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NEW In Memoriam Detachment Leader Merchandise Officer Hall of Fame FISD Meme's Celebration - lets see those photos Competition INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS FISD Tri-Fold Brochure Common FISD Acronyms and TK Glossary Pre Approval Forum 3D Section Field Exercise Award Imperial Attaché Program Master Armorer Award Fire Teams EIB & Centurion: What do these terms mean? Need Help Ask the Deployment Officers Advance to 1500 Advanced Tactics Awards Social Media Newsletter Editor Staff List 2023 Follow FISD A Sad Day For FISD It is with great sadness we make the announcement that we have lost one of our own, Dan Branton TK-42911 "CableGuy" passed away, after a long battle with cancer. Many will know him for his incredible enthusiasm in always helping others and this often included aiding those to build the best stormtrooper they could. Within his own Garrison he held the position of armourer. A formal recognition of his enthusiasm, his knowledge, and his ability to assist others new to Star Wars Costuming. Here he was a staff member, a Provost Marshall, and his opinion always welcomed. The majority of you will only know him from the forums, or Facebook groups he would post in. To many others, myself included he was a great friend, and we will miss him dearly. He is succeeded by his wonderful wife Tuesday and their three children. Condolences to his family, friends and the UKG "Buckets Off" From our Detachment Leader Personally, I was devastated to hear the news of Dan's passing today, he was such a lovely warm person, always ever helpful to our members, with an exceptional eye for detail, and an amazing love for Storm troopers. Privileged to have him as a friend, I will miss our conversations very much. This is a very sad time for all the staff, but we will celebrate Dan's life and he will forever live on in FISD history and our hearts. Rest in peace my friend, until we meet again. Andrew @Sly11TK11469 If you would like to pay your respects here is the thread Greetings fellow members May is always a great time of year to be a Star Wars fan and 501st member as we celebrate 501st day, May the 4th, Revenge of the fifth, and a change of season. It has been great to see plenty of posts and coverage across our social media platforms and to also hear of Carrie Fisher getting her Star on the Hollywood walk of fame, albeit posthumously, and we are only just getting started on this month. First off, I would like to congratulate our winner of the new Forum banner design which will shortly appear at the top of the FISD forums. Thank you to TK-81175, iceknyght (Jason) for his most excellent design. You have successfully left your mark on our forums for the remainder of the term, well done and congratulations! CRL update It wont be long now before we finally have a new CRL Commander Pyre CRL is almost complete, just a couple more images from Sano on his marvelous costume, and a green light from the LMO team and it will be published and ready. This has been years in the making and we are all super excited to get this to completion. We will post it across all platforms the moment it goes live so keep your eyes on FISD for the official announcement. More CRL's under construction and continued upgrades are also occurring. The biggest hold up for us is always having a costume builder and secondly, getting all the photos needed to complete a CRL they are the main reasons it takes so long. If you have your eye on a new character costume from the bevvy of TV series we have these days, and you believe the costume belongs here, please talk to us. We work as a team with the individual to assist in the creation of a new CRL, have the perfect place to share all your references and build a case for the costume belonging on FISD. Troopers helping troopers makes your dream become reality, plus the blessing of the LMO team to find the right home. You can expect to see another one go live in the not too distant future, but we are still working on updates to our First Order costumes, so more discussion will kick off this month for those. If you have input, please look for the threads and join the conversation. Advance to 1500 is in full swing, and we are still ironing out some ideas for merch to help drive this baby along, we will have more to announce on the forums after the FISD Pin run goes live (details on this in this edition) but rest assured, there will be merch! If you are wondering what Advance to 1500 is all about, it is our journey to the next target number of total troopers approved at Expert Infantry. The milestone is "The 1500" and with some simple changes and upgrades your basic approved armour, you can become part of this campaign have your kit looking that much closer to screen accurate, be proud and get into some exclusive merch items on the journey and more when we reach the eventual finish line. The 1500 You can do it! Until next time, keep on trooping and hope to see you on the forums With Unquestioned Loyalty Andrew Franke TK-11469 "Sly11" Detachment Leader FISD Celebration patch Celebration Patches shipped FISD/Legion 25th Anniversary Coin In what was a bit of a surprise to me, The coin order arrived about 3 to 4 weeks earlier than expected. So I have been starting to ship combined packages for those that I hadn't shipped patches to yet. Once those combined shipment have been made, I will return to shipping the remainder of the coins. FISD Shield Pin Run The pin run has been approved by Legion and LFL. I will start checking with members that signed up on the interest thread to verify their orders, and then we will open the run to the rest of the Detachment. This run will close at the end of April or when we sell out of pins. More info to follow. With Unquestioned Loyalty James Silvius TK-12953 "jsilvius" Merchandise & Branding Officer Testing top secret technology for the spread of the Emperors ideology! Please welcome TK 69826 to the Stormtrooper Hall of Fame, April 2023! @TikiTechie Troop log can be found here. Well done trooper and congratulations! Keep it up and you'll have earned that badge! Other HOF recipients can be found here. With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Curator Hall Of Fame Thank you to Luca "Morgi" TK-66744 for starting the FISD specific meme thread, you can find it here A few images from Celebration (note only 1 first order Stormtrooper) More images in this thread here and here - - - - - - - A 2 year break, perhaps giving people enough time to save up those extra dollars, could be an expensive trip Kon'nichiwa, irasshai こんにちは、いらっしゃい April 18 2025 (Fri) to April 20 2025 (Sun) Forum Banner Competition Well it was a surprise but we only had one entry for the forum banner competition so no poll needed by staff, congratulations goes out to Jason "Iceknyght" TK81175. Thread here for entries INFORMATION & AWARD PROGRAMS For a full list of FISD awards programs head here. *Now Available in Swedish* Want to spread the word about FISD?, you can with our FISD Tri-Fold Brochure. Originally these were done in a limited run by the member who created them, but nowadays, we have moved this to a print your own service making them accessible to all countries around the globe. Files are available to all full 501st members on request by contacting our DL Andrew @Sly11 , you can find more info here Currently Available languages: English - Spanish - German - Swedish Are you new to the FISD and wondering what the heck all those abbreviations and strange sounding terms mean? To help you @justjoseph63 has started a list of the most commonly used ones that will give you some insight. If you have ANY questions about a particular term that is not listed or suggestions for new ones please contact Joseph. You can find the list here. Pre Approval Forum allows future Troopers the opportunity to submit photos of their completed build to be reviewed by the Staff, Imperial Attaches and others in preparation for forwarding it to their GML for approval. Any and all advice/suggestions given will be specific, constructive, helpful and respectful. Please note that this program will NOT take the place of your local GML, as Detachments are not chartered for costume approval and can not override a GMLs decision, but is instead a peer review program designed to help you look your best and offer guidance and positive feedback. For more information on this program, please visit the link here. Don't forget to visit our 3D section when next surfing the FISD forums, there is plenty of useful information to potentially help you on your next TK adventure. You might be feeling may generous and share with our community a new TK related 3D file and maybe win yourself a 3D contributors award so check out the details below and be part of the in house 3D community. Here is a link to the FISD 3D Contributor program. Don't forget to create a troop log here on FISD and get awarded for your adventures The list of accomplished troopers keeps growing, so get on board and register your troops today Simply start (or update!) your troop log, keep the running total in the title, and post (at least!) a date and name for the official 501st event where you wore your TK! Once you've hit a milestone count, go over to the "Field Exercise Awards -- Post your milestones here" thread to request your profile be updated! Simple, right? Also if you would like your troop photos shared on our social media channels please add the following to the first post of your FISD troop log: I give permission for FISD to repost my photos on social media in an appropriate fashion. Award Recipients April - May TK-80416 "Chaschen" Charles - - - - - TK-70202 "Starkiller" Marek - - - - - TK-69826 "TikiTechie" Jim - - - - - TK-10701 "BLACKFOX" Sal TK-32700 "TK-32700" Simon - - - - - TK-17032 "Wompet" Gary - - - - - TK-37423 "GoofTrooper" Eric - - - - - TK-24512 "Deytrim" Thomas - - - - - Are you an approved TK that spends more time on the boards than the average Trooper? Do you enjoy using your knowledge to help out future and existing Troopers? If so, we would like to invite you to join the Imperial Attaché program! Members of the I.A. team are chosen to help out not only those here on the boards, but on a local level as well. Our aim is to have at least one in each and every Garrison, Squad and Outpost in the entire legion to be the eyes and ears of the FISD on a local level. For a complete list of Imperial Attaches, go here. Some of the benefits: Access to exclusive Attaché merch., including patches, IA patch and IA Rocker You may also be in the running for an Imperial Attaché Award Imperial Attaché Award for those attaché's who have gone above and beyond [minimum 1 year of service]. You can find a list of prior recipients here. Attache Links 2023 Attaché Announcements and Kickoff thread Check-In thread Attache List Attache Request Thread! The FISD Master Armorer program is an optional, detachment only incentive award to recognize individuals who have directly helped another 501st stormtrooper to achieve Expert Infantry status. Some people spend countless hours helping others, and want to reward their results as well as incentivizing new people to help as well. To register a “win” in the program, the assistance must have provided hands-on help trimming, building, and/or fitting of said armor for the person who was awarded Expert Infantry status. More information can be found here Want to setup a "Fire Team? the Fire Team program is completely optional, and is intended to help form a common identity and spirit of camaraderie among 501st Legion Stormtroopers in the same geographic area/garrison that troop together. Fire Teams are not officially recognized by the 501st Legion nor the FISD, although they will be able to access a Fire Team sub-forum on the detachment website. You can find more information here For those interested here is the original discussion on the creation of Fire teams here With Unquestioned Loyalty Mark Ryner TK-4584 "captsafe66" Fire Team Relations So what exactly are and levels? These programs were designed for those who choose to take their armor above and beyond the minimum requirements for basic 501st Legion approval. It gives you the chance to show a level of dedication and pride that takes your armor closer to being as "screen accurate" as possible, without as much extra work as you may realize! You can find more information on the programs here. For those unaware it is possible to achieve extra awards at Expert Infantry for each additional version costume you have approved, additional awards are not issued with another Expert Infantry number (you are only issued 1 Expert Infantry number) but you will see a star above the award on your profile and the thread title will show [APPROVED] 2nd, [APPROVED] 3rd, [APPROVED] 4th and so on. Multiple EIB award recipients and info here NOTE If you are approved with a "2nd Version" of a particular costume that you are already approved with you do not receive an additional award, there is only 1 award issued for each costume version ie: only 1 x Hero, 1 x Stunt, 1 x HWT, 1 x ESB, 1 x TFA and so on. If you have a second/additional version costume approved you will see "2nd Version" and [APPROVED] added to the thread title, no additional profile stars (more info on profile awards here) For those of you who have a particular issue (or issues) before or after submitting for Expert Infantry / Centurion level approval, in order to get you an answer faster you can now privately contact the entire Deployment Officer team at one time! Questions about fitting, repairs, CRL standards/requirements or anything pertaining to reaching Levels 2 and 3 are not only welcomed, but encouraged. Keep in mind that no question is too small, and that your queries will only be seen by the D.O. Staff. We are here to help in any way we can, so please feel free to send us a message by clicking on this link: @Deployment Officer Team and we will get back to you A.S.A.P.! The 1500, stand and be counted! This area lists all those who have gone above and beyond basic approval toward screen accuracy and obtained EIB or Centurion or both. FOR April - May the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment would like to congratulate the following. Expert Infantry Badge Award: James "MintImperial" TK22826 EIB 1061 Dan "KaiserintheHood" TK80419 EIB 2nd approved ANH GREAT job on your approval, now on to Level 3! Request your free EIB certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. Multiple EIB award info here Expert Infantry Honor Gallery here --------------------------------------------------------------- Centurion Badge Award: James "MintImperial" TK22826 Centurion 523 Marek "Starkiller" TK70202 Centurion 524 Outstanding job on reaching Centurion, Troopers! Request your free Centurion certificate here. You can find a list of multiple award recipients here. If you see any of these Troopers around your Garrison or Squad, be sure to congratulate them! I just wanted to say how shocked and sorry I was to hear of Dan's "CableGuy" passing, although I never met him in person we did converse with each other over the years. Condolences go out to his family, friends and also the UKG, you will be greatly missed "buckets off" For anyone interested in having a look through any of the older newsletters they can find be found here. With Unquestioned Loyalty Glen "Q" Rhodes TK-85421 "gmrhodes13" PRO, Newsletter Detachment Leader (DL): Andrew Franke (Sly11) TK-11469 Detachment Executive Officer (DXO): Joseph Pedigo justjoseph63 TK-10963 Chief Deployment Officer (DCA): Mario Reyes (TKSpartan) TK-48117 Deployment Officer (DCA): José Mª Sánchez (Chemi) TK-30173 Deployment Officer (DCA): Tony Jobe (ukswrath) TK-10116 Provost Marshall (DCoG): Steven Sheades (starsaber25) TK-10466 Provost Marshall (DCoG): Tim Waychoff (DarkCMF) TK-51878 Provost Marshall (DCoG): Chris Pearson (themaninthesuitcase) TK-10911 Special Unit Director-Valkyries (DCoG): Teresa Nuthall (Soulart) TK-41307 Provost Marshal SM Platforms (DCoG): Christoph (Danny) Lauber (Ripper_L) TK-55550 Fire Team Relations(DCoG): Mark Ryner (captsafe66) TK-4584 Merchandise and Brand Officer (DMBO): James Silvius (jsilvius) TK-12953 Trading Card Specialist (DMBO): Eric Ho (Hoda) TK-77520 Personnel Officer (DPER): AC (NoVATie) TK-5597 Content Editor Support (DPRO): Adam Wolf (Revlimiter) TK-89400 Content Editor Support (DPRO): Jeff Salt (Wingnut65) TK-50297 Content Editor Support (DPRO): Jonatan Östling (Nairy) TK-23592 Content Editor Support (DPRO): Vicky Mandlmaier (Vicky_Velocipanda) TK-50893 Social Media Relations (DPRO): Luca Hahn (Morgi) TK-66744 Newsletter Publisher (DPRO): Glen Rhodes (gmrhodes13) TK-85421 Attache Ambassador (DPRO): Caleb Mask (MaskedVengeance) TK-73692 Systems Administrator (DWM): Eric Brager (Darth Aloha) TK-9674 Systems Administrator (DWM): Mathias (Locitus) TK-2959 Detachment Founder (DF): Paul Hoeffer (Daetrin) TK-8020 Facebook: www.facebook.com/whitearmor Facebook Group: 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment (FISD) Official Twitter: www.twitter.com/FISD501st or @FISD501st Instagram: www.instagram.com/fisd501st Discord: https://discord.gg/FmQZ2qW8gx On behalf of the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment Command Staff and the Imperial Propaganda Department

[50] 07.05.2023 -- HerzogTumult Children's Festival Mölln The big 50 -- finally! And I had so much fun as well! This one catapulted itself into my favorite troops with ease. Since I live in a pretty trooper-less area, we were all really happy to get six troopers together for this event. The children's festival had a lot of visitors and most were really excited to see us. Aside from us there were local clubs, emergency services, and several other exhibitors who offered opportunities for the kids to play and to learn. Sadly, us TKs couldn't climb this, but our scout fit into the safety harness and got all the way to the top with ease. The rest of us waited at the bottom and cheered for him. Luckily, there were lots of other stuff where the rest of us could participate -- ring toss, a nature quiz, a first aid refresher and a politics questionnaire were all completed. Afterwards we were invited to join a swordfight, in which the imperial forces lost spectacularly against dozens of Ewok-sized opponents. We didn't stand a chance against their sheer energy and all walked away -- or ran away -- with a few new scrapes and additional weathering. We cheered each other up by visiting the local scouts group and getting some popcorn and pancakes, which were prepared over a fireplace. Afterwards I didn't want to miss my chance to go onto the bouncy castle, so I simply had to drag DZ-15925, who managed to accompany us as a handler for the last two hours, over there to help me stay uprigh, take off my shoes, and take some pictures. TK-66744 signing off

[49] 06.05.2023 -- Lego Store Hamburg Getting up at 5am, this was going to be a long, long day. Similar to the Elbenwald Store on Thursday, Lego requested two troopers per store. This time, TK-21641 and I showed up to represent the Empire. The Employees were happy to have us there, but not as happy as the kids were, when they spotted two Stormtroopers guarding the store. At the very beginning TK-21641 and I decided to take up guard at the doors and soon enough a crowd began forming up. I've never before had this many pictures taken of myself. One after the other went up to ask for a picture with us, we barely had time to take a break or take pictures for ourselves. At times the employees even had to step in for crowd management. Despite so much going on, we still managed to find the droid we had been looking for, if only towards the end. As a thank you for showing up, the two of us each got to choose a Lego set worth around 70€, so I'm now the proud owner of a Lego Captain Rex helmet. And, yes, I'm already working on it. TK-66744 signing off

Congratulations!!! I'm all kinds of jealous of these. Fantastic looking venues.

Hello and welcome! When you get approved by your Garrison GML you will get one of the ID's that you chose from the list of available ID's. Then when you get your ID and approved in the legion then you can request access here by posting the link to your 501st record. If you're unsure about how to find this 501st record, use this link below, replace 12345 with your ID: https://www.501st.com/members/searchresults.php?searchfield=12345&criteria=tkid When you have done this you will get promoted to 501st Stormtrooper on the forums and can now enjoy the benefits that this gives you, like being eligible to enter merch runs, FISD competitions and so on. Next up I'd say would be - TROOPING! Get on your Garrison forum and look up the events page to see which events are in your area (or find the correct Facebook group/chat) and sign up and meet other troopers, and just enjoy being a Stormtrooper that puts smiles on peoples faces! Your GML that approves you can guide you to the right place look for events if you are uncertain, and also invite to any potential Garrison chat! You could take your forum-game one step further and scour build threads, and help future troopers by sharing your experiences from your own build, or study the intimate details of the armor and maybe one day become a Deployment Officer? If you find that you love helping out on here, you could potentially become an Imperial Attaché and help people take on the same journey as we all have done by bringing new future troopers to our forum! If you have any ideas on anything we are all ears! If you want you can also take your build one step further and apply for our Expert Infantry program and come one step closer to screen accurate, and join 1060+ others in the march to 1500 approved as Expert Infantry! I've done this myself and for me it was one of the most exciting things I have done in this whole Stormtrooper journey! Let us know if you have any further questions!

[48] 04.05.2023 -- Elbenwald Store Kiel For Star Wars Day several Elbenwald Stores across all of Germany requested two troopers. For those who do not know Elbenwald, they're a nerd store, so perfect for us, selling mainly Harry Potter, StarWars and Marvel merchandise. We stood at the entrance to the store, taking pictures with the guests. Since there wasn't much going on due to it being the middle of the week, we decided to fool around inside the store, trying out almost all of the merchandise on offer. I mean, I look absolutely dashing in this imperial robe, don't you agree? I was very, very tempted to actually buy this. Just look at it! TK-66744 signing off

Troop 25 Shorewood Star Wars parade, Shorewood, IL. TK-12140 and I joined about 20 members of the Midwest Garrison for a parade around the a neighborhood in Shorewood. This is the 2nd time we've attended this event. Sent from my SM-N981U1 using Tapatalk

The first Bicep is away! I doubled up the magnets just to be safe but it took me 24 to get the two outer cover strips secured while the glue dries. For pieces like the biceps and forearms is it recommended to double up on magnets or is one on each side good enough?

16. 2023-05-06, Lego Store, Mall of Scandinavia Stockholm (Hero) I found the droid those lousy Sandy's couldn't find. T'was very easy. Go back to: Troop Log Overview 17. 2023-05-07, Lego Store, Skärholmen Stockholm (Hero)

Hi all, I realise I haven’t done an intro yet. I joined some weeks ago and have done a ANH Stunt WIP which got approved this morning but am now not clear on what I do next. I still don’t have a TK number. I’d be grateful for any advice! Thanks, William Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

More fun with magnets I am using a cheap dental vacuum (about 100.00) to make the holders/flange for the magnets. Not only for more surface area for glue, but to also help cushion between the magnets (so they don't shatter). .040 plastic sheet Pockets like I did on the calves Magnets on the inside of the chest piece. Eventually I will sand and clean it up for a "nicer" look.

AJ approves these requests, he's normally online every few days or so, hang tight trooper, he'll be along in due course

Thanks so much. I’ve emailed the webmaster. I’ll also check out the forum about GML approval. W Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Two straps, that's good to know. I didn't catch that as I looked at images. My armor seems light enough that one strap suffices. But I only wore it for a short time. I'm also thinking a second strap will limit any twisting the thigh armor does after wearing it for a while. I'm glad you passed that on. I did know about the material covers and plan to sew those some time in the future. Thanks for sharing the details and thanks for the feedback!

I double up and make sure you cover magnets with painters tape. They can fly across and hit and shatter when you least expect it. Looking good

That is awesome! Congrats Morgi!!

7th May - Royal Selangor - Star Wars Launch Battersea Power Station in London to support the launch of a new range of Star Wars statues Still having dressing issues with my legs and forearms

There's a Facebook "Star Wars Blaster Builder's group" if you're into building your own or printing. There's a few on there that build by commission like @Troopacoola. And, as a proud owner of a Blaster Factory E11, I can say nothing but good things about it. It's a bit heavy, but very troopable. Troop-able? Troopeable? You can carry it for several hours comfortably. It's very well built and not at all delicate, so no worries about it crumbling in your hands. You can see my own build here: There's also Quest Design in Canada that makes a lovely resin blaster. I have one of those as well. It's lighter than the Warmachine/blasterfactory, but not as robust. I've broken several pieces off over the years and have been replacing those bits with metal parts from Warmachine. There's also the Rubies toy blaster (white and orange) you can get on amazon. It's not very accurate (it's actually the model used for the Rebels E-11) but you can make it accurate if you've got crafting skills. It weighs just a few ounces and won't break when you hand it to a kid. They paint up nice and are easy to troop with. As Justin said, there's rubber blasters on etsy and it's best to steer clear of them. Just not worth it when so many other options exist.

The list above looks good even in 2023. Just do not purchase on Etsy, as there is at least one exceptionally unscrupulous vendor there. I also have PMd with a lead.

Awesome! Thank you so much!!

Enjoyed May 4th celebrations attending a live concert for BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in aid of Children in Need charity.

50 troops down many more to come, congrats Morgi.

Congrats on your 50th Troop!

Very very nice, congratulations! As a guy thst is from Germany aswell, how much dhipping cost Taxes did you have to pay? Greetings from Cologne!

Requesting my 50 Troops Award

Congratulations on 25 James, now updated.

Well done Sal, updated for you.

I was wondering about that. I went ahead and resized to make the bottom of the shin more narrow and redrew my lines.

[39] Make-A-Wish for Alex 5-7-22 San Jose, CA (was asked not to share pics of Alex)

My first troop actually on May the Fourth. Detroit Tigers game and charity event at the zoo. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Can’t understand it…don’t want to…took me awhile to understand the IG post of his passing….I couldn’t process it…just the other day he liked a post I made here and now he’s gone. Like others said I also never got around to meeting him in person but due to our contact on these boards over the years I consider him a very close friend…my heart goes out to his family and I want to do something..don’t know what…but something….I’m going to miss you Dan and I just should have booked that flight over from Sweden to London when we talked about it those years ago…

43. 05/06/2023 -- May The FOURTH at the Minifig Shop (INC)

Bump in case it was missed

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.

No, for the year is 2023. It's finished. Well close enough anyway. I managed to prime the side cover things last summer, and looking at them last week I realised all it needed was a rub down and they would be okay for top coat. So during the week I've been sneaking up and rubbing them down with 400 and then 600 grit. Possibly a bit rough and ready, but take a look at real film props up close some time and see how rough they can be. In the end it came out nice. First job gloss paint. Always a phrase that fills me with dread. Took it slowly, a light dust coat and then a couple of wet coats to get a nice smooth finish. It's not flawless but you'd need to be pretty close to tell. Assembly was a bit scary as the paint probably could have been left another day or so. However I know that I need to do things when motivated or it will be another year or so loop. I started by using a scalpel to clean off paint where parts will glue and the barrel nozzle fits. I should have masked these but a blade works if you're careful. The top sight was assembled using M4? countersink screws. IIRC the original instructions wanted to use a grubscrew into the Glock slide but this felt like a better solution to me. The mount bracket was countersunk to accept them and then everything was done up to approximately "snug". The sight is resin, the mount PETG and doing things up too tight will just break things. At snug they should stay done up, and not strip out the threads. The top black thingy no longer fitted. Paint tolerances are a nightmare, but the fix was simple. I applied a bit of masking tape to the face of the file to make it safe then used the side of the file to add the needed clearance. This done a dab of Tamiya Semi-Gloss black was added to hide my crimes. The sheen is nothing close to the spray Satin Black I used but it's close enough for this. Next came bolting things up. The instruction PDF was long gone at this point and the one in the TFA download is for the TLJ build so some educated guessing was needed. I have a stash of M3 and M4 security Torx screws in assorted lengths, as you do. I used the TLJ guide to get the size and then picked the appropriate length by holding them to the part. I used the longest possible for each to get a solid join. The most important was the front M4 screw as I am actually using this to join the two halves, no glue. The longest I have went about 10mm into the other half which should give a solid fix, and on the other side the shortest one I had was used as it's effective decorative unlike the rest. The last job was to glue the red thing onto the sight, glue in the slide pull, barrel nozzle, and the sight into place. All of this was done with the smallest dabs of CA so not to make a mess but also give me a sporting chance that this semi removable if needed. Hooray pew pew time. I do need to add the holster bracket still. I have an idea for this but I need to get the hole spacing and hardware size for the R2Dan holster so I don't screw it up.

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.

Thanks!!! I've got 3 tomorrow as well. Wish there was a free comic book day one here... I'm hoping to get to 100 by the end of 2023. That's my goal anyway. I'm aiming for it. 5/2/23 Bernalillo County Fire Department May the 4th promo 61st TK troop, 16th for 2023. This one was a mid week troop at a fire station in the mountains. They wanted clean, white TKs and nothing else. Five of us answered the call. Randy wasn't in the group selfie above because he was a little tied up. We were there to help Fire & Rescue film a promo video for May 4th. We were "new recruits." Tye and I got to practice our aim with the big hose. We did well. The cones were completely safe. Don't want to risk any cones after all. They're expensive. Brandon and Wayne tried on this strange off-world gear. And their weapons. Not sure what to do with these weapons... Ah, yes. That's more familiar. Fire Team Rio Bravo signing off. (I'll be pasting this to our Fire Team log too!)

One of the kindest troops one can perform. Well done Mark. Bucket's off. Salute.

010 — [April 29 2023] Calgary Comic Expo (Day 2), Calgary, AB. It is nice to suit up in my TK once again! I had a blast hanging out with my fellow Tks at Calgary Expo this weekend.

Sorry to hear of Tanya's loss, thoughts go out to her family and friends, Buckets Off

27th April - Tanya’s Funeral In May 2018, Tanya was diagnosed with terminal cancer. In August 2019, her twin, Kim, reached out to Albin, and myself, Gary and Tracey visited her at St Joseph’s Hospice for her birthday. After all the fun and games, Tanya looked me square in the eyes and said “Just making sure you guys will be at my funeral” “Lord Vader would be honoured, my Master” I replied COVID came and went In August 2022, we once again visited Tanya for her birthday, played with lightsabers and ate cake. March 2023 came and a message from Kim saying the end was rapidly coming and could we get there….now. Gary was able to drop everything and get there and I sent a video message the same day. On the 31st of March, Tanya became one with The Force. This week, the four of us were able to keep our promise to Tanya and join her on her final journey. 🤍🤍🤍🤍

4/26/23 -Painted Sky Elementary Read-a-Bration TK Troop #59, 14th for 2023. This was advertised as "a troop where we read to kids" and I was ALL ABOUT IT. See, I did several Star Wars reads troops last year in libraries and really enjoyed it. However, there weren't any good Stormtrooper books to read. None. We were always either bumbling bad guys or a footnote in Finn's rise to the rebellion. So I made one. I spent most of a year of off-and-on work with this little thing. It's based on (totally ripped off) a book that I used to read my daughter when she was tiny. It's a counting book for littles and it reads quick. I started out drawing the pages but that takes life for each one. I decided that lego toy photos would be the play in actually getting this book to exist. @Scimitar loaned me a bunch of his minifigs, I had a ton of my own, and I bought a handful more on ebay to round out the 45 little troops I needed for the book. I took the pix, edited them up, and printed them out on my vinyl plotter. They got stuck to the pages of a huge board book I got at a local book store. Fast forward to April 23 and I finally got to read it!!! There was three of us at the troop. The mando in back was apparently a parent who had a (just kickass) Mandalorian costume. He had non-canon stickers, so we didn't think he was an official Merc. Anyways, this troop was WAAAY more than reading to the kids. We paraded all around the (huge) school with a bunch of Avengers and sports team mascots. All the kids were dressed as book characters - sometimes as a class project and sometimes as just their favorite books. So we paraded. This small trooper caught my eye and I had to stop the whole parade to selfie with him. This class had a whole Star Wars theme (the teacher was Rey) and had another little trooper!! MORE SELFIES! and holy crap, I've never received so many high fives in my life. There were roughly 600 kids. Each one got several rounds of 5s. Maybe 2000 high fives. And hugs! And photos! And questions about being a real Stormtrooper. It was amazing. AMAZING And then. THEN, after all of the parading for almost two hours, we got taken to several classrooms to read to the kids. I read my little TK counting book with my bucket on. The kids cheered. My fellow troopers supported. It was great. GREAT!!! I expected it to be a low key read-to-kids troop and it was this huge parade. This huge celebration! Totally unexpected and awesome. So many happy kids. All because I have a plastic spaceman suit and a flexible schedule.

32. 29/04/2023 - FUENLABRADA - (MADRID) - EXPO. UNIVERSO STAR WARS - Stormtrooper ANH Stunt

Location: Seattle WA Event: Yuri's Night Boeing Museum of Flight 2023 Date: 04-09-2023 Garrison: Titan Did a previous Yuri's Night as Vader and it was a ton of fun, but decided to white armor this one. It's a 'dance/night club event' that celebrates sci-fi and Yuri Gagarin's first spaceflight. The museum is really cool at night and a little surreal with all the people in various costumes. Group Photo, had a great set of the mud troopers, Scouts and Pilots! And some dirty rebel scum. Stuck with the Boss through most of the event. Also having a Vader it's good to watch his back, as TKs actually have much better vision than a Vader does. This was the Moon landing display room, and really felt like a "Star Wars" backdrop. The Museum Auditorium is quite a thing at night. We usually wrap up about the time people start drinking and dancing. Staying too long can get very weird real fast, so better to get out of kit and head home. I'm way too old for the night club stuff anymore. Bed is much more appealing.

4/22/23 -Family Fun Day TK Troop #58, 13th for 2023. Lucky troop 13 for the year was a family event put on by a local biker gang to get some toys, bikes (the pedal kind) and fun into the lives of some local kids who might not have it otherwise. I decided since the weather was nice, I'd wear my HWT pack and bring my DLT... and carry them for 2 hours... It was honestly a great time, even though my shoulders were a begging for death at the end of the day. The pack looks SOOOO COOL! But 2 hours is a lot. One of the officers here was interested in my DLT. He asked what it was and I answered something about "standard Imperial issue DLT-19" which produced A FACE on the officer . When I went on about it being based on an MG-34 and started showing the differences, he made the other face and was super stoked to talk about it. Just a couple GMLs inspecting a local transport. Nothing to see here. There was a good sized tent FILLED with beautiful parrots and exotic birds. Mesh sides so you could see them and they wouldn't get too hot. Kids could go in and pet/feed the birds. I asked and was instantly denied, even though I promised to leave the BFG outside. I had to be content with just a routine interrogation. And then there was ducky fishing. But it was okay since me and The Colonel (also named Adam) were the highest ranking troops in attendance. Two Adams fishing. There's a joke somewhere in here. And instead of Disney Princesses, they had actual pageant winners at this troop. Miss Senora New Mexico looked like she needed a DLT in her life and got a kick out of posing with it. She was SUPER kind and didn't mind selfie-ing with me. She tracked down the rest of the Beauty Queens and then all posed with our group. A+ troop! Would troop again, but maybe I'd leave the pack at home. I clearly need to work out more...

Troop 1, also listed in Fire Team Sousa Troop Log (2023/APR) Event: Books for Love 2023 (Week 1) Location: Taikoo Place (QuarryBay, Hong Kong Island) Date: 23 / APR / 2023 First time as a bad guy doing good. Felt great.

Troop 16 Oshawa Comicon, Oshawa , Ontario April 22, 2023 A small Comicon to raise money in support of the Oshawa Community Centre. We started outside and grabbed a photo in front of the tank outside of the Armory. Greeted people passing on the street and sidewalk. Rainy weather forced us inside after a bit where we mingled and interacted with guests. The other TK whom I have trooped with several times, always has a dog squeegee in his glove that he squeeks when the kids high five or fist bump him. He brought a bag full this troop and passed them out to everyone else. It really makes the shy kids come out of their shell when they fist bump you and they get the big squeak. Last but not least, I achieved a perfect level 4 sit in a fairly low chair. This should solidify my level 4 achievement now.