Lichtbringer

My pleasure. You´re a good guy. Beeing no trooper myself i still like the "trooper helping trooper" idea, and i´m sure you´ve passed the karma-thing to another trooper in need of whatever. If not yet, then in the future.

Andy, remember - only one person is needed to buy from you, to get all the measurements they would need. It´s part of the game when selling things. There is no safety ..... just the knowing that cheaper copies, made to generate a max profit, are usually never on par with the copied product. If they were, they would often have the same price. Of course, that´s something what can always happen to everyone. To counter that you give the best you can, that´s all you can do.

Aye, i second that. But i´m someone whos real parts E-11 is not the most expensive blaster in my collection (more on the "cheaper" side of it) - so i know i´m a blaster-freak. :-) Most are not, so my point is that due to no big market for really expensive parts there is no big danger to have them copied accurately in bigger numbers. Someone might take influence from these new discoveries, but the mass market is another market, there is no place for to much details, that needs to be paid for the extra time in making.

Andy, to be honest - i don´t think you need to be to worried about that problem. Makers who want to make cash from such stuff, need to make numbers to lower the production costs. To make numbers you need a kind of simplified design that can be cnc´d easily (basically the correct shape but without the sloppy work the propmakers of SW used to do). Most costumers want it cheap and are not willing pay high prices, only a few nuts do that - so there is also no big market for very high priced parts, that would justify the cnc´d parts to have additional treatment by hand to achieve the sloppy SW look. Many small but remarkable details in the sloppy work on the originals happened due to using simple conventional machines, handdriven and without cnc, under time pressure and not looking for even spaces and so on. When i get the real parts and the new cnc´d addons for a collectors build, it´s usually more work to make the cnc´d parts look conventional, than to build the gun/piece itself. That, and the hard to come by real parts (capacitors), are the limiting factors in production. Real collectors that are willing to pay high prices are usually not interested in resin copies when the real parts are identified. No, i see no big problem. If someone is gonna start to make them, they will have the usual shortcuts most parts have that are made in numbers (but i´m not saying that handmade parts are in general better, most are not - it´s a walk on a knifes edge to get the correct amount of straightness and sloppyness). If you have more accurate plans than the one you showed here makes no difference - first there is no way to prove that they are really more accurate, as thay all are only extrapolated from pics without having the real deal to compare. Second the theoretical accuracy needs to be replicated accordingly, otherwise the plans accuracy means nothing. 0,5mm/0,02" is not much difference, but for someone paying a high price it should be - that´s what calipers are for. ;-) So, that´s why i don´t think you need to get a headache. :-)

Hi Andy. No, nothing is done other than that what you see on the pics. My mill is out of order at the moment - and even if it would be running, i have no idea how to make it, yet. I could mill it from angled profiles or bend sheet - or cut it with scissorlike metal cutter from the same stuff, which would generate a completely different appearance, even with the same dimensions. And as we have no closeups yet, to see what they have done when cutting up the full racks, i bet Murphy will take care that every decision is the wrong one. Sort of, yes. I usually don´t do big runs for money. I bought my machines cause i was unhappy with the available parts i´ve bought just one time to often. Now i make parts for myself, friends, or sometimes collectors that commision me for a build with real parts. And on rare occasions i sell superfluous parts on the RPF, or try to help others out when they ask me and i have free timeslots.

That´s a great idea, cause i have no idea what to charge, if i decide to sell some. Now i can wait what prices you gonna ask - and then decide if that is to much und stay under it, or wait until you run out of accurate material and then ask more.

Me too. The Eagle on the movie used Hengstlers is the version we are still using as our official coat of arms, not the Nazi-Version as it would be if the are from WW II. The H-version was probably for common industrial use, the eagle-version for use in machines under governmental control (Postal service and others). The letters DBP on them indicate Deutsche BundesPost (German Federal Postservice). People tend to make such things older as they are, to justify the insane prices. But i have written all that stuff somewhere here before.

Don´t worry, it REALLY looked bigger - due to the clear shrinkisolation, one version was very thin and the other much thicker.

Not sure how long the WW II was in Michigan, but they were build for sure after the war in Europe ended (modernized versions were still made and sold for industrial use). ;-) In WW II they would have had the Nazi-Swastika, or the Nazi-Eagle with wide spread wings and a small Swastika in his claws - but the Hengstlers wer made with the Eagle that was established by the Bundesrepublik Deutschland, waaaay after the war. If i have to guess ..... maybe 50s, more 60s. Millions were made, next to all were thrown away.

They are not different sized, only in the range this old stuff always has, maybe around 0,5mm in length (0,02") - just shrinkcoated with different thick isolation stuff, and a different type of printing. Here they are after peeling them out of that stuff, the upper is type A and the lower Type B Not sure what to to - making 5 sets of 2, 3 sets of 3, or 4 sets with 2x3 and 2x2? I suppose i will go the 4 sets route......

Finally i decided to start the first of my improved sets: to replace the old one:

Lindisfarne?

That´s a "singlepoint" scope, sort of a early red-dot. They (or casts of them) were used on many SW blasters (Scouttrooper blaster, Chewies Bowcaster, Rebels Blastech A280 and similar, IG 88s DLT 20A, and probably most famous: Blastech DH17 Tantive Rebel Troopers). No longer in production since many years, usually not cheap to get.

The bolts on my Sterling are not metric. My metric Allen keys are not matching the bolts heads.

Jens, i had the same type of conversation, starting with local departments, ending at a discussion with the BKA weapons department. Due to beeing a open bolt construction, the usual deactivation mods are not having the same effect. My selection lever is welded, and my trigger is moveable, but has no connection to the bolt (which is milled down but completly moveable), so it is as if there never was a trigger. On a standard gun that would make it non firing as the trigger releases the shot, on a open bolt automatic gun you could fire a full mag with just cocking and releasing the bolt ... but you couldn´t stop it from firing as long as rounds are in the mag, here the trigger catches the bolt in it´s end position between 2 rounds. I assume that´s why in the US they decided to the only deac that always works, cutting it in pieces. That, in combination to it beeing a possible hidden automatic weapon due to beeing under 60cm, makes it already a walk on knifes edge when you don´t change anything just to toy around with additional moving parts. After all the BKA guys said "keep it as it was after deac, every change you do is one step further to jail - no matter if it really has any effect or not. Off course you can add the wanted scope and the other stuff, but don´t mess with anything deac related."

Jens, with modifying the deac mods you have one foot in jail already. A sterling (as a automatic, and especially due to it´s small size which allows to carry it hidden, iirr cause under 60cm) goes here under the Kriegswaffenkontrollgesetz, and a violation of that law is usually harder punished than having a live firing hunting rifle without permission, which would only fall under the regular gun-law. If possible you should mod it back to it´s deac status the same way you got it.

Wildeshausen to Bottrop is not "a few Km from me".

Not everyone likes it. Somehow interesting, but alltogether it looks as if a drunken Padawan has build it from parts found on a scrapyard under some Bantha poodoo. It´s crappy appearance makes it the least imperial/shiny looking saber i can imagine. Looks on a white trooper as a chromed helmet on a camouflaged GI - plain wrong.

OK, then i´m at the beginning, again. What would you all use it it would be your comlink? Keiths? Or Marks? Or is that the kind of question that should not be asked/answered publicly, due beeing as walking through a minefield between 2 sides?

Thanks Mathias. Defstartooper at the RPF mentioned also the guys from RS, with casts from their screen used Helmet-tips. Someone out there who has bought all these 3 offered (or at least 2) over the time, and can give his assesment on them?

Yesterday i was toying around with some new stocked Delrin - i made the scope for my Jabbas palace guard blaster, and as machined Delrin has the tendency to mess absolutly the whole shop, i made another part to have only one cleanup. The second part became the grill, that was original intended as the ribbed part on Leias ANH-Trooperkiller - but i messed my measurements and it ended 3mm to long. <_< -------------- So i was thinking "why not build a commlink from it?" For a commlink i need a mic-tip - and i´m not that educated on this part as you guys are, so i request your help. I know that they are offered by Mark and Keith (anyone else?) ...... if i decide to make a commlink from it, i only would need a single one. They come in pairs, so when paying for 2 and international shipping while only needing one, i want to end with a really good one. Prefered not completly hollow with a "interesting" looking inner part behind the screen, not already black painted and then assembled as i need it a shiny white, should be with a hole in the back to use a bolt to fasten it. Now my main question: For what version shall i go? Any advice is appreciated.

I assume you don´t plan to sell one? If yes (whenever) - please shoot me a line/pm before going public. Btw. i need more t-track - bumped, äääh .... posted in your RPF thread.

That´s something heard from time to time, yes. Have you tried it via their ebay shop? People say that´s much faster.

But there can never be the same pride in a bought piece, as in a selfbuild blaster.

Ad far as i´ve learned in the US the receiver tube of the Sterling is considered a automatic weapon, in both cases: just the tube or fully equipped. No matter if you have a real sterling or just a piece of steeltube that was drilled and slotted accordingly, you better take care you have the legal permission to own it.