Stratcat96's Rubies E-11 Conversion

[Stratcat96[501st]]

Hey everybody! While I, along with all the other new people, wait for our Anovos TK kits it occurred to me that any self respecting Stormtrooper would never be caught without his blaster.

 

I had decided on a DoopyDoos resin kit, but they're never in-stock, so I have a buddy's machine shop working up costs to have a pipe machined out for a Phoenix Props build. In the meantime, I happened upon this little guy and thought it might make a fun little project, and an opportunity for me to test my building skills (which I really have none lol)

 

I sure would love some opinions along the way, so please don't be shy.

 

 

Here's the gun if you haven't seen one-

 

 

It weighs in at about 10.45oz. I definitely want to add a little weight..

 

 

The first thing I did was take out the 8 screws holding it together. The gun consists of just two molded pieces. There were gaps between the halves, so I figured it was just screwed but as it turned out the top of the gun at least was glued too. I had to use a very small saw to work my way through to getting it apart..

 

 

One thing that bothered me was the molded on phony d-ring, so with my trusty saw I took it out. I left the plastic "mount" for it, because I will just drill a hole through it and put a real ring in once I glue it back together

 

 

I want to drill out the vent holes in the barrel, but then to make that look good, I need to add an inner barrel. I decided to pick up a length of 3/4 schedule 40 pvc pipe. Figuring that will add some weight, I also wanted to add some weight to the rear.

 

I cut the tube into two pieces, one for the front and one for the back. Since there are screw posts in the way of different diameters on the two halves I measured and drilled so they would fit right over the posts and clamp in place when the gun is put back together. The reason I didn't run a longer tube in the rear is because the center of the gun is blocked off by the counter box and mag receiver. I should have taken a picture with it in the other half..

 

 

Front-

 

 

Rear-

 

 

Next up, I clamped the gun half with the barrel vents and drilled them out with the drill press

 

 

 

Not too bad, just a little cleanup on the vents with a file

 

 

Now, placing the two halves back together the tubes lock back in place (they will be glued as well once I reassemble) and you can see the inner barrel from the outside

 

 

Back together the weight is now just shy of 14oz, I'm not sure if I should add some more weight.

 

 

I took the front tube out, roughed it up with some sand paper and wiped it down with mineral spirits. I sprayed it with some satin black krylon spray paint, and when it dries I can glue it in place and close up the gun.

 

That's all I have time for tonight, to be continued!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Rat[TK]]

How difficult was it to break the seal on the two halves?

[Truimphmark[TK]]

Hi rat once all the screws are all out should pop open that what I did on my one

[Stratcat96[501st]]

On my gun, the top half of it was glued together as well as being screwed. I had to use a screwdriver to pry, and a little hand saw to work it open inch by inch. It was especially difficult to separate at the scope area.

 

The two halves, at least on mine weren't matched up very well so I'm going to carefully reglue everything tomorrow with the painted inner barrel

 

 

 

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Edited September 29, 2015 by Stratcat96

[Stratcat96[501st]]

So I glued in the inner barrel and rear weight tube, but unfortunately the two halves are really mismatched. All the shifting around I just could not get certain pieces to line up. Not a huge deal, as I can sand and fill once we're all dry.

 

 

Here's the inner barrel showing

 

 

And here's how mismatched the barrel is

 

 

 

 

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[BrinkHouse]

Any more progress? Working on one of these myself. Did similar inner barrel, opened up the barrel mouth, scope ends, cut out the plastic under the scope rail and added some weight inside before closing it up and bondo'ing the seam around the blaster. Not a lot of work and I think it makes a big difference towards the result. 

 

Hope to see more of your build soon!

[Stratcat96[501st]]

So after a period of no progress because of other obligations I got back to work on the Rubies.

 

Cutting the bottom of the scope out opened up holes in the gun halves, so on a suggestion I used Green Stuff to patch it up. Worked ok, but I later had the bottom of the scope part peel off so I just used bondo.

 

Here is the gap with green stuff before I sanded

 

 

 

Then, I decided to use the green stuff to fill the seams and fill the screw holes.. Not so good..

 

The green stuff didn't really stick to the plastic and literally I was able to peel it right off. I did this all at the same time, if I'd have seen the sticking problem on the gap I'd never have used it on the seams.

 

I did however use the green stuff on the gap from sanding down the center t track and that worked really well. The problems I had with it were probably because I didn't mix it right..

 

So next I sanded all the seams and roughed up all the orange paint. I sprayed a coat of black satin krylon and surprise! It didn't want to stick to the orange !$&$ lol

 

 

 

So.. I sanded down the orange AGAIN and shot those areas. Still not perfect, and my seams mostly all show. I'm not sure what to do at this point, whether try and strip the entire gun and start over, strip the orange parts only, or just rough it all up, or just bondo my seams, sand it down and shoot again.

 

Here's where it's at now

 

 

 

 

 

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[greyfox]

maybe a stupid question, but did you use primer before spraying? Maybe this is why the black doesnt stick on orange parts.

[humperdingle]

maybe a stupid question, but did you use primer before spraying? Maybe this is why the black doesnt stick on orange parts.

I used Plastikote primer on the same gun used above. I reckon the orange paint must contain a repellant of some kind, to prevent it being painted, because the primer suffered a similar problem of non-adherance. A few light coats worked well, though.

Edited February 26, 2016 by humperdingle

[greyfox]

Hm okay, I will keep that in mind, if I make my own build on this.

[Stratcat96[501st]]

Hi guys, no silly me I did not use primer.. I thought that roughing up the plastic would be enough.. Lesson learned. After completely sanding down the orange and the bad areas, I puttied up all the seams and resprayed. I did get complete coverage this time. The orange paint must contain the some kind of mold release agent or something.

 

After I sprayed it, I saw some areas the needed a bit of touch up so I hit those with some 150 grit sandpaper and now am going to spray my final coat of satin. I'll add pictures tonight.

 

 

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Edited February 26, 2016 by Stratcat96

[greyfox]

Good to hear, looking forward for that pictures!

 

What did you use to fill up the seams? Some kind of model clay or bondo/body filler? Or is it the same?

Edited February 26, 2016 by greyfox

[Stratcat96[501st]]

Good to hear, looking forward for that pictures!

 

What did you use to fill up the seams? Some kind of model clay or bondo/body filler? Or is it the same?

I first tried "Green Stuff", which didn't seem to stick to the plastic very well. I peeled that off and used Bondo, but mixing the two parts was a pain. Finally, from astyanax's build thread I decided to try Bondo 907 glazing putty. It comes in a tube and is very easy to work with. I did find though that when applied to a surface that had paint on it, it would cause it to bubble up and make a bit of a mess. Other than that it works very well, is easy to apply, and sands very easily. Walmart has it, and some 3rd party sellers on amazon, but online it's tough to find. I'm not sure if its discontinued or what, but its very much worth getting. Edited February 27, 2016 by Stratcat96

[Stratcat96[501st]]

Ok, so as you can see I started sanding down the orange painted areas and and "problem" spots where there were seams showing. You can see the bondo applied that will be sanded down..

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Stratcat96[501st]]

One thing I've also started is recheckering the grips using a gun grip checkering tool. My father is a very good gunsmith and actually suggesting trying it. All that is for is making the checkering a bit more pronounced. The coats of paint help to "soften" the checkering, so I wanted to bring it back out. Actually, I did one side just to see how it would look and figured I now had to do the other side too. Once that's done I'll get some pics of it up soon. I'll be reshooting the final coat tomorrow.

 

As an aside, I just had the Hyperfirm ANH E-11 b grade I purchased delivered. And although it looks terrific, even on it I notice the seams. Then it hit me, if a great gun like this can show a little seam then I shouldn't stress over trying to make this "toy" look perfect. In fact, the scale and overall detail of the Rubies doesn't look half bad in comparison to the Hyperfirm. The Hyperfirm hands down is a better and more detailed gun, but to the average person the Rubies can look more than passable

 

 

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Edited February 27, 2016 by Stratcat96

[humperdingle]

One thing I've also started is rechecks ring the grips using a gun grip checkering tool. All that is for is making the checkering a bit more pronounced. Actually, I did one side just to see how it would look and figured I now had to do the other side too. Once that's done I'll get some pics of it up soon. I'll be reshooting the final coat tomorrow.

As an aside, I just had the Hyperfirm ANH E-11 b grade delivered. And although it looks terrific, even on it I notice the seams. Then it hit me, if a great gun like this can show a little seam then I shouldn't stress over trying to make this "toy" look perfect. In fact, the scale and overall detail of the Rubies doesn't look half bad in comparison to the Hyperfirm. The Hyperfirm hands down is a better and more detailed gun, but to the average person the Rubies can look more than passable

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And for the discerning user, the Rubies costs £20 plus a little time and effort

[greyfox]

Keep going with this build, I enjoy it. I especially love what you did to the the t-tracks, because thats the part that hurt my eyes so much on the rubies. Other than that it has everything it needs for a conversion. I'll have to do a conversion of this soon!

[Stratcat96[501st]]

On 2/29/2016 at 6:58 PM, greyfox said:

Keep going with this build, I enjoy it. I especially love what you did to the the t-tracks, because thats the part that hurt my eyes so much on the rubies. Other than that it has everything it needs for a conversion. I'll have to do a conversion of this soon!

Thanks! The bulbous t-tracks are definitely an eyesore. I sanded the top 3 down to make it look more accurate. Here's a comparison with an untouched one.

 

 

More pics to come tonight

 

 

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[greyfox]

Yes, that makes a huge difference! Looking forward for the update

[Stratcat96[501st]]

Ok, well over the weekend I put on another coat of satin black after fixing some of the issues. Came out pretty good, but there were some areas I wasn't happy with..

 

 

In examining it, there were some areas where the paint "wrinkled" up a bit.. Almost like I used a different kind of paint on top of what was already on it

 

 

 

Now at this point, I have been considering using a hammered finish to cover up the imperfections, but I decided the black satin looks so good that I'm going to keep it as is.

 

I've waited a few days for the paint to harden in hopes that the wrinkles might lie down a bit. They have, but not to my satisfaction. I'm going to wet sand those areas only with 1100 grit and shoot it one last time..

 

After that, I picked up testor's gun metal gray for the bolt, a metal for weathering the body of the gun, and brass for weathering the scope.

 

 

I also wanted to add at this point that I don't have any experience doing this and have made plenty of mistakes along the way. A lot of trial and error. I wanted to show these mistakes so that others looking to try something like this can learn from my own mistakes.

 

Tomorrow after work I'll get those areas sanded down

 

 

 

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[BDWC[TK]]

Hi, I was modding this same Rubies while waiting on my ANOVOS kit. Now that the kit has arrived this has gotten pushed back until after the armor build. However, I started by sanding and filling, and repeating to remove all the seems....and then I found out that the Hyperfirms have seams     Since I filled and primered several times, I actually could not get the halves apart. It seems that the Bondo spot putty effectively solvent welded the soft platic together.

So, I have a question about when you sanded down the fins. Did it break through the plastic? Did you have to fill them back in?

also, this model seems to have everything but the capacitors. What are you doing for those (or is it necessary for ANH stunt?)

 

Thanks, for without your thread I would have not thought to put the inner barrel inside after opening the vent holes!!

[Stratcat96[501st]]

Hi, I was modding this same Rubies while waiting on my ANOVOS kit. Now that the kit has arrived this has gotten pushed back until after the armor build. However, I started by sanding and filling, and repeating to remove all the seems....and then I found out that the Hyperfirms have seams Since I filled and primered several times, I actually could not get the halves apart. It seems that the Bondo spot putty effectively solvent welded the soft platic together.

So, I have a question about when you sanded down the fins. Did it break through the plastic? Did you have to fill them back in?

also, this model seems to have everything but the capacitors. What are you doing for those (or is it necessary for ANH stunt?)

 

Thanks, for without your thread I would have not thought to put the inner barrel inside after opening the vent holes!!

Hi BDWC! I know that the bondo putty I used had a melting effect to any paint it was applied over so I think it might be lacquer based. Because of that it probably would melt in to the plastic a little.

 

When I got my Hyperfirm I noticed that the seams were apparent too, but since it doesn't take away from the gun on that I decided I didn't need to be too concerned on the rubies. At least it doesn't have to be "perfect". Even with that, I am glad I spent the time I did to clean the seams up because it makes the gun look much less toy-like.

 

If you sand the t-tracks down far enough you will burn through and open a gap, at least in the top one. You can see on mine how I filled it in. I really brought mine down, but if you prefer not to go as far you might not even have that issue.

 

With the power cells, there are onscreen examples of blasters with and without them. I had considered making some out of dowel rods but the aren't a big concern to me. My Hyperfirm doesn't have them either.

 

And the inner barrel is a nice way to add a little weight AND to finish off that look of a real weapon.

 

I've been any and haven't thrown up my latest pics bc I've been waiting for some warmer weather to go outside and put the final coat of satin black on. Once that's done its grips, bolt, and weathering. I've been neglecting my Anovos kit for the gun, partly because I don't like leaving a project unfinished and also because I'm a bit intimidated to start hacking lol

 

Good luck with your build!

 

 

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[humperdingle]

I finished my first Rubies the other day, but have another on the way. I say finished, but I can think of a couple of things I'd like to change. Added power cells to mine. I'd like a cap on the magazine, an actual D ring, not a moulded one, etc. Maybe on the new one.

I think they're great little blasters

 

 

[RickyBoyBlue[TK]]

 

I laud you for your work on the T-tracks.  I never even imagined doing this on my Rubies projects.

 

It inspired me to now try and sand down my tracks on my finished Rubies.

You think I can still do it?  Any suggestions?

 

Here's my two Rubies (I compared it to a recently purchased HFX).

 

Thanks, Rob.  Excellent work!

Edited March 13, 2016 by RickyBoyBlue

[humperdingle]

The fins are surprisingly easy to sand down. I used a 40mm drum sander attachment on my power drill. The drill is clamped in a vice, so the drum part sticks out past the workbench edge, then my hands are free to just hold the Rubies.

The only tracks that might pose any issues are 1) The top track, which will need filled if you go too far, but that's easy enough to sort. 2) The one on the bottom (ejector side), which is moulded, or attached to another bit of the gun at the front. Just go carefully, only touching the track.
After they're level, with rounded ends, you can just smooth down any bumps and sharp edges with sandpaper.

Edit: removing the material under scope rail is a bit trickier , but is worth in my opinion. I used a Dremel for this, but it's easy to damage the top of the tube, plus you may need to use filler for the top of the tube (directly under where you've cut)

I also drilled out the front and rear sights.

Edited March 13, 2016 by humperdingle