Coloursergeant

Hello Everyone! This is the first thread I've ever started here. I love the E-11 blaster and while I have a great piece to troop with from RS (and a not-so-great one from SDS...), but there's just nothing like the real thing, so that means making it from real Sterling parts, and as many other originally used components as possible. As a lifelong collector of militaria and historic military firearms, I have owned and built several display guns made from machine gun part kits, so I already had some ideas of where to look for a Sterling parts kit. After shopping around, I ended up purchasing a parts kit and magazine from Numrich Gun Parts Corp at an extremely reasonable price. Here are a couple photos of what the kit looked like after some basic cleaning of the parts and grinding away the slag metal left behind by the cutting torch with my Dremel. The main body of the receiver tube has been cut in four places with a torch, but the cuts are well placed and not a lot of material is missing at the gaps. As you can see the kit I received has the textured crinkle finish on it. At first I thought I would sand it smooth, but now it has grown on me and I'm going to try to preserve it. Next I started collecting the other items needed for the conversion. I was able to find an original Hengstler counter (six digit, resettable) although it is a later version with the H logo instead of the eagle. I am still happy to have found it though and at $60 I think the price was okay. I also purchased the aluminum reproduction M38 telescope and the assembled type A power cells made by Fieldmarshall thru his eBay store. I have to say that I am very impressed with the quality of these items especially after reviewing much of the excellent research material available on this forum. Here are the items I have acquired so far: I also ordered a mounting bracket for the scope and Hengstler from a UK based eBay seller. I selected the type that attaches at the rear to the flip-up rear sight, as I didn't want to drill into the Sterling receiver tube. The last item needed is T-Track, and I ordered a kit from Gino. After placing that order I learned about the track available from Roy at wannawanga, so I have ordered a set from there also to compare them. I am sure I will build another lighter weight E-11 for trooping, so it shouldn't go to waste. I will post updates as I get started on the build!

I applied for an Amazon credit card while pre-ordering this helmet and they gave me a $70 credit, so got the helmet for $9.99!