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Thanks for your input Phil, Glenn and Andrew! Good to see some debate and clarifications on something should be trivial Totally understand the different armour makers and their nuances and am glad we have some wiggle room especially like you say the symmetrical bits! Thanks for the input gentlemen

I have said to Tino last year I was itching to start another blaster but failed to get anything started. Still need to work on my sandtrooper armor and pack too. But hey, power cylinders would be a good starting point and your ceramic tubes have my attention.

Second part of the build....... a trooper isn't a trooper without his blaster

On the photo below you can see the trigger guard is a bit wider on the top end, compared to the bottom end. When doing mine, I cut it from 12mm on the front to 10mm on the rear end.

Update, I have replaced a lot of the Velcro and I think one of the largest factors on why so much of the Velcro failed at dragon con was the heat. Additionally, I think I have fixed the shin armor from rotating. First, someone at some point in one of their builds mentioned a contact cement called Bison. I ordered some of this stuff from Amazon and used it to stick the Velcro inside the shin armor that attaches to the boots. In the two hours I wore the shins and boots walking around my shop, it looks like it will hold. Next, I added some snaps inside the shin armor and the boots that should further ensure that the armor does not rotate. Lastly, some good news about the shoulder straps. I stopped by The Engineer Guy and spoke to some subject matter experts on what products to use for making the rubberized straps. I picked up some Smooth-On Simpact 60A Urethane Rubber. I will be making a test set of the straps in the coming week and I will let you guys know how they turn out. If they work out, I will make a few sets to sell to whomever wants to buy a set. Additionally, I investigated some options to make a rubber version of my RO T-21. I think we have narrowed down the product to use but the cost is going to be significant. My investment beyond already building the T-21 will be a lot of silicone and Smooth-Cast for the mold and some Mold Max for the actual rubber gun. I would need several gallons of this stuff so I expect that my investment would be close to $1000.00. This would allow me to produce several of the guns that I would attempt to sell. I am not sure what the asking price would be. Needles to say, it will be some time before I make a decision on this project and I would need to see interest in the T-21s before I even attempted it. Well that is the update so far. I will update on the shoulder straps once I get them made. Thanks for the interest.

Oh for sure, the cylinders I found has quite a bit of detail to plan and execute...a whole lot of fun! New year? New project = power cylinders Brian? Sent from my SM-G390W using Tapatalk

Hi Marko, yes please see the post Patrick has posted for Tino’s lucky eleven power cylinders. The bolts and nuts are set up the same as on the front of the cylinders.

FISD @ Celebration Chicago 2019 - Patch Contest ATTENTION TROOPERS!!! Feeling creative? Want to see your artwork and creativity immortalized and worn (and traded!) by hundreds at the biggest Star Wars event in the world? We are holding a contest to come up with an original FISD inspired patch design for Star Wars Celebration Chicago this April. The finished product will have it's own sales thread here and will be available for order as soon as possible! Contest Rules The competition is open today, January 5th, through midnight (PST) January 31st, at which time a poll will be opened so that everyone can vote on the design they like best. This contest is open to all members! (If you can see this post, you can enter.) There is no limit to the number of designs you can enter, and the shape can be round, chevron, etc. You are welcome (and encouraged) to reference our official logos and colors at the bottom of this post to incorporate into your design. Designs must have the full detachment name, 501st Legion name, date of the event (April 11-15, 2019), and LFL copyright if room is available. All entries become the property of the FISD / 501st Legion. FISD Image/Color Reference: The winner will be announced in the February Newsletter. In addition, the winner will receive TWO (2) free patches of their design and some other cool swag (TBD) but most importantly, serious bragging rights!

Tapered the width of the trigger guard from 12mm at the front to 10mm at the back, as seen in the reference picture of a real Sterling. 20190107_233152 Thanks again for pointing me to this detail that I overlooked master builders!

Yeah, star wars has been in my blood since i was about 8yr old...... done several comic cons and the UKG blew me away every time but last yr visit to Birmingham Comic Con and a chat with Marc...... he said dreams don't die on their own ........ never was a truer word spoken

Even at Centurion, internal strapping, unseen snaps/velcro/etc. - do not affect approval. Use whichever snaps you prefer.

Been reading and reading and reading..... almost information overload, but defo worth it!! Downloaded a tech drawing for the scope rail and dropped it off at a metal fabricators today...... hopefully they can come good before the weekend ..... if not its parts from BnQ with a hammer and file job!

Yes, very much worth it. My build already benefited a lot from it! Thanks for the tip! I’m planning to use an airbrush for (most of) the painting. Would that also have problems reaching these places? I’ve already bought some Tamiya paint, but I just saw that Brian ran into issues with their flat black color. Any recommendations on paint type and method (spray can vs. airbrush)? Glad that I can also give something back to the community! Still reading up on other build threads, really amazed at the great ideas and skills out there...

I will have to say, we follow much after detail trailblazer Tino! Sent from my SM-G390W using Tapatalk

Thanks guys! I realize now that I completely misunderstood the tapering remark... I thought that was about the middle of the guard being thicker than the sides. But I see now that at the front it’s a bit wider than at the back. Will definitely replicate that as well! I knew I could rely on the collective knowledge here! You have impeccable eyes for details.

This is how I did mine as well...as a guy following closely to SMG references, I would say this is the way to go if you want to get as close to the real deal as possible. Sent from my SM-G390W using Tapatalk

To arms! To arms! -- Part V And you're thinking, Part V? Yeah, parts one through four were way back on Page 3 of the build. At that point all the arm components were done, cover strips and all. However, without the torso done and some shoulders to attach them to, I put them aside. Well, the torso is now done and fully strapped up. I'm about ready to suit up, and the last thing to do before then is to strap up and fit the arms. I did a lot of thought on how I wanted to strap the arms. Some of you do snaps on all the components, I've seen some do all glued-in straps, and a few have even gone with Velcro. Well, I decided I wanted permanent strength but still retain the ability to make adjustments, so I decided on a combination of glue and snaps. For the Biceps and Shoulder Bells, I'm gluing in the top strap of each of piece, while putting a snap at the other end. The glued straps of the Biceps would connect to snaps at the bottoms of the Bell, while the glued-in top straps of the Bells would connect to the shoulder elastic with snaps. I'm using 1" elastic for these straps, and didn't like the way I had to shove it down into the less-than-1"-wide hollow channels on the inside of the Biceps and Bells. No sense stressing the glue joints there, so I first shimmed up the gluing locations with pieces of ABS glued into the hollow channels. I just put a single thickness of ABS at each spot. That doesn't completely fill the channels, but raises the level enough to give a flatter gluing surface. In the above photo I have one strap already glued into the top of a Bell, and you can see the other ABS shims where the remaining straps will go. By the way, I left these straps a bit on the long side, since I didn't yet know where the snaps they'll go to need to be located. I'll find that out when I suit up and see where the arms need to fall. At this point I turned to the retaining loops at the bottoms of the Bells. While all armor is different and all body sizes are different, I learned from research here that these loops should be about 130mm -- approximately 5-1/4" -- from one side to the other. YMMV depending on your armor and body sizes, but the suggested length seemed about right for me. To do the glueup without worrying about having an exact 5-1/4" side-to-side, I first decided on the amount of elastic I wanted to glue inside each side of the Bell and settled on 1-1/2". I measured out 5-1/4" of elastic, then added another 3" to account for the glued-in ends for a total of 8-1/4" for each of the loop straps. Then, I marked out where I'd glue them in with my marks extending 1-1/2" into the Bells. This way, all I had to do was glue the strap ends to my lines, and that would leave exactly 5-1/4" side-to-side. The photo angle skews things a bit in the above picture, but both of those penciled areas are 1" wide by 1-1/2" deep. I wanted to glue things up all at once, so with the Bell loops cut and the plastic marked, I repeated the process for the Forearms, below. You can see above that I'm using 2" elastic for the Forearms. (Note that the gluing locations for these are taken from the Billhag drawings.) With all straps cut and plastic marked, I glued everything up. From left-to-right, we have 2" elastic glued and clamped into the tops of the Forearms, 1" elastic at the tops of the Biceps, 1" at the tops of the Bells, plus 1" elastic forming the bottom retaining loop on the Bells. Noted here that I stretched some masking tape across the Bells so there would be no tension on the loops while the glue was curing. And, yes, I did everything here with E6000. While I've learned that E6000 sets up pretty well in only an hour or two allowing you to work on freshly glued-up components (to a point), these are all high-stress connections so I let everything cure for a full 24 hours before proceeding. Everything turned out great except a bit of squeeze-out on one strap on a Forearm. In the scheme of things this is a tiny error -- I even figured I'd better add arrows so you could see what I'm talking about -- but things like this really eat at me. Shouldn't, though, as no one will ever notice such a small thing (except me, natch). But you can avoid this simply by not putting any glue on the last 1/8" or so of where you're gluing the straps in. That tiny gap won't make a difference in strength, but it'll help keep glue away from the edge when clamping things up. (Meanwhile, while the Dr. Jekyll side of me is fine with the way that arm came out, my Mr. Hyde side is extremely OCD. Expect him to be picking at that excess E6000 with tweezers till it's all gone.) So far, all the arm components are still separate. I won't connect the Bells to the shoulder elastic until I suit up, so I'm not worrying about that for now. Likewise, I won't know the necessary spot for attaching the snap at the bottom of the Bells for the Biceps to snap into until I hold the arms up and determine what overall length I need. However, the elbow connection can be done now because that distance was set back in 1977. For screen accuracy, the gap at the back of elbow should be at a bare minimum as it was in the films, so I wanted to shoot for minimal gap even though it's not a requirement for higher levels. (Spoiler alert: not yet, anyway.) I can make any needed length adjustments later at the Bicep/Bell connection. So the bottom line, then, is that I won't be adjusting the arms at the Forearm/Biceps connection, and for that reason I'm skipping snaps here all together and gluing both ends of the 2" straps at this connection (which is also screen-accurate, for that matter). This is most easily accomplished by laying the Forearms and Biceps on their "backs" with the ridged channels touching, and gluing in the straps between the two sections in this orientation. When done, they came out like this. The connected arm at the top of this image is the right arm and, yes, there's a gap on the front at the arched cutout as there should be -- you wouldn't be able to bend your arm otherwise. The backs, however, as shown on the left arm at the bottom of the photo, actually touch where the two ridged channels meet. With the exception of connecting the Forearm/Bicep assembly together, I'm considering the arms done. (As I noted, I'll determine the location of the snap at the Bicep/Bell connection a bit later.) At this point, I set the Forearms, Biceps and Bells aside and kept moving down the arm to the Hand Plates. Lots of ways to attach these -- glued directly to the gloves (required for higher-level rubber gloves), Velcro, straps running down from inside the Forearm wrist opening, etc. I wanted the flexibility to swap the Hand Plates depending on what gloves I'm wearing -- Gorilla Grip gloves in warm weather, Nomex in cold -- so I opted for the two-loop method that many others have used. For each Hand Plate, I started by measuring two lengths of 1" elastic sized to the circumference of my wrist and palm, and then gluing and clamping up the loops. I used Duco Cement here for its quick cure time. In less than an hour I had two loops glued and ready to install for each Plate. You can see here that I started with the palm loop; once that was dry I repeated the process to attach the wrist loops. Below, you can see what the finished Hand Plate looks like with the loops installed, plus what it looks like worn over my Gorilla Grips. These feel pretty good, but I think I may redo the wrist loops someday down the road. They're fine for now, but I think that if I glue in the ends of the wrist loop separately, instead of gluing up a solid loop, and attaching the ends at an angle that it might improve the fit a bit. Still, these fit fine. And, in all honesty, after I've worn them for a while I'll probably not bother redoing them. (Unless the Mr. Hyde OCD side has anything to say about it.) OK, that's it for the arms. I'll do that final snap to connect Bicep-to-Bell, and then attach the full arm assembly to the Shoulder Bridge elastic in the next step. Speaking of which, the next step is -- and I can't believe I'm typing these words -- Final Assembly and Fitting. Seriously, all I have left is to do a full suit-up at which time I'll add the last couple snaps to hang the arms. After that all I have left to do is make and attach the Belt, and attach the Shoulder Bridges and Ab Buttons. Color me psyched!

Thanks for the info, appreciate that. Now I understand.

My pleasure. You see, it was worth it. Your build already benefited from it. This mod looks great. One of the best I have ever seen. When it comes to painting, the spray paint will have trouble getting into these slots. Would suggest to pre-paint those 'hard-to-reach-spots' with a brush first. What an idea to bring the trigger guard into correct shape. Awesome! I built so many blasters and some of them got replacement trigger guards from aluminum, all shaped individually. I never thought about doing something like this. A great solution - might have to copy that for future builds to come. (damn, just completed two blasters and could have used this.

Good luck!

That makes a lot of sense... I'll try that before the crazier ideas I have. Thanks!

If you just want an E11 that will pass, 99% of those build changes you see don't need to be done. You could buy the resin kit, glue it together, spray it black and call it done. The only gotcha for EIB is the rear D ring (well more of a round rect) needs to be added but I did get one in the kit, even if it wasn't great. All the mods you see people do is to make up for some of the detail loss that was needed to be able to make these castings cheaply. Things like holes and deep grooves are filled in so that there's no deep holes in the mould that are prone to tearing. The longer a mould lasts, the cheaper each casting can be.

Sounds good, here's a couple of reference pics

Well to be honest, it’s a detail you can hardly see once the cylinders are complete. But great to know it’s there, though.

Too me, the CRL thighs look to be rotated inwards at the front. There is an uneven amount of rear thigh than front thigh, that may be giving an optical illusion of a large curve in the seam. Whereas the other image supplied of the FOTK thigh is more equal showing less of a curve.

Sorry, about 2mm thick Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Have a look at Tony's Anovos build, he got his to sit nicely, it may help to get yours sitting a little closer

Just with your ab buttons it wouldn't hurt to try to round them off a little more, some are a little raggedy around the edges and some are rather larger, using a toothpick can help remove any paint. As a reference

As much as I read Tony’s Build thread, I always overlooked the belt since mine was already complete. Now that I’m trying to go EIB, I get to revisit his build thread for the belt.

Oh! I didn't even see the pipe kit! I like that! I was considering making the E-11 out of a PVC pipe anyway!

Thanks! I looked at a build thread for the doopydoo's blaster kit. It seemed like there were a lot of large areas that needed to be ground down, and small spots that needed to be filled in.

Thank you for the list of photos you need. Please let me know what photos you need next. I believe that is all the photos you asked for plus the extra plastic trimmed on ear. Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

------- All done. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've got some progress to report, and a question. I went ahead and followed JustJoseph's advice and installed interior cover strips in the calves. I also cut out some material to reinforce the chest piece, but have not yet installed it. Trying to get a flat piece of material to follow the contours of the armor so I could glue it down was giving me issues, so I've set that aside as an "optimization" project once the initial build is complete. After a whole host of things going wrong along the way, I finally finished swapping out the crappy Anovos cloth belt for the stiff one I bought from Rob Kittel. This was something I was dreading from the outset, and it proved to be every bit as troublesome as I'd feared. I won't go so far as to say everything that could go wrong did, but I definitely had issues at pretty much every step. I'm glad its over, and am pretty happy with the result. The only thing left to do is to glue the drop boxes to the belt. I also got my buttons painted and glued to the abdomen. Not the best paint job, but serviceable. For a quick win, I mounted the thigh ammo belt. Actually getting the tools lined up to set the rivets was an interesting challenge. Lastly, I have glued on the sniper knee. The glue is drying and I hope it will hold everything together - the sides didn't have a lot of contact with the shin piece. Question 7: I've got the contours of the sniper knee lined up with the top of the shin piece, but in order to achieve that, I had to twist it to the point that there is this gap between the bottom of the sniper knee and the shin piece. Is that an issue? The CRL doesn't say it has to be flat to the shin, but that is what I was hoping to achieve. In the end I decided to get the contours right and hope this gap doesn't matter.

Thanks to all for the feedback!! And yes, I had Centurion in the back of my mind all the way thru my build. I'll be looking to move up so your suggestions will help me out for sure. And good news - took less than two days for approval! TK-14430 reporting for duty! Looking forward to my first troop and fine tuning my build. Thanks again.

Wow! You put together the scope already. Hope it was fun and easy. Toyr trigger guard is top notch! I ended up making my own as well as the doopy one I received was badly casted and did not fit correctly. You can even add a bit of tapering contour to the guard. Not sure it[f it’s 100% accurate but when I did mine I used the Dday trigger guard as my reference and it was thicker down the middle and tapered on both sides along the edges. This bulld is heating up! Awesome work!

Good work so far! My tip for the inner cylinders: I mixed some fine sand into the paint to imitate the ceramic look.

Hi again, Tonight I try to replicate the color of my ceramic tubes as revealed in Andy's history and analysis pdf. He had created a replica which I am using as reference. Having cut my 1/4" OD tube to length, 37mm, I filled it with green stuff and recessed it a bit then applied grey primer. I then proceeded to mix three colors to get the orangey, oxidated color as revealed on the pdf, check it out! [emoji1] It's coming across quite bright, but better for it so the color will pop against the flat black of the final color of the cylinders. Sent from my SM-G390W using Tapatalk

Haha... don't tempt me!

Nice job on everything. I’m sending over some orders for holsters I need about 20 by tomorrow to get the business started. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Never did post photos of my completed holster! Stitching detail: Snap detail: Blaster strap riveted on back: All done by hand! It was a super gratifying project and surprisingly quick. And I got to make it to my blaster's exact specs.

Dan invited me

Hi Marko, did you already check this power cylinders thread? E11 power cylinders research thread Or Tino's Lucky#Eleven thread? Lucky#11 update 22 - the power cylinders Best regards, Patrick

You're welcome, glad that I can also give something back to the community that has provided me with such a wealth of useful information!

Small update today (less time available now that the holidays are over...) Separating the T-tracks Spent this evening carving the sides of the T-tracks to create the illusion that these are separate parts, which I believe was first done by Dan. I hesitated to use a Dremel cutting disc on this delicate part of the tube, so I decided to use my engraving tool, a small file and 2 wax carving tools (in that order) instead: 20190105_000836 Fortunately I managed to avoid collateral damage and I’m quite pleased with the result: 20190105_001510 20190105_001609 20190105_003745 The more build threads I read, the more ideas I get for my own build. Thanks Tino for convincing me to start my own build thread; I really appreciate the feedback from experienced blaster builders! I also realized that I’m lucky that my electronics kit hasn’t arrived yet. Otherwise I may have rushed to the “pew pew” part, while now I’m taking my time with all the details that really make a difference. Unfortunately that was all that I had time for tonight... Cheers!

Looking good trooper! I would suggest dropping your biceps down a little too as there is a lot up in the shoulder bells and they should be closer to the elbow to close the bicep/forearm elbow gap.

Just an FYI regarding the tube stripes: they are beeing revised for 2019 CRL update and the suggestion is that for Centurion they will need to be no more than a standard pencil width from the cheek. It’s not implemented yet but it’s likely it will.

Plasti-dip is now dry so cleaned it up and put the head-gear back in. Before After