TD-4935

Hi Jez, great site. i think i may have been the other 450'000 odd visitors, When i was sourcing info on suits and lids to build my first AP kit i used swhelmets. cheers I'm fairly new too but welcome along. where in blighty are you? Simon

does MR-X like doughnuts and do ya think it would be safe to ship em to the states from blighty, in the interest of intercontinental friendship you understand. this is in no way a bribe *cough, cough nudge*. buckets 4 doughnuts, yeh!!

'tis true. my old mum used to say "you can never have too many buckets." we all thought she'd fallen over in the head, gone a bit , at the time, but it all makes sense now. bring on the buckets.

thats still two more than me, you only got one head . MR X. g'wan, g'wan, say ya wil.

how come you guys have 4 or 5 and i dont got even 1? i want one i want one, gimme gimme. anyone? information please good people.

bottom helmet trim dude. enjoy the build. take yer time. trim small bits at a time. love the plastic, become one with the dremel, go to the next level of helmet nirvana....there should be a tao of td book out by now surely. or zen and the art of imperial armour maintenance. Si

i cut a quarter of each side off then taped them together to see how they fit, adjusted a few times (it ended up being more like half of each overlap trimmed away) then glued the extra strip to one side, let it dry then made sure the trim was good when they fit together then glued the otherside on, i used a strip of wood when clamping to get an even bond. then i glued another strip inside because the back was still a little off and wanted to spring out a little so i figured a little reinforcement would be good. i then glued the back seam. i paniced throughout the whole affair. Simon

My AP thigh pieces while i was testing how and where to cut/glue seemed a little wide. The right one more than the left. before i decided to go for the ANH strip i taped them up just using the overlap and found that they were gaping open at the back. this made up my mind about the ANH strip. i also realised that velcroing the back would be pointless as they always wanted to spring open. on the whole i did have to trim alot off the right thigh, the left one seemed more natural. The ANH strip also reinforces the join (i put a strip inside as well). on a slightly different note, the inverted v contour of the thigh pieces where it sits on your knee seems more 'accurate' on the AP than the SDS. I am very quickly realising certain things about a certain suit. finally with rgards to trimming, just try things out, tape up mark out, mark out again, trim in stages. you can make them feel snug on top of the knee, leave a bit more room at the top. Simon

top banana. jobs a goodun. bring it on. *rubs hands with glee*

i knew i should have registered earlier, my brain has been crammed with backpack stuff for an age. glad the pump idea was usefull. The reason i thought about going with the cpvc is because i am known as second go Simon. always fluff the first go. idea for metal frame bending, plumbers use a pipe bending tool that allows pipes to bend and not crumple, looks like bolt cutters with a grooved semi circle part and a grooved block, you can bend pipes to 90 degrees without them collapsing. just a thought. Seth, main boxes, got any you're bored with? already Pm'd Mike about bits. big thanks for the welcome guys Simon

i couldn't have asked for a better run down of parts in your expert opinion (and it is ) would it be better to modify an existing frame rather than go for Seth's pipe frame, although bending plastic and making a mess of it has got to be cheaper and easier than doing the same to a metal frame. i was also thinking about maybe sculpting some parts in balsa wood, very light and easy to sculpt. i was thinking also that the other pole (if we're thinking of the same part) could possibly be made by modifying an old bycicle pump, the ones that used to really tire your arms out cos they were crap at pumping. anyhoo, brilliant run down thanks again can i pm you for a few bits n' bobs?

o.k., so after checking out the MEPD detectives backpack branch, i think i,m ready to get started. i'm fairly confident that i can scratch build most parts, i am fully willing to go see my old mum and possibly be forced to go horse riding just so i can raid her vintage tupperware collection. all i really need is help with the main boxes. i have checked pretty much every topic regarding main boxes but can someone condense the story so far or can someone point me in the right direction to, *coughs* acquiring some, maybe, somewhere, maybe. i'm liking Seth's cpvc pipe frame idea, think i'm gonna go with that. any help would be greatly appreciated. just so you know i'm not slacking, i'm gonna read all the backpack threads again. cheers bobtherocker73

its august now though, rain till next july for us i reckon. might as well be a mud trooper, would that work? Simon

i'm such an idiot, . the reason i ended up saying hi here was cos i was trying to figure out the main backpack boxes sizes, and i kinda just got carried away and went for it, been glued to this subject for weeks now. Simon'bobtherocker73'

thanks Tony, the thing that always stopped me wanting to join the501st was the insular nature of most forums and discussion platforms. that is until i found theMEPD. i felt like part of it before i even registered. You guys have inspired me to get cracking on the sign up to 501st, obviously the mucky bunch, luckily my armour has been gathering dust for a couple of years so is already pretty grubby. Simon

sorry, forgot to mention reshaping technique. i used a high powered hair dryer to reshape the sides of my helmet, heat guns can be quite fearce if you havent attempted an adjustment before but the hairdryer generated enough heat to soften the ABS, mind those fingers tho, you may get indents of your fingers if not carefull. i feel like i'm helping, yay!! Simon'bobtherocker73'

hi there, i have an AP and an SDS set ( although i understand the sds is somewhat taboo) and as far as i know there is a swoop detail on the bottom of the ridge on the shoulder bells that appears only on the SDS armour, they have the same overall contour to them as AP bells. i am skinny so didnt need to adjust. newboy, bobtherocker73

hey everyone, thanks for making me feel welcome. troopermaster: i'm in sunny Norwich at the moment. yerself?

i just joined today, should i come back later? there are 3 kinds of people in this world, there's you, there's me, then there is everybody else. kids normally only want to play with the toy someone else is playing with there are those that accuse others of plagerism, and there are those that are flattered by impersonation. i'm sure there are other analogies but it all boils down to two distinct ways of looking at it. i/we started something special, i/we would love you to be a part of it. or i started something special and i'm damned if i'll let anybody else be a part of it . i wish i had never read this particular thread hasn't put me off tho. sorry if this is a newbie faux pas getting involved. bobtherocker73

hi people, posted a hi on the backpacks forum first ( sorry, got lost in a dreamworld of tupperware ) , my bad. just to recap, love the extreme sense of family on this forum site, you guys and girls really help each other out here. through pooling your resources you get things done, to the max. hope i can add positive input too. thanks Simon'bobtherocker73'Morrison

hey people, been looking at the MEPD forum for inspiration for some time now, and boy do you guys inspire . although i'm not new to trooper costuming/armour obsessing, i am totaly new to forums and the wealth of knowledge they contain. i am in the process of finally submiting my application to the UKG, but wanted to get everything just right. backpacks inparticular seem to be the one thing i dont want to compromise on. The level of research you guys put in is fantastic, you really should all be detectives. anyway this is just a "hello all" intro. hope i can offer something here from time to time. Simon'bobtherocker73@Morrison