Dark CMF

Yeah.... Those power cylinders... They really ruin all of the work you've done. :| Are you kidding me? This is beautiful, Aaron. Really top notch stuff. I'm just going to chime in and say that I think that grinding a channel in the bolt is a bad idea... Keeping the wires in place by concealing them in a system made up of moving parts that move with that much force is asking for them to get sheared in half. I think you've put them in the most ideal place for them. Maybe a bead of silicone or Milput or something like that would conceal them better, but I think you've got it as perfectly as possible - unless you grind that channel in the exterior of the receiver and use the silicone/milput to conceal them a little better. That might be the best option. Looking great though, man. Beautiful work and nicely modified. The Hengstler is pure genius!

LoL.. Duh. This isn't a DD build. Don't I feel sheepish...

On the edge of my seat! Although, I'll point out that when I mentioned something about heat earlier, Vern pointed out that heat and the Doopydoos Resin are not a very good match up. Other than that, the baked approach might be viable. (I did think about that for a very, very brief moment, but I saw Vern's words in my mind's eye and just moved along. )

Beautiful pieces, Felix!

Hmmm... I'll be sure to stay out of the TAG forums altogether - just to be safe. Although, I do like ice cream.

It's only been four months and two days in the making so far. LoL Won't be much longer, that's for sure.

Thank you everyone, for the kind words. Alas, we aren't quite done with this ride yet, but I believe that we're caught in the tractor beam and being hauled into the Death Star as far as the thread goes. SURPRISE!! AN UPDATE THAT ISN'T ABOUT WORK DONE DURING THE WEEKEND!!! Tonight's update: 20-ish pictures of about an hour's worth of work tonight (if you want to call spray painting stuff work). Here we go: What I'll be dealing with tonight: Scope rail, trigger guard, counter face, counter button, a drill bit (there will be some other things to show up tonight, too). First up: Drill a hole in the counter button. Marked the drill location with a mechanical pencil. I drilled the hole in the center of the button, and used the round hobby file to widen it and shape it properly. Here it is, just needs some paint now (and truth be told, I have to make those freaking numbers) and it can be assembled! In order to secure the scope rail to the blaster's rear sight mount, I've got to mark the location to drill. Marked it with that same mechanical pencil - ready to drill the hole! Hole is drilled! smdh... It's also slightly off-centered. I'll have to fix that when I work on the recessed hole for the screw. Lining it up to drill the screw hole into the blaster itself. Blaster is ready now, too! I took a larger drill bit, and "moved" the hole more towards the center as I ground in a recessed area for the screw head. Screw in the rail hole. The recess appears to work just fine! Another view of the scope rail with the screw in the drilled out recess. Much better looking fit / location for the screw hole now! Once again, Feliks is supervising. For some reason he seems to be displeased with my progress - looks like grumpycat here. Off to the paint lab we go again. Here, the trigger guard awaits a coat of paint. Here's what it's going to get. The Soft Flat Iron that the trigger and inner parts are getting. It will not stay this way. It will be hit with the basic flat black of the blaster, but I used this to prime it, so if it wears down, it will look metallic. It has received the coat of paint and primer in one, and is now waiting overnight, to dry. L to R: Counter face, Scope rail, and Counter button - all awaiting some paint also. I see a white counter face and I want it painted black... C'mon, you all know the song, right?? So queue the Jeopardy music, we're waiting on paint to dry once again. The sheer fact that there has been so much of that lately is a testament to just how close we are to the end of the ride. Finally, I took the flat black and did some touch-ups on the blaster as well as painting the magazine clip black. That's all folks! More to follow over the weekend sometime, I'm sure. Thanks for checking in.

Thanks for the shout-out, Sam. (You too, Aaron!) My build was heavily influenced by so many of the others that you've probably got bookmarked. You're off to a great start! I really am impressed with the job you did on that stock cutout. Having done that one, I know that it is a serious pain to get it done, and yours looks marvelous! I'll be watching your build, even if you didn't have a brown box photos! Can't wait to see what your secret innovation is. I'm a big fan of those. They're exciting! Keep it up!

Nice thread Aaron. Haven't seen this before, and it's a good thing to get familiar with. Very cool so far!

Definitely making good progress!!

Meh.. I thought it was better as a first time threat.

LoL. I'm laying claim to 3 right now. There are always 2 when you're talking Sith Lords, but there are always an odd number of parts left over, like one bolt and two nuts. On-Topic: This is awesome to have a look at. Many thanks for doing this and sharing it, Felix!

[quote name="The5thHorseman" post="346700" timestamp="1400664408" About the blaster, i think it's going to look really nice once finished Thank you, Germain. We'll find out soon enough!!

LoL... That was a short-lived guessing game. Germain is correct. That is a Hero Grappling Hook box, made by Trooper Master. It shipped separately because my armor is coming from RT-Mod. I will be "in town" this weekend, so I will be on the lookout for that fixative, Aaron. Thanks!

I tried this last night, and my laptop froze for some reason while I was preparing to do it. Hopefully tonight will go a little more smoothly. Here come the pictures: Once again, into the fray that is my "paint lab" for a quick coat of flat black on top of the VHT Crinkle Finish. Fast forward by about two days, and everything is awesome! Well, maybe not, but it is flat black! It's still masked, too! As I mentioned, the spray paint definitely fills the texture a bit. If you want to absolutely maintain the texture, you should use an airbrush. A glimpse into the future of the E-11. It has been un-masked. The stock is "in location" and the inner barrel and scope rail are sitting above it. Earlier in the build, I made mention that I had drilled out the front of the scope a "bit" too large for the lens aperture that I intended to put in it. Here, I have the correction for that: Black E6000 and the parts to be glued! I put some E6000 about halfway down the lens piece all the way around it, so that it will have a good seal, and then I let gravity (and a little bit of pushing) settle the lens piece to the correct depth. Here is the correct depth, and it looks pretty good to me! I then turned it upside down to dry. I did this to allow the lens piece to sit "higher" in the scope which will allow more light to pass through it, since the ends are uneven but drilled all the way through. Preparing to install the magazine clip using the same black E6000. I got the magazine clip from Tino (T-Jay) - once again, I greatly appreciate the assist there, brother! A little dab will do ya! About to put the clip in place. Now, instead of watching paint dry as I have done so many times recently, I'm watching glue dry. LoL Total wait time will be about 24 hours for the E6000. About to insert the hex set screw into the repaired part on the side of the magazine well - again, I'll be using the black E6000. Three parts, one 24 hour period of glue drying to wait for. I put this rubber pad into the end cap to prevent the spring from rattling around and to keep a little more tension on the end cap so it will not rattle around on it's own. Simply remove the backing, and put the sticky side inside of the end cap. I got the rubber pad at Lowe's. It is for furniture legs. To stop them from scratching floors. Here it is: In place, but out of focus. So here's where it sits: I need to paint the face of the counter, and make a counter mount. I need to finish the bolt assembly. I need to paint the trigger guard. I need to paint some details in the trigger area. Once that stuff is done, I've got to hit it with some sort of finishing coat and assemble it. Nearly done! Which is good, because my first piece of armor arrived today: Expecting the shipping notification on the rest of the armor any day now! Thanks for reading and following along. The journey will be ending soon, and the bittersweet reality of it is starting to settle in for me. Please as always, feel free to leave comments and/or questions. Thanks!

Tino, it will get another coat of flat black (partial, anyway) as I've got to fix some current scratches and paint the mag clip (which has been installed now) - thanks again for the assist on that, by the way! I believe I'll get the pictures posted tonight. The flat black is VERY easily scratched/damaged. I'll definitely be looking at some sealing type of options for the finish.

LoL. I don't know if that is all that funny. That's pretty awesome, actually! LoL

Trooperbay sells the Doopydoo kits also, but Doopydoos goes in and out of stock quickly. If you check back in a few days, they'll have them again.

Yeah... Not familiar with Troopergear either. Have you got a link to it? Has it been shipped to you yet?

Heh... You said paint like you're genuinely excited about it? Trying to psyche yourself up for it? Looking good brother!

Welcome Ben, to the FISD!!! As you've already received answers to your direct questions, I'm not going to go into any of that, other than to say that you did the smart thing in asking here about the sit. Where did you order your armor kit from?

Ian, exactly. LoL That's what it came down to. Aaron, thanks for the advice on the protective coating. I'll definitely consider that. Totally off-topic with the strapping thing but let me explain why I'm even debating it in the first place. It is because of a comment made by TrooperMaster to a friend of mine doing a build at the moment. What TM said is this: "You can tell a Trooper using the original strapping system from a mile away because of how smoothly their armor moves." Yeah... It's like that. I'd definitely look into a rubber grommet or reinforcing strip of some sort to try to protect the return edges. Anyway, back on topic with my next post!

Is there any ability to tighten the bottom screws a little bit? That would achieve the same thing that Aaron was recommending, but that would likely only give you a very slight correction, IF there is any room to tighten them without cracking any more plastic. Looking at it, I think that the responders above are probably on point. There is enough plastic in the bottoms to support a bit of sanding on the ear discs to pull the bottom closer. I also know how entirely nerve-wracking those ears can be. All I've built armor-wise so far is a bucket, and the ears made me insane. Hang in there, take a deep breath before you do anything else. You've done a good job on that bucket so far, you've got this!

LoL... The rubber pad. OH.. I do remember the inspiration for it. In an M16 the buffer has a very hard, thick rubber cap at the end of it to prevent metal from striking metal when the weapon fires. I was originally looking for self-sticking rubber pads (like you'd put on the bottom of a piece of furniture) to keep my bolt from making plastic "click-clacks" when my bolt moves forward into the inner barrel, and it dawned on me that the spring would possibly be rattling in the back as well. As for where I get the stuff? Mostly at Lowe's. The bearing for my magazine end release button - that came from Amazon. Typically, my inspirations during this build have come from a: ideas taken from real weapons or b: just some idea I had that I tried to find a way to make it work (like my counter button). I've seen a lot of colored primers, but I don't think I've seen black yet.

I went "screen-accurate" flat black. There really was a lot of thought put into this and ultimately, I decided that I was building a replica E-11, not a replica Sterling. Since this is THE blaster that I'll be using for Trooping (for the time being ) I ultimately decided that it should represent what the kids saw on screen, when I eventually show up in front of them. I think that a more "realistic" build may be in the future for me, but we'll see what happens. I've got to get this one wrapped up and spool up on armor building techniques. I'm currently in a mental debate about original strapping or not. LoL For the record, if anyone reading this thread has decided to use the VHT crinkle paint, you definitely want to use an airbrush to top coat it. Spray paint does diminish the finish a bit. OH! Question for the masses of masters: What type of "sealer" coat (if any) do you recommend spraying on to protect the finish? It seems to me that the basic spray paint is quite easily scratched/chipped. Suggestions?