Well I have started on my long and expensive march for a smart gun setup. The first step was commissioning MarsAttack for one of his head sets. Well, two of them, one for me and one for my brother. And that wiped out my fun budget for November. I did find a Pentax 110 18mm lens at a pawn shop out here (what a stroke of luck). I think I did find a plug for the Olympus coiled cord for the eye piece portion as shown below. Somewhere in storage I have an old flak jacket I was going to use for under my steadicam vest. Once I get off this OT, and before grad school starts up again, I will have to get busy on making an arm in the shop.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

sounds like you have a good way to do this on goin slow. built the wifes set up in about 3-4 months which was costly. but i will say work out ur forearms and biceps alot and also ur back she was dead after her first drop. and cant wait to see ur next update.

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SGT Chris Kraemer "BIRD"
S/N: A07/TQ0.0.82154G1 Sgt Kraemer

Welcome to the smart gunners club ! It's a wild ride !

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Cpl Matthew Rendar. M56 smart gun operator. 2nd bat 7th colonial marines "Rendars Raiders "

get to know your local circhopractor. you will need it.

also, enjoy your new lighter wallet!!

(welcome to the smartynutthouse btw)

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the kilted smartgunner

Give me absenth I turn British.

Well I decided to go with Mattsucorp (Matt) for the smart gun, shoulder lamp and chest armor for a start. And yes, talk about $$$ for just the kits. And advice on what items/supplies I will need to finish them? I am looking at some down time in Feb if this union thing does not work out. So I would like to stay busy if there is a strike.... And I would rather stock up while income is steady.
Anyway, I found my old M69 flak vest from my ROTC days when I used it for OPFOR, and ick, talk about smell. I ripped the bottom seams and removed the armor as it was bunched up. I was thinking about using the plates as a template and cut up some thick batting and relining it. Got the three patches too to make up something like Drake's. Yeah I know I probably wont wear it if I had the steadycam vest on, but sometimes you just want to be lighter. I'll take some pictures when the patches are sewn on. Now to figure out the font for the name tapes.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

Good idea. That's what i did , put it together part by part. Got the vest then the headset and so on. I made some substitute. Parts. Which IM going to up grade like the uniform. Rite now i have Polish bdus but IM going to get spats screen accurate ones. Also IM useing the old golden arms smart gun which IM going to be replacing with matts amazing one soon. Just take it slow. Next thing you know you'll be yelling lets rock!

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Cpl Matthew Rendar. M56 smart gun operator. 2nd bat 7th colonial marines "Rendars Raiders "

Fonts - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1029063/web/sffonts/index.html

Martin

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Martin 'Victim' Victory
A86/TQ3.4.49421E3
UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters


you can't take the PUNK outa Spunkmeyer

for the arm, go with cine-city's proaim arm. the china menbo arm seems like a hell of a deal, its totally not.

vest, if your lucky, you can find the screen accurate one every now and then on fleabay and steadicam sites.

or just order everythign from matsuo anyways.

good luck, its a fun trip!

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the kilted smartgunner

Give me absenth I turn British.

Thanks, I am just going to go thru Matt for most of my kit I think. Single stop shopping.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

Fantastic, thanks for the link just what I was after to finish off my pulse rifle case.

Thanks for the fonts Martin.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

Thanks really should go to Russ Krook for posting the link in the Archives section.

Fonts were originally on the USCM Charter site - http://www.colonialmarines.net/ which has recently been revamped.

I don't believe the fonts are available on there at the mo (well I couldn't find them), maybe Tony will put them back on there at some point.

Martin

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Martin 'Victim' Victory
A86/TQ3.4.49421E3
UKCM 13th Regt. 1st Batt. Freebooters


you can't take the PUNK outa Spunkmeyer

Fun fact: the Pentax 110 lens was officially the first part I bought in the process of making my smartgun build, too! Welcome to the club!

Moar smartgunnerrrrs!! MOAR!

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CPL Sean Maio A01/TQ2.0.72156E1
Public Relations Division (Temporary Cross-Assignment)
M-56 Smartgun Operator, A/3Btn, II CMEF, USS Sephora

right? NOW WE NEED SOMEONE WITH AN APC ALREADY.

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the kilted smartgunner

Give me absenth I turn British.

I have no idea how I could buy one of those airplane tugs. Much less have it shipped to Atlanta.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

i did find one a while ago. they wanted 3 grand. but it was in a junk yard in scotland.

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the kilted smartgunner

Give me absenth I turn British.

3g aint so bad, do you still have any details??

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Pt. Graham "gunny" Green
A07/TQ2.0.12129E1
UKCM 501st Regt. 1st Batt. The Bucketheads

it was cut up for scrap shortly after i emailed them saying i didnt want to buy it.

it was in CRAP shape. non working motor, still full of ballast, mostly rust and moldy water. no gas tank either.

didnt even have all 4 tires.

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the kilted smartgunner

Give me absenth I turn British.

Over the Christmas break, I picked up needle and thread and hand sewed my patches on my vest and closed it up again. I am glad I am getting a MarsAttack headset, between work, grad school and brewing, I have little free time.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

Looking good!

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Cpl Matthew Rendar. M56 smart gun operator. 2nd bat 7th colonial marines "Rendars Raiders "

I striped out the old flak plates and spot sewed the collar elements in. It looks bulkie but only has the collar that is original armor. It is much lighter and cooler than when I used it in the 90's.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who uses his MacBook Pro as a backdrop for taking photos of props.

I wore mine to DragonCon back in 2001 as part of my dropship pilot outfit, people thought I was nuts for wearing it with the flak plates still in it. I wasn't sure how to remove them!!

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"Awww, someone tell me that's a boot!

It's a boot!"

III drops

It was a pain but the seams along the bottom can be ripped out if you are careful with a seam ripper, just go slow and be careful as mine was an older one the material wanted to tear easier than the thread it seemed. after ripping the three bottom panels on the vest, I removed the armor panels. Note that this is are all sewed together into one big panel. I marked up the two plates that formed the collar to know what sides are up/in. I ripped these two pieces out and then stuffed them into the collars from the inside, and spent a while by hand sewing up the collar piece only. I wish I had taken some photos of the process. It took longer than I thought to mod the vest, beginning to end. Maybe 8-10 hours?

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "

Ok, got the headset and painted from Marsattack. I'll get some pictures up tonight. Finally broke down and ordered the cine city 5500 arm and vest. The Smartgun kit, lamp and armor plate are almost done. . I did find an extra mg-42 50 round ammo drum, so I am temped to wire it up with a counter and sound. But that will need to wait till I actually get the kit in my dirty little hands.

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SSGT "Giggles" W.A.L.
SN A11/TQ2.0.72140G1
USS Columbia, Heavy Weapons Section
"If you are going to die, die with a real weapon. Not a little sissy gun like that. "