Suspend

Alright, I took a quick break experimenting with paint to finish the bolt... Update - Bolt I think one of the last parts that require fabrication is the bolt. I saw T-Jay's and Dracotrooper's bolt end construction using a marker so I figured I'd try the same thing. I hunted through my daughters markers (which used to be my markers) and I found a red one that was the right size and pretty much dried up. She won't miss it. I happen to have a piece of PVC pipe leftover from my spray booth which was the perfect diameter for the inner bolt. I was pretty concerned about taking apart the marker. I had no idea what to expect. In the end I didn't have anything to be concerned about. Just a piece of spongy fabric surrounded by plastic. No large pools of ink spraying out under pressure. So I sanded down the end of the marker, threw out the other pieces and got a little piece of Plexiglas out of my "spare plastic" box. I'm planning on reshaping the plexiglas to look like it's part of the outer bolt (ejection port area). I glued the marker inside the PVC pipe and got to work reshaping the plexiglas using mainly large files and a belt sander to quickly reduce the "thickness". It's a little hard to see, but it turned out OK.... I used the wire from T-Jay's kit and wound it around a 5/8 inch wooden dowel and then manually bent the wire to even out the spacing of the coils. After a quick coat of primer, the bolt is ready to paint. It will need to be painted before I assemble the bolt. The plexiglas strip has to be glued onto the PVC pipe with the pipe already installed in the receiver tube. Once they are glued they are not coming out anymore so I'll have to finalize the painting of these parts before I glue them together. Next I decided to take a quick trip back to the ejection port and make that little pin thing. Not sure what it's called. Probably has "thingy" in the name. I sketched out the size I wanted right onto the ejection port. It was here I noticed that my port strip isn't exactly at the right angle. It's OK, but the bottom-right of the strip should be lower. It means my little pin thingy has to be a little higher than center and maybe not quite as long. I'm also realizing that I'm getting close to the end of the build. This might be the last hole I dremel. Getting misty eyed... I chopped off the end of a nail and went back to my "spare plastic" box and got another piece of plexiglas and shaped it into a vague "U" shape for the pin holder. Then I glued the little parts in place. It's hard to see because the plexiglas is still semi-transparent. I'll post a followup photo once I have some primer down and things show up better. Is that it? The end of the fabrication? I think everything that needs to be made/modified is now done. Let me know if I forgot anything. Next up would be the assembly and paint prep. Mark

Thanks guys. I can't believe the comments. When I first began researching E11 builds there were certain builds that really stood out......builds that I used over and over for reference. Now most of the people in those builds have offered very positive comments on MY build. I feel like I'm building a motorized wagon and I've got Henry Ford, Walter P. Chrysler and Louis Chevrolet offering suggestions. And right now....I'm REALLY open to suggestions: I'm just finishing up the bolt and starting to put a few parts together before painting (pics in a day or so), but I'm really looking for suggestions on paint. Specifically the hammered effect on the main barrel and stock. I've tried a couple of experiments with hammered paint and I'm not overly pleased with the outcome. First I tried Rustoleum Universal Hammered Black Spray Paint - First off, it's not black, it's sort of a glossy gray/graphite. If you spray it too heavy there is no hammered effect at all. If you do several very light coats, then you do get some hammered effect, but it's fairly subtle and the paint itself is SOOOOO glossy. If you try to knock it down afterwards with some flat black, you lose at bit of the effect. So, it's OK, but not awesome. Next I tried Tremclad Hammered Spray. This one was more of a light stippling. Not really what I was going for. Here's a few pics. I specifically angled the piece to catch the reflection of the lights so that the camera could capture the texture better. T-Jay mentions he dabbed the paint with toilet paper or something while it was wet. I tried Kleenex but all it really did was lift most of the paint off the surface of my test plastic. I'm probably not doing it right. So.....suggestions? Mark

Update - Folding Stock I spent the last few days getting waist deep in resin shavings from the folding stock. I have to say that the stock was one of the items I was most afraid of tackling. But they say if you are going to eat an elephant.....you do it one bite at a time.... I started by drilling out the holes on the underside of the stock. I used a drill for the four "full" holes and left the partial hole for later. Then I started on the top of the stock. I used a cutting bit in a dremel to cut and cut and cut and cut and cut and cut and cut until the center of the stock was hollowed out. I then switched to a sanding drum and smoothed out the sides and bottom. I went back to that "partial" hole in the bottom of the stock and completed cutting that one out with the dremel. I also cleared out the hole in the handle of the stock and tried to "tidy" up the nose of the stock a little. The very front of the Doopydoo's stock looks pretty bad, in my opinion. I tried to reshape it a little better. Next I used a drill bit to drill a recess in the front for the aluminum tube from T-Jay's kit. And drilled and sanded down the "arms" where the carriage bolts go. When I ordered some of the replacement 3D parts from shapeways, I also picked up the little "knob" that goes on the end of the aluminum tube. I had the file down the end quite a bit to get it to fit into the aluminum tube. Then I cut up the rod from T-Jay's kit to create the pin that holds in the aluminum tube. I used a round cutting bit in a dremel to cut a round shape into the rod ends. Then I drilled a hole through the 3D printed "knob" for the rod to fit through. Here I lucked out again. When drilling the recess for the front of the tube, I couldn't get a drill in there, so I ended up just trying to spin the drill bit in my hand. Even then, there wasn't much room and the recess hole was at a slight angle. This now worked in my favor because when I slid the aluminum tube into the recess, the "knob" end wants to sit "up" about 1/2 a centimeter. This means I don't need to glue the retaining pin in, I can just push down on the knob, push the pin through and the slight upward pressure keeps the pin from falling out. Cool. Next I drilled a hole in the aluminum tube and cut a channel similar to the actual stock. I'm not entirely sure this was the wisest move. It looks like a real stock, but there's a screw that holds the folding stock to the barrel, and by cutting out this shape into the aluminum, the screw now has nothing to screw into. Luckily, I could pop the aluminum tube out again and I ended up shoving part of a plastic pen into the aluminum rod so that I had something for the screw to grab later. Next I cut the last of the rod and drilled out the opening of the washers (both from T-Jay's kit) to create a new front pin. Lastly, to hold the stock onto the barrel you need a screw sized to just the right length. I slid the carriage bolts in temporarily and did a test fit with a screw. I cut the screw down several times until it was the right length where the stock wasn't sitting too far away from the barrel. Then I gave it a nice "jacket" out of heat shrink tubing. And that's my stock. I'm getting pretty excited. There's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm getting closer to painting. I've already hit a few items with primer. I think the bolt is one of the last items then I can begin some of the assembly. Woohoo!! Mark

Ok, thanks again, Dracotrooper. You're a lifesaver. A cherry lifesaver... Mark

Thanks, Dan. That description and photos helped a lot. I couldn't find anything the right size so I bought a 5/8" wooden dowel for $3. It's the right size for the spring to fit over the end of my marker. (Doing something similar to T-Jay's build, using a marker for the bolt end). I've got another question: the end cap clip is built using the aluminum channel from T-Jay's kit.....what do people use to attach it to the receiver tube? E6000? Because it doesn't have a curved bottom, it doesn't make good contact for glue. It's also kinda too thin to even think about trying to sand a curve into the bottom. Mark

Hey T-Jay, it looks like from this photo that one end of the scope rail tucks into a hole towards the front, and it looks like the other end screws down into the rear sight? Is that correct? My scope rail doesn't look like this. It appears to get screwed horizontally into the rear sight. Have things changed since this photo? Also, I'm wondering how people create their bolt spring. Anyone have any tips? Thanks, Mark

Hey Hollowbodies, I see one of your photos is showing a "gloss" black tin. I thought the vocoder was supposed to be "satin"? I'd like to get this straight because I'm probably just a few weeks away from starting my AP build. Thanks, Mark

Once again, I do really appreciate the comments, everyone. It keeps me marching along to the finish line. Update - End Cap I didn't do anything special for the end cap. I used the D-Ring from T-Jay's completion kit, dremeled (yes, it's a verb now) out the ring holder, wrapped the D-Ring in a bit of electrical tape to stop it from moving too much and glued the ring holder down. Update - Receiver Bolt Numbering Since I used a combination of 3D Printed parts and T-Jays Kit to build the end cap clip, I still had my original Doopydoo's end cap clip which was expendable. I decided to try an experiment with the number punches. Instead of using a dremel to open up an area, filling it with green stuff and then push the number punches into the green stuff, I just put the number punch right on the resin and pounded it with a hammer. I partially expected the resin to shatter or splinter, but it didn't. And it took the number imprint quite nicely. So I used the same method on the bolt and found that it worked quite well. I used 1.5 mm number punches (Amazon) and like the other builds I've seen, I ran out of room for all the numbers, but I did as many as I could. I must say that I found this method MUCH easier than using green stuff. I could position the number punch, hit it with a hammer a few times, and check to see how it turned out. If I thought it needed more, (sometimes the top or bottom of the number were a little faded due to the curvature of the bolt) I could easily re-position the punch as it would drop right into the existing punched hole. With green stuff, it was impossible to re-punch a second time as I could never get the number perfectly aligned. I think I'm pretty happy with the result. Update - Rear Sight The rear sight is pretty straight-forward too. I looked around for a piece of metal or nail I could use to create a center pin for the rear sight. My pop rivet gun had just arrived from Amazon for my armor build and I "eyed" the included sample rivets. Where's my dremel? Here's the original Doopydoo's Rear Sight: And here is a cut up pop rivet: I just drilled out the hole large enough to hold the clip/pin pieces. I didn't drill right through the sight. It appears if I drill right through, the hole will be visible from the top of the sight as it cuts through the "L" shaped part of the sight. And here are the parts installed. I know it's not exactly like the real pin, but it looks pretty realistic. Now lastly, I have a question. I think it was Bill Hag who mentioned that the "L" shaped piece of the sight shouldn't actually be there as it was removed to hold down the scope rail in the movie. Anyone have any comments on this? Did you leave yours or remove it? How do you attach your scope rail? Thanks, Mark

Thanks again guys for all the kind words. Quick Update - End Cap Clip When I was checking out Suitcase Props on Shapeways, I saw they also produced an end cap clip which looked better than the Doopydoo's version. I picked up one of those at the same time. Here's a shot of the two along with the aluminum channel from T-Jay's Completion Kit... Using the same 1mm brass strip I purchased previously, I fabricated a strip to fit on the bottom of the clip. I gave it a bit of a curve to hold the clip up and simply attached it using E6000. We will see if it holds up over time... I also added some green stuff to add a knurling pattern to the top of the 3D printed clip... I cut the channel to the correct length and used a file to round off the edges of the channel. I gave them all a coat of primer to reduce the roughness of the 3D print and to help the paint adhere to the metal pieces. Then, finally, I installed a piece of a nail to pin the clip into the channel. Luckily, the hole I drilled in the channel was ever so slightly off, which means there is a bit of pressure pushing on the nail so it won't fall out by itself. That's it for today. :-) Mark

Update - Magazine and Clip The first thing I did with the magazine housing was to clean up a few of the edges with "green stuff". I used a drill and dremel to clean out the resin grub screw and installed the actual grub screw from T-Jay's kit. Next I drilled a hole right through the housing so that I could later use a large machine screw to help hold the housing on the main barrel. I also drilled a small opening for a magnet so that I could use a magnet to attach the clip to the mag housing. Right now I've got one magnet in the housing but I may still redo this and add a second magnet for strength. I also made a plastic cover so that the magnet will be hidden once everything is assembled. Then I installed the little thumbscrew thing onto the mag housing. I didn't do anything fancy here like some of the other builds (I'm lookin' at you, Dracotrooper ). I just used 1/2 a nail to provide additional support and glued the button/screw on. Then I started working on the clip. Using T-Jay's parts, I installed a magnet in the inside of the clip, drilled the hole for the LED button on the bottom and installed the foam to push out the LED. Everything was then covered with a plastic plate and sealed with "green stuff." Next came the letters. I really wanted the "OFF" letters on the bottom of the clip. I picked up a letter punch set from Amazon and set out to experiment. I used a dremel to clear out an area for the letters, hoping to use the same "green stuff" trick that T-Jay showcased. I experimented using play-doh. I pressed the letter punches into the play-doh. It was kind of hard getting the right amount of pressure. Too little pressure and the letters didn't show up cleanly. Trying a second time over the same letter wasn't going to work. It's impossible to line up the letter again for a second "press" into soft material. Too much pressure and you got the frame of the punch in the imprint, as well. I sensed this was going to end up taking several attempts. I pushed some green stuff in the opening, and carefully pushed the letters in. I used an "I" for part of the arrow. I wasn't going to be able to do a full "->" arrow and I found it impossible to line up the other parts of the arrow. Well, it ended up that this didn't work that well. After everything hardened and I sanded down the green stuff to make it flush with the surface of the clip, I ended up losing the letters because they weren't deep enough. So I dremel'ed off the green stuff and tried again. The results were better on my second attempt. Then I shot on a coat of primer and I could see that my green stuff wasn't completely flush. A bit more sanding to flatten out the green stuff, and again I lost most of my lettering. Some of this was due to the sanding of the primered surface was filling in the letters. This needed some rethinking....I'll come back to this.... On to the little clip. There is a little clip thing on the magazine clip that is not molded in the Doopydoo's kit. I saw in T-Jay's build that he fabricated one. I set out to do the same. I went to a local hobby store and picked out a small sheet of brass that was 1mm thick. In hindsight, maybe aluminum would have been a better idea as I have now found out that brass is incredibly strong. Even 1mm thick brass takes a lot of effort to bend. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the fabrication, as I was on a roll. But basically I used tin snips to cut out a rectangle then used a vice and a rubber mallet to bend the sides into a "U" shape. Then went back and forth between a file and a dremel to shape the sides and tip. Once I had this done I cut another small strip for the center portion and rolled it around a small plastic tube that I cut from a pen. This was the result... I also filled in those little rib notches on the side of the clip. I saw Vern mentioned that they shouldn't be there with a cut down clip. Lastly I went back to the lettering. For my third try I went with something different. I took a spare piece of resin from the Doopydoo's kit, in my case the lower clip and I tried using the metal punch directly on the plastic.....no green stuff. Surprisingly, this seemed to work ok. I thought it might splinter from the punch but the letters punched in nicely directly into the resin. So I filled in my letter area again with green stuff, let it completely harden and sanded it smooth. Then, once it had completely dried, I then used the letter punches directly on the green stuff. I think that will be good enough for me. :-) Mark

I can’t wait to see this all glued and painted. The suspence is killing me. Mark

So I have a question on the bolt. In T-Jay's kit, you get a piece of tubing which appear to the the correct width to create the bolt. However, the tube is quite long and slides nicely right into the receiver. Is the idea to cut a small piece of this tubing to use as the bolt? Or is the idea to slide the entire length of tube into the receive so that it fits right up to the front of the nozzle, this way it also looks like the inner barrel as well? Mark

You know, I keep referring to this document but somehow I keep missing the "important" photos. I've downloaded the PDF now. Thanks.... Mark

Ok, now that my minor crisis has been averted I can get back to it.... Just before I continue with the Front Sight I thought i'd mention that I ground off the large resin screws at the front of the blaster and replaced them with the hex screws from T-Jay's kit. I also installed the bayonet lug. I strengthened the lug by inserting a piece of a nail into the lug and into the body of the blaster. Ok, back to the front sight... Update - Front Sight (Part 2) Once the sight pin was assembled, I spend quite a bit of time grinding away at the original sight frame from the Doopydoo's kit. Eventually I got all the inner resin removed so I was left with just the sight frame. Next I held a piece of sandpaper against the tube and sanded the bottom of the sight frame to better hug the curves of the main tube. And then came the task of cutting the hourglass shaped channel into the main receiver tube. I sketched off the shape and started with a large flat file. Then later moved to angled needle files. Checking constantly to see if the sight would slide in yet. (Some of these photos are out of order. For example, here I hadn't actually cleaned out the T-Track holes yet.) Next I used "green stuff" to add the texture grip to the sight frame... And here's what it looks like.....nothing glued in yet.... Mark

That's awesome, Dracotrooper, thanks!!! I feel much better. You found examples showing the set screw each side. Whew.... I can just spin it around now like example #2. Mark

Update - Front Sight (Part 1) Well, I was just about to post my work on the front sight and as I was resizing the photographs, I realized I just made my first big mistake. I have the sighting pin incorrectly positioned....and it's now glued.....with CA glue.... :-( I'll get back to that in a sec.... So after reading a bunch of build threads on the front sight and how the Doopydoo's kit is basically a blob... See here... I decided to order a few parts from Suitcase Props on Shapeways. They were pretty inexpensive so I ordered the Front Sight with Pin and at the same time I ordered the End Clip, Flashguards and Stock Cube. It's my first experience with 3D printed parts and I must say I am fairly impressed. The parts are cheap, the material is incredibly durable with nice detail, but it does still have that sandy/furry/rough texture to it. It appears some of that texture can be filed off. I had to used a needle file to enlarge the hole in the top of the sight to fit in the sight pin. It took a lot of filing to enlarge that hole which goes to the durability of the material. Once I had the sight pin installed and added the set screw from T-Jay's kit, I glued these in place. I didn't realize at the time but I'm pretty sure now I glued the sight pin in backwards. I believe where you are looking at the barrel of the gun, the set screw should be on the left and the sight pin should be sloping towards you. I have the pin sloping away from me. Grrr... Can somebody confirm? If it is the wrong way, I could leave it and hope nobody notices. I could put the part in the freezer and then attempt to fracture the CA glue holding the pin but also risk breaking the pin. I could order another one from Shapeways.....it was only $5 plus shipping. Or I guess I could try to use a file to make it slope the other direction, but it wouldn't be the correct height anymore. Hmmmm..... Thoughts? Mark

My heat gun has no settings and is actually a paint stripper from what appears to be the 1970’s. It’s probably blowing asbestos everywhere... :-) If the need arises again I should probably look for a replacement. Is there a recommended one? Mark

Update - Receiver Tube/Body I did some work on the main body or I guess what is called the receiver. I did some clean up sanding around the existing holes and the long slit where the charging handle sits then I set about working on the clearing strip. I had myself all worked up because I had no idea how everyone was perfectly removing the old clearing strip. Here's the original strip: But it ended up not being much of a chore at all. I used a sanding drum on a dremel to remove most of the strip, being very careful to not go too deep. Then switched to a cutting bit to handle the corners and finally switched to straight sandpaper to take down the remaining strip. I had myself all worked up for nothing. I also used a bit of a pick to cut into the corners a bit for the slight overhang. Next I borrowed a crayon from my daughter (got to remember to put it back or I'll be in trouble), held a piece of paper over the port opening and rubbed the crayon over the surface. Creating an imprint of the port below. Next I sketched out the angle I wanted for the new clearing strip and cut this out of the ABS from T-Jay's kit. I made sure to make it a little longer than I wanted so that I could try to "tuck" the ends under the plastic lip of the port. The first one I made ended up being a disaster. I had read of people heating up the strip with a heat gun to have it better conform to the curve of the port. Bad idea. I guess I heated it too much and it began to warp. So I heated it again to attempt to flatten it out again. By then it was over 1/2 inch smaller than when I started. Super shrinkage. Note to self - avoid heat gun when building armor. Luckily, I had planned on the possibility of a failure and made sure I had enough ABS left for a second strip. This time no heat gun. I carefully trimmed away at the length until it would just tuck under the overhanging plastic. Then I put on some CA glue, held the strip down with all my might and blasted it with Zip Kicker. It might be a bit thick (tall) but I think I'm OK with it. It curves nicely to the plastic. I used a bit of "green stuff" on the edges to make it look like it's part of the bolt underneath. Next I set out on cleaning up some of the holes where the T-Track go into the main tube. On the Doopydoo's kits, a lot of these holes are partially or mostly filled with resin. It makes things look kind of blobby. I found the smallest (regular) drill bit that I had but it was still too large, in my opinion. And the jewelry bits I was using previously would probably snap if I put side pressure on them. I dug a bit more through my dad's old jewelry tools and came up with these very cool bits. They are very small, but also quite stubby so they are perfect for the side pressure of clearing out the holes. I'll post a picture of them here. The only label on the package says, "EuroTool." When I searched for them online, they appear to be called Twist Bits. Anyway, they did an amazing job clearing out the resin left around the T-Track holes and also for cutting that slight lip where the clearing strip fits on the bolt. Here's a shot as I was working on the holes... That's it for today.... Mark

I especially like the second trigger that's part way down the grip in that photo. Is that one for "stun"?

Oh, I get it. You've got a new position for the red pin that controls forward travel. Yes, that would work. Assuming I have enough resin left inside the housing. Mark

Yes, the pin goes through the lower hole so it controls both the forward and backward limits. I figured if I wanted to increase the forward travel, I could elongate the rear of the hole. And if I wanted to increase backward travel, I could elongate the front of the hole. I thought it was a great solution to control the end points, but failed to realize that at some point, as the hole got larger, it would start sticking out from the housing and actually be visible. I guess the reason I need it is it also stops the trigger from being pushed too far forward. Mark

Hi, thanks for the suggestions but I think maybe I'm not explaining things well enough. The issue is that the hole in the trigger that I call hole #2, cannot be any larger. I've enlarged (elongated) it as much as I can. Any larger and the hole will become visible when the trigger is extended fully forward. This elongated hole and the nail that fits within are what limits the travel distance of the trigger both forward and back. Unless I am misunderstanding, shaving off the back of the trigger would not help unless I also further enlarge the travel distance hole, which I can't do if I want it to remain hidden within the plastic. I think the only solution now would be to putty up the hole in the housing (not the elongated hole in the trigger) and drill a new hole further back for the nail to sit in. This would allow me to further enlarge the elongated hole in the trigger allowing for greater travel distance while still remaining hidden within the housing. But really, I'm just being OCD. The trigger functions well. You can pull it back and the spring returns it forward. I just mentioned the hole position in case anyone happens to try something similar using my photos. It would be a little better positioned inward. That's all. I appreciate the suggestions, however. I will never overlook a different point of view. I'm just shooting from the hip, here. I've never built a blaster before. And let me know if I'm just not understanding the suggestion... Mark

Thanks guys, I think the problem wanted to be solved. As soon as I put in the first nail the answer was slapping me in the face. :-) Mark

Thanks, guys.... I've been working a little bit ahead of the photos I'm posting. So I think this week I'll try to catch up with my progress.... Handle / Grip / Trigger I started off sanding down the grip a little to get rid of the casting seam. Then I drilled out the "lock/free" screw and the hex screw at the bottom of the grip and replaced these with the screws from T-Jay's kit. I reviewed several build threads looking specifically at the trigger, trigger guard and the fire-mode selection switch. I'm really not interested in fabricating a new trigger guard. I'm also not fond of the idea of cutting out a huge chunk of plastic to install a working selection switch under the firing-mode selector. These are pretty major undertakings and at this point in time, I'm more interested in getting the blaster complete so that I can start on my armor. I may go back and revisit these at a later date, but for now, I reluctantly made the decision to use the Doopydoo's trigger guard, and to pin the firing mode selector in place AND ALSO pin the trigger to be non-functional. At least, that was my idea then. It didn't take long for things to change... I decided to use two cigar box nails (my favorite) to pin the trigger in place. I used a cutting bit in a dremel to hollow out the inside of the trigger housing a little more and then positioned the trigger and drilled two holes to hold the cigar box nails. I did several "test" fittings with the trigger guard in place to make sure the trigger was at the right angle and wouldn't be touching the trigger guard. Then I nicely counter-sunk the tops of the holes to allow the nail heads to fit in which I could later fill with "green stuff" and sand. And this is my first test fitting that changed my mind on pinning the trigger... Once I had the first nail in place I had a sudden realization: the trigger was pivoting quite nicely on the first nail. By controlling the size of the second hole in the trigger, I could limit the travel distance for the trigger. It was a really easy solution to getting a working trigger. So I just elongated hole #2 in the trigger and when I inserted the second nail, the trigger could move back and forth realistically. Then I drilled a larger hole into the trigger housing for a pen spring and I had a moving/working trigger. I made the hole in the trigger as large as I could but I'm not 100% happy with the travel distance. The travel is good.....but 1 or 2 mm more travel would be better. As it sits, I have two holes in the trigger. Hole #1 is the pivot hole and hole #2 is the elongated hole which controls the travel distance of the trigger. My issue is that to increase the travel of my trigger, I need to further elongate hole #2. But because I drilled hole #2 fairly close to the edge of the trigger housing, if I enlarge hole #2 any more, the hole will become visible. If I were to redo this, I'd drill hole #2 a little more toward the inside (back, away) from the trigger. Like this... But it's really not bad. It's just my OCD says it could have been a slight bit better. :-) Mark

Thanks, T-Jay. I'm going to come back to you on the "wash" when I get to the weathering stage. I've got a lot of questions and your weathering looks amazing. But I'll save them for when I get there. Mark