New prospective member of 501st!!

[SansoniJ]

Hello Cloud City Garrison! I am hoping to work towards membership! I have a kit that is FX armor I realize the helmet will have to go and I'm already working on getting a new one from OG 1976 molds I have a complete costume already but some of the little details need to be addressed (e.g. my holster is modeled after ESB while I'm hoping to go for a ANH kit) i have also moderately weathered more like "battle worn" the armor (minimally but noticeably). Looking through my options the best "role" for me to pick up in the 501st would be a sandtrooper ANH. There are a few details in the guidelines I'd to discuss to I can mobilize on prepping my kit to 501st standards bc after a few rewatches there are certain details that I would judge to be appropriate and screen-accurate deviations from what would be considered "standard" but I digress. I am currently living in California but will be moving to Corvallis, OR in the fall to attend OSU. I'm not exactly sure how private this chat is or I would leave my contact information. Please reply and we will go from there!

[Lidocaine]

Welcome to the forums!

Sounds like you've already made some headway, awesome! Also, plenty of OSU fans/alumni here as well so excellent choice!

If you haven't already, definitely check out both the Stormtrooper and Mos Eisley Police Department (Sandtroopers) for all the info you'd ever need on either costume.
FISD: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/
MEPD: http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?act=idx

The Sandtrooper Costume Reference Library is basically a detailed and visual list of requirements and is found here: https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TD_sandtrooper

Feel free to ask any questions you have here and we'll try our best to answer them or point you in the right direction.

[SansoniJ]

Yeah I looked through their requirements and there is a discrepancy regarding sandtrooper's backpacks the 501st site says that backpacks are optional but encouraged but the MEPD makes it seem like a requirement. I do not have the means yet to make a backpack so this is sorta a big deal. And can you walk me through the membership process? Do I send my request for admittance through your garrison or??

[SansoniJ]

Another thing is that the 501st has certain requirements that I would have to imagine are flexible or need to be revised. (E. G. The drop boxes on the TD belts ARE present on sandtrooper's on screen but the 501st says no drop boxes and the number and location of the MP40 mag pouches on sandtroopers varies greatly from trooper to trooper on screen and so it is silly to me to require them be in specific locations rather than simply requiring they be present in say 2 of 3 locations etc.) I just need to know what is acceptable and have a game plan before I go buying all sorts of stuff...

[Lidocaine]

Looking at the CRL, the backpack is optional, and that's what the local approval process will look at for requirements. I'm sure the fine folks over at MEPD are just encouraging folks to go the backpack route as it's frequently seen. As far as the specific reasons for including or not including specific pieces, I'd guess that at some point they decided it'd be easier to just limit it to a specific set of troopers seen in the movies instead of trying to list every variation of Sandtrooper seen on Tatooine.

I'd definitely encourage anyone starting a build to start a thread here in the forums and that way the GML (Garrison Membership Liaison) that will review your application can provide any feedback prior to you completing the costume. It's no fun having to go back and fix something that could have been easily avoided!

For applying to the 501st, you do apply through our garrison and all the instructions can be found here: https://www.cloudcitygarrison.com/forum/index.php?topic=10629.msg115995#msg115995

Hope that helps!

[SansoniJ]

Howdy its been a while! I've been really busy the last month or so, but I'm finally getting to amending my TD kit to meet requirements I have a very specific question before I start cutting plastic... is there a minimum length or proportionality of the kidney armor plate to be suitable? There is a large amount of overlap and I'm hoping to avoid cutting the back plate.