Great Lakes Garrison & Base

Hello to all my future 501st members. My name is Sean Belcher and I have been bustin my tail to get my armor trimmed, sized and strapped. Its my first TK build and have been obsessing over it for the last month and a half. I am about 90% finished and can't wait for a decision on becoming a member of something I have dreamed about forever. I have a TE(2) set and am going for ANH stunt. I also have been playing drums since I was 9 and am currently in a band named "Cold Conspiracy." we are based out of Monroe and if anyone is interested in hearing some of our music, it free to download at myspace or facebook. We are opening for "Taproot" this Sunday at Headliners in Toledo so If anyone is interested come on down. You will know me by my TK sticker on my kick drum. I have some pics of myself in armor I would like to post and if anyone would take the time to critique please feel free to do so. I'm still in the process of painting and am waiting for my holster and boots. The bucket I'm wearing is an EFX ESB. My ANH stunt bucket is almost finished. Thank you for reading and I'm sorry for rambling on. I think it is so cool that this is out there. Can not wait to meet most or all of you.

troopdrum1 wrote:Hello to all my future 501st members. My name is Sean Belcher...

Hi there Sean.
My name is Jerry and welcome to the forum.
I am right here in Monroe too. I have a TK and Tusken.
We also have another member (Tubby Tusken) who lives here in Monroe too.

One thing that jumps out at me (and it could be the angle of the entire thigh piece, or the fit on your leg) is the Ammo Pack on your Right Thigh. It looks to be a bit off center.

Post up some more pics (include some from the side and back). In your ANH bucket, are you putting in fans an such for cooling?

Perhaps we have some troopers that have built a TE(2) and can chime in.

If your in need of some help with anything with your build just shoot me a PM and we can set something up.
Always nice to have another trooper so close.

- Jerry

Welcome, you can never have enough Stormtroopers

Welcome neighbor as Jerry said we are in Monroe also if you need help give us a call.

Rob Miller-Tubby Tusken
Home -*
Cell - *

Thank you so much Rob and Jerry for the welcome. I am noticing the battery pack and how it looks like it is off center. I will look to see what I can do to fix it. I'll post some more pics for you to look at and please let me know if you see anything more I could do to improve. In one pic I had my girlfriend attach my o2 canister and it is off center. I also notice that my butt plate is sagging (LOL) a little. I think that should be an easy fix.

Also in response to you question Jerry I would love to add fans and comm system. I've been lookin online and reading tutorials on FISD but if anyone local could help I would greatly appreciate it. Rock on!!!

Everything looks good other that the knee being off center as Jerry said. Take caution when removing the rivets to adjust it because when you drill them out it will melt the plastic if you heat up to much. Drill slowly and stop once in a while. As far as the butt plate goes. It looks fine to me. Eveyones is a little different but some of the guys that have been here a while may have some tips on how to improve it.

Check you out on myspace and youtube you guy's Rock. Sounds Awesome

Thank you so much Rob for checking us out! We have a big show tomorrow night opening for "Taproot." Should be a good time and if you ever wanna come check us out just hit me up anytime.

Another drummer huh? There's quite a few 501st drummers in Michigan, myself included. I can think of at least 4 more off the top of my head. There might even be more than that.

About your TK, is it just my eyes or does your helmet seem gloss white and the rest of your armor look flat white? Shouldn't all of it be gloss white?

Ya at the time I didn't have it painted. I'm currently in the process of the final touches. I posted this for some help to see if there was anything to improve. This has honestly been one of the most detailed and tedious projects i've attempted. Also the helmet is an Efx. I didn't have my actual bucket finished yet and had to re-do the frown. That's funny about all the drummers in the 501st from MI. Do you still play?

Welcome aboard, Sean!

I'm Rome, the Webmaster & main forum admin here, as well as a Sandtrooper & Imperial Officer. I moved the thread over here to the costuming section since we've pretty much just launched right away into a costume review and recommendations session (which ain't a bad thing!).

Coupla' things I noticed since I have a Sandie and also used to have a TK myself.

• Painting the inside of the helmet black will help in reducing any glare and reflected light that may be visible through your lenses, as well as drawing less attention to the exposed parts of your face, like your jawline there.
• The butt plate can be tightened up by warming it up a bit and making the curve more acute. Also, some additional strapping on the right and left edges to connect it up to the kidney plate can help with that sagging. Although you can see the gaps in the armor of the movie screen shot that forms the background wallpaper of the forum here, you can see that the sides of the butt plate are actually pretty form-fitted to the person in the armor and doesn't flare outward.
• Don't worry too much about items being off-center. As long as they're centered for your membership submission photo, you should be all clear. When we put on and take off the armor and parts for events, it'll look a bit different each time.
• You're going to want to trim about an inch or so off of the bottom of the shin pieces. Once you get your boots, you may find it more difficult to flex your feet in order to walk. Parades are murder if you can't walk comfortably!
• Looking at the behind photo, yeah, your right thigh detail piece is off-center. If it's reasonable to drill out the rivets and reattach that piece aligned a little more to the left, it might be a good idea. The rivet hole that's left in the thigh piece can be filled in with some Bondo, sanded, primed, and then when the armor pieces are painted, it'll look like it never happened!

And beyond that, I'd say you're off to a good start. You may find that once you have everything assembled and all your accessories in place, you may need to do some more trimming in the leg pieces and maybe even the forearm pieces so that you can move comfortably. Make sure to check all of that before finishing painting. There's nothing saying you can't cut big divots out of the backs of the thighs or calves to enable you to move because it looks like you're between 5'6" and 5'9" or so (about my size), so I'm well aware of how the "default" armor is a problem without such necessary customization.

troopdrum1 wrote:That's funny about all the drummers in the 501st from MI. Do you still play?

Andy, you should post a pic of your "kit" or better yet, the one with you in your Boba behind that monster.

And I call it "kit" in quotes because it's really more of a jungle-gym than a typical drum kit -- just from the photos, I think he can signal the International Space Station with the glare from all the cymbals.

What .... this little thing?

Rome, thank you as you nailed all the questions I had as far as mods concerning the extra trimming along the bottom shins and the back of thigh. You also nailed my height (5'6"). I fixed the right knee battery pack and added a extra strap to the middle of the ab and butt. It looks a lot better but after you told me about heating and forming I may have to do that. I recently finished my bucket and the first thing I thought of was painting the inside black and strengthening. Can you suggest something that I can use? I will post more pics for you to look at and suggest mods. I was reading about cutting an inch off the top of thigh and adding a return edge but I don't feel confident about doing the return edge. I would love to see Andys kit. I used to have a nice TAMA Starclassic that was pretty big but sold it and downsized. pain in the butt for playing shows, setting up, breaking down and transporting. Thank you for the help dude. It's much appreciated.

Holy $#@%!!!! That is a sick set up Andy!! I would say in cymbals alone you are well in 5 digits. I don't think I have ever seen a kit that big especially in MI let alone live. I've played shows with a lot of bands, national and local, and this is by far the nicest. Nice to see someone playin Ludwigs. WOW!!

No worries, man. I'm 5'8" myself, but I'm Asian, so my torso is proportionately longer than my limbs compared to Average White Guy, which means I've had to make a lot of creative cuts and mods to the various leg & arm pieces!

As for the heating, if it's styrene (I'm not sure what TE2 is made of), then either a space heater or even a hair-dryer should kick out enough heat to make it a little more workable without setting your house on fire. If it's ABS, it might a little trickier.

Painting the inside of the helmet is no big thing -- just some basic black spray paint, really, like Krylon Fusion or anything cheap. It's more for masking any reflected light than cosmetic, so it doesn't have to be clean or perfect (mask the outside really well, or have a bottle of Goof Off handy if you get any overspray). Let it cure for 24 or more hours, then you can add electronics (and you don't have to get it perfect in one go; I've been tinkering with mine for probably 2 years now, ripping things out, rewiring, resoldering, regluing, etc.).

troopdrum1 wrote:Holy $#@%!!!! That is a sick set up Andy!! I would say in cymbals alone you are well in 5 digits. I don't think I have ever seen a kit that big especially in MI let alone live. I've played shows with a lot of bands, national and local, and this is by far the nicest. Nice to see someone playin Ludwigs. WOW!!

Since I haven't been in a band in years, I've slowly been turning this into my own personal percussion fort.

Those are 1970s 3-ply Ludwigs (the era most drummers love for that brand) and the wrap is called Black Panther (which was in their line from the late '60s to the early '80s). It looks textured like leather, not the glossy black plastic you usually see with black drums. That set started out as a used 6-pc I got back in 1987 and over the years it has evolved into what you see there as I can locate more of the Black Panther drums. I picked up a second set along the way and the rest are individual component drums from Ebay or Craiglist I have found. Oddly enough, the only other guy who has almost as many Black Panther Ludwigs as I do lives in Traverse City. Someday we will meet up. He breaks his collection up into smaller gigging sets though, and mine is all set up together, so technically mine is a larger set.

As far as total money I've put into this set, it's between $11,000-12,000 but honestly since I've been building this for 23 years, I've only put a few hundred dollars per year into drum stuff (which is what most musicians spend on their gear). It's just that many other drummers own multiple smaller drum sets, where like I said I have this monster one and because of its vintage nature, I'm not gonna gig it even if I was in a band. It's really more like a piece of art I can stare at and make sounds with.

On a side note, I just found 2 more Black Panthers right before Christmas so I now need to reconfigure the drum set yet again. Then it will be a 24-pc. I am very, very proud of my babies here and it's been posted up on some of the drum boards and guys have gone crazy over it. There's been some hilarious comments on there from other drummers.....

It's been up on a few drum boards now, but the first time I posted it (in an older configuration), the thread went up to 20 pages long. See why I'm mega proud about this thing? Some of the comments that made me grin were stuff like:

OK, so where is the ticket booth? And how long does the ride last? Is like the carnival ride that goes around, what 's it called...Bobsled!, That's it! I'll bet that is a great place to hide from the wife...when she opens the door, you just pound away and say, "Sorry Honey, I didn't see you....nor did I care to”.

DUDE! That isn't a drum set.....that's a FORT!

That's not real, right? It's Photo Shop trickery, right? Bro, that's an insane kit. Bravo; congratulations;

holy **** cakes!!! that's BIBLICAL.

WOW! that kit is amazing! do you actually hit the suspended bass drums or are they just there to make me drool on first sight?

Holy ebony pin-stripes, Batman!

I bet it must feel like getting behind the wheel of an airplane when your playing that thing.

so aroused right now.

You win at life

best kit on the forum. hands down. owned all

HOLY FOREST OF METAL!

you own all the zildjian cymbal ever made!

****in orgasmic!

you'd better have a mullet.

Holy mother of satans father. That's amazing. I'm speechless...and now im depressed that my kit isnt that fuc*ing amazing

Don't ever let hair metal die!

I think I just wet myself.

You owe me a new piece of gum, considering when I opened this thread up and saw your kit, I immediately swallowed my gum.

that my friends...is true pwn4ge.... like, wow just awesome! what a great kit!

... I think i just shat myself...

haha thats not big, THATS GODZILLA HUGE!

thats got more brass than a army parade.

I thought mine was big [curls up and dies on the floor]

It's not a drum-kit at all ...It's an exposition....Or a showroom...

I have the 5-piece black Ludwig, and now I know what it would look like on steriods!!! I LOVE it. Happy sticking on that monster.

woaw....cool place for a spider,whit all these stands....what a practice field....multi-interface nets are no problemes anymore....haha!

0wnage.

gosh, that is SICK. No other way to describe it.

That kit is crazzyy! I wouldnt know were to start if I sat down behind it, I'd just drool!!

O_O
good god!
a blind man could play that kit and no matter how he flailed he would hit something!

I'm now sitting in every bodily fluid imaginable, thanks.

I bow to you

Very nice set but......if you dont use that beast for TRUE 80's HEAVY METAL then i will put a spell on you and i will turn you into Lars Urlich

Pffft, it's alright I guess, but when you going to grow some balls and stop playing a jazz kit...