askernas

Now, how often you have people looking on the underside of your weapon is another thing ...

Indeed the holes do go all the way through =) ... another reason why I've been gouging out the innards of the stock with my dremel ... to put a very strategically placed piece of styrene on the inside! =)

So, Time to start my pipe kit DVH E-11 blaster! =) I've started with a normal DVH Kit, ordered Marv's Tracks (yet to arrive), and awaiting a D-ring from Karin! I am following Nicky's build and others to see what they did, and what mistakes to not repeat =) Since we already have great guilds on these, I have not really taken that many pics on the build as of yet, but got a few =) I started with cleaning up the folding stock. I cleaned up the sides, cut away the pour spout towers and got rid of the residue from the making. Then time to bring out the dremel! I gave the stock a proper sanding, and started cutting pieces out. I looked at some reference pics of the folding stock, and dremeled out the area in the front, and also drilled out the holes in the folding stock. Once that was done, I also dremeled out parts of the stock to make it more hollow and allow for the stock to get closer to the barrel. Did some sanding of it all, and ended up covering it in bondo, to get it real smooth and also to fix some flaws caused by bubbles when this was poured. A little putty got inside the dimple here, but that will be removed later before painting. Here you can see the dremeled out inside hinted... Bubbles in the making are being covered in layers of putty... if this isn't strong enough, I've found a tube of milliput laying around that I'm not afraid to use.. When this was put to rest, it was time to shift my focus to the pipe.. Barrel to be! First off, I realized that the max length I can get out of my barrel is 17 1/4", which means that it is 1.5" too short for the length indicated on the template. I'm not worried at this point. I will see what I can do with the end cap, and possibly extend the pipe with some styrene I have laying about since my R2 build. Anyway, I printed out the templates, cut them to size and sprayed them with repositionable glue to stick to the barrel. I then marked all the holes with awl, and use my cone shaped roter bit on my dremel to drill the basic holes in the barrel before I took my step drill and drilled to size. Being in Europe, I opted for 10mm on the main holes and 12 mm for the 1/2" holes. Pipe in the drill phase... the small holes are from the dremel, and this is how far I got before my cordless ran out of batteries.. Looks pretty good so far =) It was then time to do the scary bit: To cut out the long straight pieces with the dremel. I think it worked out quite well, after all:

So, after finding textile colour, I painted the elastic band on my shoes: I also added two more layers of paint, and spent a good 20 minutes removing hairs form my brush that evidentally got stuck in the leather paint. The last two layers, I've put on with a sponge. After removing the tape (I will still go over the textile one more time when it has dried) this is what it looks like: Once that was done, it was time to do the dreaded stripes. They are all done freehand. 7 stripes in the tears, 12 in the rear traps, and one stripe on the ears painted. I think it came out pretty ok, what do you guys think? I tried to not be too precise with the length of the stripes in the rear, as I've seen them vary slightly..

Thanks, I went with 12 stripes. The blaster build will be a lot of fun, but first I plan on getting the trooper done.. we'll see.. I tend to jump inbetween projects =)

Well, today was much too hot and nice to actually do anything on my TK! Besides, I still haven't found out the exact amount of lines on the back trap. From the screen used helmets it seems that 12 is the number to go, even though I have counted 13 on a screen used helmet. I did do some painting today, though. I took out my black jodphurs and figured I could at least start on doing something with them... Before starting: I then used paper and acetone and started rubbing the outermost coat off. The perfect place to do this was on the stove with the fan going. I am normally quite sensitive to glue and paint smells and almost always use a respirator, but with the stove fan on full, I didn't even smell the acetone. Rubbing off just fine... When I started, the protective layer on the shoes was very hard and glossy, and very "slippery" to touch. After removing the protective layer and most of the colour, the boot is now quite dull and feels almost rubbery to touch. see the difference? So why remove the coat with acetone? Well, I read somewhere that it helps the paint to adhere a lot better, and even though the screen used boots were in quite various shapes, I still figured I'd do it proper. Both booths cleaned up as much as I could with a 150 ml bottle of acetone all gone... Once this was done, I masked the sole of the boot with masking tape, and took out my paints: Angelus Leather Paint it is! Once I was finished with both boots, the paint had dried up enough for me to put on a new coat. It is a bit late, so I stopped at three full coats tonight. I may do some fine sanding tomorrow and get a bigger paint brush to get the last layers smoother and more even, but for now, doesn't look too bad, I think =) Today also marked the arrival of my Blaster Kit! Woohoo! Earlier this week, my Silicone handguards arrived, but no D-ring in the package.. Now I got to figure out a good way to glue the silicone to the plastic back on the gloves I have.. Tomorrow will most likely be the second to last last day of painting. I will add the bucket stripes and ear stripe ... and some minor touching up.. but apart from that I think I'm good. Apart from the screws that holds the ears in place... I forgot to buy humbrol white... I must do something about that. Also: I need to pick up a good paint for the elastics on the boots. Seems the Leather Paint doesn't work there... (I tried...) All in a day's work!

Tonight will be the day where ol' stripey will get painted! Been such an awesome weather today, so I haven't touched the helmet at all! 7 stripes on the front it is. I've been looking at screen used ref pics, and I've seen pics of screen used buckets with 13 stripes and 12 stripes on the rear traps. This was on two separate helmets, and it was 13 stripes on the rear left and 12 stripes on the rear right. Not sure if it was different on some helmets, or just a mistake =)

I wouldn't bet on that .. I'm just taking things slow, allowing things to take time. I did start with painting the black outlines, spent some time with a toothpick and paint thinner afterwards to remove some of the tiny mistakes I didn't like, and then when I started painting in grey, I just painted not fully out to the black line. If I made a mistake (and I did) I could simply wipe off that bit with a piece of tissue and try again.. and the more I was painting, the better the results =)

I'm having a lot of fun making the helmet so .. get cracking thanks

Thank you for the tip on the teeth. Got that from TK-54321 as well on our garrison forum. The teeth holes have been squared a little before the second coat of paint was done =)

Thank you! I do have an approved TB already, so my plan is not to rush this build, but letting it take its time. I'm going for quality and trying to get the details done on this build =)

Painting Day #2: After filing my teeth a little more square (on the helmet, not in my face), I've managed to find time to paint the helmet twice today. The bucket is now drying until tomorrow, but here's a teaser pic..

Paint Session #1. I started doing a bit of painting on my bucket today. My plan is to outline the tears and traps with black and then fill them from inside with grey. It is easier to get a smooth line this way instead of painting it in grey first and then try and get a smooth painted outline in black. While doing that, I also painted the vocoder and the frown.. and also outlines for the ears .. Please note that this is only the first coat. I will be making a second coat as well to get it nice and smooth, and will smooth out some of the lines while painting. I'll be bringing out my fine detail brushes, that I used to paint eyes on my old warhammer figurines with.. 'Nuff talking, let's see some pics! ... and the final picture..

I found an instructable for painting boots white that I was going to try. This is for the leather part, obviously, but the elastic will be painted afterwards: http://www.instructables.com/id/Painting-Leather-Shoes-or-other-leather-stuff/

So, this build day still hasn't ended.. well it has now =) I did start working on them ears, and wanted to share the progress... My first ear from the front: and from the back: The second ear from the front: .. and from the back: A face pic with both ears attached...