T-Jay

Kevin, you could ask Derrek (Dday) for a resin bolt...

This front sight guard turned out very good. Any plans on adding the knurling pattern?

Here is a picture that was made for a different thread. I checked the prisms and the dimensions are: 20.2 mm on the two equal sides, 28.0 - 28.4 mm on the long side and 11.5 mm wide/thick. These are big and don't cause any magnification. To get this, there needs to be the correct distance to the functional lenses... On the other side: we would not want it to work correctly, because the scopes on the movie prop were mounted backwards. Meaning, if you look through them, you see things smaller. Maybe we find a way to modify the lens-setup to really get some magnification, although looking into the wrong end. Time will tell... Any physics teachers around?

Brian, take care - you are getting deeper and deeper into that rabbit hole Awesome work. This puts future scope modifications into a new dimension... Will see if I can submit measurements of the prisms from the monoculars later.

Hey Sean, there is a monocular in that Completion Set V 2.4 that you got. If you fully disassemble this, you will find 2 prisms. These are bigger than the original ones, but maybe someone can get this working...

A good way to scratch-build those two guards - and a nice clean style to run this thread.

Awesome progress, Kevin. I like and respect the fact, you are building two blasters at the same time. In the picture below you attached the two arms with an angle to the rest of the folding stock. This brings the "bend" in the wrong place (hard for me to explain, sorry). The folding stock runs parallel under the receiver tube. The arms are bent a bit closer towards to hinge. Sorry, don't know how to explain this. Maybe someone with better English can chime in. Added a reference picture to help.

Great work, Kevin and an awesome build thread. Just noticed a little flaw in your trigger guard placement. Please have a look at where the upper end sits on your build and the reference picture below. Maybe this is something you can still adjust? Sorry, this comment was only meant to help getting it more accurate, not to question your outstanding work.

Today’s first pictures fit more likely to the last update but were skipped, so here they are now (just two common mods). Update #16 - Bob Ross & “The Joy Of Painting” When finishing a blaster build, I usually go with the semi-gloss black paint (as seen in the last update) and weather it with Humbrol 27004 on selected spots. Looks okay, but those blasters completely lack the texture from the real Sterlings, because these resin casts were made from a CLEANED Sterling parts set. In my first build I tried to reproduce this surface with the “paper-dabbed” hammered paint and the result was different. So this time it had to be the accurate wrinkle finish. On various reference pictures we find a lot of wear and tear, that I also liked to incorporate. This wear and tear is important for a believable look and I did not want to simply add silver color onto the wrinkle paint. The only way to get it more realistically seemed to be a multi-layer paintjob. The following pictures show, what has been done to each part during this process: Step 4: took photos from all the covered spots after the latex had dried. This will later help to find the “paint chips” when these are hidden under the wrinkled surface. Next pictures show just a few examples… It is mandatory to EXACTLY follow the instructions for this paint, as it requires a specific room temperature, air humidity, triple layer spray technique and 48 hours drying time Next update will tell, if it worked and if the latex will still be removable. Keeping fingers crossed… Enjoy your weekend

Sergiu, Michael and Brian, you guys really make me run out of ways to say “Thank You” Happy to see you still read the updates and leave comments. Chris, thanks for mentioning the build thread itself. Indeed that doubles the effort. Beside of building, I take LOADS of photos, pick the best ones, spend many hours on the keyboard to arrange them and to find the right words for explaining everything Glad to hear about your thought. Let it settle, let some time pass by and the day will come where you start a new build. After my first one was done, I did not seriously expect to build another one… Two years later (and with a much better kit available) this all started again... Thanks Jason. The truth is, I work slowly to avoid at least a few mistakes and that makes it all really time-consuming. But I guess that’s what hobbies are about: spending your time in something you like.

That looks interesting... Good luck Michael

Always a pleasure to read the newsletter. Thanks for all the hard work to put this together!

THAT is exactly the difference I was talking about Thanks for the perfect pictures...

Very nice catch on recreating that rear end of the spring cup Paintwork also looks good.

Update #15 - Preparations for paintwork To get a single-colored base (for the following paint layer), the silver receiver tube and all parts with resin repairs had to get a layer of black spray paint. Before adding this, a few small items had to be permanently installed on the receiver. I had also filled the seam lines between the receiver and both flash guards but forgot to take pictures. At a first glance it almost looks done, but grip and folding stock are still unpainted. Also the current color is just the base layer for what comes in the next update… Thank you (one more time) for reading

Never say never, Ian. But at least I have nothing else in mind, as polarizing as the bullets… Good point Chris, had not thought of that. Wanted to know it, so I took a knife and cut into the black cube where it goes into the aluminum pipe. Inside the small cut I saw white plastic. But no worries, even sharp scratches were not enough to remove the black surface. All fine. Brian, your own current work is also very amazing. I am fascinated on how this could change the level of accuracy on resin scopes… Great work and I keep fingers crossed for this. Thanks, Bryn. Looks like you just recently found this thread?! My FISD notifications on that day said: sla73 liked a post you made in Phoenix Pros Pipe Kit with Compl… sla73 liked a post you made in Phoenix Pros Pipe Kit with Compl… sla73 liked a post you made in Phoenix Pros Pipe Kit with Compl… sla73 liked a post you made in Phoenix Pros Pipe Kit with Compl… and so on … Thanks for your words, Kai. And best regards to Baden-Württemberg (is that assumption correct?) When we met the last time, I told you of serious carving work on the folding stock. Well, this is what I meant So happy, it all worked without needing a replacement stock Thanks Mike. Same goes for your work on the helmet interior. Absolutely outstanding modifications… Good choice with that kit, Carl. But skip the mistakes I made Hey Bill, nice to have you stopping by. A real laser? Well, let me see what I can do…

What an update! What an effort! Great work on the end cap adapter (indeed these plans are for a 40mm tube). You bent the U-channel yourself, although there was one in your completion set?! The 5mm LED head is actually not meant to light up, only meant to recreate that little button on top of the magazine. Crazy cool idea with that charging option for the permanently installed battery. You could hide the port for the cable plug with a faked reset button... However, the CRLs do not ask for any specific details on the blasters, so in the end it is up to you how you want this to look. And it sounds like you are having fun, which is the most important thing

DANG! This is an interesting start, Garry. Especially when considering, you plan to combine this with a DoopDoo's resin kit. Very nice.

Hi Allan, depending on the used technique, weathering sometimes interacts with the painting work. The FISD E-11 Blaster Reference contains chapters for painting (#28) and weathering (#29), which might help you...

Hi Brian, glad to see you finally coming online with these beauties. I keep fingers crossed for you and hope we will soon see more. These hollowed scopes could mark the next level of accuracy for the builds out there. To me this seems like the dawn of a new era for resin scope replicas...

Hey Bryn, nice to see you finally started a build thread We never get tired of watching things like this... Following

What happened? No pictures of your work? It was such an interesting start and this last update is a big jump to the finish line... However, you said you needed it finished so everybody will understand - as long as you keep your promise to build an even better one in the future Anyway, the result is looking good. Maybe add some light weathering on a few edges but even without it looks fine.

Checked all the pictures and different types of TKs from this trailer. Looking at the upper legs (for example) there are troopers with shorter upper legs (for improved movement) and some with "standard" length. Is it possible, this movie has some optimized stunt armors and some armors with a closer look to the original ANH?

Update #14 - Details on the folding stock As recently mentioned, there was some more work on this part… Enjoy your weekend, Stormtroopers and Cadets

That reminds me of a slogan from one of our German TV stations: “We love to entertain you” I am feeling honored by your words, Brian and appreciate this encouragement. Thank you very much, Derrek. Sometimes it was indeed trickier, as it looks like on the pictures… And thanks for answering Brian’s question so quick