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81. Montessori of Ladera Ranch Annual Fall Festival - Ladera Ranch, CA - Sat., 11/4/23 (ANH-S #54, FTE #63) @Dsposato0 and I also got some Imperial marksmanship training in while we were at this troop! Not surprisingly, we didn't hit anything. (You know it's hard to see out of those helmets!)

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

Thank you so much.

Hi Joseph. here is the step by step process that I went through to become a stormtrooper. 1. I decided that I wanted to become a stormtrooper after talking with 501st members at a local convention. 2. I joined the FISD as you did to find out what I needed to do. 3. I looked through the link that has been posted above by @gmrhodes13 and started doing research on the various costumes and where to get these costumes. Once I had done that, I ordered my kit from a local armourer. 4. Once I ordered my kit, while I was waiting for it to arrive, I started to watch lots of videos and read threads on how to build the costume to meet the requirements to join the 501st. 5. Once my kit arrived, I created a build thread and started the build process. This is a long process but I made a build thread and the awesome people here at FISD helped guide me along the process through my build thread. 6. Once my kit was finished, I applied for basic approval to the 501st through my local garrison. At this point, I needed to make a few improvements to my armour. Once I fixed the issues, I resubmitted my application and was approved. 7. Your TK number will be assigned to you (picked by you) once you are approved into the 501st Legion. You get to pick your own 5 digit number as long as no one else has it already. This is a long process and it took me almost 1 year from step 1 to step 7. It may seem daunting but you will find a lot of help here and possibly from your local garrison. For some people, the building process may be outside of what they are able to do. Some have got their armour built for them by the armourers. This will cost a fair bit more money and you likely will still need to make some adjustments but it is an alternative way to build your kit. I hope this helps you get started on your journey to becoming a stormtrooper.

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