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Stupid questions from Sweden :)


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I’m building a Troopermaster kit and I’m sure I’ll have a bunch of stupid questions. Maybe others will find some of the answers useful too...

These are in no special order, just as they come to me while watching tutorials and/or when I’m actually building  

So, here we go with question one. 

There are a bunch of snaps, rivets etc that end up visible (on the helmet ears, under the codpiece, the sides of the torso pieces and son on). Do all of them get painted white in the end or are some left the way they are or even painted some other colour? And should the white be gloss or matt?

Thx

Andrew

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Next question. 
 

What’s the best way to attach the bells, upper arms, thigh pieces etc? Buttons on some form of material strap, velcro, glued material straps?

Thx

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Hi Andrew,

No paint on any of the visible snaps. Paint is applied to the rivets on the left hip (kidney-abdomen) and the rivets holding the knee ammo strap to the thighs. I use gloss white but any white will do really.

Only use elastic for the straps inside your armour - not webbing as it does  not stretch and can pop snaps, not to mention make the armour uncomfortable to wear. I don't think you ordered a strapping kit, did you?

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How did you attach the straps? Glue?
 

Note: I haven’t opened the straps yet  (the king of losing things) so it might be totally obvious once I’ve done that. 

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I have also ordered Paul's strapping kit and after some years of trooping, it still works great. Attach those snaps using E6000, it holds very well but can be undone if there was a mistake or in case you have to realign things. 

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There seem to be two main groups when it comes to weathering. There’s the people who use fuller’s earth and then there’s the paint and clean off brigade. 
 

I don’t want a bunch if ”this way is right” answers but what are the advantages and disadvantages of the two?

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I can’t speak too much to the fullers earth method as my kit is weathered with acrylic paints, but one nice thing is that it won’t wash off or easily smudge. I assume that would be more of a risk with the fullers earth but I could be wrong. You can always just do both too! Maybe try a few different methods on a couple pieces of scrap or a shoulder bell first


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I can only echo on practicing before weathering.

I use the fullers method and did some test weathering before hitting my armor.

There are at least a couple of things I would recommend practicing, like how much will bring what result, how to do recesses and prominent sections like on the belly or helmet and so on...

 

Of course you can always wash most colors off when your not happy but unfortunately I had to learn the hard way that scratches on your armor won’t let weathering come off that easy sometimes....    :6:

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I agree with Rocko here, practice before you hit the armour with your weathering. I did mine via the paint route and the more I tested the better I got at it. What I like about the paint weathering is it’s durability, mine still looks great 2 years on and it’s worn and scratched organically while I have been trooping, looks better each time I put it on. 

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@Sn4k3 fullers earth is a product used in train modeling and a handful of other applications. It’s basically just super finely ground rock shale that comes in different earth tones, hence the “earth” part. You can get bags of it from any hobby store. The hairspray is lightly sprayed on an armor piece and left until it’s tacky, then you sprinkle fullers earth into it and it will stick to the hairspray, but it’s easy to brush off where you do and don’t want it, then do another layer. If done right it can be really really convincing especially up close. I love the acrylic method, but on my armor for example, if you look closely you can guess how it’s done. Less so with fullers earth. But with skill either method can be incredible!


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@Sn4k3 fullers earth is a product used in train modeling and a handful of other applications. It’s basically just super finely ground rock shale that comes in different earth tones, hence the “earth” part. You can get bags of it from any hobby store. The hairspray is lightly sprayed on an armor piece and left until it’s tacky, then you sprinkle fullers earth into it and it will stick to the hairspray, but it’s easy to brush off where you do and don’t want it, then do another layer. If done right it can be really really convincing especially up close. I love the acrylic method, but on my armor for example, if you look closely you can guess how it’s done. Less so with fullers earth. But with skill either method can be incredible!


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This info wow me... I like a LOT this idea of real sand to give a feel of... Well real sand dirt!.

After reading your response i looked in youtube and found tge channel of trooperbay, the guys does something like tgat you said, i definitely want to try this method.

Btw is this allow for kevel 3 approval?

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  • 4 months later...

Due to our good friend Mr Corona, not much has been happening with my kit but I am now trying to get back in action.

 

The backpack frame that I bought off the web was all wrong :(  But the good thing is that it's encouraged me to try and build my own. I looked at the Scootch guide and it's great but when I followed his measurements, things got a little weird. The sizes I used were 438mm (17-1/4"), 254mm (10") and 89mm (3-1/2"). I cut the pieces and roughly put them together...

49980986591_6f17cd57ab_k.jpg

But when I placed my seed trays (bought from Trooperbay) inside the frame (just to get a rough idea), it looked wrong...

49981238757_32d581e782_k.jpg

It feels like the whole thing is a just a bit too wide. It might be because my corners are not as sharp as Scootch's...

49980986441_4cc9a3f56f_k.jpg

So, the question is, how wide should the whole backpack frame be?

This is the one I bought of the web. I think it's a better width...

49980986636_a2270a2fdc_k.jpg

What do you guys think?

While I'm asking questions, the angle for teh bend in teh frame should bea round 30 degrees, right?

Thx

 

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Hey mate, you've put a lot of effort into building your own frame but the one you've bought doesn't look that wrong and to be hinest, it looks better than the pvc pipe frame. Okay it wouldn't be good for a SWAT build because of the diameter of the tubing but it looks pretty good for a PO build, although I would have to see a side profile pic to confirm that. With my pack#3 I haven't measured the angle, it just has to look like the screen reference for that pack you want to build and not all packs had a bend in the frame. Furthermore I assume you rather mean a 150 degree angle. 

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Thanks for the feedback. The biggest problem with the frame that I bought is the bottom part. It should be four 90 degree angles according to the reference pics but  it's actually more like 90, 120, 120 and 90 again.

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What reference pictures are you referring to? Could you share? 

I'm not quite sure if I understood you correctly about those angles but to me the shape at  the bottom of your aluminium frame looks about right. 

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11 hours ago, Hausi said:

What reference pictures are you referring to? Could you share? 

I'm not quite sure if I understood you correctly about those angles but to me the shape at  the bottom of your aluminium frame looks about right. 

It was this reference that I think shows all the angles being 90 degrees:
pack-comparison.jpg

At the bottom of each pack (admittedly you can only see one side on each), you can see that it is a right-angle.

The two frames I have are both plastic so not sure which one you thought looked better but here is my interpretation.

 

angles.jpg

I know the homemade frame has no bend in the upright pipe. I'll do that later :)

I'd love to hear what you guys think.

Thx

AW

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2 hours ago, 5573 said:

It was this reference that I think shows all the angles being 90 degrees:
pack-comparison.jpg

At the bottom of each pack (admittedly you can only see one side on each), you can see that it is a right-angle.

These pictures are outdated and horribly wrong, I am trying to get them updated but so far we have started the informationthreads in the Fieldpack section on the forum, they are still under construction but already offer some great information:

http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?/forum/4-field-backpack/

The frames used for the packs were mainly Karrimor Totem Backpack frames as you can see in the threads. 

So your black frame on the left is the one to choose. 

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