T-Jay

Hi all Thanks Ian for your kind words. Every encouragement is really appreciated at the moment. Although I am working on this blaster every day after work, the progress is currently low - due to being busy with some corrections. Especially the magazine issue keeps me in trouble. That's a bit frustrating. But the worst part to me (painting and weathering) still needs to get done . Anyway, here are a few infos of what I did the last days: Have fixed all issues in the folding stock with "green stuff" and replaced the wooden bar with a new one made from aluminum and painted it black. Hey, the first part got painted - oh my god... The clip (or lock) on the rear end has been trimmed to look more like it's made out of two separate parts. Also the white "ring" got replaced with a more accurate one and the end cap had to be adapted to this. Next problems came with the bolt and charging handle. The inner diameter of the kit is a bit lower than 22mm. For quite a while I thought of making the resin walls thinner at the gun's rear end (because you'll later be able to identify the DoopyDoo's kit with a single view on this section) but as already mentioned, my options are limited and I wasn't sure if this could make the blaster unstable. So I searched for an accurately fitting tube - with no luck. Then two pieces of a plastic tube (for electrical installations) were used. One got cut in the long way to fit over the second one, resulting in a diameter of a bit more than 21mm. In case this won't be enough, the inner tube can still be wrapped with a few layers of insulation tape. Drilled a screw into the charging handle, then cut off the head and placed it into a hole in the "bolt" to run a first test fit. Looks okay. The spring caused some unexpected problems. It took two metal clothes hangers (thanks to E.S.) but the result was not satisfactory . The metal wire was 2mm, so I bought a few meters of 1,8mm wire, which was easier to handle - and as far as I know it's the correct size from the original gun. Finally found something with the required diameter, to wrap this wire around and tada: it fitted well into the resin body. On the reference photos I have, there is always a total of 11 visible convolutions on the installed spring. Please let me know if you have different information. Alright folks, it's 4 o'clock in the morning. Need some sleep before continuing the build...

Hi Steve, just did a few measurements on the screw and the magazine port. The screw I used in the photo is exactly 10,0 mm long and the cylindrical part on the mag (including the triangular thing behind it) are 10,8 mm in total. The head of the screw (if you select 10mm) will not go into the mag. By the way, a very nice and detailed build. Keep it up

Hi again Now that the scope is done, it requires a scope rail. This has been made out of an aluminum stripe (2x20mm) and with some help of Billhag's brilliant graphics. And yes, it was cut in on the underside, before it got bent to 90 degrees. Billy, if you ever read this: thanks a lot for having spent your time into these meaningful pictures! This had to be said Does anybody know, if there has to be a countersunk screw at the rear sight, or not? Just liked the smooth optic of it, but would replace it to stay correct. Sorry guys, but at this stage I could not resist to pre-mount all the major parts (no glue, only screwed) just to get an idea, how the whole thing looks and feels... Some of you have surely noticed the missing magazine clip. Yeah, I am still working on the corrections of the size. Grrr. Will show this in a later update... Another important missing thing is the Hengstler 400 counter. Although there is a resin version included in the kit, I liked the idea of having a real one - for the details, you know . Got a simple and fully operational battle station - huh, what was that? Sorry, of course I meant fully operational counter - arranged by some good friends (thanks to S.B. & M. & S.W.) Yes, it is not perfect for a few hardcore prop fans out there , but I didn't want to spend a little fortune only to have an eagle-logo, a reset button and all six digits in black. This one is fine enough for me The front connectors will get removed later and a fake reset button will be added too. Here are the pictures. Then I tried to mount it in a way, so that it could later still be removed out of the bracket holder. Don't know why I liked this idea, but it somehow didn't work to realize it (with the limited options I have). So I chose the simple way and just drilled through the bracket holder into the counter itself. It works fine - even with only one screw and it is stable too. It can later be glued as well. In own matters: I am trying to keep this thread compact to avoid boring you here. Therefore some sections got skipped (for example: time consuming trimming of every single resin part after unpacking) and all pictures are selected and combined 4 in 1 before being uploaded. If you prefer higher resolutions (or just don't want me to combine the pictures) or want more photos of all the steps in between, then just let me know Alright folks, that's it for now. Any comments, ideas or critics are really appreciated! Next update will hopefully come just in time for the weekend.

Hi all, thank you very much for your friendly replies so far! Happy to have some experts following this build. Especially the critics are very welcome, because this helps to improve some parts while still building the blaster. Good to see there are a lot of detail-lovers out there @ Germain (The5thHorseman): Thanks for pointing out the mistake with the folding stock. You are absolutely right. Will see if I can solve this issue and keep you updated. @ Daniel (Darth Chridan): Thanks for the good comparison shots. I already wondered why there is so much space between the mag and the port. Now I have to think about a quick solution... @ Vern (TK Bondservnt 2392): Haven't thought I would say this, but after Daniel posted his photos, I am now thinking of replacing my magazine . Will think about your offer... Okay, back to topic Today's update is about the scope. Most of the resin scopes can be identified via the scope decals. Although these are interesting, I wanted to stay as close to the look of the original as possible and decided to go for real lenses. The one for the front has been taken from a compass. To give the view more depth, the hole got drilled deep into the scope. And the 5 resin screws got replaced with real ones - 2 metal and 3 plastic (but they will be fine for painting). Unfortunately I made some scratches in the lens. Hopefully I can get these polished... For the rear end I couldn't find a fitting lens, so I went to my eyewear optician and he made me a convex lens exactly in size . Like on the front, the hole got drilled with some monster drills (again thanks to W.A.) by using different diameters when going deeper. This reduced the weight only a little bit. But it will hopefully give the scope a real look when it's being painted on the inside with black and brass. Thanks to M.F. for the nice digital precision tool and of course to my roommate TK-0000 for holding the lens to the scope, although being tired from his shift at the detention block, where they had some trouble today with a few guys... Thank you for reading. Next steps will be uploaded around Wednesday. Have a nice weekend all

Hello everybody, as a total newbie in this hobby I am interested in your thoughts and comments about my blaster build. So far I had no experience with props, resin, weathering and postings in this forum . Chose the E-11 resin kit from DoopyDoo's in the U.K. as the blaster has to be light-weight and low-cost. Was surprised by the "one-pieced" folding stock, had not seen this before. The quality of the resin is really good. Only a few minor issues had to get fixed with "green stuff". My aim is to make the blaster realistic and stable, also to give attention to some details. So I decided to replace and/or upgrade some parts. Let's start with the handle: - real screw for "FREE & LOCK" (can be rotated) - functioning trigger (with a spring from a ball pen and a nail) - rotatable selector switch - real hexagon screw at the bottom (M6) - two stabilising screws to mount the handle (both will later be invisible) Let's move on to the next part: - drilled all holes on the bottom side (11,0mm) - two real M6 hexagon screws at the front (M5 simply looked too small as you can see in the comparison shot) And now the folding stock. This really caused the most work (up to now ). But I wanted these details . - drilled all fake holes (including folding stock releaser) - front lock (simple screw with some insulating tape and a short heat shrink tube) - two stabilising screws to mount the folding stock (will later fill heads with "green stuff") - drilled all holes on the bottom side and made an inlay to simulate the metal bar in the background Magazine and magazine port were next. The 4 corners got angled according to a reference picture from the original Sterling. There are different angles on front and rear end. Then I placed a 5mm LED with a washer from the inside and filled the magazine with some foam. Looks like too much foam, but it works: if the head of the LED gets pushed, it immediately comes up again . One of my biggest sorrows was how to get a nice "OFF ->" engraved on the top of the magazine as the real guns have. You may have noticed the black tape in the last picture. This was just to cover my first attempt . Then the idea: I still have a lot of this "green stuff" and borrowed something nice from a co worker (many thanks to W.A. for that). While doing this with the magazine, the serial number on the mag port also got changed (because it is the same on all DoopyDoo's kits). Okay, okay - the power cylinders will later cover this place anyway, but I am currently not sure if these will be used. A long screw got drilled through the magazine port to provide more stability when it later gets glued. Ouh, before all this got done, a small black allen screw was added to replace the resin version. When checking a few reference pictures some day, I noticed this little metal thing on the magazine. Looks like it avoids inserting the magazine too deep into the port (not sure). Unfortunately this is not included in the Doopydoo's kit, so I started with some aluminium from scratch... I am happy with the result and it looks okay (to me). Exactly one day later, I met Darth Chridan (best regards by the way ) and he gave me a resin version for free . Thank you very much for this!!! Now I have to decide which one will be used at the end. Any comments on this? Which part would you choose? And what about the power cylinders? With or without? Let me know, what you think about it. Will try to post the next update soon.