501st hopeful in the wings!

[Solcar23]

Hi everyone!
My name is Carlos Mendoza and I'm located in Wrigleyville in Chicago. I am a veteran SF scale model builder and enjoy collecting items from Star Wars, Doctor Who and currently i'm collecting and playing several Steve Jackson Games and Fantasy Flight games (Munchkin/Arkham Horror mostly). I'm just an all around collecting and Sci-Fi/Fantasy nut!

I've been planning my build for about 5 months at this point and have acquired just about everything I'll need to begin. I have an ATA kit and a Doopy's resin E-11 blaster that I'm working on now as well as just about everything else to go with and complete the armor. I also have several threads going over on FISD where I've been able to do a ton of research and get the arsenal together!

My goal is to have my kit ready for summer, get EIB status (possibly Centurion too) then go for the MWG/501st approval.

My interest in going in the TK direction began when my buddy and LeapFrog toy designer Joe McCarthy decided to build himself a Sandtrooper. I was amazed at how absolutely cool it looked on him and the stories he told me about trooping with members of the 501st! Unfortunately Joe moved to Oakland so I can't ogle his suit any longer but he's been a great resource through Facebook on getting started.

My ultimate goal for this is to be able to join the 501st to participate in as much charity work as I can. I have a 6 year old son (one of my boy/girl twins) named Zen who was diagnosed with cancer one year and 8 months ago on June 7th. he is currently been in remission for almost a year now and is doing really great! It's a long road ahead for us and him especially but we're all pulling for him and we feel positive about his recovery. He is an enormous Star Wars fan like his dad and I just know he's going to be head over heels to see his dad in the armor! I just can't wait to surprise him with this! With that in mind, I really would like to offer as much time as I can to give back to the beautiful folks at Children's Memorial Hospital here in town who were there for us when this all hit us and also to bring some joy and excitement to the children who are going through similar situations.

Besides all of this I am also a professional percussionist and drummer here in town as well as being an educator in the public schools here in Chicago. I teach percussion, band and general music at a High School here on the north side of the city.

I'm very excited to become a part of this exclusive club and I look forward to hearing from many of you all and sincerely hope to be an active member as soon as I can! Thank You!

For anyone interested, Here are my threads on FISD:

This is my list of items I've gathered for the build:

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?s ... omsearch=1

Here are the brown box pics of the ATA Works kit from Terrell:

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?s ... omsearch=1

This is my build thread for the Doopy Doo's E-11, still in progress.....

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?s ... omsearch=1

Talk to you all really soon!

[Fleetfang]

Welcome to the MWG, Carlos! That's one of the best introductions I've ever read here. It sounds like you're really motivated to enlist! If you need any hands on help in construction, be sure to let us know. I'll be looking forward to hearing updates on your progress as your armor comes together.
Oh, and Go Cubbies!

[ID3052]

Welcome Carlos!

It's always nice to see an enthusiastic new trooper! I look forward to trooping with you in the near future!

Steve

[mattbobmcd]

Sounds like you will be a great addition to the ranks! Good luck on the build!

[Rebel Doughboy]

ATA is a great choice. I made my suit from some of his initial casts when it was just HIPS. I feel old now for that, lol. Whether you went ABS or HIPS never heistate to hit me up for advice on assembly besides Whitearmor.net. I have a build thread on here...if a 17 year old in highschool (at the time) could do this, so can you!

Doopy's full kit is sexy! All you need is some E6000, sanding and filling and you have a full Centurion quality E-11. You won't have any issue getting EIB with ATA either and no doubt his kit has improved ten fold since I bought his stuff way back in August of 2009.

Oh, and welcome.

[SL9965]

Welcome to the group!

[Remo]

Welcome Carlos.

[SHEEPDOG54]

Welcome Carlos!

[138]

welcome aboard