Hi all,
This is my first foray into this sort of thing, so I know many individuals on this site might shake their heads.
But I'll try to give context...
I bought an S&T STAEG68 (Full Metal Custom Sterling Airsoft AEG SMG with Heat Sink and Scope) from evike.com:
From this I wanted to put together a decent looking R1 E-11 Blaster for me to admire once in a while that is mostly metal / not resin.
I did not intend to use this to get certified or to go trooping with.
So, you'll notice that in the final pictures the Eagle on the Hengstler counter and the scope are wrong, among other things I'm sure.
I had some basic tools already, like a handheld electric drill and a Dremel, but ended up buying some other things in addition to the blaster parts/accessories.
I've tried to list everything below.
Parts/Tools
S&T STAEG68 Full Metal Custom Sterling Airsoft AEG SMG with Heat Sink and Scope
Flashlight and Mount
Phoking M300A Tactical Light ($33)
Flashlight Rail ($18)
MLOK Screws for Flashlight Rail ($7)
Parts from blasterfactory.com:
T-Track, 4 x 17" ($25)
Rogue 1 Power Cylinders ($40)
M38 Scope ($80)
Hengstler Counter ($60)
Everbilt #10-32 x 5/8 in. Stainless Internal Hex Socket Set Screw (2-Pack) (< $3)
Mounting Hardware for Hengstler
10/32 Tap for Counter and Counter mount ($5)
3/8-inch Countersink bit ($12.50)
T-style Tap Wrench ($6)
Painting / Decoration
Flat Black Paint ($10)
Spray Paint Grip ($12)
Wagner Furno 300 4095-BTU Heat Gun ($25)
Dremel EZ406-02, EZ - Lock Starter Kit ($15)
Finer grit sandpaper ($7)
Titanium Drill Bits ($10.50)
J-B Weld 8267 SteelStik Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty Stick - 2 oz. (< $7)
And here's the work I had to do to get the job done...
Order of Operations
Remove the stock scope, counter, t-tracks, power cylinders, and orange safety cap on muzzle.
All of these needed to go as they were either in the wrong place (scope), were cheap plastic (scope, counter, power cylinders), or were the wrong length (t-tracks).
They were all pretty straight forward to remove except the orange cap as it was not only glued but was also stuck as there was a small metal cylinder protruding from the bottom of the muzzle that the cap was locked into, which leads me to the following step.
Cut off cylinder at base of muzzle.
I cut off the small cylinder extending from the muzzle with the Dremel tool and a reinforced cutting wheel.
This left some less than ideal marks on the muzzle that I "fixed" later.
Drill new holes in scope rail for scope.
Here, I started slow with smaller bits and gradually increased their size until I could accommodate the #10/32 screws that could hold the scope to the rail.
Mount the rail for the flashlight.
This was a bit tricky as the holes in the barrel were not spaced perfectly to accommodate the flashlight rail.
So, I had to extend two of the holes outward so that the rail could be mounted.
The darkest dots below represent where the screw posts needed to be:
Bend small “wings” on power cylinders.
I wasn't sure if this was self explanatory or not but the forward "wings" on the power cylinders were flat and I bent them up a bit to look more like the R1 E-11 version.
Design and order a counter mount.
I did a quick mockup of the counter mount below and ordered from sendcutsend.com.
The red dotted line is where a 90 degree downward bend was needed.
The two holes together are for mounting to the scope rail whereas the other hole was for mounting to the Hengstler counter.
Make counter sinks in top of counter mount.
The counter sinks are so that the screws would sink into the mount a bit and not protrude too much above it when mounting to the scope rail.
Drill and tap new holes in scope rail for counter mount.
This is so I did not need any nuts on the other side of the scope rail.
Cut down Power Cylinders screws.
The screws extended beyond the bottom of the power cylinders, so I cut them down with the Dremel.
Fill old holes in scope rail.
I wasn't sure what I was doing but it turned out as I had hoped.
I used some J-B Weld SteelStick to fill in the old holes in the scope rail, sanded it down, and now can't even tell they were there after painting.
I also used the SteelStick and some sanding to clean up the muzzle where I had marked it up pretty good previously.
Paint with flat black paint:
muzzle
blaster mag housing (needed repainting after cleaning up leftover glue from the old power cylinders)
flashlight rail (needed painting as I could only find these in bronze rather than black)
scope rail
power cylinders
scope
counter
counter mount
Install t-tracks.
Here I used the heat gun and it went a lot better than I had hoped.
Install all other parts.
Getting the scope on was particularly challenging since I could not remove the scope rail.
So, the screws that shipped with the scope could not be used.
Instead, I ended up screwing two headless #10-32 screws into the scope and then using some leftover MLOK nuts to attach below the scope rail.
And here's the final product:
All-in-all, I had a fun time doing all of this but was really terrified I would screw something up permanently since I had never done anything like this in the past.
I was most worried about cleaning up the scope rail, painting everything properly, and installing the t-tracks.
Here were some links that were helpful along the way:
References
Rogue One Blaster Reference
Painting
T-Track instructions (preferred)
T-Track instructions (other)
M38 Scope assembly
Hengstler Counter assembly
Mounting the Hengstler Counter
