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I give permission for FISD to repost my photos on social media in an appropriate fashion. Troop 1, 2 and 3: Saskatoon Entertainment Expo May 5-7, 2023 / raised funds for the Pattison Children's Hospital. This is the most members ever at this event from the various clubs. The last few months have seen a lot of new people join as rebels, 501st or mandos. We raised funds for the children's hospital in Saskatoon. I'm going to give some background on this journey in the sound off thread however for now I will just say that life getting in the way of life may not have allowed this troop to happen. The week leading up to it I was flipping back and forth about even attempting it in part because I was being thrown into the deep end instead of a nice small first event. But I landed on the side of going and then the next thing you know I was there. I think in retrospect the deep end of the pool was the way to go as I got to do many jobs in a busy setting so learned to adapt and be flexible with everything very quick and for an OCD type of guy that says a lot! This one begs a caption. I took the last shift of the first evening because I wanted the least number of people around to make me nervous. Here I'm getting a pep talk (I think it was a pep talk) from TK-16818 @GilesWoodward. I was so up in my head at that moment I can't say for sure what he said. I don't even remember anyone there with a camera. Then to make matters worse as I walked out he made a big announcement about First Troop coming out so there was some applause and other commotion which made me self-conscience, but then I remembered that no one was going to see the horror on my face and I calmly walked to the photo booth area for my shift. First hurdle achieved! The rest of the photos are from various times throughout the three days. I think that Jawa was making a move for my blaster! TK-55810 is the other trooper that lives 5 minutes from me. She helped a lot the last few months with pictures and information on what to expect at a troop. By day 2 I was a bit less nervous about it all and I got a tip that allowed me to fit both my head and my glasses into the bucket at the same time which gave me enough confidence to walk around the immediate area a bit and interact. I had some people asking for selfies and was able to deliver some lines and get some laughs. I did find my lower back would get sore unless I moved around every few minutes. Standing in one place for too long is murder for me. By day 3 I was itching to get into that armor! Never thought I'd be saying that. I did more interactions as I tried to develop my character and hiked around the entire dealer area with one of our Imperial officers. I probably did about 2 hours of trooping that day and could have easily done more, but had to get ready for the trip home. My back was getting used to the feel of the armor and movement and in general I didn't find anything too uncomfortable or too hot. I did take note of a couple little things that I will let wear in a bit before making fitting adjustments. At one point a television camera was stuck in our faces and they asked the three of us above to have a conversation so we did a little adlib as I questioned them about being the rebels I was looking for. If this link works we're at about the 2:30 mark. No dialog was left in and it's in French but you can get the intent very clearly. https://www.facebook.com/icisaskatchewan/videos/960924468269825/ TK-34575 in the sandtrooper and his son. @@wook1138was instrumental in getting me to this point as he patiently answered dozens of questions. This guy wanted a photo as he used the chainsaw on our TIE fighter so I suggest we react as best we could. We let people take as many photos as they needed. A kid asked us to sign his book so we all did, but now that I see the title I'm not sure if that was such a good idea! Maybe just as well I didn't use my real name... Some of my favorite/interesting things that happened. I played a statue for a few minutes and watched as some people were taking a close look at me. Then I talked and they laughed saying they didn't think I was real then they wanted photos with me. I was walking behind a father and his little boy when the father said to his son, "Look who's behind you." and he turned around and was all smiles when I fist bumped him. I liked saying, "Everyone say Star Trek" in the photo booth when people were wearing starfleet shirts and lines like, "You need to take that again I had my eyes closed." and "Everyone frown." which all got laughs. Faiirly standard lines from most I know. We had props for people to use in the booth and one was a blaster so if a little kid picked that and stood beside me I would bend over and show him my blaster and say, "Look it's the same as mine." which they all seemed to enjoy. I even had the chance to get people out of the way with, "Move along, move along." I learned quite a bit about other costumes as we didn't have dedicated handlers so we did that job for each other. Helping the mandos in and out of their costumes made me feel for them. So many layers they were boiling most of the time. We had a fan in the booth which helped a lot for everyone. I must admit that I was grinning a lot under that bucket. It was a surreal experience. I saw myself as someone in a plastic bucket seeing the world in shades of green and people looking back at me were smiling and seeing a stormtrooper. Even looking at photos of me I can't believe it is me under there! Saturday night we had a multi-club supper which was great to get to know everyone even more and another member gave me a little welcome package of patches, coins and stickers! I was feeling special and welcomed by the group. I think the Saskatchewan gang is going to have a lot of good times together and there was a lot of that buzz around the table. I came back with some con crud cold, but am ready to go out for number 2 on the 27th of this month. Then there seems to be steady slate of available troops if I want them (and likely I'll want them). Really hard to put into words all the feelings this past weekend. Many of you have described the same thing but until I felt it for myself I couldn't fully appreciate it. Thanks for looking! Bart ************************************** Number 1 is going to be going up by the end of this weekend. Is a troop considered one event or is each day of the event its own troop? I asked the other guys and no one knew and none of them have a log here. Bart

MAY THE FOURTH BE WITH YOU!!!!!!!! 5/4/23 - May 4th Troop 1 - Magnet Schools of America Certification Celebration 62nd TK troop, 17th for 2023. TI-50597, 11th troop and 3rd for 23. The first troop of May 4th was at a school to welcome the kids in. This selfie was the official troop pic. Juno handled as best she could (she's amazing) but we technically had no handlers for this troop, which is a rarity. The kids were STOKED for us to be there. A little rowdy but great kids all around. We walked all over the school, gave out stickers and high fives, and then settled at the top of these stairs for pix with the kids. A school admin took this one with my phone. These upright postures won't be that way for long. Some trooped from 0730 till 2230. 5/4/23 - May 4th Troop 2 - UNM May the Fourth '23 63rd TK troop, 18th for 2023. TI-50597, 12th troop and 4th for 23. The local university's May 4th celebration was a high point for me in 2022. I was excited to return. And more excited to share it with my wife! This is some of the mob we entertained. I mean, we had two Vaders! Who wouldn't be entertained? Make that THREE Vaders!!! The boss was somewhat less than entertained by my new armor addition. And of course, the photo booth strikes back! I will drive hundreds of miles for a good TK photobooth. They're always a highlight for me. Much of my time trooping was IN this photobooth. We TKs would rotate in and out of the booth depending on if people wanted to have us in their pix. Good times and tons of smiles. Then I went home and took a nap... Others did several troops between, which was far too hardcore for me. 5/4/23 - May 4th Troop 3 - NME Movie Night: Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back 64th TK troop, 19th for 2023. The last troop of the day was a 2130 showing of ESB. MANY of us answered the call. I didn't get to do this troop in 22 and was jealous all year. I mean, look at us. We're a fine army of Imperials! I checked tickets... (and trooped with my E-11b for the first time!) I sold tickets. I selfied in front of a full theater.... (after which I yelled out something like "What datapad?!? No one here saw me selfy'ing with my data pad!" which just killed the crowd ) And then me and the boys settled in for a showing of the greatest film of all time.

34. 06/05/2023 - MADRID - COLEGIO LIGHTHOUSE - PAELLA SOLIDARIA - Stormtrooper ANH Stunt

Orchard Park Academy A fun troop event interrupting kids during their classes during the afternoon. The school had called too late to get a group on the 4th, but they went with the next best for the Revenge of the FIfth. Even better in my opinion. Amazing how hard our teachers work. I hear it, I know it, but seeing it is just amazing.

75. City of Mission Viejo Star Wars Day - Mission Viejo, CA - Thu. 5/4/23 (ANH-S TK #48, FTE #57) I have a fun game where I have my wife (the Jawa in the photo actually!) try to guess which stormtrooper I am in photos with other TKs. It's especially fun because I often troop with other TKs whose armor I've worked on or built (usually from Anovos or RS) and who are of a similarly proper build for this costume. So it can be a challenge even for her (who has taken several of my L2/L3 submission photos and knows the CRLs as well as I do!), and frankly, I take that as the highest compliment.

Troop #20 (136) JCC Lego Play Day Brighton, NY May 06, 2023

Troop #19 (133) Greece Olympia Spring Family Fest Greece, NY April 15, 2023

Troop #18 (132) Dark Force Fest Parsippany, NJ April 1, 2023

Enjoy your new banner @Starkiller

Same idea in my garrison. A convention is usually a single troop, whereas different events in a day are separate troops. That’s how I look at it when it comes to census type stuff too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice work trooper, don't forget to update the title of your first post with amount of troops Troop log title examples:

Troop 046 - 2023/05/04 -- FOX4 MTFBWY Morning Show in Kansas City, MO

Magnets got super delayed so I trimmed the forearms out in the meantime and will try to size them today as well. I trimmed pretty much all the return edges out of the wrist part, left a little on the upper part of the forearm just in case. Hopefully the magnets will come in soon and I can start glueing everything!

My first May the Fourth! Although this was actually on the third, since it was a weekend long event and we were swamped with other events on the fourth. And because of the horrific evils of alcohol, it’s not allowed to be an “official” troop due to ridiculous rules… because in the films, we can see violence up to the level of an entire planet being blown away, but the Force forbid we see a Stormtrooper at a bar. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hello and Welcome to FISD

Thanks!

I had almost all nylon webbing when I originally built my costume and have switched almost everything to eleastic. The webbing tends to pop off the snaps when you move around since it does not stretch currently I have elastic on all connections of my torso except the side closures on the ab pieces. My shoulders are nylon strapping but will soon be elastic when I get a chance as they constantly pop off when moving around.

Looks good to me, nice work

Trimmed just a little more on the bicep and it seems good to go now! Everything seems like it’s of good proportion and there’s a bit less of a gap now.

Nice work trooper, don't forget to add and update the total amount of troops in your first post title: Troop log title examples:

If you're standing naturally, there shouldn't be white showing above the black underarm connector. If you're moving around, it's whatever, but your barrel should be cut accordingly, though 850s super long chest piece might make it challenging. As to the posterior - it's a pretty flat, angled cut on the little tab at the bottom that's pretty distinctive from OTTKs. Hopefully no one else is inspecting this area this closely hahaha

Hello Marcel, welcome to the FISD! Good Luck with your approval, and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask!

Since it was May the 4th, we had to squeeze a second troop in. Over the Edge was a fundraiser for New Hope Housing. Participants raised funds by rappelling off the side of the Hilton in Crystal City VA.

5/4/2023 Super fun troop! We participated in the promotion ceremony of a Coast Guard Chief to Senior Chief. He marched into his ceremony in Sith robes with a lightsaber. The crowd laughed when he walked in. then roared when we followed.

I find using elastic gives you more movement than using just nylon, it can be restrictive

Hi there, trooper. I would try reaching out to the German Garrison. I know lots of members have RS and would have ordered from the UK. They might have some advice for you on taxes etc. I’m not an expert with Tie Pilot costumes so wouldn’t be able to give much advice there, I’m afraid. Best of luck with your journey into costuming. :-) Best wishes Dan - CableGuy

Troop 10 was pretty fun. Star Wars day 2023 well spent. I was bummed not to squeeze in at least a 2nd troop, but it was not to be. More tomorrow and Saturday. Mostly standing in one place for a long time. But there were a lot of very excited people getting their photos with the menagerie. So the smiles made it worth it.

I hope everyone is able to find time and a way to celebrate today, Star Wars day, May the 4th. I'm a big fan of David Petersen's Mouse Guard series, and today he posted on Twitter some really cool artwork that is SW related, using mice of course! If you haven't read his books, I highly encourage you to check them out. If you have read his books, these are a joyful way to enjoy two fandoms together. Cheers, Paul

We just got back from watching ROTJ in the theater tonight. It was so fun to see it on the big screen again. My parents took me when it first came out, but I was 4 and don’t really remember. I saw it again in 1997 when I was high school. Tonight, I took my 12 year old daughter. While she’s seen it at home many times, this was the first time on the big screen. The grin on her face as we walked out was awesome. It is so much fun to pass this joy on to another generation.

Hahaha that's awesome!!! I remember mentioning something way back for 75 troops and you're like "Oh that's a stretch" Go Adam!!

Timnath Community Park Safety Fair Local law enforcement and safety agencies in the nearby areas. Lots of fun.

I feel like I can share some of these here now:

Thank you, James!

VFW Honor Flight #42 Honor Flights are special events where the VFW flies a group of veterans to our nation's capital. This was my introduction to this event and it was a very meaningful one I will be doing again. (Though I may not do it the same day as another troop. Lots of standing around 2x in a day is painful, but at least I was warm.)

CSU Spring Science Extravaganza A very cold day (~30F) for a troop. Thanks to the kind staff for getting pizzas for the staff, volunteers & troop. A small group braving the cold to bring some smiles to a lot of little & big kids. Enjoying a little bubble blowing. Looking for some trouble making rebels to apprehend while I'm out for a relaxing stroll.

22. Buffalo Motorama, 26 March 2023 Day 2 Bit less of an initial 501st turnout, but we had a scout and the Rebel Legion join us later: And as the only armored trooper for most of the day:

21. Buffalo Motorama, 23 March 2023 First troop of the year, and first time I was able to troop this event. Guess how I spent most of the day:

20. Al Sigi Community WalkAbout; 23 October 2022

19. Flower City Comic Con, 25 September 2022 What better way to celebrate Mark Hamill's birthday than to spend the day doing Star Wars with friends? Morning group photo: Afternoon group photo (One of these things is not like the others ...): The Scouts had an indoor archery range, which we couldn't pass up: I ran into the new Imperial Medical Droid: And we had a Spaceballs moment:

18. Flower City Comic Con, 24 September 2022