My own shiny new resin E11 parts kit

[stormtrooperguy[501st]]

For the last few years I've been trooping with my real Sterling. It's great visually, but sucks for my arms... that thing gets HEAVY after a parade! I keep telling myself that I'll make a resin parts kit for do-it-yourself blasters, but haven't gotten there.

 

On top of that I've been sitting on a borrowed Sterling parts kit for ages. Some of the kit parts are better than my rebuilt, and some of my rebuilt is better than the parts kit. Between the two I've got a good base to work from.

 

A local friend tracked down some good tube stock for me. It's acryilic with an OD and ID that is visually a near perfect match to the original. Much closer than PVC, particularly on the ID.

 

My plan is to do 2 phases of molding: The first is to make molds right off of the Sterling. Those castings will be cleaned up and modded to be easy to install as a kit (you'll see what I mean later). Once the parts are cleaned up and ready the final molds will be made.

 

Right... enough words!

 

I started off with Poyo silicone putty on the small parts that would be hard to box mold:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I eventually built up quite a pile of wacky little silicone bits:

 

 

 

 

Which resulting in a bunch of similarly wacky little resin bits:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Those bits then get cleaned up. For example, the magazine gets a nice curve carved into the back so that it will mount correctly on the tube:

 

 

 

And the tip gets a plug built in so that it fits neatly:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is where I am at now:

 

 

 

 

Still working on sanding out some of the seams / filling undercuts & holes that pass all the way through, and generally getting the stuff ready to be a clean kit.

 

Once this is all done I'm going to adapt some of the parts to fit a Hasbro too.

[Kessel Run[TK]]

Looking good! first time I ever tiried to make a mold was some years ago, took me forever to get it right.. you have done well. maybe I will try it again someday... cant wait to see how this turns out. Where did you pick up that Poyo silicone putty, they didnt have that when I made molds. wouldnt mind picking some up and playing with it myself,

Edited February 1, 2013 by Spector

[Oztrooper[TK]]

Looks great !!!!...LMK if you're going to offer these for sale...I'd be interested ...!

[Techne[TK]]

Wow, looks great. I'm always impressed at how many skills people on here have, and how many different kinds of materials and approaches they use.

Edited February 1, 2013 by Techne

[stormtrooperguy[501st]]

poyo is a smooth-on product, so you can get it from them direct or at a reynolds advanced materials store. oddly this is my first foray into making anything from scratch for a stormtrooper. i sculpted/molded/cast all of my clones from head to toe but have always just used TK kits or found items.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, nice work there keep it up

[dereferenced]

Thanks for posting, its interesting to see what goes into making these molds / parts.

[stormtrooperguy[501st]]

In order to make sure the parts all fit together correctly, I need to have a finished barrel to fit them to. That was yesterday's project:

 

 

 

 

 

I still have to cut the other holes out, but the hard part is done!

 

I used the blaster builder's club template, scaled to match the pipe that I'm using.

[Kurtzmann]

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Where can you get that acrylic tubing? Looks awesome.

[DizzyStormtrooper[501st]]

I'll be watching for the Hasbro part

[stormtrooperguy[501st]]

I don't know where to get the tubing (yet!). I was given a 3 foot length to see if it would work well, and it's proving to be the best plastic option I've seen. I've got to get back with my garrison-mate and find out where it comes from!