JeklynHyde's RS Prop Masters, ANH Stunt Build

[Jeklynhyde]

Just made an E-11 blaster kit purchase from DoopyDoos.

On the docket for tonight: torso sizing and strapping. Let's see if i can get it done in one shot xD

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Doopy's have over time been a little hit and miss with their shipping but hopefully this in now sorted and you receive the kit soon. A great base blaster and a lot can be added to trick them out, looking forward to you building it.

[Jeklynhyde]

Taking a look at the mounting brackets, they're all the same length minus the three super long ones.

 

But they're all skewed, the same side on all of them is lifted up. So I bent the ones I was working with so both sides were on the same plane.

 

Using pliers to hold the vertical part steady and twist the other side in line.

 

I also decided to take off all the stickers from the insides of all the parts. Sticker residue was being a bother.

 

Did a little research, and it turns out WD-40 does an excellent job. Nearly immediately removes the residue and does not damage the plastic.

 

All clean. Once removed, wash it down with dish detergent to remove any residual.

 

Getting the bracket positioning sorted. Following Ukswrath's build thread.

 

Used tape to help draw the second hole mark.

 

In matching the back to the kidney to mark the kidney's lines, I see that they won't line up without significant bend to either the kidney or the back.

Kept the brackets used for the measurements taped to the plates in case of any length differences due to the bend reshaping.

 

Using tape to make the kidney bend to a better shape to match the back.

 

With the tape in place, the curve and gap look better.

 

Been watching House in the background - It's the Darth Vader episode XD.

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[Jeklynhyde]

Then here's where I go wrong...

In reading about the hot bath technique to help shape parts, I traced the outline of the bottom edges (Right from the front, and Left from the front).

 

Smaller dutch oven doesn't allow for quite as much submersion as I was expecting...

 

... So I got out my big pasta pot.

After the first attempt, the left side was still significantly out of place.

 

The right side wasn't as bad... I think the first bath worked decently for it (no before image on this one)

 

After a number of attempts... It's at a better curve, but I'm not liking how curved the top got.

 

The right side managed to get to the right shape

 

But in the process, the left side got way too bent out of shape.

 

The return edge got all curled up.

 

Deformed side

 

To the point where it looks like that whole side is shrunken - Turns out this is part of the lovely asymmetry as part of original casting from the RS armour.

 

... and warped - Don't worry! This is how it's supposed to look for RS armour.

 

warped..

warped....

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[Cricket[TK]]

About the left and right sides of the kidney... One side is longer than the other right out of the box.  I recently made a post about this.  

 

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/45339-crickets-rs-props-hero-build-yet-more-vertically-challenged-assembly/?do=findComment&comment=643312

 

[fragarock[TK]]

Give it another bath and try to straighten the edge that's curled. Do you have a heat iron? I suggest getting one, they're invaluable especially for us shorter troopers who need to cut and reform edges.

I suggest reinforcing your bracket attachment areas as well with an extra strip of ABS. It will be worth the extra work.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Jeklynhyde]

9 hours ago, Cricket said:

About the left and right sides of the kidney... One side is longer than the other right out of the box.  I recently made a post about this.  

Thank goodness! Thanks for posting that! I thought i was going a little crazy over here. I hadn't taken very good before pictures or measurements so i was starting to freak out a little.

I do have a heat gun which would allow for greater control so long as i can direct it correctly, but i haven't figured the right temperature yet.

[Jeklynhyde]

4 minutes ago, fragarock said:

Do you have a heat iron?

 

Not yet, but i may need to get one!

 

5 minutes ago, fragarock said:

I suggest reinforcing your bracket attachment areas as well with an extra strip of ABS. It will be worth the extra work.

That is definitely on my list. Thanks for the suggestion!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You can also use two small blocks of wood to shape and hold an edge while it is hardening to help keep it straight.

 

ABS isn't the most friendly to heat and does take some practice, years ago I would never have dared to use a heat gun, now I have people standing around me at armor workshops in awe and disbelief of how I nonchalantly attack their armor with heat, hey I just turn around and say "it's not mine" 

 

 

[Jeklynhyde]

1 hour ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I just turn around and say "it's not mine" 

 

Bahaha, Evil!

[fragarock[TK]]

1 hour ago, Jeklynhyde said:

 

Not yet, but i may need to get one!

 

That is definitely on my list. Thanks for the suggestion!

After reading your post I went back and looked at mine. I had to cut quite a bit off the bottom of my kidney piece. You may find you have to do the same. It's hard to tell until you get all brackets in and see the pieces hanging together. Keep up the good work, it can be scary at times but also very rewarding.

 

 

[Jeklynhyde]

Ramping up the battlestation again. Pot on the right is for cold water bath. Turns out it was more useful for cooling down my hands

 

Full pot, rolling boil.

Part of the problem before was that I couldn't get the part shaped quickly enough before it cooled down.

Put on some gloves that let me handle and shape the plastic in the water. When the heat got too hot even with the gloves, I dunked my hands in the cool water.

 

Grabbed some popsicle sticks and used pliers to compress the edge. Testing to see that it would work. This would have been easier if I had not trimmed down the return edges so much already, but alas. This is what I've got to work with.

 

Ready to enter the pot.

 

Found a block of wood to try to assist shaping.

You can see the popsicle sticks and pliers did the trick to flatten out the return edge.

 

Cut two pieces and played with it for a while.

 

Still wobbly, but in the right shape.

Next step may be the heat gun, but now that I know ~200 degrees does the trick to get it a little bendy (but not floppy), I'll start at that temp with the heat gun so that I don't overdo it.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[Jeklynhyde]

The other battlestation.

 

I started with 200, but eventually boosted it to 250.

 

Time to attack that wobble

 

Started with a more focused tip for the curved section. You can see in the background it's flattened out.

For this I ended up using my fingers for the most part.

 

Switched to a wider tip to concentrate on the flatter, longer sections.

 

Curve is a lot flatter now.

 

And I was able to push down the bulge in the middle

 

 

Flat once again.

 

 

For the edge, grabbed the wood block, heated up along the edge and pressed it out a bit

 

Used some curved, wide, flat pliers to grab and bend the plastic without removing the heat

 

The gloves allowed me to hold and manipulate the part with my hands or the pliers without any risk to my flesh.

 

Managed to get the cut out curves into shape again too.

 

 

 

Heat gun allowed for much better control. Even if I end up cutting more off, it was good to get more comfortable with the use of the tool.

 

I had to mess with it a bit more, but I was able to maintain the overall curve. Matching it to the back, it looks like I'm going to need to do a little more shaping further from the sharper parts of the curve.

 

 

Also, thank goodness for the editor saving input. I would have had to have rewritten so many posts by now XD

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[Jeklynhyde]

Using the scrap from the kidney, I cut out small bits for mounting support. following Fragarock's and UKswrath's build threads.
I know this isn't movie accurate, but does this affect centurion status? So far, I only did it to the upper back. Can be undone if needed.

 

Superglued them in place on the back. Re-marked the points for the holes. Drilled the them at 7/64.

 

I used a 7/32 drill on the outer return edge to give the holes a little chamfer to countersink the screws slightly.

 

Installed brackets. If you hit this step, before gluing all the screws in place, you may want to cut and attach the elastics so that once you're ready to glue them, you can just slip the other bracket into an already sewn elastic. I did not do this and now I will need to do some careful hand-sewing. 

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[HSM76[TK]]

No, this is no problem for centurion, the internal strapping is up to you. There are a lot of centurions with a snap system for internal strapping. All that is needed is the outer appearance.

If you have the movie accurate strapping, this is the countersunk screws, that have heads that are painted white.

[TheSwede[TK]]

Nice work so far

[Cricket[TK]]

Looks amazing!  Just something I learned from my own RS kit, but I found that cracks developed in areas on returns that had not been reinforced (you may or may not have this issue come up).  I add an extra layer to the entire length of the returns now when building to prevent cracks.  

[Jeklynhyde]

That sounds like an excellent idea actually. I have read here and there about the returns on the back being prone to cracking. And after seeing the originals with the screw holes needing to be relocated because they tore out (at least that's what seems to have happened), I definitely wanted to reinforce and do what I can to prevent the potentially inevitable.

[Jeklynhyde]

I got stuck on the shaping of the kidney section. I can't quite progress with the mounting until I sort out the final shaping (as I would rather install the reinforcing pieces in their final position rather than having to attempt to melty-bend two thicknesses of ABS) but then I realized that the belt will help squeeze the armour a little. I did another test fit and it doesn't look horrible.

I may not attempt any more additional shaping. The thinking behind this is that if I cut down the shape the kidney section any more, I will need to trim down the sides. In its current shape, it just manages to meet up with the ab section and it feels snug, yet not constricting. But... if I want to shape it more, I can do so in the future.

 

With the kidney taped to the ab in position, I tested out the chest sizing again. If I cut out the neck a little more, I may be able to get away with not having to cut and reshape the bottom return edge. (We'll see. I may end up trimming it anyway).

I suppose I should add: I am somewhere between 5'6" and 5'7".

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Depending on if you want the brackets showing on the bottom of the chest plate, you also have the option (instead of removing any of the neck area) to not have any return edge there.  This is what they did for Luke's armor, and is approvable at level 3.

 

[Jeklynhyde]

I bent the rest of the brackets into proper form to lie flat.

 

Cut a piece down to size for both return edge width as well as curvature

 

Squeeze out some Gorilla Glue superglue gel

 

Use another piece of scrap plastic as a spreader and get full coverage.

 

Hold it into place and try not to get fingers glued to the armour...

 

Repeat till cry, then drill more holes and mount more brackets. Scuffs on the inside because I drilled from the inside and it was a tight squeeze.

 

 

Going for the original rivets for the drop boxes, I saw that they were single cap rivets... Looks like that's what it should have been for the whole belt too, but too late there. I was able to use some pliers to remove the "double" cap from the rivets that were included with the RS kit.

 

Punched some holes in the elastics for the drop boxes. On the outside, now a single cap rivet

 

And on the inside, the cap end.

 

Testing out the positioning of the straps and the boxes before things get glued in place.

Once I was happy with their positioning, I drew on, then cut out circles for where the abdomen snaps go.

 

In order for the best positioning for the boxes to line up to the outer edges, I ended up cutting out small semi-circles on the other side of the strap as well to account for the outer rivets, and allow more range closer to the end of the belt. I cauterized the open edges of the elastic. Then I sewed around the edges for extra durability.

I wiggled the straps into place, put E6000 underneath, just on the interior facing strap edge, and taped them down in case they felt like going places.

 

One note: There is some wiggle room with the inner drop box within the outer box. I drew myself a little picture to figure out which way to squeeze the inner box in comarison to the belt in order to cinch up any possible slack. And that is - if you glue the inner box as far down as possible, it reduces the gap (ever so slightly) between the top of the outer box and the bottom of the belt.

 

I hammered down the rivets to the inner drop boxes, then glued the straps in place, _then_ I glued the inner and outer boxes together. This allowed for the best amount of flexibility in positioning.

    

 

Strap glued, Drop box gluing. Lined up very nicely with both edges.

 

And the final product.

 

Stage right / Stage left

   

 

 

 

In other news:

E-11 came in today!

 

 

And all of the parts.... This gets to wait for a little while. Maybe until it's a little warmer outside I can paint it in the garage.

 

 

Tomorrow the paints should come in. I went and bought a sealing iron and some plastic polish as well, so nothing else should stand in my way (except for myself) in my path to completion

Edited July 10, 2019 by Jeklynhyde
Fixing broken images

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Great work so far Jeklyn 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

  As Tony mentioned, GREAT job so far.. keep it up, and and this rate you will be trooping before you know it!

If you haven't been there yet, I would highly recommend checking out the FISD blaster reference thread.  TONS of detailed info there..

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/32111-fisd-e-11-blaster-reference/

 

Also, it looks as if you have been bitten by the "accuracy bug".  Before starting on your Doopydoos E-11,  I would suggest getting one of Tino's @T-Jayfinishing kits.  Lots of items to bring you to the next levels of realism.  https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28444-fs-completion-sets-for-e-11-resin-kits-with-worldwide-tracked-shipping-and-paypal/

 

[Jeklynhyde]

I _am_ the accuracy bug xD haha. Thanks for the info! I'll check it out.

Just got the screw heads painted for the back brackets. Once they're dried i should be able to get the elastics in place - if the elastics slack out over time,or don't hold things tight enough, i can replace them for nylon then.

 

Also sorry for spam reacts. Finally figured out how to like other people's posts - double-click, geez, haha.

[Cricket[TK]]

And if you want to take the scope of your blaster a little further, the resin is really easy to bore out with a Dremel.  I made a deep hole in the sight end (the end with the larger lens hole), put a circle piece of and old CD in there, put a layer of red acetate over that (upon which I had drawn a crude crosshair), and then put the big lens on top to close up the end.  I can't tell you how many times other TKs have asked me if my scope is real.   Building your own blaster is so much fun!!!