Leaderboard

There's been alot of amazing replies to this. And I'm sure there are interactions that didn't go in the best way. It happens. We aren't perfect. And to those people they may not appreciate us, or talk bad about us for that one experience. All we can really do, is try our best to always do what we can to show a shining beacon of goodness and continue to do the good works that we do do. We will never please everyone. No matter how hard we try. Just keep trying to better ourselves. So we can better everyone else!!

13th troop representing Erskine Veterans Charity at the annual motorbike meet. Great day for it the weather was splendid. Lottsa high fives, fist bumps and happy faces all around

I can now see the end of the tunnel! Yesterday afternoon, I spent a few hours with a member who lives nearby sanding, chit chatting, and ultimately fitting the forearms and biceps. All of this is going to keep me busy until the other member and I meet up again. Time to paint the thermal detonator tube, assemble it and work on the forearm and bicep cover strips

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

They are a little on the messy side, I think I would go over again. A good tip when using templates is to give a coat of white first, that way if there is any bleed through it is filled with white and not blue.

Great tips I'll probably lt try them all. thanks Troopers

Exactly! That's what's been intimidating for me to work more on my TK Kit. I feel there's a lot of pressure to make any cut or glue as it isn't able to be undone. When I got it I laid everything out and got super overwhelmed. I did however get the motivation yesterday to finish the assembly/glue together a bicep piece! So yay! Small victory! It was also a used kit so it's partially assembled already so I had to figure out where in the proccess it is to being completed. Luckily I have two things going for me that can help. 1) The forums here have a LOT of information. I used that one extensive Anovos assembly guide to help with the bicep yesterday. 2) I have someone from my garrison coming this coming Saturday to help get me started and guide me on what to do!

I know right? The resemblance is uncanny. Bart

Troop 27, another baseball game… and my first wedding. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To stop twisting and movement up you can add either velcro or snaps to the top of the front of the boots and also the inside of the shins, works well for most. Also adding some foam behind the sniper plate can help push it forwards away from the thigh.

That looks like a super fun troop! And that Obi-Wan... wow, did he escape out of the movie? He's on point.

Troop 4: Luseland reading at the library. Small town Saskatchewan. 27May23 I was much more relaxed for this one. This is the size of troop I thought my first troop would have been. I was generally comfortable in the armor but still taking note of a couple things to tweak. I still haven't got the bucket fitting just right yet with the glasses, but it is workable with just a bit of discomfort. The best solution, if I can ever do it without glasses, will be the hardhat suspension in there. This was a journey. Seven hours of driving in total and three hours of trooping. It made for a long day. The town has never had any kind of event like this before and despite a number of conflicting events in their area they were happy with the turn out they did get even if it did come up shy from their projections. They have ideas for next year to get more focus and participation perhaps teaming up with the local school as well. We had time to play around and the librarian wanted to get some fun shots to use locally and we were all happy to play along. I am not the selfie king but this was their theme. Two of the rebels travelled in from Saskatoon to team up with me and TK-55810 for this. That dude in the middle was cheating. The dice never rolled my way. I'm jealous of TK-55810 who has somewhat mastered sitting. I was standing for three hours but am getting more used to it. I wasn't in agony by the end and the boots were feeling good. I'm in trouble. Wrong book section. This one was better... I guess. The kids were all pretty quiet. Their parents were more excited at times. They got to play a game and get entered for a draw the library was doing. She told us she took her kids to Star Wars in 1977 when they were teenagers and if they weren't in the fields seeding they would have been at this. This guy was the highlight of my day. The four of us were talking with the librarian when no one was in the building when the door opened behind us. He walked in the doorway to see four Star Wars characters all turn and look at him. His jaw dropped to the floor and pretty much stayed there. He brought along all his Lego that he and his dad built so, of course, we had to get this photo with his TIE fighter. He's grinning from ear to ear. So am I. When we were ready to leave they asked if we would mind also walking to the pool which was just a block away. So, yes, of course we will go watch the caged in younglings. Then they wanted us on the pool deck for more photos with the lifeguards and kids. Small town fun. We might not have signed on for a pool shift, but that water did look tempting after the day. Bart

I use Velcro on the front inside. I glued the soft pc. to the boot and the other strip on my inside cover strip. I just set it in the right spot when I put on the shins. Never moves and allows ankle pivot for walking/stairs. Hope this helps Trooper

Those posting the negative comments online obviously have no idea what we represent. If they would bother to dig a little deeper into our organization, they would find that we have raised over $360,000.00 for the "Make-A-Wish" foundation and many, many thousands more for local charities. We spend crazy amounts of money building our costume(s) and then drive countless miles to appear (for free) at the events we attend on our own time. Remember, we only show up when we are invited, and this includes children's hospitals, police community events, parades, etc. We are asked back to these events year after year for a reason. Yes, we are the "bad guys", but what kid wouldn't want to meet a "real life" Stormtrooper who gives them a high-five? We don't do this for notoriety. We do it because we care. Yeah, it's fun to dress up as your favorite SW character, but when you see a giant ear-to-ear smile on a kid (or adult) at a troop it makes all the time (and money) you spent building that costume worthwhile. "Bad guys doing good". Side note: I have been on more troops than I can count, and I have noticed that the vast majority of those wanting photos with members of the 501st (especially TKs) FAR outweighs those wanting a pic with a Jedi. No offense to you Rebel Legion types, lol.