Thrawns Guard's ANH E11 blaster build

[Thrawn's guard]

I removed the internal part of the resin cast so one of tomorrow's jobs will be to reproduce the sight pin and sight pin housing and maybe add texture to the top part of the sight.

 

I have tried to post some pictures of what I have managed to do tonight but for some reason I can't upload a file larger than 2.47KB!!!!

 

Does anyone know why this may be ?

Edited July 6, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

I'm still unable to post any pictures :-(

Edited July 7, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Hey there Chris!

 

Looks like you're off to a great start on the DoopyDoo kit!  I do have a few observations, and reading through your thread the first one I was going to suggest - you just asked about.

Posting pictures...  You'll need to go to a photo hosting site such as photobucket and upload all of your pictures there.  After you've done so, you can copy the link from their site and paste the link here which will then share your pictures here in your thread.

As for the front site post, since you've mentioned a Dremel, I used a nail.  As it is not tempered steel, it was VERY easy to cut/grind to the proper shape using my Dremel.

Next, air bubbles...  Take a look at where some of them are, and decide if they might not be an area on the weapon that could potentially be dented a little bit based on normal every day handling.  If so, you can leave them alone and simply do a little bit of dry-brushing on them when you get to the paint point, and turn them into battle damage.  In my own build you'll notice that the feet on my M38 scope were a location in which I did this.  There were a few air bubbles that looked like "perfect dents" from when I chose to club that puny rebel over the head with my E-11, rather than waste a charge by shooting him.  

Finally...  Broken parts.  They're going to happen during the blaster and armor builds, and unless a heat gun (or in some cases, a Dremel) are involved, 99% of them are fixable.  You've already learned this, so I trust that you'll have no crazy concerns over it happening in the future.  

Now, enough observations.  It's time for advice.    Keep doing what you've been doing - researching, referencing, asking questions.  You'll be fine, everyone here who is a member has been where you're at today, and with the help of the FISD (for the most part - I've become glaringly aware that not everyone who is a member goes this route) have all become approved members.  It is absolutely possible, and highly likely that you will as well. 

One more bit of advice:  Have fun with this.  It can truly be an awesome experience, and you'll cherish the results forever.  

[Thrawn's guard]

Tim thanks for your constructive observations and suggestions which are always welcome.

 

With regard to the photos I uploaded them to Photobucket and was having all sorts of issues. It turns out that my flashplayer was out of date so I switched to chrome and all works fine. I'll get the photos posted tonight before continuing with the build.

 

With regard to the build I intend to carry on working on the front sight assembly tonight though I had hoped to get the pictures of what I had done and what I was aiming to achieve posted so that anyone can comment.

 

With regard to the air bubbles I will have a few that I will need to fill however I do like your suggestion with regard to using some to simulate dents.

 

The broken part issue isn't really something I am too worried about as it proved easy to fix and so long as I don't damage something which would be considerably more complicated to sort out I will be fine. Having some glue and green stuff to hand gives you all sorts of options for repairs.

 

Other than the issues with posting photos I am very much enjoying the experience...........much more than I thought that I would to bee honest.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

This is what i have managed to do so far on the front sight.

 

I will rebuild the sight pin housing using green stuff.

 

 

Edited July 7, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

Once I got home I decided to try modelling the front sight pin housing in 3D (See picture below).

 

All I need to do now is wait to see if it prints on the 3D printer ok.

 

[Thrawn's guard]

Well the main section looks like it printed ok however the tip didn't so has been removed.

 

I can fashion a tip from either plastic or from a screw (I think that I'll go for the screw option).

 

What do you think of the 3D printed sight pin housing ?

 

 

 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Housing looks pretty solid.  A little bit of clean-up and paint, and nobody would ever know it wasn't an original part.  The pin...  Yeah, that's definitely not going to cut it.  LoL.  There's always the nail, or ABS.  

[Thrawn's guard]

This shot gives a idea of what it will look like in elevation.

 

I will of course need to let the housing in to the top of the barrel to get it to the correct level and as Tim says sort out the pin.

 

Do you think it better to grind off the bump on top of the housing or retain it and connect the pin in to this ?

 

Edited July 7, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

I have slightly remodelled the front sight pin housing (I have removed the top dimple and increased the length of the bottom section of the housing to 25mm (1 inch) long.

 

I should get the front sight modification finished after work.

 

[Tr00per]

Just be sure that you put the sight pin housing the right way around when you glue it in place, as the demonstration in your pic is wrong way around..

[Thrawn's guard]

Good spot Dennis.

 

I am a way off gluing anything however that is certainly not something that you want to do with your blaster build.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

I'd definitely get rid of that bump.  It is just too tall with it.

[Thrawn's guard]

To be honest I was a little nervous to start the next step of the front sight upgrade as it involves cutting away a section of the front barrel and I had all sorts of visions of it going terribly wrong.

 

However worst case scenario was that it would look a mess and I would have to fill it and start again so any potential issues were not permanent.

 

. 

 

With this in mind I marked out the location of the sight pin housing and began very slowly removing material with a Dremel. I formed the cut by drilling our roughly with the Dremel then used files to smooth out a vertical channel. Once cut the the correct depth I opened up the dovetail by filing carefully with a small triangular file before smoothing with a fine nail file. 

 

Whilst forming the dovetail slot I kept checking the fit by comparing shape with the housing. Finally when shaped correctly I was able to locate the housing in the correct position.

 

Here a a few pictures with the sight surround roughly placed in position.

    

 

All of this took longer than I was expecting as it was quite painstaking work therefore the actual sight pin will need to be a task for tomorrow.

Edited July 8, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

After looking at some great photos of a front sight posted by usaeatt2 on T-Jays full resin E11 from DoopyDoss with some modifications topic I have further tweaked the sight pin housing.

 

The dimensions should now be more accurate, I have deepened the hole in the top face to allow a screwed pin sight to be installed and have also provided the hole in the side for installation of a suitably sized grub screw (I just need to find out where i can get the grub screw!!!).

 

EDIT - I just noticed that a front sight grub screw is provided with T-Jay's completion set ;-)

 

 

I shall print it off tonight and see how it looks/fits.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

I am really enjoying this build and are trying to take on board as much as i can from the many amazing builds on this forum.

 

I would however like to try to come up with something something new/improved to contribute the the community however I am struggling as each element of the build I think about already has a number of fantastic examples.

 

I'll keep thinking and maybe come up with something to post on here.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Twnbrother]

I really like the use of the 3D printer for the front site post.  Very clean lines.  Make sure you check out the depth of your dovetail.  You do not want to go to deep like I did.... a little green stuff and I built mine up.   I also like the use of the triangle file... I do not own one, but that would have really helped.

[Thrawn's guard]

The triangular file was really useful (I bought it as part of a set of 6 different files and it wasn't expensive).

 

Depth wise I kept a good eye on things and managed to avoid going too deep.

 

The depth of the front sight pin housing modelled is such that if the slot is formed for it to slide in it doesn't cut too deeply in to the top of the barrel and in this was acts basically as a template (Probably more luck than by design).

 

last night we had family call over of a couple of days so I didn't get the chance to do as much work on the blaster as I intended however I did print off the latest version of the front sight pin housing and test fit it.

 

It is not too easy to see but I now have the vertical circular hole for the sight pin to fix in to and also the horizontal hole from the side for installing the grub screw once it arrives.

 

I also need to look in to whether I need to sand down the base of the sight surround to get a closer fit......More research i guess unless anyone can tell me if this is what the detail is like on the actual sterling sight surround.

 

Edited July 10, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

OK time for another progress update.

 

This is the humble beginnings of my front sight pin.

I decided to use a screw because I wanted to replicate the look of the original Sterling sight and it also allows me to actually screw the pin in to the housing.

 

I then screwed it in to the end of a piece of wood that was secured in a work bench. Having done this the first task was to carefully cut off the head using a cutting disc on my Dremel.

 

Once the head had been removed I began to shape the end of the screw shank using a grinding tool on my Dremel.

 

Using a cutting disc I then formed a vertical groove in the thread of the screw which is a detail used on the actual Sterling sight (The grub screw is then fixed through the side of the housing and locks the sight pin in the correct orientation), Using this method once the grub screw from Tino's completion set arrives I will be able to install it and secure the pin in a similar manner to a Sterling.

 

In reality I didn't really need to do this or glue the pin in because it screws in tight.

 

I then cut the pin off the rest of the screw (I decided to cut it off a little longer than required so that I could then grind it to the correct length).

 

When I test fitted the pin  the sight pin was as suspected too long, (better too long than not long enough), so screwed it in the the housing that I 3D printed so that I had something to hold it with and shortened it by grinding it down so that I would get the correct hight within the sight surround.

 

At this stage I also slightly reshaped the profile of the pin to make it more accurate,

   

 

It seems like a lot of work on such a small detail but it was something that I wanted to try to make as accurately as possible.........it was also fun :-)

 

I still need to texture the surround but I feel that I am now starting to make some progress and am getting used to using the tools and working with the materials.

 

I understand that only part of the sight surround is textured so I will get back to my research to see exactly how much.........Unless anyone has any good reference pictures that they could post.

Edited July 10, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

Unable to find something with a texture that I was happy with to add the texture to the front sight guard I thought that I would do some work upgrading the Doopydoos folding stock.

 

 

 

Where to begin.......Well I decided to go for the obvious and open out the holes along the length of the folding stock. First of all I drilled some pilot holes to help keep the larger holes that I would drill next located in the correct position.

 

Next I needed to open up the underside of the stock so that I can install the cylinder from Tino's completion set when it arrives. I decided at this stage to only remove the resin local to the holes that I had drilled through.

 

That way I can then increase the length of the recess to suit the actual cylinder length later. To do this I drilled a line of holes carefully making sure that I did not drill all the way through. I then used a rotary grinding bit on my Dremel to remove the remaining material and tidy things up.

 

Next I drilled through the hole locations (One at the very front of the stock and one halfway down.

 

As a final job for today I decided to cut away the material in the end of the stock release lever. Firstly I marked up which part of the recess was to be opened up all the way through (Basically I looked at the line of the underside of the stock and drew a line projecting this line through the area I was modifying).

 

The area of resin that I have coloured in is the section that is retained (The rest is removed).

 

I then drilled a line of holes in the area of the resin to be removed. TIP - Drilling from both sides rather than drilling all the way from one side prevents the drill bit emerging in the wrong location. The fine engraving bit can then be used to remove material between the holes.

 

Once drilled and opened up a fine file was used to smooth the slot (It was actually a disposable nail fine which is useful here as they compress so the file itself exerted the pressure on both top and bottom face of the slot as I used it.

 

The area that I has previously shaded in does not get removed however it is supposed to be a section of the main stock arm that you can see through the stock release handle. Therefore the edge should be made to match the bottom edge of the main section of the stock. For example this is not a hard edge it is actually rounded off to match the rest of the stock arm.

 

I have a little more cleaning to do on this but here is what it is looking like at the moment.

Well I only intended working on the blaster for an hour or so today and ended up spending much longer than that.........I seem to be addicted.

 

As always if anyone has any suggestions or comments they will be most welcome.

Edited July 11, 2015 by Thrawn's guard

[Thrawn's guard]

As I was just putting all my tools away I came across this (It is the handle of one of the sculpting tools I just bought.

 

It looks like I have solved the problem of finding something with the correct texture for the front sight guard 

[Twnbrother]

OK time for another progress update.

 

This is the humble beginnings of my front sight pin.

I decided to use a screw because I wanted to replicate the look of the original Sterling sight and it also allows me to actually screw the pin in to the housing.

 

I then screwed it in to the end of a piece of wood that was secured in a work bench. Having done this the first task was to carefully cut off the head using a cutting disc on my Dremel.

 

Once the head had been removed I began to shape the end of the screw shank using a grinding tool on my Dremel.

 

Using a cutting disc I then formed a vertical groove in the thread of the screw which is a detail used on the actual Sterling sight (The grub screw is then fixed through the side of the housing and locks the sight pin in the correct orientation), Using this method once the grub screw from Tino's completion set arrives I will be able to install it and secure the pin in a similar manner to a Sterling.

 

In reality I didn't really need to do this or glue the pin in because it screws in tight.

 

I then cut the pin off the rest of the screw (I decided to cut it off a little longer than required so that I could then grind it to the correct length).

 

When I test fitted the pin  the sight pin was as suspected too long, (better too long than not long enough), so screwed it in the the housing that I 3D printed so that I had something to hold it with and shortened it by grinding it down so that I would get the correct hight within the sight surround.

 

At this stage I also slightly reshaped the profile of the pin to make it more accurate,

   

 

It seems like a lot of work on such a small detail but it was something that I wanted to try to make as accurately as possible.........it was also fun :-)

 

I still need to texture the surround but I feel that I am now starting to make some progress and am getting used to using the tools and working with the materials.

 

I understand that only part of the sight surround is textured so I will get back to my research to see exactly how much.........Unless anyone has any good reference pictures that they could post.

Chris,

 

Your front site post turned out amazing.  Regarding your question about sanding the front site post housing.... it did this, but you gotta be careful.  I trimmed off too much on one side and had to build it back up.  Gotta love green stuff.

[Thrawn's guard]

Thanks Michael.

 

I'm trying to do whatever jobs I can whilst I wait for the completion set. In many ways it is working out well as it is giving me the time to do some research between each section of the build.

 

I'll have to look and see what I can get on with tonight.

[Twnbrother]

Chris I think your grub screw hole is on the wrong side.  I have seen it on the other side in reference photos. i might be wrong...

[Thrawn's guard]

Hey Michael thanks for letting me know.

 

I'm not 100% sure myself as I seem to recall seeing it on either side (I may be wrong).

 

The good news is that I designed the pin sight housing as a tight fit item so I can slide it out and put it back in the other way around. I can also twist the sight pin around 180 degrees if needed.

 

This may have been the original design which would explain why there may be conflicting reference details.

 

Is there anyone on here who has a real Sterling who can advise?

Edited July 12, 2015 by Thrawn's guard