Ducati's Build

[Ducati]

The folding stock - part 2

 

A part you won't recognize or would have probably noticed and it was an effort to make

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ducati]

The folding stock - part 3

 

Another part you won't recognize. Its a plate that keeps the folding stock butt from collapsing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ducati]

The folding stock - part 3 - The gusset, stock butt spring, pivot pin, and a stopper.

 

The gusset

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

The stopper

 

 

 

 

The spring - this part gets welded together with the last post. They are positioned together how I'm holding it in the 3rd pic down.

 

 

 

 

How all this stuff goes together

 

 

 

[Ducati]

Folding stock - Part 4 - The plunger, Folding stock butt, and a few random bits

 

The plunger

 

 

 

 

 

 

A spring

 

 

 

 

ANOTHER VIDEO - THE PARTS PICTURED ABOVE WORKING TOGETHER

 

http://s1324.beta.ph...-12048.mp4.html

 

The folding stock butt. I ended up getting this CNC'd It was too complicated & required too much precision to try and fabricate.

 

 

Here it is after I added some dimples in the sides. The sides let the butt lock into place when the stock is folded.

 

 

Below is the corresponding grooves that are required to let the folding stock lock into the unfolded position

 

 

Another laser cut detail glued into place

 

 

The finished stock body

 

Edited November 6, 2012 by Ducati

[Ducati]

Assembly - part 1

 

The first major assembly set was to have the handles for the grip welded into place. Sorry no pictures of the welding process but here's part way through. Another stitch was placed along the seam where the barrel meets the grip after this.

 

 

The other side

 

 

I ended up doing a bunch of filing and filling to make the weld look a little closer to the actual prop. You can see that in some of the pictures later on. Next was the mag well and rear stock lock. I used gorilla glue to attach both parts then a 2 part sculpting epoxy to form the blend between the barrel and the individual parts. This is how I filled the chipping that happened during the machining process on the mag well.

 

 

 

 

 

After the above picture I did additional sanding and filling with a Tamiya filler. Next I started to glue/weld some of the smaller details into place

 

 

 

[Ducati]

Tabs for the butt cap

 

In the very first post I skipped over the tabs on the butt cap. They were laser cut then bend. I fit them to the butt cap using the folding stock body as a jig. I temporary glued them into place and then had them welded after.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ducati]

Scope rail and some test fitting

 

The scope rail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After welding before sanding

 

 

 

And on the blaster

 

 

Test fit with the scope and counter

 

 

 

Some other test fits

 

[HawkTrooper]

That is so awesome - most impressive work! I can't wait to see it finished.

[Ducati]

Priming

 

Everything that is aluminum required a aluminum specific primer. The machined aluminum is too smooth (on a microscopic level) for a regular primer to bond to. So I needed to use a primer that would etch the surface. I masked off the inside of the barrel as it's mostly covered and hardly seen. Everything that was plastic I painted with a plastic specific primer; you'll notice its a darker grey.

 

 

 

 

Other bits being primed. I won't post pictures of it all but here are some of the more iconic ones.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ducati]

Painting

 

I hit the barrel with a metallic paint.

 

 

Once the metallic had cured I applied a liquid latex mask where I wanted a chipping effect

 

 

Next was to hit it with a full coat of flat black

 

 

I then masked off the magazine and hit everything else with the hammered black

 

 

All dry

 

 

Chipping the liquid latex off

 

 

A jig and the cool paint effect that was left on it

 

[Ducati]

Electrical work

 

I have a co-worker that I recruited into doing the electrical work on the blaster. I was very happy to have him along for the project as this is his area of expertise and I was overwhelmed with mechanical side of things as it was.

 

He found these tiny LEDs that you'll see all over the blaster. I couldn't believe how small they are. I actually had trouble getting the camera to focus on them

 

 

 

The first one glued in place in the scope. FYI we used hot glue for these.

 

 

 

A bunch more soldered together for the internal barrel

 

 

The above LEDs glued in place

 

 

The front of the internal barrel; detailing the "muzzle" LED

 

 

After the first day of soldering. Look at the size of the capacitors. The circuit board is a blaster core 4.0.

 

 

The finished internal barrel

 

 

 

A test fit of the internal barrel

 

 

Starting on the 10 bar LED for the counter

 

 

 

Speaker is all wired up and everything is ready to be heat shrunk together. Note the switch in the bottom right. It's to turn the scope light/laser pointers in the power cells on.

 

 

The power cells all wired up. We did end up reducing the number of coils by 3 or 4.

 

 

And the scope/counter mounted to the barrel. The wire bundle pulled into the barrel. The power cells aren't glued into place yet. I wanted to make sure everything was wired correctly before permanently fixing stuff into place.

 

 

The mode selection switch

 

 

[Dday[501st]]

So, when does the mass production on these begin?! If you didn't love this project a lot I"m sure you would never have been this far. Amazing job you are doing!

[jkno]

Electronics on the blaster will look great. Can't wait to see the finished product!!

[Evilboy[501st]]

I wish I had a lathe and milling machine.

THIS just to start. Wow, this is EPIC!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Very nice work, well done

[Evilboy[501st]]

UPDATES !?!?!?

[Ducati]

An update for today is going to be tough but I'll see what I can do. IT has replaced my computer and didn't transfer over all the pictures from my old one.

 

Evilboy - sent you an email with the file you asked for.

Edited November 19, 2012 by Ducati

[Evilboy[501st]]

Thanks Brother!

[Locitus[Admin]]

If you're willing to share the cnc-files we can host it on FISD for anyone who wants it. With credits to you of course.

[Ducati]

If you're willing to share the cnc-files we can host it on FISD for anyone who wants it. With credits to you of course.

 

Eventually - all the files currently have a bunch of personal info that I don't want to share. Once I remove all of that stuff then I would be happy to upload the whole poop-a-roo. Models + drawings = about 160mb. I would also like to add a set of PDF's for people that don't have solidworks. Timeline wise I would guess sometime before the end of the year. Could you PM me about how to get stuff up on the site?

[skyone]

 

 

i see that now blastercore turned also into the more appealing led bars graph rather then previous row of leds..

 

Btw great work!

[Locitus[Admin]]

Eventually - all the files currently have a bunch of personal info that I don't want to share. Once I remove all of that stuff then I would be happy to upload the whole poop-a-roo. Models + drawings = about 160mb. I would also like to add a set of PDF's for people that don't have solidworks. Timeline wise I would guess sometime before the end of the year. Could you PM me about how to get stuff up on the site?

No real need to PM though. Just upload it to one of the free temporary file hosting services, hand me the link. I'll then download it and re-upload it to FISD for permanent hosting.

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

this is just so close it's silly, but it would have been so much better to use original parts.

 

even the e-11 x looks 100% perfect. compared to this 70%.

 

it's just so close... but it's not close enough to make me say woo hoo.

 

any time a person makes a sterling rebuild it just looks so much better because it's the real parts

 

this build is just so cool it deserves massive respect.

 

but dang it. why didn't you use all this skill to make a replica with original parts, scope and hengstler?

 

in the entire legion you're one of the only people to do this, but dang it brother...

 

with the real parts out there, it would have banged my buck to see

 

a build with original parts on a tube, like plecter labs.

 

so for me as a blaster nut, fan. pseudo expert I only thought that it all would have looked much better if you just machined a steel tube

 

and mounted the parts to it.

 

it's just so amazing that you could get so close. and the end cap and the sight rail, and the location of the hengstler could have been more accurate.

 

the power cells on the magazine are supposed to have 3 center capacitors, but it's supposed to be 2 on the bottom and one on the top

 

 

such an amazing display of "so close" it's painful.

 

I could go on and on about how close you are... but in the end I guess I'm just biased.

 

I'm not surprised at all if some don't understand my pain and passion.

 

I wanted this build to knock my socks off... and it did... on one level... but compared

 

to erv in france, I felt that using the original parts is just so much more satisfying

 

on the other hand, you've done an amazing job of making every part.

 

so it's really a matter of the heart...

 

and I'm torn between the two worlds of e-11.

 

I'm still tossing and turning over this build!

Edited November 22, 2012 by TK Bondservnt 2392

[Ducati]

Hi Vern,

 

I understand and appreciate your opinion. You certainly are the E-11 accuracy expert.

 

Using real parts is an impossibility where I am due to the fire arms regulations. It just wasn't an option. You may be thinking "you have the grip..." . That story is interesting but not one I'm willing to share. I will say that it involved some very understanding people, a lot of bureaucratic hoops and a lot of luck. In hindsight, there are a few things I would change if I could go back in time knowing what I know now. But it's all small stuff that only an expert such as yourself could pick out.

 

At the end of the day the only one that needs to be happy with this build is me and I'm thrilled with it.

[TK bondservnt[501st]]

it might have been possible to use a real folding stock, and the rear end cap from a real sterling, since apex does sell those

parts separately! yet since you used aluminum it's really above the bar for most alum builds.

 

you're not the only person who's thrilled with it!

 

we all are very proud of your attention to detail!

 

I only studied the sterling, and you're the expert now just as well as anyone who does something as awesome as you did.

 

we all can become experts in this hobby, that's why I like the transparency of information we all have now in the stormtrooper world.

it was not always this way!

 

as a matter of fact it sure would be amazing cool to have ROTJ parts laser cut. the MGC sterling copy could be

completely done with flat sheets of steel.

since the original MGC was just pressed, folded and rolled steel plate.

 

would your shop be interested in doing runs for me in sheet steel?

I would love to have a stack of cut parts ready to bend into shape.

 

PM me if you'd like to help with a project like that.

 

I'd pay for it!

Edited November 23, 2012 by TK Bondservnt 2392