Hello there,
I want to discuss a very cool find that I made a few weeks ago, and that I now finally took the time to work on a bit
The Sandtrooper Pauldron!
The part has a possible vintage match in the Torsten Hallman dirt bike chest guard, this has been known for a long time, however, a few details on it are still wrong to me, AND, I only know of two colors that those came in (and I might very well be wrong, but that is what I know so far):
Blue and Yellow:
and red and white:
Now, additionaly to the obvious color problem, there are two small details that I never saw in the Torsten Hallman chest protectors, that little strap and button that I circled in red, and the actual line partern that we see on the original Santrooper pauldrons. The lines are there on the vintage Torsten Hallman chest protectors, but there is a logo on one side and the lines don't have the same spacing.
So, a while back, I found that chest protector from another brand. As rare if not rarer as the Torsten Hallman one, in fact that is the only one I ever saw. and I was drawn to it imediately because of its colors!
Now, I'm sorry if someone else also made that discovery and wanted to keep it secret maybe, I found this one by random luck on my own and I wanted to share this discovery. The brand is Bill Walters, and like I said, that is the only one I ever saw, so I have no idea if there are others out there and other variations as well.
Now, obviously, the lines are missing, damnit! however, the color is very interesting, AND, there is a strap in the same position as the original sandtrooper pauldron.
I'm saddened by the lack of lines on the black area, but that being said, to me, the other vintage pauldrons aren't accurate either and I wanted a as close as possible vintage pauldron for display, and this is the closest I have seen so far
Well, this came with vinyle (I think) stickers on it, that were on that thing for at least 30 years, so obviously, that was going to be an issue... One corner of a sticker was raised and I could already see that the top layer of leather and color was coming off with the sticker.
Luckily, extremely luckily, I found out that using my heat gun, the glue was coming looser and the stickers were slowly peeling off without arming the leather at all
that took a bit of carefull work, but they came out completely!
and of course, i could see the color was a bit more vivid under the stickers and well, it was also very obvious that something got removed here, so I then tried a carefull cleanup with a sponge and dishsoap, and it worked nicelly
the numbers are certainly not coming off, but that's fine. that will be squad 68 I guess!
so, I'm quite exctatic about that pauldron, really love the result and its overall look.
In short, the color is clesest to anything I have seen so far, but of course, it's a bit more yellow than the originals. The snaps and strap at the good position are a nice plus I think. And the lack of lines is of course disapointing, but it makes for a super cool vintage pauldron overall!
and now, after 7 years in a box, I hope I can eventually finish my stormtrooper display one day!
feel free to discuss, tell me what you think or share if you also have a very close vintage pauldron perhaps!
And lastly, sorry in advance to that vintage bike collector dude that made a whole scene in Ninja's thread with his own vintage pauldron. Yes, we know there are cheap replicas of this available and that this would apparently look nicer in your own vintage bike collection than in my vintage prop collection, but I'm afraid this is not happening. That dude!
I want to discuss a very cool find that I made a few weeks ago, and that I now finally took the time to work on a bit
The Sandtrooper Pauldron!
The part has a possible vintage match in the Torsten Hallman dirt bike chest guard, this has been known for a long time, however, a few details on it are still wrong to me, AND, I only know of two colors that those came in (and I might very well be wrong, but that is what I know so far):
Blue and Yellow:
and red and white:
Now, additionaly to the obvious color problem, there are two small details that I never saw in the Torsten Hallman chest protectors, that little strap and button that I circled in red, and the actual line partern that we see on the original Santrooper pauldrons. The lines are there on the vintage Torsten Hallman chest protectors, but there is a logo on one side and the lines don't have the same spacing.
So, a while back, I found that chest protector from another brand. As rare if not rarer as the Torsten Hallman one, in fact that is the only one I ever saw. and I was drawn to it imediately because of its colors!
Now, I'm sorry if someone else also made that discovery and wanted to keep it secret maybe, I found this one by random luck on my own and I wanted to share this discovery. The brand is Bill Walters, and like I said, that is the only one I ever saw, so I have no idea if there are others out there and other variations as well.
Now, obviously, the lines are missing, damnit! however, the color is very interesting, AND, there is a strap in the same position as the original sandtrooper pauldron.
I'm saddened by the lack of lines on the black area, but that being said, to me, the other vintage pauldrons aren't accurate either and I wanted a as close as possible vintage pauldron for display, and this is the closest I have seen so far
Well, this came with vinyle (I think) stickers on it, that were on that thing for at least 30 years, so obviously, that was going to be an issue... One corner of a sticker was raised and I could already see that the top layer of leather and color was coming off with the sticker.
Luckily, extremely luckily, I found out that using my heat gun, the glue was coming looser and the stickers were slowly peeling off without arming the leather at all
that took a bit of carefull work, but they came out completely!
and of course, i could see the color was a bit more vivid under the stickers and well, it was also very obvious that something got removed here, so I then tried a carefull cleanup with a sponge and dishsoap, and it worked nicelly
the numbers are certainly not coming off, but that's fine. that will be squad 68 I guess!
so, I'm quite exctatic about that pauldron, really love the result and its overall look.
In short, the color is clesest to anything I have seen so far, but of course, it's a bit more yellow than the originals. The snaps and strap at the good position are a nice plus I think. And the lack of lines is of course disapointing, but it makes for a super cool vintage pauldron overall!
and now, after 7 years in a box, I hope I can eventually finish my stormtrooper display one day!
feel free to discuss, tell me what you think or share if you also have a very close vintage pauldron perhaps!
And lastly, sorry in advance to that vintage bike collector dude that made a whole scene in Ninja's thread with his own vintage pauldron. Yes, we know there are cheap replicas of this available and that this would apparently look nicer in your own vintage bike collection than in my vintage prop collection, but I'm afraid this is not happening. That dude!
