Baron

Now that Jury Duty is over, I can continue..... To finish up with the cistern, I bought an extra bolt and washer to snug up the carriage bolt and it keeps it pretty centered. I Also cut some strips to put inside to give my spacer somewhere to rest on. I try really hard not to glue anything! I want to be able to take whatever part it is apart without destroying it or having to drill out rivets.... I also bought one of these that helps make round circles actually round. Measure, set, score and snap apart. For the middle of the hole I used a hole saw. And it fits nicely And here it is mostly done.... And here it is sitting in place... I took a bunch of pictures yesterday cause I bought another utility box for the upper left box. It's not as big as the actual boxes used and I am considering going S.W.A.T. with it doing "Move Along" so not sure how much that will hurt me, if at all. I have the little "shotgun shells" made and painted just not mounted yet. I'll post a few more cistern pictures on how I chose to mount it to the box. Again, always looking to mount with the easiest removal if necessary.

Then perhaps a slush cast mold? These are hard to find now, I still don't have one. I have been considering modeling it and printing it out to cast. Does anyone have an extra? Or better yet, has anyone modeled one I can print?

So next up is the exhaust port. This thing seemed to just take the longest to make! The Trooperbay kit comes with a little vac formed box with no bottom. I cut a bottom for it and began building it. I put it in my vice, drew an "X" to find the "relative" center and drilled a pilot hole Then drilled the hole out to size. I bought one of these, not sure how I have been able to do much without stepper bits.... So I cut a piece of 1" PVC I had laying around, made an guesstimation on the length and cut it. Then put it in my vice and "eye balled" a angle and cut it with a hack saw. Then gave it a little test fit... So in order to attqach my back, I make these little step blocks I use for my X-Wing chest boxes. Glued them in with Zap a Gap and they don't move. I then just went ahead and hot glued the 1" PVC I cut in there, and closed it up. I have since painted it all black to match everything else, but my picture upload failed last for some reason. The only thing I have left to do with it is cut the little triangle pieces. Not sure if they are a requirement for PO, but I would guess they are for S.W.A.T.??? If I am putting up too many pics and being too wordy, let me know. I am a rambler as you can see, but it is all in the details Next up: Gordon's Cistern updates....

If someone could get one or a few, I could cast it. I have two vac tables and am building a real one that will hopefully be done later this year. But this would be relatively easy to do. And if anyone has seen my pack build thread, I still don't have this item yet. Anyway,

Yea, I know there's some guys who make the radio faces and they look great, just a bit pricey for me at the moment. We make X-Wing costumes so I have extra plastic laying around all the time. I downloaded the radio templates someone made, sorry whoever you are, but they are awesome! I was thinking about making my own from scratch. Just depends on how I feel once I finish most of it. Pretty much the only thing I don't have right now is the bee stinger. I have a 3D printer and also considered printing one and slush casting it. Plus, printing the dials that I don't have for the radio and doing the same. On top of all that, I am building two sets of armor. this MTK is for me for my sandy, but I am also building an ATA shiny for my wife. I do all this in between doing the X-Wing stuff so when I get to the point where I "need" something, my thoughts on scratch building may change This site is awesome. Hopefully I too can contribute something useful here as far as my build that will help others as I have been helped.

So to follow up, and I do bounce around a bit, I picked up one of Gordon's cisterns and did the usual mods on it... I cut some little plastic pieces from scrap that I have and added those details... And drilled some holes for the black zip ties. Ready for primer... And here is a pic of it just laying in place. It needs to move up a little higher..

Hey everybody! I have been lurking here for quite some time and reading like crazy. I picked up a MTK kit last month and have begun trimming it and I am going Sandy with it. While I am looking for some split rivets and stuff, I decided to build the pack at the same time. I got the Trooperbay back pack kit and have been working with that. I originally started with Scootch's awesome pack build and bent my bars and blah, blah... But, after working with the tray's I wanted to have a little more support so I added some additional bars... I arranged them so they would fit in between the slots in the bottom of the tray, although I had to cut the middle one out in the top tray. I riveted the bars on, but I prefer nuts and bolts for everything else so if I ever have to, or want to, change anything out, I don't have to drill out the rivets. So I am using nuts and bolts to secure the bottom trays to the frame. Have not decided how to secure the top trays yet, gotta look at the Move Along pack as I am seriously considering going S.W.A.T. with this build More pics to follow.

Hey Everybody! I have been lurking here for some time now and now finally I am introducing myself! My name is Gary and I am in Long Beach CA. I am a long time 501st member and SCG from back in 2000, but have been in-active for sometime. I picked up some ATA armor back in April and have begun the process of trimming. I also scored some MTK armor and I am going to make that my sandy and leave the ATA a shiny TK for my wife. Anyway, I plan on starting a build thread. I have already started my backpack build and am planning on going for SWAT with "Move Along" I will start posting build pictures soon. Thanks!!!! TD369