Build finished - Application sent

Late october, I was finally finished with my build and ready to send an application to the local Garrison Membership Liaison. I had to send full figure pictures from the front, back, both sides and without helmet.

Then the waiting begun...

Bits and pieces

Here comes a few snaps of the general assembly process. You have to keep in mind that all this took close to three months of building on and off in evenings between work and school.

Cutting cover strips to go over the seams on the arms and legs:

Glueing coverstrip to shin:

Trimming the forearm:

Glueing the thermaldetonator that goes on the belt:

Elastic glued to the inside og the shoulderbells:

Preparing snap-plates:

Installing snaps on small plates to be glued on the inside of the armor:

Glueing snap-plates to the butt-piece:

Found a cheap mannequin to put the suit on!

A little something to keep the spirits up:

 A preliminary test:

 Strapping the torso together using elastics and snaps:

Fitting ammo belt to right thigh:

Recieving The Armor!

One happy day in July I recieved a big brown box, containing all the plastic parts for my Stormtrooper armor, expertly crafted by Troopermaster in 2mm acrylic capped ABS. Super shiny and sweet.
I was anxious to say the least, I had quite a build ahead of me!
Thankfully Troopermaster is one of the most knowledgeful people concerning Stormtroopers and original Star Wars props, and he was only a message away if there was a detail that needed clarification.

The kit laid out:

I sadly did not take many pictures during the build, but I will post a few of those I have to give you the jist of it.
The build was long and sometimes tedious, using E6000 industrial glue with a cure-time of 24-72 hours to glue parts together, holding them in place with clamps and strong neodymiun magnets while the glue cured.
Trimming and cutting parts to fit.
First out was the helmet, which I decided to start with and finish before the rest to give me something to look at and inspire me to finish the rest of the build.
Again TK-8505 helped me out at his workshop, to drill the initial four holes to attach the faceplate to the cap'n'back of the helmet, after finding the best possible alignment of the two (which can be a bit tricky and also a big personal preference). I'm really happy with the way it came out.
All details are hand painted, as the original helmets were. The tubestripes were painted by fellow legionmember and friend TD-6237, which also works as a cartoonist, drawing the great cartoon M.

A Short Introduction

This blog is started to document my path in acquiring a high quality Stormtrooper armor and becoming a member of the world wide organization The 501st Legion.

The blog was started a while ago, but I never got around to writing anything, so these first posts will be backtracking and bringing myself and you the reader up to speed of where I am right now.

About a year ago, I decided I had to have a New Years resolution, (despite never caring much for the concept before...) and the resolution was to realize a childhood dream of becoming a Stormtrooper from the Star Wars movies.

I contacted the local garrison, the Nordic Garrison to inquire where and how one acquires a Stormtrooper armor, and I recieved a warm welcome and was given just enough information from TK-8224, Lisa that I could start researching on my own.

I joined the forum of the First Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment, reading a lot and researching different armor-makers and armor types eventually settling on the Stormtrooper from A New Hope (1977), in my eyes the classic and best looking Stormtrooper.

"But aren't the Stormtroopers in all the movies the same?" you might ask. Nope, there are actually a lot of small details making them differ from movie to movie. And there were also small differences in detail between the Stormtroopers used for close-up shots (Hero) and those in the background (Stunt).
I won't go into the details here, but I can say I opted for the 'Stunt' version, which is the Stormtrooper most people have chosen to acquire themselves.

After about six months of  working two jobs and researching diligently on the forums, I had decided on an armormaker, namely Troopermaster from England, a highly regarded propmaker and justly so, as he makes the most accurate reproduction Stormtrooper armor there is. I got in contact with him and to no surprise he was a busy man, and I had to wait a while for a kit, which wasn't a problem as that would give me time to order and recieve all other things required for a complete Stormtrooper costume.

One of the first things I ordered and recieved was a kit to build the Blastech E-11 Stormtrooper rifle.