Art Andrews

Looks great! the only suggestion I would make is that the weathering has some of the same issues mine originally did. It is too uniform. Rub a little more off in places and add a little bit more dark splotches here and there to break it up. Tone it all down with fullers and you should be good to go! Again, great job!!!

Not wanting to start a fight, but that is simply not true. The sandtrooper without a pauldron is wearing the same pre-Elstree style suit as all the other sandtroopers.

May be a while, but I am working on it....

M pack was not made by Gino. I made it myself. It does have a few modified Gino parts as well as a few modified TE parts and a ton of custom made parts. As I mentioned in another thread, the closest frame I have found is a boyscout backpack frame but it too has to be modified. One of the most common problems I see with backpacks (including mine) is that they are made FAR too large. Really look at where the backpack starts and stops on the back.... It is much more compact than most think.

Yup you are right. They are not ALICE packs. That is a common myth. ALICE packs are the base for GHOST Buster's proton packs, not sadntroopers. The closest thing I have found is a boy scout backpack frame. CAUTION: THERE ARE NUMEROUS MODELS! You can usually get them for $15-$20 on eBay. You will have to add the midpoint bendd in them but they have the foot in them already and are pretty darn close to what we see on screen. I will try to take a pic of one of mine when I get home.

I think one of the problems is that none of the replica armor (I have seen) has "protrusions) as long as those seen on the sandtrooper suits. In fact, there seems to be a general problem in that area with all the replicas. Maybe that is because all the replicas are based off RotJ suits and they are cut differently... I don't know, but I do know that all the protrusions I have seen have been a bit off/short.

For the life of me, I can't understand why a BFG is a requirement if screen accuracy is important. A LARGE percentage of the sandtroopers carried E-11s. Davin Felth does. Captain Terrick does. The Move Along trooper does. The Lewis trooper... oops... heh heh... ok.. I guess he doesn't. Having a bunch of sandtroopers, none of whom carry E-11's would be like a vietnam era patrol with nothing but M-79 grenade launchers and M-60s.... where are you STANDARD troopers with the STANDARD issue weapons? We see them in the movie.

Jus tone more thing to note... It isn't that the sandtroopers have flat straps over their shoulders. There are no platic straps at all. What we see on them is just the chest plate butting up to the backplate. If you are using FX armor, it may not be made in a way that this can be done... I am not sure.

I have one of their MG-15s. It is in mid-conversion as we speak. If there is anything I can help you with, don't hesitate to email me.

The thing is, even if you used the ribbed straps, you shouldn't connect the chest and abckplate using them. In the movie there is a strap under the chest and back that attaches them together. The ribbed piece was more for looks than any sort of real holding mechanism. Personally I like the lack of the ribbed pieces. You can't see the on under the pauldron anyway and with everything going on with backpack straps and shoulder pouches, it would just get in the way and eventually get messed up. Just one less thing to worry about and canon to boot!

You know what I like best? The slot under the buttons! That is a detail I haven't seen anyone else incorporate into their suit and it is MUCH NEEDED!

You can buy the green gels at virtually any photo supply store. If one layer is not dark enough, use a second layer. I prefer to gels to hard lenses for two reasons. One: they are easily replaceable. Two: since they aren't glued in and around the eyes, only held in place by pressure, there are gaps (just as we see in the movies) so air can get in which is nice.

Hey there. The main boxes are modified rectangular Tupperware containers. The radio is a real vintage radio. The frame is one of the boyscout packs but due to Mirax's dimeniative size, I chopped the pack frame all up, cut out large sections and then reassembled it so it would fit her. The filter is actually a cut down filter from an upright vaccum cleaner. The box on the upper left is a tupperware sandwich box. On the real pack a tupperware container was used as well and tape was put over the tupperware name and logo just as I have done but it was a larger container as the overall pack was larger. The container on the lower right is a section of cardboard tubing that I epoxied a sheet of plastic around. Think that is pretty much it except for the details.

One of my VERY early and very embarassing attempts at weathering... I have absolutely NO idea what I was thinking... SepticTank Trooper.

It is. I couldn't come up with anything else to fit on there like I wanted and even though the visible engine parts didn't start showing up till Empire, I figured I could get away with it.

She got one along with her suit and it was too big. She even tried a DP helmet as they are fairly small but it too was too big. I am not making fun of her but the first time I saw her in her Jango outfit, I thought she was a child. She is THAT small!

Since the subject of Mirax came up in another thread and I don't think I posted this yet, I thought I would show the backpack I made for her. Because she is so small I had to scale everything down but I am fairly satisfied with the overall look of the pack which was loosely based on the Davin pack. Even though this is a poor camera-phone pic, it gives you a good idea of the size difference betweem Mirax's pack and a regular pack. That is TK409 on the left.

I want to make a couple of points for anyone who might be unclear about Mirax's SANDtrooper. First, for any of you who haven't met Mirax in person, she is tiny. As you can imagine the gi-normous FX armor would swallow her and even the more accurate movie-based armor is too big for her. She had the opportunity to buy a set of Richie's fem armor, even though it too was too big but she went ahead with it because it is the smallest trooper suit available. Part of her reasoning for getting the armor was that she had decided to move away from her far more attention-getting, scantily-clad Slave Leia costume because unlike some, there is a lot more to her than sex appeal. In regard to the helmet or lack thereof, she tried several different helmets in hopes of "completing" her costume. It was always her intent to have one but unfortunately, due to her size, every helmet she tried made her look like a bobblehead doll. She finally opted for no helmet as opposed to looking ridiculous. Finally, if any of you saw her at CIII you may have noted that she has replaced the "boobs" chest plate in favor of a screen-accurate chest plate that she had to cut down considerably to fit her small frame. I am not her knight in shining armor, but it really pisses me off when people make ignorant assumptions about someone and their motives without even looking into it. If Mirax wanted attention, she could have EASILY gone another route with her armor or simply have continued to wear her Slave Leia. However, I know she worked her butt off to make her costume as accurate as possible given the armor she started with. Even though her armor is not movie-accurate, I think the overall look has a much more screen-used feel to it than a lot of the sandtroopers I have seen. But don't take my word for it. See it for yourself.

Thanks for the compliments. Davin wears the "Kotobukia" design throughout most of the movie as can be seen here: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/davin/davin_backpack.htm However, for whatever reason, he and Terrick have swapped backpacks in all the promo stills. Where the heck were the continuity experts for this film???

Jack, You really have a lot of nerve. As I recall, not so long ago, you were getting all bent out of shape in regard to those who attacked FX armor because of its gross in inaccuracies and yet you DARE to say: How about this? I am SOOOOOOO against the "FX armor" look. Virtually EVERY detail of that costume is DUMB DUMB DUMB! Why not totaly screw it up and make FX Vader (he could have a GIANT bulbous head!)!? Lose the innacurate armor and just troop in the real thing. For the love of humanity! All you FX armor wearers have your heart in the right place and all but that FX trooper armor is STUPID! Again, how DARE you of all people criticize someone like Mirax after defending the FX armor! Your comments are totally ignorant and out of line. If you don't like the femtrooper look, that is fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. But to attack someone, belittle them and make uneducated assumptions is pathetic and in your case, hypocritical.

Just want ot point out real quick that from what I can see, only the Move Along Trooper and Look Sir Droids Trooper (Davin Felth) have the canvas MP40 pouches. MANY of the other troopers do have leather or leather-like pouches.

I hear ya bud. I guess there is a lot of grey area and also varying degrees between those who want absolute screen accurate and those who are doing this for fun. I am in total agreement with you in regard to the binocs and binders. I would never carry either as they are not seen in ANH. The additional scenes from the SE are just a joke to me and done so poorly and with so little thought or care that I would never want to replicate what is seen there. Of course, that is just my personal opinion and whether I like it or not, I suppose the SE scenes have to be considered canon. The list I created above is from the original ANH footage only and while I won't try to say that I can prove every single sandtrooper does or doesn't have certain details I can tell you that in every scene where you CAN see these details, they share the details I have listed. I will also admit that I probably take a much more hardcore screen-accurate stance than anyone I know... so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt.

Heh heh. Joey, you know I am ALWAYS going to side on screen accurate detailing. However, you make some very good points. I'd like to touch on a couple of things you said. pouches - correct style and number (there are several kinds and configurations) Good luck positively IDing all of the variations. I believe there are at least 5 different pouches used and obviously more configurations that that. The problem is there are numerous times when we see a trooper from one side and he never turns and shows us what is on his other hip. VERY frustrating. backpack - optional* but a vast majority wears them except in the stunt scenes.... I agree with TK432 and with you. Pack should not be a MUST but it should be strongly encouraged. I guess my thought is that I would not disallow someone because of the lack of a pack whereas I most definitely would over the lack of dirt. pauldron - a must (although one trooper is seen breifly without one, LFL has asked us to have all sandies with them) i'd treat this as a one-off exception, to make the troopers seem in a hurry to the docking bay some left there extra gear behind...??... one of the few places I guess I could budge. I do think the ONE sandtrooper who lacked a pauldron may have simply been a fluke. In regard to the lack of pinstripes in the traps and tears as well as the lack of shoulderstraps.... I have a theory that I have posted to my site and will share here... Lets go back to March 22, 1976, when principal photography for Star Wars began. Filming began in Tozeur, Tunisia which was the location where many of the Tattooine scenes were filmed, including most of the sandtrooper scenes.** Although stormtroopers are the first to be seen on screen, sandtroopers were the first to be created and filmed. With that in mind, a sandtrooper should be considered as a rough sketch or an artist’s first rendition -- an unrefined product. While it initially appears that sandtroopers have MORE details than the regular stormtrooper, those additions are simply window dressing. The base armor of the sandtrooper actually lacks a number of details found on the stormtrooper. Without the pauldron and backpack, and pouches the sandtroopers are lackluster and rough around the edges. A number of details were added to the stormtrooper armor to give it more visual emphasis. Note that nothing was removed from the basic sandtrooper armor. Instead details were added or replaced, as if the original armor was not satisfactory. I challenge anyone to clearly show any sandtrooper with the pinstripes or the shoulder straps or the stormtrooper belly detail (which was glued on OVER the sandtrooper belly box) or dropboxes, or a stormtrooper knee, or a cannister. My theory is that all of this was created later. I don't believe that they were trying to make the sandtroopers so different from stormtroopers. I think they just added more detailing later because the stormtrooper armor was pretty boring once you cleaned it up and took the pauldron and backpack off. In regard to the belt, it is clear that Han and Luke's belts were made of a cloth type material but their suits were special and different from all the other suits. It is not clear if the other suits had the same belts or not but I suspect they did. Unfortunately, I have no proof to back that assumption up.

Hey everyone. Been a while since I posted but I was prompted by a thread over at the RPF in regard to the requirements for the MEPD. According to the "What it Takes" page: Beside having the requirement for the TD Sandtrooper requirements made by the Legion: -A BFG ( Big Friggin Gun) -Pouches -Backpack The Mos Eisley Police Department requirements that a Sandtrooper wanted to be Deployed must have: -Flat Lenses -Backpack -MP40 or 38 ammo pouches, -BFG (Either the Lewis 21, MG15, or the MG34 type) -Diamond Knee plates -Sandtrooper Stomach plate* -GET DIRTY I take exception to this list as it defines an idealized sandtrooper but doesn't accurately represent some of the sandtroopers we see in the movie or in publicity photos. First of all, not all sandtroopers had BFGs. Several carried the standard E-11. While it appears all sandtroopers had at least one pouch, not all sandtroopers had MP40 style pouches. Not all sandtroopers wore backpacks (or even a pauldron for that matter!) I would love to see a list more along these lines as these are the details that seem to be on all sandtroopers. -No stripes in trapezoids and teardrops -No ribbed shoulder straps -Correct ab plate detail (or more accurately... the LACK of abplate detail) -No drop boxes -No cannister -Diamond knee -Must be dirty -Flat green lenses -Min of one belt pouch Just throwing it out there as the current requirements force a would-be member to be a certain kind of sandtrooper and don't allow them the freedom of choosing to replicate all of the sandtroopers seen in the ANH. These are SANDTROOPERS, not clones... they aren't all supposed to be exactly the same.

Sorry guys. Haven't stopped by here in a while. I regard to what helmet I have, it is a customized GINO helmet, built and assembled to match Davin Felth's helmet ("Look Sir Droids"). The armor is also GINO armor.