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I may not be able to sit, but I can drink.

TEN TROOPS!!! Congratulations Gerald! I'm beyond shaky from trooping withdrawal and super jealous of these winter troops you've been able to do.

Troop 10 Tricon 2023 Day 2 -The Museum, Kitchener, Ontario Another fun day with lots of guests to interact with. One little girl opted to skip the ballon room and asked to come back to visit the stormtrooper. I gave her one of my trading cards, and she gave me a Psyduck sticker. It will go in my collection for sure.

I'm sure we've all seen articles and posts about "The Stormtrooper Effect" about how it seems stormtroopers have poor aim. I'd like to put that tired meme to bed, as it's simply not true. Consider: - The rebels lost all but 3 pilots (Wedge, Luke, and a Y-Wing) attacking the Death Star in A New Hope. All others were lost in ship-to-ship combat. - Han barely escaped by the skin of his teeth at the start of Empire Strikes Back and is caught easily enough in the end. - The rebels weren't doing too hot in Return of the Jedi until the Death Star got blown up. They were otherwise losing. A lot. As you all know, my alter ego is a stormtrooper. Below are my thoughts from the perspective of TK-8020. This was originally posted in 2008. -- OK, I just have to defend our guys in black and white. First off, I was there in docking bay 94. Our orders were to stop the ship. The only reason that scruffy Correlian lived was because we weren't aiming for him. If we killed him and the ship got away we'd be toast, so everyone aimed for things like the insystem flight controls to keep them from taking off, or to cripple them so they couldn't run in case they did get off. That was the priority. Yeah, a few of us bought it, but not everyone had the opportunity to run for cover & there was a pretty powerful laser cannon swinging our way...I like to think we were able to soften up at least the lateral controls. My buds in orbit said it wasn't maneuvering all that well and they barely escaped. Now I wasn't on the Death Star when all that hullaballoo went on (though I was earlier), but I talked to another of my buds who was, and he said that Vader had issued orders that those prisoners were not to be killed and to let them get away. So all that running around escaping bit you hear about? Well let me tell you they were only supposed to keep up enough fire to keep them running, not to kill them. At any cost. And the ship escaping? Same thing, he was in the docking bay (what a coincidence - both of us doing the same thing) and he told me that they were told just to aim to miss, e.g. let them get away. Why? Vader's idea. Dumb move if you ask me. So us guys in white did an outstanding job when you understand what was going on. And the TIE pilots? Again, they kicked some major butt. Only three rebel ships plus that freighter got away - the rest destroyed in ship-to-ship combat. Yeah, our TIE guys don't get nearly enough credit as they deserve. Endor? Jeesh, I never hear the end of it. Listen, those guys were all ROADs (retired on active duty) and guys out of basic. Apparently, the higher ups thought Endor duty was pretty low risk what with all the other hardware around, and it was just after holiday. Most of them were pretty toasted if you know what I mean. And my cousin who's in intelligence and watched some of the classified security tapes told me that they were very much outnumbered, more so than the general public was led to believe. As if a small band or so locals could defeat troopers. As if. There were a lot more of those little fur coats around and a lot of them bought it before our troops were overwhelmed. Dirty little secret the rebels didn't want to reveal - made them look much tougher than they really were. Remember that we were one base, and they were a whole planet of those little buggers. Eventually numbers win out. OK long story short. We've gotten a lot of flack about our ability to aim, and some writers and what-not have tried to lump us in with the sorry suckers of other military forces, but the reality of the situation is that we are the elite, and don't go down as easily as we're made out to be. TK/TD-8020

Hi, I have a problem with my lower leg armor from RS. The back does not allign at the top. I was thinking of gluing a piece of ABS with a snap so that it wil stay in the correct position. Or can this be fixed another way?

thx for the quick reply all. The magnet system is awsome. Ill see what i can do.

Some other builds using hot water bath

If you have some ABS pieces from scrap, I would strongly recommend to make some test first. Hot water (boiling), Heat gun , and see how the plastic behave in each test.

Hi Jan, this is a common issue . The RS shins don’t normally meet at the rear top ridge until the rear fixings are in place . You can try adding the velcro and see how they match. Plan b would be to give a hot water bath to the misaligned side to match the other one. A complete photo would be good.

I had to heat and twist the shins so they aligned fully. I mainly heated the front and sides, once heated twist a little more than needed as the plastic will relax when cooled. I use a heat gun but you do need some practice, many use a hot water bath which is not as intense with heat.

Actually recasting is meant to be simply that, making a cast of a set of molds. Authorized recasting: you get permission to recast something. Unauthorized recasting: you did not get permission to recast something. In general use though when we cite someone as a "recaster", we mean the latter. The first screen derived suits were recast from an old ROTJ tour suit and cleaned up to be like ANH, so it's not correct to say it's a direct recast. These are suits that were bought by someone. In theory you are right LFL could issue C&Ds anytime to anyone making stormtrooper armor without a license, however they do not. Doing so would kill the 501st Legion and many other Star Wars costuming groups. I mean, it's not just TK armor, is it? However LFL recognizes the marketing and PR appeal of having Star Wars costuming clubs, and so the gentleman's agreement from back in the 90's was that as long as we make no profit from what we do, they essentially turn a blind eye. If you want to dicuss this topic futher, please read through and if still unsure create a new post at Recasting Discussion - 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment (whitearmor.net) as otherwise this is off-topic for this thread.

Unfortunately life happened and building hasn't started yet. Hopefully, I be able to get going some time this week. I've built 3 other TKs so far, so I'm going to try and be more detailed with this one. Plan to at a minimum submit it for EI.

I appreciate that. I'll give it a shot and if it ends up sucking, I'll hit up Cal for another one. I'm glad there are so many other things to work on in the meantime. Oh well, that'll be my warning to not get sloppy. Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

Where's the photos James!!

All done for you Gerald, congrats on 10 troops.

10 troops completed.

Pleasantly surprised with everything in the kit thus far, especially the flexible hand guards

Nice work, good to see you didn't round off the corners which meet the control panel

I am from the Ohio Garrison, unfortunitly I am in the Cleveland area, but let me reach out to the group and see if we do something. Most likely it would not be to borrow armor, but might be able to arrange a visit.

I along with others would gladly send him trading cards along with a patch or something along that line. Most of us have "Stormtrooper voice boxes" and could send a personalized message as well.

You are going to be pleasantly surprised by how much thicker the ABS he uses is as compared to some other makers (especially the bucket). I'm building one of his helmets now for a display piece, and though I normally use ABS scissors, for this one I found that a quality pair of tin snips makes life much easier. Trust me. I noticed a while back that although Dave makes his Hovi-tips out of cast aluminum rather than resin that there was no "nipple" inside like the originals. I made a few that look very close, made some molds, cast a ton of them in white resin and sent them to him so you should have received a set with your kit. You may want to paint them, but once the screen is in you really can't tell a difference in the color. I believe I drilled out the bottoms slightly to accommodate the screw heads/tiny washer so they can lay flat on the base, but you may have to take a little more out. To attach them, I used super glue gel with an accelerator instead of regular CA glue. More control and a lower viscosity so it wouldn't seep out through the screw opening.

BBB Day is here! This if finally happening!! Building starts tomorrow!

I added some Velcro to the center chest and the sides so I could do a rough fit test of the torso with the chest: Then I went about getting the outer chest’s upper tips to properly “close”. I used a heat gun and very slowly “bent” the tips so they would lay nicely on the inner chest. It took a few applications to get it, but I think it turned out really nicely. USE EXTREME CAUTION WITH THE HEAT GUN! I used one quite a bit on my ANH Stunt TK, so I was comfortable with it. Then I built up the inside with scrap ABS so that the Velcro would adhere properly between the inner and outer chest pieces: Then added the Velcro and put them together: I’m happy with how it turned out.

Glued the biceps closed: Drilled the holes for the “kit-kats”: CAUTION the guide holes on the template are incorrect! You can see the difference in the above picture. Added them: USE EXTREME CAUTION when drilling the pilot holes in the kit-kats and screwing in the screws, the screws are too long for these!! I added washers to them. Also, I highly recommend adding these before gluing the shins. It is really hard to screw them in after the shins have been assembled.

Contrary to popular belief I can also be more generalized too. Can't speak for the rest of you.

Awesome photos Christian, congrats on your troops, all updated for you.

CONGRATULATIONS WE HAVE OUR 500th CENTURION Coming out of hyperdrive and crossing the finish line in first place, congratulations Trina "Architect18112" TK18112 our 500th Centurion and also congratulations to each and everyone one of our 500 approved Centurions, without you we would never have won this race. From some of the staff Congratulations trooper, welcome to Centurion It's been my honor and pleasure since 2015 to encourage troopers like yourself to shoot for the higher levels of accuracy. That said you're the FISD's 500th applicant and it brings me great joy to welcome you to this very unique group that strives for excellence. Job well done Tony UKSWRATH ---------------------------------------------- Congratulations trooper! Thank you for your hard work and dedication to making your armor just that much closer to screen accurate. Cheers and welcome to Centurion! #500 Jim Rat ---------------------------------------------- Congratulations #500 Centurion !!! Thank you for your effort and for being part of this new FISD milestone . Mario TKSpartan ---------------------------------------------- Congratulations #500 and welcome to the rank of Centurion! Thank you for your effort and being a part of the FISD community! Chris themaninthesuitecase ---------------------------------------------- It has certainly been an exciting journey that I have had here at the FISD, and that journey has included my own Centurion application and approval experiences. I remember very well, my excitement, and that of other members who had encouraged me along the way. Well, this is a very exciting day for all of us, but especially for you! This is like a surprise birthday party at the office, as truly, the entire Detachment is joining to celebrate your achievement in having earned the title of Centurion at FISD. Congratulations, on having done so. Thank you, for having done so - your achievement will inspire future generations of FISD Stormtroopers and future Stormtroopers alike, to follow in your footsteps. So yes, thank you for your commitment, your hard work, your diligence in making this happen. We are all proud of you,, #500! Now, let's reflect on how awesome an achievement this is, and let the celebrations begin! Tim Dark CMF ---------------------------------------------- Congratulations on being Centurion 500!!! This is such an amazing milestone! You have done an awesome job on your build. Another proud moment for this detachment and all of its members. Welcome to the ranks of Centurion and enjoy every second of it! Steve starsaber25 ---------------------------------------------- Trina, this is a proud moment for the Detachment, and one I'm sure you will remember for a lifetime. You have taken the steps to become a member of our highest accuracy level and can be proud to stand alongside your Centurion brothers and sisters. Thank you for taking this journey, and becoming part of a detachment milestone, to not only join one of the 500, but to become the 500th centurion. Stand by for your deployment order Trooper Andrew Sly11 DL Taking a look back at the history of the Centurion program Like the march to 1000 EIB I went through the forum looking for information on how the Centurion program first came about. First time I believe it was mentioned was in the Paul's election Q & A back in February 2009 (thread can be found here) There was next a poll in March 2009 to decide whether to keep the name Elite or change to Centurion (thread can be found here) Lots of names came up in the discussion and in the end the poll was closed with Paul commenting a new poll would be posted. Next came a conversation in February 2011 with the program named Centurion (thread can be found here) And another mention end of February 2011 in staff area with goals in 2011 for creation of the program, also conversation about artwork and discussion of the name either Legion Centurion or just Centurion. March 2011 and Paul posted in the announcement area the creation of the Centurion program (thread can be found here) and also the Centurion program overview (thread can be found here) First Centurion standards are added to ANH CRL in April 2011 and announced in April's Newsletter (thread can be found here) Some of the early artwork, variants in color and font Unfortunately I can't find any record of the final design of the Centurion logo that we see today, It was added to the draft Centurion certificate design in May 2011 FIRST patch run of the red FISD detachment logo May 2012 (thread can be found here) It was thought that there had only ever been one run of the red version detachment patch BUT after doing some research for another newsletter piece I discovered there was also a run in 2014 and also 2015 which makes three runs total. 12" Version was produced in both blue and red 2016 (thread can be found here) If you are one of the lucky ones you may have purchased a 12" version which was produced in 2016 which also had an option of a larger centurion rocker, the 12" version and rocker where only produced once. Please Note: the images below have never been produced as merchandise, the designs where only used in conjunction with the Centurion500 promotion Centurion Milestones FISD's first Centurion April 2011 #1 Mathias "Locitus" TK2959 ANH TM armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/15377-tk-2959-requesting-anh-centurion-status1tm/ FISD's first female Centurion was not that far behind August 2011 #16 Olga "Bereu99" TK9061 ANH ATA armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/16624-tk-9061-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status16ata/ #100 Jordan "stormsfx" TK23776 ANH TM armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/25515-tk-23776-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-tm-100/ #200 Brad "68Brick" TK21814 ANH AP armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/33758-tk-21814-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-ap200/ #300 Chris "bmth chris" TK10488 ANH TM armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/40303-tk-10488-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-300/ #400 David "hollowbodies" TK41123 ANH AP armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44880-tk-41123-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-ap-400/ #500 Trina "Architect18112" TK18112 ANH AP armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/50759-tk-18112-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-ap/ #501 Jonathan "Lord_Potato" TK89054 WTF AP armor https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/50954-tk-89054-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-wtf-501/ #10th Centurion Approved Glen "gmrhodes13" TK85421 ATA / RS https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/51541-tk-85421-requesting-death-trooper centurion status-ata-approved-10/?tab=comments#comment-729018 Multiple Centurion award recipients There are a total of 19 multiple Centurion awards recipients, this was quite interesting to see after all we had 73 multiple EIB award recipients so I presumed most would have also applied to Centurion but that is not the case. Unlike EIB where you are issued with a star for each additional award received, for Centurion you only receive the one award any other additional Centurion awarded costumes have [APPRVOED] 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so on added to the title but nothing added to your forum profile. Forgive me if I have missed anyone, here are those multiple reward recipients, congratulations to you all. 2nd Centurion Award Recipients - 12 Luis "Rietzer" TK31513 Randy "magni" TK16127 Dennis "NINJAMOVE" TK16112 Robert "RLJ2515" TK10596 Sarah "Alay" TK20466 Dave "PBTrooper" TK10737 Mike "TK1636" TK1636 Michael "TK-Sharp" TK12169 Joey "vecspeed12" TK9512 Jacob"Pistolsheets" TK86267 Brett "Cleantropoer" TK9593 Aizensoso "Aizenoso" TK14292 3rd Centurion Award Recipients - 3 Daniel "TheSwede" TK99665 Tony "ukswrath" TK10116 Joseph "justjoseph63" TK10963 4th Centurion Award Recipients - 2 Arthur "giskard8" TK39093 Justin "TheRascalKing" TK61490 5th Centurion Award Recipients - 0 - 6th Centurion Award Recipients - 0 - 7th Centurion Award Recipients - 1 Ardeshir "equuspolo" TK42128 8th Centurion Award Recipients - 0 - 9th Centurion Award Recipients - 0 - 10th Centurion Award Recipients - 1 Glen "gmrhodes13" TK85421 Once again congratulations and thank you to all who have taken part in the Centurion500, now on to 1,000