Daetrin

Awesome work gents

Congratulations Juan! Kiss your free time & money good-bye for awhile. Still I'm sure Rolf will agree that the trade-off is worth it. You'll make a great Dad

Understood. I suspect at some point MEPD/FISD/SpecOps will be more synchronized on the base armor. In some ways it's becoming less critical a bit of a moot point. With the retirement of FX and the advent of AM, pretty much every armor maker supports going FISD Expert Infantryman out of the box. 'Sides, while I may be DL of FISD, doesn't mean I don't know how to get dirty

Yes, and that makes sense. For FISD's deployed program you simply can't use FX out of the box. You need to split the butt, close the side gaps, replace the ab buttons, get a fabric belt, and mount the holster correctly. While this is really all of $50 and a few hours work, for some reason it's perceived as more substantial that converting an FX for MEPD, where the only FX specific items are cutting the ab plate and replacing the sniper plate. MEPD hasn't made any directions about armor in the past two revisions of the Police Officer standards, about butt plates, side gaps, fabric belts, etc. and the old FX armor I had 5 years ago is just as valid now as it ever was. Now, the packs and BFG's...oy!

Here is how it's looking as of today. Even on the 501st boards, the FX is certainly no longer 90% of anything. Interesting that there is more FX *armor* on MEPD than FISD, even though the % of FX helmets is smaller.

Love it

I guess the question is what advantage to you perceive his product has over the competition? Is it the best quality? Most accurate? Best price? Even if he was OK on the sales side, I'd ask what the advantage is. For instance ATA is cheaper than TE2 but TE2 has better definition. AP is excellent but T/MC is $100 less a set (not sure how they look side by side though). TM is beautiful, hyper accurate armor but the tradeoff is high cost and isn't made in quantity. So...why buy from SDS?

My hero!

Yes, here is info, neither favorable. Imperial Armor http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=10295 Supreme Imperial armor http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=7824 The best bet is to stay away from Ebay. Below is a list of makers that have been vetted time and again. It's not complete and we're not saying that there aren't other decent makers, but we can say that anyone on the list has been vetted for quality and service. http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=11538

Having to work with primitive CAD drawing programs in the late 80's (10 years after the movie came out), it's pretty mind blowing that they were able to do this at all. In fact, here we are 30 years later and many of the effects still look really good.

TM is hyper accurate to ANH details, but costs typically twice is much as the next cheapest armor and can be hard to get ahold of. Also, while the UK guys swear by it, I've heard three times from people outside the UK about brittle suits and cracking issues. TE2, AP, ATA, T/MC while similar are not identical. TE2 & ATA are HIPS, T/MC & AP are ABS. Also, some of the detailing is different between the suits in terms of sharpness or straight out parts. However these will take a keener eye to discern than say the differences between AM & TE2 for instance. AM & RT are fan sculpts that are ABS and designed to be easily put together, but some people don't like some of the details, e.g. AM's chest is pretty unique and RT's ab plate detail is not entirely accurate. Still, it's really up to the individual to discern what's best for them. And...regardless of what a person gets...whatever is *best* today will not be next year. One thing for certain, accuracy goes up and prices go down as time goes on. So - get what you feel is best for you and don't sweat it - it's all for fun

As Noel says, there is no one 'best' armor, and it can depend on what one wants and what one can afford. I'll second the link to FISD (shameless, as I posted it ;-) ) - it's been a huge help for new members. There are more choices now than there have been in a long time - as long as he sticks to the list he really can't go wrong.

Wow - almost 20 sandy's in one spot. I think that's a record?

Wow - it's my 5 year anniversary here on MEPD as well. It's amazing to see how far it's come. Do any other old timers remember when 501st standards essentially allowed TK's + parts to be called TD's? Now the 501st standard is what the old MEPD Deployed was back then. 1 out of 3 Legion sandtroops is MEPD Deployed - that's a HUGE success rate that we should be proud of.

Thanks for the MG-15! Still need one for the Lewis gun. I mean - *someone* has to have a good hyperfirm conversion or Woodchuck we can use. 10 minutes of your time will bring everlasting fame

Either way Terry - you're making the rest of us look bad. OK, perhaps just those of us that will be trooping with you. What a great bar to set - will be great having you, me, Christian, and Brian all in the same place some day

Mesa love the new header boss!

You're simply amazing Terry - outstanding is not hyperbole.

Happy belated bro!

I will say I was far more willing to sit in my ABS FX butt plate than my HIPS TE2 one. Then again, that's what spares are for

When we did the Rose Parade (5 miles in armor), most everyone stood on the buses there, everyone sat riding back. Remember too that the more plastic you cut away, the less accurate you'll look. There is only supposed to be a minimal amount of undersuit showing, after all.

Ideally one that is full-on T-21. For the MG-15, this will work nicely - thanks Rolf!

Hey guys - we (both FISD & MEPD) need good pictures of a T-21 (pimped out Lewis) and MG-15 for our CRL projects. They need to be good quality shots against a neutral background. Any takers? Post away, and have *your* crew served weapon be seen and drooled by the masses

I started to criticize some of the concepts, but the more I thought of it the more likely this is how it went down. Note the trooper with helmet off as he's getting out of his Tuskin - sure enough you really can't wrap a helmet that way. I think the troopers stripping down droids right there in the field fits well too. Uncle George said that the reason for the Dewbacks was that transports and trooper carriers are advanced tech and expensive, and the folks on the ground had to 'make do' as Tatoinne is really out in nowhere's-ville, and they had a lot of troopers spread out. This means they didn't have the luxury of hauling REMF tech's out by transport - the troops in the field had to know how to do everything themselves. I see sandtroopers a bit like Army Rangers or Special Forces. Yes, all stormtroopers are "Airborne" or elite from the regular army in some fashion, but even in elite units there is the super elite, like LRRP, etc. Terry - for concepts that are sandtrooper related, it would be cool to see them boarding the drop ship already dirty. I can't think they'd want to hit the sand w/o a little bit of camouflage to break out the outlines of their armor and take off the sheen.