More patches and swag

During the filming of The Empire Strikes Back in Norway in 1979, the cast & crew were given winterclothing by the norwegian brand Ski-Peer, and on the jackets were embroidered patches.

I became very enamoured with these jackets and searched high and low, but they are nowhere to be found, except the actual jackets worn by cast & crew being auctioned off sporadically, for a large amount of money.
(There is actually a company making replicas, but they don't look close enough to the originals that I'd even consider it.)

Well, I did the next best thing and found the patches online, and they look great! I might eventually sew them on a jacket myself, but that'll have to wait.

And on new years eve I recieved a nice envelope in the mail from FISD founder Paul Hoeffer, containing another FISD-patch and two Centurion rocker tabs, so now I have two of each plus an Expert Infantry rocker tab:

This is what the small patch collection looks like now:

I also recieved a helmet bag to carry my prized Troopermaster-helmet in when travelling to events.
A Centurion tab and FISD patch will have to go on the helmet bag as well. Swag-o-rama.

And a bonus at the end, a picture of the troopers and main man, Mads at his booksigning at Outland in december:

First official troop!

Today I attended my first Nordic Garrison troop, which was during a signing session for local member TD-6237 Mads Eriksen at Outland in Trondheim.

Mads draws comics for a living and had a looong and dedicated signing session where he signed and made an individual drawing per the customers request in each and every book, for five hours straight. A real trooper!

It was real fun walking around the store and taking photos with people, doing shenanigans and drawing attention to the store. My feet and back are a little sore after standing upright for over 5 hours (it's difficult to sit down in Stormtrooper armor). But it was great fun, and I can't wait to do it again.
I didn't take any pictures myself, so I'll have to wait 'till the other pictures that were taken become available, in the meantime, here's a picture of me and my little brother:

 

And here's another addition of a Sandtrooper (waiting for Legion clearance), me in  the middle and TK-8505 prowling the aisles of the local supermarket.

  

The day after the troop, I recieved a patch from Mads (TD-6237) wishing me welcome to the family. What a great crew!

A little swag

Recieved a few patches the other day:

One patch + tab from FISD
The tab was supposed to be a Centurion one, but it got mixed up, and the correct one is on its way in the mail.

And I recieved a standard 501st Legion patch from TK-4149 Scott Magerfleisch, completely free, he also included a nice christmas card with greetings wishing me welcome to the Legion.

And the most recent acquisition was a Legion name badge, with magnet fastening on the back, really nice!
I suppose this will come in handy when attending larger events and "aftertroops".

More exposure

The web-edition of the local newspaper suddenly, and unknowingly reposted the interview Student TV did, so that means even more exposure, both for me, the Nordic Garrison and The 501st Legion!

Direct link: http://www.adressa.no/student/article1736074.ece

Photosession!

A buddy of mine that studies photography wanted to take some photos of the suit in the studio.
He's a really good photographer, check out his stuff here: http://ikhonoclasm.tumblr.com/

A visit from local Student TV

TK-6528 (who is in the process of building a certain golden droid) contacted me to see if I'd be interested in being interviewed by the local Student TV for a segment about unusual hobbies.

I tried to have in mind that I was a representative for the Nordic Garrison and The 501st, so I tried to be informative and serious about it. Student TV is always a little embarrasing, but I think it turned out allright.
The clip is in Norwegian, sorry to you foreigners out there.

Direct link
The whole show, my segment begins at 19:18

Making Rank

The official detachment for Stormtroopers, FISD, has programs for members to increase the accuracy of their suits, to make them as screen accurate as possible.

There are certain criteria each and every suit have to fulfill in order to be approved, but there are additional criteria to be met in order to recieve the rank of Expert Infantry, a higher degree of accuracy. Then there is the rank of Centurion, denoting highest degree of accuracy.

Here is a list of the requirements necessary for each rank.

I built my suit to be in compliance with Centurion standard from the beginning.
So as soon as I was an approved member I sent in my application for Expert Infantry, got approved, then sent in my application for Centurion, all in one single evening, becoming the nineteenth Centurion in the Legion, the third one in the Nordic Garrison and the first one in Norway. As a comparison, there are currently 2341 approved Stormtroopers world wide.

Very happy!