revlimiter

It's possible that old 3M hardhat was retired in favor of a new model. If a new welding bucket came out, they'd have new headbands for it. https://www.amazon.com/3M-Speedglas-Headband-Mounting-05-0655-00/dp/B00E83BLKI/ This one looks very similar. Wouldn't it fit in a helmet?

Just got my 10th mission in!

5/4/22 - May the 4th UNM Troop My 10th TK troop!!! UNM (University here in Albuquerque) puts on a May the Fourth event every year. They apparently started this well after I graduated, so I have no warm happy memories of seeing troops on campus before May finals. However, it was a GREAT time. My largest troop yet. They had tables with crafts, Star Wars-centric drinks, art, a photo booth, and a gaggle of troopers. The Empire (I'm cuddling my E-11). The Rebels Just the White Armor We were a force to be reckoned with. Our mission: spreading smiles. No one was safe. No one was immune. Rebel propaganda. Really. The photo booth was a green screen with a little printer spitting out strips of pix. Us TKs would occasionally pose with folks as we wandered. Some shared their film strips. And then we took over the booth for a few minutes. (I'M NOT AFRAID is me ) I got a couple prints off an artist's booth that I'm just in love with. These will get framed and hang proudly.

My 4/30 troop was also a biker benefit for kids. How odd. I wonder if it was a national thing? Loving the pix in your thread BTW. Fantastic!

4/30/22 - Guardians of the Children Family Fun Day 9th TK troop. 10th should be May 4th! This was an event put on by something like 5 local biker gangs to bring some fun to the kids. They had bingo cards to fill out by wandering to various tents. TONS of toys and bikes as prizes. It was a really great event! Like Toys for Tots in April. Imperials on deck. This blue dude is possibly named Bubbles? From a kid's show. The garrison agreed it was a Rebo family member. Rebo selfie One of the tents was a roping/rodeo thing. The Rodeo Queen was in attendance and roped up this fine specimen of a TK. Mystery Machine selfie was mandatory Batman and Catwoman. These two were FULL of sass. Sass. And lastly, a bucket selfie with Orbit, the mascot of the Albuquerque Isotopes team. Yeah, you're jealous. A selfie with Orbit is up there with a Gritty selfie. One of the finest team mascots on this little blue planet.

You would, of course, want to test this on some scrap vinyl, but there's a thing called Textile Medium. It comes in a squeeze bottle like many other acrylic paints and is something you can mix with your own acrylic paint to "dye" fabric. It will be rather stiff, but it shouldn't ever crack and will still be flexible. I've used it on car interior items many times in the past with great success. I painted some vinyl race seat shoulder supports with the stuff and never had it crack after several years of use. Maybe worth checking out.

^ THIS! Being able to talk just adds so much to the experience. I'd rank it even with having fans. And fans are an enormous help in any and all weather. I switch my low speed fan on immediately and am usually comfy that way the whole troop. My own bucket is packed. Ukswrath fans, mic, speakers and hearing assist, and the iCOMM static burst amp thing. I regret none of it. And lastly, this is a fantastic build!! I hope you get it all together for Celebration!

4/23/22 - Walk to End MS ABQ 2022 8th TK troop This troop was walk to raise money for MS research. First one they've been able to have in person in 2 years apparently. Dewback Ridge Garrison gave a nice showing. This was my first troop with only 501st members. No rebels, no princesses, no superheroes. Just Imperials as far as the eye could see. Complementary coffees were not turned down. And then we went and cheered on the walkers at the start/finish. Everyone was SOOOO happy and appreciative to have us there. It felt like we truly brightened their event with our armor. I don't have a pic of my favorite event interaction. A boy about 10-11 years old asked for a pic and we all crowded around. I said something like "Big frowns everyone!" And the instant after his mom fired the shot he spun around and asked "Which one of you said that???" to which I replied "me." "YOU CAN TALK!!!?!" "Well yeah, the Empire fills our buckets with tech." Then he sorta whispered "... you're real..." And that was it for this young man. He was transfixed. In AWE. At that moment he'd seen a real stormtrooper. I know that look because I've had it myself many times, but for a change I was on the other side. I was the real TK. My little black heart grew at least 5 sizes. I love being a TK.

Congratulations Mario!!! That armor is an inspiration!

Look at the crates compared to the people carrying them. Specifically the width of one square segment vs the guy's thigh side profile. That gives a rough, yet close estimate of the total crate size. Both imperials are of medium build. So... 8 to 9" for a thigh side profile? That would give about 9" per square with about 1" spacing and 2" between the two linked cubes. Total of perhaps 42" long, 20" deep, and 20" tall? 10% margin of error? I'd bet those measurements would create a prop that's near the right size and with the right paint and weathering would be instantly recognizable.

Welcome to the ranks Jim!!! There's few things in life more enjoyable that wearing the white armor.

4/16/22 - Ellen Reavis Race for Autism 7th troop in my TK. This was an annual race for autism acceptance. Tons of folks out to walk and run. And receive high-5s from Troopers. Sorry for the heavy editing on this pic. It basically came out of my phone black with a nice sky. It was hard to make us troopers visible, and natural colors weren't really possible. After the racers got underway and were running their laps, things relaxed enough for pix. In the middle of the huge field was some kite flying. Kites were flown. I cannot tell you how much fun this was. I love being a TK.

I got busy and managed to not update things here yet. This is the tiny circuit board inside the Disney blaster. It's about 20mm wide which juuuuust fits inside my QD blaster's small inner recess. Not sure if this diagram would be helpful to anyone else in the future, but I referred to it a lot while rewiring the board. And just like that, the old handle is off. It was almost that easy. I used a dremel cut off wheel and sliced through about half of one side, waiting to hit some sparks. No sparks ever appeared, making me think that only glue held the handle in place. Sure enough, there weren't any pins. I snapped the handle off easily by hand after slicing what I sliced. I think this may have broken at some point in the future anyway. I'm amazed it was only glued on. Also, pretty happy with the low amount of gouges I managed to make. They'll be easy to fill. Bolt cut. This gives me access to allow the handle to be bolted in place. The inner plastic on the QD is SOOOO thick. It just insane. Not letting any grass grow under my feet. The handle bolted on easily for a test fit. About 20 minutes of careful measuring followed by two holes and a slot for wires. My blaster was only without a handle for a half hour. Front bolt attachment. SUPER easy access with this nice big hole. I'll also fit the pew-pew brain in this hollow. The rear bolt is a lot more challenging to get to, but a rounded end hex key makes easy work of it. The angle is just right to let things spin and tighten up. This grip is so pretty! So very very pretty. Even without pew-pew noises, this is a solid upgrade already.

That's a BEAUTIFUL set of armor. Congratulations CENTURION!!!!

Congratulations trooper! Looks like a fun troop.

The problem with the Quest Design is the very very small inner area. It has a thick wall PVC pipe in the center which reduces the inner bolt diameter to only 20mm. The Disney sepaker is a bit over 28mm. I could definitely clear out some space for the speaker in the end cap.. and I might. But I was considering the counter since half of mine is still hollow and has a really nice vent area in the front. And also, I've been drooling over that Lucky 11 build, Tino. SO GORGEOUS! And a huge help for me with these same electronics.

This is fantastic! You're really breathing new life into this old armor.

And here we are again. Just when I thought I was done, they pull me back in. @Hideya's excellent Disney blaster thread inspired me to take my Quest Design a little further. I found an unboxed Disney Parks blaster for $26 shipped on ebay and harvested the guts. It makes the most fantastic pew-pew noises and has blast and stun settings. SOOOO awesome. I need my pretty blaster to make noises. Every time I've trooped someone has commented on how pretty it was and asked if the blaster made noise. I had to dejectedly say "no" each time. No longer. I'm making my blaster go pew-pew if it kills me. And it. HOW to make the trigger work on this pre-built Quest Design? That's been my struggle for the past few weeks. I could hack things out of the handle and somehow make it work... but I'd probably need to remove the handle/grip to do it. I'd certainly be weakening things. And what if the trigger action wasn't very satisfying or very reliable? What if a switch broke and I had to dig back inside the hacked apart blaster? It seemed like the best way to do this in my own particular build was with a whole new grip. And Blaster Factory sells the grip by itself for about $90. This hunk of metal and plastic is gorgeous. I thought my resin stuff was decent. This is quite another level. The desire to go ahead and build a whole metal blaster is very much there, but I want to see how far I can Frankenstein my QD before I do another. I had to strip it down of course. How could I not? It comes apart and goes back together in a very satisfying manner. If a switch dies sometime in the future I'll be able to fix it without affecting the integrity of the blaster more than I'm gonna in the next few days. The grip comes with switches pre-installed. I just have to wire them up. I also have to take a dremel, saw, and other tools to my very pretty E-11. I'm a little worried. To do: - Remove stock handle/grip/trigger. Carefully. - Create a passage for wiring. - Create access for the BF grip screw attachment. Probably cutting out the bolt. - Install BF grip. - Find a place for the speaker. Probably in the counter. - Find space for the uber-tiny control board. Probably in the bolt hollow. - Create a new bolt. - Question my sanity. - Find space for the batteries. It's very very narrow inside the QD. - Wire everything up. - Put blaster back together. - Re-pretty the blaster.

That running photo is absolutely fantastic!

Fantastic thread. Wish I'd seen it when I was painting mine.

Congratulations on EIB Luca!!! Looking forward to seeing you in Centurion ranks as well.

3/30/22 - Erna Ferguson Library Reads Across America 6th troop for TK-89400, 3rd troop for CDZ-5435. I made it to two of the four scheduled Reads Across America troops for March. This time I got to bring my daughter along as it was after school. Jawas understand the concept of borrowing very very well. It's just the returning at the end that's a problem. Excellent reading material this troop. I give it 5/5. My daughter reading to the kids!!! She did great, even in full bucket. I also read with my bucket on. Wish I had a photo. Not many of us trooped, but it was a good time and lots of happy kids. Also my decal-holding Thermal Detonator was a complete success! Easy to slip a few stickers out and give to the kiddies.

That's an incredible transformation and a beautiful final product. And that weight!!! My 3 lb (1300 g!) E11 is a bit jealous of that lightness. Outstanding build.

This is some fantastic work! I may have found a cheap one on ebay to salvage the electronics from for my resin blaster. Thanks for the inspiration!

In my own bucket, I just have fuzzy velcro at the very top and no other padding. I have no comfort issues with it, even after several hours. A little lower, I've got those stick on "tactical" foam inserts to keep it comfy on the forehead and back area. And having the bucket sit lower gives SO much better field of vision. I actually see very well out of my bucket, better than when I had the foam at the top. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGF4CTH This set is pretty thin. Paintball padding. None has made it into my bucket, but it's great for arms and shins. And it's a nice option. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P1G6XTA The thicker tactical padding. I've got this in two buckets. Hope that helps. And you're looking great! Should be no issues with basic approval.