Blackwatch

Thanks,!! I did a parade Saturday it's quite easy to wear

This looks great! Well done

submitted to my GML for approval.

having seen a boot or three made, heres my thoughts: Unless you mod the sole it will look wrong. The boot shape may be right depending on the boot. You can glue vinyl to it, but I honestly dont know if it will stick. We had a Tusken here made with rubber boots and the FIRST thing it did was have the boot wrappings fall off. Like the first time it was worn. I dont know what kind of glue it was===shoegoo or something rubbery, but it did nto stick at all. It may work, and yuo wont know until you try it.

does your tracking show it arriving today?

that tk style helmet with a visor is jus so freakin cool

CONGRATULATIONS TROOPER! There are VERY few of the IATs out there. You are in on the ground floor!!!

I had this though as well. If I had the pack here I would cover the frame with 3MM sintra and repaint. Looks like satin canyon black Rustoleum2X I use TONS of that paint. I have also considered the frame/ no frame option for Levels. The simple fact is, while I tend to make almost everything , most people are going to order the pack and the pack is going to be built the way the pack is going to be built.

lovin this

wow I love this! thank you for posting all your photos. I love seeing the work--and effort--that goes into these builds, especially one from scratch like this. A nice kit build is one thing but this is no kit. Makes me itch to see it done!

Raider touched on something there. Others will come along and read the WIPS--see the victories, and the struggles. In the end, it ALL helps. I post my failtures...it helps people learn what not to do. Posting perfection all the time really doesnt help people learn, when they only see the finished product. I post my mistakes.

Not knowing how his pack is made, I dont know. My 6mm sintra is tough as all get out. I just finished another full armor costume made out of it yesterday. Its TOUGH. but I dont know how his is made. I just looked at our reference photos and a frame is not seen there. BUT-as we have learned in other discussions in the Army subtropics just because you do not see it, does not mean it is not present. Ask him what his base material is, and how strong the pack would be without the frame. if the frame IS required, then the CK pack requires a frame. Lets find out for sure first before we proceed. And Im glad hes making progress on it too cause I want to rock this thing once yours is approved.

Ill be following this now, so please go ahead and post up your pics so we can get a CRL topic started, and we can continue to consider this your WIP thread. I just checked the other reference pics posted in other DT topics, more is always better. Have you considered forming the armor with Sintra? I just completed another suit with it this week. I used TK parts and the only drawing in existance of the armor were building and figgered it out that way. I prototype in cardboard and move on from there. On your leg / thigh issues splitting it at the front may give you what you want, it may not. It seemed like every couple of weeks we were redoing a phase 1 clone thigh because the gap was too big (he could sit) but it showed too much black. We used a lot of parking lot sign material to add material back in, and bondo and repaint. I would like to see this project move forward, so ive got it marked to watch.

I know mines wordy but we can hack it down. Im sure theres other ways of saying it too. Its not a super complicated pack, but it has wierd shapes that have to be defined.

ok heres a big update. Painted the boots, and finished prepping the helmet. I used the very last of the paint on the boots so I have to order more Montana Gold Olive Green. I prepped my boots by airbrushing them with the Angelus Olive. It is quite a bit different from the Montana Gold spray olive. I used the Angelus as a primer to make sure that the MG stuck to the vinyl of the boots. now on to the Montana Gold Olive Green spray.

good day sir! you are a man after my own heart. I love this. And you practice what I preach: TEST TEST TEST! i am going to be following this build with great interest. i also love that you built up a source/ part list, which is something I used to have my TIE Cadets do when I was mentoring. I had them change the color to indicate sourced ordered or in hand, but what you have is great and I appreciate it. dont worry about a paint gun--we get GREAT jobs done with spray cans. prime, sand, wet sand. Wait 48 hours between major coats. . Check for imperfections and spray your color coat. Wet sand with 400 and spray again. Wet sand that if you want but since this is a DIRTY trooper I dont think that is needed. Patience will reward you as you paint.

Im noting a tubulr frame like he uses on his sandtrooper packs. That was a question raised early on, and we will need to revisit it. When I started my pack it was built without a frame using just 6MM sintra. This is something we can revisit.

WE NEED A JAW HITTING THE GROUND EMOJI!!!

i followed the link above and looked them over and then compared them to the CRL The CRL only refers to them as cylinders, I dont have the R1 VisDic in front of me, so it may call them rockets there. The link above to me looks very close to the CRL image. I know I have seen those before but I cant remember where, it was on something else. This is our current CRL . I kinda like the look of the weathered metallic silver.

mine arent wethered in the typical way, but my Gunner, Navy Trooper and new Sapper definitely show use (and abuse like getting freaking NAILED by lightsabers in my helmets)

There is something of a sheen diference between Semigloss and Satin. I prefer satin on everything, use it all the time, and OVER TIME it kind of dulls down. But it also shows scuffs. All my black helmets (other than TIE) are painted Rustoleum2x Satin Canyon Black.

we have matte here in the Garrison and it looks GREAT. From my persepctive it shows less in the way of scuffing than gloss does, since even a satin will show almost every scuff. I have a custum costume I completed last year and painted it satin black and it shows scuffing pretty easily. My option would be (IF ALLOWED) a dead matte flat.

The link I had posted was for the side strap. You can see a horizontal elastic that holds the front and back armor together. The ShoulderStrap is the main item of concern. In all three art sources, it is smooth and not ribbed like a TX shoulderstrap. If it were omitted, it would not have been omitted in all three arts. I edited four images in Paint to give us this view to compare to the actual costume. The ribbing and its shadows seen on General Veers in the behind the scenes photo are missing from all versions of the art. We all agree this is young Max Veers, however that does not mean that the armor remained the same through his career, therefore we put forward that in THIS instance, the Army ground commander has smooth shoulderstraps.

Neal i am realy glad that this is going to work out. I really want to see this move forward. i tried to do this years ago, on my own, but it ddnt pan out. I want this to ROCk. I want to see the Sapper become the next Sandtrooper. I am really looking forward to seeing the pack, to guide my own build, and we will get this done and approved. THEN we will turn our attention back to Sunber because right now, that topic is heating back up!

hey Bill! yeah its been in-work for some time, and when the other units got approved this one kind of slid from the forefront we do need to nail down the final details (in the text of the discussion). Im not sure how far along Kerry got, or how many were approved before the CRL was taken down. Overall i would not say this is a difficult build, just different from the typical green Army trooper.