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I agree with this proposal (for basic only). Whilst one of the things I really like about the 501st and FISD is the uniformity of appearance that the CRLs create (I love it when I find it hard to indentify myself in a group photo!), I think this small change makes a lot of sense. Allowances are already made in our CRLs for other costumes to support and promote inclusivity and accessibility. For example - I dont recall seeing torso shims on OT TKs on the movie screen?? This is a perfectly logical and great way to support and accomodate all our members of different sizes. There are many members who never would have been able to build an approved costume without such considerations. Small allowances for things like that have and should be important considerations for the basic levles of approval. In this instance it's not about body size or shape, but the practicalities of our materials. I understand others have different views, and I wanted to share my support for the proposed changes (and again, only for the basic level of approval) MTFBWYA

+ GERALD too! I made this one several days ago.

We have never dumbed down a CRL to suit one manufacturer, so to dumb down a CRL now because of one. Lets look at the optics on that, it could look like a spit in the eye for the 400 that came before, and I can't help but feel, that is not a great path to take. Everyone has had to do some form of filling work on FOTK's and DN is for cos players in general, no where is it stated 501st approved. Our CRL is what sets us apart from other costuming clubs who have a lesser standard than the Legion, start taking those elements away and we look the same. That indeed would be a shame for everyone that is already approved, took the time to make their costume fantastic and more accurate than the average punter. For us to then give a hall pass on a maker for their less than accurate cos play costume just seems like a drop in standards at the basic level. Building any set of armour is a challenge, you go into it doing your research and there are no surprises. As I mentioned earlier, ou want a CRL for Disney parks version and animated version, then we can certainly discuss how those would look, but they should not interfere with a CRL built around as seen on screen in the movies. Those seems are only cannon to a cartoon and a Disney parks costume and in reality, should be separate to Saga based as we have done in the past.

Troop 11 Tricon 2023 Day 3 - The Museum, Kitchener, Ontario Had a “blast” acting as extra targets in the nerf range today. Check out the you tube video. Figured out how to drink from a fountain when you can not bend over. My daughter handled today and took some artistic photos. Some group shots of the 3 costuming groups in attendance today. Took in some Jedi training from a high vantage point. Made some new friends Tried my luck with force lightning.

Hey all, I wanted to get a discussion going around a proposal that I've heard being floated in various FOTK-building Facebook groups and see if there was support to warrant consideration of amending the current base-level CRLs. In short, I propose that the current text for the First Order Stormtrooper costume CRLs (TFA and TLJ) be amended to ALLOW for visible seams at the shoulder and sides of the barrel at the BASIC level ONLY. Okay but... I fully recognize that this would be an slight step backwards in terms of the overall accuracy of these CRLs. As seen in the films that these CRLs are based upon, the studio suits did not have visible seams in these areas. Correct. Acknowledged. I don't need to post screen shots to this point. However, there is precedent that seams were present in these areas in SOME existing Star Wars canon, and I believe that the sacrifice in accuracy at the Basic level only would be worth allowing for greater acceptance and approval of these costumes. In the Star Wars Resistance show (which again, I acknowledge would be a separate and distinct CRL overall, as there are substantive differences from the movie realistic costumes), it can be seen that a seam was INTENTIONALLY added at the shoulder and sides in the renderings for their First Order Stormtroopers. It would have been one less line to not do that, but it was done so purposefully and consistently. The shoulder and side seams are often areas of significant stress and strain as the armor is flexed open to take it on/off - which is also why the Disney Parks have adopted a similar system to allow for greater comfort and ease of dressing for their Galaxy's Edge cast members, as seen below. While again, these are not the same as production suits, at the Basic level, I think it makes sense from a practical and ergonomic standpoint. The movie suits that we are seeking to emulate were made of a thick and extremely durable and flexible (likely urethane) material that was formed with tooling and materials that far exceed what will likely be possible at the hobby/cosplay level any time soon, so I believe there should be some ability to make up for the limitations of the ABS suits we are trying to use to replicate. Concessions to accuracy are made in several existing Legion CRLs for comfort and to allow for a great range of body types, and I propose it be considered in this case as well. To smooth these seams necessitates either the precise and arduous task of using ABS slurry to fill and blend the seams, then sanding and buffing back to an indistinguishable high gloss - a specialized skill that most new or even experienced builders have not mastered - or to use body filler and paint the area or entire set of armor, as was required with previous makers due to the type of construction. These suits shouldn't NEED to be painted, and these skills present a significant challenge to most builders, resulting in the FOTK being a rare site at troops in my Garrison and an extremely limited numbers of a submission for L2 and 3. At the end of the day, I guess my point is... is this really a big deal? I don't think it is. SHOULD those seams be filled? Yea, totally. But is it worth mentioning at the Basic level when it stands to be a potential blocker to membership for many new members, may help extend the service life of the armor for more troops, and overall doesn't make a significant difference to the appearance of the suit? Naw, I don't think so. Most fans are going to the see the (Denuo Novo press photo) Stormtrooper below and just think "holy heck, a stormtrooper!" and never notice those seams. I'd like to give the opportunity to more members and fans alike to have that experience, instead of potentially furthering the image of elitism and snobbery that the Clubs unfortunately sometimes project due to our high standards. I would propose that the CRL text be amended, as below (or similar): Back/Yoke The back plate contains a “O II” design, and the O is black in color. There are no visible seams on the back/yoke. The yoke portion extends over the wearer's shoulders and curves under the armpits. OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable): There are no visible seams on the back/yoke. OPTIONAL Level three certification (if applicable): A support tab extending from the outside top arch of the yoke shall be present. The support tab should be of a sturdy material, white in color. Abdomen Section The abdomen section must wrap around the wearer's body without a visible seam. The abdomen has 7 boxes attached that match the order and placement shown against the armor. The large box has a small black recessed square on the lower left to the wearer. The second box to the right of the wearer has a small black recessed rectangle near the top. OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable): The boxes should sit against the abdominal plate with minimal to no gaps. The abdomen section must wrap around the wearer's body without a visible seam. OPTIONAL Level three certification (if applicable): The seams between the abdominal armor and the 7 boxes should not be filled. I'm curious to hear feedback from our membership, though keep in mind that this change would largely not affect those of us who are regulars here on the forums, or any submissions to the DOs for L2 or L3. This would be a local Garrison/Outpost GML-level change that could potentially bolster our membership and make this costume significantly more accessible. Let me know your thoughts and thank you for reading!

I considered the V but I felt my particular problem needed something more like this.

LOL Yeah I've seen the post about the V clip and will probably be looking into that soon.

I’m sure Glen @gmrhodes13 will be along shortly and show an alternativ

I have to ask why should the CRL be made easier, what's the argument to change, what is so difficult now that hadn't been for the past 8 years, we have over 400 FOTKs currently approved in the legion (not counting Phasma) who have met these standards. Is it because DN now makes their costumes this way, well actually NO it shouldn't be, we've always had a seam on the side of the ab and a seam on the yoke that had to be filled since the Alpha/Beta/Charlie's, albeit DN's is in a different place on the yoke compared to Anovos. So again why do we want to make the CRL easier now? The fact is, it is actually easier NOW to build a FOTK if you compare the new DN armor to the old Anovos there's far less work to do and you don't even have to paint "praise the maker", we had to fill extra seams, add extra pieces and fully paint the armor with Anovos kits, but now with DN you only have to add some ABS paste in a few seams, sand/polish and done "hallelujah" sign me up (oh wait no funds), we've also seen this quite successfully achieved on our forum. Not trying to be a douche but I just can't see a valid argument. What's next, it's too hot to troop, ok no more pants

I agree, at just the basic level, it seems like an extremely minor thing that often lends itself to being a good functionality option.

At the end of the day it's all up to the GML if they will allow or not, some do and some don't. Personally as a GML if you can get away with a rectangle, up to say @40mm and not triangle I don't think it's too much of an issue, but having a triangle appearance doesn't look very nice. Quite a few troopers have the larger cover strips due to their size and the size of the armor. Many do add larger cover strips on the rear, it's a better look than having them too big on the front. A thread on sizing From our DL on the subject For cosmetics, and of coarse accuracy, try to keep your front cover strips on the thighs to the 20mm. As to the backs, you can certainly go larger, but try and keep the back of the shins to a similar size to your rear thigh cover strips. For example, 40 mm thigh back cover strip and 40 mm rear shin cover strips. In most cases the wearer will have larger calves as well . Recently I help a new cadet make a very large internal shim for the back of his thighs 100mm we then cut a filler piece, and made ABS paste to fill the small gaps. We then simply made a 40 mm cover strip and glued it on centrally. His calves were also huge, so had to make the 40mm cover strips for the back just to get them to close. In the end it all looked great, and he is currently waiting basic approval. He then intends to apply for EIB. Example of adding a shim, this is then filled with ABS pasted, sanded and polished, then you can apply a standard 20mm cover strip. A few more shim threads here A mega shim And how they turned out after ABS paste and sanding/polishing

I appreciate your opinion. To be clear, as I said I am only using the Resistance FOTK as an example of a seam's existence within canon - I am clear that the Resistance FOTK would be a separate CRL discussion. That's not what I'm getting at here. The topic at hand is if we are being too critical with our current CRL by specifically mentioning the seams at the shoulder and side of the FOTK armor and if this should perhaps instead be a requirement at L2 and above, in order to allow more troopers to build and troop in FOTK kits. I am of the opinion that this fixation on these specific details is not worth preventing new troopers from being approved at Basic. That's just my opinion, and if there is no additional support for it, that's fine - I was already certain that my proposal would not be well received by the current leadership staff, but rather than complain about it online, I figured I would try the proper course of action, which is to propose the change to the membership and gather their feedback. Thank you. Sort of, but not really - again, I am not proposing a new CRL for a Galaxy's Edge FOTK, nor would I support one, however I believe the presence of these seams on the Disney suits lends strength to my argument - if the official Disney Parks FOTKs and their new licensed vendor Denuo Novo don't care about these seams, why should we at the Basic level? Much of the discussion around this topic is happening on Facebook/etc,, so I may try to direct some additional folks over here... but this is what it is. I prefer to have it on record that I am for inclusion and taking a step towards repairing our occasionally elitist image by following proper channels to propose this initiative, and that the question was asked of leadership, and answered.

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

E6000 should hold tightly, make sure you scuff both surfaces with coarse sandpaper for extra grip

You will find the V clips do still allow some movement when bending over, having a slotted tab may constrict the movement, but worth having a try.

I like this idea, but I've got an edge on my kidney and butt plate so this wouldn't work for me, but I do like it.

BUTT LOCKS. Yeah, I said it. Because my kidney plate is trimmed quite slim, my butt plate has a tendency to pop out. Think this is called “trooper butt”, is that right? So I’ve created some tabs & slots to lock my butt plate into place using some small strips of ABS and a heating iron. No idea if this is going to work until it’s all glued into place. But the beauty of E6000 is I can always remove it if it doesn’t work. Waiting for the butt tabs to cure overnight before aligning the kidney slots tomorrow.

This is the last resource, as you said, the plastic could melt .

Though, Im gonna skip the heatgun part. Im too afraid to mess up.

I’ve been a big Stormtrooper fan ever since I’d seen Star Wars as a young boy. Even back then I can remember obsessing over the armor, blasters, and other accessories the Stormtroopers carried. I remember really wanting that grappling hook Luke used during his escape from the Death Star, and dreaming of the day I could collect all the parts to build a E-11 Blaster replica. Of course one of the more mysterious items I wanted to know more about was the Sandtrooper Pack! I actually recognized some parts on it myself such as the Tupperware Lid, and the Canteen, but the rest of the pack was a complete mystery to me growing up. Then one youthful day while surfing the early internet(on dial-up 56k modem connection I might add) I came across the old ‘Parts of Star Wars’ website, which is still active to this day! This was a wealth of valuable information to me back then, it actually identified all the parts I needed to build the E-11 Blaster I’d been dreaming of. This also began my search of trying to find out what parts were used on the Sandtrooper Pack. I came across the 501st Sandtrooper Detachment Forums at MEPD.net and found that many of the parts had been identified, but not all of them. In particular one of the mystery parts appeared to be an obscure AM/FM Radio of some kind. I scoured the internet for information endlessly for years until someone eventually discovered and identified the radio used on screen. This was huge news!; It was a “Sonix Victory 75” radio, unfortunately the Sonix company turned out to be an obscure one indeed! Very little information is known about the company to this day. Then in 2011 a Canadian version of this radio was found in Nova Scotia under the brand name “North Star”. This got me very excited being a Canadian and my mind wandered with dreams of finding one of these vintage radios in the back of some pawn shop, or under a pile of old audio equipment in some thrift store. Well it’s been another eleven years since then, several more radios have been found both under the Sonix and the North Star brand names. But unfortunately, none of those radios were found by me. Alas, I never gave up my search and eventually I did end up finding one of these radios for myself. Not only that, but I also discovered a third previously unknown brand variant! This was only made possible due to the discovery of the Canadian variant 11 years prior. When that North Star radio was found, another was found not too long after that. One of these Canadian radios had a sticker with a model number on the back which read “Model: MT-1809”, this is what ultimately led to my discovery of the Solar brand variant. One day while searching eBay for the query “Vintage Radio MT-1809” this Solar radio just popped up for sale. $45.99 plus shipping, and the best part; it still works! I don’t think I’ve ever clicked Buy Now so fast in my life. My hands were literally shaking as I was checking out, as I’ve had hot ticket items like this sell out from under my nose before I had a chance to finish checking out. Thankfully this purchase went smoothly and it showed up at my door fairly quick. It was found on October 20th, 2022 in Bath Township, Michigan which is about a two and a half hour drive from where I live in Sarnia, Ontario Canada. The seller informed me it was from an estate sale. The reason I want to share my find is that these kinds of discoveries tend to have a cascade effect, and I’m hoping more of these radios will be found yet in the future. I can tell you this version is from an American company that produced radios in the 60’s and 70’s (more of that later) which was a great time for the electronics industry so I’m hoping there was a higher number of units imported for this American version of the radio, though all the companies that offered this model seem to be obscure. And so without further adieu I give you the Solar model: MT-1809

[36] Walnut Creek Night to Shine 2-10-23

Hey Terry, I too should be on this run for Dave’s armor. Looking forward to all of us getting things built! I plan on detailing my build process as well. Best wishes building!

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

Coming from FDM printers since about 2016 to SLA printers this past Christmas, the thing that was most difficult for me to grasp at first was exposure time. This post will, unfortunately, not be extremely high effort on my part (I don't have photos of my own to share) but it's what helped me get going and figure out my own exposure times vs relying on lists and forum posts. First - you need the XP2 Validation Matrix. https://github.com/Photonsters/Resin-exposure-finder-v2/releases/download/BETA_2.1/ResinXP2-ValidationMatrix_200701.stl This file is "beta" from 2020 and millions of people have used it. This is indeed the one. There's a TON of different exposure tests out there, but this one prints quickly and gets you going quickly. It is also explained in depth in the video below... Next, you need to watch this vid that explains how to understand the printed validation matrix and adjust your exposure time accordingly. It is INCREDIBLY helpful. My prints went from "eh, not bad" to "OMG lookit this detail!!!" after one viewing and a couple test prints of that matrix. I'd printed other tests but wasn't totally sure what I was looking at. The video above taught me what I needed to know. Lastly - some resin makers publish suggested exposure settings for various printers. The best listing I've found is Siraya Tech. https://siraya.tech/pages/support (click View Guide on the resin you own and then go to their google drive link on the following page) Suggested exposure settings should be viewed as a good starting point for your test matrix. Your printer may need to go up or down in terms of exposure time depending on the age of the printer and age of the resin. Hope this helps kickstart some awesome prints.

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.

Hey Terry, start your build thread and post it here. When I called Dave last week I believe he said there were 32 or 35 of us in this run so you will have a lot of support if you keep it up to date. I'm excited to watch your progress and hopefully we are able to help each other in the adventure. OH! Biggest piece of advice I have from previous builds, and honestly one I wish I heeded a lot faster when I was told, wear cut proof gloves and always cut away from yourself lol

I've been out of town for 10 days for work. Combine that with having to tear apart and redo a few failed glue joints and I'm only just now getting around to wrapping up the arms. I think they turned out really well. The real hard part was trying to focus on grown-up business conversations when all I could think about was getting home to wrap up the cover strips.[emoji2] Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

I agree with Justin. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Way to go, Caleb!!!! I'm so incredibly proud of you!!! You really stuck through this, even when it seemed like such an unattainable goal. Aren't you glad you didn't sell the kit way back when? Well deserved indeed!!!

My EIB Application is out there, so here's the last things that I did before applying. Or, more accurately, that T-Jay did before my application. Thanks for another amazing day, the pictures, the help and, of course, my E-11. It's a thing of beauty and I love it very much Handguards If you're at all familiar with my last few pictures of me in armor, you'll have noticed one distinguishing detail especially: yellowed hand guards. As we were looking over the armor parts and I was showing off my handcuffs, we spontaneously decided to use some of Tino's white paint and give the handguards a more fitting look for a TK. E-11 An awesome Troopacoola kit, built by T-Jay with his vast knowledge on everything E-11? You know it's gonna be amazing Thank you so much, Tino, for all your work and effort, for the personalization and the feedback. The entire time I'm wiring this, I'm just sneaking glances at the blaster in front of me