Count Choc ANH E11 aluminum Doopy pipe build (pic heavy)

[kevin926]

You the man! I love the look of blue lights on black. What a fun project and you definitely have taken this to the next level.

[crisisfilms]

Those light up bullets are beautiful. Amazing idea and very well executed. Seems like people just keep taking their blasters further and further than I ever thought they could lately. Really inspiring work.

[kwakermad[TK]]

Sean it's all been said already but this is a great build, some nice routing of your wires and those LED rounds are something I was thinking about doing. How about you save me a lot of time and sell me 6 of those?

[count chocula]

Thanks, you guys are too kind. I'd be happy to sell some rounds. I still have the mold and plenty of resin, just PM me and we'll work it out.

[count chocula]

Another quick update on the progress of this E11. I've painted almost everything and added a few more things in the last week so I wanted to get everyones opinion.

 

Power Cylinders 

 

I purchased the 3d-printed model from themaninthesuitcase prior to his recent update. After reviewing some of the options for smoothing 3d-printed models, I went with the advice of themaninthesuitcase himself, which was to simply prime/seal, sand, repeat. This was a little tedious but I'm relatively happy with how smooth it looks in the end.

 

I actually used super glue in acetone to try and seal the piece after sanding (I saw this on a youtube video). It was easy to do. Not sure if it really added anything special, but the end result after painting is fair.

 

I made some of the mods that Tino made in his recent build (shortening the rear side of the central capacitors, e.g.). I also referenced the .pdf from this very thorough thread. I went with "shape A" for the rear rack and the "two resistors each side" option for the rear resistors. Thank you to T-jay for the end caps/bolts and red insulation sleeve for the rear resistors. The rear resistors here are actually some ferrite beads I had lying around that looked to be the right size/shape.

 

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I used quite a few coats of paint to try and get things looking smooth. I also added some humbrol 27002/27003 to get a bright metal look on several spots, followed by liquid latex and a final few coats of satin black. The latex was removed in spots to reveal the metallic paint underneath. This was stolen from Tino as well (thanks T-jay).

 

 

 I think I was a little over-zealous initially and left a bit too much "metal" showing. I later re-did this to make it slightly more subtle (I re-latexed a smaller area then re-painted with black). The final cylinders can be seen attached to the rifle at the end of this post.

 

 

 

 

Selector Switch

 

 I purchased a real selector switch from apex on a splurge (the doopy switch seemed a little flimsy). I cut down the selector switch on my E11 and put a little slot into it, then carved the end of the apex switch into a male slot and JBwelded them together.

 

 

 

 

Trigger Guard

 

Not much to say here except the damn thing kept falling off with JBkwik alone, so I added a few pins and JBwelded it to the gun. Seems to be more sturdy now.

 

 

 

Painting

 

I basically copied everything T-jay did here (big surprise, I know). I used humbrol metalcote 27004 on several spots, followed by polishing, followed by latex, and finally followed by some wrinkle paint. I don't have many pictures of this, but Tino has documented the process better than I could anyway.

 

I used this wrinkle paint from Eastwood (below) and it worked fairly well. Just two heavy coats 3 minutes apart. Left in a hot garage for 12 - 24 hours and a pretty nice wrinkle effect emerged. 

 

 

 

I then pulled the latex off in several spots and brushed with some eyeshadow I borrowed from my wife (mostly a rust color and a gunmetal color in various spots). I think the eyeshadow added a lot of character to the look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T Tracks

 

These were also added (as you can see from the pictures above). The tracks were from Roy at wannawanga. They are not cheap, so I really didn't want to botch any of them. I read T-jays tutorial and did my best, but this was not easy. The only thing I would add to T-jays tutorial is that the length of the track (after cutting) is critical. Too long and the track tends to bend upward just before the hole, too short and the track won't sit in the hole (and you may see some of your cuts sticking out). I also had to use a bit of E6000 to keep a few of the tracks in place. I tried heating up the ends of the tracks that didn't hold in place, but the heat gun tended to heat up the nearby tracks, causing those tracks to bend out of place. This resulted in a few curse words and so on. Best to get it right the first time and not have to re-heat/re-mold (in my limited experience, at least).

[kwakermad[TK]]

The distressed paintwork looks proper natural, great job.

[T-Jay[TK]]

Looks like you had some fun weathering this thing

[count chocula]

The distressed paintwork looks proper natural, great job.

 

Thanks, Bob.

 

 

Looks like you had some fun weathering this thing   

 

Haha yes. Maybe too much fun. I was going for a "found on the Tantive IV" look rather than a "found on the ocean floor" look lol. It can be easy to get carried away. I think I like it though.

Edited August 3, 2016 by count chocula

[SeanTX]

Wow what an amazing build.

[T-Jay[TK]]

Haha yes. Maybe too much fun. I was going for a "found on the Tantive IV" look rather than a "found on the ocean floor" look lol. It can be easy to get carried away. I think I like it though.

 

No worries. If you haven't sealed the makeup-weathering under a clear coat, it will fade and only remains in believable spots.    Good work

[count chocula]

On 8/4/2016 at 7:02 AM, SeanTX said:

Wow what an amazing build.

 

 

Thanks, Sean!

 

 

Scope

 

I've been fiddling with the scope since the beginning of this build. I really wanted to have lettering on the scope, but the shapeways part is missing this touch. I bought a doopydoos scope simply to amputate the end with the lettering and attach that to my scope. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it made sense to me at the time.

 

Also, the doopys scope wide lens end has some detailing that is absent from the shapeways part and makes everything look a little more realistic i think.

 

 

I also made some changes to the front end of the scope, as the joint there didnt meet up just right (the front-most side was slightly thinner than the main body it meets up with). I built up the very front side with some epoxy clay to make this match up.

 

 

Sadly, after applying several coats of primer/humbrol brass/satin black over the whole thing, I couldn't really see the letters anymore    

 

I sanded it down again and tried to carve the letter impressions back in with some dental tools, but it never really looked right. I went with white acrylic paint instead of crayon (I thought I could control the final look of the lettering with paint - but in the end I don't think it really mattered). Also added the screws fro T-jays completion kit here.

 

The resulting frankenscope is passable I think(?), but I'm not thrilled about it. I've reached out to Brian to see if I can have a hand at one of his casts instead.

 

 

 

 

Scope rail/Counter bracket

 

I initially tried bending/filing the rail from T-jay's completion kit into a scope rail, but at the last moment, while trying to get a little more bend in the tongue, the tongue broke off  .

 

I ran to the hardware store and bought some 3/4" x 1/8" aluminum bar and redid the rail. I also made the counter bracket out of some aluminum siding (which already had a 90 degree bend in it). I used billhag's thread as a guide for the bracket (although I know there are a million ways to go about it). I left a fairly long tongue on the rail so that I could bend the tongue up against the inside of the receiver and keep the rail from moving up and down too much.

 

 

 

After drilling/countersinking the screw holes, I primed the whole thing and painted it satin black.

 

 

 

I used the same countersunk hex-head screws for the scope/counter that I used to hold parts within the barrel. Maybe not the most accurate, but I think it looks fine.

 

Here's what the whole package is looking like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a video:

 

 

I can't believe how far this has come in just a few months ... very grateful to all who have commented, everyone who has sold me parts, and all those in the FISD community who have made such wonderful threads for me to shamelessly copy .

[RadioactiveMicrobe]

This is so mind-blowingly complex and amazing, every hat I own is off to you.

[shadan[TK]]

This build is absolutely amazing. I'm blown away by your attention to detail and those electronics really do complete the piece. Well done.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[SeanTX]

Ok so I bought some of those scopes. Where do I make the incision to free the prisms?

[SeanTX]

I mean I bought the monocular with the roof prisms

[count chocula]

On 8/20/2016 at 2:43 AM, SeanTX said:

Ok so I bought some of those scopes. Where do I make the incision to free the prisms?

 

 

On 8/20/2016 at 2:44 AM, SeanTX said:

I mean I bought the monocular with the roof prisms

 

 

No scalpel necessary. You should be able to unscrew the front end. After taking the front off, you should see the prism in its mounted black enclosure. You can grab the lip of the enclosure and just pull out. It came out fairly easily for me. If that doesn't work, you can always drill into it I guess. The prism is located right where the main tube meets the front end.

 

 

 

You will probably need to sand down the outside of that prism housing to get it to fit inside your scope. Try not to take the prisms out if you can avoid it, as they are in two pieces and tend to get smudged when handled.

 

Hope this helps.

[SeanTX]

Mine didn't come apart like that. 

 

 

[count chocula]

Are those two different monoculars? The tasco at the top of your picture looks like the one I used.

 

The side with the smaller lens should unscrew, giving you access to pull out the prism.

 

If this doesn't work, I would just cut into the scope with a dremel wheel near the larger lens side (the prism should be far away from the large lens), and then just keep cutting towards the smaller lens side until you can see/remove the prism housing.

Edited August 20, 2016 by count chocula

[SeanTX]

Got it

 

The last piece was glued. But I put an allen key in a vice and used it to twist against and it snapped free.

 

Same one. I just ripped all the rubber off looking for ways to take it apart.

Edited August 20, 2016 by SeanTX

[count chocula]

I've added in the code/schematics for posterity (page 3). This thing is fun to troop with! A bit heavy though.

 

I'm really wanting to do make some BFGs in the near future (T-21? RT-97c?) I think I may have to go sandy/HWT at some point. Cheers 

[Coloursergeant]

Beautiful Build!  I love the weathered and chipped crinkle finish!  It looks just like the finish on my original Sterling parts, only even more weathered.

 

Fantastic job on the electronics/wiring too, that must have been a real challenge, but it came out amazing.

 

Well done!

Edited September 21, 2016 by coloursergeant

[count chocula]

Beautiful Build!  I love the weathered and chipped crinkle finish!  It looks just like the finish on my original Sterling parts, only even more weathered.

 

Fantastic job on the electronics/wiring too, that must have been a real challenge, but it came out amazing.

 

Well done!

 

Thanks, Jon. It looks like you're gearing up for a nice sterling parts build yourself!

[Coloursergeant]

Thanks, Jon. It looks like you're gearing up for a nice sterling parts build yourself!

 

Yes, and I will certainly borrow from your painting/finishing methods to repair the crinkle finish on my Sterling!  

[kevin926]

Wow, looks great. You have been busy!