E-11 Project (Pic Heavy)

[T K[501st]]

[Edit November 20, 2020] This thread was initially created to document my experiments with molding and casting a M38 scope, but it has now expanded and I did not want to create another thread when this one would suffice. I had hoped to finish with this whole project this summer (2020), but when Covid hit I did not have to opportunity to work on it as much as I would like to. I am not the best at keeping my threads up to date so I'll post below where I am now. I am a college student and I don't really have the space or tools for this project so most of this work was done when I visited my parents home or received help from a friend. Oh, lastly it is important to know that my welding skills are almost non-existent, so show some mercy.  

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Hello everybody! I recently purchased real M38 scope off ebay for a good price. As I learn more about this hobby I know that the best way to get better is through practice. Therefore I decided I would try my hand at molding and casting replicas of the scope. Here is the scope:

 

 

It is a 1943 version and it is in very good nick.

 

I began by cleaning the scope and building a little box for it out of foam core. Then I used my pottery knowledge from middle school

 

 

It wasn't the smoothest, but it'll work. One thing I wish I did was add escapes for air bubbles at this point, but I didn't think about that until after I cast. Here are some pics.

 

 

 

The mold itself is not the prettiest, but the detail of the scope was great! One thing that always bugged me about resin copies of scopes is that to make them believable you had to drill and clean the insides out and then add lenses. I have seen others here do this wonderfully, but I lacked the skill and patience when I first started out here. Tino will remember this.

So what I decided to do in this case was to cast in clear resin. This way all you have to do is mask the lenses before painting and then pull them off afterwards. Here is the first cast:

 

 

This is where I learned I needed to cut in some escapes for air and whatnot. But to prove this concept I painted this scope today to see how it would look. Note I didn't bother cleaning this casting up much as it was so defective. Here are the pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let me know what you think! For my first ever silicone mold I am pretty happy, but I will probably make a new one eventually. Cheers!

Edited November 20, 2020 by T K
Updating the thread.

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Good idea for a 1-piece scope.

[Sly11[Admin]]

I like it!!


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[RoCKo[501st]]

Yeah ,for a first cast...

 

What paints did you use? I reallylike the result!

[welshchris77[TK]]

This is so weird as I have also been experimenting doing exactly the same thing as you using polyurethane Resin as also thought about using clear resin to do something similar, Im looking at making a de-gassing chamber to get rid of the bubbles.

Well done Aaron it looks great!

[Sly11[Admin]]

11 hours ago, welshchris77 said:

This is so weird as I have also been experimenting doing exactly the same thing as you using polyurethane Resin as also thought about using clear resin to do something similar, Im looking at making a de-gassing chamber to get rid of the bubbles.

Well done Aaron it looks great!

It is money well spent. We bought one from Ali express and its still going strong.

Make sure you get a reasonable size so you can fit larger items in it.  I am considering making a larger version with heavy duty PVC pipe ( industrial grade) the type used for under ground piping, sealed at one end with a silicon gasket and Lexen window at the other. The existing pump should work fine just take more time to evacuate the chamber and draw the bubbles out of the resin.

[welshchris77[TK]]

On 8/1/2019 at 8:34 AM, Sly11 said:

It is money well spent. We bought one from Ali express and its still going strong.

Make sure you get a reasonable size so you can fit larger items in it.  I am considering making a larger version with heavy duty PVC pipe ( industrial grade) the type used for under ground piping, sealed at one end with a silicon gasket and Lexen window at the other. The existing pump should work fine just take more time to evacuate the chamber and draw the bubbles out of the resin.

I have build one myself from an old pot and a fridge compressor (will post a build thread)

[T K[501st]]

On 7/21/2019 at 1:01 PM, RoCKo said:

What paints did you use? I really like the result!

Sorry for the late reply. I used a brass and a satin black spray paint to achieve this look. I'll be posting a guide here on how I got the weathered look.

[RoCKo[501st]]

Guide would be perfect!

 

I did a lot of painting and weathering myself in all those years but I always think others work looks better than mine!  

There is always something to learn, right!?

[T K[501st]]

All righty! It has been a long time. Roger I do still plan on showing how I paint and weather the scope, but I have not done it yet. I still have the resin scope that needs to be painted, so it will be here eventually.

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E-11 time! I love to create and there was a project that I wanted to do and I felt that I could accomplish, build an E-11 and make some for my friends and fellow 501st members. This meant that I needed to get original parts to recreate the E-11. So I found a demilled sterling to use as a starting point. Here are some pictures:

 

 

Here it is next to my DoopyDoos build:

 

 

Damage that needed to be repaired:

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Very cool, going to be a lovely project

[T K[501st]]

So next came the welding. I have a friend whose father has access to a machinist shop and we planned to go there and get my gun welded together. Now before this point I had never welded anything in my life, but when we got there he told me that he wanted me to do it. So he showed me how and I went on my way. Due to this it is not the best job and it is not aligned 100% like I would have hoped, but I did it by myself (kinda ). 

 

How we achieved the weld—I do not have any pictures of the process—we machined some aluminum parts that would fit inside snugly and then I would weld the parts together and then bang the aluminum parts out and moved to the next section that needed to be welded. After it was welded and the welds ground down we sandblasted the gun. Here are some pictures:

 

 

On a CNC machine, my friends father used it to clean up some of my sloppy welds. 

 

 

Notice the holes... I know not perfect, but hey! I am proud.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by T K
Added another picture.

[T K[501st]]

The Hengstler Counter

 

I was able to obtain an original Hengstler counter from Dennis. Just love the brass. 

 

 

 

I also bought some power cylinders from him which are lovely, but I will be fabricating my own down the road.

 

 

 

 

All original (besides the power cylinders). 

[T K[501st]]

8 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Very cool, going to be a lovely project

Thank you! It has been fun and full of learning.

 

Next up was more practice with molding and casting. I want to make it clear here that I will never recast anything that has been made by another member or maker. The only items I will mold and cast are either original parts or parts that I will fabricate myself.

 

On to the molding:

 

 

As seen above I used legos this time to create a mold wall and then I used one of smooth-on's trial kits. After making this and other molds I see that I will need to use a hardier silicone next time. But here are the results:

 

 

 

Not the best, haha. I still have not painted them yet, but when I do I'll put the pictures up here. Casting is still very new to me and knowing which resin to use and the method to do so is something I need to figure out. After these castings, as well as the castings of the scope, I see how a de-gassing chamber would help immensely. I had some extra resin and silicone so I practiced with the bolt lever.

 

 

 

I still have a lot to do and learn. 

Edited November 21, 2020 by T K
Spelling correction

[T K[501st]]

During this time I began to do research into this gun and the history about it. I have decided that I am going to restore it to the look of it as it was originally, but I can dress it up as an E-11. My castings will be used to make full time E-11s. So the magazine will remain as it is and I will get another to modify it to match what we see in Star Wars. Though it is not directly related to the E-11 I bought an original sling and a reproduction bayonet. 

 

 

 

I need to clean up some of the holes on the barrel and then will need to blue(?) the metal. I may have read it somewhere, but I cannot remember; it the metal blued or is there some other process that was used?

[Sly11[Admin]]

Awesome, glad you are still working on this baby.

[T K[501st]]

All righty, power cylinder time. I have been working on plans for a couple a months now in Illustrator. The work Andy has done has been such a huge help. Go read his research here: E11 Stormtrooper Blaster Power Cylinders Resource: History & Analysis

 

I wish that we could ID this part that seems to poke it's little head up everywhere in ANH yet we have no exact ID for it.

 

Here are my drawings:

 

And then I used Tinkercad to make the 3D models.

 

 

This is most definitely not the best 3d model out there for power cylinders, but the point of this build is to source original parts or make them myself. Tinkercad worked pretty well, but it is very spartan. I would love a 3d modeling program that ran like Adobe Illustrator. Oh well, a free program is free, so I cannot complain much. I just found out that one of my cousin's recently bought a 3d printer so I'll try to print these files out to see if they actually turn out. I may also scratch-build the power cylinders too from items that I can find at the hardware store. Time will tell.

 

[Sly11[Admin]]

It's cool to see your work. Make sure you print the parts and post up some photos, we look forward to it.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

[tat2trooper[TK]]

Wow