Vette11

Now for the final set of pictures of the day. I mentioned before about the attempt to make my own D-ring and posted photos of it. I have gone to a bigger ring and did not cut it at all. i used my vice to flatten it out some and it came out very well. I do realize that it is not correct as the D-ring should be more rectangular but truthfully I actually like it. I am posting the pics of the Ring placed in the end cap. it has been glued and painted with the dark steel paint. one thing I have noticed is that it moves around a lot. I think I will be able to live with it but if it gets to annoying I will find a way to quiet it down.

in the last picture above of both the rail and the bracket, the bracket pictured was my 1st attempt and it is incorrect b/c it was bent in the wrong place. the picture of the one I am holding is the correct one. I am very happy with how both turned out.

Although they are not pictured, the trigger and charging bold handle have also been painted with the dark steel color. so while the paint is drying I decided to try once again to make my own scope rail and H bracket. following Tim and using a piece of cardboard as a template I was able to make both the rail and the bracket. I am very pleased with how they turned out. I used pieces of brass that I found at a hobby shop near my office. I went through 19 dremmel cutting discs to get it done but it is done. you can see some of the fragments from the discs in some of the above photos. As I have said before I will not be making any modifications to the scope with the exception of maybe putting in a real lense in the rear but that will be completed at a future date. as for the counter, the only thing I have done is to grind down the mold of the window. I will be adding my own numbers at some point in the future but don't know when that will be done. neither the scope nor the counter have been painted as of yet as I am still deciding on how/when to proceed on them.

now that the gun is mostly assembled, I decided it was time to paint. I went with a Metallic Dark steel for the base coat as you can see in the picture of the can. the inner parts (barrel, charging bolt and spring) were all painted with a Flat Iron color, the same as used by Tim. I looked at various colors and felt that those two were the best for starters. the dark steel looks absolutely outstanding and I wish I could just leave the e11 that color. the final coat will be Hammered black with certain parts being just a flat black. (at least that is what I think for now, I may change my mind once I see the two together on the pieces). I have also decided at this point to not weather the e11 but that is subject to change as well. I am thinking that the weathering will occur naturally with handling during troops, by the kids etc. As always I am open to suggestions and with that being said here are the pics

Thanks to Steve (gazmosis) I was able to acquire the correct nuts/bolts for the power cylinder and hengstler counter. you can see the power cylnders have been modified with the new screws and nuts. special thanks to Steve.

Then came assembly. I was so excited about this part. I was not able to put a pin into the front sight b/c I had previously sanded the bottom so thin. I decided to use the e6000 on the front sight but when I tried to put rubber bands around it to hold it in place it started sliding all over the place and finally settled into a place that was way off center. no matter how many times I tried to readjust the bands it kept getting pulled off center. eventually I just put some more e6000 on in it, centered it and left it in place with no bands. I let it dry for the required 24 hours and it came out good. it is centered and solid. after my difficulty with getting the front sight in place I decided that I would switch to a faster glue. I purchased Loctite superglue gel. this one sets in about 10 seconds so it gave me time to make sure everything was in place and where I wanted it. I may have mentioned before that my patience is lacking - this is evidence of that...lol these next pictures are of the e11 being assembled.

Next up.... in reviewing some other builds I really liked the idea of using pins to hold the various parts onto the barrel. these next photos will reflect the pin placements. I did try to use paper templates but they kept ripping when I would tape them and try to get them off. what I ended up doing was drilling the holes into the pieces and then placing the pins into the pieces. I then took the pieces and dipped the pins into paint and then placed the pieces onto the barrel where they went and the spots to drill were marked by the paint. once I drilled into the spots on the barrel I then placed the piece onto the barrel and checked for fit. I then adjusted the pin height accordingly.

Ok, as promised I have photos to upload. I was able to work on it over the weekend and made great progress. I am currently on the paint stage and have made some changes. I will discuss those as I get to the photos so here we go. as I mentioned before I hollowed out the magazine well and almost went through the wall of the well. I used some testor's epoxy and put it on the walls to try to thicken them up a little bit. in the photo you will see that it is rough on the bottom. I decided not to smooth it out as the magazine still fit good and the bottom of the well would be covered by the magazine. the 2nd photos is the magazine inserted into the well. you can see that it sticks out a little too much but i don't want to go any further into the well for fear of going through the wall. I am happy with it. the magazine has been glued into the well using e-6000 and is solid.

Thanks for all of the input. I haven't been able to get much work done on it lately, with the holidays just around the corner. I have gone to a bigger d-ring and it came out looking much better. I also received a new magazine from gazmosis and I have hollowed out the magazine well to accommodate it. I nearly went through the wall so I have gone as far as I am going to go. I put epoxy on the inner walls to thicken them up a little bit and then I will sand it smooth. I am currently trying to make my own scope rail and h bracket but the first attempts were not so good. The aluminum that I bought isn't strong enough to support the scope without bending. I am going today to buy some brass rails and give those a try. No pictures as of yet to show b/c I was so happy that I was able to get work done on it, I just wanted to work. Photos soon.

That is everything I have done to this point, over the last week. I have to admit I am at a loss for what to do next. I have been reviewing Tim's build thread and have become completely overwhelmed with anxiety at what he did. I am pretty sure I am pretty close to being done with my mods b/c I know I cannot do what Tim did with his scope. the only things I have left are the power cyclinders and the Hengstler counter. I have not decided what mods I am going to make to the counter yet only that I know I want the numbers to look real. I still need to tackle the scope rail and counter bracket and have not decided if I want to try to make one myself using Billhaig's diagram or order one from Evilboy. I think I will try making my own first and see how it comes out, if it is bad I can go the order route. I almost forgot, last night I did make my charging dowell, using the leftover pvc pipe that used for my inner barrel. need to sand it and paint it black and get it ready for the rod. unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the process. it tracks pretty closely to Tim's. near as I can figure, I am pretty close to assembly stage for some of the parts, once I make some previously suggested corrections. as always, comments, critiques, suggestions are welcome and thanks to all of those who are helping me along the way.

lastly for today's postings is the d-ring. While shopping at the Depot looking for the screws to hold the folding stock, I found D-rings. these are truly in the shape of a D rather than the rectangular shape that goes on the sterling. I bought one and tried out a modification to see if I could make it work. I am posting the results. I took the D-ring and cut off a little of each end and then put it into the vice to try and flatten it out. it doesn't look to bad when the cap is on it but I am sure it needs to be more square. the one in the picture is a size or 2 to small so I will buy the next 2 sizes up and try again. My question is: once I find the correct size will this modification be acceptable or does it have to be like the ones Karin sells??

next up was the inner barrel and spring. the picture I am posting is of the inner barrel which at this time had been sanded down for painting and the spring which I made out of a coat hangar and drum stick. unfortunately I was moving with the build and forgot to take a picture of the process. the inner barrel has since been painted with a flat black paint. question? does the spring get painted to or is left alone??

Going Back to the barrel. Earlier in the post I may have mentioned that when I was cleaning out the bolt holes for the hex nut heads the epoxy chipped and forced me to do repairs. some of the photos you will see were after I put in the bondo to make the repairs. After I did so and I was sanding everything into shape I was reviewing several build threads and I realized that I did not go far enough down on the left one (if you are looking at it straight on) so I grabbed the drill and went at it again. it actually took out the chipped portions and made it look very nice again. I still had to do the repairs on the right one and with them done everything is looking good and even. the bolt heads have been cut and were glued into place last night. (I was getting anxious and wanted to glue something) once it is painted everything will look good on the barrel.

After a quick break so I could run up to the hobby store near my office and pick up some stuff I need I am back with more.

on to the ammo clip. this is the other piece I am disappointed with. I will post the pictures of what I have done but will note that I have ordered a new updated one from Gazmosis, so the damage done to this one is being corrected. thanks Steve! I started by measuring and marking the position for everything in pencil as Tim did. then came the grinding. I was so nervous to be doing this that my hands were actually shaking. note to anyone following me......if your hands are shaking, wait until they don't or take a sedative before you begin this process. you will see why in the photos. When I started with the word off my hands started jumping around and I could not hold the rotary tool steady. my "off" went sideways considerably and my arrow goes right to the edge of the clip. the letters are very rough and are messy ie: not neat. I also wanted to give it a worn look, but decided that I would scribe the word off 1st and then take the sandpaper to it so that the letters would get some wear too. it wasn't a bad idea, and you may not think that it looks too bad or that it gives it character but I am just not happy with the scribing of the word and arrow. I Also have been unable to find anything that will fill the bearing hole. No place I have been to has the correct size and I even went to a bearing shop! for all of the above reasons I have ordered a replacement from Gazmosis and hopefully will have it by the end of the week. now all I will have to do is sand out the clip holder to make it fit....what can go wrong there? lol