ZeroRoom

Sweet Crisis quickly and easily averted! Can't wait to see it come together.

Ha ha! I know the feeling. Rest assured this looking GREAT despite your concerns. As to suggestions how fine (spray area wise) will your media blaster go? If you can fine point control on it I'd look at it as two options: 1. Do like you said - strip right back and start the receiver again. A P.I.T.A but it'll scratch that OCD itch 2. Actually use the media blaster in a controlled 'airbrush' type way to create deliberate weathering in degrees to your satisfaction on the rest of the gun. The cocking lever slot isn't looking MASSIVELY weathered there considering it takes constant, repetitive sliding of the cocking handle when in use. It's not so much that you couldn't choose from here to do subtle weathering or heavy weathering. Personally I like the weathered look but that's all about person preference. On a different note - what you've done so far is awesome. It's production line E-11 quality

Damn you're moving fast. And smoothly. Keep up the good work!

OH. MY. GOD. I can't believe all this happened while I was AWOL! I can't believe you managed to discover those (heretofore unknown) vent slits! I can't believe you zinc plate them! I can't believe the original part was labelled CP30! I can't believe only ONE joke was made about that! Generally speaking I can't believe what I'm reading. This is truly amazing Andy and you should be soooo proud. What you (and the other Andy and Marv and others who chimed in here) have done has single handedly advanced the cause of prop replication, accurate costuming AND Star Wars fandom ALL AT THE SAME TIME!! It's genuinely mind blowing. Short of sneaking into the Archives and prying the real thing off I don't think it would be possible to get any more accurate a Power Cylinder build. Truth be told, even if you found the exact guy who built the E-11 props he'd probably know less about this than you do. He would most likely say "I don't know man, we just picked up this stuff from the junk pile and glued it on."

I'm on it!

Haha! See PM incoming!

Truly beautiful sir

Yes there is! Go out and buy some 18 gauge wire - that is the correct wire gauge for the original Sterling springs and I've yet to come across anyone who's found a ready made spring in that gauge easily available. Coat hanger wire is often referenced but you are right - it is just too 'hard' to wrap properly and even those with the determination to do it usually get bodgy results. Then hand wrap the coil around a piece of pipe the exact same width as the *smaller* part of the bolt i.e. this part: And make sure you get the measurements correct which is 210mm when uncontracted with a gap between each coil of approximately 13mm. Sskunky's amazing photos with measurements for the spring can be found on this page. I found the 18 gauge wire strong but easy enough to form and it holds its shape well. Check my build again if you want to see how I made my bolt able to be cocked and slam forward with a pull of the trigger. I basically stole the functioning of the mechanism right off the real Sterling with details found in the classic "Guns of Dagenham" book which is seriously everything you need to know about the gun. Highly recommended if you can find it at a decent price.

The cool thing about making a working catch for the end cap is that you can actually field strip your sterling completely and accurately

Yes to both! Looking awesome. Glad you found those links useful too!

Oh that weathering is seriously sexy! So impressive

That's looking so good Bryan! Nice work subbing in the window screen on the grip texture. Very precise work on the folding stock too - Looks great. Isn't it so much more satisfying to a scratch build?

The main thing with painting resin is just to make sure the parts are clean and washed (even safer with a detergent of some kind). It's mainly the traces of mold release agent that mess with paint on resin. Rustoleum Plastic Primer or even a Testors primer or something similar from a model shop will do you just fine. Rustoleum offers filler primers that will smooth out your finish and help hide any imperfections which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how "battle used" you want your blaster to appear, whereas the Testors etc are for perfect smooth styrene model kits etc. so they don't offer that rock hard filler layer and they'll show nearly every scratch and ding.

I would definitely say AP or CAP would do you fine - don't be scared by the assembly. Follow the many great threads on here as guides for help and just go slow. It's easier than you think! If you are really worried you can always track down a Master Replica's helmet. They're not exactly accurate being that they are idealised to be symmetrical and the ears are huge but it requires you to do only few small mods to the the teeth and ears etc to be passable rather than a full build. Check out some of the threads on modding a MR Lid and see what you think. If worse comes to worse find your nearest squad and find out when there's an armour party scheduled (or organise your own!) Then there plenty of experienced hands on deck to help you put any style lid together.

Great start Rustmonkey! I like the touch with modding the power cylinders. Smart move. Looking forward to more!

God... Troopers can't even avoid blasts from Nerf Guns... Serious retraining needed by the Empire. Still at least it looks like the armour holds up better to Nerf Suckers than blaster bolts Great pics!

Absolutely beautiful. Particular nice paintwork on details like the ears.

Beautiful work on the weathering! You've got to have that good realistic weathering in my opinion to add that last boost of realism and you have done it so well. Great job!

What have I been missing out on?! This is absolutely mind blowing work Aaron! You're a skill maniac. You've basically perfectly rebuilt a real Sterling and the tolerances between the kit parts and your own are incredible. You've definitely set a new standard. If I were you I'd be flying over to England right now for an armorers gig on Ep VII.

This is just brilliant, You're pwning this dude, way to go.

We're all back! It's like a great reunion! Ready for some ideas and loads of stuff to reply to! So good to be back!

It's been so long I don't even recognise myself anymore! I've been meaning to come back properly for so long but life over the last few years has been... well life has been. Still avidly devouring the newsletter and I see I have a pile of PM's to catch up on so I'd better get to that but I need me some FISD action! Let's get reading the thousands of threads I've been missing out on hey? Happy to back, Lucas

You are a MASTER dude. We have got to hang out for a blaster building party...

WOW! I missed this thread during my absence and I'm sorry I did! Nice work Glen - I love what you did with the electronics, just amazing. What an awesome build Perth - World capital of blasters!

I always wondered where you got that great Avatar...