Twnbrother

Good point. It should look right over time.

The penny was good and dark when I cut it but after handling it became shinny. I gotta think some more on a rusty piece for this.

I did a little work on the power cylinder tonight after work. i talked with Tino about what was the right color for the interior of the power cylinder that shows through the slits in the back. He stated that Andy's (Playfulwolfcub) research showed that it was rust colors. I made the standard slits in the rear of the power cylinder, cut a penny to be the "rust" and painted the inside black. i then glued on the wings and front cylinders with Zap a Gap. After everything dries I will install the center rods, connect the ends of the power cylinders, route the red wire and give it the final paint and weathering.

I found a cheaper and easier solution to my STEEL end pieces I used on Power Cylinders. http://www.ebay.com/itm/200-3-8-x1-16-Acrylic-Small-Circles-Craft-Disc-Clear-Flat-Plexiglass-Shape-USA-/151727140176?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2353a46d50 These are acrylic 3/8" x 1/16" disc.... easy to cut and you get 100 for 4.99 plus 2.45 shipping. Its a better deal than what I paid for the steel disc due to the difficulty and broken diamond dremel bit. If I do another build I will use these.

I assembled my power cylinders using the 3/8" steel blanks for the end caps. Lesson learned... do not use STEEL.... wow, even though this was thin I took forever to punch through and cost me a diamond dremel bit... I gave the cylinders their dark steel under coating. Once everything is dry I will paint black and assemble. The three center cylinder will go on after the painted pieces and receive their paint last. I want to ensure the METALMITE sticker shows through.

I am now finally satisfied with the bolt serial numbers after the 4th attempt. A lesson learned is to let the Green Stuff dry for 10-15 minutes (or more) before stamping. If you mess up... smooth out the mistake immediately and restamp. The bolt is painted gun metal and the bolt stripe is dark steel. The body of the weapon is also dark steel, but this is the base coat before hammered paint. The bluish glare in the bottom right is artifact from the photo.

I found out while on my 4th attempt at stamping the digits that you can wait about 10 minutes or more before stamping... this give a little rigidity to the green stuff.

I was trying to rack my brain on how to get the word HENGSTLER on the face of the counter... It looks like it is melted into the plastic.... so I gave up on that idea. Thanks for all the help and advise on how to build the ANH E11

Tino per your request I have attached two photo's of the counters numbers straight on. Before I sealed the window I put Zap a Gap on the numbers to make sure they never moved. The push button is painted satin black on purpose to give it contrast to the counter box.

Well, that is all for this weekend. My work schedule should keep me pretty busy this week, so hopefully I will have some updates by next weekend.

Tonight I finished with the Hengstler Counter... long process, but I think it turned out pretty good.

Right now I am just thinking of really light weathering... I scuffed up a little on the edges to give it some slight wear. I did not want to do a lot as other have said it distracts from the realism. If you look close at some of the surface areas you can see where I rubbed down to the brass. After your post I did go ahead and slightly scuff some more.

Here are some pics of the scope minus the reticle I want.... I need to add the remaining front screws. I did the standard string on the front and white crayon for the letters... After seeing the photo's I need to clean up and touch up where I took the candle wax off the screws.

I'm not gonna use the battery. I will come up with a solution for the scope reticle.

I am gonna keep thinking about the scope reticle. I have seen many people using the cd trick but I wanted to try something new. I'm not in a hurry so I can take my time coming up with new ideas.

My "Great Idea" for the cross hairs did not work the way I wanted . The Avery "clear" stickers are actually frosted So the light dissipation does not work. I thought of creating a light source with micro LEDs and using the psuh button on my magazine well to light it up... However, that would be hard to hide and wires... not undoable, just hard. So here is a thought and I wanted some opinions. I placed a CR2032 battery inside the scope... the pattern is pretty unique.

I sanded and painted the serial numbers. I might have to go back for round 4. It looks like my green stuff was not thick enough in some spots. What is the general consensus?

Chris I think your grub screw hole is on the wrong side. I have seen it on the other side in reference photos. i might be wrong...

Great job on the blaster. I really like the weathering you did.

Chris, Your front site post turned out amazing. Regarding your question about sanding the front site post housing.... it did this, but you gotta be careful. I trimmed off too much on one side and had to build it back up. Gotta love green stuff.

Tino, Thanks for the heads up on keeping the paint light on the bolt. I hope it turns out okay.... or I am headed back for round 4.

For my scope reticle I printed off the crosshairs on Avery Clear labels. I then placed the label over the back side of the lens. I used an XACTO knife to trim the sticker and pressed into the lens. Use something smooth to do this. My first attempt I used a wet finger and the cross hair came off. I put the lens inside the rubber gasket from the monocular with the smooth side facing forward.

Round three on my serial number. This one looks better.... I will see how it appears when dried, sanded, and painted.

I painted the magazine Gun Metal and the end of the mag flat black. This is kinda how I see it in some photos... others looks completely black. I gotta go back over it as I used painters tape instead of Tamiya tape... oops

Before covering the scope with flat black I placed strings in the rings (held in place with candle wax), covered brass screws with candle wax, inserted the lense covered with tamiya tape. The initial painting doesn't look to bad... more finishing to follow.