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TK 84098 Reporting for Duty


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Funny thing happened on my way to the Death Star....

 

I started down this path over three years ago, and its been a long, weird journey.  Full disclosure, ever since I was a tween, I repeatedly and annoyingly told my parents that the only thing I wanted for any type of present for my birthday/holiday/whatever was a Stormtrooper suit. I continued to do this into my adolescent adulthood with no success, and eventually I gave up on the idea.  But, for some reason, when I saw the trailer for Inferno Squadron in the Battlefront II, I was taken right back to being 10.  I researched everything I could find, thinking there was a way to hand build this myself.  The further I dug, I suddenly came to realize that my original desire to be a character from my childhood was not only possible, but semi-affordable.  So I took the plunge. 

 

There were several issues I chose to ignore.  1) I'm 6'3-6'4" not 5'10" as the original troopers were; 2) I'd never worked with plastics in this manner; 3) I didn't know a soul who'd built one before; 4) finding someone who made taller trooper armor at that time was very, very difficult.  Finally settling on a kit from the UK (DA Props) which had a strong following and a host of taller troopers in the UK garrison advising me the kit would work, I purchased.  The fact that I'd never done anything like this did not dissuade me from convincing myself I could assemble my armor in record time and be ready to trick or treat with my kids two months away.  Obviously, this did not go as I optimistically planned.  From the outset I made error after error, miss-cut after miss-cut and eventually convinced myself that I'd flushed too much money down the armor rabbit hole.  There were starts and stops as work and family put the kit on the back burner.  But I kept at it and the wonderful folks on this board kept giving advice and support for my build.  When Celebration finally came to my hometown of Chicago, that finally pushed my to complete my armor.  Now I'm fearless with a heat gun, aggressive with CA glue, unafraid of ABS paste, and don't even blink at the prospect of too much sanding.  In short, I'm still as dumb as I was at the outset, but now I've got "experience" on my side.

 

While it's not yet perfect, and I've got mods I need to accomplish to satisfy my own OCD, my Stunt TK was approved for trooping by the Midwest Garrison and I was approved a TK number.  As an aside, I still can't believe "Bullseye" wasn't ironically taken as a handle. 

 

My thanks to everyone for their help.  Look forward to trooping with you soon.

 

Dave

TK 84098

"Bullseye"

 

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(Troopin' with my boys this Halloween)

 

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Welcome to the Detachment! Persistence in both your ambition to become a member of the 501st as well as throughout your build process has definitely paid off. Looking good Trooper!

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Great story Dave. :duim: I am happy for you, in the end everything worked out.

 

Wishing you a lot of fun with your TK armor and your boys. :) Maybe some day they want their own armor and you can troop together... :dancing-trooper:

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Great to hear how you ended up here Dave and a fantastic username if I must say. Nice choice! 
I had a similar experience with getting my kit assembled and can relate a lot about the mistakes and taking more time than expected to get it all finished.
Job well done! Wishing you many happy troops. 

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