Bulldog44

If the aluminum tube doesn't break the bank, give it a try, you can always order a Doopy pipe build kit to use your PVC tube. Then you'll have 2 blasters!

I must give credit to the Original Stormtrooper e-11 for that idea. i just adopted it to a different use. The locking switch would have been cooler but then I would have to rip off the aluminum plate, carve out a suitable space to house the clicking dial and then try to cover it ll back up. I can still try this but it might just all go to hell in the process. Looking forward to your idea Ian. You can certainly pull off whatever you are planning, just take lots of time out to choose you best way to attack it. I know that feeling of uncertainty all too well. Just go for it when you feel ready! Your build is top class so I am sure you can do it! Hi Derrek, I am fully to blame for that. I must have used a bit too much pressure when I used the dremel sending tip. Plus my eyes were sleepy and its much harder to see how the resin is reacting because its black. The cracks show up easy on the tan resin but black resin is harder to notice sudden cracks. I think its still usable but there is slight bulging on one side from the base walls cracking apart.

Stunning craftsmanship on the receiver tube! Looks like it just came off the assembly line.

No go in Japan for a real Sterling. I would certainly end up in prison for even trying to bring parts in the country from what I have heard. I will probably buy a parts set next year and keep that at my US address and dream of one day putting a metal pipe build together! I got the idea of using headphone jacks to literally plug parts onto the blaster from The Original Stormtrooper blaster seen on the website. This was when I had no idea about that site and all the press about the guy who runs that. Well, the blaster has the magazine connect to the mag housing with a stereo jack. I thought this was an interesting idea so it stuck with me until I started this build. But I thought it would work well with parts that need to rotate yet stay in place. The selector switch was a perfect test for this idea so against the direct orders of usaeatt2 to get some slip, I battled sleep until the late hours drilling and testing the stereo jacks on the selector switch and the FREE/LOCK pin. The FREE/LOCK pin can turn but I need to glue the female jack into position and then glue the retaining pin on the other side. Here you can see I drilled the hole for the female jack for the selector switch. The drill bit went a bit off course. The hole ended up a bit wider than I hoped for and a little off center from my indented mark. After a little further clearing out of the hole the female jack slid in nice and snug and almost perfectly flush with the metal surface. ( when the selector switch base just covers the entire hole so its barely visible.) Had to get some sleep so I didn't have time to glue the male stereo jack part to the selector switch. I mocked it up once and it fits like a charm. My only regret is that the placement is a millimeter or so leaving a visible gap between the selector base and the the raised resin surface. I first tried to drill out the hole needed to fit the male jack into the switch base on a Dday selector switch but it started to crack along the base walls. I am trying to repair it but it might not be salvageable. Sorry Dday for messing that up. The price I pay for trying to work while half asleep. The selector switch turns very smoothly and not too loose. I really wanted to add a switch that has locking positions when you turn it, (clicking switch). That would require more heavy resin surgery and better to try on my DVH kit. Once I get the jacks glued to all the pieces I will post more photos. Next step will be sorting out the trigger spring. Looking into air gun parts for an easy to drop in solution. Something like this:

Congrats! The ultimate blaster for a TK. Envious!!!!

Just got this book for my elementary school library. The kids are going nuts over it. Very nice indeed but it was a big disappointment they didn't have more complete TK armor shots for ANH. Well researched though and still worth it to buy.

Aaron and Derrek, thanks for sharing the workings of the Sterling grip and trigger assembly. Really cool to know these thing I as the build continues. I have a deeper appreciation for all the work that went into the making of this gun. Makes me want to buy a real one. I know there is the sterling manual to view on this forum but you guys should create some fun "Sterling SMG for Dummies " visual guides. Then greenhorns like myself can quickly look up and correctly label parts in our posts without those "thingy" descriptions. Lol! This is the best TK online course!

Sorry to bore with more of the same stuff I have been working on. Just some minor details added and promised photos taken before I passed out from lack of sleep. Trigger in place with: need to epoxy the nut side but otherwise this is how it looks. I replaced the small round head button-like thingy with an aluminium round head rivet. Almost the same size. The drilled hole is slightly too big so it just keeps falling out. Hoping to connect it to the screw that goes through the grip from the other side with some threaded bolt.Tried it but no luck getting it to fit just yet. Opposite side of the grip showing the screw that holds the trigger in place and the slotted brass screw. ( Thank you Tino for the screw! Perfect match.) If I get this put together properly, the screw should be free to turn to lock mode to prevent my blaster from accidentally zapping innocent citizens of the Empire. Here are some more shots of the power cylinders with some details added. Wires & some soldering. - The solder would not part from the soldering iron so I had to just force it to drip off on my cutting mat and glue the spattered solder into place. I do not have much experience with soldering irons yet so maybe I was doing something wrong.Lots of flux spilling off and some burn marks but it gives it a realistic feel. This closeup isn't doing it much justice. The wiring was not easy to install and keep in place so I drilled tiny holes & ran it through to the bottom, then formed them stick out on the front lip. For the back wires I had to color them with a permanent marker but when the soldering iron and the superglue came in contact of each other, it started to melt things a bit and the red coloring with the superglue turned orange. again the solder didn't want to stick so I had to glue some in places. I tried to make it look like Andy's braided wiring pattern but that was too difficult with the wiring I had. The braided wiring came from an old halogen bulb I saved from my previous SUV fog lamp. It wanted to pay respects to that old work horse and keep one piece of it alive. Rest in peace Pajero! The dimensions for the Doopy power cylinders are a little bigger than Andy's cylinders (but not as wide across). It was a tough choice to match the parts in size or use slightly larger parts to accommodate the Doopy cylinders. This is the best I can do with this and maybe another attempt will produce more accurate results. I will leave that challenge for another build. Once this is prime coated it will start to look a lot better. Up next I will add the selector switch once I get the final part need to make it work as planned. If I can fight off sleep tonight, I will have an update tomorrow!

No sweat Dday. It's better than my first thought which was " the metal thingy with the brass tube"! Learn something new everyday.

Simply beautiful! Your attention to detail and dedication the get the original hardware is amazing, Builds like this make me question whether I need to chuck out my armor and start over again.

Thanks Aaron. I have used your previous metal pipe build a lot to get things to look as good as possible. The power cylinders are a bit of a disappointment when you compare them to Andy's and the ones you made on your pipe build. Every time I look at reference pics, I find something way off on mine. I might try and make my own someday but the caps look daunting to create without proper tools. I spent the past two nights trying to get those braided wires to set nicely using superglue. I replaced the loss of skin with a double layer of superglue. Sorry about the sterling part mislabeling and thanks for correcting me. Wasn't sure what to call that part but now i know! Extractor sounds a lot better too! Don't know why I called it a firing pin.....you can clearly see I know nothing about real guns! Up close my homemade extractor doesn't look that accurate but I am happy you give your seal of accuracy. I spent all last weekend shaping it and getting a snug fit.just got to set it in place . I am not planning on painting the bolt. I will tone down the shine a bit more and rub on some black shop grease and see if that gives it a better look. If that fails then maybe a semi-transparent wash of color. Painting it over entirely would cause it to lose that real metal look I was hoping to capture. If you have any other suggestions I can try please let me know.

It's a good time to be building a blaster, so many talented people to pull ideas from and get great solid advice. I hope many of these custom mods find their way to newer members to access. Digging through the build posts is fun but it would be cool to have a simple visual guide to all the different mods to pick & choose from as you journey through your build. I will put up some photos of my semi-finished power cylinders tomorrow! Got the wires installed but forgot to take pics.

Wasn't sure I got the size correct but glad you approve! My finger tips lost posts of skin sanding those tiny pieces down. Your power cylinder mod is proof you can turn something average into something super cool. It's been fun and challenging to incorporate your ideas for the cylinders. Hats off to you for those ideas! I will add the wires tonight if I get time.post photos when I get it done. Thanks. I am always worried about sealing up these parts and lose access once its painted . so I am trying to stick to ideas that allow for more flexibility to make repairs or add ideas later on. Maybe the metal sleeve has been done before but if not, hope this helps future builds. I guess if I build another 20 doopy kits with the same firing pin, I will be able to make use of all that brass.Lol! I will never exactly know how much money I have already spent on all the little parts and materials for this build. Probably best not knowing......just keep steaming ahead!

Good to have friends with torches! That's cool you can separate those parts like that.

Battling a week of on and off again headaches, I managed to get some small details finished before the pounding set in. Trigger work: I wanted to be able to remove the trigger in case I had trouble with the electronics so I first drill a hole through the trigger assembly and drilled on hole a bit wider to fit a small nut. The nut fits in the hole really snug and won't turn when I tighten and loosen the screw that will hold the trigger in place. I fit a tiny section of brass tubing in the trigger for the screw to run through this way there is no wear and tear on the resin trigger. Here is the screw that will run through the hole. When all installed the screw is flush with the trigger assembly wall and will not be an eyesore. The hole with the nut will be filled with epoxy to cover it all up. I will post a photo later with the trigger in place. Firing Pin finished. Tino made a nicer solid firing pin but I couldn't replicate that so I used a few layers of aluminium and PVC to appear as a solid piece. Just a mock up but it looks good so far. Spent 2 bucks on brass tubing for just that tiny piece. Finished piecing the power cylinders parts together: Messy wire work and some crooked end caps but I was in a haste to get things rolling again. Just need to install the wires Thats all for now!

Great job Kyle.

Welcome Roy. Thanks for offering these to the community here and I hope I didn't offend you in any way about production & pricing. Now knowing more about the cost of getting these things made makes the pricing totally understandable and reasonable for sure. Thanks as well for lowering the price to meet the e-11 dimensions. As DDay said, there needs to be some meat on the bone to actually make it worth selling. Appreciate all your hard research and work to get these made and have them on the market. The tracks look great and hope to order some of those sometime soon for my next pipe build. Best of luck and look forward to seeing many new e11 builds with your t tracks on them, including mine!

I think it is a decent title and hopefully implies a return to a more legendary exploration into what is the force than just the ridiculous midichlorians in the prequels. Maybe they will trash that idea as some stupid false Jedi teaching and re-deliver it as a mysterious power that is yet to be reckoned with . It will be a fun one year to find out. Even if the title / movie disappoints, we will always have the original movies to watch a million times over.

This is going to be awesome! That's one expensive tube but it will turn out great. Can't wait to see what different parts you'll use. Breaking new ground here.

Great work on the front sight Ian. I wouldn't start over unless you really feel like that mm is going to drive you crazy. You can always add a bit of green stuff me file it down to your liking. I am working on mine now and even though I am trying to stick to Aaron's measurements, its always a tad bit off. I will most likely try the dovetail notch to fit my front sight but I think yours rounded on the bottom sits nicely on the pipe.

Thanks for sharing. It's always good to have more options. . I would hope that making these t tracks long term would eventually make back the investment to create custom extrusions, then these tracks could be offered at a lower price. That's probably wishful thinking.

Thanks for taking time to look at my build and happy you are liking the upgrades. thanks to you and too many people to name, the inspiriration came from so many cool builds. The doopy kit is really an open canvas for customizing and I think there will be more cool upgrades to be seen and invented. No problem about the magazine. Your mag is super real and I had to make it fit. It does feel sturdier with the magazine inserted into the mag port. I will need care when I need to remove it or reinsert. A small sacrifice for a better look! I will assemble the pipe and the cube as flush as possible. I think the pipe fell down before I took the photo. Thanks for the heads up and reference pic. There are too few photo shots from underneath the sterling to refer to. Yes, the armor! I am having so much fun on this I have delayed finishing that up. Just need to glue on the shoulder bridges, paint the AB buttons & rivets, readjust the chest elastics and that's it I think. I will build another troop only helmet with all the Internal gadgets soon after. For now, I will use the one I bought built by RS. Keep the pressure on me or I will never get done!

Special thanks to usaeatt2 (Aaron) for posting the front sight block measurement diagrams. With those numbers in hand I got right to work last night and started cutting and filing some PVC to construct a new front sight block for my blaster. The Doopy one I spent many hours on started to crack and chip apart when tried to install the grub screws. I originally used a filler epoxy from Tamiya to build up layers on the sight block but it wasn't the right stuff to use. I am now using another Tamiya smooth surface epoxy that is designed for sculpting to do that kind of work. But for the sight block I am using some PVC that is sold at the local home center which I believe is used for window installation or some kind of sliding door track parts. It is very solid but soft enough to cut & file to shape. Easier to construct in two parts that one so here are the initial sight block pieces cut and sanded to about the exact dimensions provided by Aaron. Just used a ruler and file to arrive at the final shape. Lots of staring and filing and more staring until I think it looks about even all around. Oh and I added the crosshatching pattern to the sight block housing/cage? Its going to be hard to get all those intricate details in there but I will leave that for another night this week. If all fails, try again. Happy with the initial pieces so far. Next up, I sculpted the end cap of the inner bar for the folding stock. For this I again used a basic square piece of PVC and added a 2 mm layer of Tamiya smooth surface epoxy. I glued together a stack of 4 clear acrylic washers to establish the round screw hole and added epoxy to create the tapering round/ball effect on the front of the piece. I don't have any measurements for this part so I just eyeballed it with reference to some great photos Dday posted for me. My Doopy stock seems a bit off on the length just where this part peeks out from the back so if the positioning looks odd, please let me know. Without a real Sterling folding stock in hand, its hard to judge if this is okay or not. I spent a lot of time this weekend creating the firing pin parts for the bolt but that has been a tough mod so I will post more on that when I get further down the line. Hoping to get my power cylinders all assembled next as well. Jumping back and forth on all these little details but the blaster should start to take more shape soon.

The crosshairs look great. Nice idea using the thread! And good idea using the styrofoam box for painting. Definitely you have that photographer eye!

Hi Tyler. The RS chest plate has an odd shape which makes fitting a little difficult. I have the same problem on my RS suit and what sort of helped tighten up the chest plate closer to my body was the make the belt tighter around the AB plate and kidney plate. You will end up with overlapping on the sides for those parts but it will pull the right & left chest bracket elastics tighter , and the chest plate should pull closer on the sides giving a nicer fitted look. I wouldn't trim anything more off on the torso parts, RS trims them as they were on their suit. If you get the belt tighter and it still feels too roomy, you might want to re-adjust the length of those right and left elastic loops for the chest brackets . That might pull it all in better. Be careful not to tighten the belt too much. It could put the brackets under a lot of stress and cause damage. Also the return edges will end up buckling and warping. Have someone give you a hand and just try a little at a time. If RS used their PVC glue then it will be a harder fix. If your thighs are really floating around your leg then you will have enough room for error if you plan on re-trimming. Other members might have more experience doing this and can give you the best way forward on this. If it were me I would cut the thighs along the rear seam as close to the cover strips as possible on either side of the strip, then try to careful separate/cut away the excess plastic stuck to the inside of the cover strip. This will be tricky but a sharp cutter knife might be able to slowly separate the plastic. Or if that doesn't work , sand the plastic down and get the surface of the inner coverstrip flat. Then see how it feels after you removed that little bit . You could then trim away more if needed and glue that half of coverstrip to the re-trimmed half of the thigh. Your top ridge may not align as it did before but that can be fixed . Removing the entire coverstrip will probably end up destroying the strip and the thigh halves along those edges. Sorry its hard to explain but hope you get the idea. If you are really worried about doing any trimming,etc, maybe a member of your local garrison can lend a hand. Your suit looks good though. Congrats.