Art Andrews

The desert search/pod scene was the first to be shot. I am not sure where I said Terrick is wearing Pack #2, but if I did, I was incorrect. As you pointed out, he is always wearing Pack #5 in the desert scenes. If you are referring the pic I posted with the 3 troopers standing by the pod, the orange pauldron trooper in that photo isn't Terrick. It is the 2nd orange pauldroned trooper and he is wearing Pack #2.

You see that a LOT with the sandtroopers. I think the problem is with the backpack straps. We know that with the stormtroopers, the straps that hold up the shoulders is attached to the piece that holds the chest and back together, but it is unclear if the sandtroopers were put together like this. If they were, the backpack strap would press down on the shoulder bell strap and I believe eventually tear it off, causing the shoulder bell to fall. If you will notice, in the roadblock scene, they have used black gaffers tape to hold the orange pauldron troopers shoulder bell in place.

And.... if I would have just looked a little further in my pics before making that comment... there he is... #6, Mr White Pauldron (no stitching) sitting up on the dewback... and what is he missing? A pack. Again, looks to me like 6 troopers, 5 packs.

And here we see Mr Bolack Pauldron again with his MG-34 and Pack #4. You know...the one trooper I am still looking for in these scenes is white pauldron #2... Wondering if they propped him up on the dewback (without a backpack) for that scene?

We know Davin is wearing Pack #3 in the Desert and Terrick is wearing Pack #5. Here are the other three packs represented by the two black pauldron troopers and the 2nd orange pauldron trooper.

Here are a couple of the lineups as I see them in the major scenes.

Interesting stuff, Rolf. At this point, I still think there are only 5 packs, although it is possible they made 2 packs that look like pack #3. One thing to consider, regarding your pack to rank discussions is that we place a LOT more importance on continuity than the movie did. If you will notice (and this will be part of my next task) the helmets, and suits, pauldrons, weapons, and packs move all over the place. From what I have seen there is very little concern with consistency or keeping similar characters with similar items. This is why I hesitated to label the packs with anything but numbers. I don't feel, for filming, any pack was assigned to anyone in particular or meant to go with any rank in particular. I think they just laid them all out and everyone picked them up as they went.

I can certainly see where you are coming from in this regard and you might be right that the pouch is an original. However, I would disagree that it was bought in Tunisia. John Mollo calls for "German Triple Pouches" in his original sandtrooper concept artwork. They weren't a last minute decision but decided on from the onset. I think the fact that we now believe the leather pouches were replicas further proves this point. However, as you said, the canvas pouch may have been a real pouch.

With some of the projects that are under way, I am giving it heavy consideration. If I do build another sandtrooper in the near future, it will be more of a test project than a final version. My first set of armor was already partially assembled and with all the new info and photo ref that has been made available lately I would like to build a suit from the ground up, testing some of the original building methods and styles in preparation for making a final suit at some point. I am sure a lot of mistakes will be made with this one, but hopefully I will learn enough that when I make my final suit, I will be happy with it. A sandtrooper is a hefty commitment so I really want to think about this a bit before I commit to it, but I am getting more and more excited by the minute.

Oh no.... I knew I didn't want to do this. As I am sure most of you know, the shoulder pouch is a part of the pack, not a separate part of the sandtrooper costume. My favorite pack is the one I have labeled Pack #5, the pack with the weird cylindrical corrugated air filter on the upper left side and the stow-n-go tupperware container on the left. My favorite pouch is of course the canvas pouch with the small tool pouch. Well, this may not be news to some of you, but from what I can see, the canvas pouch is associated with Pack #3 (the one most people build) in every scene I have looked at. While different troopers wear the pack, whoever is wearing it always has the canvas pouch on it which only solidifies my belief that the shoulder pouch is an integral part of the pack and weren't swapped around from pack to pack. Now I have to make a decision on a pack... go with Pack #5 (because I love the pack) or go with Pack #3 (because I love the pouch). And no.. I don't want to play mix and match... Grrrr...

Thought some of you might find this interesting.

Thanks for the details guys! I will be adding them and more pics as we go. As TD-252 pointed out, the packs definitely change over the course of the shoot, but I don't want to consider them a "new pack" due to the changes, but simply point out those changes, so people aren't confused in thinking they are seeing additional packs when they are not. Please keep the info coming!

Well... I believe just a week ago I told John I definitely would NOT do this... but ever since I said it, it has been on my mind, so tonight I went through my ref and IDed the 5 packs seen in the movie. I have thrown together a very rough page, giving the descriptions of each pack. I hope to refine this, add detail and more images and hopefully this will be able to be used as a guide for future people who would like to make their own pack based off one of the packs seen on screen. An suggestions or corrections would be greatly appreciated. This page is not meant to be a be-all-end-all reference, but is meant to help people ID the different packs so they won't be confused and can focus on the specific pack they want to build. Rough-edit Sandtrooper Backpacks Webpage

The more I look at these caps, I believe the small tool pouch's flap has the long triangular shape but the bottom part is tucked back under itself and the strap (which I am convinced more than ever was not originally on there. I believe the shape of the flap is the same as the one seen on the bythesword website although other details clearly are not accurate.

I definitely think there was only one pouch and I believe it is entirely possible that it is an original pouch. The only thing that seems to differentiate it from the original pouches I have seen is the length of the strap on the small tool pouch.

TD-252, can you take a photo of your pouch and try to match this angle?

Wow. The new pic you posted makes your pouch look a lot closer to the original than the pic you have of it with all the other pouches. Hmmm... I still think there is something going on with the strap on the small tool pouch that I haven't seen in any replica or original.

I have a couple of other purchases to make first, but in Jan, I plan to buy this set and review it here.

That looks AWESOME!!!

I would say it appears to match up fairly well with the smaller pouch. So, do you know what the pouch is or what it was used for?

TD1009, Def think the Cougar 7 (third down and on the left in your pics) is the closest we have seen in regard to similar styling as the one on the sandtrooper pack. We are leaning on it heavily for styling and detail. I am very very excited about this project as I think when complete, we will have as good as we can get unless better ref comes up. John made a discovery on the radio yesterday that has been staring us in the face for years but I have never heard anyone point out. Can't wait to share it and everything else we are working on with you guys. My research has shown that the wild popularity of the Sony and National/Panasonic multiband radios with the military styling caused a mad spree of similar styled radios from a plethora of Japanese maunfaturers. Many of these were poorly documented and it is likely that the sandy radios were just one of these off-brand units (as I think if it were a major and well documented brand, we would have found it by now). At this point, having heavily researched it myself and knowing Mike did too, as well as numerous others over the years, I am convinced our finding it will be more through blind luck than through thorough research.

OK, since John and crew have been so kind as to provide us with the leather pouches we have needed for so long, it is time to look at the canvas shoulder pouch again. Unfortunately, today is going to be a very hectic day for me, so I am going to be a bit limited on this initial post but here is a quick rundown of my assessment of the pouch. Feel free to correct any of my assumption you feel are out of line. 1) I believe there was only ONE canvas shoulder pouch and it was passed around between the troopers between scenes. I haven't seen any evidence of more than one at a time on screen, even when we see all 6 sandtroopers together. 2) I tend to believe this pouch MAY have been a replica. Why? Really only two things, and both aren't really great reasons. The first is that we now believe the leather pouches were replicas... I know... doesn't hold much water. My second reason has to do with the little 4th pouch. The strap on the 4th pouch is totally absurd in length and I have never seen a real or replica pouch with a strap like that. It actually looks to me that a strap similar to the straps on the 3 main pouches was used to make the strap for the little tool pouch. This leads me to believe the whole pouch was either replicated or modified. I can't imagine why the art department would bother modifying that one detail, which leads me back to believing the pouch was replicated in whole. Still not very convincing evidence, but there it is. 3) IF the pouch is replicated, they did a very good job, using similar materials and techniques. Again, IF replicated, they did a much better job on the canvas pouch than the leather pouches. 4) Real pouches. A real set of canvas MP40 pouches, in decent shape, can easily run up to $400... fairly cost prohibitive. In addition, if you bought a set, you would need to destroy the 2nd pouch by removing one of the long pouch straps and attaching it to the little tool pouch on the other set of pouches... 5) Most of the replicas available are just crap. Poor quality, build inconsistent to an original, thin material, straps that are way too wide, etc, etc. There are a few very high end replicas out there but they command very high $$$ as well. I would like to slowly start picking some of these up and reviewing them for accuracy. I have pretty much discounted every replica I have seen on eBay as simply not being accurate enough for our purposes. Here is the lowest end set I am looking at: It is the TS-25. MP-40 TRIPLE AMMO POUCHES from www.totls.com and are $50 a set. Here are two contenders that I think are middle of the road: This is the AGED GERMAN MP38/40 MAGAZINE POUCH SET GREEN from www.militarytour.com and is $85 a set. And similarly (but I think slightly less accurate and more expensive) This is the MP40 POUCH SET GREEN CANVAS from www.militarytour.com and is $150 a set. Here is the top of the line and the pouches I feel best match what we see on screen: This is the BTS-H016 WWII German Ammo Pouches from www.by-the-sword.com and are $228 a set. OK, that is all I have time for right now. Please feel free to give me your thoughts and ideas.

Mike, You guys did a great job! I think we are looking at a slightly different approach (not all vacced) but I really really want to find an original. I have been researching it for a long time and have had a lot of leads, but none have ever panned out. So, much like you, we are stuck with just reviewing the reference (which is all terrible) and doing our best.

That is the radio I used on Mirax's femtrooper backpack. While it has similar detailing, it is too small and inaccurate for the full packs.