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#1. Event: Chattanooga Comic Con Date: Saturday, 21 October, 2023 Host unit: Midsouth Garrison, Mos Nooga Squad Kit: ANH-Stunt The day started out with my daughter's soccer game followed by our small town's Fall Festival, and due to the presence of bouncy-house inflatables, it looked like I might not event make it to the convention. We made a last-minute decision to bring the entire family so we rushed home, dressed up my 4YO, then made the 30-minute drive into the city. Not only was this my first ever troop, but it was also my first ever convention to attend in general, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. After picking up our badges we found our way to the Legions area, where I met the city's local unit, the Mos Nooga Squad of the Midsouth Garrison (TN), for the first time. Note that I live across the state line in GA and am a member of the Venator Squad of its Garrison. So yes, this first official troop wasn't even with my own Garrison. Making our way to the changing room, my wife helped me kit up (only the third time she'd ever seen me as a TK), and at one point the spitting image (face, hair, glasses, etc.) of Iron Man waddled through the dressing area. Catching sight of my daughter, he exclaimed "Earth is closed," to a young Vader. We should have nabbed a picture with him. After 30-45 minutes of dressing due to disassembled armor for transport, I headed out onto the con floor for Blast-A-Trooper. Apparently there had been a TK there earlier in the day (his FX kit made it onto the news lol), but the squad was short on hard armor, so they were eager to have me. I heckled the nerf shooters with galactic jargon, and probably used "move along" far too many times. Unfortunately, no photos were taken, but since the nerf rounds had rounded tips rather than suction tips, none of them stuck to me anyway. Some kids had a blast. After a bit I decided to walk the con floor to drum up some additional Blast-A-Trooper attention, but was quickly and continually stopped by children and adults alike wanting photos. Apparently my area is short on TKs, with the local squad only have 10 squad members to begin with. The convention hall next door was hosting an IFBB body building competition, and while I was in the corridor one of the contestants exclaimed that getting a photo with me was really why he was there. While roaming around I ran into Scout @Pugs501, from my actual Squad, in her Jawa, and it was a cool moment of meeting for the first time after interacting online for 2+ years. Needless to say I felt extremely short. Scout also introduced me to Ashe of Bad Ashe Design, and we educated her on the green lenses of TK buckets after I explained that I couldn't tell the color of any of her pins and stickers for sale. I also spotted Jorge's @zv288bot meilooruns, but unfortunately he wasn't going to make the con until the next day, and with his Chopper too! Bummed I missed them. On our way back to the Legion area I called out "Hello there!" to James Arnold Taylor, who immediately ran out from behind his table to engage my daughter. I wonder how often he's heard a "Hello there" from a TK in full kit with voice amp. Haha. Though she's never seen any Star Wars on screen other than Young Jedi Adventures, she held her own in the conversation, and JAT was quite gracious. We ended with me telling him "You can go about your business" to which he responded "Move along, move along." I was giddy. Ironically, we did also find the droid I was looking for, and had to snag a photo. Pic or it didn't happen right? The pesky goldie still seems to be illusive... Back at the Legion corner I had to get some photos with the hover tank that had previously made an appearance at ICCC Nashville. Apparently the Mercs bought it off the builder, and if I'd have had more time I would have climbed up onto it, and maybe even poked out of the hatch. Next time. Finally, before heading home I made one last patrol down the celebrity row and saw that Emily Swallow had nobody in line so I approached and greeted her. Really I just wanted to welcome her to town and thank her, but I was a bit star struck and bumbled through my words. Haha. I even forgot to tell her "This is the way" when ending our conversation. Do I even Star Wars?!?! So in review: First official troop Blast-A-Trooper Escorted mini Vader daughter Finally met Scout "Hello there" with Obi-Wan (JAT) Met Emily Swallow All in all I had a pretty good time. The clubs booth with a bit disorganized, and most members were in racing shirts rather than kits, but perhaps 3:00pm was too late in the day. I'm not sure if I'll go to the next cons in January and February, but I definitely want to get in on some charity action, and some troops with my own Georgia Garrison! But I have one in the books, and I can now fill out my census!

I'm going to call this my Mk 1 lighting system. I'll have to find a way to avoid taping it to my face in the future, but the lights are great!

Troop 39 Ronald McDonald House visit London, Ontario October 21, 2023 This was a fist at a local Ronald McDonald House to visit and interact with families staying there while their children are being cared for in at the adjacent hospital. A short troop but a very special one.

Well folks, I'm finally upgrading my Kitting-Up Not-A-Troop Log, replacing it with this Field Training Exercise log. Did it really take me nine months after approval to get to my first event? Yup. Had I tried to attend troops during that time? You bet. In each instance—the St. Paddy's Day parade, a minor league hockey game, a Rogue One screening, and Dragon Con—travel arrangements were foiled due to family needs or just pure dumb luck. But that's in the past, so let's do this! This first post will serve as a Table of Contents linking to actual trooping entries, with unofficial troops noted by not counted. # DATE EVENT (link to post) LEGION UNIT KIT ACCESSORIES 1. 21 October 2023 Chattanooga Comic Con Midsouth Garrison, Mos Nooga Squad ANH-S DLT-19 1.5 29 October 2023 FBC Trunk or Treat Unofficial event ANH-S Holstered E-11 2. 11 February 2024 Atlanta Brick Con Georgia Garrison ANH-S (LEGO) Loudhailer LEGO blaster 3. 12 April 2024 Walker Games Georgia Garrison ANH-S Macro-binocs, orange pauldron 3.5 4 May 2024 Walker Co. Farmer's Market Unofficial event ANH-S (cookies) Holstered E-11 4. 4 May 2024 Movie in the Square: SW ANH Georgia Garrison ANH-S DLT-19, holstered E-11 5. 13 July 2024 BrickFanExpo Nashville Midsouth Garrison, Music City Squad ANH-S (LEGO) Loudhailer LEGO blaster 5.5 27 October 2024 FBC Trunk or Treat Unofficial event ANH-S DLT-19, E-11, white pauldron, no holster 5.7 29 October 2024 RHS Trunk or Treat Unofficial event ANH-S no holster Total Official Count: 5 Total Unofficial Count: 4 Pauldrons Worn : 2 Variant Breakdown (official) ANH-S: 5 Special Themes LEGO: 2 Cookies: 1 Years (official) 2023: 1 2024: 4

For the Emperor! Please welcome, TK 10351 to the Stormtrooper Hall of Fame, September 2023! @RCMUSTANG Troop log can be found here. Congrats! With Unquestioned Loyalty Jonatan Östling TK-23592 "Nairy" Curator Hall Of Fame

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

I almost was done with my anthology trooper and quickly diverted to a night trooper instead. I have more screen accurate fabric on the way and know that the td has gray on the side inserts. While waiting for those two and a crl, is there anything else noticeable?

Hi, I'm interested in joining the 501st, I have already met a few people from my local Garrison, and gotten advice on what vendors sell kits. Still undecided on an animated clone trooper kit or Tie Pilot. The ultimate goal is to build a Hunter from Bad Batch kit.

gracias. efecto de luz entonces. thanks .just light effect.

Nos leemos nuevamente entonces hermano, gusto saludarte! Los tornillos son negros originales, proveo las fotos para probarlo, igualmente, si hace falta, le doy un toque de pintura. The Screws are actually black from factory, there you have the pictures to prove it, anyway, if needed, i can give a touch of black paint.

Hola Rodrigo, Voy a estar a cargo de tu revisión y una vez que completes las fotos procedemos. Por otro lado, Podría ser un efecto de la luz pero parece que los tornillos de tu TD les falta pintura negra. por favor revisa y nos actualizas . Gracias Hello Rodrigo, I will be in charge of your review and once you complete the photos we will proceed. On the other hand, it could be a light effect but it seems that the screws on your TD are missing black paint. Please review and update us. CRL L2: Clips shall be attached with slotted type, flat or dome top style screws, and be black (two per clip) Reference image

Looking forward to seeing those BBB photos soon

Hello and welcome to the forum, for a full list of costumes and their CRL's (costume reference library) head here https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:CRL Costumes are home under detachments, each having their own forum, you can find a list of them here https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:CRLbydetachment For Stormtroopers this thread is full of helpful information Good luck with the research

Hola Rodrigo. Gracias por solicitar el nivel 2. Uno de nosotros estará contigo muy pronto. Hello Rodrigo. Thank you for applying for level 2. One of us will be with you soon.

Congrats on your first 10 troops, all updated for you.

I have reached number 10! Please update me. Thanks. Bart

Troop 10: Medicine Hat Gas City Entertainment Expo October 21, 2023 I can't believe I was in armor 10 times since this past January! I thought if I had five opportunities to troop I'd be lucky. It just gets better and better with each one. I usually can go 3.5 hours in the armor if I can move around between standing in place for a photo. Possibly could go even more if I have more to drink and eat beforehand. I feel my pre-retirement job prepared me for this as I had to spend a lot of time with no time to eat or drink for extended periods. This can be sort of the same at times. Once I'm in the armor I'm pretty comfortable but once I take it off I don't want to get back in it for the rest of the day! This is a little expo that maybe had an attendance of 500-1000 people throughout the day. But it probably has to be one of the most fun events I've been to so far. It has been an annual event for the garrison for a number of years. What made it so much fun was the interaction ability. With things not so crowded it was easy to walk around and have fun with the attendees and harass a few that looked to be trouble. Some memorable encounters with this one as I've come to expect with all of them. One young man with some challenges talked up two of us in the photobooth for a good 10 minutes. We managed to stay in character and had some fun with him while also adding some humor to the encounter. His dad seemed very happy that we spent the time with him. We were also asked to take part in a ring toss game. I was sweating extra bullets in this one because of the four characters were had at this event I was the last two throw and the first three all landed their shot. The pressure was on. Thankfully I landed my shot too which was very disappointing to the crowd that were expecting a grand failure of aim! Joke was on them. I can see pretty well out of the helmet even with my bad eye and corresponding depth perception problem! Treated like royalty by the organizers. We had about 2000 sq feet (yeah they skimped out on that...) of change area for four of us and we could share in the volunteer snacks and pizza all day! Two TKs at this one. The second lives in the same city as I do but she (TK55810) will be moving sometime next spring. As such right now we end up carpooling a lot to these troops to save on some costs. Found the droid I was looking for. Much shorter than I thought it would be... I don't think this armor is going to pass inspection. Too many departures from the CRL for approval. I really liked this costume and thought the red and white contrast would be cool. I asked for this photo to be taken. I'm sure she wondered when one of our guys went up to her and said, "Our stormtroopers would like a photo with you." what was going on. Isn't it normally the other way around? I didn't think it was worth any Imperial credits to have this primitive weapon from this out of the way planet we were on. On the other hand I probably couldn't miss with this one even if it was a bit awkward to carry around and load. This little Jedi was probably my highlight of the day. When they first walked in his eyes were on us and when his dad brought him closer I said, "I need to see your identification." and his dad helped him with what to say and do to get the line, "I don't need to see your identification" which made his day. More cuddly than a blaster... But when he misses his nap he's just violent. For some fun one of the members (the Mando above) made this little reel. It does a very nice job of showing our time away from the photobooth area. https://www.facebook.com/100011473691801/videos/3996173270703791/ Any troop between now and next spring will be a bonus troop. The weather is starting to change which usually means bad travel weather and 9 out of 10 troops for me involve a minimum two hour drive. In nasty conditions it's just not practical. If it works out I'll get to do a Christmas troop mid-December in a mall so that should be wild with shoppers! The rest of the time I'll live vicariously through those trooping in warmer locals! Bart

Thanks! I actually prefer the fiberglass. I have a death trooper, sith trooper, mimban stormtrooper and used to have a mud trooper all from Jim. Love his stuff!

Hi Josh. Welcome to the FISD

Looking good Aizenoso. Good luck on your approval.

Telethon Kids Carnival Sunday 22nd October 2023 (24 hour telethon raising funds for children, hospitals and research) Not a TK troop but sometimes younglings can make your heat melt Not a bad total for the remotest capital city in Australia

48. 10/22/2023 -- JDRF One Walk STL (INC) A fun walk with Louie (St. Louis Blues) and Fredbird (St. Louis Cardinals) showing up.

47. 10/21/2023 -- STL Walk for Apraxia (INC) Swapped out my E-11 for a banana.

Troop 32 Zoo Boo, at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk

Troop 120: 10/21/2023 - WA State Toy Show - Ridgefield, WA (284th troop overall)

Troop 38 Toronto Treat Accessibility Halloween Village Toronto , Ontario October 15, 2023 Treat Accessibility is an annual event that takes place at several locations around the greater Toronto area. A neighborhood street is blocked off to traffic for a few hours and home owners set up tables at the end of their driveways. This allows for children with disabilities to trick or treat in a safe and controlled environment. The group selfie shot. We were joined by the stormtrooper in the middle. He had just finished assembling his Anovis kit. His goal is to get it 501st approved. We directed him here and offered helpful advice. Hopefully he will drop by. I passed him my blaster for the photo. A quick pose with the local law enforcement. Took a minute and did some dancing (the twist) with some residents.

Troop 36 Hamilton Comicon Hamilton , Ontario September 23, 2023 This was the 3rd of 3 comicons in the past month. Time for a short rest. I have now started trooping in 2 costumes now that my death trooper is complete. Wearing the fibreglass death trooper really makes you appreciate how light and easy to wear the ABS TK kit is. I was a bit late on the booth duty sign up, so missed out on being a target for blast a trooper but still managed to get a spot as range assistant.

Troop 34 & 35 London Comicon London, Ontario September 16 and 17, 2023 This was a much smaller con than the last one and was a very fun troop. we did morning patrols around the convention on both days and had most of our photo ops there. We came across this heroine person taking a break from fighting crime. He was kind enough to pose with us Next we came across some sort of android type statue. Something about the resistance and futility I think they were saying. Since Lord Vader never lets us pilot the battle cruisers, we jumped at the opportunity to take this one out for a spin. For a moment , I thought these were the droids we were looking for but no such luck. This one definitely was a little short to be a stormtrooper. One convention guest had a completely new spin on driving the AT-AT On Saturday afternoon. We were visited by Brendan Wayne who wears the Din Darin costume on the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal only wears it during helmet off scenes apparently), as well As Lateef Crowder who does the fighting and stunt scenes in the Din Djarin costume and Misty Rosas who is the performance actor that did the motion capture for Kuill in season 1 and for the Frog Lady in season 2 of the Mandalorian. They stayed around our booth for about a half hour doing photos and trying blast a trooper. We made Lateed and Brendan honorary 501st members as well.

@11b30b4 Please add Sheev's Emporium to the soft parts vendor list at your convenience. They have started consistently providing undersuit gaskets and they look excellent! https://www.facebook.com/sheevsemporium