TrainWreck

Derick! So I'm not going to discourage you from whatever route you take but if I may I will tell you about the philosophies I adopted going into this build. As far as experience and working it out on the fly is concerned I'm the king of slap dash operations. Ooooh the skeptical looks my wife has given me since I told her I was going to do this 501st thing. But you know when I started this myself I went in knowing I was going to be waaaay over my head. But part of the point of this for me is to be over my head. At this point in my life if I don't start challenging myself I am just going to wallow in stagnation. Sure I'm going to break things and fail a lot but it will all be lessons for my next build. Trust me this does not come easy to me. I've changed my mind so many times since I've started this that my E-11 has become the bastard child of unrelated reference photos. But you know she is going to be my bastard E-11. As far as my thread goes I knew from the outset that it wasn't going to be the best thread, or the most thourough, or the most aww inspiring. Hell I'm shocked somedays that people are still keeping up. Sure I have sections where I seem to be talking to myself and am just posting stream of consciousness ideas. But I started the thread to be as much a personal build journal as anything else. I just wanted it to be a journal that people can chime in on as I stumble through this as they see fit. I promised myself that of I don't get another comment or page hit on the thing that I was going to just keep posting my build. My minor in college was archaeology and I am a true believer in posterity's sake. Hell 90% of archaeological field work is sifting through thousands of years of literally peoples garbage. You never know when your broken arrow head is going to be another man's prize find (in my case it was about 400 to 500 years later when I found that puppy. I only did volunteer field work for about 7 days but man that was a cool day when I pulled that up from the section I was working on). Anyway my point is that I would encourage you to keep up the thread even if you feel like your making yourself look like a fool. In the month I've been here everyone has been very encouraging and just generally great human beings. I don't think anyone here is going to think ill of you for sticking your head out and trying something new and challenging. Brother you are amongst friends! ...but if you want to just slap that thing together and call it a day than no ill judgments on you either. I just got mine all puttied and glued together this weekend and man it was a relief to see that thing together. I just have sanding and painting left. Speaking of which I really should do a two week update on my thread soon. My wife is finishing up a final paper tomorrow so I should get some quality computer time soon. Saludé buddy!

Sorry Walt. My excitement over a Bapty kit superseded my internet etiquette... I'd ask for some cat hair to but the stuff literally makes my wife's eyes swell shut. But if anyone needs Border Collie or Corgie Chihuahua mix hair I'm your man.

Thanks for doing all of this! I'll be starting a build in a few weeks and that template plus this and a few other threads on MEPD are going to be my bible! I had a friend print me up a couple prints of your template on some single sheets of paper and all I can say is I hung one on my garage wall and I can't stop staring at it! It's a great piece of work and I might just frame one up one of these days.

Tim back in my blacksmithing class years ago I had been working on two pieces that looked almost exactly the same. I had set one down to let it cool while I worked on the other. I then set that one down beside the first. Turns out steel stops glowing at 900℉. I reached down to grab the first one but picked up the second one instead. I had a blister that ran from the second joint of my thumb around to the first joint of my index finger. Big leson learned! If you do anymore grinding work put a small metal bowl of water by the grinding wheel and just dip the metal in it every so often to quench the heat. Not only will you save your fingers but it keeps it from getting too hot and you will actually avoid inadvertently softening the steel. That's particularly important when your grinding the edge on a chisel or something but it's just a good habit to get into.

That's awesome! I half contemplated carving a seem line into my Doopy kit and adding a rivit detail but decided against it for my first build. It isn't supposed to be a Bapty in the first place. I'm looking forward to seeing that when you get it worked out!

Ahh, you sneeked a metal fab post in while I was typing. The dry brushing looks excellent Tim! It's amazing how those little touches with paint brings a sense of reality to the resin. ...and about your metal fabrication project... I am humbled and inspired by your work. You might be new to this to but your attention to detail is placing you up with the masters. Thank you for keeping up with postings on this thread. I can only imagine that I'm going to use it as reference for years to come.

I personally gave up on sanding for weathering for that very reason. Way too many white spots kept appearing. I've noticed that if you attempt the dry brushing on flat areas you have to be careful of not ending up with it looking out right painted (some of my rust spots on my grip just look painted on to me). I'm probably going to need to experiment with diffrent thickness and coarseness of brush to see what gives me the best effect. This was the YouTube video I used to get me started if your interested: Keep it up brother! I can only image how hard getting that stock apart was...

Hey Lou, when you say you are trying to work out the rear portion on a Bapty kit are you talking about the aluminum cylinder that they revitted on to the back to fill out the length since they were cut down for Tunisia law? Sorry, since I realized yesterday that one of the refrance photos I was using was a Bapty and that my build has become some sort of Bapty/ESB canon love child, I'm suddenly researching that gun a lot more and got a little excited when you mentioned you were working on a kit...

Well since BSG uniforms are $400 to $500 each I can't imagine that they are going to be cheep. Stuff looks good on the website though. Just my 2¢...

I had the same problem with the IOC website. If you go to the detachment listings on the 501st website on the right of the page (I believe) you will find the detachment's webmaster email. Just shoot him a message and he should get you fixed up in a day or so.

Looking good brother! Keep it up.

Looking great Tim!

Thought I would add some closeups of some of the illustrations in case someone wants a quick reference.

Bondo is sandable. If you go to a hobby store you can find little sanding implements for model building. I just sit with a cup of coffee in the morning and a sanding stick and slowly work at it before I fully wake up. It seems to help with the boredom of sanding.

We can only hope to learn from those who are better than us. At this point I've had a broken handle, cocking lever channel, and now scope. Simple repair and move on is my motto now adays (though I have been considering seeing if I can get my user name switched to Train Wreck). Speaking of which, great job on the repair Tim! Nothing a little glue and paint can't fix.

Same here. I enjoyed prepainting my magazine/reciever, handle, and scope but now I have to glue them, puty the seems, and mask them before I can spray paint the rest of the gun. Order of operation is important I guess. Your build is looking great by the way!

Maybe this is LFL's way of legitimizing all of the licensed armor like rubies. "if we make it look like the bad armor everyone will think it's legit!"

Sorry if this has been posted here before! Since I have a lot of time before I get to order my armor let alone recive and build it I thought I might try my hand at a T-21 build after I finish my Doopy. While doing some research last night I stumbled upon a website that has several different PDF files of Lewis Lite Machine Gun user manuals. http://www.forgottenweapons.com/light-machine-guns/lewis-light-machine-gun/ I just thought I would share in case someone else was looking for good refrance materials.

Is it just a leaf rake? Could you post a picture or two of it?

So wait, he is hanging out on costuming forums but couldn't even be bothered to make his own Wario hat?

Lou. I am so sorry man. I've never seen anything quite like this before. Usually it's a day or two in my experience. I come from a weird background where this kind of thing happened to my mom for years so I feel you. Keep truck'n!

The CRL does have guidelines for EIB/C (blue text EIB, red text C): http://www.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TK_deathtrooper

You can use EU to join the 501st I'm pretty sure. I have no idea about EIB/C. Is there anything posted on the CRL for it?

Awesome!

Congrats!