Almost Ultimate Heavy F-11D build – T5H v.18

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Hello all,

 

I'm starting this build thread to illustrate concretely what you can achieve with the 3D files of the F-11D blaster I shared here:

Free TFA F-11D 3D Printable Files Available Now.

 

First of all, a big thank goes to Jerry Budde for offering me this print based on the 18th iteration of my files (current iteration is #19).

Parts are printed in PLA, 0.2 layer height if I’m not mistaken. Correct me if I’m wrong here Jerry. 

 

Brown Box picture:

 

 

At first I was still undecided what to do with the kit, whether I was only going to assemble it or involve more of my time into it. But one thing leading to another I ended up starting to smooth the print lines of one part, which kind of forced me to do the same for the whole blaster.

 

All the cleaning work has been done using only glazing putty and sandpaper. I didn’t use any acetone (doesn’t work with PLA anyway) or XTC. This method gives great results but is very time consuming and requires a lot of patience and stubbornness. During the process I had four states to qualify a part: raw, rough, smooth, silky smooth. 

- Raw corresponded to the raw untouched print.

- Rough after the print artifacts were cleaned and the whole part had been rough sanded (grit 100).

- Smooth after the first sanded coat of glazing putty.

- Silky Smooth after the second sanded coat of glazing putty and required touch-ups.

 

On the pic below, the tactical stock body is in Rough state when the shoulder pad is Smooth. The cheek rest is in betwixt rough and smooth.

 

Close-up of Rough state.

 

All those pill inserts on the cheek rest were a nightmare to sand. In fact the whole tactical stock was very annoying to smooth. That’s why for the two coats of putty I always started with the tactical stock parts, because if I had kept them for the last I would never have had the strength to smooth them as they’re kinda optional! 

 

Before starting to smooth the handle, I reunited the body with the trigger guard. I used pins made out of a paper clip to reinforce the junction and welded the two parts together. 

 

Smooth state:

 

Same for the Folding stock, before starting the smoothing I welded the two rear parts. First pic is between rough and smooth, second is smooth.

 

Smooth state:

 

The magazine is probably one of the hardest parts I had to smooth. First the putty I was using started to become very thick which didn’t make things easier, the print had few offsets to correct, and of course there’s a lot of small details packed in it that you need to preserve. For the power cylinders, they’re so small that even though I did my best, the print and cleaning processes erased few details. 

First pic is between rough and smooth, second is smooth.

 

Silky Smooth state. For the magazine I had to do three coats with many touch-ups:

 

To correct one of the inaccuracies of the #18 iteration of my 3D files I secured the front muzzle to the barrel using the two front M6 screws. I then filled the groove with filler putty (putty with hardener), and after I removed the screws and front muzzle I shaped a torus/pulley into the hardened putty.

 

I also had a small print issue with the two parts composing the rear half of the barrel where there was a gap on both sides between the two when fitted together. So here too I sculpted the missing parts.

 

After that I secured the two parts together for good using three M4 screws and smoothed the small gap line between both.

 

Same song for the Barrel hub and the Scope rail 1 parts. I’m pretty sure these parts form a single one on the original blasters so I welded them and smoothed the transition after.

 

I wanted the magazine to be removable for easier transport and also to keep access to electronics, so I shaped a block of wood until it fitted tight into the magazine underside. After that I prolonged the two holes present in the bottom face of the magazine into the block of wood. Then I positioned the magazine with the barrel hub and reported with a pencil where the block of wood would need to be. And once I had the position determined I secured the block of wood to the barrel hub using two screws.

The magazine now slides around this block of wood and is secured to it using the two bottom screws.

 

For the front light I bought a small twist-on LED flashlight on Amazon and epoxied it into the flashlight tip.

 

The flashlight tip will then be welded with the folding stock tip after they’ve been painted. When the rear half of the LED flashlight is loose it’s off, but when twisted tight it lights on. I also made sure I had enough space the completely unscrew the rear half of the flashlight so when the batteries die I’ll be able to change them without having to tear everything apart.

 

 

After the hengstler got smoothed I welded the small front part to it to reduce the number of separate parts for the painting.

 

Now some close-ups of few parts in their silky smooth state. Ready to paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of the 55 parts composing the blaster:

- Hengstler unit, 4 parts:

 

- Handle and Rear Folding Stock unit, 11 parts:

 

- Tactical Stock unit, 3 parts:

 

- Rear Barrel unit, 6 parts:

 

- Scope and Barrel Hub unit, 11 parts:

 

- Front Folding Stock unit, 5 parts:

 

- Magazine unit, 3 parts:

 

- Front Barrel unit, 12 parts:

 

 

And that's all for today. To be continued...

 

T5H.

[T K[501st]]

Wow.. I am very much looking forward to this. It's definitely going to be a beauty of a blaster. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Great work, all that sanding, I don't envy you

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Saaaaanding, soooo muuuch sanding! I think I'll always associate TFA with sanding, because I pretty much always have something to smooth and sand.

 

Great work, all that sanding, I don't envy you

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Alright, let's continue this.

 

Before starting to paint I still had few modifications I wanted to make. I first got rid of the fake hardware on the cheek rest and drilled holes for M4 screws instead. I then reported the holes onto the tactical stock body to allow the cheek rest to be secured with the stock body using two M4 screws on each side.

 

To reduce the number of separate parts I also welded the five T-tracks with the barrel. 

 

Still in the same line of thought I welded the End cap clip and Hengstler bracket to the rear barrel.

 

To weld the front flash protector I had to grind the putty that was there. After welding I also smoothed the transitions between the flash protector, the T-tracks, and the barrel.

 

Same process for the flash protector on the barrel hub.

 

After that I welded the forward grip hinge to the folding stock front part. Here too I first had to grind the putty I had applied. I didn’t smooth the transition between those two parts because on the original blasters the hinge positioning seems to be prone to changes. That probably means it’s a separate part and I doubt they would bother smoothing the gap on all of the blasters made for the film and its promotion.

 

For the trigger I cut to size a pin that goes through the trigger and slots into notches made on each side of the folding stock. The pin ends will be glued into the notches after painting.

 

I believe the second trigger is the actual functioning one, so for this one I epoxied a spring into the hole made to this effect in the handle. The trigger has a matching hole into it to fit the other end of the spring.

 

 

I needed lenses for the scope eye rings so I looked for something and found an old box of Q-tips into which I cut the two lenses. The lenses will be smoked after for more accuracy and better look.

 

At this point I was finally ready to start painting. I masked what needed to be masked, wired the parts that needed to be hung, and applied two coats of grey primer.

 

I started by painting the white parts in Gloss White as this is the paint that had the longest drying time and also because some white parts have black details to paint on them after. Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

After the white I airbrushed the black parts with a satin black. My compressor died on me between the first and second coat but luckily I was able to fix it and finish the job!

 

Lastly for the silver parts, I primed them, smoothed and polished the primer until I got a shiny finish. After that I airbrushed three coats of Polished Alu Metalcote and once dry I buffed it with a soft cloth. I would have preferred a chromed finish but didn’t have any at hand.

Sorry, no pictures of the process.

 

Layout of all the painted parts:

 

 

 

Next step will be to assemble everything together!

 

T5H.

Edited July 19, 2016 by The5thHorseman

[tkrestonva[TK]]

Thanks for doing this! I also have one of Jerry's heavy F-11D kits which I'll soon be starting on. It'll be good to have some expert guidance.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Thanks for doing this! I also have one of Jerry's heavy F-11D kits which I'll soon be starting on. It'll be good to have some expert guidance.

Haha, I'm no expert at all, I only modelled it. The least thing you'd expect from me then is to know how to build it together!

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Front barrel assembly

 

First I made sure the white ring was lining up good, and welded it to the front muzzle.

 

Then I secured the front muzzle to the barrel using the two front M6 screws.

 

Making sure it was oriented the right way first, I welded the bottom of the Front Sight 2 part to the front muzzle only.

 

Lastly I welded the Front Sight 1 part. However I only welded its front foot to the front muzzle, the rear one is only fitted into its slot. This way I’m still able to remove the front muzzle if needed by removing the screws and sliding it out sideways.

 

Once complete the Front Barrel got welded with the Barrel Hub.

 

Handle and Rear Folding Stock assembly. 

I first started by gluing the black textured grips to the handle. I didn’t weld them because even if they’re not looking bad at all, I’m not excluding to have them printed in a better resolution and change them later. So I needed them to be removable.

 

I then put a chunk of glue inside the hole for the spring in the Trigger 2 part and slid it into position while making sure the spring end was fitting inside the hole.

 

After the Trigger 2, I chose to secure the Trigger 1 to the Folding Stock. The pin going through the trigger is glued on each side using e6000. I first wanted to epoxy it, but as the epoxy is yellow I didn’t want to take the chance to spoil the paintjob around. 

 

The rest is only bolting parts together.

 

First I put the four M4 bolts to the handle. They have no function and here only for show.

 

Once done, I secured the handle with the folding stock. 

First I put the two M4 screws going from the inside of the folding stock to the handle. Those screws are required at all, I’m just using them for extra safety.

Then I used two M3 screws to secure the rear folding stock tabs to the handle.

Finally I secured the front of the trigger guard with the folding stock by using two M3 screws. The hole present ahead of the two screws is here for the folding stock bottom cover’s screw.

 

You can stop at this point if you want of prefer this look. The bottom cover is optional.

 

I wanted to have the bottom cover so I inserted it into position. Two alignment tabs are present on the part to make this easy to do. Once in position I secured it with the folding stock and handle using the third M3 screw hole.

 

The finished unit.

 

 

Once the whole handle/Folding Stock unit finished I welded it to the bottom of the Barrel Hub.

 

Front Folding Stock assembly.

 

First I added the M3 screw between the forward grip hinge and the folding stock. To be honest this screw is not accurate and doesn’t really serve anything. But I wasn’t sure to be able to weld PLA parts together so I added it to my model for extra safety because overall I haven’t much trust into glue alone.

 

The black inserts on the forward grips are only paint in black for now because the more I look about it, the more I don’t believe this whole idea of textured rubber material. To me it looks like textured 3D printed inserts, just like for the handle grips. 

When you think about it, those three screws present on the bottom face of the forward grip would be of no use at all is the material was rubber as the sides would fold over and need glue anyway. But if the sides are glued, what’s the need for these three screws? That’s part why I now think this insert is a U shaped 3D printed insert secured to the forward grip with these three bottom screws.

 

Before painting I checked the length of the screws I would need to use to secure the forward grip to its hinge. 

 

After that I welded the flashlight tip inside the folding stock tip. I just made sure to put the batteries inside the flashlight first as it’s easier done before the parts are welded together, even if not impossible after. 

 

Then I inserted the folding stock tip into the front of the folding stock and used the channel present in the top of the folding stock to put the safety M3 screw. The purpose of this screw is to prevent the folding stock tip to fall off. 

Side note: I was tempted to paint the whole folding stock tip but in the end I painted only its outside part because the fit between the two parts was already quite tight, and with the thickness of the paint there was high chance they wouldn’t have fitted together anymore.  

 

Finished unit.

 

Folding Stock reuniting. On this picture you can see the notch made to the underside of the front barrel for the head of the safety screw holding the folding stock tip.

 

The front part of the folding stock is only plugged with the rear part of the folding stock (no glue), and then secured to the front barrel using a M4 screw.

 

 

And I think it’s going to wrap us for today. The rest later.

 

 

T5H.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

Excellent job with the smoothing and sanding. I know I don't have the patience to use glazing putty and a ton of elbow grease, so I'll most likely use XTC as a shortcut. Nonetheless, it's clear that your hard work and determination is paying off.

 

Also, those are some great build ideas with the triggers. I'll definitely be incorporating those in my build.

 

Question for you - will you be installing any red lights in the barrel? Some of the behind the scenes footage shows that the blasters actually light up (but have no sound) when the trigger is squeezed, so I'm leaning towards gutting a toy blaster and transferring the electronics to this build.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

I've seen some really great smoothing results with XTC. I think the the keywith it is to be patient and use several light coats instead of a big one to avoid warping too much the parts.

 

Question for you - will you be installing any red lights in the barrel? Some of the behind the scenes footage shows that the blasters actually light up (but have no sound) when the trigger is squeezed, so I'm leaning towards gutting a toy blaster and transferring the electronics to this build.

No I won't. I'm not an electronics guy at all, and don't know if I would even be able to wire something like that.

 

I will probably try to install some electronics into the hengstler and magazine though, but that will be all.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Last part of the build today.

 

Scope Mount assembly.

 

First I glued the two scope knobs. No welding here because just like for the handle grips, I might swap them for better prints later. After that I welded the two halves of the scope mount 

 

Scope assembly.

You can see here that I smoked the two lenses. Nothing professional at all, just a light layer of airbrushed black.

 

To begin I secured the rear scope rail with the scope mount using a M3 screw. The same screw is then used to secure the scope body with the scope mount. In order to do that the screw must be at least 40mm long.

 

I finished by gluing the two eye rings, without forgetting to insert the two lenses inside the rings before. I also paid attention to which face of the lenses was oriented toward the outside, because the face that is airbrushed with black paint has a matte finish and no reflections, so I made sure this face was oriented toward the inside of the scope.

 

Finally I welded the scope unit with the rest of the blaster. Little mistake from my part here. When I think back about it, I should have made a small recess to the bottom face of the white part of the scope rail, and then use a screw going from under the scope rail to the front foot of the scope mount. This way I would have been able to dismount it.

 

Rear barrel assembly.

 

Not much to do here, only securing the rear sight with a M3 screw, and welding the cocking handle.

 

Hengstler assembly:

 

Before anything I glued behind the cover a small piece of plastic to give the illusion of glass. It’s not very accurate but it looks nice. For now the red lighting will be done by using balloon lights.

 

The hengstler is secured to the rear barrel by using two M3 screws going from inside the hengstler, through the hengstler bracket, to the rear barrel.

 

The hengstler is then closed by securing its cover with a M3 screw.

 

Tactical Stock assembly.

 

The cheek rest got secured to the tactical stock body using two M4 screws on each side. Same thing for the End Cap using two M4 screws.

 

Finished unit:

 

For now the tactical stock is only plugged into the rear barrel. The fit is quite tight and feels secure enough but if not I will weld it.

 

Finished rear half of the blaster.

 

The two halves:

 

I wanted to have the possibility to remove the rear half of the blaster. So in order to be able to slide the rear barrel on and off, I had to make a small notch to the folding stock so the heads of the screws didn’t get in the way.

 

Once slid all the way in, the rear barrel is secured to the rest of the blaster using two M3 screws going through the folding stock.

 

Almost finished blaster. Only the magazine is missing.

 

Magazine assembly. 

 

First I welded the white end cap to the magazine (if you’re planning for electronics, it might be better to do that in last). Then I positioned the power cylinders on the magazine and sanded the surfaces. I glued the power cylinders instead of welding because once again I may upgrade them for a better print in the future.

 

Just like for the hengstler I cut a small piece of plastic that I glued underneath the pills openings. Red light is just a balloon light for now.

 

Magazine ready for bolting.

 

Once slid over the wooden block, the magazine is bolted to the barrel hub using two M3 screws.

 

 

Finished blaster:

(Now believe it or not but this picture is actually exactly the hundredth of this build. How cool is that?)

 

 

 

 

 

Size comparison between the Heavy F-11D and DDay’s Standard size F-11D.

 

Finally the 3D render vs its physical version.

 

 

I'm quite happy with how it turned out. I reckon some parts could have use some more smoothing, but overall it looks really nice in hand. It's also very light, which for such a big blaster is a real good point.

In the future I’m planning to make proper electronics for the magazine and hengstler, have decals printed, and probably have the forward grip inserts I talked about earlier printed too.

 

 

That would be all.

 

Cheers,

T5H.

[bearings[TK]]

Very nice, looks super clean!

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Thanks Ben.

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Nice build. Just starting printing out the standard version... I will be happy if mine comes out half as nice.

[CHIP-HAZARD]

could you provide details as far as the screw sizes? I would like to get the right size screws used in this build

[Jonelli[TK]]

Has anyone compiled a complete list of correct screw sizes and head types?  I've read through the build threads, and some of the screws are referenced, but not entire details.  It would be nice to have a reference list.  Are they all supposed to be Torx heads? (except for the front barrel ones, those are allen heads)

Which are suipposed to be black and silver?  

 

My own edit... After doing more searching I finally found the old screw reference posts... 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32544-free-tfa-f-11d-3d-printable-files-available-now/page-31#entry518393

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32544-free-tfa-f-11d-3d-printable-files-available-now/page-32#entry522822

Edited February 27, 2017 by Jonelli

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Has anyone compiled a complete list of correct screw sizes and head types?  I've read through the build threads, and some of the screws are referenced, but not entire details.  It would be nice to have a reference list.  Are they all supposed to be Torx heads? (except for the front barrel ones, those are allen heads)

Which are suipposed to be black and silver?  

 

My own edit... After doing more searching I finally found the old screw reference posts... 

 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32544-free-tfa-f-11d-3d-printable-files-available-now/page-31#entry518393

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32544-free-tfa-f-11d-3d-printable-files-available-now/page-32#entry522822

Most, if not all, the screws needed (bolt size, length, and head type) are also referenced inside my "Directions" .pdf that is include with the 3D files. They are detailed during the "build tutorial" section.

 

Also, not all the bolts must be TORX at all! This is in fact a mistake that has be done during the initial days of research and that I've been spreading like a dumba**. All the black bolts you see on the blaster are supposed to be Allen (socket) bolts. Only the silver ones are TORX.

[djmatrix09[TK]]

Quick question, you mention a layer height of 0.2, what was your infill %? Love the build. Thanks!

 

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Quick question, you mention a layer height of 0.2, what was your infill %? Love the build. Thanks!

Sorry but I didn't do the printjob in fact, so I can't tell you what infill was used. 

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Wow, ultimate is right! Would you ever consider doing a slinged option for it? If so we can use your blaster for the CRL

 

Also, pinning this thread as it's an orgy of build photo goodness and everyone doing an F-11D should read it.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

It's a bit outdated now but thanks for pinning it!

 

About the sling though, this F-11D being a HEAVY one I'm lacking one part (the silver swivel) at the back of the end cap to mount it. Also, the blaster's size isn't correct as the one in the movie is a STANDARD sized F-11D. And lastly I'm not very keen about being allowed by the CRL to have a sling to your F-11D, so I'm not going to put too much efforts making it happen . I'm sure someone else will be up to do it though.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

No worries Germain, I still think it's an awesome thread and worth pinning

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Yea totally missed this. Excellent work Germain. Definitely worth pinning.

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Thank you Tony.

[stallfield]

Thank you so much