Art Andrews

LOL I can just see a Robot Chicken skit for that!

Those look great!! Why make them in white?

Hard to say. I can't see any of the hooks on the sandtrooper armor but then again, the shoulder bells are so low down and the pauldron and shoulder pouches generally are covering that area. I tend to think they are not on the sandtrooper armor, but were added later. However, I am adding them to mine, at least for now. However, I think they will be completely useless if I display the armor as we sit it sitting on the sandtroopers, because the orientation of the shoulder bell to the bicep would never allow the bicep to be low enough to take advantage of the hook. Interestinng to see that it appears to hook on each of Han's biceps are different.

ARGH!!! Just got my E-6000 in and it is CLEAR!!! How frustrating. I had issues ordering it online but thought I was SURE I had ordered the white....

Just talked to John and he made two recommendations that might be promising. First he recommended epoxy pigment which will allow you to change the color of virtually any expoxy. The pigment is made by West Systems. White pigment is # 501 (make your 501st reference here). West Systems Epoxy Pigment John also mentioned that they use two cements from the IPS Weld-On line, one for ABS and one for styrene. I missed the number for the ABS, but the styrene cement is # 4807 which is a milky white but can be made pure white with the above mentioned pigment. IPS Weld-On 4807 While I have the white E-6000 on order, I might pick these up as well as I believe the IPS product actually fuses the plastic together where E-6000 is more of an adhesive.

Well, for me it definitely HAS to be white, so I am glad I went ahead and ordered some! Will let you guys know how it works out as soon as I get it in!

Will check tonight just in case... but tapplastics shipped out two tubes of white today!

Closest Michael's is two hours away. Just ordered it online! Will see how it goes!

Can E-6000 be picked up at Wal-Mart or Home Depot? Those are pretty much my only two choices without ordering it.

Thanks, guys! I am definitely tickled about it!

I have never heard of this method, but have a lot of scrap styrene laying around! I would love to hear more about it!

OOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!! NICE!!!! Now, is E-6000 simply an adhesive or does it actually melt and bond the two pieces together?

Believe it or not, I am actually hoping the glue I find can be brushed on and I purposefully plan to "paint outside the lines" so some of the glue is visible on the armor along either side of the strips. It seems very clear in a number of pics that there was some serious sloppiness going on with the gluing of the strips and there is glue residue all over... everyone is going to think a 4 year old put my armor together!!!

Is this white, or clear? I am assuming if it is like most PVC cement, it is clear...

Yup, that is the problem I am having... Seems that E-6000 is the standard and a very good choice but I want something that is white as it seems that the original was white. I am running into the same problem of most epoxys being an offwhite instead of a true white. The search continues!

Good catch! Check this thread for more info on it! Sideshow Trooper Thread

I have to pay a lot of people off... I have to agree that there is no reason why you shouldn't be part of the community... and some of that goes back to the whole can't share vs won't share thing. BTW... I haven't made that many trooper discoveries... The only one I can think of right off the top of my head was the Pony Fur Backpack on the dewback.... I have just been blessed to know a lot of different and very talented individuals. I think the crux of the issue here is that none of us got to where we are in a vaccum. We ALL, everyone of us, even Gino and Matt and Paul, got to where we are because others shared with us. The frustration comes in when the people who have gotten to where they are largely due to the generosity and sharing attitude of others, decide that they won't share their findings or information. At that point the system breaks down. Taking but not giving is never going to be smiled upon. It is just sad to see people do that. Another thing I would address is the whole issue of "I put time and money into this find." Haven't we all? Who hasn't spent hours doing whatever it is we do? Yes, some give more and some give less. Some are able to give more and some are able to give less. Not everyone who takes will give. Such is life, but we have all put in time and money that we will never get back. What is to be gained by withholding the info too? In regard to the pics from Matt, if you agreed not to make them public, then don't. I can't fault you for that no matter what circumstances Matt attained them under or the fact that his whole deal there is a farce and little more than blood money. That isn't your fault and if you aren't supposed to make them available publicly then don't. However, as you know, that info is not all proprietary and neither Matt nor anyone else "own" the information...

One thing I can appreciate is the difference between "can't share" and "won't share." When I am given something and asked not to share it, I do my best to honor that request, even when I want to share it and even when people would want the info. Such is the case with my current project. I have info that will be used on my armor that I can't share because I have been asked not to share it by the individuals who provided me with the information. While I would love to share, I won't break that commitment. However, I will share every possible detail that I am allowed to share. IN regard to people who "won't share" because there are individuals who they don't like or don't want to have info because of some reason, all I can say is that it is a shame that you would hurt the whole community (not speaking to you specifically Midnight Trooper) just to spurn a few bad apples. There are bad people in every aspect of life, but are you really going to let them dictate your actions? There are plenty of people here who I don't care for or think are stooges, but I would never let those people stop me from sharing what I can with the rest of you. Could such actions mean that good info will get into "bad" hands and allow people I don't like to make better costumes? Sure could... but I think it is well worth it for all of the good guys who might benefit. I guess one final thing, and I think I already mentioned this, is that this isn't a contest for me. I am not trying to be better than anyone and am in no contest with anyone else... I just want to make the best trooper I can, and where I can help others, I always will.

I don't know the actual weight but I can say this much... you gotta be more of a man than me if you hope to carry it. I carried the real MG-15 a bit and it was tough... the MG-34... I think would kill me. It makes the MG-34 feel like a feather.

While I am sure a lot of people think it was Gino I am talking about, for once, it isn't! Again, it isn't really the "who" that is the issue as much as it is the attitudes...

:lol: :lol: I am sure, in all of history, that is the first time the words "lofty" and "Kingman" have ever been put together! For anyone who doesn't know... I live in the absolute middle of NOWHERE!!! I thought I grew up in the middle of nowhere, but I didn't know what nowhere was until I moved here!!!

While some people will know who I am specifically talking about and some will not, the names are not as important as the actions and the mentality of purposefully withholding information for the specific purpose of trying to keep others from having accurate costumes. I can certainly empathize with your frustration! I can't help but think of all of those who came before us and all the self-proclaimed "experts" out there who owe (but probably wouldn't admit) a vast amount of their knowledge to others who came before them... I wonder what this hobby would be like if our prop replica forefathers took the same attitudes some of these individuals take, where we would be... We would have very little. It is mainly only through sharing and the synergistic efforts of everyone that has gotten us this far. Well, what can you do? Horders will horde, and in time, they will be forgotten because they never gave anything. Those who share will be the ones who are remembered.

If you wanted to be accurate to the movie, the only part you really need is from the rear aerial site mount forward on the gun. Everything behind the rear spider spider site is resin anyway.

I don't usually share my frustrations, but something came up this morning that is so laughable, yet so pathetic that I couldn't help but share. As many of you know, I am working on building up a test set of armor... mostly to see if I can do it and make it look passable. I am trying to look at it from the ground up and not make assumptions. I am also trying, when possible, not to mix and match my reference and use primarily ANH even more specifically ANH sandtrooper reference as exclusively as possible. I have been blessed with a great deal of reference/info that is not widely available and it is greatly upsetting the "Montagues" that I might share some of this info with you, the members of this board. While I do not agree with the idea of hording, I respect the wishes of those who entrust me with info. But what is really interesting is that I wake up this morning and have a PM from the king of the "Capulets" telling me about the proprietary info he has that he won't be sharing with me.... as well as an email from the "Montagues" dictating specifically what info of theirs I can't share... and all I can think is, here are both sides with info that could help this board and the members of it, and yet they both are so unwilling to share... It is these types of mind sets that keep us from going further in this hobby and excelling. I guess, for many, this is a contest and it is important that their prop or costume be better than someone else's. For me, my measuring stick is the original costume, not any other costumer. I WANT to see EVERY costume replica be more accurate, and if it means some are more accurate than mine, well, kudos to that person! I hope they share how they got there! I won't apologize for this rant, but I am sorry to see that the polarizations within the stormtrooper community have brought about these types of attitudes. While people seem to think it benefits them to withhold things, I think the truth is, it hurts us all.

Thanks for the clarification! Of course, I could be off by just a bit, and these could be metric... but they sure seem to fall in line with some larger imperial measurements.