revlimiter

Trust me, I know from OCD. I know it too well. I used to polish my armor after literally every troop until I decided I liked it weathered in a certain way. Now I try to maintain that weathering... OCD can be brutal. It took me about 10 troops to get my armor truly feeling GOOD and fitting me as I wanted it. That involved those cheap tactical paintball helmet pads in various spots. I like them because they're about $15 for a full set (amazon), stick onto velcro dots, and can be easily removed for washing and moved around for the perfect fit. I have padding on the inside edge of my forearms. The inner elbow edge (elbow armpit?). With padding there and how I have my bicep-to-forearm strap, it keeps any armor bites from happening. The forearm armor touches the bicep armor without any pinch happening on the inner forearm. This works well for me. Others have padding on the elbow itself to keep the forearm smooshed up against the armor and prevent bites that way. Others have no padding at all and don't seem to have issues. For your drop boxes, I think a little elastic needs to come out to keep the boxes in their correct spot. Where that trimming needs to be done is hard to say, but it looks just ever so slightly long. Back gaps look great to me.

YES!!! Congrats Luca!!! and of course... one for tomorrow. . . . . . . . . .

If I ever get it in hand, I will spam every aspect of the install along with some video.

That looks great! Does the arm feel good? I would guess it does.

Congrats Ardeshir!!!

I don't feel old at all. nope.

WOW! All of these pix are fantastic. I'm incredibly jealous of this venue. The medic and lunch room are my favs. Just incredible. REAL.

NICE!!! That's some fast shipping!

The bicep looks good to me. Good height for it. Does it feel good? You might hook the shoulder bell onto your torso for test fitting each time since you'll be wearing it that way. The arm can slouch down on its own if not strapped at the top. I run my bicep-forearm strap at the very front, basically along the cover strip. Though it doesn't seem like it would be out of the way there, it is indeed out of the way there and helps keep things aligned correctly. There should be about a finger's width between the bicep and forearm. Like 2cm or so. Your forearm looks raised quite a bit above your hand armor. If you moved the strap around and lowered the forearm, I think it would be more comfy and look better. And you might wanna just use tape to hold the forearm elastic in while you're moving it around trying to find a comfy spot for it. That way you're not blowing through a lot of elastic, e6000 and time.

I'm 30 weeks into my 12 week wait for the BlastFX kit... not that I'm impatient. Just really really thought I'd have it by now. Alas. Anyways, I've trooped twice with the Leia Leveller and it has one problem. It hangs TERRIBLY in the holster. It's not nearly this bad with my leg in the way, but it still pokes out a lot. It's unpleasant. In contrast, my (well, like 50% at this point) resin Quest Design hangs like this. It's fine. Good weight and it doesn't poke out. The QD has the original metal folding stock from Joseph, a hollowed out barrel for the little blinky light and some sound, and the metal Blaster Factory grip and trigger. In contrast, the Blaster Factory E11 is as it came aside from paint and the real Hengstler. The weight and weight distribution is unchanged from the factory spec. So I got this - another genuine Stirling folding stock from Joseph. My thought was that it would add more weight to the nose and help the blaster hang better. The Blaster Factory stock is aluminum and doesn't weigh much at all. The Stirling stock weighs a good bit. They're almost identically sized. A slight different bulge or bend here and there, but the bolts line up. I was able to use the original Blaster Factory screws and spacers (seen at the top) to mount the OG stock. And here it is! Looks pretty much identical huh? I was prepared to file, dremel, cut, and slice to make this work but no work was required. Uninstall one, reinstall the other. I also swapped over the greeblies. And now it hangs like this. It's not perfect but it's WAAAYYYY better and doesn't poke out during troops. The extra couple pounds of weight also feels nice in the hand. The folding stock still folds nice and interfaces where it should with the cap. It doesn't snap in, but it doesn't flop around either. I could bend this a bit more and make the fit tighter, but I hardly ever fold it and don't want to affect how it mounts otherwise, so I'm leaving it. This mod was a slam dunk anyway. Maybe 2023 will see this blaster having some electronics...

Maybe... But I think there's just 5 left on the calendar this year. Alas. And thanks The dark horse next to me was the sweetest ever. I stood there next to him for a loooonnng time while waiting for others to take photos and he nuzzled my arm. Both me and his rider were worried about bites, but there were none. Just love and interest while I petted his nose. It was a great moment. I COULD HAVE RIDDEN THAT HORSE!!!! Next horse.

12/11/22 - Subaru of NM 1st Annual Holiday Car Show and Toy Drive 39th for the year, 42nd TK troop As the event name implies, this was a car show troop that was also a toy drive. Each car had to donate a $10-or-more toy as an entry fee and there were a TON of cars. Including one of mine!!! My 2nd car show troop. (I'm doing the hero pose on the left above) My aforementioned car, the blue Suzuki Cappuccino. It's about 3/4 the size of a Miata, right hand drive, Japan import, 3 cylinder kei car. It's hilarious to drive and this is my first time trooping with it. The armor takes up all of the trunk and most of the passenger seat. My buddy Cara was organizing the show and brought her silver Cappo, so I had to wingman. Coffee? Yes plz. Scout troopers take note - TKs are coming for your jobs!!! Leg out drift pose: check! The boss gave this lowrider truck a small adjustment. The traditional pose-with-the-tiny-cars-and-completely-obscure-them photo. and After troop cuddles featuring the Rio Bravo Fire Team. 12/11/22 - Toy Collection for Haven House (2 of 4) 40th for the year, 43rd TK troop We're doing four toy collection events for Haven House. This one was right after the carshow troop. Good times with the fam. Lucas, the small Jedi pictured came out to the first collection the day before and met everyone. When he was told that Vader would be there the next day, he made his mom bring him back. And they brought donuts! And hugs. It was amazing. Lucas was amazing. Mom's building a Dark Rey costume and I told them about Galactic Academy, so hopefully they'll join the family soon. Look sir, donuts! (I had ONE take and no stage direction, so I'm super pleased with how closely this turned out) At the other end of this parking lot was a bunch of mounted officers doing their own outreach event. I had to walk over and get horse selfies. I asked permission and they rewarded me with these SMILES! Bad guys doing good. Good guys doing good! HORSES DOING GOOD!!! We were sympatico in that moment. Bucket list item: Get a horseback riding pic in armor. Someday it'll happen.

The things this armor has done that few others can even imagine... and it still looks amazing! Good luck Luca! Not that I think you'll need it. You're already at least Legate rank.

That sort of return edge is easily fixed with a dremel and sanding drum. Be careful to not go past the edge, but yeah, it'll just zip right off. Quick motions in a straight line will make the dremeling as flat/smooth as possible. Once you're done and happy with it, get out the 200 grit sandpaper and it'll smooth out to flat very quickly.

Howdy Matt! I can't wait to drool on some E-11 photos. And welcome back!

Tape, my friend. Tape. Tape that plastic together and then to your body. Then do your best to recreate/preserve the tape positioning (once you're happy with it) via strapping and elastic. Painters tape works great. Stick it all over the top of the armor and make a mess, but get things lined up correctly. Ideally there wouldn't be any tape on the inside where the strapping would go so that you can cut and install the strapping most easily whilst the tape is still attached and holding things in place. Start with the chest, which looks to be about right on you in the above pix, then tape a shoulder bell to the shoulder bridge. The edge of the bridge should ideally touch the edge of the bell for centurion, so make them touch with the tape. Then apply the bicep and add some tape. It should be positioned so that you can fully bend your arm while wearing the forearm armor. The forearm and bicep should have a little less than an inch between them. The bicep to forearm gap should be about equal to the forearm to hand guard gap. Slide the forearm around till you've got that about equal and add some tape. The add the elastic behind. Does that help at all?

12/3/22 - Socorro Christmas Light Parade 41st TK troop, 38th for the year, 7th HWT CDZ-5435 - troop 16 and her 1 year trooperversary TI-50597 - troop 8 I tend to go overboard sometimes. I can't help myself. It's a personality flaw. See, we needed 3 strands of lights on our kits minimum. I ended up with 24. Twenty Four (24). That includes 4 strings on the candycane and 5 strings on my HWT pack. But it was my first parade troop and I had to do it up big! My whole family did it up big. My wife had around 12 strings on her bucket, tubes, and chest plate and my daughter had roughly 16 pinned to her sparkle robe. That's Photobomb Vader in the background. Holly Jolly. The family decked out. My daughter was the only GA there. Noticed the umbrella did you? The weather brought us more than a cup of cheer. It was MISERABLE. And let me qualify that statement - I was miserable. It was not my most fun troop ever and that was wholly on my own shoulders (heh). 1) I decided to do my HWT pack. It's only 14 lbs, but I carried it for four hours. FOUR HOURS of pack. 2) I knew it was gonna be really cold and had a chance of rain, so I wore my Rogue One undersuit. With my regular TK suit underneath. Underneath my ANH Stunt. 2.1) I could barely move. Severe motion restriction. The lights, the undersuit, the pack, the hat bapping me in the eye... But most of it was that undersuit. It's not meant for my very form fitting ANH Stunt armor. 3) See the buckets of rain above. and 4) before we left to get soaked, we baked in a literal oven known as the fire department garage. They had the heaters raging above the bays and it was in the 80s inside. So first we baked, then we got soaked and frozen. But I could have just been a regular TK with my regular cold weather undersuit and alleviated most of my discomfort. Ya live and learn. There were a LOT of us. Here's the before shot. And here's the after. Cold and wet, but still together, glowing, smiling, and having fun. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything and am overjoyed that I did it. Just slightly underwhelmed at my own costuming choices. Next year I'll just TK it.

Congrats on the wedding Luca! Many happy returns on the day. (seriously loved all the pix from it on your insta)

11/26/22 - Carrie Tingley Foundation Festival of Trees Reindeer Romp 39th TK troop, 36th for the year CDZ-5435 - troop 14 This is my first repeat troop! The Reindeer Romp was my 2nd troop ever and my daughter's first last year. We had to come out and see the trees again. This year there were Jedi in the trees. TK-21476 and I did our best to defend the younglings from being kidnapped and indoctrinated. (yes, I went there) The Grinch was appreciative of our heroics. Anna and Elsa were ready to lend a hand in icing that band down. Vader and Juno were protecting the Hot Wheels tree from... well, from my Jawa. Gotta be realistic here. This was the biggest thief in the building. There WAS a tree behind that panda. It somehow got packed under those sparkly robes. The panda fit too. And then she stole my blaster. And the band. And the princesses. And our hearts. 11/26/22 - Koyawena-Lilly Wedding 40th TK troop, 37th for the year CDZ-5435 - troop 15 TI-50597 - troop 7 Later that same evening was a WEDDING TROOP!!! My very first. There was no way I was missing it. My wife left her bucket and did Reserve to help wrangle us troopers around. Ready to officiate. (I trust you can pick me and my daughter out by now.) Vader and the bouquet was too good not to share. The bride's escort service. She was SOOOO happy! We were a surprise and she loves TKs. She has a beautiful TK tattoo on her leg. Maybe they'll both build armor and join up soon... And after we did our duty, there was fry bread. FRESH fry bread just baking outside. Allen and I were there for it. Heck, we were all there for it. We stuffed our faces with fry bread and then got fed inside at the wedding dinner. I don't have a whole lot of wedding pix but it was seriously amazing. I will absolutely wedding troop at every given opportunity.

Fantastic!!! And huge props for posting as much back info as you did. Hopefully no recasting accusations will come forth.

NICE!! We have a Christmas parade coming up too and I'm working on a candy cane.

When this one appeared from today's troop, I couldn't help myself. I had to follow Morgi's lead.

11/18/22 - Star Wars Art Con Friday Night 37th TK troop, 6th as a HWT, 34th for the year CDZ-5435 - troop 13 TI-50597 - troop 6 This was a troop to support Lucasfilm's artist Christopher Clark. It's a traveling art show that's in town for 3 days. This was the opening night. I got another family troop in, which is always the best thing in the world. We got a huge introduction from the event organizers and trooped into the twin ballrooms in style. Unlike many troops where they're forbidden, they asked for blasters at this one, so I dirtied my armor up again and hit the HWT train. These two didn't appreciate me stealing their spotlight outside the ballroom. Christopher was just a wonderful person. Happy to chat and clown around, even though he was feeling under the weather. And his art was gorgeous. He was signing and personalizing paintings at no charge for the show. In the above, the ONLY Star Trek painting in the show can be seen. My daughter (out of Jawa to the right) was watching him paint and noticed this. She called everyone over. We posed. All of the troops eventually caught on. I couldn't help but give a salute. We spent kind of a long time clowning for this one photo. The crowd loved it, as did the guy who bought the painting. And this gentleman was the new owner of the painting. I had to get a selfie with him. Too much fun. I bought several paintings myself and came home with a bunch of complementary prints. The walls of our Star Destroyer will get some new decorations soon. 11/19/22 - Peter Mayhew Foundation UNM Children's Hospital Donation Troop 38, 35 for the year, 7 as HWT This was a last minute emergency troop with vague details. Something about the Children's Hospital and the Peter Mayhew Foundation. Masks and COVID cards required, absolutely no weapons. I signed up right away. This is the kind of thing I live for. The details emerged. A truck from the Mayhew Foundation was touring around the western US, dropping boxes of toys for kids at hospitals on their route. Albuquerque was due for Saturday delivery sometime after 1pm. We helped unload boxes which we thought we'd be just handing over to the hospital staff. Nope. Our strong Imperial backs were put to work. We brought the toys all the way up to the kids ward. Delivery made. I missed every one. ( Notice the lack of backpack? Since no weapons were allowed, I elected to just leave the pack at home. And since I didn't have time between last night's troop and today's to clean my armor again... ) We each received a Peter Mayhew coin for participating in the troop! None of us had any idea this was coming at the end. It'll have a place of honor in my collection. And this little one is my very favorite part of today's troop. When I saw that she was captured by our fantastic handler, the room got dusty. See, she was VERY small and wrapped up in a blanket. Couldn't have been more than 4. She was more than a bit scared of the plastic space suits. I gave her the little finger wiggle waves and got one of my TK trading cards out of my chest pouch for her. She shyly took it with a smile. And that was it. I was then her very favorite plastic spaceman in the hospital at that point onward. She kept looking at me and waiving. I asked if I could come down and take a picture with her, which got a big nod. I knelt down next to the girl and her mom and took a selfie with the mom's camera. The little girl had such a huge smile on. It was only eclipsed by my own, hidden under my mask and bucket. It was a small moment, but... well... little tears. They can't see you cry inside the bucket. I don't know what challenges were on that little girl's shoulders, but she was happy for a few moments today. She put quite a few happy bucks in my own pocket as well. It's been a very good weekend.

EPIC! I don't think this troop pic could be topped. Lovely weekend of trooping also. You're all doing so much good.