Ensi's F-11D Standard Build (The5thHorseman 3D-Print)

[Ensi[TK]]

 

 

FILES CAN BE FOUND HERE:

 

 

Make sure to give Germain a huge thanks for being so generous to share these with us for free.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

1. Introduction, links.
2. Initial sanding, T-Tracks, spray filler
3. More spray filler, sanding, gluing small parts, threading/tapping holes for screws, V1 electronics test
4. V2 electronics, cable routing, flashlight, grip, power cylinders, filling, sanding, test-fit
5. Chroming parts using Alclad, magazine cover ball airsoft BB fix, failed thigh bracket install + fix, metal front-grip detail, flashlight switch install
6. Assembly of everything, screw installation, wiring, electronics, scope-tint
7. Finished pictures + video
8. Electronics schematic (I am not an electrician, please know what you are doing before messing around with 18650 batteries)

INFO

 

• Printed on a Prusa clone in PLA by a friend, not sure about layer thickness.
• What screws you need can be found in the instructions included in the print files. Screws bought from Asian sellers on eBay.
• Yes, the sanding and filling takes a LOT of time but it's so worth it!
• Structural bracket (optional) is metal and NOT white
• Holster bracket: Justin Lee Morrison
• Battery used: 18650
• For Norwegians/Swedes: Battery Holder, Voltage regulator, Paint (Primer + Gloss White + Matte Black), Spray filler, 2-Part Filler, Flashlight, PLA Filament
• Everything else not mentioned most likely from Chinese eBay sellers.
• Wear a proper respirator when spraying anything or working with any chemicals please!!

 

If you have any questions post them here and i'll do my best to help 

-------------

 

Welp... Had to start this sometime, here we go!

 

This is my build thread of an F-11D Standard version, from Germain's @The5thHorseman awesome files. Files downloaded on 17.02.2017.  Thank you so much for sharing these with us, it's really appreciated. Got a 3D-print nerd my dad knows to print this up for me in PLA. I already have an F-11D from Heston3DSolutions that I use, but I want to smooth it better and also have plans for the electronics  

 

First Order™ of business is lightly sanding all the parts. At the moment I have about 90% of all the parts, the rest is coming in the mail soon.

 

 

I plan to sand all pieces lightly, prime them, then use a spray filler, sand again, prime, sand, paint, assemble.

 

Wish me luck 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2018 by Ensi

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

Good luck!

If I'm not mistaken this is my very latest version you have there. That's gonna be a beautiful blaster.

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Looks good so far. Sand/fill/prime/repeat. And repeat.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to the progress, just a tip I find using a silver paint seems to help fill up fine lines in the 3D print better than spray putt or filler, I think because of the metal flake, it is also very easy to sand, seems to dry better too, may be worth a try.

[Ensi[TK]]

On 12/3/2017 at 4:06 PM, The5thHorseman said:

Good luck!

If I'm not mistaken this is my very latest version you have there. That's gonna be a beautiful blaster.

Seems like it! Can't wait to get this beast completed.

 

On 12/3/2017 at 10:01 PM, Harbinger said:

Looks good so far. Sand/fill/prime/repeat. And repeat.

 

I built a Jimmiroquai kit so this is no stranger to me  

 

On 12/4/2017 at 12:53 AM, gmrhodes13 said:

Looking forward to the progress, just a tip I find using a silver paint seems to help fill up fine lines in the 3D print better than spray putt or filler, I think because of the metal flake, it is also very easy to sand, seems to dry better too, may be worth a try.

 

Already had the spray filler on hand so I used that  But that's an.. unorthodox way of doing it, hey, whatever works!

 

THE SANDING BEGINS OH MY HOW I MISSED SANDING GEE WHIZ

 

My arms are killing me

 

 

Send help

 

After I was done tormenting myself I had to rinse the dust off my parts and just did it in the sink.

 

 

To dry them I used this beast usually used for drying your car/motorcycle after a wash. Man this thing blows.

 

 

Parts all rinsed and dry!

 

 

Glued the T-tracks

 

 

 

Since it's literally freezing outside I had to make due with Jimmiroquai's shipping box which I got my armor in. Hooked up some steel wire and did the best I could, wear a respirator!!

 

 

I managed to drop the barrel and it sent all the other parts flying but minimal damage was done and I am armed with sandpaper.

 

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

I see it all worked out for you so that's good, but one word of advice for the others. Be careful rinsing FDM prints, they are not watertight and some of it will seep in and stay inside the part unless you dry them. But then PLA prints are very sensitive to heat and can get very easily warped.

I had the issue with WD40. While test-fitting parts, two of them got dead stuck together and I had to soak them with WD40 in order to get them apart. Some of it seeped inside and they kept smelling and oozing WD40.

 

However, wetsanding is fine of course. As you apply paint before any wetsanding, it improves the watertightness of the part and you don't get any issues.

[JAFO[TK]]

Daniel...you’re nailing this with the same expertise as your kit. Germain’s blaster is a joy to build. You’ll have great results.

When it comes to the ‘chrome’ parts lay down some gloss black first. After wet sanding, the silver paint will take better to it and give you a better finish.

Knowing your skills you probably already know this


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Ensi[TK]]

11 hours ago, The5thHorseman said:

I see it all worked out for you so that's good, but one word of advice for the others. Be careful rinsing FDM prints, they are not watertight and some of it will seep in and stay inside the part unless you dry them. But then PLA prints are very sensitive to heat and can get very easily warped.

I had the issue with WD40. While test-fitting parts, two of them got dead stuck together and I had to soak them with WD40 in order to get them apart. Some of it seeped inside and they kept smelling and oozing WD40.

 

However, wetsanding is fine of course. As you apply paint before any wetsanding, it improves the watertightness of the part and you don't get any issues.

 

I did my best to not get water into the open holes and such, but made sure to dry them really well with the car-dryer. In hindsight just blowing the dust off and a damp cloth would be better.

 

11 hours ago, JAFO said:

Daniel...you’re nailing this with the same expertise as your kit. Germain’s blaster is a joy to build. You’ll have great results.

When it comes to the ‘chrome’ parts lay down some gloss black first. After wet sanding, the silver paint will take better to it and give you a better finish.

Knowing your skills you probably already know this


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

You are too kind! I'm really excited about this build, it will look 10000 times better than my current blaster, and i'll have better electronics!

 

I have a friend in the garrison with an airbrush and some alclad that i'm going to "outsource" the chroming work to. Question is, i've read that acrylic black undercoats is a no-no for alclad? And some say it's ok? Going with the same paint as my kit for color-matching  

[JAFO[TK]]

Alclad is done next level voodoo They do a Gloss Black Laquer that goes underneath. Spastix is also good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

They also do a special clear that minimises the dulling you’d get from a normal clear.

[Ensi[TK]]

Build hasn't moved as fast as I wanted. Mostly because it's winter and spraying inside stinks up everything.

 

Sanding of spray filler

 

 

 

Glued some various part on to minimize part count and also sanding

 

 

Tapped all the holes I could

 

 

 

 

This one was a royal pain in my behind to tap, had to use some pliers

 

 

Feels really secure with the screws in place, but i'm going to add a little bit of glue to some of the parts for extra stability  

 

As I hadn't gotten every part and didn't want to stink up the house, I decided to take a look at the electronics. And the best solution for me right now was this:

 

 

Got a bit of ABS plastic which I drilled 1mm holes in and fed the LED's through. These will be run off a 9V battery hidden inside the buffer tube. Still not sure where to put the switch (which will turn both on or off).

 

 

My phone's camera struggles with such contrasting brightness, but it is really bright! Right now I have a piece of what would be similar to wax paper on the inside of the pill holes, which disperses the light really well. LED's like these are so directional.. Looking for a better way to disperse the light but so far this is the best one.

 

 

 

 

Next up more sanding and filling until I get my other parts  

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Nice work.

 

It seems like his latest version is a lot more sturdy in how the barrels attach to the frame (and also, hollow parts!)... if I wasn’t already 50% done with my build I’s seriously consider reprinting the new one.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

LEDs look great. Nice set up. Might try redoing mine like yours. Great progress on the build, sanding sucks but it will look nice and smooth when you get all painted. 

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

On 26/12/2017 at 3:17 AM, Ensi said:

Feels really secure with the screws in place, but i'm going to add a little bit of glue to some of the parts for extra stability  

Good call. I really like bolts, but there's nothing wrong with doubling them with glue.

And nice work with the electronics. We're not enough to go that extra-step (I know I didn't! :D)

[Ensi[TK]]

On 12/26/2017 at 5:49 AM, Harbinger said:

Nice work.

 

It seems like his latest version is a lot more sturdy in how the barrels attach to the frame (and also, hollow parts!)... if I wasn’t already 50% done with my build I’s seriously consider reprinting the new one.

 

It sure is a beauty! And it's so easy to put together  

 

14 hours ago, Bulldog44 said:

LEDs look great. Nice set up. Might try redoing mine like yours. Great progress on the build, sanding sucks but it will look nice and smooth when you get all painted. 

 

Thanks! If anyone reading this is interested I can post up a tutorial or something on how to make it, maybe start a run or something if people are interested? I dunno, could be cool  

 

And yes, it sucks! You want to go straight to paint but doing this stuff the surface prep is everything.

 

5 hours ago, The5thHorseman said:

Good call. I really like bolts, but there's nothing wrong with doubling them with glue.

And nice work with the electronics. We're not enough to go that extra-step (I know I didn't! :D)

Hehe, when I first started out trooping, people didn't say "oh that's a cool blaster", they said "omg lights!!!11!1"  The balloon lights in Heston's blaster (current one I use now) isn't very good after 30 minutes or so, mostly because of the cheap china AG3 watch batteries I put it in. A full change of quality silver oxide ones will cost me like $25.

[Ensi[TK]]

Been busy doing a clothing run for the 2 Norwegian Squads, with custom text and everything, wow what a time sink.

 

Finally got the rest of my parts! I am thinking about changing my middle name to Sandpaper 

 

First up, I re-did my electronics. Instead of running off a 9V battery, I instead opted to use an 18650 cell. I also researched and learned a lot during this time. Threw a variable voltage regulator into the mix and now everything runs off 1 battery! Yes!

 

 

 

Drilled holes for the cabling

 

 

 

 

Sanded/dremel'd the flashlight ring to accomodate my flashlight which was larger

 

 

Joined the grip parts together as many have done, with reinforcement.

 

 

 

Pro-tip: If your power cylinders come out awful (like mine did), slice it in half and print them vertically, looks much better. Just glue and fill the seam later.

 

 

More filling and sanding

 

 

 

 

 

Tapped the rest of the holes and assembled some of the pieces together, couldn't help myself. It's starting to look like a proper blaster!! 

 

 

 

Next up? More sanding and sanding and sanding, you get the deal

[Ensi[TK]]

Oh and I forgot to say, Germain your attention to detail is amazing. I just LOVE how idiot-proof these parts are, where it's possible, he has made the parts in such a way that you can't orient them wrong. There are notches and spaces made out so everything lines up nicely. Thanks!

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

All those parts, and all this sanding... It's bringing out memories to me! I know what you're going through Daniel ;). But you seem to be done with most of it now.

And yes when I started sharing these files, I quickly found out that I had to make the blaster "idiot-proof" like you say, because I realized unless you have spent as much time as I have studying this blaster, all those parts can be very confusing. However, let's not forget I've been tweaking with this 3D model for over three years now! So let's just say I've had quite some time to think this over and make it work  .

[Ensi[TK]]

So as I am mostly done with the boring sanding and filling (still some left tho) I moved on to the fun stuff!

 

As I said before I was gonna outsource the chroming work to a garrison friend who has an airbrush and alclad. Before I could do that I needed to give the parts a glossy black finish

 

 

Drove over to him and hung out, saw all his AMAZING props. Including an E-11 he'd built using only real parts. Decomissioned Sterling, real tank scope, real hengstler, the works! So sick!

 

Commence the alclad:

 

 

The results were awesome

 

 

Compared to my old blaster

 

 

 

The magazine cover did a print boo-boo and because of that I was missing the ball in the print. Drilled a small hole and countersunk a 6mm airsoft BB into the hole.

 

 

Installed the bracket scews. I did this before gluing the bracket on to the piece (which i'd recommend you to do instead). As I was drilling freehand one of the screws ended up not going in completely straight which also meant the bracket was not straight.

 

 

It bothered me so much so I tried to fill the hole/mistake i've made and re-do it. First I filled it with some epoxy putty, that didn't work. Was way too soft, probably because it was old. So I wrestled that out of the hole, and filled it with 5min epoxy glue. Nope, soft that as well, probably because there was such large amounts of it. Or maybe it was old too? Who knows. Cursed a bit and removed that too.

 

Then I tried with the polyester resin I had laying around from my boat repair kit. Those of you who have seen my FOTK build thread know that I have used this kit extensively to prevent cracks. And it worked wonderfully!! Just taped the hole from behind, mixed up the resin and dumped it in there.

 

 

It's not 100% lined up super straight, but I think i've come to the same realization as with my FOTK. "Nothing will ever be perfect and you'll lose your sanity if you dwell too long on one step".

 

 

The screws I use are button head anti-tamper torx M5 screws. Guide says M6 but M6 doesn't fit into my Jimmiroquai supplied holster. I even had to sand some in my armor build to make the M5 fit. I also had to remove my ball bearing on my holster to make the holster usable. This will probably not be an issue if you have a holster from another maker.

 

Wetsanded and polished up the metal holster bracket (supplied by Justin Lee Morrison).

 

 

Inspired by the KCP blaster thread and pictures, I decided I didn't want a sticker in the pillhole on the left side. I dug out a sheet of aluminium i've gotten from a friend at work and fabricated my own using drill bits and files. Also polished that up a bit!

 

 

 

Both the pillhole part and the holster bracket got a few thin coats of clear coat to minimize corrosion/oxidation.

 

Then I tackled the flashlight switch. I thought long and hard about this one, and ultimately decided to sacrifice some screen accuracy for practicality. By adding a switch to the empty pillhole on the left. Added some M3 anti-tamper torx to it to make it as First Order™ as possible as well as making it removable for future repairs. Haven't decided if I should paint this assembly white or just leave it like it is.

 

Drill bits, files, and lots of patience

 

 

 

 

 

Next up? I'm gonna sit down and relax before the final round of sanding 

 

[Harbinger[IPM]]

This thing is gonna look great. Wish I had a chrome friend.

[Ensi[TK]]

THIS POST IS GOING TO BE HUGE DO NOT QUOTE THE ENTIRE THING LOL. Finished pictures is in the next post.

 

So I used the weekened effectively and finished my blaster!! It's amazing that I spent all these weeks doing the surface prep, and it's only when you start assembling that you get your reward. Assembled it in 2 days with electronics and everything, surface prep took forever.

 

Masked off the scope bracket, wow this was a pain to do, so many small pieces of masking tape. Did not come out perfect but I think that's the best I could do with such a small piece

 

 

Now let the fun begin!

 

 

I assembled everything according to the guide Germain provides, all with screws and some glue reinforcement where I think it could help. Having all the screws organized makes everything so much easier.

 

 

Assembled the grip, glued the grip inlay with CA, put a spring and some E6000 on the "second trigger", installed decorative screws.

 

 

Glued on the thigh bracket, installed screws, attached frame to grip.

 

 

 

 

Installed muzzle and sight.

 

 

6mm Airsoft BB painted black and glued into place

 

 

Started pulling electronics and installing the switches

 

 

Painted the screws to make it blend in a bit better. This switch turns everything on/off.

 

 

Assembled the scope and some other various parts

 

 

Actual glass lenses was used in the scope, the tint is some kind of film a co-worker had laying around. Cool hexagon pattern, almost looks like a killflash, which I think fits the FOTK's modern style.

 

 

 

Hot glued the voltage regulator for the flashlight down, also hot glued the light-plates (?????) down.

 

 

 

Ran more wires

 

 

 

 

Above both lights is a sheet of clear plexiglass CA'ed in place, with 2 layers of that film you put on your bathroom window so people can't see you poop. The lights are angled because of the cables underneath, I should've done it a better way but it doesn't look that bad  

 

 

Notice how the wires are not going up the hole I made for those wires?  Easy to make mistakes when you are this hyped!

 

 

Wired up the flashlight. Note that both cables are black and labelled, this is because I didn't want a red wire going up the barrel and potentially showing.

 

 

Before I glued on the ring, I sanded off the black finish on the flashlight.

 

 

This switch turns the flashlight on or off.

 

 

Also note, the structural bracket should NOT be white. I was so certain it was and painted it. Then I realized i'm a dumbass. Gonna go without it until I can get it machined out of aluminium at a local makerspace in the future  

 

Phew... Next post will be finished pictures..

Edited February 19, 2018 by Ensi

[Ensi[TK]]

 

Done!!

 

I could of course have done more smoothing, and there are some cracks and some blemishes that I didn't fix. But as with my kit, nothing is perfect, just move on before you go nuts!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Yes I am missing a screw under the forward grip, which I fixed right now )

Edited February 19, 2018 by Ensi

[TheSwede[TK]]

Wow awesome - well done 

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Great work!

 

Good to know the structural bracket is raw aluminum, another thing to note for finishing my build...

[lucnak[TK]]

Daaaaaaang! Prettyyyyyy!