Uber's Poorboy DLT-19

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

I've got my Anovos armor ordered, so while I wait, I'm going to attempt a DLT-19 with the build-a-blaster base.  I know obviously that these fall pretty low on the accuracy scale, but I'm looking at this more as a first foray into the prop-making hobby.  I've done a lot of warhammer minis before, as well as actual functional armor for SCA heavy combat, so this is sort of a hybrid between the two.

 

I spent the past week fighting with GIMP and my printer to try and print templates I found in A4 onto letter.  I'd get it all sized right in the main file, but copy-pasting would cause it to shrink down to ~75% of the original size, regardless of what program I was copying it into.  I finally gave up and just used the magnify function on my printer.  After getting that all figured out, I went out to the garage with my ebay'd blaster base, a bunch of pipe, some other scrounged supplies and set up shop on the new workbench I built last weekend.

 

 

 

I spent a good chunk of yesterday hacking away at my couplings and came away with what you see below.  The hex socket was actually threaded inside, so I had to attack it with some sandpaper.  I'm really kicking myself right now for giving my dad's dremel back to him when I moved this spring.  Also, I've seen a lot of people playing with lengths for their barrels.  Rather than make an unrecoverable cut now, the barrel is actually one piece and the collar for the middle sight was cut from one end, so there's no stop in it.  I just marked the barrel so I can get it back in the right spot.

 

I did quickly realize a problem with my templates.  While the length was almost spot-on (48.25" long), the barrel hole template must not have been made for 1.25 SCH40 pipe.  I haven't decided what I want to do here.  Given my previous GIMP scaling/printing failures, I'm tempted to just guess on the hole location and put it one the bottom, unless someone know of good templates for this size pipe that prints nicely on letter-size.

 

I decided a while ago that this was going to be an electronic-free gun (especially since the sounds can't be controlled well), so I removed all the markings and labels with a razor, then sanded it smooth.  As it turns out, taking off the blue ones actually made them more obvious, at least until I paint it.

 

 

Knowing that there's lots of good bits inside (and they probably cost more than I'd be willing to pay on their own) I decided to pop the gun open and take out all the electronics for future use.  One of the screws was already thoroughly stripped, so I had to drill it out.  In case anyone's wondering what's in there ( I decide to put it back together), here's a reference shot.

 

That's about it for now.  I need to dig though my other hobby stuff and see if I can find my balsa for making the sights and sheet steel for the ammo cover.  The only thing I haven't really figured out in my head is the bipod.

 

This coming week is going to focus on getting the buttstock attached without every bit of putty I own.  I'm thinking I'll use some thin material on both sides to help beef it up a bit first.

 

I'd appreciate any comments as I go along.  I'm not overly attached to anything at this point, so please don't hold back if I'm doing something terribly wrong.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Ubernostrum

[TKedt[TK]]

good choice. In my experience the build a blaster looks more accurate than the e-11. Seems like you got it all down. 

[haui[TK]]

Why use gimp?

Use a bigger sheat of paper and print it on this i onrginal size A4 then cut it out

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

Why use gimp?

Use a bigger sheat of paper and print it on this i onrginal size A4 then cut it out

I'll give that a try. I'll snag some scrap 11x17 from work today and try cutting it down to A4 size. I will have to down some skewing though, since I think the template I used was for a slightly smaller pipe based on the fact that the overall length came out right.

[TKedt[TK]]

Why use gimp?

Use a bigger sheat of paper and print it on this i onrginal size A4 then cut it out

Regular paper worked for me

 

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[aliens8us]

For my barrel, I used a vacuum cleaner extension tube with Pvc couplings. The extension tube was a perfect length and girth for the barrel

[K@nne[TK]]

Which kind of Hasbro blaster did you use for that  build?

 

thx

Chris

[TKedt[TK]]

that blaster used here is the hasbro "build a blaster". Look on ebay. New are very expensive

[K@nne[TK]]

that blaster used here is the hasbro "build a blaster". Look on ebay. New are very expensive

Ok thx, this kind of blaster is very rare in Germany

[TKedt[TK]]

Look on eBay in the US . Even here is rare but keep looking

 

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[Scarlisian[TK]]

I found a couple on eBay US, used. Didn't seem too expensive. Good luck.

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

I managed to find just the 2 pieces I needed for $25 after monitoring it for a couple weeks. The amazon price is pretty ridiculous though.

[Scarlisian[TK]]

Yeah, I noticed the Amazon prices were pretty high. But a used one on eBay worked for me considering I wasn't using all the pieces anyway.

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

Here's an update with my last week's progress.  I didn't have a whole lot of time this weekend with family in town, but I managed to get the back end put together and now it just needs some contouring with milliput.

 

I realized that trying to glue the stock and main body to the PVC coupling was not going to give me much of a contact surface to glue, so I made a couple interface pieces out of old 4x4 that was kicking around.

 

I started with a hole saw to get something that could fit nicely inside the coupling, although my first try was too big, so I grabbed a smaller one and hit it again.  That saw was a bit shorter too so I ended up with a little step that actually worked out nicely as a gluing surface:

 

Then I made a couple cunts down from the top to form a channel for the buttstock to sit in, but I got too aggressive with my chiseling and managed to break it in half.  Thankfully, I hadn't cut it off the base material yet, so I was able to glue it back together:

 

While my glue dried, I went at the coupling-base interface with the same method, except I started with the smaller hole saw.  After several cuts with my hacksaw, I ended up with this:

 

 

I was excited to realize that everything actually ended up pretty well balanced such that I could stand it up on end with just a little bit of support from my drill.  Using superglue for the non-critical connections and milliput for the ones that needed sometime to get aligned just right, I ended up with this:

 

 

Here's my current overall status.  The length came out pretty much spot on.  I'm sitting and watching Empire as I write this, so once I'm done, I'm going to mark up my barrel while finishing the movie.  I realized that the pattern isn't really that complex, so as long as I get the axial spacing right, it should be pretty easy to mark each "circle" of holes.  Then I can take it over to my dad's and borrow his drill press.  I'll admit cutting the couplings was tougher than I expected, so I'm not sure what to expect when I try to drill it.  Anyone have any tips for that part?

[TKedt[TK]]

looks great. Just consider taking the barrel off when drilling the holes. The pressure may hurt the joint where the barrel and main gun  attach. 

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

I actually haven't made that connection yet for precisely that reason. In fact, nothing is glued together yet on the barrel because I planned to remove everything I could prior to drilling (except the first coupler bit because one set of holes overlaps both pieces) in order to put it in a little cradle to prevent slippage.

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

Well, taking a weeklong trip really slowed me down for a while, but I'm back at it now.  I got my barrel holes drilled, which was a pain on the drill press as the barrel kept jumping up on me when I broke through.  A bit of cleanup with sandpaper and a dremel and I'm pretty happy with the results.  Only thing I really screwed up was I forgot that my template had a spacer on it that was supposed to have come out, but I don't think anyone will notice.

 

I also had several failures of the butt stock joint.  I started with plastic cement, then tried superglue.  Neither worked, so I gave in and bought a tube of E6000.  It seems to be holding pretty well now, but does anyone know if that alone will be enough to butt the barrel up against the main body, or should I try to build something with putty to reinforce it?

 

I found an old curtain rod laying around.  It's the perfect size for the bolt handle, but I think it may be a bit too small for the barrel.  I'd like to know what you all think, or if it's even necessary.  I'm also curious what one would do to get it mounted centered.

 

I've started on my sights as well.  I'm really impressed with how quickly my dremel can tear up the basswood, although it proved to be too much for the balsa I was going to use for the thinner bits.  I guess I just get to take another trip to the hobby store    The thing I'm really stuck on is the top bits as I'm not sure how to approach the undercut indicated by the arrow.  I know I could just cut it flat and glue something on, but that feels like cheating.

 

 

Finally, while I was gone, a small package arrived which has drastically improved the mood while I'm working.  It makes me want to see how many of my old dorm posters I can dig up.

[Astyanax]

For the inner bolt, why not a length of 3/4" PVC pipe? Just paint it satin black before you glue it in.

And as for centering the pipe inside the barrel, how about some PVC couplings sized to the inside pipe? That should get you close enough to the insides of the barrel that a bead of E6000 can take up any remaining space.

 

Good luck, and I hope the E6000 works for your stock.

 

Bill

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

So, I gave up on trying to make the AA sight mount out of one piece, so I grabbed some smaller square balsa and built it up from a flat top.  I think I'm happier with that result than I ever would have been with my first attempt.

 

I did the same thing with the rear sight.  Rather than try to carve things out, I used several thinner sections, then sanded the joints really smooth:

 

Everything on the site itself moves as it's supposed to, although without the right mount, the whole thing can't fold down.

 

For the front sights, because of the weird angles, I opted to rout out the slot for the base with my Dremel (which is now officially my favorite tool ever!)  I tried a couple attempts at the front one, but I just couldn't get the two sides to line up and this is the best I got:

 

All together though, I'm reasonably happy with the results, given it's not meant to be perfect anyways.  I think overall, the right impressions have been made:

 

Oh, and as you can see in the last two pictures, I took Astyanax's advice and added a barrel with 3/4" pipe and a cut-down coupling (although I forgot to take pictures).  That fit well enough that I took it as inspiration to beef up the body-barrel joint (after a lot of sanding down of the pipe to fit):

 

That coupling should line up perfectly with the one inside holding the barrel in place and give me lots of adhesion surfaces to work with.  I'm going to wrap the inner part of the joint with putty to help out, but it currently can hold itself without glue, just an unsightly gap at the top of the joint.  Speaking of putty, I killed an entire package of milliput tonight:

 

It's pretty thick in a few spots, so I'll give it a couple days to set before trying to sand it.  After that, I've got a lot of sanding to do, then a bipod and t-track to make.  The end's in sight now, I just hope the weather holds long enough to get it painted.

[Astyanax]

Matt:

 

What size holes did you drill in the barrel shroud for vent holes? I know that most people use 1/2", but I was thinking about going with 9/16", because the 1-1/4" I.D. PVC is a little bit wider in diameter than the actual MG34, and I was thinking this might help it look a little more proportional.

 

What do you think? Good idea, bad idea?

 

Thanks!

 

Bill

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

I did a half inch, but I hadn't thought at all about adjusting for the barrel diameter increase.  The way I saw it though is that the t-track will obscure everything anyways.  Thinking about it after the fact, I might be more worried about having too much hole visible around the t-track, but of course if you make your own, you can make it a touch wider to maintain the hole-to-track proportion.

[Astyanax]

Ah, hole-to-track proportion. That's what I should be thinking about, definitely.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Bill

[ComradeDave[TK]]

I like the DLT-19 better than the E-11... Hows your progress going? I want to try this!

[Ubernostrum[TK]]

I'm right with you Dave, the bigger the better.  Over the past week, I've sanded everything down fairly well, realized I needed more putty in a few spots, then sanded some more.  I've added putty to the keyway on the bild-a-blaster to get the diameters of the mating faces closer to each other.  I also attached the handle and built the bipod out of a piece of angle aluminum.  I hope to get some pictures up tomorrow.  I also got some plastruct to make my t-track after seeing how expensive the stuff is to buy.  All-in-all, I hoping to get paint on it next week while my wife's on business travel again.

[ComradeDave[TK]]

Awesome Matt! There was a German trooper that built one all out of wood it was spot on I'm going to try and emulate that as best I can. Good luck! throw on some pics when you're done man!