In reply to GhiaMonster :
The two movie nights were troops #55 and 56 I think, so yeah still going strong... January is pretty bleak at this point. There's a hospital troop in Dayton I signed up for but having done the last one in November I'm at the bottom of the list. A break isn't bad, but I could use at least one troop. Where's that Dave Chappell meme "Ya'll got anymore of those troops??"
Things have been slooooow lately. I'm working on a new costume, about 1/2 way there. Hoping to have it finished in a few weeks. Next troop is Feb 2 for a LEGO championship in northern Dayton, sounds like fun.
A friend of ours had a 40th birthday party and rented a hall to throw a Murder Mystery Masquerade party. Fancy duds and dresses, masks, the whole deal. SWMBO was looking forward to reusing her thrift store fancy dress & added accessories, and requested I wear my suit. I didn't think I could do a mask with my glasses, but I knew I had a decent helmet available... I ended up as a character Mike Robes, bio-terrorism research scientist. So it kinda fit.
Turns out I didn't do it (the celebrity chef did). But she was a top suspect at the end!
Near the end, the birthday girl's daughter politely asked if she could try on my helmet. I showed her where the wireless mic normally sits, explained the fans and battery, and let her try it on. Her mom told me later that was the highlight of the kiddo's evening.
Finally.... yesterday was the first of many troops for 2020. Ohio FIRST Lego League Championship & Star Wars was a big supporter of the event and the kids. We went out on the floor of Wright State Nutter Center to hang out with the kids before the contest, then lined up to greet all the kids as they were introduced. Finished up the day with a photo opp in one of the gyms.
This was a big event, I think partially because the last few months have been so slow! We pulled people in from other areas like IN as well. We were up to 41 at one point but a few dropped out at the last minute. SWMBO ended up being the only handler for the group, but had a good time.
One of the IN guys has a Magma Trooper costume, and our usual Royal Guard had just gotten his blue Senate Guard approved. I knew what we needed to do. ;)
Techfest at Sinclair College is in 2 weeks, then a Robotics contest of some sort is on the 29th, back at Nutter Center. That should be fun to watch.
Techfest at Sinclair Community College is a free two day STEM festival, which if they had this when I was a kid I would have totally geeked over. Model rockets, chemistry, robots, amateur radio, ...
Last weekend was a busy one. Two days, two long troops...
Saturday was the FIRST Robotics championship with high schoolers building large robots and doing cool stuff. Tim brought his working droids and we brought the costumes and frivolity.
That's SWMBO in her sexy pink cancer awareness "racing shirt". She wasn't a fan of the safety glasses everyone had to wear "in the pit", helmets were considered ok so I was safe. the kiddos loved us and got plenty of photos with us.
Sunday was the Dayton Off Road Expo (autocorrect must have changed "Jeep Expo"). There was a local Jeep club with a Star Wars decorated Jeep in the lobby and we were doing photos with it. We wandered the event for awhile, met some cool people, saw both the Weiner Mobile and Nut Mobile!
A young lady that wrote a book about dragons at 14yrs old was there, I got a photo holding it upside down first. EVERYONE tried to correct me, I'm like "it's on purpose, let me be". I did another for her holding it correctly, then went and bought a copy for SWMBO's daughter. The girl was so excited when she realized it was me. :)
This past weekend was a big event. The Arnold Classic in Columbus OH, with a little bit of everything. Bodybuilding, weightlifting, fencing, and much more. Well, normally. On Tuesday our Governor decided to cancel a good chunk of activities and no spectators or festival/vendors because of the coronavirus. Which cut it down from 200-300k people down to about 20k athletes and coaches...
I thought we were going to cancel as well but we are still considered "volunteers/staff" because we help with award ceremonies and such. Some of us canceled but most of us pressed on. Besides SWMBO had made a $400 hotel reservation that was non refundable. So there's that.
When we weren't doing official stuff we hung around the hallway and got photos with passerby's. Still fairly crowded with whoever showed up, still plenty of fun.
We stayed with the fencing section the whole weekend (Fri-Sun). SWMBO was a photographer, and I would have as well if I had known they only had one other photographer. I did probably 7-8 award ceremonies, and we got to meet AHHHHNOLD on Friday. We were lined up at the stage to keep people back from him, and he had requirements like no helmeted characters within arm reach. So everyone just took their helmets/masks off to make it simple. That helmet gets heavy after awhile.
One cool thing, I finally got to troop with Jamie as Chewie! This girl is like 5'3" and all of 110#, but she uses stilts like painters and drywall people use, and she's made quite a few Chewbacca costumes in the country (even knew Peter Mayhew and family personally).
The event was fun, but from what they said it normally has for attendance I think I'll skip next time. Shoulder to shoulder crowds don't sound fun.
Yesterday was brutal. Cancelations were coming in almost hourly. Our Children's Hospital visit next week was first, and not surprising. Then they all came tumbling down, from small events to cons and toy shows. Red's Kid's Opening Day parade at the end of the month was a sad one.
Hoping the Gem City Comic Con in Dayton end of April goes on, that's a big one for our region, two day event, and it's local so no hotel needed.
I just replaced the ICOMM (voice processor) battery but nothing to use it for now. Probably clean up the costume, make a few adjustments and repairs, work on a new one, and play with the vinyl cutter. Getting warm out, time to change up the Crosstrek.
Doing our part for kids that are otherwise stuck at home, storytime!
Extended downtime equals repairs I've been putting off. Added some velcro to the belt, apparently I've lost weight (see if that holds true while eating my stay-at-home snacks). Replaced the shoulder straps, I think the hooky part of the velcro wore out and the last few troops one shoulder popped loose a few times.
And when you have to stay at home, you can conference call with Vader in a more casual attire. He'll never know, not like he has psychic powers or anything...
Yesterday saw more cancels for events. As I feared, our big con in late April has been canceled. Star Wars Day in Joliet (apparently a really big event) in June was canceled. The Furry Skurry 5K/1 Mile and festival by the Humane Society in late May is postponed until September. Our 501st/Rebel Legion friends are doing whatever we can to stay social and interact. Facebook Live videos for interviews on topics, a trivia game night, virtual troop messages for kids, ... We have no idea when things will get back to "normal".
I'm working on costumes, one I submitted but needs a few adjustments. The other is going to be a joint costume with SWMBO & we're probably half-way there. Not being able to get together with friends to get help is putting a damper on them though.
The adjustments were made. Today I became a double agent and joined the Rebel Legion (sister group to the 501st Legion, the good guys). I figured this was a good "action" shot considering the times we're in, even if the judges were lame and didn't use it. The local CO says it's her favorite so far...
If nothing else, I have another costume I can sit down in. (The stormtrooper is still the favorite.)
In reply to Rodan :
I have one but not that fancy... Bought a Hasbro toy on eBay, sanded and ground off the markings on both sides, cut off the rear piece that cocks the Nerf part, and painted it black and silver. Good enough to pass and sturdy/cheap enough I can hand to a kid and if he drops it I won't care.
I got an email from my hosting company that they had a major hard drive failure. I see I'm missing photos on this thread from 12/15/19 through April. Awesome. I can't even edit the posts to see which file names are missing, the tags aren't there at all. Maybe I'll add a few back for history, maybe not. I sold the WRX last night to help pay for major roof $$ and the way this year is going it just adds to the list.
EDIT- took awhile, but they're back. The event calendar has been bleak for months except for some virtual troops (videos posted to Facebook events for kids birthdays and such). Something popped up for late July in KY I'm considering, otherwise Cincy Comic Expo in mid September is still the next one. Many fingers are crossed.
Well hell, I never did post anything about the jawa? During the Arnold Classic back in March, a bunch of us were talking about jawa costumes. SWMBO and I decided to join the bandwagon and make some for ourselves...
First up, the mask you wear under the hood. The two top choices are a fencing mask or an airsoft gun mask. I tried on someone's airsoft mask with my glasses and they fit, she did too. So I ordered the exact mask x2 and gave them to a friend. She wired up the eyes for us. The rheostat lets us change the eye color, usually orange or yellow but for Xmas and Pride we can get creative. I just had to sand the lenses to fog them up.
Add a cellphone battery bank to the back for power, added some tiny fans (hers in the chin, mine in the temple because my beard kept hitting them, not much space). Then cover the mask with either fabric or gaffer tape. I went with tape, already has adhesive on it and the airsoft mask is solid anyway. People with fencing masks tend to use fabric for air flow. I had to use plenty of tape to get rid of the face shape and make it more generic and oval. That's one reason people use fencing masks.
Then you need the face covering. Here I have two actually, a neck gaiter type of thing and the regular balaclava most popular. Trying to decide which I like best. Yes, it's warm.
Thanks to COVID-19 canceling everything, we didn't have any build parties coming up. SWMBO had just bought a sewing machine & was going to get tips, but that didn't happen. She started making face masks though, and learned basic skills. She finally said berkeley it & used some old bed sheets and drapes to make a test robe. I call it the albino jawa. After that, it was time for the real deal.
10 yards of monk's cloth dyed in my washing machine, 5 bottles of dye, and an evening of washing/rinsing/checking/etc. I'll skip the photos, but cleaning the washing machine afterwards was easier than I expected!
Boots! Time to make some boots. Rubber generic boots from Walmart, she went with a bit nicer and a zipper. Both get covered in left-over fabric using a glue gun.
I cut the top few inches off & it really only took about 30-45 minutes to do both boots. No set pattern just wrap them up somehow. Easy Peasy.
I also had to find bandoliers. The CRL calls for " British 1903 pattern, Martini Henry, Turkish Ottoman, Swedish, British, NZ, Australian, Canadian, German or similar recreations, and matching the style in the movie. " So thankfully there's enough of us nerds out there it's easy to find the right recreations!
And then:
Add some black elbow-length opera gloves and send in the photos. I was happy to have the Gonk droid 99% complete to use. We got our 501st Legion approvals in a few days. It's also a Rebel Legion CRL so we sent that as well, still waiting on their approval. Now we just need "sound gloves", with pressure switches in our palm to hit for various sound bites. Etsy has a couple but I've heard they aren't great quality.
Utinni!
This past weekend, the Northern Darkness Garrison of Indiana hosted a Star Wars beach photo shoot up at Indiana Dunes State Park. Even with the current situation, there were probably 40-50 people that attended. I figured SWMBO and I could do it safely, and another couple from Ohio came up as well.
I decided I had plenty of photos in the stormtrooper, so I only brought the new jawa costume. She brought hers, and we finally had a chance to do something with them. Beach, sand, it was a given. Since I only had the two small bins to bring that left room for the Gonk droid. He was a hit, and we got to hang out with a few other jawas.
This is most of the group, probably missing a few stragglers. The shore troopers and sandtroopers were in their element. We had a pretty good variety of characters. Our friends that came up, she does Rey, and brought 2-3-4 different versions. She got some amazing photos.
SWMBO & I, along with our other Ohio couple, came back for some sunset photos. And she wanted something to use for a trading card as well. We managed some pretty good ones before the sun went down. She convinced me to stay another night Saturday and make it a weekend thing. For 2020 this is the first time since the first weekend of March that we've gone out of town, and that was a weekend event in Columbus. I definitely needed this, and made quite a few new friends.
We met this guy in the parking lot of the hotel Saturday morning and talked probably 15 minutes. He drove 11 hours from MD for this! Said it was the first troop he's been able to do for months, and I could relate. When I saw his costume that day I said we definitely needed a photo!
Decided to give SWMBO's photo twin suns.
Today was the first troop in almost 7 months, but me & SWMBO got to try out the new jawa costumes. Building Blocks 4 Kids had a "drive-thru" event, where we and a few other groups made a line where the parents drove through to wave and take photos of us. Definitely different, but it's better than nothing. Still got to see some smiling kids. (That's me & SWMBO on the right.)
I tried to steal his microphone. I knekw better than to reach for anything else... The mask was mashing my glasses into my nose and cheeks this time, I kept moving it slightly hoping to find a "sweet spot" but managed to only crush my nose for awhile. After an hour I gave up and took my glasses off. With the small crowd of volunteers only and outdoors, it didn't make it that much worse. I really don't have much visibility at all!
I wish they had the live opening bits we did. Especially when I tried to steal the microphone.
Yesterday was a troop for the boy scouts in Yellow Springs. It was a long day 830-530pm so with the pandemic concerns we split it into two shifts. SWMBO & I signed up for 1230-530pm, and with it 36F that morning I'm glad we did. We left early and I bought a 64oz jug of coffee and big cup of hot chocolate for the guys/girls doing the morning thing. They were very grateful.
I built the sound glove for her jawa so that was a test run. Everything stayed running but having the battery under the wrist was a problem. I'm going to move the battery to the top, and use the extra wires for the push buttons to move the soundboard up her arm a little. Ace bandage, vet wrap, something... The electronics for mine arrived yesterday, time to build mine before Halloween (going to a friends house).
So, that sound glove? I got hers working just in time for the event last weekend. Here's the box of stuff I started with. (I have the amp from my stormtrooper already, so I just need the other stuff.)
Battery to board, switches to individual ports on the board, amp to ...uh board. Three sample sounds worked out of four for some reason, they recommended reformatting the internal memory like a flash drive. I did that, loaded up sample jawa sounds, and UNTINNI! It worked.
Mounted the board to the back of the wrist bandage.
Battery to the bottom, which is getting moved. Velcro on the palm for the buttons so she could move them where she needed. I'm adding a patch to the first finger so the thumb can hit button #1 and leaving the other 3 on the palm, easier to reach them all. And she'll know #1 is UTINNI! Some people have gloves with 12 sounds like using a button to shift to another row of presets. There's no way we'd remember where all 12 sounds are, 4 is plenty. I'll load up some different ones so we don't sound the same.
Making mine this weekend in time for Halloween at a friend's house. I think we'll have 10ish 501st members for any kids brave enough to trick or treat.
Finished my sound glove last night. That tennis elbow thingy has a pocket that's perfect for the circuit board. Time to try it out Halloween night with a bunch of other Star Wars nerds.
Halloween was a success. Glove worked great, going to add a velcro piece to keep the wires out of the way of the switches, but otherwise no issues.
Decent amount of kids considering, till around 730pm. One group was so excited to see us they almost skipped the neighbor's house. SWMBO had a great time as well. Utinni!
Still no troops coming anytime soon. We have only two on the calendar, both the same day in late June and scheduled last year. I'm signed up for both, a car show in the am and a symphony performance of the original movie soundtrack while showing the movie on screen. That one got rescheduled from last year at least, really want that one.
Today a small group of us went to Dayton National Cemetery to volunteer to pick up ~5k holiday wreaths from veteran grave sites. It was 12F when we got there at 930am, and maybe 24F when we were done. But all of us still hung around the parking lot and talked for almost 2 hours... I haven't seen a few of these people since last February, and the others during the fall. I'm not surprised everyone stuck around.
Jerry, every time I see your name on Facebook, I think, "I didn't write that!" Oh wait...
In reply to jstein77 :
Lolz, I have to say after 53yrs the most common misspellings are Stern Stemm and Stein, in that order.
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