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Still as far away but flying in the opposite direction, looks like I'll miss this one too. But one day, one day

Nice look at the Flamethrower at 27 seconds At 3:48

I've been looking forward to this. Hotel is booked, friends are alerted, fingers are crossed that we can actually go

Had a little extra time to work on the thermal detonator today. Some more progress pictures...

Just an hour drive from me. YAY!! [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

Had a busy weekend and put some hours in on my armour build, thanks again for supplying me with lots of info to carry this forward. Continued with shin rear closures, some trimming and elastics fitted to thighs and a quick suit up for test fitting. Also non build related i enjoyed coverage of Celebration Anaheim via all Social media outlets and thrilled to watch the first 2 episodes of Kenobi. Oh! And Happy 25th anniversary 501st Legion! I was detained by the ISG garrison today at a local charity event for failing to produce my chain code

The Organa Obliterator. The Princess Punisher. The Senator Silencer. The Royalty Reducer. and my personal favorite, The Leia Leveller. My resin QuestDesign broke half of the sight guard randomly on a troop and I found myself on the blasterfactory website buying a metal one to fix the damage. It happened to be during their May 4th sale. They happened to have "ESB E11 kits" on sale with a VERY nice discount, so I ended up with one. I was having a bad day and had the extra cash. A 3rd E-11 became mine. I didn't want another E-11. I'm happy with my Hyperfirm and my QD. But sometimes we just gotta take life as it comes and make space for a new build. Here's the Warmachine after an initial assembly to see how everything fits together. It's just lovely. And surprisingly not too heavy. Fully built, it's about the same weight as my resin QD with the original Stirling stock attached. So anyways, I built this thing and was just smitten. It's such a lovely blaster. I had to build it into something fun, so I started researching and discovered that Mr No-Stripes had an E11 with an M19 scope. A plan formed. The kit came with the M19 scope and T-tracks. I then placed another order for the stuff I was missing - the clip, Hengstler, and power cylinders. I've also got an original Hengstler 400 on the way from @T-Jay. The original counter may get used in another project since I really don't wanna hack it up for the BlastFX, but it'll be really nice to have on hand. And of course I bought the BlastFX kit. I came across a video of a Warmachine E-11 with the kit installed and went completely gaga. No way to not buy it as well. It should be in my hands in 12-16 weeks. So this is gonna be a loooonnnng build. The end is not in sight. Repeat, the end is not in sight. Back to Mr No Stripes. Just look at him. Isn't he heroic? Courageous? A fine figure of a trooper? You can see a lot of details in that above shot thanks to the 4K resolution. His bolt is weathered pretty dark. He's got the chip on top of the scope. There's a shiny rivet on the rear sight. And there are SCRAGGLY WIRES sticking out of his counter and going forward toward the power cylinder. In this shot we can see a bit of key detail - wear on the front power cylinder edges. Very very shiny wear. And also just the bare hint of those scraggly wires. And of course, the hero shot. If the TKs had just stunned Han, Luke, and Chewie in the hanger wouldn't the movie have basically ended right there? But I digress. After sticking my toe into the research and feeling how nice the water was, I went a little deeper. Not much, but into the next scene where Leia is escorted to Vader. Paying careful attention, I was like "oh yes, there's our hero Mr No-Stripes standing behind her right shoulder with his M19 scope." only to be disappointed to see that the trooper in question DID indeed have stripes in about 3 frames of the film. You can just barely see it, but he's a different trooper. Yet it's clearly the same gun. CLEARLY. M19? Check Chip on scope? Check Wear on power cylinders? Check Counter present? Check SCRAGGLY WIRES?!?!?! Check! I did an annotation. The amount of detail that is clearly visible is just outstanding. Love the 4K res screenshots! It even shows that front folding stock greeblie that @justjoseph63 makes. The socket on top of the scope is also really interesting. It looks really tall and if you have a clear enough screen, you can see a bit of separation between the base and the top - I think a chip is actually installed in the socket. So this is the foundation for my entire build - the theory that Mr No Stripes gun and The Escort gun are in fact the same gun. Our hero might not have been carrying it in this particular scene, but it reeeeeaaaaalllllllly looks like the same weapon. It may not be a correct theory, but it sure charges up my imagination and it's the replica blaster that I want to build. And there's a ton of good views of this particular E-11. Combine these pix with the bolt-side view and front view in the hands of Mr No-Stripes and that's about the most complete showing of a prop that a fan can hope for. But that's not all! @PlayfulWolfCub actually created his own replica of this beautiful blaster during his power cylinder production and research. I've borrowed the photos from his PDF. Having this reference from one of the TK Detail Masters is the icing on top. It's gonna be extremely valuable to have as a guide for those slightly blurry parts like the scraggly wires. Anyways, that's my project. I'm excited about this build! (please don't burst my bubble and tell me they're not the same gun)

A few months ago, I got a set of Electrobinocs from @justjoseph63 and have been extremely pleased with them. But... well... I wanted them to DO something. I got the idea to turn them into Bluetooth speakers so they could play the TK Chatter or some music during non-blaster troops. And, fair warning, this is now a finished project. This won't be an ongoing build. I've wasn't even sure I could make this work, so I didn't post up a build thread for the binocs. I didn't wanna be defeated by this little hunk of plastic. This was my first step - hacking open the binocs. I sliced it at the rear intersection as it seemed like the most logical place. I then cut off the lens and drilled a hole in the (extremely thick) resin. Joseph doesn't mess around in the creation of these guys. The resin is VERY thick front and rear. Walls have some decent thickness too. It can face some serious action without being damaged. You know, aside from being hacked up. The front 3/4 is attached to the back eyepieces with 3 screws and a thick layer of glue all around. I used a dremel cutoff wheel to saw it free. I wanted to use the top knob as the volume control, so off it came. It was held in place by a small screw. I bought this little bluetooth amp off amazon... and destroyed it trying to modify the buttons to be remote. I would not suggest anyone get this amp if you want to modify it. I'm pretty good with electronics and regularly solder gauge clusters back together for my day job. Relocating knobs and switches bricked this little guy bad. Recovery wasn't possible. Then I happened across this Bluetooth speaker KIT on Parts Express. It was mentioned offhandedly in a youtube vid that didn't really have anything to do with the project. At the time of this writing, the kit is about $44USD. Check it out on Parts Express. I didn't need all of the parts, expecially the 2.5" speakers, but the kit was much cheaper than buying the parts individually. Separately, the board and wires are more expensive than the whole kit. I also bought the optional battery board and batteries to allow the board to play without being plugged in. A total of about $66USD. I used two of these tiny 1.5" speaker drivers (coincidentally also Dayton) as they juuuust fit into the binocs. If anyone out there decides to use these parts for their own project, I'd highly suggest buying an extra or two of the 2.1mm DC barrel jack. They're quite delicate and I had to buy a spare. One hole wasn't gonna cut it, so I printed a new sensor array in ABS and sliced off the molded one. Not a bad fit! And not a bad finish after a bit of extra sanding. The volume knob board required a very very thin wall to be installed into. So much grinding! And the speaker fit pretty well in the far left of the binoc housing, but not so well toward the right. More grinding. My dremel extension handle got some action. The tiny speakers needed to be stood away from the front holes to allow them to work well. My local Ace Hardware hand 1/4" spacers and associated tiny screws to enable mounting. I believe each of the speakers uses 3 screws to mount. Drilling tiny holes in a deep housing isn't the easiest thing. This extension made it possible. And let me just apologize right here for the severe lack of build progress photos I took. I had roadblocks at like every step of this project. The drill bit extension for example. Every time I hit a dead end and had to wait another week for more parts from amazon, I was uncertain if this thing would ever get finished... so I didn't take many in-progress photos. I think this pic was of the nose and sensor being glued on for the first time in about 2 months. I also placed speaker cloth in each with hot glue. One of the very few pix I took showing the inner parts placement. It's TIGHT in there. Speakers at the very front and just a tiny bit of space between the back of them and the front edge of those huge batteries. The batteries are screwed on in the very front and have some 50lb double sided mounting tape holding them in place in the back. The extra speaker wire and wire bundle for that volume knob are zip tied and stowed to the right side. The main Bluetooth board has barely enough space to be flipped and live right above the batteries. I used the top center button between the viewports as the power switch. The bottom two hide some screws. The bluetooth blue LED indicators light up the viewports. And the wires are indeed everywhere. I tried to tidy them before screwing the two halves together, but was only medium successful. All of the parts hide behind a printed acrylic panel. And here we are! That's a finished and re-assembled Electrobinoculars!!! It doesn't have the front lens anymore, but the opened up sensor array sorta makes up for that lack of magic. I really like the look of that sensor array. Non-cannon LED pilot light are pretty easy to overlook. The little green one comes on when the unit is charging. Red is power. The two things above the power & green LED are my original attempt at power and line in. They didn't go well. They're basically tiny speaker ports now. Power on and blue Bluetooth lights lit. Note the top button - it sticks out slightly and is a latching SPST push button switch. I found a 6mm switch that would fit inside the little button housing. The only downside of this button is that it can spin a bit when pressed. That's just the nature of the switch I used. It's installed tightly, just the button itself that can spin a little. This is VERY hard to see IRL, but it looks pretty cool in the photo. I did a holofoil desert scene with a little sandcrawler. At least it hides the wiring. And here it is!! A working demo vid. I can't wait to troop with it.

On getting my Hero suit approved I need to convert my ABS belt to canvas. I did find a member that made those belts and ordered 2. My current ammo belt is held on by rivets and the caps on the front side are glued on with something other than hot glue. I tried with the hair dryer. I don't want to destroy the front plastic piece I need to attach to the canvas. Does anyone make and sell these pieces by chance?

It's so tempting, yet so expensive. I've been lucky enough to attend both previous London Celebrations and one in Essen Germany. I agree a lottery win would be the answer

Ah I see what you mean, I was primarily focused on the evenness between the end caps and panels. Thanks for the feedback Glen you have well trained eyes for details

Win lottery. Book hotel. Quit job and leave singing and dancing. Finish all the costume builds that I would want to take with me. Look into cost of chartered flight to and from London because #4. Run “Why should I pay for your trip to Celebration” contest. Wake-up, realize that everything above was a dream, and plan for Celebration 2024 (did someone mention Orlando?)

That's good observations and advice, in the previous photo the ab plates are held on with blutac (museum putty) After assembling the TD I trimmed some more off the ab plates and glued them in place, I've not taken a picture yet or painted them, I know it might be a bit trickier to paint now , but sometimes I think I get impatient and make things hard for myself, I wasn't particularly looking forward to painting and decided the progression would be beneficial.

Strapping Systems Rivet Setting 101 by justjoseph63 (Print PDF) Snap Setting 101 by justjoseph63 (Print PDF) Snap Setting Hardware Solutions by TheRascalKing E6000 and Snaps Discussion by Harbinger, Snap Options by ukswrath Snaps with Rivet Heads by TheSwede Split Rivet Placement by DroidHunter How to Use a Rivet Tool by huttman How to Make Snap Plates by stukatrooper Elastic ABS Reinforcement by Cricket Types of Inner Strapping by Shinyarmour1 Internal Strapping by justjoseph63, nrgband Thigh Garter System by Pencap510 Making Thigh Garters by Spectre

That’s absolutely cool!

I'm on the home stretch! Getting the final clips on the shins and thighs.

Hi all, Helmet nearly complete(?) with just a little more painting to do. Whilst I wait for that to dry, can anyone point me in the right direction for any threads that covers the complete list of materials needed for strapping, poppers, hooks (and their sizes). Many thanks.

Hotel booked too...A lot of things can change until then, but...

Not to be too eager but can some one with more of a clue than I chip in with what the det will need to do for a celebration? I only did 1 day at CE3 as it was around the time I cleared so couldn't go as legion/UKG @CableGuy you've just been volunteered too.

Actually I'd buy a new set from Joseph to drop ship to you - would that be OK? Happy to move to DM if that's easier.

Hotel booked! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

About an hour and a half for me! better than a flight across the pond! Hotel booked, my daughter's coming too and excited Hoping to be in my 1st FISD photo, be great to meet others from around the world

Coming along great, Paul! Excellent job on aligning the thigh/calf cover strips, and the shoulder bell/strap gaps are spot-on. I know you had some concern about the calves, but it looks like you conquered them in grand style! It may be the angle of the photo, but in looking at the rear it appears that the outside half of the left one may be a bit long. Note below how the outside top sits higher and the bottom sits lower. If this is the case, I would suggest lining up the tops and then trimming the bottom as seen in the second pic. SUPER easy fix! One other quick thing is that you could raise the ABS belt a bit: You have done an awesome job on this armor, sir, and I genuinely hope to see you apply for Expert Infantry (and then Centurion) once you get Basic approval. Keep up the great work, and keep those photos rolling in! P.S., if you need bail money for the chain code charge we could do a whip-round.

Updated

This is really cool. Would you be willing to do this for someone else as a service? Asking for a friend ;-)

Wow, this is pretty cool. I can't wait to see it completed.

I concur.

Mod F: Coiled wires between the counter and the cylinders were not used on screen, only on promotional pictures. There is also evidence of some counters being additionally supported by a wire, simply wrapped around the scope's feet (see ANH Leia's escort scene for reference). RPF Link

I recall some form of discussion about the wiring on of a counter as well as the wires from the power cylinders to the counter of a couple of blasters.

I include those (strap and name in Aurebesh) on every order.

Finished! Again, please keep in mind that this 3D E-11 kit was apparently designed from the "Battlefront" videogame version so there are some significant differences. Most I could overcome, but a big one was the holes in the shroud. They simply do not correspond to the screen used (MGC) ones. I got as close as I could, so bear that in mind. Once I got ready to mount the U channels I found that my rivet gun was too wide to fit down into the channels themselves (pic 1). After a few choice curse words muttered under my breath I knew had to figure out how to attach them. I briefly considered screws, but it just wouldn't be the same. SO, I separated the rivets (14 of them), separated the mandrels (center parts), cut down the length and epoxied them back into the rivet pins as seen in the second 2 pics below. I should have mentioned before that when building the main body that I installed a thin metal tube inside the shroud to give the appearance of an actual barrel. Oops. My plan ended up as seen below (pic 1). Drill out the holes on the channels and shroud/barrel (just as one normally would) but I epoxied each modified rivet in. I was afraid this may make it sort of fragile, but after the epoxy set they are actually very sturdy. WHEW! HINT: Drill all holes in the channels and shroud BEFORE attaching them. The holes for the rivets were integrated into the print, but they did not line up correctly (mainly due to the barrel mods) so I drilled new ones. Hint: Make sure the holes for the rivets are between the holes in the shroud (pic 2). The channel that sits on the left side will have to have the bottom bent down on the front to accommodate the front "D" ring. HINT: Attach the D-ring/mount AFTER attaching the channels. The stock that came with the kit was too long after cutting down the length of the of the shroud earlier , and to add some "heft" I used a real vintage Sterling folding stock for this build, which differs slightly from the original- especially in the area seen with the red arrow (first pic). Not too noticeable, but I hope it doesn't keep me up at night thinking about it.** I did add the rivet on the side, which as I mentioned before will prevent the stock from extending. **It will. After touching up the paint and letting that dry overnight, I added some light weathering. Had these made for all my display pieces. And that's it. Finished, and finally added to my "wall-o'-weapons". To anyone who has followed this, thanks for looking! U-Channels- After spending more time that I care to admit to searching for these, I finally found a seller (George) on the RPF. Once he got them made shipping was fast and I honestly could not be more pleased with the quality. A little pricey, but well worth every cent in my opinion. Link to his sales thread on the RPF here. UPDATE: I did not realize that the seller was actually Caleb @TKCaleb who has been a member here since 2008. SO- it looks like you can contact him here as well!

Could we be a step closer to knowing what these parts actually were used for? Thanks to Daniel O'Keeffe this looks to be the closest we have come in over 40 years. Here is the full story from the man himself Daniel O'Keeffe but first I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome Daniel to the FISD forums and thank him for allowing me to share the below information, taking us another step closer to solving the mysteries of this found part mystery. Following information and images property of Daniel O'Keeffe I have recently come into possession of a pair of genuine 1970's aerators. I'm posting this up here as I think it could be of interest to a lot of people and wish to gauge that interest for reasons I'll explain a little further down. Just to give a little background on this, back in 1977 as a young boy a friend of mine saw an afternoon matinee screening of ANH at the cinema and at the time recognised what the parts were on the helmet. After watching said matinee he then got his father to take him to a plumber's merchant where he was bought a set of these aerators and they just sat there in a tub for years. Sadly he passed away and whilst helping to clear out some rubbish from his house I clocked these parts in a pile earmarked for the bin. Now what is interesting is that it opened up a couple of previously unknown things about the tips, namely that there was a serated push fit tube on the back of these which fitted into a hose. What is now obvious is that these were cut off from the original backs for the threads to fit through and attach to the helmets. Another thing that stands out is the internal fitting, in the past I have seen the pictures Gino Sabatino shared of the hero helmet aerator and the insert appears to be a one piece. It isn't, the middle piece is actually a two piece moulding that fits together. Something else that doesn't seem present on the screen used tips is a black O ring seal. As you can see from the pictures the colour itself is actually off white, with a definite yellow tinge to the plastic as opposed to an all white moulding. When I first saw this part I actually thought it was a resin cast as the colour was very reminiscent of a polyurethane casting resin I use and to be honest I almost dismissed it! I think it's fairly obvious that these were moulded in different shades of plastic, and that the internal components were also moulded in different colours as Gino himself in the past has stated he had seen a mix of aqua and white. Another difference to the screen used tips and these is the filtration mesh, this is a different pattern. From what I can ascertain there is a moulded groove on the inside lip and you can see how the mesh was inserted from the inside before being fixed in with an adhesive. Another interesting thing about these was that he actually had what appears to be the connecting hose that they fit into. When I found the first one it was sitting in the wider end of the tube but I actually think it's supposed to fit in the narrower end and the wider end fitted onto a tap or a tap adapter. This would make sense of what my friend had told me a while back, that these aerators were tap mixers for hot and cold taps back in the 70's. The tube itself bears a very consistent appearance to how they appear today, they are called rubber swirl mixers and are still in manufacture although not to this exact design. Also the rubber on this is obviously aged and shows signs of perishing particularly at the base where the aerators would most likely connect. I think for this reason the aerator was stuck in the larger end to prevent the narrower part from further deterioration. So onto the great unanswered question... what I HOVI MIX pa2? Well, on that one I really have no answer I'm afraid. Like most people curious about these I've spent far more time than is healthy trying to track this info down. I've even tried thinking outside the box I case VI is actually roman numerals rather than text! I have asked around several old time plumbers and will continue to do so but for the time being all professional opinion seems to agree that this is actually the part code or name as opposed to a manufacturers name. One thing that does seem a lot simpler to clear up however is what pa2 means, this is simply the formulation of the aerators' operation. P= pressure, A = area and the 2 is the equal mix of water and air into the nozzle. So far all attempts to identify a manufacturer have proven fruitless. One thing that does seem conclusive is that this was a UK manufacturer rather than an imported product. My initial hope was that if somebody I talked to could have identified the part there may have been an outside chance of then finding the company that sold these and then the manufacturer and pursuing the chance the dies could have still been in existence with a view to recommencing manufacture. Sadly this seems to be impossible to bring to fruition. So, what I have done is what I hope will be the next best thing. I am currently part way through the process of having these parts reverse engineered. At the moment I'm still in the early stages but my plan is to have these parts remanufactured exactly as they would have been back in the 70's. This means having them produced as injection moulded pieces and making them available to the community. As of yet I'm afraid I can give no further details for the simple reason I don't have any myself at present, but as soon as I know I will be making it known! Below is the YouTube video that RS Propmaster posted on Daniels beautiful pieces.