Retrofire

What has been seen cannot be unseen I'll never look at James Bond or Red October the same again......I'll see him in this outfit saying "Ryan be careful...some things in here don't react well to bullets."

Thanks John! I was thinking that the drop boxes looked too low. I made a newbie mistake of not attaching my shoulder bells to my arms (duh) when I suited up. I was a little excited to try it all on for the first time. I'll readjust everything before I submit my official pre-approval pics. I was trying to look all Imperial in the pics but it was hard to keep from having a big cheesy grin on my face.

Thanks Kevin! I think you're right. Looking at other pre-approval pics showed the belt at the bottom edge of the bund. I only had about 1/2" underneath my front armor so I'll work on raising the bund up more. Thanks Jonas! I was so excited to suit up the first time I forgot to attach my shoulder bell elastic so they rolled back on me. I'll make sure to get those secured next time.

What has been read cannot be unread Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

I finished up the last of my strapping and set up for my first suit up and fit check. I submit for your approval my first suit up. I apologize for my ugly mug but I'm still awaiting my sweet bucket from Spike. I want to ask for a pre-pre-approval check from my peers. There are a couple that I know already and they are: The pouches (I needed to know where my bund and armor met before placing them) and I need to wrap the shoulder bell elastic around my arm (newbie mistake). I would love to know what you think. Thanks! Front Left Side Rear Right Side

I don't see any issue with wearing the black cap when in armor. I used to see my stepdad with his cover on in battle dress when he doffed his bucket to keep the sun off his dome and he was a Marine MSGT. I think we're assuming that the black cap is for class-A dress based on the IOC CRLs but I don't necessarily think that the IOC represents all class-A dress. I think that most of those represent duty uniforms much like the kahki's or BDUs the Navy wears during shipboard operations. There are many variations of duty uniforms that the military uses and I'm sure it's the same with our Canadian, British, New Zealand, Australian and European counterparts. What I mean is that it doesn't make sense that the Imperial Military only has armor and class-A dress for their personnel. Looking at some more evidence it's slightly confusing to see that the Snowtroopers use rank bars and they are not seen in any other armor. Since we only see the back of the AT-AT drivers on Hoth there's no way to verify if they are wearing rank bars which would be interesting on a continuity basis. Only the Snowtrooper Commander indicates rank and based on the information from "Star Wars Essential Guide to Warfare" it's a Lieutenant rank. So now it gets a bit confusing. The staff officer here with Vader is assumed to be a Stormtrooper officer but I cannot find any associated rank structure in my research that matches his rank bar. Note that he is also wearing two code cylinders which alone indicate the rank of Commander based on the reference above. Further research on Wookiepedia revealed this statement "The rank of Commander for the Stormtrooper Corps, when in officer attire, was indicated by four blue squares on the left and two red squares on the right, with two cylinders." It identified ANH as the reference but I don't remember where it would have been shown. The officer that asks TK421 why he's not at his post is identified as Lieutenant Treidum so that's not the reference. Bottom line is that I don't know where this reference was found. As I see it we do not have sufficient canonical data to indicate what the troopers wore as part of their duty dress so it's really all conjecture. I do think that the troopers would have worn the black uniform and service cap as part of their out of armor dress but as for rank structure we just don't have the data to make a good choice. We know that if we are attending a canonical event we abide by the CRL completely with no additions or changes but we have a certain amount of freedom when at a non-canonical event such as carrying DLT-19s (or other weapons) wearing the black officer caps and so on. We can also check with our garrison GML and CO as well as the individual detachment command staff as to what is allowable and reasonable. We all have a love of this community or we wouldn't be doing this and spending what we do on it and I'm sure we all want to represent well and that's what it's all about right "bad guys doing good"? This is a great discussion and I'd love to hear more and what others in the detachment think!

Thanks for taking the time to post a pic!

No sweat. I've been thinking about how much easier that would have made my build. That's a good purchase IMO!

This item you have your belt around here:

I spent some time researching this and couldn't find any correlation to any known imperial rank structure. Searching through Wookiepedia I found this article (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rank_insignia_of_the_Galactic_Empire/old_version) that had an interesting insight on armored rank. "Stormtroopers apparently use the same rank system as the Imperial Army, but rarely wear any type of outward insignia. It is mentioned that Stormtroopers most likely have an identification scanner, built into their helmets, which can determine the rank and seniority of other stormtroopers. This does not explain, however, the colored shoulder pads used by Stormtroopers on Tatooine. Also, in the Battle of Hoth, a stormtrooper is seen wearing the insignia of an Army Captain on his armor. It is assumed that such insignia display is for the benefit of non-stormtrooper personnel. In the higher ranks of the Stormtroopers, it can be reasonably assumed that the senior Stormtrooper officers do not wear the Battle Armor on a regular basis, thus a different uniform, for the more casual "office" setting, would most likely be worn. This explains a number of Imperial officers, seen in the feature films directing groups of Stormtroopers, who appear to be wearing solid black uniforms with rank badges. Such personnel are most likely Stormtrooper commanders whose daily duties do not necessitate the regular wearing of battle armor." The Scout that captures princess Leia has four stripes on his tank as shown here: and again here: I believe that this is one of those items that worked because it was added for the screen effect and not so much to create a rank structure per se. A thought I had would be that the tank stripes might possibly be a form of specialty identification such as medic, EOD, sniper, etc. Looking at the TIE fighter squadron they have a CRL for a TIE reserve pilot that also has no rank structure and for that matter nor do the pilots. I do think the scouts would wear the black uniforms as previously mentioned when not wearing armor with the appropriate rank badge.

Thanks Ted! For the tank stripe I originally went with the SC decal but ended up taking it off after I accidentally scraped part of it off while handling the tank. I just masked it off with tape and painted the stripe back on using Testors red. For the front armor I used Humbrol Dark Grey as I thought the sticker was too light.

After trimming the sides of the front and back armor I drilled out the new slots. It makes the cuts easier if you drill a series of holes and use the bit to mill out the remaining plastic. I sewed my T-bits and installed the Velcro in the shoulder bells as well as sewed cotton tabs using PandaTroopers method. I finally put my torso armor together and tried it on as a unit. and the back armor: I'm still awaiting my Altmann's but I plan on suiting up in the next day or so and tinkering with the fit to make sure everything looks ok. More pictures to come.

Look forward to hearing you've been approved!

Leave it to Pathfinders to make this thread take a hard turn into cuckoo land Might as well through in my two cents...I wear Umbro soccer shorts and a cotton T-shirt

Really nice work. Can I ask what you use for your form? That really seems to make things easier.

Nice work! Keep it up trooper!

Hi Ben. See if you can obtain a RedKap via Amazon or other source. Those are the base suits of choice for the Pathfinders. You can also check through the soft armor forum here: http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showforum=7

Hi Ben! Welcome to BSN! You need to make a minimum of five posts before you can see the trade forum. It looks like you only have two posts so far so you'll need three more and you'll be able to use the link Lou gave you in his message.

mmmmmm....trade forum maybe? That's a good place to start. Welcome to BSN trooper and let us know if we can help!

Welcome to BSN! This is a great place with tons of folks that are happy to help you with any questions you might have. Dig in to the forums and start reading. Again welcome and it's great to have you!

Dart, do you have a pic of the inside of your holster where you did this? I would like to do the same in mine as I don't really want to start cutting holes in my Hyperfirm for magnets. Thanks!

Those boots look really good! Can't wait to see the rest.

I have a TIE reserve that I'm working on and I've often thought of wearing my black cap when my scout bucket is off. I'm not sure if anyone has thought about how the Pathfinders are organized and how their divisions would be broken out. I've often thought that the Pathfinders would be more akin to a SpecOps group that can work alone or in small squads. Looking at ROTJ the scouts make up a very small contingent compared to stormtroopers so that makes me think that they are highly trained and specialized. The only problem I see is that I haven't seen anything in the canon, or non-canon, that identifies a Pathfinder Officer per se. The JRS 181st officer uniform has documentation to back it up but again I haven't seen anything for the armored detachments. I think I would be hard to define a CRL without some sense of how to proceed with the uniform. General Veers is defined as an Army General so again I would think that a TB or TK dress uniform would be akin to his with possibly some variation that identifies organization. I think this is an interesting idea and I don't see any reason why the command staff wouldn't look into it.

Looks great! Enjoying seeing your build come together. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I finished sizing the belt with my flight suit and bund. I used two 1/8" X 1/4" rivets with a spacer and backing washer. I made the two spacers out of scrap ABS to hold the nylon tighter against the belt. I'm working out a method for the rare earth magnets in the TD for the connection to the belt so more to come there.