TikiTechie

Thank you for noticing! Closing in on 50

2024-02-17, Air Force Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program A fun event. The hardest part was standing around waiting for photographs while people are eating good-smelling food. Cool to see a rare Von Reg kit. I was wishing I had brought my FOTK, but having Vader it always looks great to have the OTTK presence and I was the only one there, which is very unusual. I don't sign many autographs. I always have to channel my inner-Disney character cast-member skills to figure out how to write "a name" with my gloves on. My handwriting is bad enough as it is. But I had include the photo of Vader signing autographs. I find I am sporting a blaster less and less these days. If it's a kids-only event I usually leave it in my trunk. It just gets in the way of interacting with kids and looks awkward in photos, in my opinion. If it's a primarily adult event, convention, military or law-enforcement, I'll usually bring it along. Given the name of this event, I didn't realize that we were going to be entertaining two rooms full of kids first, so I eventually holstered it.

2024-02-03, BrickFest LIVE Loveland 2024 - Day 1 & 2 Got some great outreach done working the table & costuming this weekend. Many many attendees, great questions and lots of very interested individuals that I hope will join our ranks. Day 2 One of the highlights was this little boy whose dad said they saw us, but I left to go on break before they could get to us to take a pic. In the last 20 min of the day they happened to make their way back in time to get to meet the trooper in White Armor. His dad was as happy as he was.

Congratulations! Well deserved.

Starting out the year strong with a decent amount of upcoming troops. Woohoo! First time event was really a great event with a lot of happy faces. A strong Rebel presence today. Putting a Jawa in jail is crossed off my trooping bucket list.

SRS - RetroMania Boulder/Longmont 2024 Smallish con with a lot of toys for sale. Love getting out the FOTK for these events.

Made it to 25

Finished the year and my 25th troop with the same event from last year, which had been my very first troop event. A bit light on attendance, which means we got a lot of silliness and photos. Some cool lighting courtesy of our local Jedi & ROTS Anakin. Sounding out some Santa stories. Group of white armors. The Tuskens make comfy chairs I hear. A little elvin trooper.

Children's Hospital of Colorado Holiday Parade 2023 It's been a full year that I've been actively trooping. This is my first repeat event and it's always fun (and cold). No sun this year made it pretty chilly but I like to provide a little excitement to kids who may be in the hospital or urgent care and not having much fun otherwise. (I would love to get to visit inside hospitals but those days seem to be long gone, or just slow to return.) Got the same repeat cast of superheros, Indiana Jones, 501st, Mandos & a velociraptor. Good company. I'm the TK with the out-of-control santa hat.

Thank you again. Looks very nice!

I've posted this elsewhere but I figured I'd also drop it here for anyone following this one. I was granted approved for FOTK at Basic level on Nov. 1. Thanks everyone who commented and reacted. I appreciate the support of this great community & forum. It helps a lot! Stay on target. For the First Order!

Thank you, folks. Got approved yesterday for FOTK! Very happy to join the ranks of the First Order!

Johnstown Trick or Treat Street I have discovered a lot of small towns in northeast Colorado since joining the Mountain Garrison. This was another. A great day and first troop in my First Order TK kit. For the First Order! One of my favorite photos. Serving with Lt. Galek Trying to keep warm on a 27 degree (-2 celsius). Darn cold whatever your unit of measure. That is the advantage of the FOTK over the OTTK kit I discovered. So much warmer. This will not be something to brag about when it's summer time.

Rocky Mountain Honor Flight 10-21-2023 My second Honor Flight. Always a fun way to give back to veterans who deserve a warm welcome and a day of honor. With my officers. The flights are usually delayed and this was no different. Waited an extra hour and got lots of photo op moments. Lots of different groups represented for the Veterans coming home.

No hate. I need to listen to my photographer better. Can you link to how you or others are securing the spat with velcro? Mine seem to want to inch up. The gasket may be too thick to stay down given the slight upward angle the shin has.

Ok, updated based on your recommendations. Thank you. Updated the TD to match the TLJ CRL. Straightened up the back and minded my posture. Added several changes to the upper gaskets to fit it better. The forearms are up as high as I can get them on the gasket sleeve without cracking. An elastic thumb strap helps pull it further down into the gauntlet and gives a little more space between that and the glove. Front: Reverse: Left side arms lowered: Left Side arms extended: Right side arms lowered: Right side arms extended: Helmet off:

First/Last Name: Jim Munro Garrison: Mountain Garrison Armor Maker: Imperial Surplus Helmet: Denuo Novo Premier TLJ Height: 5'10" Weight: 175 TK Type: TLJ Gasket Maker: Purchase second-hand. Unknown. Neck Seal: ImperialSeamstress [Etsy] Boots: KeepTrooping Blaster: Not submitting for basic. Build log: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53835-tikitechie-tlj-first-order-tk-build-thread/ Front: Rear: Left: Right: Bucket Off:

Well, this is a patent for something that looks an awful lot like a stormtrooper audio system. The setup is kind of outlined there. The details are generic, so I don't know there is a "brand" since it's likely not off the shelf. Maybe Disney Imagineering brand? If you find out though, please let me know. I'd love to get those details. For now I am reverse engineering what I see there and in videos. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I am working on producing for my own use a similarly triggered sound glove. This is for fun and not necessarily ever going to see the light of day, but I do have the components, and some of the skills, to produce it. Why not use a mic & amp, you ask? Good question. There are a few specific answers, mostly just that my voice _does not project_. It's a me thing. Trying to get it loud enough for me to be heard, and understood, has not worked: feedback, picking up breathing, etc. Until I actually build the sound system, I am just using the mic/amp though, since it's easy and I have all the parts. I always hope someone on the forums is a GE FOTK and will reach out to provide more info.

Yes, they were annoying me. Is there a recommended way? My OTTK has an elastic connecting to bicep but it seems like that might not work given the texture of the gasket material. I suppose I could velcro them up like the shins? Thank you! Yeah, my family can't wait to see me again. (I think.)

Getting ready to submit pre-approval pics. I did end up getting the boots from KeepTrooping. Impressive how fast they can these to my doorstep from China so fast. Printed out blasters from the files here. Just having fun now.

[There are no dumb questions here.] Since you have already narrowed your choices down to Original Trilogy, I'll just reiterate what is said already, it's personal preference. The audience that will know the difference between ANH and ESB is very small outside of this forum and your local garrison. (Personally, I would have to go to the CRL to even know. I've never really looked that hard.) 99% of people who see you outside the legion see white & shiny: must be stormtrooper. (Someone referred to a Jawa as an Ewok the last troop I was on.) But it's also fun because it's probably the most recognized costume, aside from Chewbacca. Everyone recognizes your costume and wants a pic which is where I have the most fun. I picked ANH Stunt trooper since that was what I wanted to be when I was like 8 and saw the movie. It was not an option. Lasly, picking any OT TK gives you access to a lot of existing tutorials and support that will help immensely if that makes any difference.

Glad you asked. I've been working on this subject for awhile. It's still a WIP but maybe you can get some ideas from the research I've done. I've been interested in creating a very flexible audio system that can play a very large number of audio clips via a glove controller (only 1 button) and a position sensor. This is what they use at Galaxy's Edge and is pretty cool and gives you a lot more choices for sounds, but also adds a lot more complexity. Do you want recorded sound clips, or to use your own voice? Recorded sounds have limitations, such as how many you can easily trigger to play by buttons. This works well for characters like Wookiees or Jawas who really only make a few unique sounds. If you don't want to be limited to a few canned phrases, you may want to go with mic headset and a simple audio amp. You can probably do that for pretty cheap < $50 on Amazon. Microphone + Amplifier I've been using the iComm & Aker amp setup that I see alot of people using. For me it hasn't worked well. Mounting in the chest has a very muffled sound (maybe it's my voice) but no one can understand me unless I repeat myself at least once. I get a lot of blank stares which is not super-impressive. I switched to JUST using the amplifier + mic system. It's a little better sound, but I mostly have the same problem. Namely, being able to turn it up to be understandable but also not cause feedback from your helmet. Chest mount amps seem to suffer from this. Another thing I've witnessed for folks who have an external amplifier located in a pouch (those Scouts!): you can understand them pretty well, but the audio in the helmet gives some sort of cross-talk that makes it sound non-stormtrooper like (to my ears). I just want to hear the audio from the speaker. Buy: So, long story even longer, if you want a simple sound board with 4 or 8 clips, visit Etsy and search for "sound glove" and you should get the standard ones I've seen. You can find them on Youtube for DIY. My Plans: I just put out an order on Fiverr for someone to professionally record sound clips. My voice just isn't stormtrooper-y. They do 100 words for $20 which was a decent starter to try this out with. Gotchas: I created what I thought was a easy to use button controller, but after I put it on with the glove it became clear I wouldn't have the dexterity due to the bulk of the gloves. This is even with a much larger button surface like below. Spacing the buttons farther might help but it makes the controller very wide, which it's already sticking out from the palm to be visible, which isn't what I want. Sorry for the length of this, but it's a WIP and probably going to become a separate thread.

Good tip. Thanks. Glad to know someone else has gone through the same. (I guess that's why we're here.

First full kit-up today. Glad I did this before I was going to take submission pics. I have a little ways to go anyway. Things to note here: 1. My magnetic chest clasps are not in the right place. The downside of trying to do this without actually seeing it on my own body. Looks like wearing it, my torso stretches the yoke a little wide, especially with the gaskets on. So, they need to move in and maybe down a little. I've considered velcro as that might be easier to adjust. I've just had a bear of a time getting the sides of the chest fastened correctly to the yoke. Having an assistant today helped a lot, but was even still a challenge. 2. I know, my helmet is TFA and my kit/cod is TLJ. I have both helmets, but this one was closer to me. 3. Boots arrive this week!! The last piece of the puzzle. Using my first hand-painted chelsea boots for this. The spats at least hide the fact they don't go up high enough. My ankles sure know the secret though. Pinchy. 4. The helmet is a WIP. I removed the hardhat liner for now and substituted a piece of standard foam. Doesn't fit at all yet so it's a little bobbly. I am going to line it like the premium DN helmet (separate thread eventually). My fave pose

Spat Gaskets Smaller changes now that I am structurally complete. I don't love the gaps & movement on my spats so far. I would prefer the system DN uses to keep their spats in place, but alas I don't have that kit. I am sure this is not a new problem or solution, but I did pick up some insulated weather stripping from Lowe's for cheap, I think $7. I cut it down to a single row, but I suppose you could leave it if you didn't want to make a cut. I used scissors rather than a razor. (Yes, that's an official First Order ankle sock.) The gap is now filled and it seems like a tighter fit on the surrounding spat. You can keep the pill visible more easily We'll see how durable it is over time.