revlimiter

The Organa Obliterator. The Princess Punisher. The Senator Silencer. The Royalty Reducer. and my personal favorite, The Leia Leveller. My resin QuestDesign broke half of the sight guard randomly on a troop and I found myself on the blasterfactory website buying a metal one to fix the damage. It happened to be during their May 4th sale. They happened to have "ESB E11 kits" on sale with a VERY nice discount, so I ended up with one. I was having a bad day and had the extra cash. A 3rd E-11 became mine. I didn't want another E-11. I'm happy with my Hyperfirm and my QD. But sometimes we just gotta take life as it comes and make space for a new build. Here's the Warmachine after an initial assembly to see how everything fits together. It's just lovely. And surprisingly not too heavy. Fully built, it's about the same weight as my resin QD with the original Stirling stock attached. So anyways, I built this thing and was just smitten. It's such a lovely blaster. I had to build it into something fun, so I started researching and discovered that Mr No-Stripes had an E11 with an M19 scope. A plan formed. The kit came with the M19 scope and T-tracks. I then placed another order for the stuff I was missing - the clip, Hengstler, and power cylinders. I've also got an original Hengstler 400 on the way from @T-Jay. The original counter may get used in another project since I really don't wanna hack it up for the BlastFX, but it'll be really nice to have on hand. And of course I bought the BlastFX kit. I came across a video of a Warmachine E-11 with the kit installed and went completely gaga. No way to not buy it as well. It should be in my hands in 12-16 weeks. So this is gonna be a loooonnnng build. The end is not in sight. Repeat, the end is not in sight. Back to Mr No Stripes. Just look at him. Isn't he heroic? Courageous? A fine figure of a trooper? You can see a lot of details in that above shot thanks to the 4K resolution. His bolt is weathered pretty dark. He's got the chip on top of the scope. There's a shiny rivet on the rear sight. And there are SCRAGGLY WIRES sticking out of his counter and going forward toward the power cylinder. In this shot we can see a bit of key detail - wear on the front power cylinder edges. Very very shiny wear. And also just the bare hint of those scraggly wires. And of course, the hero shot. If the TKs had just stunned Han, Luke, and Chewie in the hanger wouldn't the movie have basically ended right there? But I digress. After sticking my toe into the research and feeling how nice the water was, I went a little deeper. Not much, but into the next scene where Leia is escorted to Vader. Paying careful attention, I was like "oh yes, there's our hero Mr No-Stripes standing behind her right shoulder with his M19 scope." only to be disappointed to see that the trooper in question DID indeed have stripes in about 3 frames of the film. You can just barely see it, but he's a different trooper. Yet it's clearly the same gun. CLEARLY. M19? Check Chip on scope? Check Wear on power cylinders? Check Counter present? Check SCRAGGLY WIRES?!?!?! Check! I did an annotation. The amount of detail that is clearly visible is just outstanding. Love the 4K res screenshots! It even shows that front folding stock greeblie that @justjoseph63 makes. The socket on top of the scope is also really interesting. It looks really tall and if you have a clear enough screen, you can see a bit of separation between the base and the top - I think a chip is actually installed in the socket. So this is the foundation for my entire build - the theory that Mr No Stripes gun and The Escort gun are in fact the same gun. Our hero might not have been carrying it in this particular scene, but it reeeeeaaaaalllllllly looks like the same weapon. It may not be a correct theory, but it sure charges up my imagination and it's the replica blaster that I want to build. And there's a ton of good views of this particular E-11. Combine these pix with the bolt-side view and front view in the hands of Mr No-Stripes and that's about the most complete showing of a prop that a fan can hope for. But that's not all! @PlayfulWolfCub actually created his own replica of this beautiful blaster during his power cylinder production and research. I've borrowed the photos from his PDF. Having this reference from one of the TK Detail Masters is the icing on top. It's gonna be extremely valuable to have as a guide for those slightly blurry parts like the scraggly wires. Anyways, that's my project. I'm excited about this build! (please don't burst my bubble and tell me they're not the same gun)

Dang, beautiful spaces for the both of you! My displays are all Transformers and Hot Wheels. Not enough TK bits around yet. Congrats on the unpacking and beautiful room Joseph!

I ended up having to cut the corners after gluing cover strips down on several of my pieces. A straight razor blade works extremely well. It's small enough that you can't really apply a ton of force, so you can easily get the angles cut without harming (or sometimes even touching) the armor beneath.

Our troops here are also exactly as Glen describes - VERY very few official LFL events and our garrison is not strict about such items. In the ~8 months that I've been trooping we've had one single LFL event that was limited to 5 troopers and I didn't volunteer for quickly enough. For official troops, we're expected to remove any and all non-canon items and wear our top spec gear. So, for example, the rubber gloves come out and the pilots gloves get put away. On all other local troops, we're encouraged to build and bring fun props like this that help engagement with the public. More than 50% of our local troops are non-blaster, which leaves us TKs empty handed. These binocs help fill those empty hands. One of our most popular troopers is a baby Yoda toy held by a Rebels Scout (people go crazy for Grogu here). Again, as I said, it's a laid back garrison. Others would probably not allow such props to be carried. Sorry if this project offended you Lluis.

Thanks Glen! Yeah, little screens would be awesome and make for an amazing prop. I wonder if a budget rear view mirror camera retrofit kit would work for that? I say "budget" because it might have a screen small enough to fit inside.

A few months ago, I got a set of Electrobinocs from @justjoseph63 and have been extremely pleased with them. But... well... I wanted them to DO something. I got the idea to turn them into Bluetooth speakers so they could play the TK Chatter or some music during non-blaster troops. And, fair warning, this is now a finished project. This won't be an ongoing build. I've wasn't even sure I could make this work, so I didn't post up a build thread for the binocs. I didn't wanna be defeated by this little hunk of plastic. This was my first step - hacking open the binocs. I sliced it at the rear intersection as it seemed like the most logical place. I then cut off the lens and drilled a hole in the (extremely thick) resin. Joseph doesn't mess around in the creation of these guys. The resin is VERY thick front and rear. Walls have some decent thickness too. It can face some serious action without being damaged. You know, aside from being hacked up. The front 3/4 is attached to the back eyepieces with 3 screws and a thick layer of glue all around. I used a dremel cutoff wheel to saw it free. I wanted to use the top knob as the volume control, so off it came. It was held in place by a small screw. I bought this little bluetooth amp off amazon... and destroyed it trying to modify the buttons to be remote. I would not suggest anyone get this amp if you want to modify it. I'm pretty good with electronics and regularly solder gauge clusters back together for my day job. Relocating knobs and switches bricked this little guy bad. Recovery wasn't possible. Then I happened across this Bluetooth speaker KIT on Parts Express. It was mentioned offhandedly in a youtube vid that didn't really have anything to do with the project. At the time of this writing, the kit is about $44USD. Check it out on Parts Express. I didn't need all of the parts, expecially the 2.5" speakers, but the kit was much cheaper than buying the parts individually. Separately, the board and wires are more expensive than the whole kit. I also bought the optional battery board and batteries to allow the board to play without being plugged in. A total of about $66USD. I used two of these tiny 1.5" speaker drivers (coincidentally also Dayton) as they juuuust fit into the binocs. If anyone out there decides to use these parts for their own project, I'd highly suggest buying an extra or two of the 2.1mm DC barrel jack. They're quite delicate and I had to buy a spare. One hole wasn't gonna cut it, so I printed a new sensor array in ABS and sliced off the molded one. Not a bad fit! And not a bad finish after a bit of extra sanding. The volume knob board required a very very thin wall to be installed into. So much grinding! And the speaker fit pretty well in the far left of the binoc housing, but not so well toward the right. More grinding. My dremel extension handle got some action. The tiny speakers needed to be stood away from the front holes to allow them to work well. My local Ace Hardware hand 1/4" spacers and associated tiny screws to enable mounting. I believe each of the speakers uses 3 screws to mount. Drilling tiny holes in a deep housing isn't the easiest thing. This extension made it possible. And let me just apologize right here for the severe lack of build progress photos I took. I had roadblocks at like every step of this project. The drill bit extension for example. Every time I hit a dead end and had to wait another week for more parts from amazon, I was uncertain if this thing would ever get finished... so I didn't take many in-progress photos. I think this pic was of the nose and sensor being glued on for the first time in about 2 months. I also placed speaker cloth in each with hot glue. One of the very few pix I took showing the inner parts placement. It's TIGHT in there. Speakers at the very front and just a tiny bit of space between the back of them and the front edge of those huge batteries. The batteries are screwed on in the very front and have some 50lb double sided mounting tape holding them in place in the back. The extra speaker wire and wire bundle for that volume knob are zip tied and stowed to the right side. The main Bluetooth board has barely enough space to be flipped and live right above the batteries. I used the top center button between the viewports as the power switch. The bottom two hide some screws. The bluetooth blue LED indicators light up the viewports. And the wires are indeed everywhere. I tried to tidy them before screwing the two halves together, but was only medium successful. All of the parts hide behind a printed acrylic panel. And here we are! That's a finished and re-assembled Electrobinoculars!!! It doesn't have the front lens anymore, but the opened up sensor array sorta makes up for that lack of magic. I really like the look of that sensor array. Non-cannon LED pilot light are pretty easy to overlook. The little green one comes on when the unit is charging. Red is power. The two things above the power & green LED are my original attempt at power and line in. They didn't go well. They're basically tiny speaker ports now. Power on and blue Bluetooth lights lit. Note the top button - it sticks out slightly and is a latching SPST push button switch. I found a 6mm switch that would fit inside the little button housing. The only downside of this button is that it can spin a bit when pressed. That's just the nature of the switch I used. It's installed tightly, just the button itself that can spin a little. This is VERY hard to see IRL, but it looks pretty cool in the photo. I did a holofoil desert scene with a little sandcrawler. At least it hides the wiring. And here it is!! A working demo vid. I can't wait to troop with it.

While all of these are quality troops, that Zoo one... I'm jealous. As a trooper who loves antics, that's just about the perfect trooping location.

Truly beautiful work!! And that wall. Inspirational!

Looking good trooper! Congrats!!! Gonna go for EIB next?

congrats!!! Let the plastic hacking begin!

5/15/22 - ABQ Ambulance 50th Anniversary Celebration 14th troop for TK-89400, 4th troop for CDZ-5435 This was a last minute troop for me as I had to work. Not many signed up and I wanted to give some paramedics the TK smile (or frown rather). And my daughter wanted to troop, which always makes my day. The two Jawas had waaayyy more fun than the two TKs. I admit to being a little jealous. Though the white armor was much cooler in the 95* weather than the brown robes. Can you see that fatherly pride? Peak jawa antics!! This may have been better than TK-Jack and TB-Rose the day before.

Troop 13 on Saturday the 14th - UNM Children's Hospital Troop This was the first Children's Hospital troop in 2.5 years for ANY group. They called the 501st first. All future troops for all groups including us depend on our conduct and behavior. No pressure at all. I think we did okay. We visited non-ICU rooms, brightened up nurse days, posed for pix, and handed out some tiny gifts. We stayed away from upset kids and nurses who were afraid of troopers. We were model soldiers. Elevator selfies are required. There's a LOT more than four lights. And then we got up to the rooftop play area which we had to ourselves. (That's me kneeling.) Peak troop antics!! I'm flying Jack! (I'm Jack)

A thing of beauty!

I got my blaster finished about 3 weeks ago. I didn't post because I managed to lose the pix... heh. I uploaded them to the wrong folder. Anyways, here we go! Both LEDs glued to the muzzle with their stock holder. I considered some sort of light pipe to make the whole barrel light up, but this method was easiest and brightest. The Blaster Factory handle doesn't actually have clearance to allow the rotary switch to work in stock condition. All of the pins make contact with the inside of the housing. I dremeled the flat side like crazy (as seen above) and created just enough clearance to allow the selector to work. This was the first photo of my blaster actually blasting! It might not look like much, but that blaster makes pew-pew noises! I then shortened the wires up, built up the handle, and sealed the brain inside a protective wad of electrical tape. It lives just behind the bolt cover. I drilled and hollowed the back end of the blaster enough to allow the speaker and battery pack to fit. It pressure fits in there nicely, yet is easy to pull out for battery changes. The speaker is wonderfully loud in the back of the blaster. well... sorta. More on that in a sec. AAA battery pack from a flashlight. One of the many things I borrowed from Tino's excellent Lucky #11 build. This is the same voltage as the factory battery pack, but much much smaller in form factor. The one downside of this conversion - this was my only real option for battery placement. A small bit of spring was sacrificed. It's barely noticeable to anyone else, and enables fantastic PEW PEW noises, so it's a sacrifice I was willing to make. And then I got everything put back together and put the rear cap on and.... (pew pew). Yes, it was no longer PEW PEW. A lot of the speaker noise was coming out the back of the blaster. With the rear cap in place it was muffled quite a bit. I didn't want to further weaken the blaster by moving the battery farther forward either. So I started looking into tiny speakers. I got these tiny 20mm speakers off amazon which fit PERFECTLY in the 20mm recess inside the Quest Design blaster. I wired it inline with the factory speaker. There's no extra voltage going anywhere, so no extra sound is produced. I'm just splitting the amount of sound between the two speakers. The speaker goes nicely in the front of the barrel. It is also FAR less muffled. Noise actually escapes the plastic tube now! I made a decent fitting bolt cover out of thin aluminum sheet and started work on the clearing strip. Having that rear bit still in place let me get the angle right easily. One clearing strip! I then cleaned out the back piece for a metal inlay. BAM! A little glue and I have a metal bolt. It reflects the light so much more nicely than the painted resin. I gave it a little weathering and then... Finished! Again! For now! I'm seriously digging the metal handle and rubber grip. A bit dirty and in need of fresh clearcoat, but it's back together. And WORKING! So tasty. And here's a crappy vid showing it in action.

Sorry to horn in, but isn't that two inner thigh pieces put together? I haven't seen thigh armor that looked symmetrical like that. The outside edge should cover up higher, yes? While the inner edge dips lower for crotch room.

Those suits get worse the closer you look at them. One of the reddit threads had a really high res. You could see such thing as... - The shoulder bridges being held on by white rivets in the middle. - Huuuuuge ab buttons. - ANH style helmets... maybe hero ones? But the whole bucket looks odd. - White trim on the torso edges. That's just scratching the surface.

I highly suggest contacting Mark at Authentic Props (AP) who's also in Canada. My own armor came from him and it's absolutely fantastic. While I did get a kit instead of ready-to-wear, I believe Mark will trim and build a kit to order. He's on the list that Caleb posted right above. I also recommend Quest Design in Canada for your blaster needs. Outstanding quality. They have a website and also sell on etsy.

Looking fantastic! Good luck Georgia!

Congratulations on #100!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the first troop!

I *love* the remnant artwork and have considered doing one myself. I'll be following along on this one eagerly.

Congratulations Dennis!

I saw this a couple days ago on youtube. LOVED it!!! Best unboxing video of all time.

5/6/22 - Tony Hillerman MS Spring Carnival TK Troop #11 This was a troop at a middle school. Outside in a bricked-off courtyard in 92*F heat. It must have been 10* hotter in that courtyard. I was roasting. Not sure how the black armor guys were still standing. It was my first time trooping with a Vader, which was fun. But the kids could have cared less that we were there. Far less. They made their unhappy feelings known the whole time. But... well... they can't all be good troops, right? Onto the next troop. ..... which was later that night! 5/6/22 - Wine and Wishes Benefit TK Troop #12 - my first double troop day. This one was an auction benefit for Make a Wish. We were there to help celebrate a recent M-a-W which sent a brave local kid to the Disney Starcruiser. My first Chewie troop. At our Posts. Lined up to escort the young Jedi TK up to the stage. (I'm not sure of rules showing kid's faces, so I chose to protect identities.) Troopers get nomnoms too. TB and TK platonic relationships are complex and beautiful.

Wow, the subtle changes really transform that bucket. It looks incredible now! Fight the urge to redo