T-Jay

Hey Germain, Steve and Tim Thank you all for your encouraging words! Was not sure if you would like this mod, because of the deviation with the characters and the uneven alignment. Did my best in a short time, but surely somebody will do it better in the future... @ Tim (Dark CMF): don't know what these metal stamps cost (as mine are borrowed) but I think buying these only makes sense, if you plan to do a complete run of mods with them. You seem to have some more Doopy kits at home, he?

Thanks Daniel. I also laughed when I read Soren's comment. But his build inspired me to all this. And thanks for your comment, Germain. I will honor it now with an update - especially for you (just kiddin ) Update #12 - another insertion step Exactly at this point of the build Germain had asked me to recreate the small numbers in the bolt. During the research I had already noticed them and had thought about transferring these into the resin kit. Then I rejected this idea: too small, too time consuming, won't be noticed and so on... But now it felt like I should finally take this challenge Research details: numbers have a height of 2mm and a total amount of 15 characters (including two letters). The setup is as follows: X00 0 000 000 X 0000 (the X stands for a letter and the 0 means a digit). So I checked the tools and found 2mm number stamps but no letters in that size. Had to improvise and replaced the letters with additional digits. The "Gutenberg procedure" started one last time... Due to spacing issues I had only place left for 13 instead of 15 characters and no letters. Well, that was all I could do in such a short time (this got done the same day as Germain wrote his comment). Next update is about the paint again - I promise

Update #11 - the mess with spray can #8 Spray can #1 was the 1st layer on every resin and plastic piece, including the Hengstler cover and the ABS components of the inner bolt. It was very liquid, a thin dust cover was sufficient, tears were extremely flat and it dried quickly (10 min). The few silver pigments were hard to see on the bright resin (easier on dark surfaces like the DVH kit ). Insertion step: before adding silver, can #8 was used for all bolt parts. T-tracks and D-ring got masked (tracks will get black at the end & the ring already looked good). Paint dried in 10 minutes. A more metallic looking grey would have been desirable, but was not available. In electric light it looks just green . If it stays like that, I'm going to redo this... After weathering the small parts and the spring it was clear: can #8 was the wrong colour. All has to be done again! Okay, now I needed a little encouragement. Applied a 2nd layer of can #2 (belton silver) to every part pretending to be metal or steel. When later weathering with sandpaper, that bright colour will hopefully alert me if I get to deep . Screwed and glued some parts on the receiver and got serious gaps, which were filled with "green stuff". The last two pictures show the texture in the resin kit. Must have been moulded from a gun with crinkle paint. Magazine has sanding tracks which will hopefully get filled with the hammered paint. A darker silver (more grey) would have been better to look like steel, but was not available where I searched. The spray was easy to handle, nothing special to take care of and it also dried quickly (10 min).

@ Germain (The5thHorseman): I understand. The earlier scope maybe looked okay on the pictures here, but reality was different and weathering was still overdone. I agree to your point of a combined weathering and still have this in some places like on the front and rear (not visible on these photos). The colour contrast just got reduced a bit to avoid having the brass "shining" out of the black. It now looks much more real than before. @ Ken (PiettLives): your friend is very talented. Looks like airbrush work!? Found some mistakes, but Vern already stated most of them. Anyway, a nice build. @ Stefan (Turrican): thanks for your kind words, man. In case I got it completed for our next meeting, I will be interested in your opinion on a close view to the details... And - I'm not sure if there will be another build...

Update #10 - scope v1.2 Just a short update on the final version. Weathering got reduced one more time by applying a thin coat of black colour. Didn't expect that, but it worked . Here are three photos: Next update might take some time, because I have trouble with the paint work...

Hi Soren . Thanks for having a look. It's been a while since our last contact. You have to know, it was YOUR OWN BUILD which inspired me the most when I began with this!

Hey Steve and Tim Thanks for your encouraging words! Although you've both replied in a positive way, I can't feel completely happy with my result and will therefore put this scope on the list of 'things to be redone' (or at least reworked) later. And trust me: that list will grow with the next update, because I really messed up some parts and now have to find a solution... So better don't watch too close, except to learn from my mistakes . Looking forward to the next updates from both of you. Keep the people entertained, while I try to save my blaster from the trash can...

Hi, I wanted to place an order at TK boots back in January, but due to a re-build of the inventory (?) I was asked to wait until March. Yesterday I asked for an update and was told, they are still waiting for the shop to complete the actual run. They placed an order a bit too large for that shop. They had some delays with the white leather and fell behind a bit more. Today that shop has promissed another 5 weeks.

Update #09 - the real paintwork has started! Don't ask me why, but somehow I wanted to start with a small part, as it is easier in case of redoing everything. The choice was the M38 scope. First the plastic adhesion promoter, then the Humbrol Acrylic Brass 54. Both dried quickly but compared with real brass, the colour seems too golden (to me). Anyway, that was all I had and it took four stores to get this last bottle of ANY brass colour! - seems like there are some more troopers in my area . I masked the bottom of both feet. Rear foot got also covered on the sides, as found during my research. Placed a sticker stripe inside the rear opening to save a brass circle inside, which will later be visible through the lens (also seen on an original). Wrapped a textile wire into the gap (to later make it look like the join of two parts). Then added my "liquid mask" and painted it black. While it dried, my three plastic screws for the front received the silver spray from belton and then Humbrol Metal Cote (wow - if treated correctly, this stuff can later really look like metal). Felt totally excited when I removed the maskings and was so happy, how well it had worked with the candle wax. Hey, my first weathered part! But I have to admit: it was too much and didn't look quite real, so I had to rework it . Then I made some comparison pictures. But unfortunately the camera didn't catch the before/after effect very well. Even with the circles it is hard to see a difference in some places. Now good? Or still too much weathering? Please let me know, what you really think about it? So I can redo or rework if necessary. Thanks in advance!

Thank you, Steve. To hear this from somebody who went so deep into that topic, really makes me happy . Before uploading the last update, I had chosen the same way to do it and have meanwhile done a few parts. Will hopefully soon show some pictures of that...

Hi Ian, ouuuuh, your posting sounds very interesting! To decide which kit is best for you, it should be taken into account what the blaster will be made for. A stable result will be usefull for trooping (and might lack some details), while an untouched pure display build can be more fragile (but with a lot of details). And if the build is for a mannequin, the weight will also be of importance... Good luck with whatever you choose :-)

Hi Paul, I fully agree to what Tim wrote and you can already start keeping your eyes open for small screws of any kind. I bought none of them, all found in old hardware... Good luck and take you time to read through the existing builds... it TAKES time...

Update #08 - first paint As some of you already know, I fear to screw it all up now, because my model-building skills weren't used for at least 25 years. Never had an idea of "weathering" but this must be that trick, which made my planes look somehow different than the photos on the aircraft boxes . The search for the right structure is a big issue for some people here (what I fully respect). But I didn't want to go that deep. From ANH we know the guns looked just black, no visible weathering (doesn't mean it wasn't there), while much more details can be seen on reference pictures. But it is necessary to separate screen-used and others (police / military) and changes in production and so on. Although there is a perfect looking crinkle paint being introduced by Steve (gazmosis), I chose the hammered effect as this looked closer to the reference photos I have. But it had to be reworked somehow to look correct. To find the best way, I sprayed silver on an ABS stripe and then tried standard paint, dabbing it with toilette paper and sprinkle it with pepper flakes . Yes, a bit unconventional but something must work here... Then a matt black coat was added. Here are the results: In my opinion the standard paint just hadn't enough texture, while the peppered looked a bit too rough. Might have been better to use wheat flour or something. Anyway, I liked the paper-dabbed version most of all and was fascinated how the matt black finish turned into dark grey after sanding. So I decided to go for that. It should be mentioned, that the idea of paper dabbing the fresh hammer coat came to me via DarthChridan, who got it from Felice (best regards to you both ). At first all resin parts got washed. While these were drying, the screws and the scope rail got painted matt black. And some tests were sprayed on the resin counter (which won't be used here). Sprayed the hammered effect and 1/3 with additional satin black and tested some types of sand papers. Again: this was only for testing, I know the counter doesn't get structured paint To know which colour to use for what, was not that easy as I imagined. Had to do research again and to bear some things in mind like: - which parts were on the original guns and required this rough surface? - how to get this surface? - what had been added for the movies and required clean black? - what needs to look used or scratched (and where)? - how to make this used look? - what to paint when and how long to dry? and so on... Here you see a selection of spray cans for this build and what they finally will be used for. Of course this is no reference (there are much more adequate products available). It is just what I found locally to be okay to work with: 1 - plastic adhesion promoter (not a primer, transparent with few pigments only, for all plastic parts before adding colour) 2 - belton silver (satin matt metallic silver for every part to simulate metal or steel) 3 - Hammerschlag (anthracite gloss with hammered effect for rough surface on all main parts of the original Sterling) 4 - RAL 9005 (satin matt pure black as the final layer of all parts which will get paint #4 and some other pieces) 5 - very old satin matt black (to have a slightly different black as #4 to set colour accents at scope, rail, counter, counter bracket and counter cover) 6 - Humbrol Acrylic Brass 54 (metallic brass for M38 scope only - it took four different shops to get that and it was the last available bottle) 7 - RAL 9005 (high gloss pure black for the handle and the reset button on the Hengstler) 8 - Tamiya Color TS-70 (matt grey-green for colour accents on all bolt parts and the spring) REAL paint works in the next update Side note: decided to add power cylinders and front aim pin later and to concentrate now on the main build.

Aah, thank you very much Germain for highlighting this! Learning more and more every day . And to be exactly that also means there is another problem: the two imprints/straights next to the divot must then be wrong, because these are not running into the end cap. So it looks like the resin mag in the Doopy's kit has obviously been moulded from the top end of an uncut magazine, right? Then this could also be the reason why it misses that little clip thing on the rear side, but that does not explain its mismatch in size... Anyway, according to my earlier mentioned hint, the Doopy's mag will get replaced in a while (thanks to Steve )

@ Germain (The5thHorseman): thanks for your comment. I also tried to get hands on that magazine from Daniel's photos, but had no luck. Today I couldn't resist Steve's nice resin magazines any longer . Happy to move on with the build now. @ Vern (TK Bondservnt 2392): not sure if I got you right. What exactly is the divot I should remove? @ Steve (gazmosis): sorry, got no idea what you mean with that last comment?!

Hi Tim, was wondering how we can be online at the same time (because of the 6 hrs difference) and just noticed it is 2:40 in the morning. Ooops . I started preparing the next update for this build and forgot about the time. Hey, congratulations to your paint work - or as somebody else once said: you've taken your first step into a larger world . I also began painting and after a short while it was a lot of fun. Let's keep fingers crossed...

Update #07 Sorry, still no paint this time . But I can finally update the correction of the magazine. To get it to the slightly bigger dimensions (as Daniel / DarthChridan showed in his photos), three sides were covered with 1mm ABS plastic sheets. Oh my god, why haven't I found Steve's offer earlier to save myself from all this...?! Anyway, the slightly arched top plate (yes, the one with the "Gutenberg letters") got sanded down to be straight . Cut a new top cover out of a 1mm cable duct and rounded the edges with a standard iron for clothes. Then the side covers got cut. Did some trimming and sanding, but the side covers looked simply bad. It was clearly visible they were just attached onto the original surface. So I enlarged all cut outs, glued the white plastic onto the resin magazine, filled the cut outs with "green stuff" and used a set of key files to make similar imprints. The mag is now thicker and like on the real one, you can see where the two pieces of "metal" join together (front view). On the rear side this gap was filled, as it represents the bent metal. Excess from the green stuff was simply cut away from the sides. Then it got primed, sanded and the 5,5mm hole (for the 5mm LED) got drilled again. Finally it received the same "Gutenberg letters" as the first version. As a consequence to the bigger magazine, the walls of the magazine port had to be thinned out. Nice, that was on my list anyway. And while doing this, it also received a second screw and a metal pin for additional stabilization. The metal pins were then also added to some other parts. And the locking mechanism in the end cap got improved. But I don't get Steve's magazine offer out of my head. And as I am not 100% happy with this result, it might get changed at a laaaaater point. First I want to get this blaster done. It can then still become upgraded... If there will be paint in the next update? Ouh, aaaahm, well - we will soon know Have a nice weekend all and thanks again for reading and following

Hi Tim, that 'monocular' is really a nice find - especially as it contains both of the required lenses at such a good price! In my opinion you can start priming your build, as the power cylinders can be added later at any time. I have the same problem finding the correct nuts and bolts and have therefore continued my build and plan to add these later. According to my research there were some blasters in ANH without the power cylinders, too. Regarding the bolt and charging lever: You have assembled it outside of the blaster with a screwdriver. It will get a problem to do that inside the blaster. You want to stop the screw from turning around by using some epoxy. Hm, tried the same in my build, but the torque was too much for it and it broke free. I keep fingers crossed and hope it works in your case... Good luck!

Hi Vern, this idea is perfect! Sounds like the correct way to the best result. Unfortunately this takes some time and last night I have already created the numbers like I did it on the magazine port... That reminds me to urgently update this thread...

@ Tim (Dark CMF) and Vern (TK Bondservnt 2392): yes, it is better to engrave this, than pressing hot metal stamps into the resin. Tried that already, but it didn't work (just very slightly on the surface). The person who changed the serial number on the magazine port with green stuff and metal stamps was me (first posting on page 1). I am already thinking about doing it that way again, but this requires much smaller stamps... When I was working on the bolt parts, I already thought about a more realistic (and possibly moveable) solution. To thin out the rear section also came in my mind, but got rejected as I wasn't sure, if that would make the blaster unstable. And I don't have the tools to do this precisely. As I meanwhile started painting (my updates are currently delayed) it is now a bit late to realize this . But it would be very interesting to get some pictures of your suggestion...

Hi Lou, thanks for your kind words . When I bought this resin kit, I was not aware of the nice DVH kit. Saw it later while doing research and thought it might have been the better choice - and it wasn't available at that time. I am currently undecided about a 2nd build. On the one hand I've got so many required small parts left over and still a lot of colour in the spray cans. On the other hand I am really glad when this one is completed and I can get this damn resin dust out of my flat...

@ Germain (The5thHorseman) and Robert (Angevine): I'm absolutely with you. This inner bolt is fantastic . Really nice, but unrealizable with a full resin DoopyDoo's kit . You will always have the 'thicker walls'. Regarding the small numbers in the bolt: already saw them on some ref pics and had a thought about it. Hm, let me see what I can do...

Update #06 - the promised work on the ejection port The diagonal strip got exchanged by a 1mm ABS plastic at the correct place. Roughly transferred the dimensions to the plastic, then cut it with standard scissors and filed it to fit. The finished ABS got warmed up with a heat gun, then bent and was held like that while it cooled down. It perfectly kept in shape for gluing. Next was the extractor - don't know if this is the correct word, but you will surely know what I mean . When viewing reference pictures I realized, this had to be made of two different parts (round and square), being inserted into this bolt to look real. Made the recess with some drills and the Dremel. Luckily found a nice part in a ballpoint pen and cut it through. Damn, that is now the 3rd pen giving away its life for the blaster . Then I took another little piece from my earlier used plastic block and trimmed it in shape. In the last pictures the white round part from the pen has NOT been pushed in! Will do this only when painting is completed, because I will never get it out there. As you meanwhile have surely noticed, I am still looking for some modifications - just to run away from painting the thing . Next update will reveal, if I found some more... Thank you for reading and let me know, what you think of the build so far.

Hi Tim, thanks for your input and suggestion. The thinning of the shields could be a double-edged sword, because it reduces the surface for the glue, so the shields might eventually break off easier. That should be of high interest to anybody who builds for trooping. As my blaster is only for a display, I didn't care about this . The way you've made your counter button usable was exactly what I had in mind in the beginning. But unfortunately my original counter doesn't provide any space for the little spring to rest in. Should have simply bought one with a reset button. However, I will continue thinking of realizing it somehow. Regarding your 2nd posting: Now just imagine what people could reach with their future builds by picking up the best techniques, tricks and modifications from every thread and combining these!!! If anybody is willing to create something like a "Blaster Build Manual" as a common source, containing all the information which is spread around, graphics and useful inputs, then I would be available to assist with setting that up! Sure, this would definitely cause a few organizing and owning issues for some persons, but I think it would be a benefit to countless more people, as this is a heavily frequented forum and the DoopyDoo's resin kit is also chosen very often. That would avoid so many mistakes before even being made... Hm, it is just an idea... Edit: 15 months later this idea became reality and the result can be found at the FISD E-11 Blaster Reference

Thank you Daniel . Wait until you see my ejection port in the next update (hopefully soon) ...