KodiakAK

Aloha Officers,
 
I apologize for the delay in posting this. Between election madness and then some work related travel I am finally getting a chance to sit down to use a keyboard that does not involve thumbs.
 
Please allow myself to introduce myself with a form letter going out on all the detachments forums. I am Eric Brager your Legion Membership Officer (LMO) for 2016. If you recognize the name Darth Aloha it is likely due to my involvement with FISD as a two time Detachment Leader (DL) and of course as your web host server dude. 
 
The LMO office this year is here to help. We will support the IOC's goals for updating and creating new CRLs. Through your DL we will be an advocate, advisor, and champion. Most of all we will be accessible and approachable. No longer are the LMOs aloof and unreachable.
 
Last year saw the a small but important changes to the Operating Protocols regarding CRLs. Section 7 states a few things that define a new working relationship between the detachments and the LMO. First is that a new costume may not be added to the Legion without completed CRL. Second is that the detachments are responsible for the creation and maintenance of the CRLs not the LMO. We do not make your CRLs. The result of these changes is that base level CRL requirements should not change unless the LMO and the DL are in agreement.  Thirdly and lastly the DL should solicit buy-in from the detachment community regarding changes.
 
In this new arrangement we have no choice but to work together. With that said every one of the 15 detachments will have an LMO representative assigned to them.
 
Your LMO rep is Bradley Graham (TB-3910/Sentry02) He will be logging into your forums and contributing to your community, if he isn’t already doing so. The LMO office needs to be active in your community. That way we may fully understand each detachment’s vision and needs if we are going to support your CRL needs.
 
What is the next step in this glorious shiny new hug-fest? I am asking the DL to send their LMO representative (or post up) a list of CRL goals as well as issues, concerns, gripes, problems, woes that we can help with. I will be integrating that list into my ongoing high level goals for 2016 that will be posted publically on the forums. I encourage any discussion between the dets and the LMO office to occur out in the open on the forums as much as possible. 
 
If anyone reading this (and hasn’t dozed off) has a question of any kind they are welcome to PM me anywhere or email me. Your DL will be receiving my phone number shortly and is welcome to text or call anytime for any reason.
 
Let’s get some poodoo done this year.
 
-Eric

I work shifts so im always awake at the same time as someone elsewhere on the planet

Congratulations Kris!! You are an invaluable and insightful member of this detachment! Prost!!

Oh no.. I wouldn't ever do the whole open palm one... just... no.    and mostly I would just be doing it for kids that come up in a Vader costume.   

It looks like the head nod is the general consensus, I can live with that

So a couple of times i've been in my line officer and have had a kid salute me, i've returned it with a quick informal touch to the hat bill, kind of like a British Napoleonic era Naval salute. I don't see any problem with that, just definitely no open palm fascist style salutes please. Among our own, if Vader walks up to me, or a kid in a Vader costume, I customarily bow my head and say "My Lord" or something to that effect. Being from reenacting and Ren faire, I am used to adding more theatrical elements than some, just don't overdo it.

I had not ever noticed that until my flight when I was screen shotting. I burst out on the plane laughing!

Like the ones that quickly run off in the background after Needa is choked

The reason the bridge officer doesn't look up when Vader storms off the bridge is because he is trying to act invisible. You don't make yourself a target of Vader's ire by making eye contact when he is upset.

Word of advice if you use E6000 make sure its a well ventilated room

I made my own, I bought some aluminium, a metal saw, glue, push button and some magnets. There a bit of an outlay but it was a rewarding experience.

I don't know about the rest of you, but finding the right size is hard for me. My hands are long and large. So I decided to share some techniques for getting your right sized gloves derived from info I found at turtleskin.com
Tip #1
Use a glove sizing chart, such as one of the two listed below. Using either the width or length of your hand you can easily determine the correct size for your hand.
Glove Size from Hand Width Measurement:
Wrap a tailor’s measuring tape around your dominant hand just below the knuckles, excluding your thumb, and make a fist. Your dominant hand is the hand you use to hold a pen. If you don’t have a tailor’s soft tape, wrap a piece of string around your hand the same way as above, make a mark, and measure the length of the string with a ruler. This measure ment is your “hand width” glove size.
Glove Size Width
Glove Size US and (EN420)
6-7 Inches XS (6)
7-8 Inches S (7)
8-9 Inches M (
9-10 Inches L (9)
10-11 Inches XL (10)
11 + Inches XXL (10)
Glove Size from Finger Length Measurement:
Measure from the bottom edge of your palm – use the first crease at your wrist as the starting point. Measure to the tip of your middle finger. This measurement is your “finger length” glove size.
Glove Size US and (EN420)
6 5/16 Inches XS (6)
6 3/4 Inches S (7)
7 3/16 Inches M (
7 9/16 Inches L (9)
8 1/16 Inches XL (10)
8 7/16 + Inches XXL (10)
If your hand is anything like mine you will want to concentrate on the length as the primary glove sizing over width. Hand length is more important because you don’t want glove fingers that are too long or too short. If you have a heavy, muscular hand, using width can push you up a size, and the fingers may be too long, causing a loss in dexterity.
Tip #2:
Glove length is based on middle finger length. Glove manufacturers assume that the index finger is an average amount shorter than the middle finger, and produce gloves that match this assumption. However, the difference between middle finger length and index finger length has a lot of variation, so how do you find gloves that fit all of your fingers comfortably? For small hand sizes, if your index finger is shorter than your middle finger by 1/4 of an inch to 5/16 of an inch, go down one size. For larger hands, go down a size if your index finger is shorter than your middle finger by 1/2 an inch.
Tip #3:
Some people have heavy muscular palms and fingers. The way that a glove design can stay snug on a range of hand types is stretch. The more stretch in the glove material the better the glove will accommodate large diameter muscular fingers. Leather is not the highest stretch material used in gloves. Knit textile has higher stretch than leather. Perhaps consider gloves that are not all leather like a seamless knit glove.
Tip #4:
Select gloves as thin as possible and they will fit better and be easier to use.
Hope this helped!

Yes. The important thing about rank tiles is how proportionate they look while you're wearing them

Nice! Thanks, Brian!

There are lots of ways to stiffen the flares on your officer pants. This is how I do it.
Purchase an iron-on fabric stiffener product that you like. I've use this one (HeatnBond) and one from Sulky:

Cut the stiffener to the size you want. This depends on how stiff you want the flare of the pant to be. I typically go with a width of the flare to the inside where it meets my leg.

Turn the pants inside out and place the cut out pieces under the flare to the edge and trim off to a rounded edge.


Iron the rounded cut out to the inside of the pant leg. Depending on how stiff you want the flares to be you may just want to stabilize the front of the flare or both front and back. I personally do both.


When the heat cools off peel the paper off.

Enjoy the stiffened flares. (that's an order)

COL.(Army) Seen on Col Yularen, an ISB officer.

Captain. (Fleet, ANH version) Seen on Capt Khurgee who tells Vader there's no one on board the captured Falcon.

Captain (Fleet, ESB & ROTJ) Seen on many Senior Officers in ESB & ROTJ. Captain looks lower ranking than Commander due having one less code cylinder, but it is, in fact, a higher rank.

General (Army) Seen on General Veers. We can presume that once Army officers become a General Officer, they switch over to Fleet Olive-Green, to conform with Flag Officers of the Fleet. Gen Tagge & Gen Veers both wear olive green, instead of black. .

Admiral (Fleet) Seen on Adm Ozzel & later on Piett after his field promotion from Captain. We can guess there would be a few Admiral ranks in between Piett's Capt, & Ozzel's Adm rank.

Admiral (Fleet) Seen on Adm Motti.

There are other Admiral & General ranks from ANH that I have not listed, but this is a good deal of the ones we see on screen.
And we also have Ysanne Isard's rank.

Grand Moff Tarkin & GADM Thrawn also have specific rank they wear.

Hello,
I'm currently working on an Admiral Piett uniform and I'm trying to find the proper gloves for him. I'm trying to go for level 3 certification if possible. I searched the boards and there seems to be some confusion which is the correct type of glove.
I saw some one posted the following gloves would these meet level 3 certification ? If not can some one direct me to some one that sells the correct gloves ?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/390469500699

Have you modeled your costume on any perticular character? Of all imperial characters, Imperial Officers have tons of screen time and speaking parts in the original trilogy. They give us lots of great costume choices too. Lets look at just a few of these jolly old fellows.
LTC Praji
Lieutenant Colonel (or Commander as Vader calls everybody) Praji was the officer tasked with finding the stolen Death Star plans. He was effectively the Detachment Leader of the Sandtroopers.

ADM Ozzell
Admiral Ozzell was the first officer we see Vader force choke to death. He was promtly replaced with Captain Piett. Admiral
Ozzell wore an Admiral rank insignia with two cylinders on the left, and one on the right. Vader never liked his mustache.

ISB Agent
I don't know the name of this Imperial Security Bureau Agent, but he can be seen walking past Luke, & Han by the elevator.
He wears an off-white tunic, black jodphurs & his rank bar is flipped opposite of Yularen's.

Chief Bast
We're not sure what he was Chief of, but he was another prominent officer seen in ANH. He is the reson people associate mutton chops with Imperial Officers.

ADM Motti
Admiral Motti had to have the last word in any conversation...until he got snippy with Darth Vader. He had unique code cylinders usually worn by crewmen and pilots. He also has the same first name as a famous Earth talk show host.

ADM Piett
Piett was given a field promotion after his superior failed Vader for the last time. Piett was the only officer to appear in two films. Unfortunetly, he went down with his ship at the Battle of Endor. He accidentally wore his old Captain's rank to work during ROTJ. He was still an Admiral in the script, and credits.

CAPT Khurgee
This fellow looked high and low for anyone aboard the Mellennium Falcon, but did not find the rebels hiding in secret compartments. He wore six amber squares for his rank which somehow was a Captain in the Empire's makes-no-sence ANH rank structure.

CAPT Lennox
This Star Destroyer Captain probably still recalls to this day how it felt when his ship was blasted by the rebel's giant boob gun. He was an avid fisherman off duty.

CDR Cass
This poor fellow was neglected to be given a rank by the ever-so-condtradicting Expanded Universe, so I'll just be like Vader and call him Commander. Vader calls everybody Commander, so why not?

GEN Tagge
A General Officer aboard the first Death Star, Tagge was one of the few to not underestimate the rebels. He also has the same first name as my watch.

CDR Gharent
He was Piett's side kick in ROTJ. They liked to go bridge-diving together. You can plainly see the unique ROTJ details on his gloves in one scene.

1LT Tanbris
This is the officer who counted 30 rebel ships that were too small to be hit by turbo lasers. He sported a sweet DH-17 with a brown holster, and wore the most common Army rank insignia in ANH.

CDR Igar
Commander Igar was either the CO of the Endor Garrison, or just the CO of the AT-AT he exited from, with luke's lightsaber in hand.

GEN Wallscreen
General Wallscreen (thats what I call him) could be seen issuing orders from Chewbacca's flat screen in the Holiday Special. He wore one of the rare single-breasted tunics left over from ANH.

CDR (Moff) Jerjerrod
CDR Jerjerrod was charged with overseeing the completion of the second Death Star. He had a good bit of screen time in the Blu Ray's deleted scenes. He challenged Darth Vader entering the Emperor's thrown room, and even questioned the Emperor's order to destroy Endor, advising the Emperor of the several battalions who'd be killed.

1LT Treidum
If ANH had been a horror movie, 1st Lieutenant Pol Treidum's last word's would have been "I'll be right back".
His costume is a favorite to replicate due to the sweet Merr Sonn Power Five blaster in his brown holster.

CWO Endicott
Chief Warrant Officer Endicott was Moff Jerjerrod's right hand man in ROTJ. He also had some decent screen time that was cut from the theaterical release.

LT Cabbel
He was one of the many nervous LTs rushing to follow orders in ESB.

LT Cecius
Cecius quickly assembled a boarding party for no reason at the end of ESB. I believe he is the first officer to be identified on screen as "Lieutenant".

1LT Childsen
This Security Officer was having a very boring day, waiting for an IN to return with his coffee, when all of a sudden an unscheduled prisiner transfer occured. He wore his belt backwards, and could be seen reaching for a DH-17 to defend himself during the chaos.

1LT Jir
Daine Jir was a Stormtrooper Officer in the 501st Legion. He wore guantlet gloves, and a brown holster on his left side. The odd details of the black tunics in ANH can be seen better on him considering the white background of the rebel ship.

LT Schekil
This officer was escorting Leia, Chewie, and 3PO to Vader's ship until he was captured by Lando's men. Jeremy Bulloch had to shave his Clint Eastwood-style scruff to briefly play this part.

LT Suba
Suba was one of Piett's men, and Chief of Security aboard the Executor. He had a strange looking rank insignia where the bottom two blue squares looked like they were spaced a bit wider than the top two blue ones.

LT Venka
This noble Lieutenant saved his superior from an uncomfortable moment with Bossk when he brought news of a priority transmission from the Star Destroyer, Avenger.

CAPT Needa
A brave Star Destroyer Captain who followed the rebels escaping through an asteroid field, would never find out that they were hiding on the hull of his ship. At least his apology was accepted.
.
COL Yularen
A high ranking member of the Imperial Security Bureau, Colonel Yularen has been a popular character for someone without a speaking role. Dave Filony of Clone Wars Cartoon fame, mistook him for a Grand Admiral in his ANH appearance, making him only an Admiral in the cartoon series. This clearly conflicts since Colonel is a lower rank than Admiral. I guess Filony was never in the military. Hasbro also incorrectly gave his action figure white pants to further the confusion.

WO1 Dyer
Warrent Officer (or Col in most EU references) Dyer was the brave officer who tried to stop the rebels before Han Solo knocked him over the railing with a tool box. He was portrayed by Sound genious, Ben Burtt.

CWO Hewex
Chief Warrent Officer (or Major in EU references) Hewex was the commander of the Endor bunker. He was responsible for keeping the shield generator operational to protect the Death Star. He ordered three squads be sent after the retreating rebels, when the first squad sent out was captured, and the bunker was compromised.

WO1 Renz
Warrent Officer (or Lt in most references) led a squad of Stormtroopers into the Endor bunker to capture the rebel invaders. He is famous for his quote "You rebel scum!". He and Dyer share a unique blaster that is similar to the one carried by Ponda Baba.

Unknown Warrant Officer
This officer is briefly seen in ANH ordering a squad of Stormtroopers to their stations, and a group of INs to follow him.
He wore the exact uniform of an ANH IN, only with an imperial cap instead of a helmet. Little else is known of him.

Unknown Fleet Officer
This officer was stationed on Kashyyyk, and was going door to door, searching for rebels with a group of Stormtroopers and INs. I can't find a name (or even a rank) for him, but he wears a single breasted tunic with code cylinders and a rank bar. He was only seen in the beloved Holiday Special. I'm waiting for somebody to do this costume!

Unknown 2LT
I cannot find a name for this unfortunate Second Lieutenant , but his fast draw proves Han shoots first. He wore a brown leather holster with a Mersonn Power Five blaster. He also must have lost weight, seeing how much extra belt was tucked in. This is the only Army officer we see with the 2LT rank of two red squares.

GMF Tarkin
Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin needs little introduction. He is the highest ranking Imperial Officer seen in the original trilogy. He wore a unique rank insignia, and was the only officer to ever wear all four code cylinders on his uniform. He also wore a white dress shirt underneath his tunic. If one is to costume as Tarkin, a great facial resemblence is also required.

I seem to always look angry when photographed at troops. I'm really a happy fellow in real life.  

The added red text is my base price best rough guestimate. Keep in mind that if you start with say, a Bridge Crew, then you have most of the base for a Navy Trooper and just need the helmet and a commpad if you didn't already order one so it wouldn't be as expensive to build for that costume than if you started from scratch.
 
  The variance in price is dependant on optionals you may get, the vendor you use, the quality of the costume, boots, etc. and don't really take into account anything that you can perhaps source and make yourself.
 
EDIT: Also just another heads up, the gray and black flightsuits are compatible with other costume builds (black- Bridge Crew, TIE Pilot, TIE Reserve, Imperial Gunner, Navy Trooper; Gray- Scan Crew, AT-ST driver, AT-AT driver). The blue one for the mechanical crew is not compatible with any other costume (at the moment), so that's another thought to ponder for the budget conscious costumer who wants the most bang for the buck.

Jake, I can only comment on a Bridge Crew impression. This is roughly what I've spent for the following:
 
Flight Suit: 120.00
Hat: 50.00
Gloves: 50.00
Belt/buckle: 60.00
Com Pad: 25.00
Boots: ( haven't located, prices range from 75.00 used to 150.00)
 
So you're looking at around $400 plus for a basic Bridge Crew kit. It might be lower if you can sew and find a good pattern for the hat and flight suit. Others may have had better luck finding items for less, but I'd bet that those prices reflect an average cost per item.

I'm putting together some information for an info graphic on how much various costume builds cost and how much time they take. I find my self fielding a lot of questions about how much various costumes cost how long they take, or what the cheapest to build is etc.
 
Specifically if you can give me info on rough cost/time for
 
Staff officer
 
Bridge crew
mechanical crew
scanning crew
 
Navy Trooper
 
Just looking for basic costs for approval not higher tiers
 
Thank you for your help!

Personally I've gotten sunburned feet inside my boots because the polish is soo deep and rich. Get a kiwi brush and a heat gun (paint peeler) apply kiwi until it is evenly gobbed on, apply heat till it melts, the leather should soak it up like a spunge. Rinse, repeat until the kiwi starts to take on a dull sheen, that means in that area the leather can hold no more. Once the whole area to be polished reaches this state flip the most likely now empty 1-2 cans of kiwi kids over and fill with cold water. Get a bag of cotton balls and turn on your favorite Star Wars movie... Gonna be here a while. Get a drink too. Now soak a cotton ball in water first, then lightly squeeze it out. Then begin doing small circles on the boot, always the same direction.... Soon you will hear Mr. Miagi chanting behind you. Keep it up till it gets a deep shine. Repeat process several times and you will get a deep black shine that you can see your face in while standing up, and it won't crack. Soft cloth and you can get any scuffs out before you troop.
Taken from experience of many paratrooper pass and reviews! My jump boots have been in a duffle several years and I got them glistening in 15 minutes because I did this process initially.

Oh you just made this jump master's day! Lol! I predict 2.5 cans per boot before they sparkle. And a few bags of cotton balls!!
Thank you for the feedback!

Ive never thought of addressing the shininess of boots because in the movies, it's all over the place. Some are shiny, some are mediocre, and some are just terrible-looking. I suggest keeping them looking good, at minimum. I keep mine between military average and high-shine. A good military high-shine is the more recommended.