Coloursergeant's Steel E-11 Blaster Build

[Coloursergeant]

So I was lucky enough to find a genuine 1943 M38 scope online!

 

The scope was located in New Zealand, and the owner there purchased it in Argentina, so this thing has really gotten around!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the original paint finish is almost completely gone on the right side.  I'd like to use this on my Sterling E-11, but would need to paint it in order for it to fit in with the finish on the rest of the blaster.  

 

Does anyone have any thoughts or recommendations about painting this?

[Troopacoola[TK]]

Blaster looks great! Loving the stand BTW.

I would do one of two things with the scope. Either strip it down and repaint or leave as is. Depends on what effect you want to go for

 

Marc

[sla73]

Wow, just fantastic work putting that Sterling back together without welding Jon.. A great looking blaster for sure!

[gazmosis[501st]]

So darn cool!! Well done all around

[Tee-Kay Fisto[TK]]

Just found this thread and it is a goldmine of information for me as I'm intending to start a sterling conversion soon and this is the first time I have found someone showing how they drilled a genuine hengstler for mounting.

Fantastic work and an awesome looking blaster.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Scalawag]

What a great build, I just popped over from my DLT-19 build where you left a link.  This looks fantastic.

 

The crinkle paint finish always fascinates me as the first time I saw a sterling with that finish was when I started to look at E-11 prop builds.  I don't know how much you know about the finish and I hope I am not talking out of place here, but the crinkle finish is seen on 'export' versions of the sterling and so is very common outside the UK. All contracts for the sterling from outside the UK had the crinkle finish.  However the UK military contracts all specified that sterlings should be finished in a smooth paint. Its the only difference between the UK military and export versions, other than this they are identical.  

In the UK we are far more used to seeing military surplus sterlings which all have the smooth finish which tends to wear more easily too.  We hardly ever see the crinkle paint here, but occasionally we see a UK military sterling that has a crinkle painted shoulder stock, which I think is a result of the UK military buying parts from a canceled export contract some time in the early 1970s.  They bought a load of internal parts and stocks as spares from the canceled export contract as sterling were anxious to make back some of the money they lost when the contract fell through.  Interestingly the suppressed versions used by the UK military do have the crinkle paint finish.

This is just my theory, but I suspect that Bapty & Co  supplied ex British military Sterlings for use in Star Wars.  It's impossible to prove of course, as records would not reflect this as they would not of noted this type of detail when the guns came into inventory with them, but it would make sense as the majority of Sterlings available on the UK market would be ex UK military spec ones, and buying export versions would have probably cost a lot more.

 

Anyway, both finishes are accepted by the community, and the crinkle finish does add a more interesting look to the E-11.

 

Not a patch on your build, but this is my Doopy Doos E-11 with BlastFX electronics which I thought you might like too.

 

 

Paul

 

Edited September 28, 2018 by Scalawag

[T-Jay[TK]]

@Scalawag Thanks Paul for sharing that knowledge about the crinkle paint with us.