stormtrooperguy

It's an older thread, but it struck a cord for me. I've put on quite a bit of weight over the past few years, and my old ATA suit doesn't really fit like it once did. I picked up an AM kit and plan to use it for motivation... rather than sitting around moping that my suit doesn't fit, I'll build something that does and get out and troop more Any progress lately?

Hello all! It has been a while since I've been active over here, but I'm happy to be back. With a name like "stormtrooperguy" you can probably guess that I'm into stormtroopers. My first suit was an FX kit bought in 2004. I replaced the helmet within a couple of months with a GF2. Eventually I replaced the body with an AP kit, then an ATA after that. Eventually I added a second suit... the highly controversial Death Trooper aka Zombie Stormtrooper. I absolutely love this suit and wear it as often as I can (which is only 2 -3 times a year). My ANH stunt was starting to look as messed up as my zombie suit, so I converted it to a sand trooper. I'm hoping to pick up a new kit this year and get a shiny suit back in rotation. So here I am, ready to help out!

The maintenance of the membership database internals is based on practicality, not as a means for recognition. I get that folks like that feeling of being one of a few FNs vs. one of a few thousand TKs, but there's no functional need. <br><br> The Deathwatch was told no last year when they asked for a new designation. Deathtroopers asked for it, reserve TIE pilots asked for it... pretty close to every new to the Legion costume has tried for a new designation. <br><br> The last time it was actually done, the DS, was done because SL is a very narrowly focused thing: Sith Lord. There were multiple characters that would fit the new DS concept, with a pipeline of more coming. If there was just one character that needed it, I doubt it would have been done (though as I was not personally involved, I can't say for sure)

Friendly neighborhood LMO here. For the record, we will NOT be changing the designation of the TFA troopers to FN. They are, for our purposes, TKs just like the classic stormies. The 2 letter designation used to be how costumes were identified. Eventually we grew to where people would have multiple costumes that fell into "SL" or "TK", so the database was updated to use the name of the character as the unique identifier. At that point, the 2 leter designations had no further functional purpose. Today they exist either to unify or divide, depending on your perspective: Some want to have new designations to show that they are unique amongst the troops of the Legion. Others want to revel in the community of BH/TK/SL etc... To me, FISD is much more about all coming together as TKs than it is about THOSE TROOPERS having one designation and THESE TROOPERS having another. So, for as long as I have a voice in it, TKs will be TKs.

Keep in mind that some GMLs follow the CRL down to punctuation, and if they see ANY variance between the doc and costume, they reject. We should be very careful not to include anything that we don't absolutely want to be a deal breaker.

In general you are correct, but this costume is being treated differently due to the fact that there are so many of them out there already. If it goes well (CRL being required before approval) that could potentially be the way we do it all the time.

We submit for approval when the CRL is done. If this idea of CRL first then approvals works out well, it is possible it could be a new way forward for us. We'll see how this plays out with the TFA troopers.

This is a fascinating evolution to watch... this whole process is so different than any other CRL development I've been part of, just due to the volume of these costumes already out there. I think the big points to get from this is: - we have plenty of screen used reference from celebration to be able to judge reasonably well the accuracy of the costume. - we have seen the anovos kit, and while we know it's not 100% accurate, it is more than good enough for membership. - we know that the CRL today is not going to look the same as the crl this time next year, nor should we expect it to. - we are in the business of welcoming members and approving that which is reasonable, not nitpicking everything to within a millimeter of its life. At the end of the day, I see absolutely no reason that the Alpha 75 kit should not be approved for Legion membership, and I think the CRL should reflect that. In the absence of a CRL, I would approve them as built for Celebration, without hesitation. Another thing to consider is that we spend a lot of time talking about how the Legion does or doesn't do whatever thing. We are the Legion. If we don't think something is working, we can change it. We are not locked into any particular mode of operation. Every new LMO team evolves from the prior team's work, and makes things that much better than before. Maybe someday CRLs will be required for the first approval. Maybe we will pre-approve sculpts, rather than making people finish their work only to be rejected. You never know. To me there is no sense in getting hung up on "this is how it has always been"... we should think about how we want it to be, and see if that makes sense. I think it's safe to say we can stop debating whether or not the CRL will be released before the movie and whether or not the Anovos kit, if properly built, should be acceptable... the answer is yes to both of them. It's now just a matter of filling out the paperwork

That is exactly it. Generally "new to the Legion" costumes come in very slowly... 1-2 of them, then a CRL, then handoff to the GMLs. In this case "new to the Legion" could be as many as 75 on day one. That's not going to be effective for anyone. So, we decided to try out a new way of doing it: CRL first, then approvals. Lots of people have asked for this over the years, since the current model means you have to finish your suit, submit it, then get deferred for reasons you didn't know existed. This way, we can agree on what a TFA trooper should look like first, then we can have people submit costumes that will follow the standards. Less pain all around. Regarding evolution, base vs level 2/3, etc... I really think we should focus on base, and not compare to the OT suits all that much. We've had 40 years to argue about the details of a classic TK, of course we're going to be really, really good at it. For the TFA costumes (all of them, not just the TK) we're starting from scratch. If you look at an animated clone suit from 2009 vs. today, the build is going to be very much different. This is going to be the same. We're not going to be perfect the first time around, nor should we try to be. To address a couple of specific things: I have no problem with gloves and boots that aren't 100% exact matches to screen used being acceptable for base approval. Personally, I think the TFA troopers I've seen are perfectly fine for Legion membership, exactly as is.

To me, it is a disservice to the 75 people waiting to be approved to delay if we have the required elements to proceed. We know the character exists, is bad, has reference, and has a LOT of finished costumes.

Big fan of ABS paste as well... I use it for most of my clone stuff, unless I'm in a rush (it's a few days to reach full hardness). I've never had it crack, but if you put it on too havily you can warp the plastic (since it's got a LOT of acetone in it)

I have no doubt Phasma will get a CRL entry at some point, but for now there isn't enough to go on. I can't wait to see those costumes get built!

The costume will be "TK" just like all the other stormtroopers. We are not adding new designations unless the costume is something so entirely unlike anything else we've seen that there is no other option.

The anovos kit is without a doubt of sufficient quality for Legion approval. As far as EIB / Centurion stuff goes, that's going to be up to the detachment. For basic approval, we want to keep it reasonable... no calipers will be utilized in the evaluation of these suits The ANH Stormtroopers have an almost unique place in the Legion in that nearly everything we wear today has lineage to the movie suits. The TFA Stormtrooper is a fan sculpt. It's a fan sculpt that had a lot of excellent reference, but it's still a fan sculpt. I think given that it is very, very, very close.

Can that be the new FISD slogan? Pleeeeeeeeeeez????