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A couple more mishaps.. I knew I wanted to install a real metal D-ring, but the mounting was securely fastened to the cap. After snapping off the printed D-ring it was time to break out the Dremel and grind off the mounting. Only took a few minutes, and then it was filled/sanded smooth. When trying to remove the site guard to be able to do some detail filling/sanding, guess what. I snapped it in half. (You built this a little TOO well, Kevin)! I could glue it back together, but I had another idea. Although the end cap clip assembly was 100% accurate, I decided to replace the 3D printed U channel with an aluminum one. With some brute force, I removed the entire thing but since the metal pin that holds the clip in place was glued in I knew I needed another one, otherwise it would not fit into the channel. Since I needed several new pieces, I hit Kevin up for some replacements. He not only stepped up to the plate, but (again) paid postage as well. What a guy! Raw prints Filled/sanded Primed (D-ring mount is NOT glued on) New clip/Aluminum U channel Next up, the Hengstler counter.

This isn't a troop, but I wanted to include since many of our folks worked all day. This was Saturday. We SHOULD have had a final morning balloon troop, but did not. It was cancelled due to the weather on Friday night. See, our Garrison policy is to leave at sunset for balloon glow. That means we don't usually get evening pix with the balloons and aren't on the field for the glow. It's a bit of a shame, but it's for our own safety. That policy saved our troopy butts last night. At about 30 minutes past sunset the sky just opened on the poor Balloon Fiesta field. We were driving home when the floodwaters unleashed. They got roughly 4" of rain in 30 minutes. Four inches. Ten centimeters. If you've ever experienced something like that... you're basically under water. Everything is instantly drenched. Windshield wipers don't do much anymore. And these special shape balloons can be ruined by such weather. They have a lot of folds and excess material. Once the rain let up and the teams could leave, all of the special shapes went to a covered sports field to get quickly inspected and rotated through a bit. The crew was up till 2am. They got a bit of sleep and then went back to work the next morning. The next day, the balloons were invited to the ABQ Railyard Shops to get dried out. Dewback Ridge deployed to help. Yoda being dried where they once serviced steam locomotives. Vader on the other side of the boiler shop. Ever see the first Avengers? This is the same room/spot/location where Hulk lands and turns back into Banner. It's just chalk. But funny chalk. World record for most balloons dried indoors in a single day? We have that.

10/9/22 - Balloon Fiesta Balloon Glow Day 7 30th Troop, 3rd Heavy Weapons Troop I skipped the Friday morning troop due to a sick daughter, a car that needed puke cleaned out of it, and armor that needed an overhaul. Which is a shame because Friday morning was apparently epic. Vader and Yoda both flew and the crowd and trooper staff was huge. Alas, there's next year. Thighs - I realigned my garter system to get the thighs ever so slightly higher and rotated correctly. I've lost about 30 lbs since I did the garter the first time (didn't lose the weight by choice) and the straps were in the wrong place. Easy fix that took a while to find. Now the ammo pouches aren't catching on the thigh armor edges anymore. Bucket - redid the padding. I had my iComm and amp up high touching my head. This was fine for an hour or two, but after 6+ hours of trooping in a day, it was very not comfy. They both were moved so they're not in contact with my skull any longer. Pack - I abandoned the 1" straps and hacked the pack up to accept a small Camelback. It has 1.5" straps to which I added padding. Infinitely more comfy. I can dance and jump around in it, even with heavily bruised shoulders from the stupid 1" webbing. My build thread will be updated with that stuff soon. Weathering - I used up all my eyeshadow. My belt and legs were just too light and my bucket had lost much of its weathering. I'm really happy with how it came out. Daughter - now feeling better!!! Car - cleaned and 99% less puke smelling. Friday Squad! My buddy Gus, who is usually a scout, signed up to handle and take photos for the event. He's got a great eye. All of the Friday pix are epic. Love this shot. If you could hear it, you'd know that my pack had a little bluetooth speaker shoved in the wipe bottle with Imperial March BLASTING on loop. Good times. "No, I'm not taking my bucket back off." Rolling out. Dirty squad! They kept trying to convert me to the sandy side. We found Fett and trooped around with him a while. I love being HWT. I don't need to point out which one I am anymore! lol I can be found like this rather often... and lastly... I FOUND THE DROIDS I WAS LOOKING FOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can see the huge smile under my bucket, right? So dang cute.

10/8/22 - Balloon Fiesta Evening Balloon Glow Day 6 29th Troop, 2nd Heavy Weapons Troop 2nd troop of the day too. First troop required a 2am wake up to meet at 3am. The 2nd troop had a 2:30pm meeting time. Short nap between. A squad of happy nerds getting fried alligator and other bad for you food. E for Empire Our evening herd. They do two special shapes balloon glows per Fiesta - Thursday and Friday. This was Thursday. They picked 5 of us to walk to the VIP pavilion. Han, Leia, Mara Jade, Sandtrooper Nick and myself. We walked a conservative 1.15 miles before starting the 2 hour troop. I got picked because my bluetooth-speaker-binocs were "friggin awesome" and Nick got picked because he matched me nicely. That HWT pack with the little 1" straps dug into my shoulders. My stupid right thigh was getting clunked by the right ammo pouch every step. And my bucket was digging into my skull. It was unpleasant. It all got rebuilt on Friday morning. We still had fun. We took over the band area in the VIP booth for a minute. Mara has some pipes. They wouldn't give me a guitar... Then we joined the other troops who DIDN'T have to walk an extra mile. Quality trooping antics were had. We entertained the crowd all night. Himhaer (guy in the middle) is a 501st jawa who had to work a booth that night. He still came around for pix. My favorite pic of the night. The little guy had a little trooper who was reportedly his favorite toy. I gave both kids trading cards and have never seen such pure joy. They hung out with our troopy trio for a while that night. At the end of the night, I got my Fiesta challenge coin. We had to do a photo challenge of 3 pix to get it, one of which had to be a silly shot. As a trooper so inclined, this was not a hard task. The coin is just a beauty. It's my favorite in my collection currently. Note - there was no balloon glow that night. The wind was high and balloons couldn't inflate. We were all the entertainment for the crowd that evening and everyone was invited to come back Friday night with their Th night ticket. So Friday's crowd was set to be huge.

Troop #38 was 1 October 2022 at the Cedar Rapids Rough Riders Star Wars Night. One stone cold fact is that you can never have too many TK's. Great to be back out in the white shiny stuff.

I’m very pleased at how the belt looks now that the drop boxes are tacked down with glue. Painted the screws on my thermal detonator. …..and I filled the backs of my thighs with Sugru. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

OK, so bear with me.. I am in the middle of constructing my new workshop (from the ground up) so that has taken a lot of my spare time. Time to get back to it! Taking a break from the shroud to work on a few bits and bobs. I decided that I wanted to install real lenses in the scope, but I applied way too much pressure and broke it trying to take it apart. Oops. In theory I could have repaired it, but being as this would have taken a lot of extra time I decided to reach out to Bryan (Bulldog44) of the Japan Garrison for one of his phenomenal cast from original M-38 resin scope kits. I have used these in the past, and the details are as accurate as you can possibly get! Unfortunately he said he could not sell me one, but would be more than happy to donate one for the cause. I got that in the mail last week, and all that needs to be done before painting is to remove the lenses (easy). Screws will be added after painting. THANK YOU for your generosity, Bryan.. you saved me a ton of work, brother. This will make an awesome addition! Wrapping removed, accurate screws/lenses included! Insanely easy detailed instructions.

10/8/22 - Balloon Fiesta Morning Mass Assention Day 6 28th Troop, 1st Heavy Weapons Troop! We had only a small gathering for the morning launch, but we were ready to support the Vader balloon. UFO? Nah, we want the boss! There he is!!! This was my only photo with Vader. I managed to not get my pic taken with the big guy whilst holding back the crowd. Me and Nick trooped together the whole day. I thought my weathering was a little heavy until I stood next to him... lol Note - Nick is indeed a little tall for a trooper. I'm OTTK height at 5'10". He's 6'3". Together for the first time this year. The Fiesta officials didn't let Vader inflate till Thursday... I made the news. I also got interviewed by French TV. Not sure what channel or services, but I had to wrestle my bucket off to chat with them. Good times!

Name: Adam Wolf Height: 5'11" Weight: 146 lbs Armor: AP Helmet: AP Blaster: Denix / Blaster Factory / Self Boots: Imperial Boots Canvas Belt: AP Hand Plates: Rubber (AP) Electronics: Ukswrath (Hovi-tip Speakers, Hearing Assist, & Fans) Neck Seal: Darman's Props Pauldron: Trooperbay Ammo Pouches: Ebay seller Luckyline1945 (full leather) Pack: Garageboss / Self 501st armor link: https://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=34307&costumeID=122 Pack Build Thread: Previous Centurion Thread for base armor: Note: beyond weathering, there's no change to the base armor config. All photos re-shot anyway. Full Body Photos: Front Back Right Right Right Detail Left Left Left Detail Action Shot Armor Details: Ab buttons Cod Interior strapping Shoulder/bicep strapping Wrist opening Ab/kidney rivets Shoulder bridges (hidden when suited up, so I did these pix) Other shoulder bridge Shoulder bridge rear (also hidden when suited) Sniper knee front and support Sniper knee sides Ammo pack knee and split rivets Helmet Details: Front Left Back Right Interior and lens color Vocoder and Hovi Tips Accessories: Neck seal and thigh garter Pauldron and chest pouch Pauldron weathering, pouch attachment snaps, and foam filler. Belt and pouch front (New belt created for HWT, still AP sourced) Belt and pouch rear Belt and pouch detail (hopefully) showing alignment. Pouches have foam filler. Rubber gloves Boots Pack Front Base - Garageboss Button box, Vent box, Tombstone box, radio knobs, and drop siphon are all printed in ABS. All lines sanded and smoothed with acetone. Wipe box - Meguiars Radio box - plastic junction box with laser cut acrylic fascia Mortar tube - PVC with AP shoulder strap and TD end caps. Pack Rear: Shoulder straps - Camelbak 50oz hydration pack Galaxy's Edge bottle cap Jersey velcro cover Blaster: Right Left Details. Base - Denix metal replica (18 lbs) T-tracks - Blaster Factory Disk - Blaster Factory Right Side Cover Plate (small): Blaster Factory (printed) Left Side Cover Plate (large): Self fabricated (aluminum U channel) Thank you for your consideration!

Thanks Glen. I looked all over for that info. I need to brush up on my browsing skills. LOL.

Great to hear you finaly got your armor, way overdue. You may want to still do the detonator for Cardinal as the LMO's may reference the black series figure which has a detonator as there are no other back images. Phasma has a detonator in the TLJ version, no references of one from TFA though to my knowledge.

Looking great!

Don't be afraid to sand the blob down with your Dremel tool. When you get it closer to flush, switch to sandpaper. But there's no reason to punish yourself with sandpaper before it gets closer to flush. You're doing great with that fix!!!

Thank you Christine. Starting your review now. I'll be with you as soon as possible.

Looking good so far

I started working on the suggestions from my EI approval to get ready for centurion approval. items to correct: 1. Droopy left eye on helmet 2. Trim back return edges on top surface of kidney and ab plates. 3. Move Han snap closer to the corner of the ab plate. 4. Straighten drop box. For the Droopy eye, I removed about 3 mm of material with the Dremel tool. Return edge on the upper ab and Kidney plate trimmed and sanded. The Han snap was a bit tricky due to the closure supports on the inside of the armour. First removed the snap by drilling out the post. I needed to remove some of the closure support material but I used CA glue to attach it. Once again, Dremel time. Next came the ABS paste. Still good in the tightly sealed jar from a couple of months ago. Sanding and polishing will come later once it is set.

Hello! I've completed the changes you requested. Teeth: I used paint remover and pushed back the paint on the teeth. Ear Screws: Replaced with flat slot-head screws. I needed to lift the glued s trim to change the screws. When I get the ok on them I'll glue the trim back down. Mic tips: Painted inside of mic tips entirely white. Ab button plate: Removed, trimmed and re-glued rectangular ab button plate. Forearm opening: Trimmed off remaining return edge from hand opening on both forearms. Belt: Starched and Ironed belt. Re-took photos with belt on tighter. As you mentioned, I think it was just on a bit loose before. Knee: Removed and re-glued sniper plate higher; now it follows the ridge line.

Great idea Adam, looks awesome too.

UPDATE: Sorry for the delay, but I am awaiting a few "surprises" for this build in the mail.

Haha. Adding this thread to the E-11 section of the resource compilation for kicks and giggles.

The Phasma book jacket has it on the right as well. I always took that as just an effect for juxtaposition as they were "enemies" and therefore "opposites." However using the logic that it is "a uniform" and should be "uniform" I feel like it should be on the left. Just like all pauldrons are worn on the same arm. Drastically different armor, but they are both captains.

I'm built my boots to match Phasma's, but in red. Cardinal is a Captain with specialized Armor from Hux. There are passages in the book description of him that includes references to armor on his boots. While the Figure opens the door to finally do the Armor, the book offers in-depth description of his bits. The figure is just the cheapest parts they could use to make a figure. As illustrated by his cape being on the wrong shoulder. As a Captain he'd have Armored Boots. A Full Size F-11D with Stock. And Pistol on his thigh.

Troop #36 was 17 August 2019 for the Sioux Falls Air Show in Sioux Falls South Dakota in conjunction with the Central Garrison Banquet. We had a great turnout from across the Central Garrison. It was a warm one but as usual the empire prevailed in making the crowd happy. And we won the Game of Squads Trophy for the second year in a row.