May the 4th be with you!

Not sure how to start this off…

It was my first troop for the year which was a good way to start it off but it is already May and with being over a third of the way through the year, why wasn’t there another troop sooner? That is really something for us up in Auckland to really sort out and be more engaging such as other cities hosting 501st legion members in New Zealand.

So back to the troop, the day was a 3 in 1 event, Celebrating the Grand opening of Arkham City Comics , International Free Comic Book Day and May the 4th or Star Wars Day. So with the trinity of events to start it off the year was a great experience. I got to field test improvements to my scout and as you can see below, it has far improvement in its look and photo quality.

Of course looking at my costume I see areas where I want to upgrade/replace/etc but where it stands it now is far superior then when I debuted in 2011. The event was great, 3 other Star Wars costumers appeared, which was a great sight and really cemented our presence at the event. We had a lot of fun with friends in other organisations and of course the children are what make all this effort worth it. We were all there in good spirits supporting Arkham City Comics as they venture into the world of business. The staff as always were very enjoyable interacting with customers and onlookers alike and with ‘Warden’ Jeremy at the helm madness was ensured, but in good fun.

There were some children who were scared of me, but maybe they have not yet been introduced to the world of Star Wars and hopefully for their sake that will change. What I took most from the day is that you always should have fun with the public, yes there are those who are not interested at all with you but by being a vibrant person, posing for photos with children and adults alike, hi fives for small children, and even the occasional hug with long life fans, it really does help make the situation so much better. It does show others that while the characters we based our costumes off were bad guys in the films, we in the 501st Legion are here to help make children and adults smile and enjoy themselves.

I may update at my leisure as new thoughts come to mind. I cannot wait until May the 4th next year and as well Free Comic book day, two troops which make this job all the more worth it.

Until next time,

-TB 6277

Bucket update

Decals for my bucket arrived in the mail, haven’t received the new fishhook to go onto it but as you can see from these pictures below, you can see the remarkable difference they make and are a lot more darker in terms of the grey of the decals to the very white/grey I had before. Just something small which makes all the difference on making the bucket stand out more in photos and all its little features building to the wider image of a Biker Scout.

Simply click on the image to bring it to its full size, there are still a few areas of improvement and general tidyup to go, I do like some of the ‘dings’ I have received from general trooping as it has quite a few black marks in places which does add to its own sort of weathering instead of being too white and shiny, that is for the stormies to look all posh.

Once I get the new fishhook (could had used the one provided with the new decals, but was sold on the fast his was more accurate) I will update this particular post and show you a before/after picture showing the noticeable difference it will make.

Trooping on May the 4th which will be my first for the year, been a long time coming but looking forward to it.

Until my next update, have a great week!

-TB 6277

Quick update

It has been sometime since posted something,

So here is a progress update on my Scout.

Flak vest – Ordered and paid for, should hopefully get within the next 3 months depending on shipping.
Decals – Ordered better looking and defined decals to make my bucket more defined.
Shoulder joins – got surplus material to make a credible join between the front and back Armour to appear as a single piece.

That’s it for now, have a few troops coming up so will have something to write about, and will add some pictures up as I get new stuff in.

See you all around.

-6277

It begins….

Happy New Year – The Holiday edition.

So 2013, a chance for all of us to try at least make a commitment to bettering ourselves for at least the first month of the year. That was me last year taking up a good routine of exercise to get myself into better shape, It worked, for a short time. I made it over a month until sometime in February where I started back up at my course and was working on my Bachelor. This year I’m hoping things will be different, and instead of aiming to do it everyday I at least make a commitment to doing it 2 or 3 times a week, It is not that I need to lose any weight but to simply to keep in a decent physical shape.

Enough of that, it is the troops especially I am looking forward to and where I really do shine. With the re-release of EP-II and EP-III there is the potential of two troops very close together which would be very welcomed. The EP-1 troop last year was the best troop ever for OP-42 I believe, it was one of the biggest collections of troopers and Jedi from across the country and really gave the element of a real movie opening like what you see over in the states. I do not think many other troops will compete to it but I do hope there are more like it in the coming year and further into the future as our ranks grow even bigger.

A small notice on TB 6277 V.03:

Been consulting with someone who can help alter my flightsuit to make it better suited for trooping and remove that horrid golden zipper which I had to camouflage up top so it was not visible. Hoping that velcro can be sewn along the length to provide an invisible joiner of both sides of the flightsuit. Other than that have not looked into anything else since last year.

I’ve made a YouTube channel and while there may not be much on it right now it is a placeholder for many great things to come.
Here is the link for reference https://www.youtube.com/user/OP42TB6277 and hopefully soon there will be decent content on there.

-TB 6277

TB 6277 V.03

2013 will mean a lot of upgrades to be made to my costume towards the goal of Lancer status in the Pathfinders.

2012 was a good year with the improvements I had made to my helmet, the new snout and Painted snout area turned out great and just gave it a new dimension of screen accuracy over what the original stock KS gave me. The iComm was very handy but still to sort out the best way of working it with my microphone still operational and no distortion or feedback which was encountered with Armageddon day 1.

In the coming days I will detail all the improvements I want to make in 2013 to get Lancer status, It will not be cheap but it is something I want to do. Also will do a write up of the SCCP events which I was apart of in the early weeks of December in Hamilton and Auckland.

Hope everyone is having a safe holiday and will catch up with you all soon.

-TB 6277

My next build

I am always looking to expand my costume base and while there is still improvements to be made on my Scout I do have plans to get new costumes in the next 2 – 3 years to give myself some variety when at troops.

I had planned to do an Imperial Officer as my second costume though I have been tempted to do a Galactic Marine instead. I am torn which way I should go, both are great costumes and I do plan on getting both at some point, it is just which one do I go with first.

Which one do you think I should go for?  both have their advantages and disadvantages in terms of cost, turn around time and Flexibility (trust me that one is one of the most important as I am very privileged unlike my Storm Trooper brothers and sisters to be able to sit on a chair properly whilst in my Scout).