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[jegner]

Hello Troopers!

Well, another hot weekend in East Texas, and I just about over-did it. I got a little heat exhaustion from doing too much outside in the 100 degree heat. Lesson learned, drink lots of water. Take it easy in these dog days of Summer. Running the Vac form machine this time of year is risky. The East Texas heat usually does not affect me, but I got a little dehydrated, and that was not a good thing. A day or two of R&R and I'm feeling a lot better.

As for the film production, I got my plastic order in, and I managed to pull the swoop for the Rebel Fleet Trooper Helmet. I got the RFT helmet prototype assembled during my convalescence on Monday, and I think these will work great. I will try to get some pics snapped today or Wednesday. The RFT blaster is almost done, and if I'm lucky, I'll have 90% of that costume ready for review in a few days. I still have some minor sanding to do on the swoop mold, but that should take 5 minutes.

Also, I've been working on the suits that everyone left with me. My plan is, to rework the armor by gluing as much as possible, then back that with clear duct tape. Then velcro with industrial strength velcro, and super glue that in place. Another issue that came up is the areas under the arm pits, and on the sides, are needing to be reworked. Basically, these 'kidney' areas need shims added to make the front and back sections appear as one. right now there is a big black gap. Also, the elastic straps that hold the upper back and chest together need to be reworked in white instead of black. I'll rework my suit with these mods, and let everyone see what I'm talking about. I don't think this will take too long to do, and will give the suits a much better overall finished looking sides to them. We sort of rushed these parts for the EPISODE III premiere, and now it needs to be reworked.

Larry, I've reworked your thighs, and calves, and I think these will work a lot better for your. Also, Larry, I'm reworking some rushed details on that blaster, adding the trigger, and upgraded trigger guard, and a few minor greeblies that were omitted.

The other suits, I've done nothing to yet. I've been focusing on Larry's, since his was the suit that fell apart. LOL.

My goal is to get these suits ready to wear before the next filming date. Thats something we need to work out. If there is a date next month that works best for you, let me know. Looks let Aug. 6 is a bad day for me, we are planning a garage sale then. I know school starts back around Aug 22 or so. Just let me know, what weekend day works best, and we can try to get together and shoot a few more test. My goal is to have the dolly and track ready by then, but I'm out of funds right now so to order the materials may take a few weeks. I don't think it will be too hard to put together once I have the materials. To give you some idea of the cost, The 2 inch angle brackets used for the wheel mounts cost $27 for a 4 foot length at Lowes. Yikes! I'm still shopping around to find a better price.

The plan is for us to have one or two more test shoots, and then we can start filming scenes. That means, we need to get the script, or at least part of the script finalized within the next few weeks. We can shoot in any sequence, but I'd prefer to figure out what shots are the easiest to film, and get those shot, and then move on to more complicated shots. Learning as we go. That means some sort of storyboard to help keep us organized. This starts to sound like another production meeting, with burgers and fries!

We also need to have a 'weathering' party and photo shoot. I'd like to photograph some 'studio' shots of at least one trooper and blaster for a 'teaser poster', done in the style of "Desperado". I'd like to have that stunt suit ready to wear by the next filming day, also. Its going to be weathered using a water color and sponge technique. I hope it looks good. So far Herb and I have made some good progress in finishing it. So, if you know someone, that might want to be an extra, let me know, and we can test him in the suit.

I need to make a few more stunt suits for the production. We can fill them with warm bodies or stuff them with pillows, and make 'dead' troopers. The gloves, and body suit are no problem as I have an extra set, but the boots, are still giving us fits. I need to find a real cheap alternate to those CA boots. These CA boots are perfect for trooping but neither Herb nor I want to wade in rivers basically ruining $60 boots. The rubber boots Larry and Lance have are not quite right either. These required a lot of work to get useable, and they still have issues fitting under the shin armor. My first pair of boots were old "Roper' boots. Almost perfect, and I'd assume these would show up at the thrift stores. Keep and eye out, and if you see a pair, and they are cheap, grab them. They will have to be cut down, but they look pretty good for what we need them for. Any color will do.

Pablo, I hope things are going well, and when you are ready for some more test footage, let me know and I will send it on!

Larry, how's the matte paintings going? The test we made looked great, and I think we can get a lot done using them.

Herb, I think I have enough parts to put together you the RFT helmet. Let me know when a good day for us to get together and work on that might be. It should only take an hour or two.

Heath, I need a list of armor parts that you have, and I can start pulling you the remainder of the parts you need.

As we sneak up on August, I'm always looking ahead. The next big costume event is going to be Halloween. Keep this in mind, as I think we have a winner set of costumes. It would be cool if we could get together for the 'Scare on the Square' or some other event. Who knows, maybe we can enter and win a costume contest?