Billhag

Sure was matey, totally blew everyone away .....and here's a little something from the weekend featuring me and Steve Weir I call this one......'The Creators'...... ....'nuff said

....errrm, what about the scope rail on the blaster? .

.....nicely done Sir,....VERY nicely done Bravo that man!!!! .

Alex, you don't have to have an 'original' M38 / M40 (unless you want to of course ) there are some great, clean and accurate copies out there that can look just as good when detailed right. As I said, always go to the original source for research, that should be a paramount rule for EVERYONE. Peoples interpretaions can be misleading and should always be used purely as a guide. and one that I know you've studied but I thought I'd throw it in for good measure

Arrh, OK, that's one of 'The Prop Store Of London' offerings They've put a couple of these up for sale over the years and whilst I totally agree on their assessment that the main body of the examples shown have been 100%, without question, original 'Bapty & Co.' made blasters they have also stated the follwing to cover their backsides "When we discovered the weapons sadly all of the original components from each of the blasters had been long since stripped and removed. What was great to see was that markings from the original rivet that held the top rail in place just in front of the rear site were still visible. This blaster has been faithfully restored with replica dressing parts to complete the look of the Stormtrooper blaster. The parts are extremely accurate to the originals." It's a well known fact that when the all the Sterlings and other blasters were returned to Bapty's they were stripped back down removing any 'add-on's' so that they could be put back in stock and used on other film productions when needed. This means that any of the built for Tunisia examples and any other Sterlings they may have provided would be missing scopes, scope rails, counters, T-Track, Power cylinders, etc. The Prop Store (or the original seller) replaced the missing parts with 'as used' authentic or replicated pieces to add credence (and value of course) to the items that they were auctioning. I'd say that they got it totally wrong (which wouldn't be the first time ) with using a M38a2 scope. In all my years of research and obsessing over the E11 I have yet to see any on screen examples, or any evidence that as clearly shown that the M38a2 or any of the other variants such as M40a2, M47a2 M77C, M77D were used during filming. (if anyone as any examples, please feel free to let me know because I would genuinely love to see them and I really do mean that) They probably couldn't find a M38, M40 at the time and just went with what they thought would be OK (Hey!, it's a REAL scope and who's gonna tell the difference anyway?!!!). You have built a fantastic replica mate and I truly love the work and detail that you've put into both the Bapty's that you've done, but I personally think you should stick to the known originals and not what The Prop Store have shown as their 'interpretation'.

Alex, loving the Bapty blasters that are now starting to be reproduced, great work mate Just curious about the M38a2 scope you mentioned, have you got any reference shots of one on an original Bapty's or screenshots of this scope being used on any E11's used on screen? Would be great to see for future reference

Black flexi CA Glue..... Mine popped off about 3 years ago, stuck the sucker straight back with it and it's stayed there ever since. It's great stuff, I swear by it

+1 From a gem of an idea to reality, and still to some it's not good enough http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp139/Billhag/GIFS/rolleyes.gif To ALL those who have shown appreciation, and to my fellow McQuarrieans I salute you Now back to the COOL-NESS!! http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp139/Billhag/GIFS/shades.gif

Great little tutorial, but please don't take this the wrong way, why on earth would anyone add a red shiny thing to the front of ANY E11?. Far better to just drill a nice tidy hole which will give it more of an origin.al feel. I've pimped up a good few Hyper Firms over the years and with a little bit of thought and some cheeky little tricks here and there you can really make these Bad Boys look the part. Sorry, I prefer to leave the glitter and sequins on my rather niffty 70's disco shirts and make a good ol' E11 look like it was intended, but Hey!!, each to their own I suppose.

Hey my new BGF!! How ya doing matey?, great meeting up with you at the weekend. You're right about production and costume designers taking inspiration from Ralph's brilliant drawings. You can see it throughout all the Star Wars franchise, be that film, animation or even merchandise. I'm kind of torn because I love the skuzzy-real-world feel of the original trilogy weapons but the little 'Space Boy' in me wants that PHEW!-PHEW! ray gun that Ralph's stuff leans a little towards. Here's a couple of examples of a few of the concept blasters, I've got some clearer ones but can't get my hands on 'em right now

Steve's future trading card ......ohhh YERRHH I’ve been ask about the blaster by a few people so here goes. Basically it’s a ‘5-minute-fixer-up-rush-job’ that I just threw together in between the 100 mile an hour armour build that we had to do on these beautiful suits. I just cobbled it together with the remit of producing something the size of an E11 with the look and essence of the action figure and Ralph’s concept blaster drawings. I knew I didn’t have enough time to go full tilt on all the details so I tried to make sure that I captured the key elements. It did the trick and I’m already planning a more accurate build that I can hopefully do at a more leisurely pace, well something a bit more sedate than still having the paint dripping wet as you're walking out the door to go to Germany -----------

We are the 'ELITE' men of the Imperial Empire. Many aspire, but few are chosen. McQuarrie - The FIRST Imperial Stormtrooper ......Now tell me that's not frigging AWSOME!!!

Juan No need to paint 'em mate, just do some creative weathering and they'll look the part. That's what I did to my ones that I wear when I'm not trooping the Bad-Boy 1090-B's Crayola crayons and black acrylic paint works a treat,....and you can clean or dirty them up as much as you like and you won't harm the boots ....or just do as Paul said, get some good looking black ones and paint 'em up.

Since the suits arrived a couple of weeks ago we've all been working non stop-flat out, every hour that we could to get the suits ready for CE11.To say it's not been EASY trying to fit 'real life', work, and everything else in is an understatment. But we've managed to keep all those plates spinning on poles and I think we're nearly there. Ohh yerhh, even the 'Egg-Sperts' got involved and helped out with some 'secret' extras we had planned

SDS, ....he talks about his armour and lid on his main site / Blog

I use a couple of methods for overspill /excess E6000 duiring a build. When it's still wet (not cured) I use White spirit and wipe as I go. It's also good for smoothing it out on seems, I just dip a cotten bud in it and run it over the top and jobs a good 'un. For dried overspill, the same as others have said, fingers and I also use off cuts of ABS cut to a point and just use it like a scrapper.It doesn't harm the surface and it's great because you can get right up to the edges if needed, and 9 out 10 times once you get a stringy length going you can just pull on it and the rest comes off in a straight line.

The reigning, and still UNDISPUTED masters of the 'Quizzical-Head-Tilt'......

....my thoughts exactly. Mr. Weir, thank you for those stunningly creative, highly informative and INCREDIBLY loud!!, televisuals Sir. Have IT!!!!!

Sam, great build mate, very nicely done. .

They look like they can be saved mate, just cut a new arc at the top similar to what you had Hope that helps

....wellll, that's still not been 100% cleared up yet mate.Al comments and observations regarding the incredible similarties to the RS Props suit have been ignored and little clarification from the makers as been forthcoming.....which is a shame. Adam, best of luck with the build matey. Take it nice 'n' slow and before you know it you'll be out there trooping with the rest of us .

Glenn, you are right about different makers and different shades but you have picked a rather unique ABS to use as a comparison. The TM 1.5mm is nothing like anything else out there, and nothing like any of the other makers have ever offered in the past or are currently offering with their suits (trust me, I've built every flavour that you can think of and..... THEN SOME ) The colour and physical nature of the 1.5 is very close to the originals which really does require you to re-think how you look at a set of armour and throw away all those misconceptions of the 'zingy-zangy-ultra-shiney-white' stormtrooper suits that we have all come to except as our vision of the 'real thing' Here's a compare shot with the 2mm AC .....and here's a couple of shots to show just how different it can look in different lighting situations As I said, you're right to highlight that there can be many variables in the hue and tone of the white ABS used by the different makers, some are vastly different but there's also many out there that you can mix 'n' match with and the blend is not as noticable as you have tried to illustrate here.

Art Andrews replicated it years ago with all the greeblies and extras over on the MEPD, that's where you probably remember it from matey .

....This is me last year pointing out to Simon the mis-matched thighs in the behind the scenes picture in Tunisia of all the Sandys lined up in front of the Dewback. I've spotted at least 3 mis-matched thigh tops on the Sandys so there is a very good chance that Si's could be one of them. There's also a theory that we've been throwing around with Mr.Muir (stand up and salute ) that parts of Si's suit could be from the early Elstree pulls and NOT from AA.....