Eleanor

Sorry to be in quite late to this, covid was mean to me. Even though i have yet to hand in my application (Detonator and boots still to do), i have everything else finished. In terms of helmet i used three rather small fans from Henry's Helmet Fans, the 30x10mm ones if i am not mistaken. Coupled with two powerbanks i picked up at my local electronics store for like 10 bucks each. The powerbanks go into the 'cheeks' of the helmet and sit there perfectly. The fans sit on either side of my visor to keep it from fogging up, angled slightly downward, while the third one is right behind the black vocoder part of the helmet on the inside - sitting under my nose and chin. To catch all the moisture from simply breathing/talking. It is sitting a bit sideways to push the warm air out to the left of my throat. I can comfortably wear my helmet for 9h straight without fogging up or feeling bad inside it. It works just right with an Aker mic i cut down and stitched to a simple sweatband for my icomm, which is sitting inside the chestplate. And one powerbank lasts for 11h of use with the three small fans. The second one is simply to keep balance and as a backup in the helmet, as their weight would otherwise make it feel a bit lopsided. I am hat size 58, for America that is 7 1/4 i believe. I fit in fine with all of that inside + cushions. Hard to take pictures of it, so bear with me.

Thank you kindly everyone! It survived the first mall mission almost unscathed. Even some rougher handling by overenthusiastic children and teens and me bumping into the rubber .... uh ... handle?... of an escalator. Easily polished out while wiping the sweat out of it. Only thing that did not survive were the plates for the back of my hand on both sides. Adhesive was sweated off i believe, so we stitched them on now, seeing how round two goes later today. Bit sad that my good long leather gloves are sacrificed, but for some reason the nomex gloves i wanted are unable to be delivered from most stores i tried - or it is knockoffs i do not want. Yesterday was a blast however, we made people's days left and right, mall security saluted us first and some of the more geeky stores started friendly banter on who gets the officer and his trooper next. They even entrusted me a Boba Fett Nerf Blaster to patrol the mall with so i had at least something to carry in my hands. Once i got the detonator done i'll post more and tackle my boots for a more or less quick application to the German Garrison.

Thank you again! You've been extremely helpful, as is the rest of the detachment forum. Can't imagine how we would've done all of these things without everyone here <3 The store did print them, but they are a bit more straight instead of having that handpainted look.* I do hope it's going to be fine, but i found nothing stating otherwise on the Legacy FemTK CRL. So i guess i'll be good. *Edit: Worded it kinda dumb. They do have the curved aspect going on, they are not just straight rectangles. They just all look pretty much alike instead of slightly tilted and more varied as in the linked thread Took some more full pictures (only the thermal det lacks currently) and later on will visit a local nerd store to derp around in uniform and garner some attention for the place. Pardon the lack of updates! I got my foster son over, but no worries he already is on the right track haha. It runs in the family.

Ah, perfect! Would you mind explaining the fall a bit more to me? I am really bad with shapes and patterns like those... I do see that the very first one's top end is tilted more outwards - the others are not like that though? So is it just the first stripe? Going to visit a copyshop&graphics designers on monday to print me the tube stripes hopefully and would like to properly explain to them how it is supposed to look.

Thank you all for the kind words! They are most appreciated <3 Feels great seeing this thing in an almost complete state! Now after a couple days of resting from speedrunning the bulk of this build i got back to it. Cleaned a few things up, removed globs of E6000 and tried how the whole thing sits now. Thankfully i am no longer plagued by extreme discomfort around my hips. Maybe i wear the corset different now, the stress from trying out countless methods and padding things is gone or something else made 'click' ... but regardless of what the reason is, it felt great wearing it today for some shenanigans around the house. Stairs are quite alright, visibility is ... i gotta get used to it. Used to limited vision from other costumes already, so this should go fast. Very happy about the fact i can put it on completely by myself if i have a little raised area somewhere. Like a bed, couch or chair. Ordered some universal helmet padding from amazon to get the helmet to sit properly before i put in my fans. After that there is only the need to get the detonator sorted out and add the tube stripes. Saw we got a .pdf as a template - is it correct they are to be 16mm high? I noticed it today again, we might have to redo the shoulder straps or see how well they behave when being done tighter. Perhaps we glued them in a bit too high on the bells themselves - will experiment around with that on the weekend most likely. The strapping itself is supposed to sit flat on my undersuit, correct? As customary at this point - some pictures and gifs for everyone's viewing pleasure. I have accepted that my hip is just going to cause the armor to sit uneven at this point. Visible pretty good in the last picture, right knee is not covering the shin and the rectangles of the corset are pointing towards my eye and shoulder instead of straight up. Attempts to even it out tend to just make it worse visually or sacrifice comfort. Not keen on that. But as long as it isn't as bad as in the first test we did with tape a while ago i am happy with the results. For direct comparison: Old vs new.

Whew... what a weekend. We basically finished the entire build with exception of the thermal detonator, the tube stripes and painting the visible screws on the helmet white. Added first padding here and there to make it more comfy. Vambraces now fit great and do not move around as much. Especially the hips on the corset remain a problematic area for me once the belt with the boxes is on and the thighs+knees are hanging from there too. With the padding it is bearable. Have yet to make a fully kitted out picture so far. Taking pictures took a backseat role once we delved deep into "We wanna have this done for Sunday's event!". We cleared some more space on the eyes in the faceplate, as what i had before with an assembled helmet was extremely little. Now with the visor i at least do not touch it with my eyelashes anymore. The visor has been trimmed down a good chunk from that last picture up there. Lenses are as close to the eyes of the faceplate as we could get them. Did i make it to the event? No. No i did not. Thanks to some all-nighters we pulled we fed the local mosquito and other bloodsucker population a good deal. One of them got me that good that my left leg no longer fit in the shin armor and was swollen. Moral of the story? "Sometimes you lose, sometimes the others win." After a little and well deserved break we're going to add some white foam to the space between helmet and ear pieces to tidy this area up more. Fan installation is going to be fun, figuring out the best positioning and airflow given how little space my head has in there. Good on me for having bought the smaller version from Henry's Helmet Fans, three 30mm ones. If anyone got recommendations for placement in general on FemTK buckets i'm all ears! Last but not least - anyone got a good source for the tube stripes in black in europe by any chance? I'd like to not pay more shipping than actual item cost if possible. Drawing them by hand or trying around with selfmade stencils wasn't that good yet. But we will keep trying regardless. Thank you to anyone that followed up till here, in a couple days a full picture of me in the kit is sure to follow! And after that the application for the German Garrison once i got the thermal detonator and possibly shoes worked out.

Getting close indeed, pardon the lack of daily update. We're focussing hard on getting it done for Sunday right now. That my chest piece popped up above the abdomen was due to the latter fitting very poorly. Tilted sideways a lot. This was corrected in the following images. Soft foam is going to be used a lot more than i had initially thought. Thanks to my posture my right hip causes a lot of issues, so we'll be padding a couple areas around the hip to hopefully prevent discomfort while wearing the kit. I am quite scared of that, as i love how this all comes together and would hate to feel uncomfy in it right off the bat. Over the last days we continued with snaps, painting of the teeth and vocoder on the helmet and making a little simulation how the eyes would look with lenses to cover it. In the third picture it is just a piece of black cloth for effect. Seeing how this shapes up more and more gives the needed boost to keep going. I continued with preparing the little belt boxes, drilling holes into them. As well as test-fitting the biceps armor thanks to a tip to align the lower part of the biceps with the end of the shoulder bells. They sit great and don't hinder me at all when moving my arm. Promptly marked where i had taped it for snap placement and got to glueing, so the E6000 gets enough time to cure. Waiting time was used to make the connecting straps of elastic and a couple more snap plates. Doubled over the elastics just to be save. White velcro was added to the shins. A bit of a finnicky job, but doable with patience to get it placed just right. Soft side towards clothing, once again to save myself trouble later on when putting it all on. Don't want the other side to catch my yoga pants and leave marks. Soft side points inwards - they are overlapping 'wrong' in the second picture on purpose. I took it seconds after placement of velcro and the packaging said to not put stress on it immediately so the adhesive can bond properly. Ear pieces and trapezoids painted and later secured with clear coat. Added snap bases for thighs and one for the chest armor on the corset, securely taped in and held together with neodym magnets while E6000 cures. Clamps used on the butt plate for snaps. Workstation during night and basement storage during day. It looks so chaotic in here... Marked and glued in snap base placements Did the belt and decided on placement for the belt boxes, finished drilling and screwing them in. Lack pictures of wip belt after initial placement.

What a day... We geared up almost entirely with tape just to see how things look and feel. And oh boy was it required. We found out i am suffering from false posture thanks to an old injury from years ago. Extremely noticeable on the corset here. My right hip points forward a lot more than my left one. When fitted as we thought it should be things were quickly off after i started moving and a bit of the tape gave way. The pressure on my right hip was extremely uncomfortable and the whole thing looked off. Experimenting around for a couple hours and almost getting frustrated, we ended up taking a break. Things just refused to sit right, or they sat what we perceived as 'right' but it felt painful to wear for me. The shoulders were taped on wrong here, we're aware they are not supposed to tilt like that. The entire chest and back pieces have yet to be somewhat adjusted to myself, all we did so far was trim and sand. Fitting those happens once the corset and kidney plate are sorted out. Helmet is, as anything else, wip as well. No padding yet, so i had a funny bobble-head effect almost. We instead sanded the edges and other rough spots on all pieces (forgot to take pictuers, will do tomorrow), and removed even more from the codpiece for comfort. It does curve in a lot. After our minds being taken off the previous corset issue, we made an unexpected but great discovery. In the end a simple washcloth does the trick. My left hip bone gets a little cushion, the corset only slightly tilts to one side if at all while moving and the pressure on my right hip is evened out. All neatly placed where the big belt boxes should end up being positioned later, so a good chunk is going to be hidden. Later down the line we might get a smaller piece to be less noticeable. And to end today's post: Have some extremely awkward movements from me in the taped up and ill fitting version. Still wanted some nice shots while i feared that the tape would stop working any second haha.

Oh yeah! That one is on the list to be trimmed and sanded again to create a smooth line instead of that big gap we got there right now. I got similar spots on the biceps and shins currently, too.

Thank you both! Excited to build it and hopefully wear soon. There's an event on sunday and with a bit of luck it'll at least be wearable up until then. Not yet 501st approvable as i most likely lack the right shoes, but it's going to be a start. Used the helmet tutorials a bit, but certainly need to trim a bit more again. Didn't sit as flush yet. At the same time i am a bit afraid to trim too much, so i might help myself with a bit of white foam to make it less noticeable. Going to see. Did notice i might have to trim the eyes more, as they feel incredibly close to my eyelashes right now even withouth lenses in. Here's a little overview of what is assembled already and only needs some more trimming and sanding to fit together nicely. Aaand what was done in terms of helmet today. Experimented with brow height and general fitment. Got to admit, was scary at a few parts. And on one site the bottom screw doesn't grip both of the plates of the helmet's back and face. Ironically it was the same for the owner of the blog i am mostly following the steps of, so i suppose it'll be alright. Was rather careful with trimming that whole thing.

Thank you again! I did just that, looks way better. Exacto knife is a godsend for that. Slightly messed up one corner of an eye i fear, but i hope it won't be too noticeable. Yesterday was spent doing that, along the inner belt box thingies, trapezoids and plates for the back of the hands. Today was the two big belt boxes, knee caps and trimming some parts of the helmet pieces. Making sure the trim on the faceplate will point towards my neck once applied. Bit unsure in terms of the back of the helmet. How much is supposed to be trimmed off there?

High time i start my build thread! I had ordered from Imperial Surplus a little while ago. Big shoutout to Kevin for offering superb customer support even though my order was placed very close to an unfortunate incident. Hope everything is back on track. That being said, the two boxes arrived earlier than i had assumed. Impressive how all of that fit inside the box! I spent plenty of evenings rough trimming all the piece after giving them a good cleaning with rubbing alcohol. Most of the supplies were bought in advance while i waited for the box to arrive. Research is key, i am using a lovely guide/blog called "My Descent Into Nerdness" and a bunch of tutorials that were linked. Like setting snaps and so forth. Taped the vambraces just to see how it would look, pushing some excitement to speedrun this. Can't have enough clamps. (Yea, the odd one out was for the girly touch ;P) First butt joint Getting some magnets ready to not scratch the armor too much.. ... aaand put them to good use! Progress went on, sanded shoulder bells and assembled the biceps armor. Just held stuff in place for a first look. Noticed that the vambraces sadly could not perfectly overlap on the raised edge, unless i fancied lubing up my hand to barely squeeze through the opening. Seems i got big hands! So we had to give a bit more space there. Bicep still needs touching up, as everything else. Taped a shin and tried with my placeholder boots - which then went to someone to take some of the excess material away around the ankle. Should make the shin armor sit a bit lower afterwards, as closing the shin caused the leather around the tongue to bunch up. The curse of EU size ~43 / 44 or i believe 12 in US size. Shin assembly afterwards While most things were curing (Using E6000 that was a bit harder to find here in Germany. Hope it wasn't one of the fake versions, fingers crossed), i used the time to finally stop being scared of messing up the helmet and went at it with an exacto knife. Don't be like me, do use gloves for anything. Even if it is just 'testing the waters a little'. Tackling the belt boxes currently, took the entire afternoon today but i think they turned out alright. Always wear protection! And don't forget to take a break here and there. If i can do it, anyone else that tries their hand at it will also manage. A dremel/rotary tool is a wonderful little helper and there is plenty of spare ABS to get a feel for it. If you are unsure, try to take little steps. Always easier to take a bit more away than to try putting something back after you took too much away. Last but not least - question time! Do i trim up to this line at the eyes? I could not find a helmet that was flipped upside down to check. I do know that i could take a bit more away around the teeth area, judging by other pictures i saw of FemTK buckets. But i am not sure regarding the eyes on mine.

Thank you kindly for the provided answers and reference material! And oh my life, i see the backplate details or details in general certainly weren't high up on their priority list. Was still a good read though. Going through them i noticed even more questions. Here i thought the comic version would be the one with the heels, as the statue looked pretty normal to me. Yet on further research the statue version is the one supposed to have heels? Could i ask about some clarification on this while i am at it? Almost every FemTK i saw so far on pictures rocked the A version with these rather noticeable and chunky heels, yet the pictures of the Gentle Giant statue i could find don't really look like that? Statue: CRL Boots & Alternatives i've seen: As the CRL says to take both its own text and the reference into account, would my current placeholder boots be sufficient in terms of sole and heel for version A? (I am aware i need to add the vertical strip from toe to tongue, just speaking about the sole and heel here.) My placeholder boots:

Hello there everyone! As i am now in possession of a wonderful FemTK kit from Imperial Surplus it is time to chose with version i'd like to create. I fancy version B a lot more, but sadly Imperial Surplus doesn't send pieces for both versions anymore as i read in an older thread. While talking to Kevin during the process of ordering, i was told only one version is sold nowadays. Boots are always a struggle for me, but i reckon i'll go with Crowprops/Gio later down the line to get a suitable flat one done in my size. This leaves me with the backplate - anybody got a more high quality picture of it? As i doubt anyone sells these separately i suppose i will have to try my hand at making one myself somehow. I checked the CRL, but i can't really make out some of the details. These being: -Whether or not the corners of the rectangles are rounded or not. -If that single circle in the lower left corner is actually a circle... or a square. Or would this be irrelevant as long as said pattern is "similar" enough in its appearance? Pardon in advance if it's a dumb question, first time dealing with all of this and i want to do it right. If someone has ideas how one would go about making a backplate, i am all ears. Current plan would be to get a couple sheets of white ABS plastic (2 at least), cut out rectangles and carefully try to use a dremel to create the circles. Certainly won't look as pretty as the nicely shaped version A backplate, but i have no molds or advanced methods of shaping ABS at my disposal.

Wow! Thank you all for the warm welcome! Very reassuring and comforting. I'll certainly be having a row of questions once the building process starts, i am sure of that one haha. There is one however i could not find all that much about despite me searching for it the past days. I read that the FemTK bucket is a good bit smaller than the regular TK buckets, any chance fellow sisters in white plastoid got any tips or input on what/how much electronics even fit in there with the smaller space to work with? I'd prefer to have fans and mic/amplifier so i don't sweat myself to death in one of my costumes for once and for people to properly hear me. Should this be better off in a future build thread of mine i apologize in advance, disregard this then until i got that up once the box's arrival is a bit closer. And yes, Bielefeld. Impossible, i know! Perhaps the archives are incomplete. Aiming to have it at least wearable for late September in Speyer. Should you be there chances might be pretty good to run into each other!

Hello all! My name is Eleanor, i'm 30 years young and from the city that does not exist - Bielefeld. I blame my father for having introduced me to his VHS collection of Star Wars when i was little. Laughing his butt off to my reaction when i discovered there is someone even above Vader! Spent many days rewinding favourite scenes from the movies, watching them over and over again and slowly but surely setting the course for becoming a full blown nerd in my later years. Next to sci-fi i found a passion for classic cars and beginner level mechanics in general, as well as larp and cosplaying. Especially combining the latter with charity or simply making kids (and grown ups) smile from ear to ear fills my heart. Well, what can i say. Just today i sent out a good sum of credits to Imperial Surplus in exchange for a FemTK kit with the goal of joining the German Garrison. Now the wait begins! I did some basic and advanced research here on the forums already, especially for the two versions for the FemTK armor. In talks with Imperial Surplus i was told they only sell one version nowadays. As i prefer version B without heels, i might have to see about the backplate and thermal detonator and how i do those. Finding shoes for my size is always a struggle, but i'm happy i found fitting boots in a white color, only needing that strip along the middle. Fingers crossed they work out with my orthotics in the end. Shoes are always a "Why do i hear boss music?"-moment for me in any costume i work on.