tk7602

congrats! for those curious to browse it, you can go to: http://www.501st.com/all_featured_members.php (the feature member rotation is one of the few projects on the main site that i actually worked on... i've mostly stuck to the forum side of things)

i'd say just don't stand too close to vader unless he's way taller than you. otherwise just have fun with it!

imo, the standards for deployment are about making a high quality, accurate sandtrooper. what your local law enforcement thinks of that isn't terribly relevant. i also never agree with the prohibitive cost argument when it comes to costuming... a costume is what it is, one can either afford it or not. it sounds cruel, but i think it is true. i agree completely that if it's inappropriate to bring a weapon somewhere, leave it at home. i've run the gamut from no weapon to carrying my demiled sterling down a busy main street. you've always got to make sure you're being safe and responsible.

so cool. i am actually thinking about going to mardi gras in 2009, so i'll have to get in touch with you folks to find out the schedule!

awesome! i'd love to troop a mardi gras parade someday!!

i just realized that the gallery i linked to doesn't even have the finished pics. doh! i'll update those this weekend... i'm trooping in my TD, so i can get a shot of it.

my pack isn't particularly accurate, but it looks the part relatively well. i haven't gotten together a page yet, but i have pictures... http://stormtrooperguy.com/gallery/thum ... ?album=277 a few things have changed and not been updated. the tupperware container i used on the top right of the pack was WAY too big. i've popped that off and used a smaller one. i didn't use a frame... i didn't want the extra weight of it. i used cat litter boxes since they seemed sorta the right size. a bit too deep, but i'm ok with that. i connected 2 of them with a small hinge in the middle, and the braced it with 2 aluminum bars. the other 2 boxes are attached with tiny little nuts and bolts. the straps are riveted to the aluminum bars, so that the litter boxes don't take any weight. the tubes on the sides also add structural support. lots of rivets throughout. lots of black zip ties. i've been meaning to write up an actual walkthrough of the process, but i haven't gotten that far yet. maybe i'll be inspired now!

that is fantastic news!

MEPD! The only unit where slinging mud is a GOOD thing!

looking good there! gonna get all the weathering done by 2008 then?

nice! i hadn't heard of a garrison doing a "troop" like that out of armor. if you do keep it, you can always just do a cheap update to your pack. i just rebuilt mine... not at all accurate, but it looks the part and i only spent about $40 on it.

Hi hairball! I was with ya' till the suede thong. That's not gonna fly here... sand + suede just can't be good.

i just got some vintage tupperware hamburger stackers on ebay for the second pic. search for "tupperware hamburger" and you'll find a ton of them. i still haven't come up with anything for the rounded bit on the top, but i think that's mostly just hunting down a good bowl.

Accuracy is all relative. I don't imagine your average 501ster would WANT a bumpy drippy helmet with hand painted lines and peeling paint. People don't like the FX helmets because they look goofy. They are way too big, and keep you from turning your head. So troopers want something that's smaller and less funny looking. Most folks I know don't know the difference between a GF2, a TE, an AP, etc... they call them "movie sized helmets" or "ANH helmets". Many people don't care about fiberglass vs. resin vs. ABS/HIPS/whatever... If it looks like a stormtrooper, they are happy. I got my AP armor because my FX was too big, and AP is the stuff that normal folks without friends who know people can get. If there were other options out there, then some research and decision making would have come into play. Those who are serious prop collectors will appreciate the Ginos and TEs of the world. Those who are moderate costumers will want something that looks the part, and those who just sorta like star wars will buy whatever lands on eBay. In my opinion, the role of a board like this is to inform, not enforce. Make it known that X person recasts Y person's work and what that means. Leave it to people to cast their own judgment. Those who would buy a recast knowingly will do it no matter who is banned. But having the info out there for the world to see may prove more effective than sweeping people away.

As I'm interpreting this, this board is an official unit of the 501st, unlike TDH or RPF. As such, it's governed by the rules of the 501st. If a member cannot be kicked out of the 501st for recasting, I don't see how a member could be kicked out of an official 501st detachment for the same. While there's a LOT of talk on this board that is not 501st related, as I've understood it, it is first and foremost a Legion detachment. If anything, it seems like Seth in particular IS being emotionally removed. It seems that he WANTS to ban the guy, but that is not in keeping with the rules that govern the forum. And maybe that's part of the disconnect here in general? That this is primarily a costuming board, not a hardcore replica / original prop collecting forum? And so maybe the folks here don't have the same background / experience in the realm of recasting? When I got my first GF2 helmet, I knew nothing about the history... I just knew that it looked more like the movie than my FX one. I suspect a lot of costumers are like that... not familiar with / interested in history and lineage so much as having a nice looking suit to troop in. Anyway, I'm straying off topic here. But it seems to me that perhaps mepd and gino are just speaking 2 different languages that sound really similar, but don't really mean the same thing.

i just don't get that... i can totally see not wanting to raise a flag saying "look at me! i have armor for sale"... but once you already HAVE the armor, you may have already made a terrible mistake.

mine is on the strap of my backpack, attached with a quick clip. i don't have any photos, and my pack is torn apart right now. but i took a quick clip and threaded 1 side of it through the strap on the backpack... i used the side designed to adjust the strap length, so it holds its position on the strap well. the other 1/2 of the clip is riveted to a small loop of webbing on the back of the pouch. this lets me shift the pouch up or down, which is useful if someone else is wearing it... i've let other people where my TD a couple of times.

i say this honestly and truly... that's the whole reason i even replied. i don't get the point at all. i haven't ever gotten it. say i have a helmet. it's mine. i have it to make myself happy in some form. then say i decide to make a mold of it and make copies for a couple of friends. my helmet is still an original. it's still rare, and it's still mine. i know myself that i wouldn't want to make 1000 copies, just for the effort involved. so really, the number of copies would be limited by my interest in reproducing them. say someone else makes a copy of that helmet and makes more. my helmet is still mine. it's still original. etc... my friends' helmets are still copies right off of mine. they still have better quality helmets than those 1 generation further away. so there again... my stuff hasn't changed. my friends' stuff hasn't changed, and the people buying the recasts never would have had access to mine in the first place. i can totally understand being upset by the lack of respect... i just don't get why it's a holy crusade with some folks. you say that people with this attitude will never get anything cool. well really, it's more about money than trust in a lot of ways, especially for fans of other franchises than star wars. a couple thousand dollars gets you a sweet screen used firefly prop for example. but back on topic. the copies in no way diminish what i have, so then what damage is there to me? my ability to charge $1000 for a helmet? that's about the only thing i can see that gets really hurt by it. or my pride? my status? pride and status mean little to me, which is why i don't get it. i love being able to share what i do with the world. hoarding information doesn't do anything to me. i may not ever get anything cool, but know that if i do, i'll do my best to share as much as i can of it!

this recasting thing frustrates me to no end. i don't really get why people care so much. i've made a couple of things on my own so far. one is a pistol from serenity. i couldn't care less if someone recasts it. i did the work because i wanted to, i shared it with RPF because i wanted to. i've gotten everything out of the project that i wanted. if someone recasts me... how does that hurt me? i'm not looking to make a profit off of anyone... i just wanted to make a nice prop. i sold them for $25 shipped... and spent about $20 each on resin. i think i lost money on them, but whatever i did my own drawing of some of the art from serenity too. and posted the high res graphics as soon as i could, in case it would help anyone. i bought a can of peaches from serenity, and shot about 50 different pics of it to help folks trying to duplicate the labe. i just do NOT understand the idea behind keeping things private. you have access to an original helmet to mold... why *not* share that as widely and openly as possible? isn't that better for the community than honor amongst thieves? that's the part i'm always stuck on. i got access to some LFL archive photos of the AT-AT driver. i was asked not to post them anywhere public, so i respect that. but i've passed them on privately to anyone who has asked. i would think the good of the community would be sharing as much as openly as possible. i wouldn't recast someone else's work out of respect for the fact that folks don't feel the way i do about the sharing part, but it just gets under my skin. suffice it to say that if i ever get access to anything cool, i'll share as much as i can!!! anyway... i always swear i won't get into these discussions, but sometimes i get dumb.

my armor is sanded... it was sort of an accident, but it ended up making me happy. no reflections from camera flashes.

hmm... i wonder if bobasfett would ever think about doing a new run... seems like they'd be easy to cast, and the demand would be there.

i stopped judging people a long long time ago! i've been on the sXe wagon my whole life. big claim to fame here is i've never been drunk, buzzed, or anything else you might call it. mostly i listen to more metal / metalcore type stuff these days.

the backpack thing seems perfect for an MEPD wiki. i set up dokuwiki on the NEG site in about 20 minutes, 15 of which was making the templates match the rest of the site. we're starting to populate it with any cool info that comes up. by using a wiki, any member can contribute, and it can evolve with the information that comes out.

slapshot! go boston straightedge (my handle on the battlestar galactica board is straightedge) i saw slapshot at the rat, my one and only time there. madness! a dude got slammed into the ceiling in the pit. (for those not in the boston area, the rat was a club with something like 7 foot ceilings. scary place at a violent sXe hardcore show!

that's a beautiful piece of weapon right there!