Art Andrews

That is indeed me. Sadly, I have never officially been a member of the 501st although I have been around here since nearly the beginning. I wish I could help you guys, but I don't know if this was the first detachment or not. I only know it was an awesome group of passionate costumers back in the day and still appears to be awesome today. Wish I could be of more help. Keep doing your thing.

Well, that is just completely disappointing. Thanks for the clarification guys!

I swear I thought I had seen that at least one person, possibly two had managed to snag an original Sonix radio. I was just told that isn't the case and that no one here actually has one. Is that correct and have I been mistaken all this time?

Wow, Kudos to whoever put these together. I always wanted to do this breakdown for looksirdroids, but never got past breaking down the packs due to responsibilities at the RPF. I LOVE THIS!

Just as a point of clarity, it is my understanding that the price was $500...

Nathan, that is definitely an issue for those who troop, especially in a group. For me, it is all about accuracy and if I ever do troop again mine will be weathered as close as I can get it to what I see in photos like the one above. I might stick out like a sore thumb but for me, accuracy is everything. For those who troop on a more regular basis, that might not be as reasonable but whenever I do get another suit together... it will be sitting on a manny 99.9% of the time and if I weathered it to look good in person, I know I would be annoyed with it 99.9% of the time.

Don't know how many of you saw it, but Official Pix recently made this photo available and it really helps me see all the more that my past attempts at weathering were just completely off. While I think the weathering I achieved LOOKED fairly good, the accuracy was WAY off. I think many of us are really missing the boat, adding dark splotches but missing out on the overall completely dirty/smeared weathering. Here is a scan of the pic. Hope it helps. I know when I start my next helmet I am going to be really taking a very different approach. Davin Helmet Detail

Good call. I wish we had a better photo, but the poster is the only pic I have ever seen of that piece. In regard to the coiled wire and the piece on top, that is actually the same piece as seen on the Merr Sonn blasters. It is believed to be a plug and cord from an old flash unit but I don't think anyone has 100% IDed it. In regard to the two other greeblies you pointed out, I don't think we will ever have good enough ref to know for sure, and I am SURE they aren't pieces from the revel kit but they look so close to me, that I am using the same revel pieces found on the boba fett blaster. Here is a quick and dirty mockup.

So, we all know about the Stormtrooper pistol (Rexim Favor) but probably fewer know that there is also a sandtrooper pistol. It was never seen on film, but there is a famous promotional shot of Dath Vader, standing on a Mylar background with three cleaned up sandtroopers. The two in the back are holding the RT-97C Heavy Blaster Rifles (MG-15) and the one in the front is holding a weird pistol. I can't remember now who figured it out, but the pistol is actually a Japanese Type 99 Light Machine gun. These guns are very rare and very expensive. I recently had the opportunity to acquire a copy thanks to postmortem1 and the sci-fire group. I have begun the conversion but just couldn't wait to share this with you as it is such a rare and obscure piece! From what I can tell in the poster, I need to add a couple of greeblies, paint the grip and make a few other alterations and this baby will be done!

I don't know if we will get detailed enough to be able to use these as a weathering pattern, but hopefully it will be useful enough to allow people to identify who is who in the various scenes. It seems people usually identify or fall in love with a particular trooper and end up replicating that one. I want to help them be able to pick their trooper out in as many scenes as possible.

haha! I am lucky to just get jb on the phone!!! But Corrose might be a very good call!!!

I am currently reworking my website and want to create some rough templates identifying the chest weathering on each trooper. My efforts at doing this have been.... embarrassing to say the least. Is there anyone who could photoshop some rough weathering patterns over a background image of a chest plate to be used to help others ID the weathering patterns?

I have to agree with others that the paint job on the FG helmet REALLY makes it stand out!

Gotcha... Sounds like I need to do some more research on this!

I want to make sure we are on the same page... From what I have seen, there are more or less two Boy Scout pack frames. One has 3 horizontal crossbars, and one has two. I am in agreement that no matter what, the top crossbar gets left alone. My issue is, I swear there is a second crossbar still in place between the two boxes.... but on the scout pack frame with three cross bars, there is no way this would work because the crossbars won't line up right... I would have to look at the other pack frame to see if it would ever work at all... That is where I am having issues. Additionally, this is the first I have heard of the tube connecting to the boxes... Is this just a convenience thing or is there any indications that the originals were mounted this way?

So, did you not bend the frame at all then? That looks very interesting and I want to study it more. From what I see in the movie, I really believe there is one of the horizontal cross bars between the two seedtrays. It is hard to make out but I can try to post pics if you would like.

I don't know for sure, but I believe they are simply a painting to add depth to the alleyway.

I would be very interested to see if you can find the same one. That one actually looks pretty good!

I am working as fast as I can on it but the burn out rate is very high. There are so many changes from shot to shot and information is just not that good. Give me a few weeks and I should have something up. It will not be geared towards costumers as much as simply information (hopefully correct information) regarding what we are seeing in the movie. I hope that it helps future costumers choose and decide what they want their costumes to look like based off information regarding the troopers from the movie. Without getting too deep into a rant, one of the things that really annoys me right now is the whole idea that the pauldrons truly signify some meaningful ranking system. Yes, I know Lucas asked for ranks and Mollo used the pauldrons to signify rank... but they didn't do it in any meaningful way. A seven man group (which is the most sandtroopers we ever see at once is nothing more than a "squad". It would have to be twice as large to qualify as a platoon. A squad is generally supervised by an NCO such as a sergeant. A platoon is generally led by a Lt with NCOs such as the sergeants under him. The idea of the orange pauldron trooper being a captain is utterly ludicrous considering the situation. A captain generally presides over a company (60-200 members). A company generally consists of 3-5 platoons and a platoon generally consists of 2-4 squads... so... a company, commanded by a Captain would consist of 6-20 squads.... And yet, we have TWO captains presiding over TWO sergents who are overseeing TWO PRIVATES.... come on... really? That is the WORST case of micromanagement I have ever seen!!!! OK, stepping off the soapbox.

I have two of the frames at home. I will measure them when I get back. Are we talking inner dimensions, outer dimensions, or from center of tube to center of tube? Another thing I wonder about is how the seed trays are mounted. I know a lot of people mount supports on top of the frame tubes then mount the trays to that. I tend to believe if flat supports are mounted, they should be mounted UNDER the frame and the seed trays sit down inside the frame. I don't think the seed trays actually sit on the frame itself although I would be willing to be proved wrong.

Ray, where did that pouch come from? It looks pretty good!

Does anyone else see that there is a crossbar between the two boxes?

I have really been digging a bit on these packs and have struggled as to whether or not we are using the right pack frames. We know the packs were put together very last minute and Mollo state in The Making of Star Wars that they bought the "rack" from a Boy Scout shop but I have come to find that there were a number of companies who worked on packs for the Boy Scouts including Gregory, Kelty and A16. Here is my dilema.... If these packs were built quickly... or even if they weren't, lets assume that they started with the frame as the base.... and there was no real "look" they were going for... Why would they make so many modifications to the pack frame to make it fit the pieces on it? Doesn't that seem backwards? Doesn't it seem that they would make the pieces fit the frame instead of the other way around? Also, bending the frame isn't exactly the easiest thing to do... Why would they both? My research shows that there were packs at that time that had bent frames like that but I haven't been able to find an exact match. I really question whether we have found the right frames or not...

I am not sure what makes things "official" but I think the screencaps speak louder than any "official" declaration. Check the pics out for yourself. Look Sir Droids: HD Screencaps

OK... I can't help but ask... if this is a green canvas pouch for your shoulder, why are you dying it? The original was green!