Astyanax

Thanks so much for this contribution Vern. Especially your last paragraph. That says it as I believe it. I think the key takeaway for me personally (as a newbie) is to really remember that we have these three levels of certification, and that this means there are really no major barriers here. No one is expecting the Anovos design to present a notable barrier to 501st admission, and no one is saying you can't go troop and warm the hearts of children (and their parents) around the world in Anovos-derived armor (with a good fitting and potentially minor modifications). But at the same time it is also important to remember there is a community here that is dedicated to realism and authenticity with regard to the original films, and that both communities overlap significantly, and are being honored at the same time. So what we get here at FISD is a wonderful spirit of all-inclusiveness. Whether you're into just the trooping, or also the purity of an amazingly near-perfect replica, the 501st and FISD are here to further both causes, ideally at the same time. What rocks most about this group is that everyone cares so much. Bill

1" PVC OD: 1-5/16" 1-1/4" PVC OD: 1-21/32" 1-1/2" PVC OD: 1-29/32" These are the pipes I buy from Home Depot. Bill

15. BIPOD (part 3/3): STRUTS & ASSEMBLY This is where it all comes together. This post is pic-heavy and verbose, so I apologize in advance. But if you're following along, I hope it's helpful! First off, I scoured the internet and the reference pics section, finding these most helpful: Following some suggestions from TK861's site, I picked up a pair of 12" shelf brackets from Home Depot, for about six bucks. I then sawed off the ends with the curved attachment points, and hammered out (on the ground) the remaining cut ends until they were flat. Then I bent the ends just a tiny bit with a pair of pliers, creating a semi-rounded attachment point. The plan here is to glue these ends onto the dowel of the front mount. Time to shorten the struts. About four inches back from the attachment ends, I cut out a three-inch section with a coping saw. Then, using E6000, I glued the short ends over the long ends, clamping them down with about a one-inch overlap. It is important at this point to try to get the two struts to the exact same length. The E6000 gave me a minute or so to do that. I don't have a picture, but I next broke out my dremel grinding tip and seriously rounded the corners of the "paddle" ends. You'll get a sense of how much in the pictures below. At this point, I decided to challenge myself and try to do something cool with those paddle ends, maybe making them look more like the bipod feet of the real thing. Rather than wait more than a week for more Milliput to arrive via eBay, I decided to try for the first time real Bondo, the 2-part body filler stuff: After using this, I must say I am a real fan. It sands much faster than Milliput, but is not brittle like the Bondo spot putty. But this is NOT a clay or putty; this is more like an epoxy consistency and needs to be applied as such. Not with fingers! In a small dixie cup, I took a plastic spoon and mixed about two heaping spoonfuls of the Bondo with about a half-inch squirt of the hardener. I stirred it vigorously and then applied it to my paddle ends: Notice the difference? On one of the paddles I used my hands (with nitrile gloves) to apply it. With the other, I used the plastic spoon. The spoon application is MUCH smoother, and left me with far fewer gaps and divots that would have to be repaired later. Dixie cup and spoon application works really well. And this stuff cures, ready to sand, in an hour! Next up was lots of sanding. I started with 60-grit to remove lots of material and do basic shaping as quickly as possible, then I smoothed it with 220-grit and finished with 400-grit. It probably took about half an hour for each piece, but came out really nice! I used spot putty afterward to fill any gaps or divots. For one or two larger spots I mixed more real Bondo, since it cures so fast. About 1/10 parts of hardener to Bondo. Next up, I cut some 0.060" thickness Plastruct (styrene) into the following triangle shapes to build the pointed tips on the feet: The larger rectangle is 1" x 3/4", sliced diagonally to make off-center triangles. The two smaller rectangles are 1/2" x 3/8", prepared similarly. By the way, Plastruct is most easily cut by scoring with an x-acto knife and then "snapping" apart with pliers if necessary. It makes for a nice clean cut. I then used superglue (gel) and tweezers, to glue smaller triangles to each side of a large triangle. I only needed to hold them together about 10 seconds and blow on them for them to hold together, so this step was surprisingly easy. Once the superglue had cured, I superglued the completed star points onto the bases of the foot paddles. Next, I wanted to add a couple more details to the struts before mounting them, so I took a piece of thick craft foam (6mm from Michaels) and cut these pieces: The strips are 4" x 1/4", and the circle is about 3/4" in diameter. Probably a little large, but it's about the smallest I could make look nice from the foam. I ended up pushing my flashlight handle end really hard down on the foam, and then very carefully cutting with a brand new x-acto knife, holding the blade as vertical as I could. For smoothing, the dremel with grinding tip works really, really well, but takes a light touch. I then superglued the pieces onto the struts. I will coat them with white glue, but not till final mounting is done. Mounting was actually somewhat difficult, but clamps really helped a lot here. After test fitting, I realized I needed to cut a small notch (really just one slice into the foam) into the barrel collar at the front mount: This helped the struts seat better, closer to the barrel. Next, I used a dab of E6000 on the rounded ends and attached them to the dowel. A small clamp (CLAMP #1 - see below) attached right past the foam strips helped a lot here. Then, I put some E6000 on the screw on the rear mount, as well as on the balsa block where the struts come into contact. I then slid the strut edges between the two washers and pushed the screw in (reality check: the edges ended up under both washers ). Twisting with a screwdriver helped push the screw in. At this location it was helpful to use a large clamp (CLAMP #2) to hold the struts to the barrel, right between the foam semi-circles and the screw. I also kept my screwdriver BETWEEN the struts to make sure there would remain a separation between them as the E6000 cured. It was necessary to add one more large clamp (CLAMP #3) up front by the dowel, holding the struts down toward the barrel so they would not slide away from it too much. Here's the whole clamp/screwdriver shebang: This was all a little tricky and it took a couple tries. The good news is you can always pull it apart, tear out the E6000, and try again. I then followed up with some extra E6000 around all of the connection points, applying with a small piece of Plastruct as a tool (you can use a popsicle stick), and let it cure overnight. Once cured, I removed the clamps and pulled out the screwdriver; it had settled into the right position! I spent another half hour with some sharp tweezers, removing excess cured E6000. I followed up with a little superglue gel here and there for good measure, just to be safe. It is now rock solid! I can pick up the whole blaster by grabbing the bipod. And finally, I applied the three coats (1 hour apart) of white glue over the foam parts, and I was done! This was a much larger project than I expected, but I'm really happy with the result: This puppy's starting to finally look like a DLT-19! Next post, I have no idea what I'm doing next. Probably something small and simple. Time to take a breather for a day! Bill

Personally, I like the "sanitized" look. I won't be weathering my set, nor do I want any asymmetry, although there will be some built in, I know. For me, it's not about film accuracy so much as authentic to the SW universe itself. If it's a believable stormtrooper, shiny and fresh off the assembly line, I will be thrilled. To me, that stands out.

Thanks for the kind words. The rest of the bipod will be posted shortly. I'm very pleased with how it came out.

14. BIPOD (part 2/3): REAR MOUNT Since most of the bipod's rear mount is covered up by the bipod itself when it's folded, I really only needed to invest some effort into the block that attaches to the barrel. I used a piece of 1"x1" balsa for this: The piece was first cut to a length of 1-1/2". I then sanded down the round part by taking a piece of 1-1/4" PVC pipe and wrapping a 220-grit piece of sandpaper around it. This allowed me to sand down a perfectly round and perfectly-sized shape. I then sliced the piece down its length, thinning it to 3/4" deep. After this, I gently rounded the corners, and smoothed it with 400-grit sandpaper. I glued the piece onto its proper place on the barrel using superglue gel. NOTE: Later I decided the piece was sticking too far off the barrel, so I sliced another 1/8" or so off its height. Once attached, I painted the balsa block with three coats (1 hour apart) of white glue. This helped protect the soft wood and make it easier to work with. I feel this is a crucial step, given the abuse it later had to suffer when I attached the bipod! To hold the bipod struts onto this block, I prepared a 1" round-head screw and a couple of washers, planning to "sandwich" the edges of the struts between them. Balsa won't hold a screw, so I planned to use E6000 glue to hold it all together. But not till the bipod was ready. If I'd had a slightly longer screw I would have gone with that, so it could anchor into the pipe. But E6000 worked fine. But I did not glue it yet. Quick and easy, that's the entirety of the rear mount. I'll post the rest of the bipod assembly later today. Bill

13. BIPOD (part 1/3): FRONT MOUNT I have finished the bipod! This turned out to be a pretty good sized project in its own right, so in the interest of not overwhelming this thread with pics and crazy-long discourse, I've broken it up into three parts, all of which will be posted over the next 1-3 days. Aw, who'm I kidding, it'll be too many pics and lengthy discourse anyway. By the way, this is going to be a non-functioning bipod. No stormtrooper I know of ever got on the ground with a DLT-19 in a Star Wars movie, so I'm not feeling lots of pressure to make it work. It just needs to look cool folded up. On to the front mount! First off, I consulted various images on the internet, especially this one: To start, I used a few pieces of craft foam to build up the collar around the barrel tip where the front bipod mount is anchored. This piece can be printed at full size and used as a template for the craft foam (2mm from Michaels). I also cut two 3-7/8" x 1/4" strips: The pieces are mounted around the rear end of the barrel tip, with the "window" of the largest piece facing up, making sure the side holes are exposed. The two strips are used as front/rear borders around the underside part of this strip. Once these pieces were superglued together, I painted them with three coats (1 hour apart) of white glue. This hardens the outside, stiffens the foam, and makes it more readily able to accept paint. I did this for ALL of my foam pieces in this project. Next, I cut this "wrapper" out of foam: This can once again be printed at full size and used as a template. That hole in the middle is cut with a brand new x-acto blade. Then, I collected the following: 1. The foam wrapper I just made 2. A 1-1/2" long piece of 1/2" ID PVC pipe, carefully cut and sanded to be even 3. A 3/4" long piece of 3/4" wooden dowel, again sanded to have even ends 4. A 1-5/8" long star-tip deck screw (I had a bunch of these from a previous project) 5. A 1-1/2" long flat-head wood screw (again, had it lying around) 6. An electrical wire nut to serve as a screw knob (had it lying around) The wrapper was superglued around the piece of PVC, but not all the way, leaving parallel "flaps" coming out in one direction. At this point the wrapper was painted with those three coats of white glue. Trust me; this is necessary. I then drilled pilot holes through the dowel and the back wall of the PVC, and screwed the wood screw through the dowel into the PVC, with a layer of E6000 between them. Notice that the screw does not go in all the way. In fact, it has to leave room for another screw going through the center of the PVC pipe. I hot-glued the wire nut onto the end of the screw, making it look like a knob. Then, I drilled a pilot hole all the way through the center of the PVC pipe and wrapper, vertically straight down. I then screwed the deck screw into it part way. After a liberal application of E6000 between the parts about to be mated, I carefully aligned this new assembly onto the underside of the barrel tip collar, and screwed it all in very tightly. Before the glue cured, I carefully made sure whole thing was aligned just right. For side caps, I twice sanded down the end of a piece of 5/8" dowel until it was small enough to fit into the PVC pipe, and cut off an end to use as a cap. I sanded them to get the sides nice and square. Then, again with an E6000 application, I tapped the caps into the sides of the PVC pipe. I used some Bondo spot putty to try to hide the deck screw. The Bondo didn't do the best job, but it'll disappear further when I weather it later. For screw heads, I found this pack of screw covers at Home Depot for a couple bucks: After clipping off the small posts with a small wire cutter, I superglued one onto each of the wood caps. For cutting the screw slot, I started with an x-acto blade, and then did some scraping with a tiny file and a sharp knife until I had a slot. The trick with these slots is to go slowly; the plastic is a bit harder than it seems. I don't have a picture, but the last thing I did here is self-explanatory: I glued one more of the screw covers onto the bottom surface of the dowel piece, but did not carve a screw slot, since it's meant to look like a swivel, not a screw. Front mount is done! Bill

Really nice work on the blaster, you really went above and beyond on this one. And thanks for the shout outs! Those hooks are awesome, aren't they? Bill

For this cost, probably would be a nice display piece on a mannequin, I would think. But yeah, don't wanna support the recasters.

I didn't mention it. Shoot for 3/4" or slightly under. My flashlight is pushing 3/4". Bill

12. COCKING HANDLE & SLIDER (So sorry, this is a very long post for a very small part of this build. ) I started working on the bipod, but got sidetracked while thinking about the cocking handle and bolt slider. One of the problems to solve here is storage. If the cocking handle sticks out all the time, this can make it harder to transport, to hang on the wall, etc. The cocking handle really needs to be removable. After brainstorming with my wife and then discovering this post from MEPD, I realized you can use a mini flashlight handle as a cocking handle, and if mounted correctly, you can screw and unscrew it as needed. So the first thing I did was decide to saw off the "bump" that is on the right side of the BYOB grip, right where I want to put the cocking handle. But I did some damage! The tricky thing here is that this bump is hollow, so grinding it or sawing it off can cause particles or plastic bits to fall into the grip housing. I didn't want to contend with rattling plastic in there, so I had to do it all upside down! I took a bare hacksaw blade and carefully sawed it off. I wasn't careful enough, and I cut into the housing a little. But, after some sanding and a little Bondo spot putty (which cures fast), I was back in business: The moral of the story is, don't hacksaw upside down! But with this damage, I started looking at the reference pics a little more closely, and made a couple realizations. First, the cocking handle is attached to an entire slider, which looks like this: The slider is an opportunity for a couple small details. Here it is pulled all the way back: Notice the extra rectangle with two bumps on it? I can copy that, and at the same time, cover up my damage! Also, I noticed the position of the cocking handle relative to the trigger: On the BYOB, it's going to be an inch or so farther back. I don't see any way around this without getting it in the way of the black ammo-box-looking thing. Since it's meant to slide, and since other makers (such as DoopyDoos) put the handle in different positions, my "hole" in the BYOB is still going to be a fine position. First order of business was to find a suitable flashlight. I had this one lying around (poor man, you know): It's a "Brinkmann Rebel", but I've had it for 6-8 years, and the new versions of it are a lot more expensive than the few-bucks-with-no-features I paid back in the day. I knew that due to the positioning of wires and the thin plastic walls of the the BYOB, there was no way I was going to recess this flashlight end, like in that MEPD post. But a flush mount is workable in this case because the flashlight is nothing but thin plastic itself. No weight at all, and a little E6000 should do the trick. This is the unscrewed back end of the flashlight: After ripping out the spring, clips, and button with a pair of pliers, I noticed that the plastic threads could work for me. I took the coping saw this time (bad hacksaw, bad!), clamped that end tip down to my work bench, and very slowly cut the threaded piece off. After also tearing off the rubber casing of the flashlight handle, this is what I had: The back of the black threaded "ring" had to be sanded a few times so that I could be sure it would stand the handle up straight and not at an angle; it wasn't a straight-cut to begin with. I then cut the flashlight handle length to just over 2-1/4" (a figure I also found on MEPD). Then, I sanded the whole thing lightly, and these pieces are now my handle: For the rest of the slider, I went back to my trusty Plastruct (styrene) pieces, and cut the following: 1. A 5-9/16" x 9/16" piece 2. A 9-1/16" x 1/4" piece 3. A 2" x 1/4" piece I could have cut the two larger pieces as one, but I really did want a clear seam between them, like in the reference pics. These pieces were all glued together using superglue (liquid for the butt-joined parts, gel for the little piece). After curing and sanding off the glue residue, I took a semi-sharp knife and re-traced that seam between the larger two pieces. I want it to show. I also rounded two corners with sandpaper. And what about the bumps? I went to Michaels, and found this pack of small and tiny brads for three bucks: Using a small wire cutter, I snipped off the brad "legs" of two of them, and superglued them to the rest of the slider. Then, I used E6000 to glue the whole thing to the side of the BYOB grip, and also used E6000 to glue on the threaded ring from the flashlight. After curing and removing excess E6000, this was the finished slider section: It was time to screw on the handle and see if it would hold. Perfect! The handle screws on nice and tight and looks the part! I'll just have to remember at painting and weathering time that this whole section is mostly silver/gunmetal, not black. Yes, I know the handle is not knurled, and at first I got really hung up on trying to find a flashlight handle that was light, knurled, and affordable. But ultimately, this DLT-19 build is going to result in a design than is simpler than the real thing. I can give up the knurls! (By the way, sorry for so many pictures this time, I'm really wanting to document all the details. Thank you so much for reading! ) NOW it's time to really take on that bipod. Already have some good progress! Bill

Hey Ed, I know that this guy uses shelf brackets from Home Depot. I'm at the point now where I'm just about to build a bipod myself, and I'll be using the shelf brackets, some Plastruct (styrene), craft foam, wooden dowels and a few odd screws. As soon as I've finished it (1-2 weeks) I'll be adding it to my build post below. Other than the shape of the shelf brackets themselves (kind of pinched-rounded), It should look a bit more accurate than PVC when I'm finished. It will definitely be slimmer which is something that appeals to me. Hope that semi-helps! Bill

Andy, my build (see links below) also has individual templates for a 1-1/4" PVC barrel and a 1-1/2" barrel base. Just print at full size.

Very nice! What's the inner barrel, 3/4" PVC? Also, consider painting it black before final assembly!

Here's the October Anovos newsletter:

11. BARREL ASSEMBLY Ah, the moment of truth: will it hold together? The first thing I did was glue the plastic inner barrel to the grip. This involved covering about 1" of the sanded end with E6000 and very slowly inserting it into the barrel base. Then, with some pushing and twisting, it was done. I waited for it to cure a few hours before moving on. The outer barrel was extra tricky. First I did a test fitting to make sure my inner barrel length was right. Once sure, I slathered a bunch of E6000 on the end of the inner barrel and once again VERY SLOWLY ran the outer barrel over it. As I got to the end, I then applied a bunch of E6000 on the four "fins" near the base,as well as a good quarter-inch around the outer barrel and slid it all the way down. A little twist to line up the holes and I was done. I laid it flat, with the barrel end supported so it would stay straight and waited overnight. This morning, the barrel is very solidly holding! It worked! After that, I spent a few minutes peeling off excess E6000, and barrel assembly is done! A tiny bit of E6000 residue is visible on the inner barrel through just a couple of those holes, but it looks fine, almost like oil or something in one of two spots. Gives it a used feel. Also a quick spray with primer when it's time to paint should help tone that down, but I'm not concerned. The whole blaster is about an inch short of the 48" length of the original, but I think this is mostly due to the fact that I could have beefed up the stock even more. Completely unnoticeable. I'm really excited that it's coming together, and now I can work on some of those signature details. Next post, I'll be making the bipod cocking handle. Bill

Thanks Michael! I'm gonna see if I can make the Plastruct work first, see if I can save some money from having to use all that Milliput! Bill

You can. You just keep sanding and sanding until it looks right. This was my first time working with any kind of clay or putty.

Stein is right, better open up and see if you get that sickly sweet fume that makes your wife want to leave you. If anything less than that, if your kids don't run screaming, you've got the wrong stuff.

10. BUTT STOCK!!! Wow, this was a pretty grueling and time consuming step, but doable by anyone with enough patience and a couple hours of sanding. I'm very happy with the result, so let's dive in. As far as which putty/clay to use, I did tons of research. I know people on these boards are very fond of Green Stuff, but I went with Milliput. While more expensive, Milliput is a thick 2-part putty that does not shrink or change shape as it cures. Once cured in about 4 hours, it is ROCK SOLID, and fully sandable and paintable. There are several grades of Milliput, some finer/harder or coarser/softer than others. I went with the "Terra Cotta" grade, which is very fine and sands very slowly with extra work. This was important to me because I did not want to over-sand; I have no skill in this arena. This is my first attempt at such a thing. The trick with Milliput is to dip your fingers in water as you're forming it. This really helps the Milliput spread around, take a nice shape, and adhere better. It made all the difference for me. I ended up needing three packages of Milliput, which begins to take me out of the "poor man" concept of this project. Each package is $8-$10, depending on where you get it. It's readily available on eBay and Amazon. But once I saw the finished result (read on), I was okay with the cost. We'll eat in this weekend. I used almost the entirety of my first package making a "saddle" across the top. I wanted to bulk up the stock a bit, as it is a little small in size compared to the blueprints. So lots went on top. Once that had cured, I flipped it over and used a second package on the bottom and sides, again bulking up as I went and keeping my fingers wet with a bowl of water nearby (and nitrile gloves). The third package was used on building up the back sides of the stock (not the very back, I kept Milliput off that almost completely). You can see above that I also kept back a few "blobs" of Milliput to cover up any divots or wrinkles that don't come out enough. This was a very important step, because it's easier to sand off excess than not have enough material to cover it. Again, using water to smooth it was crucial here. I wish I had done more of that. Incidentally, have a look at that photo above. See the little dip cup holding the blaster up off my parchment? That's the current center of gravity! Yep, this Milliput has added 9-10 more ounces of weight to the butt stock, making it very heavy in the back! This might be a good thing; I hope my barrel assembly is heavy enough! I'll let you know after barrel assembly (next step) whether or not that much lead weight in the stock was a good idea. After curing, I then spent the next several days sanding, a few minutes here or there because it is hard work. For removing mateiral, I used a combination of a sanding drum attached to my drill (VERY sparingly, be careful!), a sanding block with 60-grit sandpaper (super useful), 60-grit sandpaper by hand (even better), and also this 36-grit sanding sponge: Don't let the grit count fool you; this sponge is definitely a smoother. It smoothed down the results of my coarse sanding, but still removed a decent amount of material. This little sponge is a really, really nice shaper. By the way, wear a breathing mask for this entire process, only do it outside (red powder everywhere), and keep a can of spray air to keep blowing off the dust! This is the voice of experience! From a shaping standpoint, I didn't really have a specific plan in mind. I looked at lot of of photos of the MG34 butt stock (Google it), but really it was all about getting the round shape of the front PVC pipe smoothed down to the back end of the stock, as smoothly as possible. Taking it a little at a time, the right curves kind of presented themselves. I want to reiterate here, I've never worked with clay before. But Milliput is forgiving because it sands so slowly. The horn underneath has to be taken extra slowly with just sandpaper, but I'm VERY happy with how that looks now. I can't say this enough: take it slow. After a grand total of 2 or so hours of smoothing, this is the result: There were 5-6 tiny pock marks where I missed using enough Milliput in those particular spots, so I brought out the Bondo spot putty, and touched those up. Also, a bit of the PVC pipe was exposed right where it transitions to the putty, so I thought a little Bondo will smooth that out. Then, with a light sanding of 100 grit, another of 220, and a final one of 400, this is the final sculpted butt stock. This thing feels like a smooth piece of stone. I guess it is now! I'll be making a rubber pad for the end of it later when I work on details (the most fun part). At this point I want to say that when I finish this stock, I'm going to use a wood grain texture, similar to the technique shown here. Yes, I know that film accurate versions of the DLT-19 use dark brown bakelite, but I'm not after precise film accuracy, but rather sci-fi-universe fun. So I'm allowing wood. I like to think of myself as a trooper that tricked out his weapon from the redwoods of Kashyyyk. Honestly glad that's done. Probably the only "scary" part of this build. Happy Halloween. Next post? Assembly! Bill

Wow, that is awesome. Please keep us posted!

Thanks for posting the pic, it came out great! Can't wait to see your bucket approach. It was the only thing that I felt shaky on while working on it. It was indeed a crazy amount of work. By the way, did you end up trying skipping the glue layer and going straight to Flexi-Dip? Bill

Just to round things out for anyone who cares, E6000 is also at Wal-Mart and a few varieties of it can be found at Michaels. I bought my first tube on Amazon.

NIcely done! Glad to see a much nicer soldering job than mine turned out to be.

Antonio, as I understand it, you want return edges pretty much everywhere, EXCEPT where your hands and feet come out. No return edge on the bottoms (only) of the forearms or forelegs. Tops get return edges, Everywhere else gets return edges. The purpose here is to make the armor look "thicker" than it is, and a return edge provides that. But it can make things more difficult for your hands and feet, and that's why no return edges were left there in the screen-used armor. Experts, please correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the approach I'm planning to take with mine. Bill