Seriously, what a crazy ride this has been. I was 65 lbs heavier when I started this.
Last year, when I received my big brown box (in addition to another one due to some issues I won’t get into), I unfortunately, in the midst of cutting, gluing, measuring, realized that I wasn’t going to fit into this thing without some serious modification. Despite my armor (AM) being a choice for larger troopers, I was still having issues. The ab and kidney didn’t meet. I couldn’t close the thighs in the back. I was by no means morbidly obese or anything, but I was just too big.
Sure, there are shims. ABS paste. Ways to make it work. But starting this build was eye-opening for me. If I was willing to put all of this time, money, and energy—the blood, the sweat, the tears—into building screen-accurate space soldier armor, what’s stopping me from losing weight? Getting healthy? I was happy to throw down 2 hours of build time a night, but not 30 minutes to take a walk? It was time to change.
So I put my build on hold. If you look at my build topic, sparse as it is—the updates simply stopped. And during that time, I made some big changes. And the weight started coming off. If I was going to go to lengths to be a stormtrooper, to make 7-year-old me proud, I was going to do it right. And I did.
A little over a month ago I attended a build party. I met some great people, laughed, had a great time. I made friends. I had a new surge of confidence. And so I continued the build.
So here it is. Complete, approved, and already in a ton of pictures with people from Grand Rapids Comic Con. No shims, no ABS paste. I made it work. And now I’m finally thin, to boot.
So, I want to thank everyone here, for the fantastic community, the resources, the help, the encouragement. It’s fantastic that despite how terrible things get, we still have people looking out for us. And I hope to meet all of you and troop with you some day.
Special thanks to Eric Dyck, Steph Mortimer, Weylyn Kelley, Craig Hobbs, and my wife, for all their help and encouragement.
Thanks everyone!