hupspring

Continuing with my slow build, I was able to get a little more work done the past couple of weeks. I drilled out the molded screw heads on the front of the scope. For the two inset screws I used a 5/32" drill bit and for the other three, I used a 5/64" drill bit. I still need to do a bit more sanding where you can still see the outline of the screwheads. Next up: I finally opened up the green stuff for the first time to fix the hole I put into the bottom of the scope. This stuff gets sticky! A word of advice - keep some water handy as it really helps to wet your fingers as you are working with it. If your fingers are wet, you are able to move the green stuff around without it sticking to you, making it easier to stay where you want it to. I also filled the inside of the rear opening of the scope with some green stuff since I opened it up way too much. After a couple of days, I sanded it down so that the rear lens will sit nice and snug, then did a spray of flat black on the inside of the scope. Then instead of using glue to get the two parts of the scope back together, I stuck some green stuff on one of the halves and squished the two parts together, holding it together with a clamp. This is where I'm currently at with the scope - I'm waiting for the green stuff to finish curing and hopefully it will act as a strong bond...anyone see any issues with doing this? Once it's cured I'll sand it down and paint it.

I used a 3/8" drill bit to drill out those holes. They were slightly smaller than the predrilled holes, so I then used a grinding stone with a round tip in my rotary tool to widen the holes just a tiny bit. You might want to try decreasing the speed on your dremmel as that helped me learn to control it better. I still tend to make a mess of things when I go too fast. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You should be able to embed Flickr photos as well - on your Flickr photo, there's a share button (looks like an arrow pointing to the right) that has multiple options - one of those is BBCode which you should be able to paste into the reply box. Or you could use the HTML embed option and get the .jpg link in that code, and paste it into the Image link on the forum.

I like #8 the best, followed by #7 and #3. They all look good though. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for the offer Chris! I might take you up on it, but for now I'm liking the wires. I'm planning on painting the scope interior flat black (including the wires) so I'll see how that looks. I'll also be keeping an eye on your thread.

I measured about an inch and a half away from where the rear lens will sit and used a pin vise to drill the small holes for the wires that I'll use for the crosshairs. I didn't manage to put the wires in exactly center but it probably won’t matter. It looks okay in person, but the farther away from the scope you are the harder it is to see the crosshairs. It's growing on me though, so I may just leave it like that.

I haven't really done anything with the scope in a while - I tried cutting some small mirrors and setting them up inside the scope to reflect the light from the front so that it reached the back, but the mirrors were probably too small to really do any good, and making them larger wouldn't work as there isn't much room in the scope. So I tried to use the prisms that were inside the iphone magnifying lens that I dismantled. Since the magnifying lens was straight (unlike some monoculars I've seen which look more like the scope) the prisms were shaped a bit weird and didn't really work for sending the light from the bottom of the scope to the top. I'm considering buying a cheap monocular that is shaped similar to the scope and seeing if the prism in that will work better. Thrawn's Guard was able to do this and it came out pretty nice. I also think I'm going to try something different for my target crosshairs - I was going to use a clear piece of plastic and draw on crosshairs, but I couldn't get anything drawn on that looked good (my hands are too shaky for that). So now I'm thinking of using a small piece of wire (the calipers I have say they are 0.48mm diameter) and sticking that inside the scope. The above is a test shot of a piece of wire inside near the front of the scope - it's actually entering in the hole I created from being too eager with my drilling (see earlier post #3 above). Ideally I would put the wires around 1.5" from the back lens as the lens would focus on it. I would just use two pieces of wire, sitting perpendicular to one another. I wanted to have a small circle where the wires would cross, but I don't know what I would use for that. I did get my completion kit from Tino, and one of the first things I did was eat the gummy bears (thanks again Tino!).

I think your scope turned out great! I don't like a lot of weathering, and you did a good job keeping it at a good amount. I will probably do a similar amount or even less on mine.

You can get a B grade Hyperfirm for $150, which is what I plan on doing eventually. The B grade is cheaper than the A grade (which are $300) since there are some minor issues from my understanding like air bubbles. My Doopydoo's will just be a display piece.

If you're just going to wear it once and want something that looks like a Stormtrooper, you can make one out of foam. Check out Astyanax's thread where he made one for his kids. The helmet in the video you linked actually looks kind of cool (the paper mache one).

Thanks Bill! After looking at your build I see there is so much more I can do with mine, but now that I have a Doopydoo's to work on, the Rubie's will be pushed back to a later date when I have more time.

I like how your blaster turned out. I really like how you did the clearing strip on the inner bolt without having to add extra parts. I may end up using that idea someday when I go back to my Rubie's to make it look better.

I agree with everyone above - this is an incredible resource! Awesome job by the reference team!

I'm a fellow Anovos/Doopydoo's builder and from the same area as you! I know how it feels to cut too much when drilling, I've done that a few times already. I plan on using green stuff to fill in the holes, but it might be a bit tougher for you since you drilled through T track. But you could probably put on green stuff and then shape it with some carver tools - although I've never actually used green stuff yet, so I can't say for certain if that will work. I also got a Disney blaster the other day with the intention of putting the electronics in the DD blaster. I haven't opened it yet so I don't know if it will fit. Maybe I'll wait for you to tackle that since I'm going pretty slowly anyways.

I look forward to seeing how you set up the mirror system...I tried that but since I don't know what I'm doing it didn't work

I helped make my wife one of these, but just for her torso and it came out pretty good. I'll be making one for myself in the next few months since I still have a while before I get my armor kit.

I cut the scope in that spot so that I have a better chance of putting it back together without it looking bad...I'm not that confident in my skills yet, so I didn't want to cut it right on the seam for fear that I wouldn't be able to put it back on and have a good looking seam when I was done. I was thinking that when I glue the parts back together, I could try using bondo or green stuff to make the two pieces look seamless. I also had to enlarge the front of the scope a bit more than I wanted so that the small lens I have would fit (the lens is about 15mm diameter). I may have made it slightly too large (the back of the scope I definitely made too large) but I have a problem making small adjustments and end up overdoing it. Hopefully it won't be that noticeable!

The smiley was an accident at first, I just put the parts down and was about to take a picture when I noticed if I moved them over a little, it would look like a smiley I'm going to have to think about what I want to do with the lenses. It would probably be a lot of work (for me at least) to make the scope even somewhat functional.

My initial goal was to hollow out the entire scope, but with the rotary tool I have I wasn’t able to go more than about an inch deep. I then found some spade drill bits at my parent’s house and tried those out. They worked pretty well but there was no way I was going to be able to hollow out the whole scope without cutting part of it off since the two ends don't line up. So I used a small coping saw to cut off over an inch off the front of the scope. It was tough getting the scope hollowed out, but I was able to get it to a point I was happy with after using spade drill bits, small metal files and a grinding tip on the rotary tool. I did get too close with the rotary tool on the bottom front next to the foot where it got too thin and a hole appeared, but I can fix that with some green stuff. Initially I was just going to put a lens at the front and back, and use the round disc with the target drawn on and stick it in the scope. But now I kind of want to make the scope actually work, or at least show what’s in front of you when you look through. The problem I’m having with the iphone lens I’m using is that the large lens in the back will just magnify a couple inches in front of it (the inside of the scope) while the small lens at the front just lets in light. I may end up just doing what I was initially going to do since I would have to set up some kind of mirror system inside for the image to flip, as well as get the image from the front to the back since the holes don’t match up.

The first part I wanted to start on was the scope. After working on the Rubie’s blaster, I knew I was going to hollow out the scope and put on lenses since I hated the way the scope looked with solid plastic ends. So I drilled a pilot hole in the middle of each end, and used the rotary tool to start grinding away the scope innards. For the lenses, several months ago I bought a cheap iphone magnification lens which didn’t work very well. But it was a pretty good fit for the scope. The larger piece is too small to insert on its own, so I have to keep it in the black casing that it was housed in when on the iphone lens. I also thought about using the idea described by Pablo to cut up a CDROM, but I was having issues with the disc since I used a writable one. The top layer peeled off when I cut it and it was no longer shiny and reflective. I drew a target on the disc but had to cut out several circles since I kept messing up my drawings. I still need to either draw a much better target or print one out on a clear label or something.

I ordered my Doopydoo’s kit on June 25 and got it on July 1 - really fast shipping to southern California! I was still finishing up my Rubie’s test build and didn’t want to start anything yet, but I was too excited about getting this kit - I held the barrel on the grip and ran around the house pretending to shoot stuff. I then proceeded to wash all of the parts in soapy water and let them dry on a towel. I was going to use either scissors or a hobby knife to cut away the excess material on the trigger/trigger guard and the little shield peices, but after reading what happened to Thrawn’s Guard using cutters on the shield pieces, I decided to just use sandpaper. It took a while but eventually I was able to sand the pieces apart. Considering how long it took me to finish the Rubie’s blaster, I expect this build is going to take a while since I try to find a little bit of free time here and there to work on it. I’m also waiting to receive Tino’s completion kit before I start on some of the pieces so I can see how everything will go together.

The blaster looks great! It's pretty easy to cut off the molded D ring and put in your own. I used a small D ring from an old gym bag's shoulder strap and a piece of square styrene tube to hold it in place.

I like your idea of using Bondo to hide the seams. The seams on the Rubie's blaster are an eyesore. I may have to do the same if I ever decide to go back and work on mine again.

Looks great, I need to order one of those soon. How much of the mag receiver do you have to grind out to fit it? That picture of the mess is why I need to start doing this stuff outside or in the garage...I've been doing it in the house over a small trash can and I have to keep a vacuum handy at all times.

Very cool, I like how it all turned out! I definitely want to do this for my son when he gets older.