WhiteWalker

This is a good point. Some garrisons have different standards than others. Plus its a great way to get to know others in your local area or find some help closer to home.

I would also very much suggest you join the UK Garrison forum as thats who your costume will need to clear with.

Hi all, Madeline "xMadsx" requesting an advisor in the Herts/London, UK area for help with a non-saga officer costume.
 
I've commissioned a uniform from MazCave but it will be some time yet, while he deals with some personal matters and a backlog of orders. 

Hey

I'm in the UK if it helps, I'll drop you a PM later tonight and see how I can help out



Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

Hello,
I wouldn't recommend printing anything for your officer. For not a lot of money you can get proper metal bits that will look way better. Vetted vendors like Alay and Philoprops are who you want.
 
As for your fabrics you want medium or heavy gabardine, colors will depend on your costume. Black and white are easy, but for the line officer you want an olive drab color. Patterns can be found on the forums, just type the phrase "pattern" into the search bar and you'll find lots of threads. If you decide to buy a uniform I recommend wampa wear.
If you have anymore questions let me know!

If we’re talking Line or Staff Officer, you could print your blaster, or in the case of the Mimban Officer, your chest armour and some of the belt boxes.

Unfortunately FDM, and even resin, lacks the crispness of a metal cap badge, belt buckle, and rank badge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good to see you Adam.  @WhiteWalker will be able to assign you and advisor that can help step you through everything.

A very common problem people can have, when they are new to forums like this one, is figuring out how to get their photos posted.  The IOC forums have only a very small amount of space for each person's account, due to server space limitations.  The 501st is a volunteer organization (how much did you pay to join?  Trick question!) and we don't have the deep pockets of the world's wealthiest mega corporations (Facebook, Google) to pay for the space to host everyone's unlimited photos.  And modern cellphones take very large images... a single image can easily fill your entire space allotment!
 
Instead, we recommend hosting your photos elsewhere.  Then you can simply paste a LINK to the photos here in the forums, and all it is is a little bit pf text... the photo itself is pulled from the other location.
 
The problem is many "free" places that you can post your photos do magic on the back end of their servers, to manage the massive quantities they have to deal with.  And they won't give a DIRECT link to your photos... they will only give a magically-generated link that they use to pull up the photo on the fly, and unfortunately, that won't work with forums like ours.  The link MUST be a direct link to a photo, ending in the image file itself, just like it would look if you save it to your computer's hard drive.  (like "IMG1234.jpg" or really any image name ending JPG, PNG or other common image formats)  Google, Facebook, DropBox... none of these popular places will give you a DIRECT link to your photos.
 
Fortunately, Imgur is a popular free host which DOES offer direct links to your photos, and works great for this.  It's free for now.  No one can know if it will remain free forever, but it's the best we can do at this time.  (We pray it never turns evil like Photobucket and breaks the internet, killing all linked photos unless you pay!)
 
If you've already managed to fill up your attachment allowance, once you have put your photos on Imgur and gotten links for them all, you can edit your posts and replace the photo attachments with the links.  It'll look exactly the same, but there won't be any space used in your local storage, once those attachments are deleted.
 
So here is a step-by-step instructions on how to use Imgur to host your photos, for all your posts here in the IOC Forums.  (and any other 501st forums)
 
THESE ARE DETAILED STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS.  ONCE YOU DO THIS A COUPLE OF TIMES YOU'LL SEE IT'S A VERY SIMPLE PROCESS!  So don't be scared off by the length of these instructions!
 
Note: I personally find the process easiest on a real computer, but that requires you to have your photos already saved on your computer, and many people have their photos fairly trapped on their phones, these days.  Fortunately, they have a phone app also. 
 
1) Download the Imgur app onto your smartphone from your App Store or Google Play, or wherever you get apps.
 

 
2) Log in, or create an account.
 

 
Note: If asked, you'll need to allow the app access to your photos, obviously, else you can't upload photos or save them from Imgur.
 
4) Tap the Plus icon in the upper right corner to upload a new photo (or photos)
 

 
5) When you've selected all the pictures you want to upload, click Next (again, upper right corner)
 

 
6) On this next screen, you'll want to
 
A) Give the set of pictures a title (you are creating a "post" that's basically a "photo album", and you can add more photos to this album (post) later, or make another new one every time, whichever you choose) 
 
B.) Decide if you want the pictures to be public (the default, at first)... anyone in the world can see them, and search for keywords, and comment on them.  Or (my recommendation, but it's up to you) make them hidden so they can only be seen by you... or anyone with the direct link to the photo.  (Like people on this forum, when you paste in the links)
 
C) Optional: Add a description or tags if you want the image to show up for the general public's searches (or your own searches... it could be handy if you have a LOT of photos to be able to search).  Optional... if you don't understand this part, feel free to leave it blank.
 
D) Optional: If you want to add more, you can click "Add Images and Videos" there at the bottom.
 
E) Finally, click "Upload" (in the upper right, as usual).
 

 
7) It will warn you that you're creating a Private (or Public) post, in case that was an accident, otherwise, it'll upload the photo(s).
 

 
8.) Next it will offer you the ability to "Copy Link".  That link, however, is for the ENTIRE ALBUM.  (which may be one photo, or may be 100 photos)  Handy if you want to send the whole collection to someone to look over, but they have to follow the link to Imgur's website, scroll, etc., so that's not what you want if you just want to display a single photo in a forum post.  JUST CLICK THE "X".
 

 
 
9) Click on the SINGLE photo you want a link for, so it's full screen.  There will be a little icon at the bottom to share the image.  Tap that, and this time, you WANT to "Copy Link".
 

 
The link you just copied will look like this: https://i.imgur.com/Nxy6uJX.jpg   (note this ends in an actual JPG file and not some random string of letters like Google Drive, DropBox, etc.  THAT'S THE LINK YOU WANT!
 
I recommend pasting the link into a note (or email), if you want to collect a bunch of links all at once, otherwise if you're doing forums from your phone, you can paste that link directly into your forum post, and the forum will display the photo at that link.  Like magic!
 
Note: If you're alternating between your phone and a real computer:
 
Once you have uploaded the photos from your phone, you can do basically the same process, but on your computer.  Go to Imgur's website, log into your account, and you can see all the albums you have uploaded:
 
1) Click your account name in the upper right corner
 
2) Click All to show every album ("post") you have ever uploaded.  Find the album you want and open it. 
 


3) The easiest method I've found is to simply right-click the image (control-click on a mac, to right click) and choose to Copy the Image Location.  (Other browsers will phrase that differently, like "Copy image address" in Chrome)
 

 
Then, as before, just paste that link into your forum post and it will display the photo!
 
Enjoy!
 
One Warning: If you ever delete your account, or the photos from it, the photos will no longer display here on the forums.  All your posts will converted to broken image links that don't work, and especially if you kill an entire account, replacing every photo you've ever posted would be a pretty monumental task!  It's the ultimate "pail and shovel" move, so PLEASE don't do it!
 

We aim to please.
 
And we're not Stormtroopers.   LOL

This style of boot will probably require custom boots for you, as they're normally made for more slender builds. 
 
I would take a look at Crow Props, for the best price.  I recommend asking for leather soles instead of the synthetic ones, as they look far more accurate.
 
Mux Leather is another great source for custom boots.  More expensive than Crow Props, but the boots are better, too.  I've heard they are more responsive via their eBay store than their website.

PM incoming! 

Hello! This is my first attempt at a costume in 501st and I would like to request an advisor. My name is Nathaniel Wilkie, I am in Murfreesboro/Nashville TN USA, and I would like to make an Imperial Staff Officer (non-Saga) costume. 
I have several of the accessories from Etsy that are 501st approved. 
I mainly need help with the costume itself. 
 
Thank you!
 

Nathan "Tetchra" Hooker, requesting an advisor in the California/Arizona, USA for help creating an Imperial Officer Captain. 

I am at college which is why I am in California and Arizona. I am looking to create a Captain who would be on the front lines. (that would be a line officer right?) \
 
Thank you all for all of the help and support in advance!
 
-Tetchra (future brother in arms)

Hey Nathan, shoot me a PM and I'll help you out.

Don’t mess with the Puff!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jen "tkroamer" Weller, requesting an advisor in Tampa, Florida, USA for helped with a line officer costume. I started a WIP thread, and appreciate the assistance.

Hi Autumn:  That particular costume is quite new... I don't believe there are any major vendors who sell them readily.  I'll ask around and see if I can find someone who knows more about them, however.

Oh ok! Thanks a bunch. I just love the cut of it. Hopefully we can find someone who can make it!

Hi Jen!  I'm responding in your WIP thread shortly, and will be happy to assist you further from there.

I checked and it seems the CRL model is literally the only person who has that costume.  It was custom commissioned for him by a local tailor (he's in Belgium, I believe).  Since you're a 501st member* you can probably reach out to him on the 501st forums and ask?  Unfortunately we're not going to have any additional vendors at this point, since it's a custom created one-off costume.

PS: Since you're a 501st member, post here and request 501st access for the forums here, and you'll be able to access some other areas of these forums.
 

Hi Jen! PM incoming 

Hey Dan, I will shoot you a PM today...

Hi Dan, we will line you up an Advisor!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi,
My Name is Dan from Vermont and the New England Garrison. I am working on a staff officer black uniform (have a WIP thread going already in the “costume builds” section.) I think I should request an advisor to make sure I have everything covered and I am following the impending new CRL correctly.
 
Thank you!

Hi, I'm Kristine "Kristine" B. requesting an advisor in the Bozeman, Montana area (or anywhere in Timberline Garrison) for help with an Imperial Staff Officer (black) costume.  Thanks.