Those troopers I made for nephews are having their transportation to Qatar arrangements negotiated, say a personal courier. I wish it were me, I’ve never set foot on another continent, let alone an island off of North America.
Meanwhile, I needed figure out how to maintain the 727th’s designation as jump capable. For those who don’t know and care, in Sci-Fi, jump forces mean they drop from a (low) orbiting position via a transport, aka Sci-Fi paratroopers but scarier than a HALO jump. I think Starship Troopers is when the idea was initiated, I could be wrong. The best demo of this would be the dropship in Aliens. Sure, the soldiers stay in the dropship yet the idea is there. In the RPG Traveller, Jump Troops are elite forces similar to America’s Green Berets/Navy Seals, the UK’s SAS or France’s GiGN.
Inspiration comes at weird moments. For me it was after a bad survey. I take the blame for the outcome even if there was little pleasing this person short of giving away the store. I still turned it around mentally by picking up my box of spare parts, remembering the online store selling the Chima shoulder pads. I had a gray one left over from kit bashing. I couldn’t see the numbers a la Wyldstyle or Benny but I knew what I wanted based upon the pegs. The photos below shall demonstrate.
All of these are sold online for as little as 10 cents a piece.
Next comes the boosters for the soldiers to fly, something to secure their weapons on the descent and the means to have them in position for the drop.
Voila! Jump pack for the descent!
There were a few downsides, the troopers with long hair can’t wear them and the same goes for their Wookiee. However, when they don their helmets, it won’t matter, the humanoids have to remove their hair and the aliens need switch theirs with “pegs”. So here is the final proof of concept!
Ta dah! Not bad for an old guy.
The final element when the parts arrive from the online store is to complete them with the Kragl since the little pieces can pop off. I know it’s evil. It’s sadly necessary and I doubt the boys will find much use for these tiny, 1×1 type pieces.
The nub on the back will be used with a rod to connect so they can deploy from the dropship I need to build.