freakengine

I thought about this method too. I think you could get units small enough these days that one could fit inside the helmet. The only problem would be if some grandma had a set on the same frequency as yours. You wouldn't want to see a trooper with a frail voice..."Timmy, are you there? Timmy, we're going to the car now." I suppose the trick would be to buy the lowest power walkie talkies you could find.

Thanks for all the responses. I have large feet, so I'm a little concerned about the stretch problems you guys mention. It just sucks not being able to try on shoes before buying them...especially when they're $100, but I don't suppose the local payless is gonna be carrying a full line of stromtrooper boots anytime soon. Does anyone know if the darkside boots are stretchier? They appear to have a larger elastic panel.

This looks like a decent enough setup for a plain voice amp and fans kit, but doesn't appear to have a gate or a static burst feature for the voice amp. Am I correct about that?

I've been planning on purchasing a pair of trooper boots from caboots.com, and then I emailed them with a question and got no response. I tried again - still no response. I tried from other email addresses and even emailed them through ebay, since they have the boots listed for $5 less on ebay (very odd), still no response. Four emails over several weeks, and not a single response. Honestly, this doesn't give me a lot of faith in them. In addition, I noted that the $75 Vader and Jedi boots they stock are the same boots you can buy everywhere else for $35-$40, and I lost even more faith in caboots despite the fact that everyone says they buy from them. Has anyone bought trooper boots from them recently? Have they been good quality? Is the sizing pretty accurate? Is there a choice of sources? I've seen the darkside boots for sale on the bay for the same price as the caboots, and the darkside boots are leather, but the pic makes them look pretty crappy. Of course, I'll dirty 'em up anyway. Anyone own darkside boots, or know of yet another source?

I'm at the same stage, but I haven't tried the trik toys version. What I DO know is that the shell for the trik toys voice amp is the same as the shell for a cheapo voice changer they sell for halloween. Search the bay for "5 voice changer" and you'll see it. I suspect the trik version is simply the same amp with a couple of mods. I'm not gonna try it since the original (I have one from halloweens past) is kinda crappy. Maybe he's just using the shell, but I kinda doubt it. The crown jewel of voice amps is the RomFX, but it's a little pricey. I guess you get what you pay for after all. The only other reasonable alternative I've heard of so far is the radio shack mini amp, but if you go that route you get neither gating (activating the mic only when you speak loudly enough) nor a static burst after you speak. The RomFX does both of these and with a variable gate. Has anyone got another good alternative? I'd love to hear about it too.

I'd even go so far as to say that they'd be posted on Mustafar. Talk about your hostile environments! They'd probably look pretty cool too since they'd have plenty of scorch marks from the lava along with grime from all of that black dirt and sand.

Other posters indicate that the original TDs had their armor pieces cut so that the armor itself made the bridge across the shoulders, then there was a strap added underneath for support. It certainly looks to be this way in most of the pictures I've seen (look further up this thread for examples). Others may disagree. Sooooo, that said, I'd say it's somewhat open to interpretation. I chose to put mine under since in the screen TDs you cannot see the edges of the straps on top of the chest armor. For me, it doesn't matter that much since my FX kit is inaccurate to begin with, but since it's my first attempt at building armor and I'm a pretty tall guy, I took the advice offered and went the cheaper route. I suppoe you could put the starps under and then layer some ABS pieces on top of the straps to make it look more like the originals. Hmmm.

No, that's not the one. The one I got had no stitching and had a plain metal buckle. Seriously, I'd just recommend you go to the local discount clothing store and pick up the cheapest thing that looks right to you. Good luck!

What belt do you refer to, Thats the best one I have seen and as soon as I find the right material I am going to change it. I went to Ross, and just bought a plain $7 white belt. I think the one I bought was made by a company called Nine West, but pretty much any white belt will do if you find the right width. Whatch out for the shade of white too, but even if it is too cream colored, a little dirt'll fix that right up. I simply cut the one I got with scissors and used industrial velcro to assemble it. I think rivets would also work fine if you wanna permanently install it.

It just occurred to me that TDs would have to be deployed in other harsh desert environments, like Geonosis. It might look cool to weather a TD in Geonosis sand colors instead of the usual Tatooine colors. Then again, it might just look like I screwed up the tatooine weathering. Any thoughts? Has anyone ever seen this in any form (comic, costume, artwork)?

Ask and you shall receive. Here are a couple of pics. I still haven't painted the rivet heads or applied dirt yet. I like the straps, as they are solid enough to rivet to, and solid enough to support my shoulder/bicep armor, but still flexible enough to be comfortable. I just bought a white belt in the women's dept., which BTW are slightly curved unlike men's belts which are straight...this makes it fit the shape even better. The down side is that they are fairly thick, so if your'e not wearing a pauldron , they might not look as good as a thinner material. But wait...why wouldn't you be wearing a pauldron?! What was I thinking? Forget I said anything. http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j295/ ... traps2.jpg http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j295/ ... traps1.jpg

irob, I bought a pair of canvas replica pouches from ima-usa.com for $24.95 plus shipping. They're green, but can be easily dyed black. Search for "magazine pouch" and you can see the different colors, or just search GG4025 to take you right to the green ones. Hey, BraksBuddy, do you know if any of the troopers wore canvas pouches on their belts? I've never noticed definite evidence, but several shots could be interpreted either way. -Tom

Hey Paul, This is the first I have heard of the shoulder bells being attached to the neck piece. Just curious as to why you think they are attached this way. I have to agree with braksbuddy. I've never heard of this before either. I just chalked it up to being a relative newbie to the hobby. BTW, I went with leather and it worked like a charm.

Thanks a lot, you guys. I'll certainly take the advice to heart. I had thought I would simply shorten the strap attaching the bicep to the shoulder bell, but I can't get the bicep armor to go any higher on my arm. I either have to trim the bicep tops, the bottoms, or add a shims to allow them to move higher. I think I'll try a very slight trim at the bottom first. I really don't think it will take a lot to alleviate the pinching. As it is now, I can hardly put my helmet on due to the pinching, so any little relief will help. I'll let you know how it works out. Maybe I can raise the biceps a small amount along with a little judicial trimming.

I'm done with the basic assembly of my armor, and am currently at the fitting stage, and the inside of my elbows keep getting pinched by the bottom of the bicep pieces. I could possibly move the biceps pieces further up into the shoulder bells, but that would result in a lot more black showing all the way around, so I'm thinking of trimming a slight curve into the inside bottom edge of the bicep pieces. My question is, has anyone here ever done this, and does it look okay with a slight curve there? Perhaps it just has to do with HOW slight I could make it and still fix the problem. -Tom

I'm actually right in the middle of building my first set of armor (I tried it on for the first time last night), and I decided to make canvas straps. Turns out, this was a mistake, as my shoulder bell straps visibly pull on the fabric. I'm going to remove the canvas ones this weekend and go with leather.

Interesting. I'm gonna try the inexpensive variety then. I don't plan on sticking my hands in a fire while trooping anyway.

Thanks for the good advice, guys. I'm sure i'll be all over this forum over the weekend, and for some time to come. I really do appreciate it. So, from what I can tell from the instructions, the sides of the helmet are held together by the screws alone. Is that right, or should I try to glue it in some way? Are the screws really enough there?

I've noticed that the nomex flight gloves really run the gamut pricewise. I've seen sets for anywhere between $16 and $50. I'd guess there's some qualitative difference betwween these price points, but how much is it? Any ideas? Have any of you ever bought nomex gloves that were just crap?

Wellllllllll, I got that box of plastic in the mail today, and have now begun my journey. After debating long and hard, I decided on an FX kit to start with (because of both my stature and my bank account) with future plans for a more accurate bucket. Until then, I have a coupla questions. I keep reading that many people tape their helmet pieces together to test the fit before assembling, but since the face plate on mine is a little wide (it needs to be bent slightly inward) it keeps pulling the whole thing apart, even with good tape everywhere. Maybe I should heat it a bit, but I'm terrified of screwing it up. I've seen tutorials wherein the lid and back are attached to each other first, then the face and ears are fitted. Which way do you think is best? My second question is regarding the ab and back plates. I'm a little thicker than the armor pieces, and even tho it's only an fx kit, I think it'll bug me to have that black gap on either side. I've read a lot of posts about people shimming extremities, but never this. Is this done often? Are there problems? I suppose I could connect the pieces with black elastic and would have an easier time bending over, but I'd prefer the look of the plastic going all the way around. Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. BTW, I decided today that I'll be a TD from the get go. I was tempted to do TK first, then convert, but then came to my senses.

I think I have all the previous Hasbro versions of sandtroopers, and not a single one of them is even close to correct, even if you figure in some amount of artistic license. The Kubrick version, while still not perfect, is better than anything Hasbro's made that I've seen. It's too bad they couldn't get it right this time either.

Agreed. Unfortunately pics are also unreliable due to distortions introduced by lenses and lighting. It really is too bad no one has at least one set-used prop version of these so we'd know the dimensions.

What's the general consensus out there? I know everyone pretty much agrees the Marmit pack is too large, but what about the Kotobukiya? Do you think it's more correct in its proportions to the figure? I have to say that, to me, it looks a little on the small side, but maybe that's due to the fact that I've seen so many troopers with larger-than-life packs. -Tom

Please add me to your list. 2xBlack & 2xGrey. Like many others, final decision would depend on price, but I'm definitely wanting these. Thanks for pursuing this!

Hey Mike, thanx for chiming in. I've already crawled all over your site. Thanks for such a comprehensive overview. It IS appreciated, and has been an excellent resource! -Tom