ZeroRoom

I'm sure you can dry your tears on your new Si-Man lid! (Damn you build a good lid though sir no matter the maker...)

Haha! Just happened to be drawing on my iPad at the right moment...

You could easily trim this much off without it being at all noticeable while on:

OK Ladies and Gentlemen we finally have the finished templates and blueprints for the folding stock. I'm going to say right out of the gate - these templates are NOT for a fully functional folding stock, but you can trust my nervous breakdown that I've busted a hump to get these dims as spot on as can be expected for an accurate appearance. In fact I'd go so far as to say that with a little ingenuity and some mechanical skill you could actually make a folding stock if you tweaked and customised these plans. If you assembled it with rivets it would certainly fold - just not in a spring loaded way like the real thing. So why have I done it this way? I realised after a long while that as accurate as I could be in the computer I was never going to get something as fiddly and mechanical as the spring mechanism to work without actually building a real practical model. I haven't given up, and I do intend to do this but let's call these plans version1.0 and get something accurate and useable out there. The other consideration was that this had to be buildable by your average trooper who is not a machine smith or watch maker. Things like press fit bearing rails are beyond the capabilities of most backyard prop makers so I've left the actual assembly method up the individual. These dimensions are hyper accurate but will work for a simple glue job static stock all the way to an actionable folding stock if you have the skills. One thing I can guarantee - it will look like the real deal. By the way Lichtbringer - your dims were so accurate (to two decimal places) that I rounded some to 1 decimal place just to make it a tad easier for the home builder to pull off. Also - not all parts of the stock can be templated as such (the tube inside for example) for these parts I have provided diagrams and dimensions for use in conjubction with the templates. The folding stock blueprints are in two parts. The various assembly parts and fiddly bits: And the arms: You can see by this exploded diagram illustration I've been drawing as each part is completed that we only have the end cap, magazine and grip exterior left to do now! Woo Hoo!

This way was more fun! Fair question though. When I got the random lot of cast parts it was very random. Only some of the required parts for a pipe build were in the batch, some parts had doubles, some parts singles. So I figured with the doubles I could build two new blasters - one ANH and one ESB. I got the parts for such a ridiculous bargain I was determined that I would make all remaining parts myself and not spend any money on 'off the shelf' parts. Don't buy it if you can make it has been a lifelong habit I suppose I could have offered someone a swap but since the M-19 is pretty rare and the M-38 pretty common I doubt there'd be any takers. Besides this mod was so easy to do - why wait?

So I ended up inheriting a random assortment of cast Sterling parts and it just so happened that I got two different M-38 scopes in the lot, one 1943 M-38 (or possibly M-40) and one 1942 M-38: 1943 1942 Since the 1943 is the more common model for ANH blasters, I thought I'd have a shot at converting the 1942 into an M-19 for use on an ESB blaster build. This mod turned out to be really easy and effective so I thought I'd share it here. The first thing I did was bring this image of both scope styles into photoshop to measure the correct amount of material to remove to make the shorter M-19: Then I laid a semi transparent version of the M-38 over the top of the M-19 and sliced it up into sections to make the right parts fit. Then I dragged the chopped up parts back over to whence they came and it was easy to see what sections of the M-38 would need to be removed to turn it into an M-19. Lo and behold I discovered a wee problem here: the M-19 has a thinner 'lens cap' on the larger lens than the M-38, but - if I cut the lens cap down to the right width I'd end up with the entire scope too short. I decided to cut my losses and leave it alone. Then I marked up my casting with a pencil as per the photoshop file: Now, I knew the sections needed to be cut very straight since they were going to stuck back together, and any lopsided cutting could lead to a bent or droopy looking sight. Nobody wants a droopy scope now do they? So I opted for a mitre saw to cut the slices. However, this came with it's own set of problems. Firstly, obviously the resin is extremely soft. So I changed out my wood blade for a fine tooth plastic and metal blade. Naturally a hacksaw blade would have been even better but, again, I didn't trust free hand sawing. The other issue was that the mitre saw wasn't intended to cut such small or odd shaped objects. As a result, the clamps didn't fit to hold the scope in place while I sawed. So I had to attach an external clamp which meant undoing it and redoing it on every cut - which was a PITA but whatchya gonna do? Luckily the resin pour funnels were still on the casting so I knew I had a perfectly straight edge to line up against the guides. Thankfully the resin cut like butter, so the extra time messing about with the clamp was made up for. Cut slowly and gently here, especially since you'll still need to steady the scope with your other hand. Once I'd sliced up the loaf of scope toast, I ended up with this: Of course once I'd cut the smaller lens in half I ended up with a flat disc, so I had to drill the hole back out. I just did this with the old trick of progressively larger drill bits. I put the first few drill bits in my dremel just to make it easier to be gentle and not risk cracking the resin. After that I finished it all of with a grinding bit on the dremel until the hole was as big as it needed to be but had a slight funnel shape. I didn't want the edge to have that 'just sliced in half' look either so I bevelled the edges with the dremel. Be careful here - the temptation is to go too far as you get perfectionistic over every little dimple. I didn't want to end up with none of it left however, so I opted to write any asymmetry or imperfections off as that Pre loved hand crafted look that we all know and love from the OT Then I sanded the facing surfaces a little with some 180 grit and broke out the ol' E6000. Clamped the relevant bits together and left it to cure. 24 hours later (or 12 Kropogs in Imperial measurements) I had a very solid piece that looked like this: Of course the glaring issue here is the massive drop between the two parts of different sizes. Nothing a few more minutes with the dremel, followed by a little hand sanding couldn't fix: Be aware: This produces (as Darth Aloha would say) a crapton of resin dust. So if you're a pansy wear a mask and glasses. I'm still picking pieces of resin dust out of my eyes. On the upside - now it's starting to look like an M-19 The next step was to get the blended look where the front section meets the 'legs', as on a real M-19. Here comes my favorite magic cure-all Plasti-Bond! (I think our US brothers call it Bondo). I'm going to use it to mould the curve into the leg. The trick here is, once you've mixed your Plasti-Bond let it cure for a short moment BEFORE using it. This lets it part set to a putty like consistency, more like clay, making it easier to actually mold with. Be careful though - the curing time is exponential, so once it gets to this consistency you only have a few moments to work with it. Do not try to do both sides at the same time. Do one side, wait mix up a new batch and do the other side. Also do not get the Plasti-Bond on the brand new jeans your wife just bought you. Trust me on this one A bit more sanding to perfect the shape (and remove the pesky little bits that insist on getting on parts they're not supposed to) and we're getting there... I put a coat of brass paint on so that I can scratch up the black layer for a bit of weathering and voila! An M-19 scope: Then I was struck by the nagging feeling that something was missing. Dammit! An M-19 has a focus knob (at least that's what I think I think it is). Luckily I happen to have this bit I sawed off the earlier: Seems like just the thing for a focus knob. Looks just like it  Except I'm a fool and in my enthusiasm I already sprayed the brass undercoat... Nothing to be done except to wait for the paint to dry, sand it back and get the focus knob attached. I've got a dinner to get to though, so I guess this part of the thread will have to wait. Stay tuned....

Looking at StarWarsHelmets.com I began pondering the Vocoder paint detail differences between ANH and ESB. I know there's no consistency across the board from helmet to helmet in terms of paint detail anyway but there does seem to be a general shape difference. If you look at the Brian R helmet and the SFS helmet the Vocoder is sort of tall and skinny, with the centre three bars taller than the others, the next outer two shorter and the outermost very short. Brian R helmet: Set for stun helmet: The ESB vocoders on the other hand are wider less 'stepped'. The general shape is more blob like Patch back helmet: John Mollo Helmet I was about to paint my ESB lid with the stepped style Vocoder, but now I'm wonder whether this doesn't appear on any ESB lids? Has anyone else noticed a general difference? More importantly does It have any effect on the CRL or EIB and Centurion submissions? (I'd rather use the stepped Vocoder style, but still want to put my ESB up for EI) What do you guys think? Am I getting too fussy?

Also I would recommend measuring down from the top of the canvas belt the exact centre (on the vertical and mark your dot there on the line you penciled. Then do the same on the plastic from the Borromini of the tape down since the tape is the same as the top of the belt. You'll get the dot in the exact same spot that way and you can make your holes separately instead of trying to hold the belt on the ab and drill through both at once.

Those blaster holes look brilliant! So convincing I'll have to remember that technique. You say that you made those boots? From scratch? Any progress pics of that? (by the way - you have an awesome name )

Thanks Rob. C'mon people - these two aren't questions for the experts, we need everyone's opinion!

Too late she cried! The lightbox code was a short lived feature following the upgrade. It has since been removed due to popular demand. The thing just got too many complaints. People didn't enjoy having the images pop up and block their screens and worse still it entirely disabled the ability to right click and copy the images in firefox and chrome. You couldn't do drag and drop copies either because if you clicked on the image it just went into pop up mode. If you want to see the image full size it's probably best just to use the Open Image In New Window command. So long story short - I don't think we'll be bringing it back any time soon!

You are a brave man indeed but wow that's effective. Who'd have thought? Weathering your armor by actually weathering it!

There's a couple of question I put out for opinions on I haven't got answers back for yet. Just bumping them so I can get the lay of the land before I go further. First One: And second one:

Silver looks good but this has me confused: But you've got the counter and cylinders still on there?

This is coming together very nicely. Well done sir. Did hollow out the front sight or is it already like that?

You got it - the eternal web designers struggle, what is the minimum screen width I can get away with! Personally I can't wait til it's 1920 Reception centre etc has to take priority, but sure we can look into it.

Eric - you do not have a faulty memory. In fact, not only did IPB used to resize images, it still does! It's just that the black box doesn't appear around them any more. If you shrink your window width you will see that the images shrink with it up until the window is about 800px wide. Obviously they won't enlarge but they are shrinking. If your monitor is smaller than 800px wide they won't look resized to fit, but there's not many of them around these days...

Shoulder bells look just fine to me. In fact the whole kits looks top notch!

Here's a pic from tkrestonva's build thread showing a comparison of RT-Mod to AM. RT-Mod on top AM on the bottom:

@ Sam - That's just too weird a coincidence @ Mark - thanks for that! As always you're a scholar and a gentleman. So I've (finally) completed the Mag Housing template. I went with providing the full folding template rather than 'slabs', and it's been measured and engineered to work with a 2mm thick substrate. What do people think re: long or short magazine? Go the long, for accuracy, and leave the length option to the builder? Assume that most people using this will be building E-11's and just go short? Let us know!

Most PVC pipe has a 2-3pm wall thickness so it should be ok. The biggest part of the sterling 'guts' is the bolt which is 33mm OD so it should be fine for a PVC tube. sskunky just posted full dims for the spring set up in the sterling templates thread we've got going (can't post URL because I'm on my phone right now) but check and compare.

I'm not personally familiar, but I do know it derives from the TE lineage so I'd say it's the same fit. Paul actually owns both so let's see if he chimes in!

So the wall thickness of the doopy doo's kit is 15mm? That's huge!

If the doopy doo's ID allows for it I say do it for sure!

If I were you at that size I would definitely go with kits like TE2, AP or TM. TM being super accurate and TE2 or AP being screen derived, all are already leaning toward the slender smaller trooper. AM would take soooooo much trimming to get to your size. All the info indicates that the average on screen TK was 5'10"-11" and slim so take advantage of the fact that you can go screen accurate. You'll still need to do some trimming Mark Hammill style but not anything like you'd need to do with AM. Hope this helps