thechosenhitman

I'll try to get pics of my Vader suit. Bad thing is I am out of data for my laptop Internet (damn Xbox update). Will try to get to a hotspot somewhere to get the pics uploaded.

The SLD's How to:l Applying Darth Maul Make-up by SL-6096 (also TK-6096) Mauling up- Pre makeup- shave head and face, trim eye brows. Take shower and wash head, neck, and face thoroughly to remove oils. Applying horns- using pros-aid, or whatever high quality prosthetic adhesive you choose, (this tutorial is specific to pros-aid) apply to horns and let dry clear. Then once it is dry clear, apply a second coat. Once that coat is dried clear then wipe the surface of your skin where the horn will go with rubbing alcohol and apply horn. Hold the horn in place for 10 seconds and then it is good to go. (I would love to be specific on where to apply the horns but it is slightly different from person to person, use a screen accurate picture as reference) Contacts- I usually do this right after applying horns because you have a high chance of messing up your makeup if you do it after. Applying makeup- now this is the tricky part, everyone does this a little different, but having good Ray Park reference pictures is key for everyone. Also paint varies, but most guys I know use either Reel Creations (which is what I use) or Ben Nye paint key is to use something alcohol activated so you will sweat through it and always use the same brand for everything so the colors match up.(This is how I do it), first of all I use an air brush and air brush specific paint from reel creations, first for the large red area on the face and then the large black area on the head and neck. I use a big baby bottle cap to cover my horns while spraying around them. Then on to the detail. I use the reel creations color pots and hand paint all the detail. There is a specific formula to how I do it so that my fave looks more like Ray Parks, but everyone's face is different so you just have to practice and get to know your face, and better yet, get to know Rays face. Once you are done with the fine detail, spray on sealer if you wish, this holds the paint on better and it won't rub off when your suit rubs it. Teeth- using coffee stain or light brown and black tooth enamel, apply the brown color first to all teeth that show when you scowl, completely cover the teeth. Once the brown is dry then go through with the black and only put it in between your teeth and put a couple dots here and there at the end of the teeth to make them look rotting. Once you are don that, make sure you stick in your Screen accurate ear stud and start revealing yourself to the Jedi:) you are done.

Sith Spotlight: Congratulations goes out to Ronald Lares (Darth Benz) SL-5928 of Empire City Garrison for being the FIRST Darth Vader to complete 200 troops in the Sith Lord Detachments Great Jedi Purge program. His 200th troop was at FARE Walk @ Eisenhower Park, NY on 10/24/2015! His very first entry in the Jedi Purge was way back on 2/16/2011 at I-Con 30 at Stony Brook NY. The Jedi Purge Program awards 1 "kill" for each troop in your approved Sith Lord costume. Each member must have their own thread & provide 1 photo of them in character for it to count in the program. Currently patches/sticker for each of the 10 levels is in development.

For my next section the Kylo research by asking our 2 Kylo experts on the SLD how they got started: My name is Dawn Bright (SL-13377) I am proud member of the 501st Southern California Garrison. I am a seamstress by hobby and I love putting together Legion 1st ( 1st in the Legion) costumes and assisting my fellow costumers with their creations. I am proud to say that I have five completed Legion 1sts between the 501 and Rebel Legion. When I saw Kylo Rens "leaked" image November of 2014. I knew that was going to be a costume I would be making. When I arrived at C7 (Celebration Anaheim) I had one thing in mind. Get up the stairs and see that costume in person (On display at the Force Awakens Costume Room). I stood in line for almost and hour and was able to take hundreds of photos Thursday at Celebration Anaheim. http://imgur.com/a/7foiP The costume in person was in shambles from being incorrectly placed on the dummy. They even had the back of the door to the costume unlocked. This is where I got shots of the boots, midcoat and both sides of the pleated tunic peeking from inside the armpit. Seeing the costume in person allowed me to analyze the threads and fibers of each piece and match them with the plaque which was on display. Initially after getting home on the 21st of April I did a quick write up on the Sithlord forums http://forum.501stsithlords.com/index.php?showtopic=9148&page=1 and headed to the fabric district. April 21st in the rain on my sons birthday I trenched the Los Angeles fabric district. After searching for hours, showing hundreds of fabric vendors close ups I found a bolt of fabric with a 2x2 weave that would be accurate enough for my liking on the surcoat. It still wasn't perfect but it was the closest thing I'd ever seen. I took it (and the rest of my fabric home and begin my intense research and break down of Kylos costume. One of the best ways we originally stated gathering information on parts for Kylo Ren was a board on the Sithlord forums "Kylo Ren research and Development". I started there in the early days of the build and we helped each other pick apart the sections. I began sewing quickly, hoping I would be able to finish and have a quality costume worthy of Legion approval. It felt like every time I "finished" the costume something new would pop up. The vanity fair video and article showed us many in-depth details we had originally missed. That's when I met Luke Daley (BH 21313) from the UK Garrison and his research on the basket weave surcoat (as well as a number of the other fabrics). He had found a custom material maker in the UK to begin producing the surcoat material in bulk. Fortunately by the time he was ready to start taking orders, we knew how much material would be needed. I had already completed tutorials and write up and was able to assist with how much material would be needed per coat and cape. Yet again I started my costume over with the surcoat when I received my batch of Luke's perfect 2x2 basket weave material. But I still had a problem, how do I coat it? I took dozens of scraps before I found a suitable coating. Something that shines that doesn't crinkle when dry and is still flexible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN3NUje657k The costume has been a labor of love for me as it has for many others, from the pleated sleeves right down to the pleated boots. I have never felt such a strong connection to a character I know nothing about.... I proudly sweat through all five layers of my waxed and resined Kylo Ren costume. There has been an awakening.. From Luke Daley BH-21313 I started my Kylo Ren journey similarly to many others by knowing nothing, and then there was that first trailer within 88 seconds my mind was blown and who the hell was that guy with the weird lightsaber.. I tuned in along with millions of others to the constant stream of videos and photos from Anaheim when I first caught a glimpse of the Kylo Ren Costume at this point I knew it was going to be a costume I wanted to have. First things first I got some super high res shots from the constant stream of content online and designed the Kylo Ren Buckle, everyone asked me how I stumbled upon the dimensions I started the way i always do with a photo by scaling the photo of the costume to Adam Driver’s height the belt measurement came out to just over 5 inches I standardised that down to 5 inches for simplicity and A-typically most leather workers are cutting in whole inches and it lined up by the time you accounted for the boot heels and helmet It didn’t take me too long but I wanted it to be an open job so I took comments from members of the RPF and refined my design within a few days I had the final design nailed I printed it and tested the Scale out i was very happy with the part so I had a master printed at shapeways and began to cast buckles for myself and the community I even gave the files away because we’re all in this together and if it feels good to share! I’ll be honest after i finished that part I turned my gaze to other parts on the costume, the belt, the fabric the helmet what more could I learn from these pictures My next project was to begin the Saber Clip project that is still on going from the side shot we had i created a 3d model just to help people try and track down the real part but after no result I made it a finished functioning clip i discovered it’s a fantastic design and as we see in trailer one it is used to great dramatic effect since he can just slam down on the sabre and withdraw it vs the almost cumbersome covertec clip method, with every new photo i get i revise the design I've now reached my 5th revision and it’s looking better than ever i’m even having it made at a machine shop each clip consists of no less than 34 parts including mounting hardware.. Somewhere among this I kept hearing the crazy notion on how hard this fabric was to find and I mean hard like you aren’t going to find it in a year of searching, within the space of 2 months I learnt more about fabric construction and weaves than I did in my entire life until that point, I began to consider what if I got this custom made.. That consideration evolved into a now staggering 800 meter order of fabric for various Kylo’s globally it involved about 3 draft revisions with a mill I worked with and various diagrams and specifications on the fabric to get it just right, the coating is another topic still being looked into by many but we now have a solid fabric to work on! Aside from all of this I’ve had my hand in specing leather and designs to make seamless closures as well as even discovering a flaw on the Anaheim display (the buckle is upside down) i had this confirmed by a Lucas Film representative when i asked which felt like a great detail to find. I also made the huge dive into designing helmets i’ve never made 3d item’s so large so it was a challenge i enjoyed for sure after some 105 hours of design i had it done (at least for version 1.0) i also decided to give this away for free too because i just want people to have access to stuff that might not get. I've also been constantly scrubbing information on the costume having late night skype conversations to help people and discuss costume points as and when it came in and running a group on facebook that now exceeds 1000 members of absolute kylo fanatics, I have to give those guys credit also for supporting my work and keeping up the spirit of openness and exchange within the community, they have been the BEST people to work among.

OK. Maybe Eric would like to help out on that one or if anyone else on the FISD staff is a vader could assist. I personally don't want to keep using myself as a model for it as I used me as the troop. Looks like we have Dawn & Luke Daley that did a ton of the work to building Kylo as well as getting the references. Dawn has had her Kylo complete since May & waiting for 501st approval for it.

You should always conduct yourself in a professional manner when you are in costume & wearing legion swag. The main reason I say this is when we are in character we do not represent yourself, we represent Disney/LFL (never once did I ever think I would say those 2 names in the same sentence). While some people know of the 501st, a lot more know of Disney/LFL & you will never know what will be posted on social media and catch the eyes of our wonderful Mouse Emperor

Nothing on the DL. With the exception of Eric and myself, we are the only command staff active. The Maul makeup/horn application is in the works. I can use one of the last Featured Member articles for our Sith Spotlight. Maybe because I am a bit burned out with the CRL development, work & trooping that my brain is not understanding what will be needed/how vader is put together, & the Kylo spotlight.

For the Notable Troop, should you choose to use it, is from Discovery World Sci Fi Day. On October 17, members of the Wisconsin & Midwest Garrisons, along with The Knights of the Howling Moon from Nar Shaddaa Base of the Rebel Legion, came together at Discovery World Sci Fi Day to raise money for Make-a-Wish by performing 4 saber demonstrations. Admission for each show cost $2 & each show had a full house with the final show having people stand on the steps & sitting on the floor in front of the first row of seats. Following each performance was a short introduction of us, info on both legions followed by a Q & A. At the end of the day over $2000 was raised for Make-a-Wish which includes a custom made saber that was constructed by the bases sabersmith. Pictured Above: Jason Stoxen, John Hartley, Dan Christy (TK-10408), Melanie Thompson, Matt Frysztak (SL-8596) & Nick Klein. Video of the show can be found here: Respectfully Submitted by Matt Frysztak SLD PR Officer

How deep do you want to go into it? Just specific parts or we talking about the whole suit, and which version of Vader & TK should we do? Vader currently has 5 different versions & ALL are different. Only thing that comes to mind for Kylo is that we have a proposed CRL 98% complete with one person still waiting for approval since MAY! I am not sure if it will be possible for Vader maybe Maul could fit for this one for the makeup/horn application. I do have a troop that I just did this weekend that helped raise around $2000 (+\- $500) for Make-a-Wish. It was a saber demo shows at Discovery World. It has Jedi and a new secret apprentice; I have video of the show. We do but the program has been suspended for quite some time. I will have a fresh round of data for my laptop Tuesday so I will try to get started on my side of things.

I know but real life has taken hold of him. I rarely see him on the boards anymore. Side note am I still doing 2 articles?

No. When I told him about this a month ago he wasn't interested in doing anything.

One retired?!?

Plotting out my 2 sections so far Vader section to be expanded on: Considering putting together a Darth Vader? Excellent, but which one? One of the common questions new recruits to the dark side have to answer that question. Not many people know that each OT Vader & RotS are all different (and soon to be Rebels version). There is thing that does stay the same through the movies, the boots! Surprisingly everything else changes throughout the 4 movies. For example the helmet is symmetrical & all black in RotS while the OT Vader helmet is asymmetrical, has sections of the mask with gray & the mouth changes size. An easier piece to see changes in every movie is the chest box.....

yay for free public wifi!!!

CRL is now in progress. I do not expect it to be finished by the premier but you never know.

But on topic as the November newsletter should drop before the movie comes out I would like to touch on 2 topics, one being the SLD gearing up multiple Kilo Ren builds & we finally have someone attempting the Concept Vader.

If you think that's funny have mark tell you how much grief everyone gives me about my big cod!

They are not really the cheapest saber. If you had problems with it did you send it in for repairs? I know they do stand behind their work & will repair them.

Love my ultrasaber!

Other than Star Wars & GI Joe costuming taking up a majority of my money, my amateur radio hobby takes up a good chunk of my $$$ (more money gets involved when I go tornado chasing)

Still members even if they are retired

Something everyone forgets...the owners of ANOVOS are MEMBERS!! As for your other concerns I would suggest you take it up directly with ANOVOS, but I am willing to bet that they will not divulge how they made their own forming bucks and molds. Furthermore if they were not an approved licensee we would not even see this armor in our members hands right now, let alone be able to walk around in it at celebration.

True My biggest worry is customs. The only thing I have sent overseas are patches & I really do not trust the U.S. Post Office.

I do still have parts for them but because of shipping costs to overseas areas I would not be able to ship them to you.

But it is a bit different when a guy does it