revlimiter

I got my blaster finished about 3 weeks ago. I didn't post because I managed to lose the pix... heh. I uploaded them to the wrong folder. Anyways, here we go! Both LEDs glued to the muzzle with their stock holder. I considered some sort of light pipe to make the whole barrel light up, but this method was easiest and brightest. The Blaster Factory handle doesn't actually have clearance to allow the rotary switch to work in stock condition. All of the pins make contact with the inside of the housing. I dremeled the flat side like crazy (as seen above) and created just enough clearance to allow the selector to work. This was the first photo of my blaster actually blasting! It might not look like much, but that blaster makes pew-pew noises! I then shortened the wires up, built up the handle, and sealed the brain inside a protective wad of electrical tape. It lives just behind the bolt cover. I drilled and hollowed the back end of the blaster enough to allow the speaker and battery pack to fit. It pressure fits in there nicely, yet is easy to pull out for battery changes. The speaker is wonderfully loud in the back of the blaster. well... sorta. More on that in a sec. AAA battery pack from a flashlight. One of the many things I borrowed from Tino's excellent Lucky #11 build. This is the same voltage as the factory battery pack, but much much smaller in form factor. The one downside of this conversion - this was my only real option for battery placement. A small bit of spring was sacrificed. It's barely noticeable to anyone else, and enables fantastic PEW PEW noises, so it's a sacrifice I was willing to make. And then I got everything put back together and put the rear cap on and.... (pew pew). Yes, it was no longer PEW PEW. A lot of the speaker noise was coming out the back of the blaster. With the rear cap in place it was muffled quite a bit. I didn't want to further weaken the blaster by moving the battery farther forward either. So I started looking into tiny speakers. I got these tiny 20mm speakers off amazon which fit PERFECTLY in the 20mm recess inside the Quest Design blaster. I wired it inline with the factory speaker. There's no extra voltage going anywhere, so no extra sound is produced. I'm just splitting the amount of sound between the two speakers. The speaker goes nicely in the front of the barrel. It is also FAR less muffled. Noise actually escapes the plastic tube now! I made a decent fitting bolt cover out of thin aluminum sheet and started work on the clearing strip. Having that rear bit still in place let me get the angle right easily. One clearing strip! I then cleaned out the back piece for a metal inlay. BAM! A little glue and I have a metal bolt. It reflects the light so much more nicely than the painted resin. I gave it a little weathering and then... Finished! Again! For now! I'm seriously digging the metal handle and rubber grip. A bit dirty and in need of fresh clearcoat, but it's back together. And WORKING! So tasty. And here's a crappy vid showing it in action.

Sorry to horn in, but isn't that two inner thigh pieces put together? I haven't seen thigh armor that looked symmetrical like that. The outside edge should cover up higher, yes? While the inner edge dips lower for crotch room.

Those suits get worse the closer you look at them. One of the reddit threads had a really high res. You could see such thing as... - The shoulder bridges being held on by white rivets in the middle. - Huuuuuge ab buttons. - ANH style helmets... maybe hero ones? But the whole bucket looks odd. - White trim on the torso edges. That's just scratching the surface.

I highly suggest contacting Mark at Authentic Props (AP) who's also in Canada. My own armor came from him and it's absolutely fantastic. While I did get a kit instead of ready-to-wear, I believe Mark will trim and build a kit to order. He's on the list that Caleb posted right above. I also recommend Quest Design in Canada for your blaster needs. Outstanding quality. They have a website and also sell on etsy.

Looking fantastic! Good luck Georgia!

I *love* the remnant artwork and have considered doing one myself. I'll be following along on this one eagerly.

I saw this a couple days ago on youtube. LOVED it!!! Best unboxing video of all time.

Wow, the subtle changes really transform that bucket. It looks incredible now! Fight the urge to redo

It's possible that old 3M hardhat was retired in favor of a new model. If a new welding bucket came out, they'd have new headbands for it. https://www.amazon.com/3M-Speedglas-Headband-Mounting-05-0655-00/dp/B00E83BLKI/ This one looks very similar. Wouldn't it fit in a helmet?

You would, of course, want to test this on some scrap vinyl, but there's a thing called Textile Medium. It comes in a squeeze bottle like many other acrylic paints and is something you can mix with your own acrylic paint to "dye" fabric. It will be rather stiff, but it shouldn't ever crack and will still be flexible. I've used it on car interior items many times in the past with great success. I painted some vinyl race seat shoulder supports with the stuff and never had it crack after several years of use. Maybe worth checking out.

^ THIS! Being able to talk just adds so much to the experience. I'd rank it even with having fans. And fans are an enormous help in any and all weather. I switch my low speed fan on immediately and am usually comfy that way the whole troop. My own bucket is packed. Ukswrath fans, mic, speakers and hearing assist, and the iCOMM static burst amp thing. I regret none of it. And lastly, this is a fantastic build!! I hope you get it all together for Celebration!

Congratulations Mario!!! That armor is an inspiration!

Look at the crates compared to the people carrying them. Specifically the width of one square segment vs the guy's thigh side profile. That gives a rough, yet close estimate of the total crate size. Both imperials are of medium build. So... 8 to 9" for a thigh side profile? That would give about 9" per square with about 1" spacing and 2" between the two linked cubes. Total of perhaps 42" long, 20" deep, and 20" tall? 10% margin of error? I'd bet those measurements would create a prop that's near the right size and with the right paint and weathering would be instantly recognizable.

Welcome to the ranks Jim!!! There's few things in life more enjoyable that wearing the white armor.

I got busy and managed to not update things here yet. This is the tiny circuit board inside the Disney blaster. It's about 20mm wide which juuuuust fits inside my QD blaster's small inner recess. Not sure if this diagram would be helpful to anyone else in the future, but I referred to it a lot while rewiring the board. And just like that, the old handle is off. It was almost that easy. I used a dremel cut off wheel and sliced through about half of one side, waiting to hit some sparks. No sparks ever appeared, making me think that only glue held the handle in place. Sure enough, there weren't any pins. I snapped the handle off easily by hand after slicing what I sliced. I think this may have broken at some point in the future anyway. I'm amazed it was only glued on. Also, pretty happy with the low amount of gouges I managed to make. They'll be easy to fill. Bolt cut. This gives me access to allow the handle to be bolted in place. The inner plastic on the QD is SOOOO thick. It just insane. Not letting any grass grow under my feet. The handle bolted on easily for a test fit. About 20 minutes of careful measuring followed by two holes and a slot for wires. My blaster was only without a handle for a half hour. Front bolt attachment. SUPER easy access with this nice big hole. I'll also fit the pew-pew brain in this hollow. The rear bolt is a lot more challenging to get to, but a rounded end hex key makes easy work of it. The angle is just right to let things spin and tighten up. This grip is so pretty! So very very pretty. Even without pew-pew noises, this is a solid upgrade already.

That's a BEAUTIFUL set of armor. Congratulations CENTURION!!!!

Congratulations trooper! Looks like a fun troop.

The problem with the Quest Design is the very very small inner area. It has a thick wall PVC pipe in the center which reduces the inner bolt diameter to only 20mm. The Disney sepaker is a bit over 28mm. I could definitely clear out some space for the speaker in the end cap.. and I might. But I was considering the counter since half of mine is still hollow and has a really nice vent area in the front. And also, I've been drooling over that Lucky 11 build, Tino. SO GORGEOUS! And a huge help for me with these same electronics.

This is fantastic! You're really breathing new life into this old armor.

And here we are again. Just when I thought I was done, they pull me back in. @Hideya's excellent Disney blaster thread inspired me to take my Quest Design a little further. I found an unboxed Disney Parks blaster for $26 shipped on ebay and harvested the guts. It makes the most fantastic pew-pew noises and has blast and stun settings. SOOOO awesome. I need my pretty blaster to make noises. Every time I've trooped someone has commented on how pretty it was and asked if the blaster made noise. I had to dejectedly say "no" each time. No longer. I'm making my blaster go pew-pew if it kills me. And it. HOW to make the trigger work on this pre-built Quest Design? That's been my struggle for the past few weeks. I could hack things out of the handle and somehow make it work... but I'd probably need to remove the handle/grip to do it. I'd certainly be weakening things. And what if the trigger action wasn't very satisfying or very reliable? What if a switch broke and I had to dig back inside the hacked apart blaster? It seemed like the best way to do this in my own particular build was with a whole new grip. And Blaster Factory sells the grip by itself for about $90. This hunk of metal and plastic is gorgeous. I thought my resin stuff was decent. This is quite another level. The desire to go ahead and build a whole metal blaster is very much there, but I want to see how far I can Frankenstein my QD before I do another. I had to strip it down of course. How could I not? It comes apart and goes back together in a very satisfying manner. If a switch dies sometime in the future I'll be able to fix it without affecting the integrity of the blaster more than I'm gonna in the next few days. The grip comes with switches pre-installed. I just have to wire them up. I also have to take a dremel, saw, and other tools to my very pretty E-11. I'm a little worried. To do: - Remove stock handle/grip/trigger. Carefully. - Create a passage for wiring. - Create access for the BF grip screw attachment. Probably cutting out the bolt. - Install BF grip. - Find a place for the speaker. Probably in the counter. - Find space for the uber-tiny control board. Probably in the bolt hollow. - Create a new bolt. - Question my sanity. - Find space for the batteries. It's very very narrow inside the QD. - Wire everything up. - Put blaster back together. - Re-pretty the blaster.

Fantastic thread. Wish I'd seen it when I was painting mine.

Congratulations on EIB Luca!!! Looking forward to seeing you in Centurion ranks as well.

That's an incredible transformation and a beautiful final product. And that weight!!! My 3 lb (1300 g!) E11 is a bit jealous of that lightness. Outstanding build.

This is some fantastic work! I may have found a cheap one on ebay to salvage the electronics from for my resin blaster. Thanks for the inspiration!

In my own bucket, I just have fuzzy velcro at the very top and no other padding. I have no comfort issues with it, even after several hours. A little lower, I've got those stick on "tactical" foam inserts to keep it comfy on the forehead and back area. And having the bucket sit lower gives SO much better field of vision. I actually see very well out of my bucket, better than when I had the foam at the top. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PGF4CTH This set is pretty thin. Paintball padding. None has made it into my bucket, but it's great for arms and shins. And it's a nice option. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P1G6XTA The thicker tactical padding. I've got this in two buckets. Hope that helps. And you're looking great! Should be no issues with basic approval.