Dark PWF

Yes, The Walking Dead is over, but I don't have much work to share tonight. I did begin work on my "secret project" but I don't have enough done to post anything. I expect that within the next few days, I'll slowly get some more done and be able to share it with all of you. There won't be much to do to get it ready for a show and tell, but I've got to get to that point first. More to follow, and since it was mentioned, how about that episode of The Walking Dead?!?!?! Wow. (Sorry, not the right place for that.)

Impressive. Most impressive!

Thanks, Robert!! For the Hengstler numbers (you'll notice I haven't gotten to them in the build thread yet - and I'm actually getting ready to go and do some work on the counter at the moment) there are a number of members who have included the "print layout" in their threads, or offer to send you the numbers you want in the "font" that they used. I don't want to speak inaccurately and direct you to anyone in particular, but if you do have the ability to make them in photoshop, that's definitely an option. I've been looking around for actual rotating counter numbers to use, but have not found any as of yet, so I believe I'll be going to my printer at some point in time soon. Perhaps someone else knows who (for sure) has offered to provide the numbers, and would care to chime in? (Here's hoping, anyway )

I say Hooah!!

Cool project, Reza! Good luck, we'll be watching!!

Looks like an awesome time. I just keep thinking "I'll probably get to be in a Christmas Parade this year!" Great job, Troopers!

Thanks, Glen. That is actually my new plan!! Probably late this year or early next year though.

Nice work, Frank!! Now order that full resin kit, and dig in!!

So awesome! On each count. Accurate sized accessories, AND a big brown box!

Big brown box, very excite!!! Impressively quick work on that bucket, too!

Looking good! Definitely liking some of the mods so far.

Yes... Definitely easy to see the differences. Your AP looks good. Granted I'm not any kind of expert, but I don't see anything that should hold up your approval.

I went to Steve's thread, and pulled a quote from Andy, to make sure that I didn't screw it up going from memory. Here is what he had to say about them: "According to my research, the original screws & nuts were 10BAs. It's an old British size which is quite rare these days. The nuts are 3mm across the flats, 3.3mm across the points. The original nuts varied slightly in depth (depending on which Cylinder rack you look at) but the 10BA nuts I use are 1.5mm deep. The bolt diameter is 1.6mm"

I'm not positive, but I believe that M2 nuts and bolts will get you the approximate size you need. Andy (PlayfulWolfCub) said (In Gazmosis' current build) that the nuts are 3mm from flat side to flat side, and 3.3mm from corner to corner. They aren't anything that can be described as large, not by any means.

Gentlemen, please remember that we make a serious effort to not discuss armor prices in the open forums. Some things are better suited to private messages. Welcome though, to FISD!!!

Okay, the last picture I posted yesterday held promise of the bolt channeling strip being removed. I even teased it so far as to post the picture of the grinding bit in front of the strip. Tonight, you get to see the project unfold. Let's get right to it... Here you can see that I started grinding at the top, left edge of the ejection port. Making progress on the strip's removal. Further along... The blaster is actually flipped upside down now, so the "top, left" that you see here was the bottom right in all of the recent photos. Nearly gone now. Okay. That bolt channeling strip is gone! Looks weird, doesn't it? LoL As you could see, it was still a little bit rough looking, so I wanted to get is cleaned up some. I took up the rotary tool's sanding wheel and went to work. Here's how it looked when I got done with the sanding wheel. It is more even, but less smooth, so I need to adjust tactics to get that taken care of. Sandpaper! 180 grit, to clean up the surface left behind by the sanding wheel. Definitely coming along and getting smoother by the swipe! It was right about now that I had the mini epiphany that I spoke of earlier. I was looking at this part and thought; When we build these blasters, we spend a bit of work building up the bolt to match the level of the resin-cast ejection port. It would be a lot easier to bring the bolt up if you also brought the ejection port DOWN. The thicker resin around the bolt at the ejection port would help to balance the thickness of the resin in the charging handle channel. As a result, I just kept on sanding it lower and lower into the barrel. Here you can see it. Further into the resin it goes! I jumped around for some reason here... ADHD or something, I don't know why in this particular instance, but I did. Anyway, since I was sanding or something - I just don't know why - I decided to address the bayonet lug's final condition and get it looking more proper. So I took out a handy, dandy sanding file and went to work on it. Work in progress, sanding the lug a bit more. Still sanding - but getting to where I want it to be. Another view, it is still actually a little bit wider than I think it should be, so I may take the sanding file to it again later at some point in time. I also mentioned shopping. LoL. I was just all over the place with the camera on this particular day. I bought a sheet of thin plexiglass - for an experiment that you'll see later, some Krylon plastic primer (Make sure that whatever primer you buy is specifically for plastics or at the very least, does not contain acetone. Acetone+plastics=VERY, very bad), and a 3' strip of 3/4" by 1/8" aluminum for use in cutting/fabricating the scope mounting rail. Here, you can see the modification plan drawn into the ejection port. I'll put the channeling strip lower - and extend it up to the charging handle channel to assist in marking the location on the bolt. I also drew in the brass extractor in the front of the ejection port. The strip is just about 7.5mm wide. The strip is just a shade under 2 inches long. Drawing the basic shape onto the plexiglass. Using the score and snap technique on the plexiglass - score it three times with the exacto knife, and it will snap away in the proper shape. Snapped out cleanly, and looks like it will be a good fit with a few more score and snaps applied. Scored the bottom edge and prepared for snapping. Looking good! Scoring the top in preparation for snapping. Ready to snap. It came away cleanly, just like the rest of the process has so far. Of course, this is plexiglass, so when I tried to curve it to fit to the bolt in the ejection port, this is what happened. Ugh... Plan B. ABS. Sounds great, but this ABS is 3mm thick. It was a real pain in the but to cut it to shape. I recommend using something with some power, as opposed to an exacto knife. Trust me on that one. So, after all of the work required to get the shape cut, here is the piece! The shape looks good to me! The thickness however, is not so good. This needs to be thinned down substantially. I initially tried sandpaper again, but that was going to be painfully slow. Back to the sanding wheel! Much more like it, but not quite what I wanted just yet. Here you can see what I mean. It could stand to be a little bit thinner. I'm sure many of us understand that idea. Back to the sandpaper! I put the piece on the sandpaper, and applied manual pressure while sanding it down even thinner. Since I had the exacto knife sitting there, I scored the area to be glued with the knife. I switched over to the fine-tipped bit to carve out the brass extractor. Starting with the basic lines for the extractor. Really rough cuts completed. Switching to one of the grinding bits to get the "hole" cut at the end of the extractor. Rough cut, with the hole at the end. I switched over to the smaller bit to clean up the lines as they connect to the circle. With the extractor roughed-in, I can glue the channeling strip into place. Manual pressure applied for three minutes as per the norm, and the strip is in place. I put putty in the front bottom edge, and took some sanding files to the strip and the extractor, to clean up the lines a little bit. Sanded the bottom of the strip, to ensure that it is "inside" of the ejection port. And this is how it looks finally before priming and painting. Finally, onto the ejection port guard, the piece that I paused with so long ago in the thread, to pursue this modification. LoL Guard glued in place after the manual pressure was applied. One more look at it from another angle. That's it - Day #17 complete! As always, thank you for stopping by to have a look and leave a comment, question, or suggestion. I'm really excited about where it's getting to. I bought myself an airbrush kit for painting on Amazon. It arrived today, so I'll probably prime the blaster soon, and allow the primer to cure while I practice airbrushing cardboard boxes for technique. Especially since I still have the bolt, the counter, the scope, and my secret project to work on. LoL That's probably it for the work week. I'll probably get more work done on the weekend and get the pictures posted up sometime around Sunday/Monday/Tuesday like usual.

Wow, Karin... Artistry adds Sonnenschein to the roster, alongside Michelangelo, Donatello, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, et al.

Okay, no photo updates tonight, but they ARE captioned and moved to photobucket. That means that the next step for me is to post them here. As I'm all jacked up with the time change though, and have to be up early tomorrow, that will all have to begin tomorrow. So, tomorrow, new photos. Take it to the bank. OH, what the hell, I'll sneak in the first batch of them I guess.... The "goal" when I started day #17 was to simply glue on the final two pieces, the ejector port guard, and the flash guard. I started up front with the flash guard. Close up view of the flash guard glued in place, following three minutes of serious manual pressure . One more look at it. Rubber band in place to make sure it stays put for awhile. I couldn't move to the back of the blaster without my beautiful mistake staring me directly in the face. I had to take care of it. It haunts me!! As promised: A video... The Demise of the Backwards Bayonet Lug Following that happy moment, I filmed THIS video (there you go: Two videos!): In place, manually pressured, and rubber banded in place to keep it in place while the epoxy sets. Much happier now, just a little more work to do on it later. One more look at it before I move along. So, I get to the ejector port. I'm fully prepared to simply glue the guard onto it and be done with the gluing altogether. In the back of my mind however, is Steve's current build thread and the vision of his ejector port with the repositioned bolt channeling strip and the carved out brass extractor won't let me put any more epoxy onto the blaster while the ejection port looks like it does... So... I pick up the rotary tool, affix this grinding bit, and decide that I must complete the same modification to feel good about it later. That's coming later though. Thanks for reading along - comments below please.

+1 on all counts. I did truly love that half-face plate at the time though.

Very excellent idea, excellent work, very excellent share!! I'm happy!

Keeping in mind that I haven't built any armor yet, it is a fairly common practice to use inner strips. I fully intend to use them for my build in the next few months. It adds strength to the joint, and makes for a more solid build overall.

Yes, Aaron it is. LoL. They aren't captioned and moved to photobucket yet unfortunately. Busy weekend. To make up for the delay, I'll include a second video in the next write-up. Thank you, Brian. As I mentioned above, the next WIP post I do will actually give you a couple of chances to watch me work. LoL

Everyone was at one time, Joel. I still consider myself one, as I haven't built anything yet...

Beautiful stuff, Aaron! Making me regret gluing mine in place now. LoL. You are correct... Germain has an awesome eye for details.