Sandtrooper- Star Wars - A New Hope

Sandtroopers or Desert Troopers (TD) are specially trained divisions of Imperial Stormtroopers equipped with modified armor and equipment to withstand the harsh climates of desert planets like Tatooine. Though their armor is similar to that of a regular Stormtrooper, their suits contain advanced cooling systems, which offers better protection from the relentless heat than standard Stormtrooper armor. Their helmets contain lenses that automatically polarize to protect the trooper's eyes, as well as breathing filters. Another notable difference is the shoulder pauldron each Sandtrooper wears. These are used to denote rank, with enlisted personnel wearing black pauldrons, while officers wear white, commanders of several units of these elite soldiers wear orange pauldrons and those with the grey pauldrons are the animal handlers who ride the various beasts of burden. Additionally, Sandtroopers can operate in hot, wet, tropical environments with slight modifications to their equipment.

The weapon loadout for Sandtroopers is much the same as Stormtroopers and includes the standard E-11 blaster rifle or a BlasTech DLT-19 Heavy Blaster Rifle or a BlasTech T-21 Light Repeating Blaster, blaster pistol and Imperial Repeater. They may also carry thermal detonators and other explosive devices.

For my Sandtrooper I am using my Stormtrooper Armor which is an Armor FX kit version 1. This was my very first Star Wars professional armor kit that I purchased back in the fall of 1996. I got this armor kit way before everyone and their mother had a set of Stormtrooper Armor. Sine this armor is now about 10-years old and some parts are yellowing so I have decided to convert this TK armor into TD or Sandtrooper armor. This costume has been added to my 501st listing as TD-3778. Yes I have another Stormtrooper armor set.


You can view my 501st ID# 3778 Information.

First off you need to know that you do not just slap on a backpack and add a pauldron to your TK (Stormtrooper) armor and say you are a Sandtrooper. No, not by a long shot. First off you need to convert your TK armor with some specific pieces to be a TD or Sandtrooper. Without theses pieces you cannot hope to be a Sandtrooper. You need to acquire or build the replacement pieces and replace the old pieces. As you can see below you need two out of the three pieces:
#1 - Knee Plate
#2 - Ab Piece
Optioanl #3 - Right Hand Plate.
Not all Sandtroopers have this Right Hand Plate. I think it is for Dewback Riders and those that ride beasts of burden. It would make sense so they could backhand the animal that they are handeling.



KNEE PLATE
Ok. I am going to start with the knee. I removed the previous knee plate on the TK armor. I then marked and drilled the holes needed to attach the new knee plate.

Here is the replacement knee (sniper plate) on the shin armor.



AB CONVERSION
For the lower Ab section of the TD armor the Sandtrooper has a specifc middle section. As you can see here I cut out the previous middle section of the Ab so the replacement piece can be added into the Ab section.
I have placed the replacement Ab piece into the Ab section of the armor. I now need to glue it in and fill in the gaps with a plastic filler.
With Bondo (cream color) I filled in the gaps where the new Ab piece fits. After it dried I sanded it down to make it look good. This piece is now ready for weathering.


GREEN HELMET LENSES
Another difference of the Sandtrooper -vs- the Stormtrooper are the lenses in the helmet.
Sandtroopers use flat green colored lenses. This cuts down on the harsh glare of the sun or suns.
I purchased a replacement face shield. The color is an off green. Some people use welders (green) masks. I find that this type of plastic is hard to see through. Plus everything looking green does get annoying and gives me a headache.

I removed the current grey lenses in my TK helmet. Yes I have been using flat grey lenses. The flat lenses are easier to see out of than the traditional bubble lenses that most TK's use.

I made a template of my old lenses.
Then I masked off part of the green face shield and traced my template onto the masking tape.
I cut out the new lenses.
The picture makes the new lenses look black. They are not they are that off green.
See! If I hold up the new cut out replacement lens you can see the greenish color.
From this point you would think I would put the new lenses into my helmet. No. At this point I am finished with the helmet. After I modify and convert the rest of my TK armor into TD armor it needs to be weathered. So to keep paint and whatnot from getting all over the new replacement lenses I will add those into the helmet after the armor is weathered.
After some work, blah, blah, blah...here is my weathered helmet. I hot glued in the green tint lenses. You can not see it in the pictures but the lenses are a green tint and not black.
Here is my helmet this time resting on top of my grey weathered pauldron which I purchased off of the internet.


THE WEATHERING PROCESS
This is the hardest and most time consuming part of converting TK into TD armor. You need to make the armor dirty!

Before weathering the armor you need to mess it up. By messing it up I mean you need to make it look worn in and used.

I took each piece of my armor and with a dish scrubbing pad I quickly wiped down the armor. This will get any polish off and dull the shine. After that I took some heavy grit sandpaper and ever so very lightly dragged the sandpaper (in one direction) across the armor in various places. As the heavy grit sandpaper moves across the armor it will add scratches. Be very careful when doing this. You do not want too many scratches. Just enough to make it look worn and used.

I then quickly wiped down the armor again with the dish scrubbing pad. The armor is now ready for weathering!
This is my TK armor ready for weathering. So long TK, hello TD.

First you need the base coat to show the cracks or worn in look. I poured X1 bottle of acrylic Slate Grey paint into a bowl. I then filled the bottle half way with water and shook it up and dumped that into the bowl. I then filled the bottle up again all this way with water and dumped that into the bowl. I mixed the paint and water.

*Depending on how you want your weathering to look colors can vary.

I covered one piece of the armor at a time with the paint mixture. As soon as I had the paint on the armor piece I took a paper towel and wiped all the paint off. Only paint in the cracks stay. This is the base coat. I did this for every piece of armor, one at a time.

I then once again did the same step as above to mix the paint and water but this time with Burnt Umber for the color.

With a sponge brush I went over 1/3 of the armor one piece at a time. As soon as the paint was on the armor piece I again wiped it all off wtih a paper towel. This starts to give that worn look of dirt and sand. I did this to the entire armor one piece at a time.

When the armor was dry I took a 1.5" sponge brush and added in details and highlites.

Allright! once again I mixed up some paint and water mixture but this time the color of paint is Raw Sienna. With a paper towel I dabbed the armor in selected places and wiped it off. This adds depth to the Burnt Umber that was placed on before.

With the 1.5" sponge brush I added in some more details and highlites.

After the weathering process I sprayed a flat clear coat to protect the weathering process. After the clear coat dried I sprayed
selected parts of my dirty armor with sandstone texture spray. This gives that illusion of have been in the harsh desert climate.

From there I then with superglue added spots of glue to the armor and then sprinkled sand onto the glue. When the glue dried
it looks like sand is resting on the armor in places. It gives it that look of being out in the desert. I only did this to selected spots.
The weathering process of my TD armor is now complete.

I did make some modifications on my TD outfit: All optional for TD's.
- I kept the plastic belt but I sewed some canvas sleeves for them. So now my belt is canvas with the support of plastic inside of them.

- I replaced my holster which is now correctly worn on the left side thanks to a fellow TD!

- I took off the Thermal Detonator. TD's do not use them. They get in the way of the backpack.
I did use this item on my backpack.

- I have a grey and dirty pauldron (Beast Rider).


- I also created my TD Backpack.

- I also created a Dewback Prod.

For now enjoy some quick images of myself in my TD armor.

The TD armor minus the Pauldron and Backpack.

The TD armor with Grey Pauldron (Beast Rider) minus Backpack.

The TD armor with Grey Pauldron (Beast Rider) and Backpack.






Me in my TD 3778 outfit with the helmet off.