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E-11 Power Cylinders Research Thread (renamed from "3 Central Fuses...")


PlayfulWolfCub

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If you are going to sell these improved sets please sign me up!

 

I'm going to do a run to my finalised & perfected design plans in the next couple of weeks. It's long overdue, life keeps getting in the way :blink:

 

They'll be more expensive than any others available due to the extra detail & the fact that I'm a perfectionist & will be hand-making them to be indistinguishable from the screen-used ones (you've seen my ridiculously detailed plans! lol I'll be updating them with the perfected ones when I've checked a couple of things)

 

I'll be starting a new sales thread for it but if anyone is interested you can jump in early here to get on the waiting list. (no obligation, it's just interest)

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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Put me down for your second set Andy!

 

My real sterling with real M38 and Real Eagle Hengstler needs a screen accurate mag Cylinder set...

Edited by rhapsodyred99
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Ok, I've started a list with Rob, Frank & Matthias right at the top of it.

Like I say, no obligation to buy - you haven't seen the finished product yet (let alone heard the price! :shok: lol )

I'm a bit of a packaging nut & I've just sourced some really nice presentation/display boxes for the cylinders at a good price if I buy in bulk :)

 

Michael, I'm looking forward to seeing yours finished. I've improved on the plans you're using but those are still very close. Have you started making the baseplate yet?

I'm sure you were joking but, although I've got quite a few of the "almost genuine" capacitors, they're really hard to get so I've sourced materials that I can make replicas with.

By the time they're sprayed black they'll look the same although it won't keep the cost down because it's actually cheaper to buy the caps (if you can find them) than to make them :blink:

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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I can

 

 

Cool, I'd love to see some on that display of yours, Sergiu :)

 

I think I better start a proper interest/sales thread soon...

 

Thanks! Can't wait to get these new cylinders :jc_doublethumbup:

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Hi Andy.

 

Michael, I'm looking forward to seeing yours finished. I've improved on the plans you're using but those are still very close. Have you started making the baseplate yet?

 

 

No, nothing is done other than that what you see on the pics.

 

My mill is out of order at the moment - and even if it would be running, i have no idea how to make it, yet. I could mill it from angled profiles or bend sheet - or cut it with scissorlike metal cutter from the same stuff, which would generate a completely different appearance, even with the same dimensions. And as we have no closeups yet, to see what they have done when cutting up the full racks, i bet Murphy will take care that every decision is the wrong one. ;)

 

 

I'm sure you were joking but, although I've got quite a few of the "almost genuine" capacitors, they're really hard to get so I've sourced materials that I can make replicas with.

By the time they're sprayed black they'll look the same although it won't keep the cost down because it's actually cheaper to buy the caps (if you can find them) than to make them :blink:

 

Sort of, yes. ;)

 

I usually don´t do big runs for money. I bought my machines cause i was unhappy with the available parts i´ve bought just one time to often. Now i make parts for myself, friends, or sometimes collectors that commision me for a build with real parts. And on rare occasions i sell superfluous parts on the RPF, or try to help others out when they ask me and i have free timeslots.

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Sort of, yes. ;)

 

I usually don´t do big runs for money. I bought my machines cause i was unhappy with the available parts i´ve bought just one time to often. Now i make parts for myself, friends, or sometimes collectors that commision me for a build with real parts. And on rare occasions i sell superfluous parts on the RPF, or try to help others out when they ask me and i have free timeslots.

 

I'd love my own machines, that must be so cool! :) Though there's something very meditative about quietly hand-making intricate designs.

 

This is my "workshop" - you really wouldn't think that anything good could come out of it would you? lol

 

Chasmfullmake0.jpg

 

 

You sound a lot like me in terms of your prop work and you've done me a huge favour by raising the idea that someone might try to cash in on my hard work.

 

I've shared all my research & designs freely up to now and have a series of photos all ready to make a tutorial. However, since I'm about to make & sell my hyper-accurate cylinders commercially I've temporarily deleted my templates from public posts. The only people who currently have them are FISD members who I will trust not to use them for commercial gain. If any other members want them for personal use they can still PM me personally.

 

Your photos show my old innacurate plans so it probably doesn't matter if they stay there - I enjoy seeing other people using my templates for their own blaster. i look forward to seeing how yours turn out :)

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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Andy,

 

to be honest - i don´t think you need to be to worried about that problem.

 

Makers who want to make cash from such stuff, need to make numbers to lower the production costs. To make numbers you need a kind of simplified design that can be cnc´d easily (basically the correct shape but without the sloppy work the propmakers of SW used to do).

 

Most costumers want it cheap and are not willing pay high prices, only a few nuts do that - so there is also no big market for very high priced parts, that would justify the cnc´d parts to have additional treatment by hand to achieve the sloppy SW look. Many small but remarkable details in the sloppy work on the originals happened due to using simple conventional machines, handdriven and without cnc, under time pressure and not looking for even spaces and so on. When i get the real parts and the new cnc´d addons for a collectors build, it´s usually more work to make the cnc´d parts look conventional, than to build the gun/piece itself.

 

That, and the hard to come by real parts (capacitors), are the limiting factors in production. Real collectors that are willing to pay high prices are usually not interested in resin copies when the real parts are identified.

 

No, i see no big problem. If someone is gonna start to make them, they will have the usual shortcuts most parts have that are made in numbers (but i´m not saying that handmade parts are in general better, most are not - it´s a walk on a knifes edge to get the correct amount of straightness and sloppyness).

If you have more accurate plans than the one you showed here makes no difference - first there is no way to prove that they are really more accurate, as thay all are only extrapolated from pics without having the real deal to compare. Second the theoretical accuracy needs to be replicated accordingly, otherwise the plans accuracy means nothing. 0,5mm/0,02" is not much difference, but for someone paying a high price it should be - that´s what calipers are for. ;-)

 

So, that´s why i don´t think you need to get a headache. :-)

Edited by Lichtbringer
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There are already quite a few cheap vertions of the cylinders available that are 'close enough'. And there is nothing wrong with those at all. I am one of 'the nuts' that is willing to pay a higher price to get as close to screen accurate as I can. I've paid £350 for a Sterling, £100 for a scope and £100 for a counter so I'm not going to use a 'good enough' set of cylinders on my build. I think Andy will be catering to the hardcore detail nuts such as myself.

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No headache, Michael - it just literally hadn't occured to me that someone else might use my templates to turn a profit so I'm being temporarily cautious.

 

I totally agree with all your points (& having to extrapolate from photos to recreate a design that is accurate from every angle is exactly why it's taken so much work.) I've no doubt I'll post the finalised plans & a full photo tutorial in a little while, it's always been my intention to do so for people who have the skills & interest to have a go themselves. Anyone who likes what I make can ask me to make them a set - they just need to pay for my time & that's where the expense comes in.

 

Of course, it's always possible that people will see my final cylinders & think they look rubbish! lol

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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There are already quite a few cheap vertions of the cylinders available that are 'close enough'. And there is nothing wrong with those at all. I am one of 'the nuts' that is willing to pay a higher price to get as close to screen accurate as I can. I've paid £350 for a Sterling, £100 for a scope and £100 for a counter so I'm not going to use a 'good enough' set of cylinders on my build. I think Andy will be catering to the hardcore detail nuts such as myself.

 

Aye, i second that. But i´m someone whos real parts E-11 is not the most expensive blaster in my collection (more on the "cheaper" side of it) - so i know i´m a blaster-freak. :-)

 

Most are not, so my point is that due to no big market for really expensive parts there is no big danger to have them copied accurately in bigger numbers. Someone might take influence from these new discoveries, but the mass market is another market, there is no place for to much details, that needs to be paid for the extra time in making.

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No headache, Michael - it just literally hadn't occured to me that someone else might use my templates to turn a profit so I'm being temporarily cautious.

 

Andy, remember - only one person is needed to buy from you, to get all the measurements they would need. ;) It´s part of the game when selling things.

 

There is no safety ..... just the knowing that cheaper copies, made to generate a max profit, are usually never on par with the copied product. If they were, they would often have the same price.

 

 

 

Of course, it's always possible that people will see my final cylinders & think they look rubbish! lol

 

Of course, that´s something what can always happen to everyone. To counter that you give the best you can, that´s all you can do. :)

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Yes you saved me a lot of trouble when I needed a counter bracket :)

 

My pleasure. :)

 

You´re a good guy. Beeing no trooper myself i still like the "trooper helping trooper" idea, and i´m sure you´ve passed the karma-thing to another trooper in need of whatever. If not yet, then in the future.

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My pleasure. :)

 

You´re a good guy. Beeing no trooper myself i still like the "trooper helping trooper" idea, and i´m sure you´ve passed the karma-thing to another trooper in need of whatever. If not yet, then in the future.

Well, I have in fact just now finished helping my friend build his new RS kit to near screen accurate detail and painted his helmet. All in less than 48 hours. -> http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=20377

It's his first kit and he knows little about TK's so I'm lending my hand and home to him to make sure it gets done right. :)

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Andy, remember - only one person is needed to buy from you, to get all the measurements they would need. ;) It´s part of the game when selling things.

 

 

Yes, I totally agree. Plenty of recasters make easy money off other people's hard work recreating armour, lids, etc. but we don't approve or condone it.

 

The "trooper helping trooper" spirit is why I've freely shared my explorations and findings in this thread. It's great that people have been able to inprove the accuracy of their builds from it.

 

What would not be great would be someone selling cylinders (whether individual ones or mass-produced) from my templates after I've expressed my intention to do so. You'll notice no-one sells cylinders based on Russ's design even though his waiting list is very long. It would be against the FISD and prop community spirit.

 

I'll happily give copies of my finalised templates to members who ask, for their own use, once I'm happy that I've got them as accurate as possible (short of George letting me measure his MSE droid!)

 

As I said, I'm really looking forward to seeing how yours turn out with your proper tools.

 

Cheers, Andy

Edited by PlayfulWolfCub
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