You're right around where I am as far as what I need for a loose set Morg...  I need a 3PO, R2, Chewie, and that's about it for one full set.

Beyond that however, I'm still in need of doubles of many (though I rounded out Lando and Vader in the last 4 days) figures...  Mostly the ROTJ though since I have what I want of the rest.  I'm figuring R2 and 3PO will be found easy enough soon enough...  Fett, Chewie, and of course the Stormie are my bigger concern, but if the first series any indication, then the ROTJ wave will ship well enough...

Or so I hope.

If it's being supported by something thicker undereneath, go for something thin just out of simplicity.  I have thick stuff here, and it's a bitch to work with.

As far as the pattern goes, there's actually sheets that are specially designed to have "deck plating" patterns and such, so before you try doing it from scratch see if your local hobby shop has something close...

Doing it by hand wouldn't be terribly bad.  Tedious perhaps, but thin styrene cuts like butter with an X-Acto.  Just be very patient, very careful, and when it comes time to sand your cuts be careful and use a very fine grain sandpaper. (Finest you can find).

Working with Styrene's not hard, so don't fret...  Also, if you're buying just plain sheets, don't bother with a hobby shop.  Find a distributor in your area of large sheet styrene...  GE Polymer Shapes (A division of GE) sell ABS Styrene by HUGE sheets (like you need a pick-up truck to haul them huge), but for $50 or whatever you get two huge sheets that'll build you a Death Star or a dozen if you wanted.

Haven't heard of anyone here who's taking their wives/husbands/partners/etc. to C3.

Uh, me...     Ya heard of me doing that!

heh j/k

She's going as of now...  Things change however.  I don't know if she's even going to go to the con at all though.  We do need to discuss that I suppose...  I don't think she's really interested however, and will likely rest all day, or shop, or whatever...  Then at night we'll get back together to do whatever for dinner and afterwards.

My buddy Bill got me Vader...

Incredible figure except.......

I hate his elbows.  Why not do the ball/socket elbow on him ya know?  Make him perfect...  It's a shame because it's the one major glaring flaw to Vader, in that his arms are not stiff because of the joint style, and the limitations on poses is horrible due to the many action scenes Vader is in. 

More minor flaws are his lack of ankle joints (meh), and the chain thing, while neat in concept, looks bad in practice.  It's not horrid though, and really his arms are the only thing that bug me.  He's still, hands down, the best Vader ever...  He's customizable as well I think...  That means a second one's a must for me! 

That is indeed cool Mosnab, and embodies everything GREAT about super poseable figures.  They're the future, and Hasbro needs to get on the wagon in that regard.

I got Lando and Yoda the other day...  Yoda's cooler than people are giving him credit for, however Lando's a highlight figure.

His elbows are annoying as all get out, but beyond that minor flub on Hasbro's part (why no ball/socket elbows?  Simple, and much more poseable than angle-cuts), Lando is pretty much on par with Leia to me (who I also like) and I'd say he's even just a notch below Han.  To me, Luke and Ben have been the only disappointments, but Lando, Han, and Leia are truly incredible work, even if 2 of those 3 aren't "perfect".  Yoda's cool too...  They just goofed on him some, namely that his coat's a bit big, and his belt doesn't go around it which makes the figure 100% inaccurate unfortunately.  I'm trying to see if there's a way to remedy that, however his belt's pretty snug on his waist UNDER the coat, so short of making a new belt all together, it seems unlikely to be a simple fix.

Lando though was great...  Mine's a little loose in the waist articulation for some reason, but I hear others are too.  Poor effect of a bad tooling or assembly/construction job pre-tooling, and it'll likely not be fixed.  Similar thing happened to Djas Puhr actually.

I was thinking kinda crusty ones with sand under them...  Not attractive at all, but what I was imagining.

Leia however seems like she'd have a pedicure done and all that jazz.

I played the X-Box Demo...  The strategy aspect is limited to this game Bob, you're not just missing that, and that's about what I expected...  However.

Part of the strategy is the characters you choose as you play the game...  But also, I noticed on Endor the various paths and choices I could take.  For instance I had the option of run & gun to try and just outkill my opponent...  The other option's finding out what stationary weapons are available, which is how I actually won the level...  I took stationary guns and just blew the bejesus out of the starting point for the Imperials.  They had no chance.

So there's strategy, but this ain't no Socom.  It's a direct copy of Battlefield 1942, which while fun I was disappoitned in it when there's games out at the same time in the WW2 genre that did use some teamwork and such, even with AI comrades.

Call of Duty would be the perfect example of such a game...  Lotsa teamworking to win objectives, but also your personal achievement is important. 

Battlefront's kinda fun, but it's what I was expecting so I'm debating still about getting this one for PC now.  I do enjoy playing that demo on the DVD though.