YAHB (Yet Another Hasbro Build)

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Aloha troopers,

 

Yesterday I sent Rob funds for a RT-MOD kit. I can't wait to be the first TK on the Big Island. In the mean time I've been working on my hasbro little by little. I have a folding table in my office full of e-6000 drippings, plastic shavings, glue brushes, sand paper and dremel bits.

 

Even before I picked it up my hasbro at Target I had been reading and reading the hasbro mod threads. Jorran's and Pandatrooper's were a great source of information and inspiration for me. Many mahalos to them and every one else who took the time to write up a hasbro build.

 

When I got the toy home I threw away the best piece of advice from all the build threads. Halve the blaster first. I went a little bonkers and started applying bondo and sanding the lettering off. Everything would have been easier if I had separated the two halves of the gun.

 

Here's what would have been easier if I split it:

 

• Preserving the LED light. I drilled through one of the wires.
  
• Obviously drilling the extra set of holes
  
• Scope rail
  
• Sanding the body smooth
  
• Painting the inside black
  

But alas I didn't, but it went well enough keeping it in tact.

 

This is a tough tool list so far:

 

• Center punch
  
• Drill bits
  
• Imperial unibit
  
• Clamps clamps clamps
  
• Rubber bands
  
• E-6000
  
• Dremel
  
• Foam sanding blocks med/fine
  
• 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper
  
• Bondo
  
• Caliper
  
• Metal ruler
  
• Hand drill
  
• Drill press
  

This is how I drilled holes in a whole blaster.

 

Step 1: Measure where the holes go. Much time was spent with a metal ruler and a caliper measuring the spaces between the existing holes and the new holes. Drawing on a curved surface with a rigid metal ruler was a little silly. I have a small flexible ruler that I could have used but I was so focused it never occurred to me.

 

 

Step 2: Punch holes. I used a center punch to create a landing pad for pilot holes. I was nervous about this but this plastic so forgiving and soft that I barely needed any pressure. I could have made little dents with a dull awl and it would have been just as effective.

 

Step 3: Drill pilot holes. This went really well. I drilled these with a hand drill and I was really satisfied with my accuracy. I used a bit slightly smaller size bit than the smallest diameter of my unibit. This allowed the unibit to center itself in the pilot hole. I didn't use the unibit to drill the holes as the photo below might suggest, it was just the best photos of the holes I took.

 

 

Step 4: Drill holes. I put the gun in my drill press vice padded with some random rubber sheeting. It took a whole bunch of time to make sure that the drill was perpendicular to the tangent of the hole. Tightening the vice I was a little afraid of breaking the fins of the existing "t-track." I suggest getting a metric unibit because the holes in the hasbro aren't imperial.

 

 

Step 5: Be annoyed at yourself now that the LED no longer works

 

The drill press allowed me to go slowly and accurately. It also prevented the bit from wandering when it encountered the material behind the hole in the way that Pandatrooper warned me would make the bit wander. However the holes did not come out as nicely as I wanted. The first hole I drilled is off because I misjudged when the unibit was centered. The force of pulling down on the drill press, the sharpness of the bit, and the softness of the plastic allows the bit to go right in ignoring the pilot hole. The next few holes I was more careful to center the bit. But the last hole... I have no idea what happened. I was rushing I'm sure. Now that I have the stock and all the other crap glued on I can see that no one will notice...but my A double S is still chafed.

 

Crooked end holes (boo!)

 

A few weeks ago the droopy doos kit was sitting on my desk in a box. A coworker (who works in a different office of my company) came in and was playing with my folding stock as he chatted. After he left I looked and I realized that he broke one of the pieces off. I was well teased for being mad at him for breaking my toy gun. It took me a few tries to glue it back together and it came out a little funky. Don't leave your parts around where any doofus can touch and break it.

 

 

Some random clamping

 

This droopy t-track is shorter than the other side. My counter is crooked.

 

Ready for bolt heads

 

The best advice I can give to anyone is to check and double check your parts after you apply clamp pressure. They move and often you can't tell how much when there's a clamp in the way. My scope is a little cockeyed and the counter is a bit askew. I could remove the counter and re-glue but really no one but me will ever notice.

 

I'm thinking of doing another one of these builds just to apply my lessons learned. If I do try this again I think I'm going to get some better t-track. The droopy track is really crappy looking. And the two tracks that came with the kit were two different lengths! Meh.

 

I'll take more photos soon. I only have the D-ring, muzzle bolts and the power cylinders left to glue on. I plan on using one of Karins D-rings by modifying the droopy doo part. I'm leaving the cylinders last because I'm really not sure where to put them. There isn't much room for wires but I'm not sure I want a little bit of it hanging over the edge. The cylinders do look different than other people's build kits. I'm guessing this is MKIII?

 

I'll grab a few more photos as I spend time avoiding my job and sanding plastic.

 

Aloha nui,

 

-Eric

[ZeroRoom[TK]]

Damn fine work so far sir!

[TK_LEPER]

You're a man amongst boys!

[Jorran]

Look at you and all your super-fancy tools!

 

Great work so far!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Thanks for the kind words everyone

 

Does anyone else see the irony of playing with a toy star wars gun for hours a day making me a men among boys?

 

Here's today fun. Getting closer to cleaning and painting. One D-ring away from getting it dust and grime free.

 

I dremeled off the heads to two bolts found in that bin of random hardware that every shop has. No one likes sorting bolts when they're done with a project... no one.

 

Cut off and filed (yes I made lots of sparks next to that O2 bottle in the corner)

 

 

Freshly dremeled socket head screws

 

Socket heads sitting in a bed of E-6000

 

 

I finally just bit the bullet and glued the cylinders on where I thought they looked good. I was spending too much time looking at other hasbro builds to figure out where the best place to glue them was. I was a little too liberal with the E-6000 but it cleans up so easily even when its dry.

 

 

Another lesson learned was to use an exacto knife to cut away the scope rail. I used the dremel for most of it and I managed to ding the crap out of it. After making a huge mess with various dremel bits I spent a very long time filing the jagged plastic away. I might have spent less time and energy if I just slowly cut it away from a halved gun. I may get some putty and try and fill in some of the mess... or just leave it and save my energy for the next hasbro build.

 

 

 

That's all for today. I'm going to try and modify the droopy doo D ring on Monday to accomodate the one I got from Karin.

 

Aloha nui,

 

-Eric

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Well... this thread is turning super pic intensive isn't it? I resized these most recent ones so hopefully it won't take so long to load.

 

I glued my last part onto my hasbro before I clean and paint it. I put one of Karin's D-rings on using the droopy doo hardware. Here's how I did it:

 

This dremel router foot came in handy finally. I installed a spiral bit:

 

 

I cut off the molded D-ring and drew a line across the back of the mount:

 

 

Clamped the thing in a vice and routed a channel:

 

 

 

Insert D-ring

 

 

 

And glue it on:

 

 

Voila!

 

I'll start sanding and then painting later this week.

 

Aloha!

 

-Eric

[BananoPower22[TK]]

Looks good bro, I didn't thought of doing that back when I did my hasbro build

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

All,

 

No real progress to report other than one coat of primer.

 

Once the primer is on I can see every single little imperfection on the gun and droopdoo parts and its driving me batty. There are also globs of glue under the barrel where the folding stock is glued on. Oops! I hadn't noticed that at all. A couple dremel dings seem even bigger now. This means I'm going to spend some extra time weathering my blaster.

 

I paid quite a bit of attention to sanding down the toy itself but not as much with the resin parts. Not only are there tiny pin holes from air bubbles, I should have taken care of some of the more rough parts from the mold.

 

Has anyone had any luck with filling the air bubble holes in the resin?

 

Lesson learned: Sand, fill and generally prep the resin parts before gluing them on the hasbro.

 

Who has a hyperfirm they want to sell?

 

As I was typing this I heard from Rob about my RT-MOD kit. It looks like I may have to wait until late August for my armor. Maybe I'll get the full droopy e-11 kit to keep me occupied. Got any other TK related project suggestions?

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[kaptinkaos]

Looks awesome man! I'm just diggin' into my Hasbro I got today for $20. I am antsy waiting for my Doopy's full E-11 kit and this looks like a fun project, \

 

[darksideemt]

Two things:

1. The kit they just sent me had a D-ring already in it similar to your modified one.

 

2. Do you have to gut your gun prior to doing the conversion or is this just a prefrence?

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Two things:

1. The kit they just sent me had a D-ring already in it similar to your modified one.

 

 

Interesting! The hasbro kit I got had a molded d-ring that I thought looked cheezy. So I plucked it off and put one of Karin's d-rings in.

 

 

2. Do you have to gut your gun prior to doing the conversion or is this just a prefrence?

 

I didn't open mine up, but I wish I had gutted my hasbro first. It would have made modification easier... such as:

• Preserving the LED light. I drilled through one of the wires.
  
• Drilling the extra set of holes evenly
  
• Hallowing the scope rail
  
• Sanding the body smooth including lettering
  
• Painting the inside black
  
• Priming the outside
  

Have you seen either Pandtrooper's build or Jorran's build? They were the largest inspiration for my build... which I need to post more photos of.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[SolderMaster]

Eric, I have the guts from a Hasbro that I am installing the Hyperdyne upgrade into...it's yours if you want it. Just pay shipping.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Eric, I have the guts from a Hasbro that I am installing the Hyperdyne upgrade into...it's yours if you want it. Just pay shipping.

 

Thanks man. My hasbro is all sealed up and painted or I'd take you up on your kind offer.

 

Aloha!

 

-Eric

[kaptinkaos]

Pics... Or it didn't happen... LOL!

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Oh the peer pressure... I can't handle it

 

Pics... Or it didn't happen... LOL!

 

I won't do it justice with my camera phone.... pics soon when I remember to bring a camera home from work.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[kaptinkaos]

Lol... No peer pressure... I just like eyeing other peoples builds, I'm doing a Hasbro too soon and am building a mental library.

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Nearly there with my hasbro.... finally.

 

Now is when I would like to curse the centurion requirements which came out after I purchased my hasbro conversion kit. If I had known I would have gone right to droopy's full resin version. C'est la blaster.

 

I painted the ejection port this morning using bobojuice's tinfoil spray paint receptacle brilliance. I found a cheap pack of assorted brushes at Ace hardware. I have no idea what size brush is good for what. I haven't painted anything this small since I was a kid building models. Even then I sucked at it.

 

As I was washing my brushes I splattered my gun a bit. I think it will scrape right off. The speckles are mostly on the scope.

 

Some photos are from my iphone of the Jorran-esque paint methodology. I don't think I'll intentionally weather this blaster. If the black layer happens to come off, so be it.

 

I put two layers of satin black on the gun. One hanging from the top and the other hanging from the bottom. I still have some black touchup to do where the spray didn't get into a crevice. Somewhere in my garage is the reticule sticker.

 

The biggest lesson I learned was to clean up the e6000 more than you think. It REALLY shows up once you paint it black. There's some goop visible on the right side between the stock and the barrel. I also put the short resin t-track on the wrong side. Oops. I also noticed a paint drip on the barrel near the muzzle when I was out in the sun If I had access to a hobby store (there isn't one on island) I would have purchased some model putty and filed in some of the bubbles in the resin.

 

Aloha nui,

 

-Eric

 

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Painting the under layers

 

 

 

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Paints

 

 

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Painting the ejector port outside

 

 

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Mostly finished with the requisite Karin gloved hand

 

[MrSomething]

looking good man, I guess you can sand off more than just the fin on those fake T-tracks. I was worried that there wasnt enough plastic behind the base of them but you have showed me otherwise.

[HockeyTrooper[TK]]

Eric,

I've been searching around but not having much luck finding a particular detail for the hasbro mods. What measurements did you use for drilling the additional row of holes in the barrel? I've opened my hasbro up and split it in two but other than that haven't done much (Other than break the back of the scope when I wedged it off! haha)

Thanks!

[ZacMuleer[TK]]

Hey Bennett - I asked the same thing over on this thread. Check here.

 

http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=12522&st=0

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

E-11 Hole Spacing

 

Here's what I think I did to get the hole spacing for my has-brah mod. I'm sorry to say that I don't have my blaster with me today to take actual measurements but here are some tools to help you figure it out.

 

The top row are the existing holes and the bottom orange row are the holes you're going to drill. It will be handy to have a set of calipers on hand to make these measurements.

1. First measure Distance A and draw a line between the edges of both holes.
   
2. Measure Distance B. This will be the size of your drill bit.
   
3. Add Distance A and Distance B to get Distance D.
   
4. Measure and mark the halfway point of Distance A.
   
5. Draw a line from the midpoint of Distance A down past where the first hole will be drilled. Do the same on the last hole.
   
6. Measure down this line to the distance of the center of the first hole and make a mark. Do the same on the last hole.
   
7. Connect the two marks with a line. This is the center line of your new set of holes.
   
8. Measure every Distance D from the first mark on the center line to the last.
   
9. Drill pilot holes at every mark.
   

To figure out Distance C I downloaded an E-11 barrel template from somewhere, printed it out and measured it with a ruler (making sure that it was printed to scale) The one below measures 5/8" of an inch or 15.87500 mm between the centers of each hole.

 

If someone wants to take a caliper to the holes of their Hasbro today, I would be happy to draw the whole hole thing out with measurements.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

Edited October 4, 2011 by Darth Aloha

[darksideemt]

Blaster looks good. Just my 2 cents, I used a plastic ruler and laid it against the existing counter down the barrel. With a pencil I made the line, then eyeballed center between the holes above it and made a mark with a sharpie. That is where I drilled my holes and they looked pretty good and were spaced well.

Edited October 5, 2011 by darksideemt

[kaptinkaos]

Looks awesome man! I can hardly wait to doopy mine up... Wait, I'm STILL WAITING on my doopy kit and my doopy hasbro mod kit...

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

 

Does anyone have an unmodified hasbro and a set of calipers to measure A and B?

 

If so I'll whip up a scale template to tape to a hasbro to mark pilot holes.

 

Aloha,

 

-Eric

[HockeyTrooper[TK]]

I ended up doing something similar to what Travis described and I think my holes turned out okay. Getting ready to head to the hardware store for clamps, paint and glue!