simorph

Thanks guys! First proper helmet mod - soldered up my own set of helmet fans, powered by a USB power bank (props to Dan's post on helmet interior - solved for me the problem of working out where to stash the power bank - it just wouldn't fit behind my head or above it - so stashing it in the 'pipes' area really worked) I bent a small piece of aluminium and installed a bit red push button behind the hovi tips, having struggled with gloved fingers on my Mando kit that had a fiddly slide button. Just taken a stack of supplemental photos for Centurion application. Here goes...

Thanks Tino, really appreciate that - totally missed it!

TK16566 reporting in! (https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=30878) Thanks!

Thanks guys! TK16566 (almost) reporting for duty!

Woohoo! Just got my clearance message from the UKG through so all is moving ahead with processing the rest of my membership. Time to look into fixing that TRamp into my chest plate (any pics of yours, guys, gratefully received!), padding out the helmet for good, installing fans...and prepping that Centurion app! Thanks everyone for all your advice, ecouragement and time!

Finally gotten time to submit clearance pics to UK 501st. Here's a link to the gallery: https://imgur.com/a/q0bp6uR Fingers-crossed!

So, finally finished my blaster. Time to get some app pics together!

So I painted the scope brass... And silver for the receiver and other parts... And I waited a good 48 hours before hitting things with the matt black top coat (Plastikote)... ...which came out GLOSS! The most by-the-book, tested everything with everything, preshaken and warmed the cans paint job...and the Matt Black Paint came out gloss... So I left it a day, hit it with another brand of Matt Black paint on top (Hycote) - which came out matt black... ...but crazed the paint in several random spots! So I waited another day...sanded back the 'orange peel', and hit it again with Hycote Matt Black... ...which fixed it on the receiver. I then got some Rustoleum Matt Clear Spray, hit everything else with that - nothing reacted and the finish went from Gloss to Matt... PHEW! Weird - I've used all these combos of paints on other props, but never had a Matt Black cure as gloss or, had a reaction like that... Maybe, all I can put it down to was maybe a little bit of grease when handling (I use blue gloves the majority of the time, but will have handled the receiver with bare hands at some point. Anyways, after all that faff and rescue work, I got it finished. I've decided to let it wear and weather naturally. Other notes: A bit of fake muck/oil washed onto the eject port to bring the pure silver of the paint down A little white into the lettering on the scope Painted the gloss part of the handle properly gloss black, with several layers of a proper gloss black paint Painted the T tracks with some Plasticote black - that gives them a rubberised feel, although there isn't much of a noticeable difference in reflectivity in photos - but it is noticeable when handling the blaster Here's the pics: # Thanks everyone for all the help! Now to get some app pics sorted!

So, I finally put together my power cylinders - pleased with the results - not absolutely super-perfectly accurate, but closer than the Doopy's standard resin kit versions and cleaner and sharper... 3D-printed capacitors - small snips of staple wire glued in place for the connection wires 3D-printed end caps (couldn't find anything in the workshop or online that I could easily adapt to get more accuracy), a bit of aluminium tubing inside the brass tubing for the 'cores' Kept the red wiring super-simple as per Tino's guide - too fiddly to try and make it 1000% accurate Used offcuts of brass tubing for the resistors, filled the ends with super glue and sanded them flat Then it was time to drill and test-fit the scope rail and see how everything lines up: Determined to make sure I stay patient and layer up the paint over the next few days, so here's everything hit with a coat of filler primer. Tomorrow, a coat of grey primer, then wait a day, then it's silver, then two days for that to degass, etc., etc...

Oh, yes. Fascinating stuff and really helpful. But, a little thin on the ground r.e. estimates of dimensions. But thanks!

So I did some metal work... A little aluminium latch for the magazine Also, I finally cut the scope rail and created an aluminium plate for the power cylinders, 3D printed some more accurate-looking capacitors than I can hand-model with green stuff and rod. The plate, I found a great little template on the forum (link below), but am eyeballing all the rest of the measurements from the Doopy's resin part, since (having spent days pouring over the various research threads and guides here) I can't find any actual definitive 'agreed' dimensions for the power cylinders. (I know there's no absolute screen accurate dimensions - they're all best guesses, but there's not a thread or guide that I've found that actually states what they are/should be - thankfully the template for the bottom plate matches the Doopy's one, so I'm happy with that.)

Thank you! So, I realised I could 3D print the bolt insert, so I took measurements from Tino's photos and my blaster and quickly constructed a little block that matched the curve of the inner pipe and section of the ejector port. I decided to make the small angular strip separate and out of the same plastic as the strip in the ejector port so hopefully, with a little fiddling and fudging, I can make it look like an extension of the same part... Awaiting delivery of my aluminum for the power cylinder base and itching to finish these parts off!

Pretty much! Thanks. You did all the hard work in sourcing these parts, so I feel it's essential to use them! I think so far, I've just bailed on the selector switch and instead of putting the monocular into the sight, dismantled the monocular for its lenses. Since posting this morning, I've realised that my inner bolt is slightly off - so I've taken the diagonal strip off and I'm going to fashion that onto a second, rectangular block as you've done in your build. Just ordered a bit of 1.5mm aluminium so I can build the power cylinder plate in one, robust unit (using these plans) - seems easier than trying to sand out the original capacitors. Plus, I want to scratch build the missing mag clip too.

So, I had a busy weekend.... Scope screws.... I used a stepper drill bit (much easier to use for controlled drilling of big holes than those massive, scary spade bits!) to drill as deep as I could through the scope and decided not to try and risk drill all the way through But everything's now opened up enough so I can drop in all the lenses from Tino's kit and create a nice illusion of depth End cap.... Scratchbuilt inner bolt which is going to be fun, squeezing back down that interior once it's all painted up Rear sight, plus underside catch - decided to make that non-functioning, but trimmed it all down to fit within the aluminium u-channel Power cylinder bolts (boy, those were sooo fiddly!) Capacitors... So here's everything so far... Big things to do: 1. Cut the scope rail + counter bracket 2. Finish off power cylinders And then it's the puzzle of priming, painting and assembly ...and I just discovered that I'd put the front flash shield on the wrong way around....thankfully I managed to easily unseat it, flip it and reattach. PHEW!

Busy Saturday afternoon.... Decided to 3D model and print the sight block (again, I'll post these 3D bits to Thingiverse when I'm done) Installing the sight Magazine installed... Starting to look like something at last... Maybe it's the spring and inner gubbins next...

And now, the trigger, trigger guard and selector switch are locked in. Used some nice two-part epoxy that's reinforced with aluminium, and modelled in some remaining details with green stuff. Decided to make everything static in the end - ultimately this is more about being a robust trooping blaster for me than having the functionality (if I wanted that, I think I might have done a Hasbro conversion.) And installed the pegs for ultimately attaching to the receiver... That's the grip kinda sorted (although if I find a dome nut, I'll swap that in beside the selector switch) Time to ponder which component to tackle next over the weekend.

Thanks! Actually, it wasn't that hard - maybe 2 hours, tops! (And I've never done this before, but all the work I've done with wood and plastic helped me a great deal) For the trigger, I bought a small chunk of aluminium the thickness of the trigger, traced around it and made efficient cuts with a hacksaw to slice the metal away from the shape. Then I went in with a rough and smooth file (both with curved/flat sides) to finish off the shaping, and then went over it with some fine emery paper. For the trigger guard - that was a strip of aluminium that I bent in my vice - I laid the strip on the resin trigger guard and then drew a line where the aluminium strip deviated from the guard - I then put the aluminium strip in the vice, bent it a little, laid it back on top of the resin guard and then bent it more, or drew a new line where the aluminium and resin didn't line up - I did take this extra-careful because I knew I'd never be able to bend anything back on itself if I went too far. For the selector switch, I traced the resin one, cut it with a hacksaw and rounded off the ends with files - for the knurling, I put the end in my vice between two course files and tightened the vice until I couldn't tighten it any more = boom! real knurling! For the body of the selector switch - that's a piece of aluminium tubing I cut to the right height and then cut a 2mm slot in to slide the switch lever in, then I glued a washer to the bottom and packed out the rest of everything with plumbers resin (one of those two-part resin putties that has aluminium in it) For the sight - I just took the offcuts from the stock screws in your kit, and just filed them following the blueprints in the document you guys put together - the pair of digital calipers I use for my 3D printing came in super-handy! Thanks again though - I hated metalwork as a kid...but then again, they never let me build Star Wars blasters or nothing... ;)

Another update: Finished off the front of the stock: Modded the ejection port: Bayonet lug + new screws: And scratchbuilt all the parts I fear might snap off using small pieces of aluminium:

Folding stock screws Keyhole filed out Latch added in - gave it a go with Milliput, then gave up and instead 3D modelled something based off what I could see in the Sterling reference Super-easy to glue in with a bit of superglue (as I said earlier, I'll share up all these little greeblies on Thingiverse when I'm done) So, I need to do more digging out of the front stock, fill in the pipe behind the keyhole and put in a bolt to stand in for the latch, tidy up the fake bolts And then, I think, it's onto the Ejection Port and the Clearing Strip...and more dust!

Folding stock screws Keyhole filed out Latch added in - gave it a go with Milliput, then gave up and instead 3D modelled something based off what I could see in the Sterling reference Super-easy to glue in with a bit of superglue (as I said earlier, I'll share up all these little greeblies on Thingiverse when I'm done) So, I need to do more digging out of the front stock, fill in the pipe behind the keyhole and put in a bolt to stand in for the latch, tidy up the fake bolts And then, I think, it's onto the Ejection Port and the Clearing Strip...and more dust!

Started off an E11 build thread over here: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/47280-simes-anh-e11-build-doopy-doos-tino-kit/ ...since the UKG won't clear a trooper without a blaster...despite the CRLs explicitly stating that it's an optional item (which I thought was a really good thing since not everyone is comfortable around replica firearms, especially in the UK). Ho hum...

So I'm getting ready for app on my TK (https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/46398-simes-anh-tk-build/) And now it's time to start my build. I've got a Doopy Doos kit and one of Tino's finishing kit full of tiny screws and many goodies. I decided to make a start on the receiver and stock (convinced that at some point, I'll accidentally snap one of those stock arms off en route) Got it this far - currently filing out the little section under the stock that contains the inner latch (my plan to completely clear it out and then put the latch back in) Since I have a 3D printer, I modelled the little block that goes between the arms and printed it out in PLA (I'll upload any bits that I make to Thingiverse for other folks to use/adapt once I'm done)

Hey guys so I worked out a solution for holding down the shins... I saddle-stitched a length of elastic with a rectangle of leather to the front of each boot with a little webbing grab loop and a snap. Super easy to snap into the front of my shins before I close the shins in back. So we took a bunch of photos - what's stopping me from putting this in for app? Thanks all!

Thanks Joseph! Yep I'm finding with this build that I'm learning to love the asymmetrical symmetry of it all!

Thanks guys! I tried to cut back as much of that return edge as I dared on the knee - wasn't TOO bad - getting the knees shaped so they close with the magnets has given me confidence with the heat gun, so tweaking those sides wasn't as traumatic as it might have been. r.e. the chest - let's have a look when I kit up, it may have indeed been a dodgy angle - taken a couple of shots here to see if they're straight... Tonight's challenge - working out which method from everyone's suggestions will work best for me in keeping those shins down Thanks all!