nick.black

I'd certainly be interested to see what you could come up with. Nick

Wouldn't they be very sweaty? LOL Nick

Thanks mate. It was pretty easy to make. Like I said the speaker was 99p off ebay, and runs off 2 AA batteries. I already had the MP3 player, from long ago. The foam was about £2. It works really well. Nick

OK I have just about finished my pack, so wanted to show you some pics of it. The only thing Im missing now is the TD caps and plate, which I will get when my armour arrives. Here's the pack in all its glory: The radio faceplate, scratch made using a mixture of 3mm, 2mm and 1mm styrene, and various drinks lids for the knobs. The switches are fully working (from Maplin). Real 3.5mm headphone jacks on the side. Inside of the radio, with a MP3 speaker that I picked up on Ebay for 99p. It comes out fairly loud. I have the trooper radio chatter on loop. Screen installed behind the radio speaker. Black disc behind the real tupperware lid/radar dish. Shotgun shells, laid out to exactly match the "Move along" trooper positioning.] Scratch built exhaust port out of 1mm styrene and various pipe and funnel parts. Tape cross on Tool Box. Tool box again scratch made out of 2mm clear acrylic panel I had left over from another project. Bee Stinger mounted using alluminium brackets. Nipple on top of upper cup. Square details on top of Siphon. Hope this has been of interest to someone. I'm more than happy to explain anything Ive done if anyone wants to know. Like I said it will be finished off properly ready to troop with once I get the TD plate and caps. Nick

No it's the wire details in front of the barrel coil. Nick

Sorry Dave misunderstood you. I'll drop him a PM. Thanks mate Nick

No PM yet mate! Nick

On that front Dave, are there any resources for the details at the front of the barrel mate? Nick

Way to go Dave. Hope it all goes well for you mate. Nick

Cool mate. Like I said in my seamless pack frame thread, you will need larger measurements. I got seed trays from Nathan, but I followed the tutorial by Scootch on here and the frame was too narrow for the mortar tube to fit on. At the moment I've found that the cross bars need to be 10" across before the bends, the down bent arms need to be 16" and the small parts on the bottom frame need to be 2". Hope this helps. Nick

I was gonna PM this but I thought others could benefit. I too had a massive search and there were only a few things that I could not get from this country from vendors. I had to buy the cup lids, burger stackers and seed trays from a guy on the UKG forums called "boba" Nathan. He was really helfpul. They about £48 for the lot, but they are accurate and as I want to go SWAT it had to be done. If you need help with anything else I can guide you mate as I almost have mine complete now. Here is my shopping list so far. Vintage Tupperware 1.5L Jug fan lid. (for radar dish) --- £3 from Ebay Cistern Syphon --- £7.51 Partridges of Hadleigh 2m 21.5mm PVC pipe --- £1.89 from B&Q 25mm Conduit pipe 2m --- £2.56 from B&Q (this is if you want to do a seemless frame) 6 PVC Pipe Corner brackets --- £5.98 from B&Q (2x 3 packs) 25mm wide Aluminium strip 1m x2 --- £3.84 each from B&Q 2x antiseptic wipe bottles --- £2.99 from Superdrug (these are the correct size) seed trays, cups and burger stacker ---- £48 from boba 1.5L fridge jug --- £2.79 from QD or £3.99 on amazon. 50mm Gutter pipe for Mortar tube --- from B&Q. I actually scratch built my radio and tool box using a mixture of 1mm, 2mm and 3mm styrene sheets that I got from Ebay, and my local model shop. I painted the seed trays and bottles Humbrol No. 47 Sea Blue by hand. You can get 50ml tubs of which you'll only need 1. The rest I sprayed Satin Black. I also made the exhaust box myself from 1mm styrene, but you can get a vac-formed box from Boba. Then just use some scrap pipe to make the exhaust. The tutorials on this site are spot on so make sure you check them out mate. Nick

I originally had a frame made from 21.5mm pvc out-flow pipe, with bends that slid over the top. However I have recently found that the frame is too small to allow the mortar tube to be attached, and so, as I have to make a new frame I thought I would endeavour to make it seemless. And I thought some of you out there would benefit from seeing that this can be done quite easily. This is what my pack looks like with the 21.5mm frame and bends. So I bought some 25mm conduit pipe (that is used for hiding wires) and that matcehs almost perfectly up with the bends. So I cut pieces of this 25mm pipe 2x 16", 2x 10" and 2x 2". The next thing to do was use some 21.5mm pipe cut into small lengths to anchor the 25mm pipe to the bends. Cut 2 pieces of 21,5mm pipe for each corner. And use E6000 or some other strong adhesive to glue them inside the bend. Once this is dry glue the lengths of 25mm pipe ontop of these pieces and butt them up to the bend. You can see that they leave an almost seemless joint. Here are the top and bottom pieces drying. Bend your 16" lengths in half using a heat gun, to about a 30 degree angle. This is hard, and you will tind it hard to avoid crumpling at the bend, but this will be mostly hidden on the pack anyway. Glue the whole thing together and this is what you get. And your nearly seemless joints are easily better than before. Hope this will help someone. Nick

Speak to Boba at the UK Garrison mate. he will supply you seed trays and other bits. Let me know what you're looking for and I can tell you what I used. Nick

OK Guys and Girls, I think its about time I introduce myself and start a thread that will document what I am trying to achieve. I'm Nick Black, Im 31 and live in Ipswich in the UK. I have been lurking on the forums here and there for about 2 years, gathering tips and tricks on how to go about making my armour. I decided a while back that I wanted to go Sandy, but I wasnt sure whether the expense would work out too much. I started a T-21 following Terrys brilliant tutorial and what I produced turned out pretty good, and that was pretty much no turning back from there, Sandtrooper was the way for me. At present I have ordered my ATA armour from Terrell and am just waiting for him to give me the nod that it is ready, shoule be a couple more weeks, but have started collecting all the bits and pieces that need to go with it in the meantime. See below: I am going to try and do something that I am not sure anyone has done yet, and that is, as a complete novice trooper, build my armour and try and get it cleared by 501st, MEPD and SWAT deployed all in one go. It will be hard, but I feel there are so many great tutorials and build threads with peoples expertise out there that this is a totally do-able task. So wish me luck and I will be posting updates here along the way. My T-21 alongside 2x E-11, one weathered with a Hengstler (Doopydoos full resin kit) and 1 with no Hengstler and painted like new (Pipe build with Doopydoos resin parts). Pouches, MP40 pouch, dyed black, Small spanish pouches came courtesy of Zac Sotman (thanks again mate), and a medium Spanish pouch I got on ebay. Pauldron from shouldrpauldrons.com and TK Boots size 10. I am going for SWAT deployment as the "STOP THAT SHIP!" trooper, due to my T-21. Backpack is currently having a new frame but then will be ready to show you guys very soon. All the best and thanks for looking. Nick

Terry, Did you ever get around to making the paint chip tutorial/tips you mentioned earlier? Nick

Cool guys, Zac Sotman recently helped me out in the same manner and I recieved them the other day. Superb and just shows how people from around the world can help each other. Thanks Nick

AFAIK Zach there isn't one. The best one you will find for a scratch built one is here http://empireprops.weebly.com/mg-34-tutorial.html but if you want an uber accurate one then you will be left wanting for a good tutorial, believe me I have been searching the internet and forums high and low. Anyone else who can correct me on this please do cos I would like to see it too. Nick

Mike, This is what I used for my barrell detail mate. http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/bbCMS/shopping.asp?intDepartmentId=3 You want the half round neoprene cord in 13mm, I used 2 Metres but I reckon 3 Metres would be best. THey delivery very quickly and give good service too. I'd totally recommend them. Use really strong glue to stick it to your barrell as 3m tape isnt really strong enough. Nick

I just ordered a set of 10s to the UK. shipping with an orange pauldron. Great service so far I must say, can't wait to see them. Nick

Thanks for the replies guys. That was what I thought. Guess I'll hang on till my armor is built to make sure what I do fits correctly. Regards Nick

Guys and gals, Im coming towards the end of my pack build and want to double check some details about the straps. It has been said on here that 2'' white elastic is the preffered method for screen accuracy, but looking at this picture http://www.looksirdroids.com/hd_caps/pages/sandtrooper_hd_048.htm see the trooper on the far right of the frame clearly has black (or dark coloured) straps. This made me think is there any reference material showing white ones? Also where do the straps attach, again looking at that photo it appears they are at the outer most edges of the top bar of the frame and also the lowest part of the side frames at the bottom. Is that true. Does anyone have shots of their straps they would like to share. Also how long are people's straps? I ask because my armor hasn't arrived yet and I want to make sure I have enough room. I am thinking that I might mount them with quick release buckles at the bottom so that the thing is easier to get on and off, and use 2'' black webbing if my above theory proves to be founded. Thanks for looking Nick

Im sorry to butt in on this one guys, but it seems to me that the cut-out in the bottom right hand corner of the belt ammo part is actually hidden behind the small spanish pouch and not, as has been previously discussed, left untrimmed. The photos above show that the small spanish pouch clearly overlaps the bottom of the belt in this area and would hide the notch rather than showing that it definately isn't there. I wait to be shown evidence to the contrary but that is what it looks like to me. Nick

How long did you guys wait from ordering to delivery? I've just ordered my ATA armor a couple weeks back. Nick

Hey Jay it's my birthday today too! All the best mate hope you have a good one! Nick

Well I got it today on the weight of your post ironram. It seems like a good idea only one job it asked me to do was to check the price of an item in a local store. Unfortunately that store was 7 miles away and they would pay me £3 for doing the job. With the price of fuel in the UK as high as it is, it would cost me more to get there. I can see the benefit of this app, maybe I have to use it when I am going to, or near the big stores and see if I can kill 2 birds with 1 stone in essence. Thanks Nick