Hausi

Thanks for the kind words! And thank you for putting so much of your time and effort into doing the research on the shells and sharing it with all of us here!

Those are some cool pics, thanks for sharing!

Congrats Mac, well done and you look great in your gear. I think I have also already seen some pics of your first troop with Brit Patrol on Facebook. Very impressive.

Hi Quinn and welcome to the MEPD. A sandtrooper is a great choice. As I am located in Germany, I have other preferred makers, mainly from the UK, and do not have any personal experience with Moncal or Walt's kits but I've seen people having been 501st approved with those kits, so they seem to be good. Nomex flight gloves are a more comfy alternative to screenaccurate rubber chemical gloves and should be good for basic approval but that depends on the person checking your request, however, I would recommend using rubber gloves from the beginning. As for backpacks, the only company that offers completely built packs is RS in the UK and I think they only do with complete commission armors. I suggest you look at the pinned posts in the fieldpack section of our forums, you will find a list of all the parts necessary to build one yourself there.

That really looks good, I guess I'll have to upgrade my pack sooner or later.

Hi Mac, welcome to the MEPD and feel free to share pics of your first troop, was it fun?

Feel free to roam the forums, tons of useful advice to be found there, and some very interesting reads too. Have a look at this thread for example: I am sure you will find all the information you are looking for.

That's really cool! I have built a Sonix replica which also includes the back view with a battery compartment and cable... but it doesn't match yours with the working dial... and mine doesn't work. Amazing job!

Great pictures! Thanks for sharing.

That's an amazing picture and you look very happy, congrats on becoming a 501st approved sandtrooper, next goal: Police Officer/level 2?

Great pics! Is that a dewback prod in the last picture?

I'll let my wife know and ask her where she got it from, maybe I can get you one too.

Here´s what the final product looks like: backside: front and sides: This is the pouch I am using right now, a canvas pouch (sorry for the blanket, it´s my wife´s, hurts the eyes, I know) but the leather Stolla Wien has already arrived and I´ll be working on it this weekend, some black leather paint and a way to attach it to the strap.

I almost forgot to include some pics of some lab-pipe-details I have added, solely based on what I personally believe to see in my reference pictures: After doing all the weathering, it was also time to get some other stuff done, e.g.protecting my armor as well as the pack from being damaged or scratched. The approach I took was EVA foam mats (actually meant for yoga classes) and attach them to the back of my seedtrays, by doing this, I could also hide the rather large openings. The foam mats are hidden behind the red canvas back support straps.

Speyer 22, what a great weekend meeting so many friends. I´ll take the liberty of including some Dengar pics too... he is basically a Sandtrooper and I was carrying the Bapty DLT too. Found Skeletor Found some droid (pink: must be wrong) Some random photo, everybody noticed that a picture was taken, except for myself. Dengar, chilling with Tusken Raiders The infamous "soundguy" and Willrow

Seems like you are in doubt if that is really the right droid... looks a wee bit pink. As always, it was a lot of fun to be trooping with you my friend.

Hi Doug, Thanks for your patience and for providing those pics of your updated gear so quickly , here we go again: Application Review: Part 2 Name: Doug Phillips Legion ID: TD-69170 Forum Name: HugeBadWolf Garrison: UK Garrison Helmet a. Green lenses: check b. Paint color of traps / tears: check c. Correct number of teeth: check d. Mic tips: check e. Vocoder color: check f. Tube stripes: check g. Rank bar on ears: check h. Brow: check i. Side screws (ears): check j. Weathering: check k. no mesh behind teeth: check RESULT ON HELMET Checked & Cleared Armor details a. elastic straps shoulders: check b. neck seal: check c. black undersuit: check d. shoulder bells: check e. biceps: check f. forearms: check g. pauldron: check h. chest / back plate: check i. kidney / butt plate: check j. ab plate / side rivets / cod: check k. strapping system: check l. thighs: check m. shins / calves: check n. sniper plate: check o. boots: check p. gloves: check q. hand plates / guards: check r. ammo belt (waist): check s. ammo belt (right knee): check t. canvas belt: check u. pouches: check v. weathering: check *additional comments* Your armor suits you well and now it also boasts all the right details. However, I still highly recommend fixing it while also trimming down the return edges in order to enjoy it as long as possible. RESULT ON ARMOR Checked & Cleared Backpack a. details: check b. weathering: check RESULT ON BACKPACK Checked & Cleared Weapon: RTC a. details: check but please have a look at my comments too. b. weathering: check *additional comments* Don´t forget to adjust the “Tabby” as recommended. RESULT ON WEAPON Checked & Cleared Doug, this was your final review! You have done a terrific job in fixing details and improving your gear, it looks the part and you are a worthy addition to the ranks of the MEPD´s finest. Be proud of yourself! You have successfully followed the guidelines in regards to the MEPD CRL and have met all requirements. Please send a pic of yourself in your updated armor and with your repaired pack to Luis (Sandman Tigui) and we'll get you squared away. I will have your updated information uploaded into the MEPD system asap. Congratulations on becoming a Deployed Officer of the MEPD! Cheers mate! Hausi - MEPD Deployment Officer

No need to mess with the closures or flaps, it's okay. Your next move will be to be patient, I'm trooping this weekend and am going to write your final review next week.

Well, to be honest, it doesn't really resemble the Stolla Wien pouch as the proportions are slightly wrong but it's okay, so you can also tick that off.

Thanks Thomas.

I had attached all these parts to the seed trays but I hadn´t attached the seed trays to the frame as weathering the parts individually would give me a better, more natural result. So next up was getting all of it dirty. I used different washes for it, first one was a mixture of black and brown (burt umber) acrylics with wather, second round was Vallejo model colour earth, both mixt with water, applied with a brush and then almost immediately dabbed off again using paper towels. Besides the Ghostbusters Ecto-Goggles, you can also see that I decided to use a canvas pouch for the shoulder, while with this particular pack, a leather "Stolla Wien" would be the right choice but I didn´t want to use my original one so I am waiting for a friend who has his already painted/dyed black and has agreed to sell it to me. Would have been a pity to paint this original one:

The filter gave me a hard time. I tried to scratchbuild it but attaching/gluing rubber hoses to a tube with the right diameter proved to be very difficult, especially as rubber hose simply doesn´t like to be straight. So I called a friend with a 3D-printer to print me one... which was then again heavily modified. I cut out a lot of the interior structure, first and foremost as I think that there wasn´t any when looking at screen caps and secondly as it saves weight. I really think that filter doesn´t have the details that many people have on theirs at the top and bottom. So this was the filter as it came fresh from the printer: But I simply don´t see that "bulge-detail" at the top or bottom: So this is what it looked like after me modifying it: I am also somehow convinced that this filter might have been red especially when compared to the black parts surrounding it... if it was some kind of automotive performance air filter, that whould make sense... Anyhow, I decided to paint it red and then give it some dusted coats of black, here it is already attached to the upper seed tray: I do have to admit that I think the proportions don´t look completely correct, actually I think the filter should be bigger that mine is.

This was the first time I used a new strategy to attach the seed trays to the frame: as with my packs before, I used aluminium strips but this time I have bent them on both ends and riveted them to the frame from the inside, so those aluminium strips wouldn´t really be visible any longer as soon as the trays are attached. In the following picture I had already painted the frame and attached the red back support straps to check fitment:

This is the first time I have bought a 3D-printed radio kit. I am still not such a big friend of 3D-printed stuff but it was convenient. It´s printed in black PETG and the quality was okay, still a lot of work to get rid of the most prominent of the print lines. I could probably have put a lot more work into it, filling sanding and repeat but many of those little flaws would be partly hidden by paint and weathering at the end. Here are some pics. The strap holders weren´t accurate at all, that´s why I modified them. Cut out a lense from clear acrylic plastic cardboard for the interior of the pleather surround cut out of a box of beer. Cheers. I have also cut holes in the trays and the radio, again for both, light weight and ease of installation. I then added all necessary details like the sockets, the feet, the antenna, stickers and so on, this is what it looked like before weathering and being attached to the tray: On the backside you can see the hole but I actually covered everything that was visible with more pleather and punched holes in it to emulate the backside of a real Sonix radio. And here it is compared to my SonixWorld radio which was cast from a real Sonix: I forgot to take pictures of painting and attaching the Tupperware Stow´n Go but this was the pack with almost all parts being attached. I still had to paint the Karrimor frame.

Used a Lionstar for the canteen, took it apart and got rid of all the insulation material inside, which is a very messy job. This way it´s lighter and allows easy acces for the hardware to be attached.