There are few references to Macrobinoculars or Electrobinoculars and as it or a range finder is required for the Beast Hunter Brigade I need to have one or the other (see below for BRL). My kit is from the Late Crusader Era, so the rangefinder on my helmet is not an option.
Additional Required Gear
- Electro/Macrobinoculars or a rangefinder. (one or the other is required)
Below you can see examples of these electro/macrobinoculars used by Imperial, Rebel, Sith, and Jedi.
I was browsing through the MMCC forums the other day and came across an unique build for macrobinoculars and right in my price range. I’ve since searched for this post and can’t seem to find it (I believe they were working towards the desert ops brigade, but can’t find the post to clarify). Anyways they used the Radica Sub Assault game as their base for the macrobinoculars.
Adding a few knobs, a lens, and other greeblies it can pass as an awesome prop. I quickly searched both eBay ($24ish) and Amazon ($34ish) for this game and put it on my wishlist for future reference/when funds became available.
Probably about a month or two later I purchased the Tank Assault version and then I need to figure out greeblies. I went to a local thrift store called, A Cause for Claws here in Bismarck, ND. In my opinion they have a back section full of junk or in our sense full of greeblies for our kits. Anyways I found an old video camera (VHS) for about $10 bucks and bought it.
The next day I unscrewed all the parts and pieces looking for useful parts for my marcobinoculars. I finally got down to the lens itself and got that part out among other components. Then I took the Tank Assault apart to see what was inside; after stripping everything out I was ready to build my macrobinoculars.
I used a hole saw with my drill to cut out a circular hole to fit the lens from the video camera into. I tried several different lenses to see if I could magnify the view like a pair of binoculars. Nothing really worked so I smashed out the lens with a hammer.
I purposelessly offset the lens to add greeblies on either side. A lot of the day was waiting for glue to set and dry before moving on. I alternated between these macrobinoculars and my LC sniper rifle.
I then added greeblies to it and made it look different from the original game and closer to the Stormtrooper macrobinoculars seen in the first image. Most of the parts were pulled out of the video camera, but some were from recognizable components of screen accurate props. Such as the white plumbing pipe connector thingy seen above.
I then painted it to similar environmental/in-universe colours to my sniper rifle and LC bucket; greens, tans, browns, and blacks. The next day I went in with some acrylic paints and added touch-ups to make it more detailed and unique.
The cobalt blue part on the front, I’d like to think is a mic to pick up sound in addition to the lens for sight. It will need some more work before I think it is complete, but thought I’d share it with y’all for reference. More weathering is needed, as per BRL seen below:
- Substantial environmental weathering that suggests prolonged exposure to the elements (no pristine kits) – Hunters get dirty stalking through the woods or crawling through the sand, and your kit must reflect this. Keep in mind, a profession like this wouldn’t have much demand in urban areas. Most of your jobs will be in the Outer Rim or in frontier areas where luxuries like baths and electricity are not common.
I’ll need to either add a strap or pouch for these to be part of my kit, something to figure out down the road after I’ve got some armour.
Update: 11/13/2016
I took a tool belt pouch from Harbor Freight and converted it into my macrobinocular belt pouch. The pouch itself works also for hanging my cable snares off of. The snares and pouch still need weathering, I’ll do that with all the soft parts at the same time to get the same effect.
I use these snares when hunting predators. My strategy without giving away too many secrets is to ensnare my prey’s young; it is a tricky situation trapping a predators young. The bigger target attempts to free its young or find them and this is where I can get situated at a safer distance with my sniper rifle for the kill shot.
I went to Walmart today to find an additional trophy for my kit. I found these rubber dinosaurs and saw lots of potential with them. The the head of one of them is on my kit as a fun thing for kids to see. I’ll say it is the skull of one of the baby predators I hunted or something.
I thought of using the spine parts on this stegosaurus, but it didn’t fit my kit very well. The back of Dimetrodon is what you see below.
It actually works quite well for a trophy from the planet Lok. Not my ideal hunting planet covered in sulfur pools and orange dusty terrain; but a job is a job so I took it. The species my buyer wanted was similar to the Krayt dragons of Tatoonie (another planet I’d like to avoid as there isn’t much green there). Kimogila are
“This creature had no known predators on the planet, but had evolved to boast a layer of extremely resilient scales, capable of withstanding all but the strongest anti-personnel weapons. They were also known to have one of the most toxic venom in the galaxy, which could kill ambushed prey in seconds.” -Wookieepedia
“They were hard to find creatures, but they usually traveled in small family packs ranging from two to three, and could sometimes become extremely territorial.” -Wookieepedia
This was an exceptionally challenging target and well worth the hunt in my opinion. You can see some of the rear spinal fins I scored from the buyer as a trophy from this magnificent beast. I hang the fins on my belt along with a few other trophies from my various hunting expeditions.
Mandalorian Armour 