Plainsrunner

I have everything I need for the backpack replacement build except for the filter. BTW I reached out to RS and Andrea said she was going to pass it along to the guys and one of them would be getting in touch with me. That was a week ago and I haven't heard back.

I also have the same amp with a wireless mic. It’s mounted in my chest armor as well. Either people can’t hear me and have to lean in, or they can hear but terrible feedback cranks up.

Everything is going well with my configurations except feedback. I still have a situation where either 1) people can't hear me because it's not loud enough or 2) I turn it up so that people can hear me and I get horrible feedback. I'm really at a loss as to what to do about it having tried a lot of things to try to sort it out. I thought about going with the Hovi tips from ukswrath but I got mixed reviews from my garrison mates about those.

Getting close now. Painting is complete. I haven't completely weathered. I did scratch and weather up the back (which is simulating an aluminum billet that replaces the back end: Close up of the back end. I still have some minor adjustments and weathering to go:

This project is complete. I'll see if I can get a video or something to demonstrate. Not today but sometime this week.

I can now speak from experience that keeping everything painted is a full time job. Some of the paint may have just worn off some of these packs. lol

Yeah. I’ll reach out to RS first. Maybe they will as least send me a frame for my trouble.

Otherwise it's disassemble the backpack and put it on a real metal frame. That's going to add to the weight though.

I've only trooped in it like 4 or 5 times. Worth emailing RS about? Not sure what they would do about it, but it might be worth letting them know to see if they might replace it since it's so new (March).

Hmmm....... got it back to the house and it looks like the frame from RS is PVC rather than metal. My guess is that when they installed the cross pieces to hold the seed trays, it cracked. Small but ultimately enough to work into a big crack and undermine the entire frame on that side.

So... my RS Field pack has had a structural failure. The frame has cracked almost in two right at the location where they attached a cross/support bar (the ones the seed trays are attached to). I’ll attach a photo later. I wonder if there is any way to fix it? UPDATE: RS is fixing this for me!

Slow progress. I got the idea to use a wood block to help simulate a solid aluminum grip. Next will come bondo, sanding, and paint. HOWEVER -- I think I'm stuck here until I get the trigger guard. I need to figure out how to mount that guard before I do anything permanent in the way of gluing the block in there. I will probably need to cut a groove in the block for the trigger guard to insert into.

The second dilemma I face is the sawed off back end that is replaced with a solid aluminum billet. I have to be honest with you guys -- I have a hard time cutting the back end off of this thing. It took so much effort to piece the parts back together that I don't really want to cut it just to simulate a replaced back. No current sources are available for billets for this purpose anyway...so really I'd just be simulating the back end. Therefore I'm attempting to do this with a combination of paint thicknesses, layering, and shading to make your brains think you see a seam where the back end is replaced with a billet. The picture following this paragraph is a closeup of the first stage -- thick layered hammered paint on the front end without any paint on the back end. I will now thinly apply aluminum to the back end and coat over it thinly with black. The front end will get several more layers of black on top of the hammered. I will then sand slightly right close to the seam line to bring a TINY bit of the aluminum through. In theory this *should* result in a seam line as processed by your brains. I'm also going to add mold lines on either side. Still working the details of that out.

I've spoken about the other dilemmas that face me in this build. 1. the lack of a source for a solid cast aluminum grip and 2. the lack of a source for a solid cast billet that replaces the entire back section of the gun. For the grip, most of the past builders of this reproduction were able to get an aluminum grip from a guy that now no longer makes them. To be exact, he fell out of touch with everyone so he dropped off the map. This has presented current builders with a dilemma on how to proceed. I had to come up with at least a temporary solution to emulate a solid cast aluminum grip while I look for the real thing. Who knows...if it works well enough I might just keep this since it would likely be sturdier than a replacement. I ordered a second stock grip and sanded it down smooth. I will attach this grip to the gun with the pins and screws and then use bondo to make those depressions invisible. In addition to that I will fill the gap where the trigger mechanism goes with wood and filler. This will emulate the piece being solid all the way. One coat of aluminum paint followed by a nice coating of the flat black that will go on the rest of the gun. Hopefully the end result will be what looks like a Bapty aluminum grip. Here is a picture of the test fitting of the smoothed down grip:

Updates! I'll break this down into a couple posts to make it easier to read. Firstly, I ordered and received a Bapty-correct type D power cylinder. It's made from real metalmite capacitors as it should be. I have since painted it and rubbed a little off the back red wiring so that the red shows through just a hair to be accurate. I also found, ordered, and received an authentic Hengstler eagle counter. This one cost me a good bit, but it was worth it. It's going to be nerve wracking drilling into it to mount it to the bracket:

Your ammo sling needs to be thrown into a mud puddle and stomped on. Other than that it looks brilliant.

Hmm... well most of the shots show it as either black or a charcoal gray.

It has to be that. It even has the same leather grommets that are on the WW2 plash palatkas. This is what the mudtroopers are using as well. People making the muds are trying to find the leather grommet varieties.

The cape is a plash-palatka dyed black. Soviet military.

Solo Opening troop!

I moved the entire setup to my back plate. In my sterile home environment it now appears that I can turn the volume way up on the Anker and it doesn't get feedback. I'm still playing around with it.

Ok....TOMORROW I'm going to rethink the entire audio setup. The Aker amp audio is clearly traveling up my chest into my helmet. I'm going to need to either move it, or prevent that audio from coming up my chest and into my helmet to my mic. Dampening foam, moving it down, etc. The guys in the Georgia Garrison were wearing them on their belts but I'm resisting that at all costs since it totally goes against the authentic canon look. I want it to be invisible. I'm determined to get this right.

Ugh. Audio problems persist. If I have the amp loud enough for people to hear me it causes feedback. Nothing I do seems to help this situation. It's literally ruining the enjoyment of trooping activities for me.

You run it under the chest armor?

Sternum strap? No I haven’t. Do you have a picture?