April 2013 Newsletter

Aloha kakou,

The biggest item in this here newsletter is about CRL changes. In April of 2012 the detachment voted to amend the 501st base requirements in a few areas. It was high time for those changes to finally be implemented. Check out the section below for the details. The intent was not to make it more difficult for someone to join the Legion, but to begin to slowly modernize our TK costume requirements. We slid a couple Expert Infantry requirements down to the base level but also added a few new ones to make TKs all around more accurate. If you have any questions about the base changes please let me know.

Last November we voted on changes to the Centurion requirements. I am in the midst of discussing implementing some, but not all, of those requirements. Seeing that we took away a few EIB line items, there is also the possibility of beefing up EIB with a couple existing Centurion requirements. My plan is even out the three levels without too many radical changes. The FISD staff promises to be somewhat lenient with some requirements to those caught up in an existing build during EIB and Centurion requirement adjustments. I will keep everyone up to speed as things develop, but please stand by for the last of the CRL changes for the year.

Many thanks to the LMO team who have been supportive beyond helpful in pushing these changes through.

FISD acquired two new staff members recently. First help me welcome SW1 to the FISD Armorer role. He will be helping with our tutorials and continuing to be a Trooper Helping Troopers. In addtion this newsletter was brought to you by Darkshadow our new Public Relations Officer.

Speaking of SW1 has anyone noticed the Ralph McQuarrie's Concept Stormtrooper thread? Keep an eye on it. It seems we are on the precipice of having squads of RMQ troopers thanks to Kev (kwdesigns) of clone trooper armor fame.

Here is the iconic RMQ drawing:

And this is Kev's work on the McQuarrie chest plate mold next to an ATA chest:

My favorite item of the thread is the concept saber SW1 fabricated from an antique flashlight (or torch depending on your locale). Here is the inscrutable Billy Haggis wielding Steve's his concept saber and shield in his normal TK armor.

I try to follow as many build threads as possible. They are what makes FISD so much fun to click reload obsessively. Of late I have been enjoying swmand4's RT-MOD build where he is the next in line to prove that the overlap method of construction is unnecessary for RT-MOD.

As always my PM and email door is always open. Is there something bugging you about FISD? Has the staff rubbed you the wrong way? Do you prefer to be rubbed in a very particular way? As always, please let me know if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback.

With Unquestioned Loyalty and Aloha....

Eric Brager

TK-9674 "Darth Aloha"

Detachment Leader

Just a quick recap of community activity in MARCH:

Centurion Awards: 2 (total 84)

Expert Infantry Awards: 3 (total 307)

Fire Team Tally: 12 total (0 new)

Attaché Tally: 2 new

Newest Attachés: Dennis "Kurtzmann" DiBasco, TK-11382 (New England Garrison); Jeremy "Ravenwood" Horn, TK 15379 (Central Garrison)

What's an Attaché? Someone in your garrison who represents FISD with the friendly "Troopers Helping Troopers" spirit! Is that you? Volunteer today!

See the full list of Attachés near you.

New member registrations: 178

Active members in forums: 335 new topics and 4398 posts

Reported Field Exercises: 29 - Incredible! We love to share!

Scan here to live vicariously!

Twitter Followers as of 3/31: 765

Facebook Followers as of 3/31: 1728

Do you know of people in your garrison who don't regularly visit whitearmor.net, but might benefit from the FISD and Legion updates, as well as tips and some community-oriented fun? Invite them to follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

With Unquestioned Loyalty,

Ingrid Moon

TK-6818 "LadyInWhite"

Executive Officer

HOW-TO: Make your own Inner Drop Boxes

Hi everyone,

I just finished my Inner drop boxes and as it might interest some of you I decided to share with you how I did them. The main idea of this, is to only use ABS scraps to save money where it can be saved

List of materials:

- You’ll need an untrimmed armor kit for this as we need ABS scraps

- An X-acto

- A pencil

- Some glue

- Lot of patience

Optional stuff:

- A hand drill

- A paperclip

- Some black paint

1^st:

While trimming the Shoulder bridges take advantage of the 4 corners that are presents on the excess of ABS to make the build easier.

(You can also find 4 corners like that on both Ammo belts)

Trim them away with your x-acto without cutting the corner. You won’t be able to score & snape them so make as many passage as required to cut a whole side:

And then, score & snap the other:

Once the four are trimmed we begin to see the shape of the inner drop boxes:

2^nd:

Now you have to cut the corners’ tips to the right length so they can fit inside the outer boxes:

Take your time here, you can always cut a little more if it’s too long. Adding material is much more difficult!

3^rd:

Now you need 2 large pieces of flat ABS. You can normally find them on the excess of ABS around the handplates. If you can’t find a piece of ABS large enough, check the end of this How to

So once you are happy with your corners, take them out and use them as a template to get the right dimension for the back of your Inner boxes:

4^th:

Now trim the back plate until it fits inside of your outer boxes. I Proceeded one corner by one rather than trying to get the right shape at the first time.

5^th:

Here my back plate was a little too high:

… so I had to take off some ABS on the top of my corners. The idea is to level the corners so their height arrives right under the top of your outer boxes.

Now the back plate will fit much better

6^th:

Now just glue the corners along the edges of your back plate. You can e6000 them but rather, I would advise you to use CA glue for this because it’s impossible to clamp or magnet them.

7^th:

Use some ABS paste to smoothen the link between the corners and the back plate. Then sand it or not, as you want:

Don’t worry if the sides aren’t perfect because they won’t be apparent.

8^th:

Final result!

Annex:

If during the 3^rd step you weren’t able to find a large enough plate of ABS, this is for you. I will only show you the theory here, but I had to use this technique for my second plate so I can assess that it works

TO CONTINUE THIS TUTORIAL, click here.

Tutorial Submitted with Unquestioned Loyalty by

Germain "The5thHorseman"

FRANCE

Changes to the Costume Reference Library, which is used for qualification of membership, is a Legion-wide affair. This is in part an effort by our active FISD community, who votes on the levels of quality and specification (language) for the Stormtrooper costumes. It is also an effort by the detachment staff to push these changes up to the Legion level for new applicants and GMLs to use as the guide for approval.

New requirements and revised language in the Stormtrooper CRLs is summarized here.

BELT

• ANH Stunt, ANH Hero, ESB, HWT, Deathtrooper: Vinyl or plastic belts are no longer allowable for basic 501st approval. The belt must be canvas. The width specification has been changed as well.
  • "The soft belt proper is made of canvas, or material with a canvas covering. Size must be 2.75†(70 mm) to 3.25â€(83 mm) wide and not wider than the plastic portion of the belt. The color is be white to off-white."
    

   

  [*]ROTJ, INC, TKC, SKY: Vinyl or plastic belts are no longer allowable for basic 501st approval. The belt must be nylon. The width specification has been changed as well.

  • "The soft belt proper is tightly woven nylon/cordura like/style material or material with a tightly woven nylon/cordura like/style covering. Size must be 2.25" (57mm) to 2.5" (64mm) wide. The color is to be white to off-white."
    

   

   

HOLSTER

• ESB: New basic level wording specifies that the holster must be on the right side and looped on belt.
  • "Holster is worn on right side of belt. Holster will be made of completely black leather or leather-like material and be worn on the right and affixed via two black loops over the belt (no fasteners)."
    

   

  [*]INC, TKC, SKY, HWT: Holsters are no longer allowed at the base level for these costumes.

  • "Holster must be omitted from this costume."
    

   

  [*]Deathtrooper: Added wording to match ANH belt specifications but still kept as an optional accessory.

  • "Holster may be omitted from the costume. If a holster is worn, it will be made of black leather or leather-like material. Worn on the left side of belt and be attached from behind, with no loops covering the outside of the belt. The holster will be affixed with two fasteners at the bottom of the belt instead of none or four. The fasteners may be rivets, snaps, or Chicago screws."
    

   

   

KIDNEY & BUTT PLATE

• ANH Stunt, ANH Hero, ESB, HWT, Deathtrooper: A one piece kidney/butt is no longer allowable at the base level.
  • "A separate kidney plate shall be present, split from the butt plate."
    

   

  [*]ROTJ, INC, TKC, SKY: These costumes must have a one piece kidney/butt.

  • "A separate kidney/butt plate is not allowed - the kidney and butt plate shall be combined/fused to a single plate/one piece."
    

   

   

WHITE U-TRIM

• ROTJ, INC, TKC, SKY: The white U-trim requirement has been moved from EIB to the base level for torso parts.
  
• "A white flexible U shaped gasket or molded lip shall be present around all edges."
  

AB PLATE BUTTONS

• ROTJ, INC, TKC, SKY: The inverted ab bottons have been moved from EIB to base level approval.
  
• "The ab plate has a button area that matches the color pattern shown (3 dark blue + 6 charcoal grey or black); buttons are approximately 7/16" (11mm) in diameter. The three dark blue buttons will be the three buttons closest to the belt. Ab plate button detail shall be inverted compared to ANH/ESB."
  

THERMAL DETONATOR

• ANH Stunt, ANH Hero, ESB: Metal clips are now part of the base requirement. The size of the detonator and orientation of the control panel are now specified.
  • "(A.K.A. O2 canister) attaches to the center back of the belt. This is an all gray cylinder without silver stickers or silver paint. The cylinder is between 2†(50mm) and 2.68"(68mm) in diameter with white end caps on each end. The white control panel pad faces upwards, with controls/round washer style detail closest to the right end cap. The total length should be approximately 7.50" (190.5mm). The thermal detonator shall be attached via metal or metallic-appearing clips approximately 1" (25mm) wide."
    

   

  [*]ROTJ: Metal clips are now part of the base requirement. The size of the detonator and orientation of the control panel are now specified.

  • (A.K.A. O2 canister) attaches to the center back of the belt. This is an all gray cylinder without silver stickers or silver paint. The cylinder is between 2†(50mm) and 2.68"(68mm) in diameter with white end caps on each end. The white control panel pad faces upwards, with controls/round washer style detail closest to the right end cap. The total length should be approximately 7.50" (190.5mm). The thermal detonator shall be attached via metal or metallic-appearing clips approximately 3/4" (19mm) wide
    

   

   

With Unquestioned Loyalty,

Sam Kisselburg

TK-85254 "Darkshadow"

Public Relations Officer

This month I have selected the Books-A-Million Star Wars Troop for Make-A-Wish as the troop of the month. Though on the smaller side, their spirit shows that size matters not when it comes to making an impact on the charities we care about. Not only are they promoting reading and literacy, but raising money and awareness for Make-A-Wish Foundation. Great job, Alabama!

There's some funny business going on at this troop... can't quite put my finger on it...

With Unquestioned Loyalty,

Ingrid Moon

TK-6818 "LadyInWhite"

Executive Officer

Don't Forget We're on Facebook and Twitter!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/whitearmor

Now with "tip of the week" and other ongoing discussions. If you're on FB, stop by and say hi, ask questions, and share stories!

Twitter: www.twitter.com/FISD501st or @FISD501st

To find out what the Emperor's dancers are up to at any given moment, follow FISD on Twitter!

With Unquestioned Loyalty,

Sam Kisselburg

TK-85254 "Darkshadow"

Public Relations Officer

On behalf of the 1st Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment Command Staff.

End Transmission.