T-Jay

Hi Brian, I used standard metal drills for all small and medium holes. That worked fine. Sometimes you will have to free the threads from resin cuttings. Pilot holes are always good. For the bigger holes in the folding stock (11mm) I used a wood drill (see here in the middle of the first posting). A pilot hole was very helpfull to center the drill tip. Drilled with some speed but went down very slowly, so the drill tip scraped off the resin as you can see on my photos. Good luck!

Wow, that is scary: we both live in Germany, have about the same age and have children. We both did model kit building and aim for an idealized TK. We post pictures in "quadro-style" and have a wooden desk in the background . You also painted the helmet interior black and trimmed the eye brow to be parallel to the traps. Even the story at the beginning sounds familiar to me. So many coincidences, isn't that strange somehow?! You did a nice start (exactly as I would have done it). Following...

@ Derrek (Dday): Thanks man. This tolerance is exactly what I hoped for! Also very important to everything I change: out of respect to Paul's work this can all be undone! So if I want to go for rough screen accurate some day, no problem... @ Germain (The5thHorseman): Karin's white rubber hand guards are a tiny little bit whiter than the 1,5mm standard ABS. Planning to adjust this with minor weathering... @ Bone (Bone): The glove color can also be refreshed with some black plastic care for cars. It depends on what you have available and what brings the desired result - without transferring the black color to other things. @ Paul (troopermaster): Hey, happy to have the master himself onboard . And thanks for answering Bone's question in my absence . @ Germain (The5thHorseman): How much time do you spend watching these photos to always find some perfect evidences?! Nice work, man! @ Jason (Cantina Security): You are absolutely right. I could not imagine building this display with any other armor than Paul's!

Update 02: - rubber and latex (that sounds so wrong ) For a long time I worried about the latex hand guards but didn't want to replace these. Next pictures show you, why I finally did. But I still feel seriously guilty for tearing this masterpiece apart. Sorry Paul, hope you will forgive me . The pictures above are not meant to judge any of the gloves and handguards. And I'm not going to say that one is better than the other. It simply depends on how you want your TK to look at the end: screen accurate or idealized.

Thanks Germain! I am currently working on exactly that issue At least more white than the 1,5mm standard ABS. Don't know if it's the same for the 2mm acrylic capped ABS with gloss. Will hopefully soon post some progress...

Update 01: - medium brown box arrived In January 2014 I started research on the boots and placed an order at TK-boots. They had some delay and put me on a back order list. So it took half a year and a visit at a German customs office to finally hold them in hands. Regarding the color: these boots are so shiny white, they even make the armor (1,5mm standard ABS) look off-white. Troopermaster's acrylic capped ABS might not get this problem (cannot confirm). But the elastics are even whiter than the leather. So there is no way around some weathering here - in one of the next updates.

@ Ian (Sith Lord): I also masked the gap at the ears to avoid this color-fog. Yes the last 8 pictures show the helmet with a later added weathering. Thought it wouldn't be noticed. How could I ... @ Nick (Darth Niob): Thank you very much for your assistance and help, to make the right choice at the end. Hope we will meet again soon. But pictures of the completed display are still far away... @ Bone (Bone): Uuh, I hoped nobody would ask this. To be honest: I cut a pair of old black socks in shape - of course these were washed @ Germain (The5thHorseman): Just wanted to keep the thread in the familiar look . Weathering was done by myself and I saved it for one of the next updates... @ David (illusionz_09) and Cory (Motion): Thank you guys. Indeed Paul did a great job on the helmet - and the whole armor. I just try to optimize it a little bit.

Alright, the thread for the ANH Stunt armor has just been uploaded. Here it is...

Hello there, last year I started my research to build a life-size stormtrooper display. After 8 months of investigations, discussions, emails and phone calls, I decided to go for the ANH Stunt TK from Paul (Troopermaster). As I had no experience in building armor and was afraid to mess up this expensive prop, the order got placed for a fully finished TK. The waiting time was used to start building my E-11 blaster. Just 2 months later the big brown box from Paul already arrived - and he had done a fantastic job! That was a nice day! Let's skip unboxing and go straight to the helmet and the modifications. Grown up with the original trilogy, my TK has to look a bit more like what we believed to see on the screen, as what the high resolution pictures revealed some decades later. The statue simply needs to look good - even on close distance. Of course this is not everybody's opinion - but it's mine. If the trimmed eye brow is wrong, it can be fixed by simply turning the inside out... Later I decided to paint the interior of the helmet. Chose PlastiDip black spray paint because it can be peeled off (if necessary). It looks so much better (to me) and has some positive side effects: - No more light can shimmer through the thin vac-formed ABS, which keeps the inside very dark and that makes the green lens look really black. - It also gets even harder to see the wearer's eyes behind the lens. - If you watch the back side of a TK, many times you'll be able to see straight into the helmet. The black interior then is an advantage. I'll also use a balaclava for my TK display to avoid seeing any skin or mannequin parts. Will continue with the next steps in a few days. As always, please feel free to leave any comments, critics or advices. Thank you.

Hey Dennis, you've got a nice blaster and after adding the parts from Blue Snaggletooth it even got better! Just wondered about the recoil spring. As far as I know, there should be only 11 coils visible when it's installed Is there no pin at the front sight? And no ring on the end cap? (hard to tell by the angle of these photos)

Okay Germain, I thought about your comment and started working on a separate thread for the armor. Will have it online in a few days and keep you updated here.

Hm, not sure if I should make a thread for this, as the armor has been fully finished and completed by Troopermaster himself. During the ordering process at the end of last year, I was just too scared to mess up this high-end prop. Of course I already did some optimizations & supplements and took several photos of each, but I don't want to bore anybody here (in case such threads already exist). And I don't know where exactly to post this (as it is not a complete build).

Hey Aaron, don't worry about the tooth. If you later add some weathering to the helmet you could eventually cover (or conceal) that discoloration. You did a good job so far - also on the bubble lenses! Haven't seen this before.

If somebody here is interested in such details for the own build, check these Completion Sets for E-11 kits.

@ Ian (Sith Lord), Andrew (Sly 11), Aaron (usaeatt2), Dennis (Blue Snaggletooth) and Tim (Dark CMF): wow guys, I still feel honored by all your friendly comments! Thank you so much for these encouraging words! @ Germain (The5thHorseman): hey, you're back. Guess you had to spend all your time to find that incredible screenshot! So it's true: the standard magazine in the DoopyDoo's full resin kit is correct and screen accurate! - except the end cap! @ Vern (TK Bondservnt 2392): so that's the reason, why the Doopy's magazine doesn't contain that small clip on the rear side, correct?

Hi Craig, don't know if this has been mentioned already, but the T-tracks shouldn't be wheathered, because they simulate plastic parts - not metal. The wheathering on your charging handle seems to be on the wrong side: using this severall times would remove the black paint and make some silver metal visible - on the front. Not on the rear side, as its being pulled back. Nice work on the inner bolt. You might want to add something on top of it (beneath your charging handle) to close that gap. And I would strech the spring to have only 11 visible convolutions as the real Sterling has. Please don't get me wrong. Your work is good. There are just a few things which could make it look better. No offense to your build.

@ Tim (Dark CMF), Jonathan (aliens8us), Steve (gazmosis), Andrew (Sly11), Steve (Slangen) & Jonathan (Evilboy): wow, I'm really impressed by all your friendly and encouraging replies. It's been people like you and comments like these which pushed my build to this result. Thank you very much! Update #23 - last minor corrections As I already said to Aaron in entry #149, my front sight pin had to be reworked because of an incorrect shape: After checking some more of Aaron's very nice detail photos from his real Sterling, I found another inaccuracy: Is that blaster now complete? Six months build time (with looong breaks), countless hours for the build and this online thread, 513 own pictures (out of 1.019), a lot of replies, 25 additional pictures and 1 video clip. Yes, it looks like it has finally been brought to 100%. So here are a few last full views of the end result:

@ Steve (gazmosis), Kyle (Zarlon), Andrew (Sly11) and Carl (Dougal): thank you for your comments. Very glad to see you guys like this mod . Update #22 - power cylinders finally got completed: Alright, this result is of course not perfect. But I think it is okay for a DoopyDoo's resin version. Please feel free to leave any comments or critics.

Update #21 - first steps on the power cylinders It took quite a while to get hands on one of Andy's metal power cylinders, but it was worth the waiting. I recorded all measurements to bring my resin version as close to the original as possible. Next step will be the 3 central capacitors and the wires with resistors at the rear side. What do you think?

No update. Just a little story Last weekend I visited a friend and we hadn't met for a looooong time. Beside his main job, he is a huntsman and a sport-rifleman (hope this was the correct wording) and also regularly participates at official sport shooting events all over Germany. He owns several pistols and rifles and seems to be pretty good in his hobby, as there are a lot of medals and some golden cups at his home. Although he wasn't familiar with the Sterling Mk4 L2A3, he wanted to see my plastic E-11 and was fascinated by the appearance and honestly thought some components were real steel . After we talked a while about the 501st Legion, the stormtrooper and of course the E-11 blaster, he asked me to follow him. Downstairs in the basement was a huge massive steel door (280kg / 617 pound lbs). And behind it, we entered a different world. No, not the Star-Wars Universe. Only a small room of a few square metres, but with loads of guns, ammo, equipment, tools and special stuff!!! Damn, that was so cool. Some expensive equipment was placed in a wall-mounted gun rack with five slots for long rifles. After removing some hardware (which was not supposed to be on a photo) we placed the E-11 in the top slot and I took that funny picture: Looks like all weapons were used in some movies, he? Especially the Heckler & Koch SL8 looks like coming straight from a science fiction movie set. It surprisingly seemed to have the same amount of plastic pieces than my E-11 but it felt extraordinary compared with others. Then we drove to the local firing range and had some (damn loud) fun, testing a few of his real guns... Wow, that was a nice experience. Okay, now I will check Tim's armor build thread. Just got shocked to see it already reached 5 pages... I am still working on the power cylinders but everything goes much slower than I thought. So don't expect any wonders when I post pictures (some day). It will just be the DoopyDoo's resin version...

@ Tim (Dark CMF): So it seems like we both made an unexpected but positive experience with the paint chapter on our E-11s. Feared from the beginning but enjoyed at the end Will you also start a thread for your armor? Or did you already and I missed it? I thought about doing something like that for my TM suit... (not sure yet) Regarding the next runs of E-11 builds: (like I earlier wrote in a comment) just imagine what could be achieved by picking up the best techniques, tricks and modifications from every thread and combining these!!! @ Aaron (usaeatt2): Thank you for your offer to upload detail pictures. Of course you didn't know about my work on the front sight, so my last comment to you was just meant as a joke. But it's good to know a source now for details from a real Sterling. This might also help many other people here. @ Vern (TK Bondservnt 2392): To be honest, I picked up the white crayon mod from an other build thread a few months ago, so that I actually could not say, which thread it was. But if you've been the first person doing it that way, thank you for sharing it here with others so this mod also found it's way into my build Happy to see you like my front sight mod.

Hi Christian, the foto you refer to (although from the 501. page) is wrong in this detail. Somebody placed the "end plate" the wrong way. If you check more builds, you will find the arrow pointing forward and the letters OFF are upside down. That way it is correct.

@ Steve (gazmosis): Thanks man. Just wanted to stay as close to the original as possible . @ Brian (TrainWreck): Thank you. Saw no other way to bring that pattern onto this small surface. But I recommend to cover it with only one layer of spray paint. In my case the pattern almost got lost under the multiple layers. @ Aaron (usaeatt2): Aaahhh, why didn't we get these pictures and measurements earlier? They are so brilliant and ways better than just the two close ups I've got. Okay, the addition of the dovetail is an almost impossible thing now (at this stage of my build), but it looks like I have to redo at least the front sight pin, because the current one has a wrong shape. @ Ian (Sith Lord): Thank you. I am curious about your realization of this mod... @ Tim (Dark CMF): Thanks mate. Your build meanwhile reached a nice level. Did you enjoy dry brushing and weathering? And has your big brown box already arrived? @ Daniel (DarthChridan): Thanks man and don't forget: it's been people like YOU who made me go into all these details . When I began this build, I just needed a simple E-11 to display with the armor... @ Lucas (ZeroRoom): Thank you sir . @ Derek (thederek): Ha ha , not sure if you would like the result, as I had the same problem with the paint on the grip (you've already seen that). I left it as it will be covered by three gloved fingers from the mannequin (in my case)...

Update #20 - it's been a while... ...and I felt like doing an update again after reading your last comments. Thanks for these kind words, guys! As stated the last time, the missing work is: white letters in the scope, front sight and power cylinders. To be honest: I totally underestimated the last two of them and have to correct the completeness of the last update to something about 80% . However, my son (unknowingly) helped me with a little piece of white crayon for the scope letters. If he knew what it has been used for, he would go crazy (yes, he is a big Star Wars fan ). The letters aren't filled 100% to make it look a bit old and used. When I started work on the front sight (months ago) the "pin holder" and "protection cover" got separated as seen in a reference picture. A pin was made with the Dremel from aluminum and later got slightly reshaped. Isn't it strange to see bright resin again at this stage of the build?! Then I noticed it was a big mistake not to frequently check the reference pictures, because I had removed too much resin and now it was totally wrong! As the main build had to continue, I decided to move on just with the protection cover and to later add the missing pin (after I found a way to correct this error). A thin layer of "green stuff" was used to bring some pattern from a small file onto the protection cover. This was already visible since update #13 (page 5) but got partially covered by the paint layers. Now the "pin holder" needed intense corrections. Some kind of adaption piece is placed on the round receiver barrel. A rectangular block sits on top of it, to receive the pin. I saw no other chance than to add "green stuff" again to bring it in shape step by step... On the right side (left on my picture) there is a small grub screw, which obviously makes the pin replaceable. Found one which fitted good and installed it. Looks real but its very short, so it doesn't reach the pin. IMHO the front sight should look something like this, but that doesn't seem to be the common opinion, as in most builds the front sight is left in one piece. Has this ever been done before? Then I filled the little center gap on the barrel, removed a bit of the paint (for better adhesion) and glued the parts together. The last picture clearly shows there are two separate parts, the side slots, the screw and the pin. During the last weeks I managed to find more accurate hex screws for the muzzle and replaced the existing M6 with real 1/4"-20. The new ones remained in original length. Alright, that's it for today already. Now I have to start this tricky power cylinder issue - and I already did some mistakes on the resin part . Next update (hopefully this year) will show, if and how I solved these... As always, please feel free to leave comments / critics.

Hi Tim, instead of adding some clear protective coats (and risking satin gloss), what about simply adding some more layers of your last used flat black?