JohnQTK5122

Fantastic! If only I had seen that one closeup photo of the movie pack three days ago before I cut the end off the $9 water purifier filter I bought. I don't suppose the store will give me 75% of my money back if I give them what's left of the filter.

Thanks, everyone. After reading many threads here, it seems like nobody really knows what that piece was in real life. Nobody I've shown the pictures to has had any ideas. Do we know what imaginary thing it's supposed to be? Does it have a name in the Star Wars universe?

Can someone point me to old threads about the tube on the left side of the pack? I can't find it by using the search method because I don't know what keywords to use. Too many references to "tubes" to do it that way. OR, just tell me what you think it is - or what modern-day equivalent to it one might find somewhere. But just point me to an old thread if you can - I'm sure this has been discussed at great length already.

You have to use your imagination, but after seeing Mike's closeup, I am picturing in my head that it's something that's not originally round at all, but they rolled something into a round shape. Look at the rubber "tubes" and imagine they are hollow and they sometimes rip. Edit - after reading the last post of this thread: http://www.mepd.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2308 I'm sure it is car door edge trim I'm thinking of. It's soft hollow rubber tubing that's flat on the back where it is stuck to the car with adhesive. When it gets old, it cracks and gets holes in it. It's the stuff that gets shut between your car's body and the door, trunk, or hood. I'm not saying that's what they used, but it does look like soft rubber tubes with the ends glued shut. It doesn't look like a filter because they are generally some kind of paper material - not rubber (although I'm sticking a water purifier filter on my pack - at least for now).

Thanks! by "scenic sand" do you mean Talus (see link), or is Scenic Sand even finer than that? http://www.trainsetsonly.com/page/TSO/P ... ange_high= I'll check the one hobby store and the one craft store we have here in Central Wisconsin tomorrow. Thanks again!

I should be weathering my armor in the next couple of weeks, and I'm not fond of paint - especially trying to make it look like sand. I've considered using the Woodland Scenics Earth Color Liquid Pigments and Fuller's earth, and I will probably order them tonight so I have them whether I need them or not, but after looking at this guy: http://dgasser.com/Sandtrooper/ I bought some play sand to use for highlights like he did. BUT I'm wondering - has anyone tried just using sand as sand and forgetting about the paint? Couldn't you brush on some Elmer's glue or something, throw a light player of sand on it, then seal it with Hairspray or something? Anyone with actual experience doing this, please let me know how it went.

Considering what they look like on the outside, especially after I have had to cut them both lengthwise and widthwise to make them the right size, I think something like that would be too much work for me and these particular trays. My original plan was to fill them with Great Stuff and let it harden. But they just don't look that good on the outside to go through all of that. ANd they really are paper thin. I don't know how they'd hold up even with fiberglass inside. I'm going to try a different route altogether. 9"x13"x2.5" aluminum cake pans - the kind with no handles on the ends. A little expesive, but sturdy enough to bolt all the other boxes and bottles onto and stand up to the rigors of trooping.

After working with them some more, I've decided these are just too flimsy to use. They'd never survive trooping, even with the cat litter trays underneath for support.

I sliced the trays lengthwise and overlapped the two pieces so they fit very tight over the cat litter trays inside. The seed trays are super flimsy, so I cut down my Walmart cat litter trays and put them inside the seed trays for strength. These are still just slightly oversized but much better now. I think someone with more patience could cut them and glue them together much nicer than I have, and they'd look pretty good. I hope by time they are painted, have other boxes and things stuck to them, and then are weathered, my cut and glue job won't be so noticeable.

Thanks to messing with digital pictures of me wearing just the frame, and the boxes on the frame, and a movie still, I think I might have answered my own question but am still interested in your opinions. But it looks to me like I definitely need to remove about 3" of total height from the boxes. They should not be taller than my shoulders. It seems like all of the various movie backpacks extend from below the shoulders to about the waistline, right? The boxes should be about 9"x13" I assume.

I've got a boyscout backpack frame and I cut off just the vertical pipes that extend above the top horizontal tube. I made some main boxes using 22" long seed trays cut down to 13" long. I think they are too tall, though, when laid on their sides. Including the lip, which I need to keep intact in order to attach the boxes together, each box is about 10 1/2" high. Total height from lower part of backpack frame to top edge of top box is about 21". From studying movie stills, I think the two boxes should be the same size (on some packs, the top box looks a little smaller than the bottom one) but I think the two of them together should not be taller than about 18". That's the distance from the bottom part of the pack frame to the top horizontal tube, both of which I can see in several movie stills. I think I should remove 3" from the top box, or 1.5" from both of them. Do you all agree? Here's what I have:

I got mine at a Mills Fleet Farm, which is not a nationwide chain, but kind of regional. There is a list of retilaers here on this page: http://www.planomolding.com/content/ind ... groupid=10 The links don't work from that page, as you said, but you can google the names of the stores. There are some nationwide chains listed there.

Walmart has the same ones, too.

There is some good info on this page: http://tk409.com/tk409.html I personally have found it helpful to start with a boyscout backpack frame, because it's easier to know what size boxes and pieces to get if you have the foundation to lay them all on. The best thing I have found so far for the main boxes are cat litter trays from Walmart. They aren't perfect, but if you're using normal items you can find in stores, they are pretty good. But I'm going to look for seed trays at garding stores and greenhouses tomorrow. I've seen some that are too long, but perhaps they can be cut down. The boxes on top of the main boxes could hide the cuts nicely. Maybe.

Where'd you get your parts?

I tropoped with it for the firs ttime yesterday and at some point one of the latches did come off. Not broken, they can just come off when they are unlatched if you pull on them hard enough. No big deal. I pushed it back on. I might not have put it on tight before. But the case has holes at both ends and two near the handle that go all the way through the two halves. I assume they are for inserting padlocks through. You could run zip ties through them to keep it shut while shipping. For $10-$12, it is what it is - a really lightweight plastic case that's just the right size for this particular gun.

I see that the links from the Plano site to the retailers don't work because they are coded wrong.

For those who own a Hyperfirm MG34, a real MG34, or maybe even an older Cushman MG34 that doesn't come apart (assuming it's the same size as the other guns), check out this gun case I bought in a store for only $10. As you can see, the Hyperfirm fits like a glove: It's a Plano single scoped rifle case #1511-01. http://www.planomolding.com/content/ind ... &partid=22 It's not super duper uber heavy duty. I don't know if I'd put it in a plane's cargo hold (if they even allow that), but it's fantastic for normal travel. It weighs almost nothing. Some retailers: http://www.planomolding.com/content/ind ... groupid=10 Owners of real MG34s would have to remove the charging handle to get the gun in the case, but there's plenty of room in the case for it.

Just the facts about my situation, no opinions: I paid $180 (shipped) for a deluxe Cushman DLT-19 (MG-34 v1.5) assembled and painted by Cushman, not $95 as stated in the ad. I paid $385 (shipped) for the Hyperfirm MG34, painted by SlaveFive of Sci-Fire, not $450 as stated in the ad. Both guns arrived within a week of being ordered - there were no delays as stated in the ad. So the Cushman I bought cost $205 less than the Hyperfirm I bought, not $400 less as was stated. The price of the Hyperfirm is highER than the Cushman, that's a fact. But the comment in the ad that says, "the price is HIGH" is a matter of opinion, not fact.

Look at the tool pouch on the tan (Afrika Corps) version - it's more narrow than the green one. I believe the green one is more like the Move-Along trooper's pouch. The tool pouch is more of a square.

I have a very big head, too, and have a hard time imagining my face squished inside anything smaller, but I look at the comparison photos and keep wishing my FX helmet was more like the movie helmets. The "better" ones, though, seem to be either too expensive or too hard to find or both. So I hope the new FX armor stays reasonably priced like it is now. I'm considering my current armor "practice" and I'd like to start fresh someday. After comparing mine, which I bought used, and my friend's, which he bought new at the same time, I think the FX armor has already undergone some minor but nice improvements over the years. It's good to hear there are more in store!

I look forward to doing that to mine, too. Did you buy the t-track or make it?

I bought the tan canvas pouches from IMA and, after reading in this thread about the poor guy whose leather got ruined in the Rit bath, decided to use leather dye on the entire pouch instead of Rit. I dyed them today and it worked out great. I just painted it on with the fuzzy applicator thing that comes with the dye. I used almost two 4 oz bottles for two sets of pouches (one that just holds three mags and one that also has the small utility pouch attached) . I did a light second coat on just the fronts, but one coat looked fine. I started with the tan pouches because the last time I tried to dye a green army coat black it never looked totally black to me - it always had a slight greenish tint to it. And the tan pouches are $5 cheaper, which paid for the two bottles of dye (Fiebing's brand). I also removed the tool pouch and moved it over where it is supposed to be. The left edge of it was originally sewn to the right edge of the right clip pouch. I sewed the middle of the tool pouch to the right edge of the right clip pouch after looking at the pics of original pouches at looksirdroids.com Photo of the ammo pouch with tool pouch, dyed and re-sewn:

Ah, you tipped off everyone who was going to look at the two guns in that picture and try to guess which one is real. We just temporarily removed the charging handle from the real gun and it fit perfectly into the slot in the hyperfirm. I would like one for the hyperfirm, though. Maybe you can make them sometime? As for the Cushman, they were very nice in answering my questions before I bought it, and gave me a refund (minus costs of shipping it to me, shipping it back to them, and paypal charges) with no hassles when I asked them for a refund 5 minutes after pulling the gun out of the box, so I promised myself I wouldn't say anything negative about their gun in public.

For some reason, I can't insert an image into this message, but here is a link to a photo of a real MG34 and my Hyperfirm MG34 from Sci-Fire sitting side-by-side. http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj43 ... 1199507898 I don't know if I can say anything that hasn't already been said about how nice the hyperfirm gun is, but a picture is worth a thousand words.