MATT BUSCH BECOMES A STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS artist Matt Busch has become the world’s first Honorary Member of the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers to get his armor! The 501st is a worldwide community of fans that costume as collectors, fundraisers, volunteers, and doing charity work.

Busch was inducted as an Honorary Member of the 501st in 2006 by Jay Shimko of the Great Lakes Garrison. Other Honorary Members include many notable STAR WARS actors, artists and writers behind-the-scenes, as well as celebrities like Kristen Bell, Seth Green, Kevin Smith, “Weird Al”, Yankovic, the band No Doubt, and George Lucas himself.

While Busch is the first to have completed TK trooper armor and be registered, several other honorary members are on their way. Col. Anthony Toledo, the master drill instructor for the 2007 Rose Parade, has an Imperial officer costume, but no armor yet. Author Karen Traviss is working on Clonetrooper Armor. Actor Jeremy Bullock was given a full set of Boba Fett armor, but he hasn’t joined the Legion yet. Author Timothy Zahn is also doing an Imperial Officer, too.

Busch’s ID in the 501st is TK-3477. He received an incredible amount of help from Terrell Reber, TK-1787 of the Great Lakes Garrison. The armor was made of vacuum formed plastic, then trimmed, assembled with E-6000 glue, velcroed and riveted, sanded, painted with high performance enamel gloss white, detailed, and strapped together with velcro, elastic, and nylon straps. Other folks that helped out were Tony Krewson (TK-4063) for the blaster, Wyatt Stevens (TK-4205) for the undersuit top with neckseal, Brooke Merva (TD-1148) for the belt, and Steve Brejnak (TD-465) for strapping up the armor.

You can find out more about the 501st Legion of Stormtroopers at www.501st.com.

Archived from November 7th, 2008.