Daetrin

It may look too dirty up close, but will look right from more than a few feet away. Other than that, CMANavy's advice is the way to go.

I did this to my kit, and it's helped in this department.

Well, that makes most of us in one dimension or another. 100% screen accurate is not possible or even desirable for everyone. We do this for fun (as Guns is always there to remind us), what's right for one is not necessarily what's right for all. Except getting dirty - can't recall ever seeing a clean sandtrooper!

"Pain is weakness leaving the body." At least, that's what a drill sergeant I had used to say to us during PT...

That was just one reason - I still think having them not be rank related is more logical. But as you say - we're here to just have fun so will not push it...much!

Eh? Only one orange? So, if you want to emulate scenes from ANH you're SOL? Makes no sense...

Also if you can in any way manage it - take the time to look at all the armor mod tutorials to see the different approaches. And if you can really swing it, take a look *in person* of mods that other troopers did. There are many ways to skin certain cats, and you may find some solutions more to your liking than others. Example: I riveted the shoulder straps to my front/back upper armor bits, but do agree that ABS cement would have looked better and wish I had done that. OTOH, I saw what riveting the right ammo belt to the upper thigh looked like and copied that solution, and have been happy with that decision. When in doubt strap/velcro for now, ABS cement/rivet later.

The common response is that there are three colors: orange (officer), black (NCO), and white (enlisted), though I've seen some people say the black is enlisted instead. There is also the notion of a grey pauldron for dewback riders, though this is not 100% and it's been maintained that the shot of a "grey" pauldroned trooper was just of a very dirty white pauldron. My *personal* opinion is that the pauldrons have *NOTHING* to do with rank but are specialty/branch indicators. The clones used color to indicate branches, like special ops, intelligence, etc. I think the sandtroopers are the same way. The *only* evidence of pauldrons indicating rank is the famous line "Look sir, driods". But the other shots of sandtroopers don't support this. In some scenes, there are two oranges, two blacks, and a few whites. I don't think this is a realistic distribution of rank. Also, why would the officer have the largest BFG? Usually it's a joe snuffy. Also, why would you want your officers to have a color that stands out so prominantly and make them targets? But it would make perfect sense if orange were something like special ops or intelligence, and it was a special ops officer that led the squad on Vader's orders to find those droids. This is what the US military does with beret colors. Also for those who like the grey pauldron as being a dewback rider's color, having color indicate branch/speciality allows them this freedom, else it's just not consistant to have pauldrons be indicative of rank only some of the time. Perhaps I'm the lone dissenter who just can't buy that they're rank pauldrons at all, but I'll stick by my reasoning as being the more believable explanation.

I have an authenticprops too and in that I just keep the foam. I second the fan notion - not for heat in my area but for fogging.

Abso-lutely! The crispness of detail makes it look more like it's made out of metal / a harder substance. Bootiful.

I think it depends on your egg. I tried using a hard hat liner with very little success and my helmet wobbles around and I can't see. My current bucket uses only foam padding and it's been perfect. OTOH, the other guys I troop with seem to like their hard hat helmets and have had no issues. Can't say about the heat - it doesn't get that hot where I live. Also it's not fully padding - just on the ears and the top of my head. The rest is wide open.

It depends a bit on the part and how snug they fit. I use rivets in some places, velcro in others. Perhaps the best is to use a snap-based system to hold things together, or better still adjustable straps. Some parts I want non-stretchy like my suspenders, but others it's great to have a little give. I've also gotten in trouble ABS cementing things and then having them too tight (e.g. one of my thighs). Unless you know you have room to spare, I'd suggest gluing one side first and leaving the other velcroed as it will have some give. I guess it depends on which parts your talking about!

Dude, you sure are intimidating. I bet it was quite peaceful there. Your suit looks great BTW - congrats!

I haven't been to the shop and don't know anyone personally at SciFire. But I do know what it's like to work a 60+ hour week with personal issues (in my case, a new daughter) and have no time to do anything other than exist. If making hyperfirm guns were their primary biz I might look at it differently, but considering it's a side job/labor of love I don't hold the delays against them at all, as I don't think I could do any better than they are if I were in their shoes. So yeah, I'm a bit bummed too, but I also think the end product is worth the wait/delays, and don't have any bad feelings their way.

Would you be open to > 1 person at a time? Brian (TK2802), Kav and myself are all just north of you and went TD at the same time. Would be neat if we could make a pilgramige to the TE Temple at the same time.

TK(TD) 2802 has used dry-brushing with great success. You can see his post in the backpack area and the results thereof. I've also seen his weathered pauldron up close and it looks great.

Awesome drawing! It's sexy but not too much so. There's something erotic about her being tough yet feminine, and being 1/2 in 1/2 out of armor suggests a private moment too. What is it about tough women that we love so much? Perhaps it's the joining of two things we enjoy - tech & ladies?

It looks great! A standard for the rest of us to work up to. The dry-brush technique looks great

Actually that's better than what I had in mind. I think it's totally do-able. It may not need to telescope per se. I'll have to find a way to steal over to Home Depot to see if what I have in mind would work. So a T rack on top with a triangle frame below - kinda like a stick man? The tubs can be connected with elbows and each "leg" attached to the next by some elastic passed through the tubes themselves. =----= | | | / ----/

Eh - that's what friends are for! Not like you'll ever troop by your lonesome Seriously though - perhaps a sheet music stand? Or else - dare I say it - it may be possible to make a portable rack out of PVC? I bet we can rig up a rectangular frame table with three point elbows - just don't glue in the legs. We can even tether the legs to the frame. Total cost would be what - $5?

Not to hijack my own thread, but I think armor is like motorcycles - or tools. Can you really be served with one set? You need an FX suit to fit in with FX troops and for when you need to do something that might be abusive to the suit, like stunt work Or that you want to mod like crazy to have more mobility. Then you also need a TE sandy suit for when you want to be 100% movie accurate. And yet another TE suit that's squeaky clean for when you want to fit in with your Death Star friends. Alas for the whole time and money limitations

Amen - well spoke brother. Back to my original question - is it better to sell it and try to make $125 or so off of it on EBay or the 501st board (selling the skullworx separately for what - $100?), or is it better just to hang on to it?

Hey - my suit it FX too and it's not about to change anytime soon due not just the $$ but also the time involved in trimming/painting out a TE kit. A hyperfirm MG34 will be my last purchase for a long time, and this only because a BFG is the last item I need to be MEPD qualified and my wife won't let me really spend time making one. I have to admit though that upgrading to an ANH style helmet (TE/GF/AuthenticProps - you get the idea) was worth it for me personally and I was only able to manage it as I sold a lot of other stuff on EBay to afford it. Lastly, when I bought my armor I knew nothing at all about the different kinds of suits and FX was readily available. IOW, don't feel bad - you're in good company.

I've moved from my FX to an ANH helmet and am wondering now what to do with the FX. Should I sell it or keep it as a spare? It's been modded inexpertly by me: 1) Green lenses 2) Sandtrooper Decals 3) Cut out frown (not the best job) 4) Skullworx Aside from the frown being not perfectly clean it's in otherwise good shape and has not yet been weathered. Ideas?

My paint job looks worse than yours. Most of this can be taken care of by weathering, and even then will only be noticable if people are like a foot away from you. As pointed out the movie helmets weren't perfectly painted either, so in a way these mistakes make you more accurate What I did was clean up the overage as best I could (I used paint thinner) and then hand brush as best I could, then ensured I weathered over any gaps.