motman241

To me, the toy gun is the toy gun. you can spruce it up a bit, but it will in no way resemble the real thing - it's just too far different. You'd be better off to spend the $20 and build your own from scratch. It will be a LOT more realistic.

Being that they were in the same location, and used a lot of the same sort of thing, I'd check with Luke's pouches, different Tusken Raiders, and jawas. They probably have some of the same stuff. At one point, I bought a pile of old pouches, and I think a couple of them look close to what you showed. In reality, I'm not sure how much it matters. There's a practicality that falls into place - if it's "screen accurate" or not, does the pouch on your hip hold your money and car keys? Since all the troopers (and Tuskens) were different looking, just do your own thing (within reason). Just make yourself look like you should belong.

Don't forget to weather your pouches, pauldron, and guns, too.

You'll also notice I cut a regular envelope in half, and taped it to the inside of my chest plate. That is for storage of money and hotel room keys when no pockets or pouches are around.

Here ya go.

I took a few inches of nylon webbing and added snaps to both ends. It's like a bracelet that snaps together. You just put it through one of the loops of your shoulder pouch, and then around the left shoulder part of your chest piece. It's as easy as that. Backpack or not, it's there and doesn't move around. Nothing's permanant, and I can change pouches if/when I want.

Wish I could be there.

I was kinda nervous doing mine, but once you get the part cut out, and just a plain flat piece of plastic in there - it looks a whole lot better. Then all you have to do is fix it up a little bit, and weather it.

Sure. It's not hard at all to cut out the existing ab part, and replace it with more ABS (or plexiglass, or styrene, or whatever). The best part of that is, you probably have what you need (costing no extra money). Something I learned - the ABS cement can get pretty unwieldy and messy at times, so I switched to regular Super Glue, and had just as much luck.

Correct - the ESB and ROTJ *STORM*troopers have holsters on their right sides - and holster the E-11 backwards - with the grip pointing towards the front. In ANH all holsters were on the right side - because of the magazine wells on the Sterlings. The *SAND*troopers did not have holsters at all. Now, saying that, I will sometimes carry my E-11, and will have my holster on my left side (per ANH). Usually this is if I know I will be handing out flyers, shaking a lot of hands, etc, where both hands are needed.

I agree. Newbie or Oldbie ... do your homework before anything - building a prop, researching something, or making a purchase. The internet has to be good for something. I am quite curious about Cushman... their address is about 45 min from me.

I posted this in the other thread, but this could be pretty helpful here, too. If anyone has other makes/makers/types/kinds please let me know, as I can add them to this picture. I am also looking for a better picture of the Cushman kit, and a picture of a resin one.

Have you guys seent eh Cushman Deluxe E-11 blaster replica kit? They say on the page that "This 1:1 scale replica of a Stormtrooper blaster is 18 1/2 inches long and uses all replica parts for the master mold." I really don't mean to slam them, but what are they smoking?? "Replica parts"? They vacc'd a Kenner toy.

I decided to do a comparison shot of different makes and approximate prices. If someone has a better picture of a Cushman kit, I'll swith out the only one I could find (from their website). If there's any other that should be in the picture, please tell me, too.

I'm just trying to help. If detail to the point of madness is your thing, then you probably won't be happy with anything other than the real thing. Not very practicle to troop with, though, or legal. I'm not gonna try to knock the hyperfirms, either, but I just don't see the benefit. They don't fit into an armor tub, they don't break down, they weigh more than 3lbs, and they cost a ton more than $30. I don't get it. Some people buy, some people build. And the world goes around.

Given the unlimited resources on the internet, you can always do what I did - research it, then build your own. Find out how long the MG34 is. Then take a really nice picture of one, and blow it up to that full size. Print it. Trace it onto your wood. That's a great start. And that's how I made this tutorial: http://www.balkindustries.com/tbarber/DLT19tutorial.jpg http://www.balkindustries.com/tbarber/D ... rial2a.gif http://www.balkindustries.com/tbarber/D ... rial2b.gif Using these takes the research and hard work out. I did the work for you. Enjoy. I keep saying this (and I am blue in the face) This blaster cost about $30 (and that assuming you have no wood or PVC around the house), and weighs 3lbs. This MG34 even breaks down into two parts for easy storage in your trooper tub. For weight/cost/accuracy, it does not get better than this. I didn't make mine super detailed, but I was in a rush, and made a several at once. You can make these as plain or detailed as you'd like.

Yeah, I know what you're taling about, and that's the way I always have figured it, too. The sandtroopers were the first things to be filmed, and the armor was tweaked a bit after that (hence the chest buttons, knee plates, etc). Somewhere I have a photo of a bunch of stormtroopers, and I thought several of them had the variant handplates. I'll have to dig through the thousands of pictures, and try to find it.

I just happened to be thinking about it, and wondered. Were the alternate handplates meant to be, or were they made in a hurry to replace broken/lost/loose ones? Were they meant as something only for MG15 gunners? Or maybe they were just randomly dispersed.

I do have pouches on my belt (although not the MP40s), and my Luke stuff is weathered (not showing up in that picture too well). I guess I cover more bases than I thought with the added pauldron, huh? hahaha

So, I have my pauldron..... where do I sign up to be a sandtrooper?

I'm just thinking about the alternate handplates, and wondering..... Are the handplates worn on both hands, or just the one hand (and the regular one on the other hand)? Is there a specific weapon associated with these handplates? Or maybe pauldron color? (or some other reason as to who wears them, and who doesn't) I know this is really nitpicky and everything. These are the sorts of details that make things interesting.

I talked to (what I consider to be) a heavyweight in the prop/costume community, and we were originally talking about Tusken Raiders. Everyone wants to be *that* Tusken from ANH. Well, we were talking about the SPIRIT and mindset of the costumes. Tuskens were scavengers. They hodgepodged things together, and had whatever they could find. It may not have appeared on screen, but we totally got it. I see it as kinda the same thing with sandtroopers. As long as I could see a sandtrooper that is stationed on Tatooine having it or using it, it's all good in my book. I have plans for a different type of droid/people scanner, and some custom long rifles. In the SPIRIT and theme od the sandtrooper, I think that's fine. I wear a custom pouch thing on my belt, that could totally fit in (and it's very functional).

Exactly. And it sounds like a lot of us wear pauldrons for the same reason - visual look, alone. I wear black, because fewer people do, and I like the look of it. No other rhyme or reason.

You have to go way back to the begining - ANH. They only had the three colors (orange, white, black), but never said rankings. Everyone is trying to make up the rules, past the fact. You can't figure in Clone Wars or Ep1, Ep2, or Ep3 stuff - that's AFTER ANH has been made. We can deduct that the orange pauldron must be some sort of leader, since he's the one we see leading the group, and doing all the "boss" things. Other than that, it's all a guess. In the end, though, wear whatever you like. People are making excuses for the dumbest of things. Until Lucas Films comes out with a definitive rank guideline, it's all speculations and guessing. There may have been a neon, blinky pauldron that we just didn't get to see in the movies. Better jump on that one. Quick! :lol

No, I don't think the drop boxes were used for handplates. In that last picture Rocko posted, each of the handplates looks different. That doesn't surprise me, though. There's not that many of them in ANH. Maybe they were a "it'll do in a pinch" sort of thing.