kman
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Posts posted by kman
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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!
- buckrogersbarker, tarok, TwistedZen and 1 other
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16 hours ago, Jailbreak said:
Thanks for that. My wife is an experienced seamstress and makes a lot of our Garrison's costumes but the Officer tunic is a first for her. She said she'll figure it out and post one when its done so she can help others. Cheers.
That would be amazing!
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Yes, the horizontal stitch is only supposed to cross the first 3 sleeves.
Regardless, those look SUPER short. IB didn't do you any favors there.
Is that a white flightsuit? What's that used for?
Here's a picture of the code cylinder pockets on the Anovos and WampaWear flight suits. Easily long enough to swallow code cylinders, even on the first three pockets.
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MazCave is a solid choice.
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I'm not aware of any, sorry. I've seen the same issue you have.
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7 minutes ago, BigJames said:
Thank you. That was extremely helpful!
We aim to please.
And we're not Stormtroopers.
LOL
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1 hour ago, BigJames said:
Hello, I am wanting to start with the 501st as a grey-green Imperial Officer. I plan on getting sized and go through Wampa Wear for soft goods and belt. My dilemma is the boots. I have large feet (US 13) and muscular calves. I have a pair of Soviet officer boots that I can't manage to pull up over my calves even without trousers on.
Kind regards,
James
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.
- WhiteWalker and BigJames
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That's the right idea. We'll probably have to tweak it a bit, especially as far as measurements and such are concerned. (Too many numbers and GMLs start pulling out rulers and denying people over 1/8") But it's a start!
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On 2/27/2021 at 3:47 PM, sundancekat said:
Hi Timothy, were you able to get your pics uploaded to an external host so you can link them here? Some folks have suggested imgur, or you can use Dropbox or any other free hosting site out there. We'll need front/back/both sides/action shot photos of you in costume, as well as detail shots of all your parts per the thread linked above. Thanks!
I don't believe DropBox will give direct links to photos that the forum can process, but Imgur definitely can. Similar problem with Flikr and Google Photos.
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This just describes that front center panel of the tunic. It closes on the left side (shoulder).
If I understand what you're asking?
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51 minutes ago, sundancekat said:
Cue me updating my staff officer to non saga config to get more costumes! 
SAME!!!
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One correction: There is no need to retire your original costume, unless you alter it somehow to the point it can no longer be configured. Which shouldn't be necessary... the differences are mostly just accessories. The soft parts aren't different, other than maybe the hat pin, which is simple to swap back and forth.
When you submit a Bridge Crew with a flightsuit, and use that same flightsuit with other accessories to apply for Reserve Pilot, you don't have to retire your bridge crew. It's still a viable costume.
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@sundancekat For reference, here is the direct link to the original Staff Officer (Black) CRL: https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:ID_imperial_officer_black
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On 2/21/2021 at 9:03 PM, Imperialrebel said:
I've already started going through my costume and trying to word it right for a CRL, if you would like me to post it here?
Sure, let's start with that, and if we need to start another thread elsewhere we can just copy it over then.
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We can chat about this shortly. In my opinion, I don't see why Sherry can't be judged (for L2) on the costume she originally submitted for Level 2 on. She was basically approved pending photos long before the CRL was cut over to the new one. Even if it takes a bit longer for her to get there, the ball was certainly rolling on this before anything changed.
But we can hash this out and determine a policy, in case others feel otherwise.
- tarok and sundancekat
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Yup, you definitely want the belt to cover that horizontal seam.
Looks fantastic, though! I'm going to get our CRL going over the wording as soon as possible.
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Clear skies for the great migration, Mark!
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4 hours ago, Tetchra said:
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.
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Agreed. Seems like a good find!
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No personal experience. I know the people behind that store were heavily involved in the detective work piecing together the details of the mudtrooper costumes from Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the shop has been around for several years. They've been around for several years and I don't recall seeing a lot of complaints about them, if any, but then, I don't really keep a close lookout, either. You could probably search the mudtrooper group on Facebook and see what people have said about them there, to get a general idea.
The user reviews on Etsy seem to be fairly solid, and they've sold a lot of things. I'd be willing to test them out on something, personally, but here, it's not my money on the line... and I definitely don't know them enough to personally vouch for them. I'll say that $119 for a raw plastic casting seems a bit high to me, but to be fair I don't know how much work goes into that particular process.
But there is an opinion, for what that's worth.
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18 hours ago, Amadeus98 said:
Does anyone know where to find officer boots that completely follow 501st and IOC guidelines? The ones I keep finding fit the look, but they have a zipper up the back and a button at the top. Also hello from Texas and a fellow IOC member.
501st guidelines are IOC guidelines, but yes.
The style boot is harder to find retail these days, since it's less popular among the horse riding crowd, but they can still often be found used at paddock shops and the like. Or custom riding boots for BIG (REAL big) money.
For costuming purposes, it's not generally necessary to go overboard, though. The Hessen Antique boots Ron mentioned are a fantastic choice, that easily meets top Level 3 requirements. Note that you need relatively slender legs (calves, really) for this style of boot, else you'll probably need to go custom if you have wider calves. For people with wider legs, the Hessen boots are not a good fit. But there are other sources: Crow Props makes custom boots for a reasonable price (just get the ones without a zipper ideally, and I would ask for leather soles instead of synthetic), as does Mux Leather (I'm told people have better luck with their eBay store than the direct website, just FYI). (Hessen does, too, but we've had mixed reports on the reliability of their custom boots, for some reason, so caveat emptor.) The Crow Props boots aren't quite as nice as the Hessen or Mux boots, but the fit should be very good.
For the record, side zippers ARE allowed, but only on the inside of the legs, and only at basic level. ("A single stretch panel or zipper may be present, they are to be hidden on the inner part of the boot shaft.")
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Agreed. Normal CRL compad color scheme, just partially obscured by the position.
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5 hours ago, DarthAtroxa said:
Oh ok! Thanks a bunch. I just love the cut of it. Hopefully we can find someone who can make it!
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.
Sith Eternal Officer
in New CRLs - Completed
Posted
Yes "STELS" is 100% confirmed for the rank band Aurebesh. I have verified this personally, as well.
Since we have no verification of the details of the back of the suit, all we can do is "best guess", and be prepared to update the CRLs if additional information is released in the future.
It will be up to the LMOs to decide if they are ok with that, or if they decide to turn down the costume entirely until such references become available. I will certain make a pitch for it, but the final decision is out of our hands.