While waiting for a Doopydoo’s kit to become available, I decided to get a Rubie’s blaster as a test project. It's cheap and has a lot of the necessary bits already attached, so not a lot needs to be added. And since it's a test build to get my feet wet, I didn't want to spend a lot on something better and possibly ruin it.
From reading some of the other posts on the forums, it can look pretty good for being so cheap (after it’s painted, of course).
And I can see why it’s so cheap. The paint job is horrible - they just splashed on some orange, not bothering to clean up drips and smudges where orange shouldn’t have been. And the two halves of the blaster aren’t flush on the bottom.
I recently got a rotary tool (in preparation for my armor build) and since I’ve never used one before, I figured this build would be the perfect time to learn. I jumped right in and started sanding down the top T track and when I was more or less satisfied with it, I sanded down the bottom right track a little. I should probably do this work in the garage or the backyard...I got little white plastic bits all over the carpet.
It looks better, but could use a bit more sanding. I’ll probably go with sandpaper for the rest.
Then I took out the screws holding the two halves of the blaster together and unscrewed the counter. I wanted to create a gap between the scope rail and the blaster (as done by Kawnr), so I tried using the rotary tool. I don’t have any cutting bits so I tried what looks like a grinding bit (I should probably learn what all these bits are for).
It was going fine until I noticed that I wasn’t staying straight and that the plastic wasn’t actually coming off. Instead of shaving off plastic, the rotary tool was melting it and pushing it behind the path I was moving the tool, then the plastic would solidify again. I ended up breaking out a hobby knife and repeatedly scoring the top and bottom of the plastic that I wanted to remove. Eventually I broke through to the other side and was able to remove the piece.
The right side was easier to do since it has the whole section with nothing in the way. For the left side, I had to remove the magazine which took a while since they used a ton of glue (and left a lot of glue residue on the sides of the magazine). With the magazine out, it was a lot easier to get the hobby knife in there to get the plastic cut out.
I also wanted to cut out the little section between the scope and the rail, so more knife work on both sides. I kind of broke the tip of the knife blade while doing this (pushing too hard in the corners) and I do believe I’m getting a blister on my finger. But the blaster is looking much better now!
The next step was to drill out the holes in the barrel. I thought a drill would do the trick, so I drilled a small pilot hole in the center of each indent on the barrel, then used a large drill bit which looked to be the right size. Not the best idea. The drill bit just pulled the blaster up and melted the plastic, leaving a couple wads of plastic on the sides of a rough hole.
I went back to the rotary tool, using the same bit from before when I tried to create the gap under the rail. This wasn’t a good idea either, since the bit was too small - I tried to keep widening the holes but just ended up making bad jagged ovals. I looked back at the bits that came with the rotary tool and found a circular one that looked to be about the size the holes should be. This worked much better! I wish I looked for that sooner! The holes look a little better now, but some are still pretty bad. I don’t know if it’s worth making them all even since some are already too big.
The more I look at the holes, the more I want to fix them. Good thing this is a test build!
The last couple of things I need to do are to make some power cylinders and possibly add the coiled wires, although I’m not sure if I’ll do that or not. And I’m not quite sure how I’m going to make the power cylinders yet (maybe out of styrene?). I also want to shave off the D ring and put a real one there but I don’t know where I would get one the correct size.
Then it’s just painting and weathering. Now I need to go out and buy some paint!
-Richard