Modifying Doopy Doos ANH E11 W/ Hasbro Capt Rex Blaster

[dmjuel]

So I bought a completed Doopy Doos ANH E!! off of Ebay that was assembled/painted and had a working trigger as well as a moving bolt. I found a Hasbro Capt Rex Clone Wars Blaster at a garage sale and loved the sound effects (the blaster will periodically give you a ricochet noise). I decided to further modify the resin blaster with the electronic guts of the toy. I started by making room in the blaster for the components, which involved a lot of dremel work and drilling. I fried the circuit board on the toy (Red = Positive, Black = Negative...SMH) and to my dismay found that my 50 cent purchase cost about 37 bucks new. I bit the bullet and bought the new blaster. I have purchased red LEDs ~3.4V to replace the blue ones that came stock with the toy. I am on the verge of assembling the pieces once the proper tools arrive in the mail. Hopefully the end result will be a resin blaster with decent blaster sound effects.

 

Couple questions I have:

 

Once assembled the batteries and the majority of the cables will be in the chamber normally reserved for the spring/bolt, will this be acceptable for trooping as there will be no visible spring and likely a bunch of black wires shoved into this space? ( I can try to mask them with a solid thin sheet of plastic but it is a pretty snug fit as it is)

 

Two part question: When it's time to repaint should I strip all previous paint and start anew or just try to touch up? If I should repaint anew what is the best method for stripping the pain? (sanding might remove the detail work on the grip)

 

Also I have some spaces that the dremel has broken the outer skin (I.E. I sanded to close to the edge and put a hole in the grip right where it connects to the barrel), it is not a highly visible space so some well placed caulk should fill in the spaces before painting...any preference on this? (silicone, white painters caulk, or perhaps some other substance like bondo or spackle)

 

I will follow up with pictures and videos later.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Really depends on what you can get to with the paint, I find when using spray paint it gets in to all the sections I need it too.

 

I would use a painters cork/silicon, at least the paint with adhere to it, some silicon's are oil based and paint won't adhere.

 

Looking forwards to some pics

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Yes, you want to stay away from anything silicone based, as it is not paintable.  If the space you mentioned is small, you can use Testors contour putty, available at any hobby shop.  If it is a little larger, you can try Bondo glazing/spot putty, available at Lowe's or Home depot.  (Thanks to Dark CMF for the advice).  I ended up using both on my build, and both can be sanded and painted.  Just be sure to let then cure for 24 hrs.  Hope this helps!

Edited February 10, 2015 by justjoseph63

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Definitely want to see how this turns out!

 

Could be a ground-breaking type of modification, but I don't know that I can go dremeling/cutting my DD up to do it. LoL.

[Luis.J.Trevino[TK]]

For the spring /bolt try to cover the guts with black plastic tape or inside a black tube and paint a fake spring

[Luis.J.Trevino[TK]]

I have a similar project in mind but starting with a new doopydo's kit. I bought a boba fett blaster to take out the guts because it's got Red leds and it costs half the price of a trooper blaster

[T-Jay[TK]]

Some pictures of your build progress would be nice

[dmjuel]

Finally got some pics of my build Here is the toy blaster that I gutted

 

In order to get plenty of small STRANDED wires I bought 100' of phone line and stripped out the 4 different colored wires ...the beer helped

 

Here are the guts of the gun circuit board, trigger switch 2 LEDs and speaker cables

 

Lots of hot glue to strengthen the solder connections...since I was going to be moving things around alot I didn't want to stress the connection til it broke.

 

Three AAA batteries in a square was not going to fit, a battery pack from a cheap flashlight is the perfect cylindrical solution

[dmjuel]

I had to wallow out the bolt chamber a bit to ease sliding the battery pack in I also shaved quite a bit off the edges luckily any damage is covered up by the cap:

 

Dremeled out all of the innerds of the cap to create even more space:

 

This hole is covered by the ammo box and is the entrance for the circuit board wires:

 

This hole is where the pistol grip attaches and is where the wires to the switch will enter:

[dmjuel]

Here is the pistol grip and the dremel work I did to get to the spring loaded trigger (a mod from previous owner) This is where the trigger switch will sit:

 

Got carried away with dremel but hole was hid easily as you will see later...plus its covered by the cross bar:

 

I broke the tiny wires in the speaker that came stock with the gun...but this speaker from a bluetooth speaker works nicely and using the 3.5mm audio jack gives me other audio options:

 

Pulled all black wires into place for connections...labeling is extremely important since they are all black:

 

[dmjuel]

Wires that will go to the circuit board

 

Two for the trigger switch

 

All the wires for the LEDs, battery, and audio that will be connected through the bolt chamber:

 

Soldering time...don't forget to put the heatshrink over the wire first (see the sleeve on the left wire) I had to disconnect and reconnect several connections:

 

Got the circuit board attached and hot glued into its housing:

[dmjuel]

The battery cover on the gun when trimmed down and painted fits the circuit board like a glove and can hide on the ammo box:

 

Here it is ready to be glued to the ammo box:

 

Hot glued the switch into place I exteded the trigger button with a pencil eraser from a mechanical button...it extended the reach so that the trigger could activate it:

 

There is the female audio jack and trigger wires in place ready to be glued down:

 

[dmjuel]

Filled in the gap with standard painters caulk, I did this with a syringe with a bent tip (something that they give you when you get your wisdom teeth removed to clean the holes)

 

Other side....looks rough but it's hidden well by the cross bar:

 

All painted up...sorry for the poor lighting:

 

Other side...

 

Here is the circuit board glued to the ammo box:

[dmjuel]

Better angle to see circuit board attached to ammo box:

 

So here is where I'm at now...I plan on using rubber (weather stripping cut to fit the slot and painted like a spring) as you can see the battery fits nicely and I have some more touch up to do

 

 

Here is the Red LEDs I used bought them on Amazon

 

They come in packs of 100 so I now have 98 Red LEDs for a future project

 

Tools that are essential to this project:

 

 

[dmjuel]

So the sound is a little muted...(definitely not a fear inspiring blast) but it makes noise and is decent. The occasional ricochet noises are a nice touch. Since I used a female audio jack I though about using an aux cord and connecting it to my Aker system which works but means I have to figure out how to hide a cable coming out of my blaster to my chest. I ordered a bluetooth transmitter/receiver off of amazon that looks small enough to hide behind the batteries instead of the speaker. Reciever in the chest plate hooked to Aker system and I can have a nice loud blaster noise, I highly recommend using jacks instead of direct wiring because it gives you options.

[Luis.J.Trevino[TK]]

Great job! Good tips that I'll follow in my doopydo's kit + boba fett blaster.As soon as I receive the doopydo's kit I'll start the build thread.

[dmjuel]

Awesome news I purchased some thin bluetooth transmitter/receiver dongles from amazon...after a little filing and drilling to make just a little more room I was able to plug in the blaster to the transmitter and contain the whole thing in the barrel. It transmits to the receiver in my chest plate and plays out of the Aker amplifier. Now I've got some real blaster sounds.