| Sandtrooper Movie Facts For the longest time it was believed that the Sandtrooper was more of an unfinished, or prototype Stormtrooper. They're missing design elemets such as the belt drop boxes, thermal detonaitor, ab plate buttons, etc. and are rather plain looking without all the ammo pouches and backpack. Well, as luck would have it, in the newest 'Making of Star Wars' book, this bit of info is revealed... "One item that stood out [of the wardrobe budget] was the cost associated with the stormtroopers, tho ran up a tab of ($93,000) [The total wardrobe budget for Star Wars was $220,000, so the stormtroopers were almost half the budget!] - and whose final outfits were still not ready a week before location shooting was to begin . "Stormtroopers were the nightmare costume," Mollo explains. "We got a model in of a suitable size, did a plaster body cast, and Liz Moore modeled the armor onto this figure. Then everybody used to go in and say, "Arm off here, arm off there," and George changed all the kneecaps. This went on for several weeks. Finally that was all taken away and produced in vacuum-form plastic - but the next question was: How does it all go together? And I think we had something like four days before shooting , but we just played around until we managed to string it all together in such a way that you could get in on and off the bloke in about five minutes. FX Sandtrooper Conversion It was only a matter of time before I took things to the next level. I re-tooled my FX Stormtrooper armor three or four times over a year, adding a more accurate ab plate, diamond knee plate and smaller, more accurate helmet. I removed the drop boxes and thermal detonator - as the Sandtrooper has none of these things. For weathering techniques and all the differences between a regular Stormtrooper and a Sandtrooper, my first suggestion would be to check out Brak's tutorial HERE. In my opinion, a truly accurate Sandtrooper is one of the most difficult things to pull off, and even more-so using a FX kit mainly because it's already inaccurate. My advice is if you want to dirty up your FX kit - go ahead, I did. But make a more lofty goal and acquire more accurate armor first, then do it right. Here's a few pictures of my Final FX Sandtrooper with RT helmet in progression. I have since sold this entire suit including the back pack.
TE Sandtrooper Armor
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| Canvas Utility Belt. This time around I wanted to make the belt really accurate. After some research, I learned that some of the original belts were NOT made of leather, rather a canvas material. I purchased some white canvas from a fabric store and doubled it over three times to give it heft. I then sewed a hem line on each side to keep it together, while reinforcing the knots with dabs of hot glue to keep them from unraveling. The canvas belts were then attached to the plastic belt part using E-6000. Snaps were then riveted on, with the outside rivet covered over with the small grebels that you later attach to detail the front of the belt. Industrial Velcro was used to secure the belt around me in place which was also glued to the canvas using E6000. With regards to ammo pouches, I currently use two on this belt. One is the typical Norweigian green MP-40 pouch for my right hip, which I've dyed black and rearranged the belt strap so that it hangs verticle. The other pouch is a two pocket pouch that's fan made. I store my amp in one pocket and the cables for the headphone amp in the other, as well as typically my wallet. I can also attach my iPod shuffle to this, too, which I have loaded with various samples from ANH to create additional ambiance when trooping.
Here are the final pictures of my finished TE Sandtrooper with a TE back pack kit, and T-21 Lewis blaster. Extra special thanks to Charlie Mann, TK-386 for taking these pictures.
High Resolution Pictures Same picureas as above, but in the original, highest resolution for those who like up-close detail (like me!). All are 300ppi and roughly 4MB each.
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Studio Creations Sandtrooper Back Pack (not screen accurate)
I think I had more fun building the back pack than I did building the armor! Mainly because the design is completly original and required lots of creativity and modeling skill. I first began by using the tutorial at this location, then improvised as I went along. I believe the total cost of parts was around $50, and everything was found at: Radio Shack, Lowes, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Bass & Pro, computer spare parts. It took me probably three to four weeks to research and built the pack pack, not to mention running around looking for everything. Extra special thanks to TK-6990, Phong Ngnyen for pointing me in the right direction for a lot of the components. One of the most elusive items to complete the back pack was the black tube with white caps. Go here to purchase a Alvin Ice Tube, you'll still have to paint it, though. While this back pack design is not entirely 'screen-accurate' to whats seen in ANH, I think it looks cool for what it is. It was fun to build, regardless. UPDATE: I have since sold this item.
Screen Accurate Sandtrooper Back Pack From the forthcoming book "The Making of Star Wars:" "George announced that he was going to take some stormtroopers on location, and he wanted them to be in 'combat order.' I said 'Oh yes, George, what's combat order for stormtroopers?' and he said, 'Lots of stuff on the back.' So I went into this Boy Scout shop in London and bought one of these metal backpack racks; then we took plastic seed boxes, stuck two of those together, and put four of those on the rack. Then we put a plastic drainpipe on top, with a laboratory pipe on the side, and everything was sprayed black. George asked, 'Can we have something that shows their rank?' So we took a motocyclist chest protector and put one of them on their shoulders. George said, 'That's great!' We painted one orange and one black and that was it!" The above info was recently unearthed and is quite exciting. Over the years, many people in the Sandtrooper community have spent countless hours trying to figure out what parts were used on the Santrooper back packs. What we know today is basically through deductive reasoning and comparison. Essentially, there are three types of Sandtrooper back pack designs seen in the movie, some are referred to as the Sergeant pack, or Captain pack, but in reality these props were just shared amongst the actors with no real consistency. The packs themeselves look different from scene to scene, too, as parts fell off or were taped back on. I've read that the back packs were designed and built at Elstree Studios in the UK, then delivered to the filming location in Tunisia. Today, most all the parts have yet to be 100% identified, other than the Tupperware Stow-N-Go seen on the "White Dail" pack. One recent discovery by Leigh Lewis TK4128, was that the part we've been referring to as a "Intake Manifold" may actually be a toilet cistern siphon! While these pictures are of more modern siphons, the original would obviously be at least thirty years old. If you live in the UK, start hunting down old junk yards and find this thing!
My first semi-accurate back pack kit started as a TE kit, which included an inaccurate metal frame, the two main oversized boxes/trays, the bottles (which were Metamucil bottles), the Radio face plate, tool box face plate, which was a vac-pull of a Tupperware container) and a few other pieces which were derived from the Marmit Sandtrooper's back pack design. It was the first available back pack solution for those seeking relative accuracy. It still required a ton of work on my part, having to fabricate the Intake manifold, exhaust port and mortar tube. I even used Tupperware Jello bowls on top of the Metamucil bottles. Everything was held together with durable bolts, screws and rivets. While I enjoyed this pack for a while, it was just too big and too heavy. I have since sold this item.
Eventually, out of frustration, I started researching and sculpting everything needed to make Sandtrooper back packs as accurate as possible. Click here to check out the photographic documentation. Most of the parts were sculpted by myself in polyurthane foam, the main tray boxes (Seed Trays) by Seth Busino and the newest (now in it's 4th revision) radio face plate mold by Charlie Mann. All parts were vac-formed in .060 and .080 black HIPS by Charlie. Some parts are actual Tupperware, like the radar dish, Hamburger Stacker and Stow-N-Go tool craft box. As mentioned above, we've been using a vintage Boy Scout Back Pack frame for the base, but with a lot of hacking and cutting to make it look correct. You can often find these on ebay relatively cheap. You will need to cut and remove about two inches from the lower 'foot' of the pack, possibly the center pole and you'll need to put the bend in the middle. It's hollow aluminum, so they're easy to work with. However, there are many different types of these frames, all of which require various degrees of work. I've worked with no less than five of them and they were all different. The most laborious part to construct/duplicate is the Cistern Siphon. I use four Tupperware Humburger stackers for the bellows part, a piece of one inch PVC pipe for the thinner pole, paired with a piece of tappered vaccum attachment. The rest of the parts are custom vac-formed off my own sculpts or of simple cut plastic. The Bee-Stinger (as we've come to affectionatly refeer to it as) is made from a Cold Weather Faucet cover, available at Home Depot or Lowes. The small dome on the end I custom sculpted and had vac-formed by the Crashmann. The following pictures are some recent builds for myself and a few customers. Currently, I've assembled at least twelve packs for MEPDs finest and many more in kit form.
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| MG-34 and T-21 Lewis Heavy Blasters Sci-Fire.com from time to time makes amazing replica prop weapons that are made from a hyper-firm rubber. They are not only extremely tough, but they are very light and perfect for trooping. Since I was taking on the roll of a Sandtrooper, I wanted to get at least one of these amazing props. My first purchase was the MG-34 which is cast from a real machine gun so every detail is there. A year later I acquired one of their T-21 Lewis Blasters which is even more amazing in detail. Both props have to be painted to look authentic. Lastly, the T-21 needed a few additional pieces to look more accurate. I added the barrel cooling coil/tubes, made from plastic drain pipe tube, which was cut to length and width, then held in place using zip ties. Then I attached a sling, with one end riveted wrapped around the barrel and the other end connected to a real sling swivel that is screwed into the main body and held firm with Gorilla Glue. The original sling was most likely a heavy canvas/cotten material. Both were painted using a combination of enamel and acrylic paints. To achieve the wood grain, I would paint a particular brown, then follow-up with numerous coats of diluted washes and topical bry-brushing. To achieve the metallic look on the Lewis gun, I used a combination of numerous bry-brushing coats of both brass and steel enamel, then sprayed on a gloss-coat on certain parts, and a dull-coat on some of the wood parts. The pure brass areas were painted with brass enamel, then covered over with numerous washes of diluted black paint. The top four pictures are of my MG-34. The bottom four our of my T-21 Lewis Blaster.
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| Ammo Pouches There are numerous options for pouches if you're aspiring to become a Sandtrooper. However, let's start with the most screen accurate and work our way down. First, the actual vintage ammo pouches used in ANH are VERY difficult to come by, and if you do, they are very expensive. While I wont get into the type, names, etc. my first recommendation would be to ready over Brak's synopsis of them. Click here for an explanation of the hip pouch, and click here for an explanation of the shoulder mounted pouch. The more common pouches most often used by 501st Sandtroopers are the Green Norweigian MP-40 pouches. These are becoming more difficult to obtain over time, but can be found here on sale for roughly $30. These are really nice and affordable but you will need to dye them black. Another option is the replica canvas MP-40 pouches sold here for $25. These are nice, too, but will also need to be painted or dyed black. I currently use a combination of both the Norwegian pouch for the hip, and a canvas one for the shoulder. You should also look up Sitharmorer on ebay, as he makes fantastic leather replica pouches of the Stolla Wein pouches, as referenced here.
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Sandtrooper Fun Facts
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 The "Move Along" helmet seen here, was recently discovered and sold for auction to a luckily neighbor here in Columbia, MD. Final price? Over $34,000. |
 Here is a picture of the same 'Move Along' trooper's back pack. Notice that the blue box is being held together with what looks like black electrical tape. |
 My girlfriend and I have a running joke about this. |
 Sandtroopers don't have buttons on their center ab plate or drop boxes. Also notice how droopy the belt sags. |
 Notice there are no lines in the gray tear drop... this is not an anomaly. All Sandtrooper helmets are devoid of lines in the gray boxes. |
 See the white radar dish on the back-pack? Rumor has it's a Tupperware lid. They can be found on ebay under 'Vintage Tupperware'. |
 Sandtroopers have a diamond knee plate, different from the regular Stormtroopers. |
 More use of white gaffer's tape. |
 The pack usually referred to as the Marmit pack, also looks to have a very different radio box. |
 The unusual cheese-grater hand back. Lots of debate if this was a formed part, or gaffers tape. |
 Once again, another cheese-grater hand back. |
 Behind the scenes look at Sandtroopers with stunt coordinator Peter Diamond. |
 Behind the scenes look at half-dressed Sandtroopers. |
 Behind the scenes look at a Sandtrooper getting his dirt brushed on. |
 Behind the scenes look at the primary actors who played these iconic soldiers. Click to enlarge. Scan courtesy of Brak's Buddy. |