked an acquaintance if he knew where to find such rivets. He gave me different keywords and on my first attempt I found correct rivets. (Tovetis Zweispitznieten 8 x 9,5 8mm, if anyone's curious. 38cts/rivet). So here's what I did: I removed the existing strapping and rivets. I marked out a new cutline, cause I didn't like the old one. Cut to size. Marked up correct rivet placement. Filled in holes with ABS paste. Glued strapping back in. Then I added in the new rivets, first testing the whole process on a piece of scrap ABS, because I could do without repeating this entire process again, just because I didn't know how to set the rivets correctly. The new rivet placement was set precisely according to this: Afterwards I repeated the entire process on the abplate and then I painted the rivets white. I'll probably do some gentle colour corrections on the ABS paste in the future, due to the fact that my armor already yellowed a bit in comparison to the used paste. Adjusting the Chestplate Maybe it's just me slouching, maybe it's just something that I'd prefer to change for no other reason than the fact that I spotted it twice on some pictures, but I oftentimes got the feeling, that my chestplate was sitting a bit low, sometimes even catching on my an plate buttons (yikes). So to fix that I had to bring the chestplate higher up. Now, one way of doing that could have been a more rigid strapping at the bottom of the chestplate, such as the original strapping, but I moved away from that for a reason (less mobility and easier to pack). Therefore I had to pull it higher up by shortening the shoulder straps. Looks good, right? Had to heatform the shoulder bridges to conform to the new shape and loosen one of the elastic keeping my shoulder bell connected to the shoulderbridge strapping a bit, as the shoulderbells moved forward a centimetre, but overall I'm happy with the result, even if it was a lot of work that could have been avoided by having a better posture in armor Kidney-/Buttplate Strapping With me always sitting down in armor, it was probably inevitable that I'd get a crack in the return edge right to the screw, thanks to the original strapping in that part of my armor. Once it finally happened, I took out all the old strapping and replaced it with Glen's V-tabs instead. So functionally, I currently only have one plate of armor for both parts, and I got a pretty good gap between them thanks to it. Also, no risk of anything cracking -- worst comes to worst, the V-tabs will simply pop off and I'll have to reglue them. Boot Repairs Piece of advice: Photoshooting in the middle of the Netherlands in nature? Awesome. Wild growth? Dangerous for your boots. I must have gotten caught on a thorn or something with my boot during the shooting. Luckily, the local officers knew how to work with fabric of all kinds (shout out to ID-14445/Robin) and gave me the advice to simply go over it with some superglue. Worked really well, and with some additional help by a white outdoor marker, they look pretty spotless again. Other stuff I reworked my padding a bit, repaired some other things and am currently working on a trading card box. This weekend I'll have another troop, and I hope I can get a friend to check my thigh armor position and what I can fix without having to cut away (much), as that is the last to-do on my EIB Application Feedback List. Obviously, there's another few things that I might work on as well, but hopefully I'll continue on to my Centurion application within the next two months (no promises, I've got a few busy trooping weekends ahead, am still working on applications and will move again soon). Looking forward to any and all feedback!

Looks good! Maybe cut the top of the cover strip a bit more so it doesn't stick out? Regarding the gap, you can easily fill it with ABS Paste (How to Apply) or Sugru. Its really easy, helps with the Centurion no-gap requirement and was done for the screen-used armors. Hope this helps and good luck!

I've been looking forward to this. Hotel is booked, friends are alerted, fingers are crossed that we can actually go

Hey Daniel! There is a mentor-mentee program on here known as the Attaché Program. You can find an overview of the program and the Attachés here. The Attachés for the Badlands Garrison seem to be @Pyrates and @wook1138 so feel free to reach out to them directly on here or wait for them to see your query Whilst neither are listed as ROTK experts they might still be a help with building or simply finding the right resources. As it seems you've already found the R1TK area and started a build thread, you might find prior chiming in from all over the world as well if you need help. I hope this helped, good luck and enjoy your white armor!

Those look awesome! Gotta love all those little extras that just add to a TK - always makes for fun interactions with the visitors

Well, hello there! Welcome to the last part of my helmet build. Lenses, frown cover and padding Supplied with any RS helmet kit, you get a roll of this thin green foil that seems way to flimsy to actually be a part of the helmet. You can simply add this by poking first one hole into it, then fitting it, so it lays flat over the eye-openings and then poke a second hole in there. The foil is held in place via the upper ear screws. Then cut off areas that might hinder you in the future or where you simply don't need the foil, such as over the middle ear screws or at the frown. I tried my best to get the foil to lie flat over the eyes and got it into a position where there's few to no gaps between the plastic and the foil. Still had the same fabric as I used for my ANH Stunt, but only used one layer this time. This is thin, breathable fabric, so whilst it covers the view it does not completely prohibit air flow. I cut said fabric to about twice the size of the frown and then added glue to the areas marked in red. By only gluing those areas, I could glue it into the helmet in a way that allows for a visible teeth gap. Due to the fact that one can now see into the helmet by looking into the frown, I made sure to glue it high enough (higher than marked in the picture!) double-checking the position from below, to ensure that no hint of the inside of the helmet would be visible. Last, but not least, I added the padding. RS supplied chin straps, which go onto the ear screws and close underneath your chin, and star-shaped foam to stay close to screen accurate. In my humble opinion, the chin strap is super uncomfortable and useless if you got good padding (unless you're planning on doing wild stunts) and the star foam makes the helmet sit way too high and doesn't allow me space for my glasses. Tino (T-Jay) gave me some of this thick foam to use instead (thank you!), which goes over the green foil and allows for enough space to still wear glasses whilst trooping. Super useful, and without any padding at the top of the helmet it gives me this good fitting helmet.

Thanks Glen, and with an important addition as well: Don't know Frog Tape, but in Germany we got this awesome stuff called "Kreppband". Multi-purpose, essential and on top of it painter's tape! I've used this tape for painting and fitting and it works super well for either. Never had a single spot with paint bleed and it was strong enough to hold parts when fitting. Something that helps would be balaclavas. I don't know about you guys but here in Germany almost everyone wears one of those, hides everything up to the nose, so nothing is visible through the frown (not guaranteed with mesh, unless you have a lot of layers one can often spot the skin underneath) and, more importantly, nothing is visible from underneath. Those kids are small enough, they don't care about our frown, but they can and will try to get a glimpse into our bucket from below and unless you got everything blacked out well enough, a balaclava would be your best bet. Just look at this photo above, even used those in Rogue One Guess that's just one of those preferences that can differ. I prefer to have a teeth gap visible, as for me that's just part of a screen accurate stormtrooper. I found a good solution that will have neither face, nor mesh showing, but still allows for that gap for my ANH helmet, so I'll be replicating that with this helmet as well. Side-view picture from my ANH Stunt build-thread As always, thanks for the feedback and the opportunity to talk about stormtroopers

Helmet Paint As this is an ESB there weren't many areas that needed paint: the ears, the frown and the vocoder. Due to a need for two layers of paint and the high air humidity we got right now this took me a bit longer than I anticipated, but still got done easily enough. As I already had my paint out, I also took care of the ear screws and gave them a coat of white paint. I got the outside of the brow trim at the angled look you got to see in the previous pictures and as I had left the inside straight, it was a simple matter of putting the brow trim on the other way round to fix this issue and give it those straight edges. Hope this looks better No full bucket pictures of this yet, gotta wait for me to add the green lens foil (and the fabric behind the frown) next. Almost done, this went quicker than I had hoped, even though I stretched the work out a lot just to have something to do for a bit longer

Does that mean, mesh behind the frown will soon be prohibited at Centurion, as that's not seen on a single Stormtrooper, but gaps between the teeth are very common to spot? ... asking for a friend Back on topic: I'll probably trim the other side of the brow appropriately for Centurion then and keep running around with the version that I like better. Thanks for your input!

Lucky me found a few images supporting the angled cut Any DO wanna weigh in on this issue? Hovi Tips Not exactly that difficult either, although the small patches of black paint did mean a bit more extra work. Decals Now, as Joseph so kindly pointed out in this thread my decals are FX/NE Trooperbay decals. Lesson learned: double check before you order -- just because you got the link from the FISD does not mean it's guaranteed to be the right decals. Also, do not just hand over the order to your parents, who will then notice that it's cheaper via e-bay. I do not know where the mix-up happened, but at least they're ESB Decals and they fit the helmet (can't say the same for the original tears on the helmet, so I'm lucky that I'm going for a slightly idealized build ) Some references taken from Joseph's CRL Reference. As there's a disturbing lack of info out there on how to apply decals, here's what I put together with the advice of TK-248 (Tommi) and T-Jay (Tino): First get yourself some very soapy water, which you can use as a help to slide the decal into the correct position. Then dab said soap water onto your armor, making sure the entire area where you will place the decal is not only clean, but also covered. This allows you to correctly position your decal. Then carefully heat said decal with a hair dryer, which help it conform to the shape of your helmet and stick. If necessary and possible, cut the decal to size. Here's the end result. I'm looking forward to feedback

Once upon a time whilst scrolling through the FISD I found this very interesting thread about our beloved Mr No Stripes. Might be worth a read if you like this trooper

Well, considering that they're ESB Decals ordered via and sent from Trooperbay, I'd certainly hope so. Maybe theyve updated their decals or I chose a different option of ESB decals? As they fit and look like ESB I think they should be just fine though, right?

Just faced the same problem with my own ESB build and from what I can tell, this thread here is your best bet: Here's what I did just this afternoon (build thread update to follow): had the decals from Trooperbay, used soapy water to help move them into position, then used a hair dryer to make them lay flush against the plastic. Worked really well Alternatively you can also use decal fluid to apply them with instead. If there's any interest, I could go into more detail on this when I write my build thread update on this particular step. Hope this was helpful!

Thanks, Dan! Awesome references, love especially how they show the curve of the brow trim. If I ever go for a fully-screen accurate replica build it'll be interesting to see how one can add that -- my brow always seems to be on the lower side As evident with the S-trim as well, I've changed a few details from screen-accurate to more idealized, trying to find an in-between that I like. Therefore I think I'll stick to the angled cut at the edge of the brow trim for now. Still, given the current cut of the brow trim a change to more screen-accurate is still possible, so if this ever becomes a Centurion requirement (it isn't as of now, last I checked), I can still easily change it around, doing what you suggested. Thanks for your feedback Glad to hear that, Mario! Thankfully I got the ears done for now, so I can move on to more interesting parts

The armor seeming like Rubies (RotJ Style with a messed up ANH-bucket seems slightly familiar) isn't the worst thing. They didn't manage to suit up correctly. The one on the right has managed to switch his handguards and the one on the left has two left biceps Not gonna look for more details, I'll probably be happier ignoring this

Helmet Ears and S-Trim After a few hours of work (gotta love fitting the ears...) I got to a point where I was fairly happy with the look and over-all appearance. It's not gap-free, but neither were the originals, so that's alright. Truly nothing extraordinary about this part of the build except for the fact that it was very time consuming and sometimes a bit frustrating. The S-trim in comparison was fairly easy and quick, a simple matter of wrapping the material around the bottom and squishing everything into a tight fit that will hold the S-trim in position without any need for glue. Whereas the original helmets had the ends meet at the back of the helmet, I went with the option of moving this to underneath the vocoder. This simply helps to hide any potential gaps and, in my humble opinion, looks a bit better. As always, I'd appreciate feedback. Given what's coming up soon, I'd also love advice regarding the application of decals, as I've never done so before

That's the word I was looking for. Exactly, having that much of a return edge there seems pretty uncomfortable, so I'd take that off. Aside from that I can only agree with Joseph and Andrew and I'm looking forward to seeing your torso put together

That's some impressive progress! Looking good so far to me Food for thought: have you thought about taking off the return edge at the top of the chest plate? Might make it a bit more comfortable Additionally, there seems to be a gap between your thigh armor and leg. Maybe you could tighten that a little and/or add some padding for a better fit later on.

Welcome to the FISD, Paul! Seems like you got a good start already. Just mentioning it now: if you want to aim for EIB/Centurion (aka more accuracy) you should remove all of the return edge on the wrist openings of the forearms. Looking forward to your build Remember to have fun and that it's better to measure twice and cut once, ask before cutting and gluing and to check your references