bluehickey

When I hand out my cards I just put my gun away and hold them in my hands. The problem is that if you keep them on your belt, you won't be able to see them due to the lack of vision from your helmet, plus, if you try to feel around for them since you can't see them, you have the problem of not being able to feel anything because you are wearing gloves.

"Facepalm trooper" I really like that name!

Or you can buy the parts for a Heavy Weapons trooper: pauldron, backpack and pouches and put them on your TK when you want to, and get two costumes out of one. BTW, the history of the HWT is that it comes from a video game and the game designers instead of modeling a sandtrooper, just took a standard stormtrooper and added the components to make it resemble a sandtrooper. That's why the little details like knee plate, shoulder ribbing etc are a TK. From my experience wearing both a TK and a HWT, it is much more comfortable trooping as a standard TK. Even w/o wearing the backpack as a HWT, the shoulder pauldron and shoulder pouch really restrict my head movement a lot and make it more difficult to see things because of less neck mobility, plus it's more uncomfortable around my neck, feels constricting most of the time. Plus, add to the fact that you have to carry around a huge gun that almost always requires you to have two hands on it in order to walk around and move, which means it's harder to high 5 kids and wave to them. As a basic TK, I can move my head around better and only have to have one hand holding my blaster, or can put it in my holster and not worry about it at all. I'd highly suggest finishing your TK and then getting the components for a HWT and try trooping that way and see how you like it. If you don't mind how it feels wearing the additional parts, then you can decide weather you want to spend the additional money on either getting another set of armor for a TD, or converting your TK to TD permanently. If you do decide to switch to a TD, you'll already have the components from your HWT that you can use. I loved how cool the sandtrooper and HWT look, but was really surprised by how uncomfortable it was to troop in. I don't dress as my HWT nearly as much as I thought I would unfortunately.

I have an FX kit which is hands down easier to put together than most kits. It took me 3 weeks to finish it. BTW, when people ask me if I made my costume, I tell them that I bought the pieces online, but that I assembled and put together everything to fit my body.

There are many smaller details that would prohibit you from using a TK kit as a TD. Check out this link for all of the details you'd have to change. It would be easier to have two different kits. http://www.looksirdroids.com/replica_sand-storm.htm

Makes sense... fine by me!

Nice job on the armor! With her size, I'd highly recommend getting her a smaller helmet like an AP which will keep her from looking like a bobble head.

OK, so I just had an experience trooping alone today: It was the Chick-Fil-a customer appreciation day where anyone who came dressed up as a cow would get a free meal. Our chick-fil-a is located in the food court of the mall. I went with my family and they all wore taped on cow spots on their clothing, and I put black paper spots on my TK armor. The line for the food was really long with tons of people dressed up as cows. I purposely didn't even bring my blaster with me, but I was only in line for about 3 minutes before a mall security guard approached me and told me that full masks or helmets aren't allowed in the mall. For me, trooping w/o a helmet on is just not a true TK... it's the helmet that really sells the entire costume, so I turned to my wife and said "forget it, lets just go back to the car and I'll dress down". It was pretty discouraging, although on the way in and out of the mall in the parking lot I did have to stop a number of times for people to get photos of me. I was even trying to cross the parking lot street when a car stopped and needed to take a photo of me while standing in the middle of the road. It totally stopped traffic!

I have a heavy weapons Trooper (which is basically a clean sandtrooper) and I had no idea how taxing wearing a backpack was going to be while trooping! I am good for about 45min- 1hr and then all of the sudden the weight becomes unbearable and I want to get it off as soon as I can. I welcome the idea of trooping in my HWT w/o the backpack.

Two pieces are preferable by far! Having a top and bottom gives you much more flexibility, plus if you get a snag or rip in either the top or the bottom you can easily replace one or the other. If you get a rip in a body suit, the whole thing can be out of commision.

I wouldn't have bought this armor from eBay simply based on the fact that the first two photos are of completely different sets of armor! Compare the details and you'll be able to see the difference. If someone is willing to post any old photo just to sell his stuff, then it's not going to be very good. With it being recast armor, the details will be softer and less defined and the thickness/quality of the plastic is not guaranteed to be consistent: it may be thin and brittle in spots.

Man, you are on a roll with the costumes!

Absolutely fantastic armor! Great job!

Those are great! My gloves are getting pretty worn, I think I'll pick up a pair of these and give them a try.

I did the same: I got a piece of white styrofoam and wedged it in there so that the sniper plate was angled outward and then glued it in. I haven't had a problem since.

I can see myself falling on the ground, cracking my armor and not being able to get up on my own! Kind of like how a turtle gets stuck on it's back!

From what I've read in the past here from other members who have suited up w/o trooping was that if you go in a mall or a Walmart, you will definitely be told to remove your helmet. Also, don't take your blaster as that just scares people even though you know that it isn't a functional gun, it worries the public. Besides regular troops and Halloween, the only time I've suited up in the past w/o an official troop was for an outdoor photo shoot in my costumes (TK and TB). You MUST have someone there with you as an added safety. I'd never go out into public suited up all alone. Even if no one did anything to you, you could trip and fall w/o someone there to point out hazards as you walk.

I'd trim the eyes and replace the ear!

You are doing a great job with this... can't wait to see it in person!

Helmet looks great! I wear the exact same one and love it!

Agreed!

You look fantastic in your armor! Although at 6'5" I bet Darth Vader isn't going to want to stand too close to you during troops!

Yep, that's how I do it.

Here are some more images: Looks like he's wearing a rocket/jet pack in this image....