welshchris77

Is it me or does Rey's googles at the start of the trailer look suspiciously like TK hero lenses, maybe salvaged from a star destroyer derelict? forgive me if this has already been said!

Ok four months latter and I'm finally getting back to this post!. As often happens life got in the way but I have had some free time lately so I finished off my second pair of boots. Perviously I had run out of Angelus White leather paint so I bought some more, this time its 'flat white' but I can't see any obvious difference to be honest, in hindsight I should have bought a bigger bottle to begin with but wasn't sure how much I would go through for two pairs of boots. I have actually lost count of how many layers I have put on these boots but at a guess between 5 to 8 coats, then a coat of 'Angelus satin finisher' to waterproof and protect them. The masking fluid has actually worked brilliantly for this type of boot and I would highly recommend it to anyone, the separation between the boot and leather is not as defined as the rubber jodhpurs I had and so very difficult to mask off the rubber 'ridges' using any kind of masking tape without bleed through, the masking fluid is perfect!, I used decorators blue masking tape around the sides of the rubber sole first then painted the masking fluid very carefully up to the edge I wanted to separate the line from the leather, the first boot I only applied one coat of masking fluid and it took maybe 30 mins of cleanup with a knife after spray painting to remove the liquid mask, the second boot I applied maybe 2/3coats and it came off like a dream, have to score a line around the boot between the rubber and leather before trying to remove the mask, If you try this then I can't stress too much how important this line is to get right, just take your time and keep a real steady hand, obviously don't go so deep as to cut through the leather but don't go too shallow either as you want it to go completely through the (rubber) mask, make sure to use a new blade on your knife. While peeling the masking tape off the masking liquid came right off with it, you may have to do a little trimming here and there to make it 'look right' afterwards but very little clean up. By the way 'artists masking fluid' is basically latex rubber, if you buy some make sure it is not too old as it can go off in the bottle, or if its near to going off it won't be runny enough to paint on properly, it should be almost the consistency of milk and be easy to paint with, also be prepared to sacrifice a brush as it wrecks brushes!, use a relatively cheap brush but one that can hold an edge well. I have probably forgot to mention some steps on this process but will add if it comes back to me!, feel free to ask any question you have. Oh yeah by the way I'm a novice at airbrushing, I only have a cheap ebay airbrush and haven't had much practice but realized the compressor I was using was inadequate so went out and bought a 50 liter jefferson compressor, so much better but need a good airbrush now, the one I have was ok for this job though. Oh yeah a side note on the elastic: The previous 'rubber jodhpurs' elastic were easy enough to spray white with the angelus but the Rinegold leather jodhpurs were a different story!, the elastic is different on these and sucking the paint in. In the end I just painted it on with a brush but still had to leave it over night to fully dry and repeat several times, its still not quite white but close enough, I can go back and do more coats at a latter date if needed. Ok enough talk and onto the pics! Finished Paint job and finisher! Angelus paints and finisher My cheap 'Royalmax' airbrush. A little overspray went onto the bottom of the boots but I'm not too concerned about this. The first boot with the 'one layer' of masking fluid and masking tape removed Start of the cleanup scoring with a knife The first boot finished! side by side with the second boot Removing the mask on the second boot after scoring, as I said before '2/3 layers of masking fluid', came off in 'one peel', worked like a dream! Thats all for now folks, I'm quite pleased with the results and hope it helps anyone spray painting their boots

All your hard work and attention to detail has paid off Mike. You must be very proud. Well done !

Looks good Chris, will check out my local Aldi tmw

Seems like a good idea anyway Sean, theoretically should stop any bleed through, I will wait until I unmask mine though before I get too excited about it

Thanks Mark!, I know I think I went a bit over the top stripping them to be honest, I get carried away working on things sometimes, have to know when to stop! lol

Also I used masking fluid to mask the edge as it was easier to follow the rough edge where the sole meets the leather, I haven't unmasked them yet but will post pics soon if you want to see how they come out, its difficult using masking tape as it works better on a smooth surface.

Added around 20/30% thinner Sean, I use windolene to thin my acrylics for airbushing, its a blueish window cleaning spray, a lot of artists swear by it or other brands of window cleaner would do I'm sure. You can of course use proper airbrush thinners, I use windolene as it very cheap!. Maybe experiment on something else first before committing to spraying the boots and also the ratio of paint to thinners, or even on the back of one of the boots. on a side note I wouldn't bother sanding the boots as it scuffs the stitching somewhat, acetone is more than enough to deglaze them!

Hi Sean, no the first Jodhpurs I used neat from the bottle but the airbrush had trouble pushing it, the second pair I have thinned the paint by maybe 20/30 percent and it is much better!, it does take more coats though, have about 5/5 coats on them but have run out of the angelus, the boots looks good but the stitching and elastic still need more paint, hence no pics yet of those, the paint is quite pricey for me including postage so I might just use regular acrylic paint to finish them off, I do have loads of the Angelus finisher to top coat them when I'm done, been busy with DIY lately around the house, will get back to it soon!.

That paint job with the paper towels looks really good, I'm inspired by your post Mike and seriously thinking of stripping my old doopy's down or getting a new kit!

Wow Michael you have some great ideas for your mods, that magnetic switch and hiding the wire in a groove in the bracket is genius, I take my hat (lid) off to you my friend, well done bro!

Wow Vern, That is an impressive collection of counters you have! My counter is very similar to the one of yours which has a large eagle on it except the metal part of mine was more of a grayish colour rather than a brassy colour.

Hi Tino, your very welcome, yes the corners and edges are a little soft on the plastic back cover of my counter, I sanded them slightly to help prevent the automotive paint from chipping but I don't think it affected my measuring, the photographs can be a little deceiving as camera lenses tend to distort viewpoints but in real life eyeballing my counter with a metal rule I could definitely see to within .5mm, maybe some models varied as I know from experience with working in industry that technical specification sheets sometimes don't tally up to the real world items due to a number of factors such as design change, tooling change or tweaking and manufacturing techniques or material composition changes, who knows!. Mine is a real vintage Hengstler so maybe there is some variations in them, I wonder if the technical specification sheets are from the very first models or from the newer ones?. I know the socket box on mine is metal as apposed to plastic on the newer ones and slightly different profile on the front below the 3 pins, I think the early models were made in the 1940's, I could be wrong though. Anyway I will have to check mine sometime with digital calipers as I was only getting a rough measurement to within .5mm for a friend. By the way I think its great what your doing, maybe this work will inspire some kind of 'standardization' of E11's like we have with armor, I know there was a lot of variation in the props in ANH but in our 'Star Wars Universe' it would be good to have troopers and there accessories somewhat 'the same'.

Great resource for E11's guys . Just one thing I noticed is when I measured my vintage counter the measurements are slightly different to the measurements for the counter face on here, I posted my measurements to help out a fellow trooper, I'm only talking about .5 of a millimeter here I know but starts to be more noticeable in smaller pieces. Maybe there is variation in different counters though!. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31623-pipe-blaster-build-log/page-3

I've decided to also paint the Rhinegold leather jodhpurs I have and started working on them. First a good scrub with acetone. The black dye seems to be never ending coming off so I decided to use some 320grit cloth sandpaper to speed things up! I have also kept the original paper and cardboard inserts inside the boots and additionally stuffed them with rags to help the boots hold there form and prevent deformation by the acetone, maybe they would be ok but another member mentioned that acetone can sometimes do this if the leather becomes saturated so I'm not taking any chances! side by side comparison with the finished rubber jodhpurs, I might have gone a bit overkill with my sanding, they look more like old cowboy boots now! , no going back now! you can see the variation in profile between the two boots also. Does anyone have any views on which look more screen accurate (shape wise) so far? apart from the fact that one is white and the whites ones only have one elastic pull tag. Next is masking off the soles and spray painting, pics to follow!

No worries Scott, a glue gun can come in handy for insulating and securing wires too.

Just curious, were there small holes in the circuit board where your soldering the wires?, if not you could drill (very small) holes in the centre of the soldering point, just big enough to take the wire, push the wire through the hole and solder in place, this would create a much stronger and reliable binding, if you have a dremel or similar they sometimes come with tiny drill bits that are handy for this, might help you out in this situation!

Finally got my Angelus finisher yesterday and coated my boots, it went on really good with the airbrush, I couldn't decide whether to go with normal, high gloss, matte or satin but in the end I went with satin, put 3/4 coats on. Here they are all finished! Looking very pleased with myself The kids wanted in on the action!

I've been away with the kids for a few days and and just back to check on this post, great progress Michael the new scope rail is looking very good!

If there is some sort of machine shop or even a boat repair place near you Michael you can ask them have they got any offcuts of sheet mild steel, these place generally have scrap bins full of the stuff and I'm sure they would let you have some for nothing if you ask nicely. Thats what i did, at the time I told them I needed it to make a repair on my car or something as I didn't want to get strange looks when telling them it was for a scope rail on a stormtrooper gun! I cut it to shape on a vice with a hacksaw and cleaned up with metal files! Nice touch with the numbers on the rail by the way!

I did the very same thing when I was making my doopy's a few years ago, the aluminum itself can vary in quality also, I snapped a few pieces even without scoring them, in the end I used a thicker 'found' piece for strength but in hindsight it wasn't the right width and looks way too thick, its something I've been meaning to go back and change. For my sterling I made a more accurate shape and thickness and the counter bracket and rail are all made from one piece, oh yeah and I used mild steel which I would highly recommend!, you don't have to worry about it snapping and its so much stronger than aluminum. It wouldn't add that much extra weight to your gun either!.

Your very welcome Chris, your attention to detail is commendable my friend!. Always happy to help out Chris!.

If your referring to the dimple on the clip then no as the dimple ended up on the off cut from the clip but it's definitely grabbing something on the end of the clip, once that sucker is clipped in its not coming out!

As long as you take your time and check and measure everything lots of times I'm sure you will be fine!

OK curiosity has got the better of me, its 12.06pm and i just got out of bed, got my camera and went out to my shed next to the house in my underwear and got my sterling out of the safe. Your exactly right Michael, when the magazine button is pressed the catch at the bottom pokes out the same time!. I can only get so close with the camera lens I have but here are some pics, I tried to get some of the inside of the mag well also as you can see the catch move there also, hope the pics help!.