Scotty71

TK 31344 of the UK Garrison requesting access please. http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=17910

Interestingly the English phrase c0ck up meaning to screw up fell foul of the swear filter and it changed it to weenie up! Deary me indeed. Lmao

A good lesson there for anyone considering a build there. Don't worry about the odd screw up. Providing you don't put the scope the wrong way around little screw ups are fine. Lol

Oooooh bugger. How annoying David. Do you know I checked and double checked that and it seems I still screwed it up. Never mind. It stays upside down now.

Oh yeah. Almost forgot. As you can see the bayonet lug went on at this stage too. Again pinned and glued.

It was time to bring these parts all together. Pins again and template for the mag housing to the barrel, internal barrel in place now as the folding stock screws and the mag pins will all go into it. Glue down the folding stock even though there wasn't a lot of contact between stock and barrel. The two screws to the front of the stock went into place and the side screws were also glued too for extra robustness. It then got the full elastic band treatment. It was then that one elastic band gave it's life for the Empire. Duty done. RIP dear band knowing you have played your part. When I'd finished wrapping it all up it looked like this. Again I sat back and admired it. Despite a few minor hiccups it really was coming together nicely.

24 hours later I returned to my creation. It was still there. No combustion again. The only slight thing of note was that the folding stock catch had moved ever so slightly so when you looked down the barrel is was slightly off centre. Insignificant I thought. No one will notice. I removed the bands and held it in my hands. It held firm. I must've done something right. I had the basis of a blaster in my hands for the first time. Next bit of glue work would be the power cylinders, magazine and folding stock. The tiny nuts and bolts in the end of the power cylinders was a mod I liked the idea of. I'd found suitable ones in my local DIY store for just 30p each and whilst there sourced some wires to run from the cylinders to the counter. The green and yellow earth wire was perfect and at just 40p a metre was a bargain. Milliputt for £5 while I was there too and a fairly large off cut of clear acylllic sheet for 20p would be fine for my counter mod and scope sights. Bloody good store that. Now if I lined up the cylinders on the magazine housing off the barrel when it is offered up to the barrel the cylinders don't run parallel to the barrel. This is personal preference but I wanted them to run parallel to the barrel. So I offered everything up to the barrel and just used my eye to get them running parallel and marked the magazine housing with a pencil. Again pins would be used and the template method once more. I decided two pins would do it in opposite corners. Great plan. Just make sure you get the template the right way up or your holes in each piece will be in different corners!!!!!!!!!!!! Again not a problem as the cylinders sit on top of this screw up so it wouldn't be seen. Very careful drilling with the Dremmel is required for your bolts but I think you'll see that this easy mod is worth it. And in the rear of the power cylinders holes are drilled to accept the wires. Once the green and yellow sleeve is stripped back just a little the wire core goes in just perfectly.

I checked, checked and checked again that everything was in the right place. Then I checked some more. Then I said Scott, just bloody well walk away and leave it alone. So I did.

First thing to get the glue treatment would be the handle. I'd decided on pins and glue for this. Using a couple of suitable nails as pins I Dremelled off the heads, let them cool then drilled two holes into the handle. Tested the pins were nice and snug then using the paper template idea from another build thread made the pencil marks on the barrel where hopefully all would line up. Tense time this but confidence was building. Once all was drilled the moment of truth came. Slot it together and make sure all was kosher. Ta-daaaaaaaaa! Top banana. All lined up very well indeed. I Dremelled the trigger and the trigger guard and had several test fits until I got it to fit right. I drilled a hole in the selector switch and put a pin in that. A pin also went into the plastic part which sits on top of the magazine housing. This was going to be one rock secure build. A million test fits later I just had to glue. No idea how much to use so I slapped it on both parts to be glued and just went for it. The I wrapped it in rubber bands to secure everything while the glue set. And here's what it looked like.

Right, where were we? Oh yes. Glue. It was time to begin the glue work. But before that I had a thought. I really didn't want my charging handle to 'float' in mid air so I began to look into the inner barrel option then I'd be able to sit my charging handle on that. Nothing fancy again. I never was going for über accurate here, but I did want it to look ok. As I would be screwing the folding stock to the barrel the screws would go into the inner barrel so this needed sorting before the folding stock was glued permanently into place. Some forum questions and research told me that a piece of black 20mm plastic pipe was the answer as it slides perfectly into the Doopys barrel. Now when I bought my current house the previous owner had done some renovation and the scruffy sod had left off cuts of bits and pieces in the garage rafters. This became a treasure trove for my build as up there was about 12 feet of 20mm black plastic pipe! Enough for several screw ups and then some!!!!! I chopped a bit off longer than I needed but just to roughly see if it would work. And bingo bango! It slid in perfectly. I checked other build threads to see where it needed cutting to length, chopped it, checked it and then whooped for joy. I was now ready to glue.

Thanks Steve. I promise you a crisis did come later. And there was a death of a rubber band. All still to come in the next instalment.

I sat back and wallowed in my own glory. I was a genius. This was actually working. It was coming together and still hadn't combusted in my hands. But a scary time was looming. Sooner or later I was going to have to glue. And that meant whatever I did was permanent. I'd taken advice about glue and decided on the E6000 route. Some say two part epoxy, some say E6000. I was in no rush so the long drying time of the E6000 wasn't a problem. Each time I glued I would leave the parts for a full 24hrs to set solid. I unscrewed the folding stock and walked away from the blaster for the evening so I could start afresh the following day. Patience young Padawan.

This is how the stock looked once screwed in place. The arm screws would also be covered with some milliputt later to disguise the fact that they are screws.

Next it was time to go drill crazy again and attach the folding stock to the barrel. I'd decided on screw city for sturdiness. A screw in each side of the arms, one in the front of the barrel and another cunningly hidden in one of the depressed circles already in the bottom of the folding stock. Arms first and over to the trusty Dremmel again. I took the existing lumps on the arms almost flat so when a screw went in place it would sit nice and flat. Pilot hole again just through the arm first. Check screw. Bit tight. Wiggle drill. Perfect. Offer up to barrel and go through the same hole I'd made in the arm and into the barrel. The moment of truth. Put screw in and hey presto. It worked! This was solid and just what I was looking for. I repeated the step the other side. With these arm screws in and holding the folding stock in place it was pretty easy to do the other two holes in the upper barrel. Each screw required two holes. The first large enough to take the threads of the screw. Drill, test screw, perfect. The second hole went just low enough to sink the screw below the surface so it could be filled and hidden later. This second hole is obviously made once the screw was removed. Put the screw back in and this what you have. And the second hole. Beautifully hidden as you can see.

The front of the folding stock needed some Dremmel work according to research. Easy to get wrong too. I drilled in from both sides to make sure I'd not gone in at an angle and came out the other side in completely the wrong place. I drilled several holes and then just kinda joined the dots with the Dremmel. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Here's the result of some delicate work.