The Road to #SWCC 2019 - What Have a Got Myself Into?

My trip into making stormtrooper armor and ultimately joining the 501st Legion began at Celebration 2015 in Anaheim, California. It was after Celebration where my friend and coworker told me about the Anovos deal which got me and many others in on the ground level for a song.

My first encounter with the 501st Legion.

My son's too for that matter.

It was fitting, then, that Celebration in 2019 came to my home state of Illinois. I could go home, visit the family, and go back to where it all began, so to speak. It ended up also becoming a late graduation gift for my nephew, who will be coming with me.

It also (also) ended up being a logistical obstacle course and a huge money sink. There were expenses for the SWCC passes, tickets for the multi-club Celebration Bash (at the Museum of Science and Industry, a favorite of mine), parking during the con (pre-paid parking is cheaper), airport parking, rental car, luggage fees, food expenses during the con, etc. etc.

Thankfully, I can stay with family instead of paying almost a grand in USD for a hotel, AND I had enough frequent flyer miles to get there and back, so two major expenses were avoided.

But there's also a ton of preparation, like activating passes, signing up for the various Celebration lotteries for panels and exclusives, printing out receipts for pre-paid items, and especially packing.

So I had to start planning how I was going to approach this from a frugal and practical angle.

To start, I wasn't going to take my huge 50 gallon tote to Chicago, mostly because I'd have to have someone to transport it for me, or pay up to $100 each way in over-sized baggage fees. Plus, I'd ave to rent a larger car for perhaps twice as much per day compared to a small sedan. Instead, I purchase a 25 gallon Husky tote that should qualify for regular checked bag fees instead, and will fit all my TK armor minus the bucket, which will travel with me in the cabin. it was $60 for the tote, but it will save me much more than that, so it was a net gain. I put some stencils and stickers on it too.

Arts and crafts paying off

Edit 4 April 2019: Any sized Husky bin is considered oversized luggage by any air carrier, so I'll be making alternate plans to use a garrison mate's hard suitcase for transporting my armor. More on that in future blog updates.

Before I start polishing and packing the armor in foam wrap, though, I did some work on a fan film shoot in Big Bear (I was hoping to include it in this blog post, but it won't be released until closer to Celebration). The conditions were cold, snowy, and icy, and traction was a premium, especially in TK boots with no tread. Near the end of the day, the icy snow turned to slush and I went down, putting a small crack near the edge return of my kidney plate. Earlier, I crammed my right knee ammo packs into a rock outcropping and cracked them big time. And throughout, I kept having issues with my chest plate working with my new PA chest bag (in the previous blog post) and my shins popping open, due in part to the thicker undersuit I used for the shoot due to the temperature.

Needless to say, it was time to go over the armor and make some repairs and adjustments before the big meeting at Celebration.

I covered the chest piece in my last blog post, and also how I adjusted the comm bag for a higher fit underneath. A test fit of my torso armor with the chest bag underneath confirmed it was finally in a good place. The Velcro straps that kept the chest piece on the ab plate was getting old, so I flipped the straps in the meantime since the other side wasn't nearly as worn. It should suffice until after Celebration where I can concentrate on making snap plates, saving a little money until then.

The knee boxes were more difficult, and required many days of work with ABS paste, especially after the most affected box partially melted when I added ABS paste reinforcement underneath. So I had to add even more paste to the top, shape, sand, fill, etc. until the shape was right, or at least close enough.

Slightly misshapen and mis-colored now, sadly.
Maybe I'll do more work on it after Celebration.

The shins were easier, but also scarier since I had never done the bra hook thing before. I got some advice from SCG's own master armorer TK-70701 and, of course, UKSWrath's guides here and here. First I got some scrap elastic that I used for the shoulders, cut it in half lengthwise, and made 6 strips, three for each shin. I used  the sewing machine to create the loop on one end, and then sewed on the bra hooks by hand (the most tedious part).

I made three equidistant holes between the lower, mid and upper shin and installed the bra hooks just short of the end of the armor plate, so they' need to be stretched just so so keep tension on the other half of the shin closure.

The other big trick is to ensure that the hooks are as parallel as possible to the holes to keep the two halves of the closure lined up; otherwise, it might go canted and not line up at top and bottom.

I did one shin at a time, to ensure the placement was sound before starting the other shin, and also due to a lack of magnets to do both shins at once. Test fit on the right shin was a success, so I did the left shin the next night.

I also decided to still keep the Velcro, for now, since it's a giant PITA to remove (a lot of scraping adhesive and orange oil cleaner, and that's a lot of work with so much left to do before Celebration). But this way, if the Velcro pops, the bra hooks will ensure the shins stay closed enough that I don't have to fiddle with them constantly. The shins are a bit tight and I honestly should have trimmed them 1/2" less during initial construction, but the new bra hooks are the next best thing to new shins, for sure.

There's still a lot to be done. After the closures are glues, I still have to clean an polish the armor before backing, get my other costume packed, and get everything else packed too. But more on that in the next blog post...