Plainsrunner

I’m aggravated enough to try a throat mic. Bought a used one. Waiting for it to arrive now.

Dixie Derby Girls Star Wars Night, Huntsville Alabama on 7/21/2018 I'm still struggling with the audio when it need it to be loud enough to hear in crowds. The McWane center was quiet enough that people could hear me. So I still have some work to do on this end. I'm going to work on this in earnest for the next several weeks when I have no troops on the radar screen. Pics! (my favorite is when they let us into the security room/surveillance center to oversee things) My wife is also in these -- she's working on her Iden Versio and hopes to get approved within a few weeks. Also: Field Pack is still undergoing repairs so is not pictured.

Still need a small patch for a boonie hat. I'm seriously needing one of these.

I have to agree with Badbatch. We are even doing new merch runs on the garrison level in Alabama. MEPD seems to be bringing up the rear right now. Let's get the merch runs going again.

Thanks brother! The only salve that healed my soul after losing that auction was an exceptional 4 hour troop Sunday where my audio was working and we got to wander all over a science museum interacting with people. That helped! I'm still upset though. It's the fact that they are never for sale that hurts. I mean if I just moved on to another auction it wouldn't be bad -- but there are none to move on to!

I used Velcro to secure a foam strip on my chest piece to buffer the sound waves from travelling back down to the speaker. It seemed to work better that way. I also moved the mic a little bit away from my mouth in the helmet because it seemed like my voice was bouncing around in the helmet back into my mic (not sure if that also causes feedback or not). Im going to explore the an plate solution now. I wish they would advance amp tech to be smaller/thinner. That would solve a bunch of problems.

On a lighter note -- I did one other finishing touch to the blaster: And I trooped with it. It was fantastic.

I got up at 4 am and tried for that one. Missed it by 5 bucks. My hangup was trying to do currency conversion in my head. I bid what I thought was my max bid with 15 seconds left and someone popped me by $5. I scrambled to convert and enter and lost it. I've literally been mourning the loss of that auction since it ended.

McWane Science Center Birthday Bash 7/15/2018 The first thing you will notice is that I don't have my field pack! It's being repaired at the moment by Imperial engineers. Secondly, this was the first troop where I was asked to sign an autograph. Not easy in the helmet! Lastly -- this was my first troop with my Bapty blaster made from a real Sterling. It's heavy but not unbearable. I was able to do about 4 hours with 1 break. This was the most fun I've had on a troop. People were excited to see us, the temperature inside was comfortable, there was a lot of stuff to play around with in the museum (it's a hands on interactive museum), and my communications were finally working right!

Magic City Con in Birmingham Alabama. I FOUND THE DROID! Second pic: Wife and daughter posing with me.

RoCKo, I feel your pain. In the end I just decided to simulate those parts. Honestly it probably makes for a more sturdy Bapty for trooping anyway. I've been pondering how sturdy the replacement grip would be since it's held on by one or two rivets and the main gun frame is so heavy. Right now I'm going to be looking for a genuine M38 Scope to swap out for my replica that I have on there now.

Just need the lever and a few finishing touches.

Results! I'm so close now. Just trying to locate some #2 sized screws. Apparently the big box hardware stores don't carry them.

Test glued the first T-track to make sure it would go well. It did! So I then glued the rest along with the power cylinder and used rubber bands and a clamp to secure.

UPDATE: RS Propmakers reached out. They are having me send it for repairs to a person here in the States. They are paying for shipping. Very cool!

If I could find a filter I’d start building my karrimor pack

I have everything I need except for the filter.

Simulated aluminum back and grip (using the stock grip sanded and filled with bondo):

To make matters worse.... I have some troops starting in late July and right now I do not have a functional field pack.

Well.... I can't say I'm pleased with RS Propmasters response to this backpack situation. 1. I have babied this pack and been super careful with it. I only trooped in it about 5 times. It should have held up better than this. 2. I emailed them about it 13 days ago. They said they would get some of the guys to look at my pictures and get with me. A reminder email a week later resulted in reassurance that they were going to have someone get back to me. Another reminder email Thursday was met with no response. At this point, and it could change if they at least try to contact me and work with me (even if only suggestions), I can't recommend anyone buy their field packs. If they can't stand up to less than half a dozen uses and they won't respond with at least suggestions on how to fix it..... well then I consider that a couple hundred dollar ripoff. I hope I'm wrong, but it's been half a month and I haven't had any meaningful response from them. My experience with RS Propmasters has been all positive until this situation. There was definitely a flaw in that pack. I didn't use it enough and took good enough care of it that this shouldn't have happened.

Next up is painting the grip aluminum. Then painting back over it in flat black. Then sanding to bring out some of the aluminum.

Got as much bend out of that trigger guard as I could. Not perfect in the top portion bending back inward but I think it's close enough. I'd imagine that the on-site fabricated stuff in Tunisia didn't all perfectly match either since we are all just going on one reference photo. It's very close.... just not exact. Anyway...afterwards I applied bondo and sanded to make that stock grip look like a solid cast replacement.

Test fitting the bits and pieces:

Rather than disassemble the pack, I wonder if it's possible for me to get the end cap off the frame and slide a wooden dowel down into it. Then perhaps use some of that spray foam that hardens to give it extra strength.