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Aluminium doesn’t like to bend tight angles. I cheated by cutting a groove in the “elbow” of the bend with a hack saw. The wider the grove the sharper the angle you can do. If I recall a grove half way through about 1.5-2mm wide will be enough for a 90° bend, but have a look on my WIP as I am sure I documented it there.

Hi all, Booked an afternoon off work today and made some decent progress. Here's some highlights: Started by working on the rear sight as I really wanted to test fit the scope rail. Decided I wanted to screw the rear sight to the barrel, so cleared a space inside to allow the screw head to hide under the scope rail. Test run with scope before drilling into the body. Then moved on to the magazine housing. Quite a simple fitting there. Started preparing the scope for attaching to the rail. Lucky I double checked where to drill - the mounts on the bottom of the scope aren't quite central. And that brings us up to date. On to something that didn't quite work. How does one bend aluminium without it snapping? Any tips on shaping, too? Many thanks, Dan :-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sweet! Can't wait to get one of these. Your counters will have all the looks of the originals plus room on the inside to accommodate electronics like Paul at TRamp offers.

I wouldn't even say shall. I'd leave it as "There's a seam on the inside and out"

This picture says it all! My SBB in all it's glory! Wooh, it was a good month of waiting which isn't so bad at all considering it came from the UK. For my E-11 Blaster, I decided to go with a Doopydoos Full Resin Kit. All parts were delivered but the folding stock - wishbone had a piece broken off. This is my first blaster build. First time also working with Resin. I am going for good level of screen accuracy, battle worn and as realistic as possible, especially as it pertains to the SMG part. I will be making a ANH version of the E-11. To bring the blaster to the next level, I am complimenting the doopydoos kit with T-jay's Completion set, and Chris's 3D printed parts. Although originally looking to get Steve's magazine replica some time in the future as well, it will be a toss between it and Robert's magazine, as the latter is hollow and I may need room to put electronics. One huge addition I am absolutely to-the-moon-and-back about is installing Paul's fully wired and ready to install BlastFX - electronics that will bring the E-11 Blaster alive with lights and sound. This latter addition will be a dream come true; order made to arrive late October 2017. As for instructions, I am relying heavily on the E-11 Blaster Reference Manual. Thank you thank you for all the authors involved in this valuable document - gives us newbies a solid step forward. My timeline for completing the blaster is likely a year or so into the future. I am just out to revel at every detail, enjoying small advances every day. With E-6000 as my CA of choice and allowing for green stuff to fix mistakes with that cure time of also, 24 hours, I need all the time in the world anyways. Also, I'm not going on any particular order. Generally speaking, I will be putting the SMG portion together first then, move to the E-11 parts following, but not in every case necessarily. Also, I will seemingly leave component parts 'incomplete' and jump to another component part. So in short, my build will not be done in orderly fashion. Well, without any further due, let's begin!!! After a nice wash to get rid of fine resin dust and left over release agent chemicals, I proceeded to sand down the two ends of the broken part to get ready for applying the reinforced epoxy. I then placed the entire folding stock / wishbone piece on my vise. I placed Popsicle sticks to fill the void between two forks of the wishbone and held them together with tape. After having the epoxy settle while the piece was on an angle sitting on my vise, I felt the epoxy was starting to harden, although really, it was just a short while, so I positioned the piece vertically, so to use gravity for better surface area contact between the resin parts and the epoxy. After cure, all is well! The forks sit evenly between themselves - Yes! Just need a little sanding down of the left over epoxy around the seams which I'll do later when I tackle that piece. Here, I drill all holes in the Receiver tube. Before getting into details, want to emphasize how fine the resin gets when you're killing it. Highly recommend, as it was highly recommended to me, to use a proper respirator and safety glasses. Nothing beats safety and ensuring for good health! So I began by measuring out the existing holes made by Doopydoos using my precision measuring tool and came out with 7 / 16 " and was delighted to see a matching step on my step drill - bingo! I then used my kids crayola crayon to mark the center of the to-be-cut holes and placed the receiver tube on my vise trying to keep it as horizontal as possible, trying to eliminate any tipping and rolling etc. As for the drilling, I tried to keep it as vertical as possible and let the drill do it's work. It took a while, especially when you hit the inner metal tube. I was afraid to go too far so, as you can see, I didn't go all the way to the 7 / 16 " mark, afraid I would over-rotate and make a large gaping hole! It was difficult to see how far I drilled too with all that swiggly resin coming about from the drill process. I will need to go back with some fine precision to get it just right. Better to proceed with caution right?, then have nothing to work with and sorrow. I will need also to finish drilling the rest of the holes, which, hopefully, I will be brave enough to commit to the 7 / 16 " mark more firmly. Here is finer detail showing the work more clearly. I am happy to have made it this far though as I try to be as systematic as possible, wanting to have a clean build with as few mishaps as possible. I proceed with finishing off drilling the remaining holes of the receiver tube. After marking the center of the holes, I created pilot holes and proceeded with using the step drill bit this time around. This just gave the step drill more grab and helped me have my holes more aligned. If you noticed, my first set of drilled holes had one that was pretty off! Here's the piece after drilling. As you can see, I still have the folding stock notch that still needs to be cut out. Oh and yeah, I went a little trigger happy with my drill and tackled the holes on the underbelly of my wishbone. I also will need to do some modeling with 'green stuff' to fill out the handle piece I mangled. This complicates things for this piece, especially about the extension tube which I destroyed, but I will get around to addressing these later. I picked up a 6 in. Round Bastard File (the weirdest of names) to help sand down the uneven inner parts of the drilled holes. While sanding, I noticed that Doopydoos leaves allot of resin where the T-tracks meet / grab onto the receiver tube. The holes on either end of the tracks are filled with excess resin which obscures and takes away the kind of detail I want. To open up the T-track grab holes, I first drilled... ... and then used, what's called a Riffler file to get at shaping out the hole. I learn something new everyday. It says they are made for woodworking, but it is working fine so far. They're pretty tiny tools that come in many sculpting forms. The one I chose is curved on the outside and cornered on the inside. I am hoping the curvature will help me shape the hole and the cornered part of the file to give me the angle I want for shaping the T-track part. Here's the cornered part of the Riffler file tool I just mentioned. Here's the tool getting at the T-track part... ...and now the hole curvature part. Here's the T-track grab hole the way I want it. I think the cut out / file will get cleaner as I work the other holes. The vent hole notch is now cut out and I've managed to patch-up a vent hole that was quite off. Hollowing out the folding stock was quite a bit of work as you will see. Receiver Vent Hole Notch Precision measured the notch to be 3/16" and applied a 1/8" router bit to my Dremel 3000 and put it to task. Followed up by using a square file to get it clean. Redo of Vent Hole Used a 7/16" thread-cutting tap to carve out a portion of the vent hole. Then proceeded to fill entire hole with green stuff. I let the green stuff harden over 10-12 hours to be safe. Then I drilled through once again and followed through with a sanding file. Now, the vent hole is the right size and in the right place, mostly - it's now to my liking. Hollow out Folding Stock Used 1/4" 60 Grit Sanding Band (Dremel 430) at medium then high speeds, ranging from 30,000 to 35,000 RPMs. Before I knew it, resin dust was spewing into the air. SO glad I have a good quality respirator because there was a lot of resin dust by the end of the task. My little nylon brush came in really handy to brush away dust between sanding sessions. I managed to hollow it out in about 1/2 hour. I will need to go back to lightly sand to get it just right. Finally set-up my workshop - here's my set-up for resin work for use of my dremel and for manual handheld sanding. Progress on front sight. I precision measured a dimension on the block and compared that measurement with the real sterling dimension from the E-11 Blaster Reference guide. They don't match up. I gather, generally speaking, doopydoos somehow reduced the scale of the thing? Think will likely need to eye-ball it to get it to proper shape. I came away quite literally, 'short' on trying to make due with my Doopydoos front sight block. Having filed it to shape it,it came out really small! Don't think any pin is going to fit inside let alone a grub screw! Order for Chris's 3D printed part happened real soon after this! In this test-fit pic, the block does look reasonably well but definitely, still on the small side. I did do good on texturing the appropriate parts of my front sight though, like that of the original sterling - green stuff applied and patterned. Green stuff applied Knurling pattern source Pattern applied Pattern applied to back I then removed the strip on the bolt and also made that part of the receiver tube more pronounced. Doopy's resin blobs for screws were also removed. Strip removed Edge enhanced Resin blobs for screws Left blob removed Right blob removed Proceeded to hollow out the outer edges of the bolt, I've gone and recreated the plunger and extractor. I'm happy with it mostly, although still lacking in size and detail but I like it enough to move on. When my completion kit arrives, I have to follow through with putting in the strip that diagonally runs across it. As I don't have a letter and number stamp set to put in the serial number thingy on the bolt, that will be a much later addition. Plunger & Extractor Did more detail on the folding stock. Having hollowed where the rod sits a while back, today, spent the time to add realism to the piece. Carved in and around individual pieces that make up the folding stock to add realism by making it look more like movable parts. There's a ton of 'green stuff' where I was too generous using the Dremel. Still need to follow-up to sand those parts down. Folding Stock I was careful not to hollow out too much of the opening so to reveal the latch inside. Proceeded to work on magazine power cylinders. I just took out the central capacitors with my dremel. Original power cylinder Close up of central capacitors Central capacitors removed I proceeded to tackle a rather significant component of the E-11 Blaster - the m38 scope. I've managed to use spade bits to hollow it out and made some front and end cuts. I've purchased a monocular and will place it in the inside. With the scope being hollowed, I'm hoping the light coming through to the inside will make the monocular functional. Lenses will be placed on either end of the scope as well - with it's concave shape, this will help with drawing light in. A third glass-like disc will also be placed near the large lens end of the scope to reveal graticulars, cross-hair thingys, you know, for aiming at those rebel scum! Original m38 scope - front assembly end Original m38 scope - large lens end I uses spade bits to get the job done. 1" (25mm) bit was used to begin hollowing at the large lens end. 3/8" (10mm) bit was used to begin hollowing at the front assembly end. I tried to be as tactful as I could to progressively move to smaller bits as I proceeded deeper into the scope from the large lens end as you need to take into consideration the narrower contours as you get further in. If you do make a mistake as I did, not tapering in far enough, it's nothing green stuff can't fix. Hacksawing to remove large lens housing Front assembly end - lens housing removed large lens end - lens housing removed Reassembled scope - front assembly view Reassembled scope - large lens view I was eager to get started as ordered items from Shapeways arrived in the mail recently. I now have a true replica of the sight block and pin. With this piece in my possession, I proceeded cautiously to carve out a 'dove tail' channel that will hold the sight block. Having cut-guides put in place, I proceeded to cut out the channel using a hacksaw blade, and using a square and mostly a triangle file to get it to shape. I dare not use a dremel or I would have messed this up really bad. Applying intricate filing and allot of patience paid off. Although the block sits a little loose on the channel than desired, it's nothing green stuff can't fix. I'm overall quite happy with the results. Sight block position template Outline of template Template removed Precision measure for depth of dove tail channel Hack sawing is the first go Square file to retain hard edges at 90 degrees Masked hard edges so I don't widden top edge of dove channel Finished dove tail channel Top view of finished dove tail channel Side view of finished dove tail channel Sight block with pin, test fit on finished dove tail channel Side view of front sight installed Thanks for reading! Any and all comments welcomed.

oooh, your blaster is looking more fine as each day progresses Dan! I like your measure twice, cut once approach. It's unfortunate about the trigger guard mishap but you still have plenty of aluminum for a second go. I will also need to study Chris's documentation on how he successfully bend aluminum.

Hi all, I recently acquired a very interesting piece for my E-11 Blaster and excited to share! I have a replica Hengstler 400 Counter created by Tino himself. I just so happen to inquire about his counters after placing my completion set order as he had a limited run back on 2015 for conversion counters. I was delighted to hear he was about to do a limited run of complete counters and that I was first in line for one of these. As it turns out, he is not offering a run of these any longer so I have the one and only unique piece! I'm feeling pretty special about now. This replica Hengstler 400 Counter is a complete piece, fitted with an original Hengstler socket, and maintains the exact dimensions of the original counters. Tino masterfully shortens the metal housing and plastic cover to correct Hengstler size. Sorry Eagle enthusiasts, no big or small logo on this type of counter =) Without the two screws and boarder as well. Furthermore, this type of counter came with a D-shaped window for the plastic case side of the counter. The curvature is nice and I appreciate this detail. I agree with Tino that this stylized window exceeds the flat window on the original counters. The reset button for the number rolls is operational and numbers can be reset to zero with a push of this button. Number rolls are set manually by finger. Number rolls are each in black with all lettering in white, which is screen accurate. A really interesting feature that adds to the realism of the piece is the preservation of the coil; it can be seen inside the black plastic socket through the slots. The coil also adds believable weight to the counter. Adding further to the realism is Tino's added touch of including soldering and a short wire to the connector pins. I also asked Tino to age the counter and he's done a stand-up job. Tino with his fine craftsmanship, impressive indeed - I am fortunate to own this unique piece.

IMHO the TLJ cod is a bit disturbing. Too narrow at the bottom for my liking lol Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

You can with some creative leg positioning and some stretching.

Received my order from Imperialboots. They are a tad to big mostly due to the fact they don't do half sizes. Though it can be remedied with an insert. The quality looks really good.

...or maybe hot bath the tabs on either chest or back? I (and others) definitely has to round out the sharp curves of the Anovos back plate tabs just something to look at, especially if you are tall

For the disappointed Photobucket users which had their images missing "thanks" to their new policy change, there seems to be a solution in the form of an add-on for Mozilla and Chrome which makes the Photobucket photos visible again: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/photobucket-embedded-fix/?src=userprofile

Thanks again for all of your respective ideas and input. It it looks like the plan will be to "freeze, shimmy and pop"! I'll let you guys know what happens. I may be posting a request to find bicep armor real soon! lol.

It would required a fool to buy a Jim helmet when you can get a TDK! You're right on your choice Darren

Probably approvable "out-of-the-box", but it's worth pointing that the ANOVOS guys have been really lazy and greedy for the TLJ helmet. To save on cost instead of making a whole new helmet, they only changed the black inlay to add the teeth, and the nose plate. But as a result, their frown is not perfectly accurate to the screen-used helmets because it is not pointy enough.

Welcome, James. Another RWA trooper in the making. I look forward to following your build. :-) Best wishes, Dan Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The inner overlapping seams shouldn't be until L2 or 3 IMHO also.

And only left bicep becouse I've ended the clips[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] Inviato dal mio iPhone utilizzando Tapatalk

A little work on my hengstler replica Large eagle

Just make sure its all black and the seams are black as well, some of the new ones have gray seams, I use this one https://www.underarmour.com/en-us/cg-armour-jacquard-crew/pid1301581-001

Hey Nate glad to be of assistance. The goal here it the trim both sides equally (as possible) to evenly distribute the cover strip that will be used to connect the two. The leg cover strip is 20mm (except for calf which is 25mm). Trimming one half thigh and shin @ 10mm and the other 10mm is what you want. Get the picture? . Note, it doesn't have to be perfect. Hope this helps

Looking good trooper! Forward march to Centurion! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok. I call this done. The only one thing left is the numbers on the counter. I've tried several times to do a transparent screen like seen on the fisd blaster reference with veeeery poor results. It's clearly a process that's gonna take me a while to master and I don't want that to delay this blaster much longer. so, until further notice I call this build done. Here I post you my final reveal pics... this long journey made this: Into.... THIS: Here is the "working" scope with reticle inside View from below to show the inner rod on the folding stock and the inner barrel In case you wonder about the painting process, I'll summarize it a little for you. After the black primer you saw on the previous post was fully dry, I went to rub all the main gun with a cloth covered in graphite, avoiding the t tracks, the counter and the scope, because I wanted all this parts to look like made of different materials. Then I lightly weathered all except the counter and the t tracks with silver and grease steel. Then I painted the silver parts on the grip. After that, weathered the scope in old gold using dry brush technic. Masking the bolt, the counter and the scope, sprayed matt varnish on the blaster. Then masking all but the handle, hit that with several layers of gloss black. Masking again all but the scope, the counter and the handle, sprayed those parts with a high gloss clear lacquer... and final touches here and there with silver, rusty black and old gold acrylic pens. I'm more than happy how this came out! And finally, here is the Pal... no longer grumpy and now the happiest trooper in the station, ready to terribly miss point black shooting those dammmmm rebels with his glorious non lethal e11 blaster. Big thanks to you all for your attention, your ideas and your support! Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk