Bulldog44 DVH E-11 Blaster Kit & Mixed Blaster Part Builds 2020

[T-Jay[TK]]

Just changed my google settings to be located in Japan and here are the results for 'laser cutting online' :

 

- fractory.com

- ponoko.com

- sculpteo.com

- cotter.co

- oshcut.com

- laserboost.com

- onlinelasercutting.com.au

- sendcutsend.com

 

Haven't tried any of these myself, it is just what google came up with. Keeping fingers crossed...

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Thank you Tino. I will check these options out. Some places I contacted already locally had insane pricing and really didn’t work with one off items like these. 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Small update. I finally gutted out the resin on the stock wishbones so I could install the extension arms. For the original DVH stock I am not going to do much more with it as I don’t have time to spend on it. It would take a lot more time and work to make it look better. I am using a bad cast of the extension arm for the DVH stock and using a homemade aluminum arm for the Phoenix prop/DDay stock.  Not perfect but adds more realism than it had before and has reduced the weight too. 
next step is to patch up with epoxy, prime coat the parts and paint. 
 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by Bulldog44

[Bulldog44[TK]]

T Tracks-

I tried to use as many parts from the original DVH kit for this blaster but unfortunately the t tracks that were supplied did not work out as I had hoped. They were resin casted making them super brittle and nearly impossible to bend without breaking. I tried multiple times heating the plastic using various techniques but the end result was always bad. I did manage to bend a few to nearly the proper angle needed but it became too unpredictable to continue. 

 

Luckily I bought t track from Marv many moons ago and decided to give them a try. First time working with these tracks but it was great. Easy to heat up and bend. The only thing I did wrong was bending the track too quickly which left obvious signs where the plastic was being flexed. Slow bending is key so the plastic stretches evenly. 

 

Once the tracks are on the tube it really transforms it to a galaxy far far away. I wasn't that excited to get this blaster done due to the work it needed but after the tracks went on I think I got my second wind. 

 

Next up:

1. Prime coating

2. Finish off a set of power cylinders

3. Prep the scope rail to mount the scope and counter (need to make a bracket for the counter too)

4. Make a spring

5. Somehow add the bolt detail 

6. Maybe change how the magazine gets installed; use a magnet or headphone jack style connection.

7. Attach the trigger guard & D ring

8. Paint- considering to try crinkle paint for this blaster so it matches the crinkle paint details still present on the stock. 

9. Probably forgetting something .......

 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2021 by Bulldog44

[T-Jay[TK]]

Sounds good, Brian. 

 

Is it still possible to remove the T-tracks? That would safe a lot of extra masking work when painting.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

6 minutes ago, T-Jay said:

Sounds good, Brian. 

 

Is it still possible to remove the T-tracks? That would safe a lot of extra masking work when painting.

Yes. The tracks are just temporary set. I can take them out no problem for when I paint the tube. 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Long overdue update.

Painted the receiver and most of the parts with a black coat of surfacer paint. 

 

 

Did a test of the wrinkle paint I purchased. 

First attempt after quickly heating the paint to reveal the wrinkles.

This unfortunately creates tighter wrinkles and not exactly what I was shooting for.

 

Second attempt:

The wrinkles appear more accurate to the original wrinkles on a sterling but only when I slowly let the paint air dry. 

 

After a few months of waiting to paint the blaster. Freshly applied wrinkle paint in 3 layers.

 

I made the mistake of leaving the paint drying in the direct sun so the wrinkles appeared faster than I had planned. I did't have any real space to dry it so it could not be helped. Plus this paint gives off a very powerful odor so not recommended to keep in doors while it dries. Even the test parts gave off an odor for weeks. I will post the result later. The wrinkles are okay but not as nice as the second test piece. I plan to weather it lots as the DVH kit parts were quite rough to begin with.

 

 

 

 

[T-Jay[TK]]

Sorry to say but I can confirm the fumes of these type of paint lasts very long. In my case with the VHT paint it took more than half a year to fade.

When opening that closed cabinet with my blasters inside, I sometimes can still smell this paint mixed with the oil and grease from the real Sterling. Crazy stuff.

 

And yes, you really only get the right result, by strictly following the instructions on the spray can - including temperatures and constant humidity.

Nevermind, the weathering of this E-11 will surely catch more attention later, than some imperfections of the wrinkle paint.

If your result is somewhere between test piece 1 and 2, everything will be fine.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

36 minutes ago, T-Jay said:

Sorry to say but I can confirm the fumes of these type of paint lasts very long. In my case with the VHT paint it took more than half a year to fade.

When opening that closed cabinet with my blasters inside, I sometimes can still smell this paint mixed with the oil and grease from the real Sterling. Crazy stuff.

 

And yes, you really only get the right result, by strictly following the instructions on the spray can - including temperatures and constant humidity.

Nevermind, the weathering of this E-11 will surely catch more attention later, than some imperfections of the wrinkle paint.

If your result is somewhere between test piece 1 and 2, everything will be fine.

Sadly the results came out more like test 1. I can try again with another coat but worried it will not look good. The problem was also the wind which probably caused the paint spray to dust more and not evenly coat the tube. It requires a good thick 3 layers I think. 
oh well live and learn. I will let it dry fully and do a little weathering. I left some of the smaller attached parts masked off because I feared this paint would hide too much of the details. I might try giving them a light coat. Once I get all that settled I will spray it again with a nice even coat of black paint. Then weather again. 
yes this VHT paint stinks a lot. My family not happy about it

Edited May 24, 2021 by Bulldog44

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Here is how it came out. Not great, I didn’t get the wrinkles I was looking for. I think I need to try using this paint in a wind free environment.

Purposefully left the magazine housing masked off to keep the text visible and create a worn tapered off look. The power cylinders will be mounted on top anyway so I guess it really doesn’t matter too much. I will paint a little more on the sides of the housing, the sight guard and the sides of the rear sight. 

[T-Jay[TK]]

To be honest, that doesn't look bad to me.

 

Many builds out there do not have a textured surface at all - but this one has.

 

Looking forward to your next update.

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Progress pics:

Base sterling finished with some minor weathering, bolt painted & installed. Inner barrel is just black PVC pipe. 
The grip and the bolt charging handle are the original raw cast color. 
Bolt is painted with Mr. Hobby dark iron and chrome silver metallic paints. Hand brushed and then rubbed to a dull shine. Also added a light layer of black wash paint from Tamiya. 

The end cap photo shows the wrinkle paint pattern well. I could not get the same wrinkle pattern across the entire receiver but it added some character to the blaster and made it easier to attempt some worn weathering effect. 

 

 

The bolt completed.

 

Some subtle metallic weathering on the mag release button and the mag clip edges. 

 

T tracks installed and a temporary hand wound spring. 

 

 

Next up is the scope rail, scope and counter and then I need to finish a set of power cylinders. Almost there. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 13, 2021 by Bulldog44

[T-Jay[TK]]

The wrinkle pattern turned out great. For a moment I thought to be looking at a picture of a real Sterling.

 

The LOCK-FREE screw in the grip is a bit deep but no urgent need to correct this.

 

Great result and a good paint job done on the inner bolt. T-tracks look very straight and perfect.

 

 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

2 hours ago, T-Jay said:

The wrinkle pattern turned out great. For a moment I thought to be looking at a picture of a real Sterling.

 

The LOCK-FREE screw in the grip is a bit deep but no urgent need to correct this.

 

Great result and a good paint job done on the inner bolt. T-tracks look very straight and perfect.

 

 

Arigato Tino!

The grip screw is set rather deep and I will try to replace that. The screw was one my dad gave me so thought to use it for this blaster but guess the threaded shaft is a bit short. I can use my resin casted part for this.

 

The bolt paint could probably use some more work but I will leave it for now. The T tracks pretty much fit nicely after I shaped them but there was still some spacing issues. So I wrapped some tape around them all so they were squeezed flush to the receiver and then placed the blaster in my heated shower stall for about 30-40 minutes. It helped get them to sit flatter to the surface. No glue required thankfully. 

Edited June 14, 2021 by Bulldog44

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Sorry I didn't document my power cylinder build but here are a few photos of them after a fresh coat of black paint. Not level or perfect but the look the part and much better than the original DVH power cylinders seen in the first post.  Just wanted to assemble these quickly and figure out how to improve things as I make more of them. Weathering still needed once I am able to set up the magnets for mounting them on the blaster. 

I did not position the 3 inner capacitors as I would have liked to. I glued them together and just left them as they are. For the next practice build of these I will experiment more with replicating the ones from the reference photos. 

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Bulldog44

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Almost there with this blaster. Scope rail and counter bracket needs a quick coat of paint and the power cylinders need a touch of weathering.

Work will begin on the second blaster soon after this. 

 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Finally finished the DVH blaster and also the Phoenix Props/Doopy blaster. 

 

Here is the DVH blaster finished:

Here are the parts leftover. I decided to use a few newer parts I casted from my own sterling parts. 

 

Here is the Phoenix Props/Doopy mixed parts blaster build. I did not use the Phoenix Props original aluminum tube and went with a PVC pipe. I still need to glue on the power cylinders and then is 100%done.

 

Some pics of the grip and trigger assembly parts from my sterling parts . These were B grade castings with some cracks and air bubbled needing to be filled.

 

Power Cylinders for blaster #2: Not 100% accurate or cleanly made but look decent enough. Slowly making improvements on these.

 

 

 

Overall a good learning experience with crinkle paint, recycling older kit parts and testing new resin parts. The second blaster crinkle paint went on way too thick and not that happy with it. Hoping to figure out the best way to use that paint and get the results to be consistent and applied in a thinned coat. 

Last thing I noticed was that the folding stock position on both blasters was off and this was due to the template I used.If you notice the entire stock is positioned a little bit too far back. The front of the stock should protrude past the front muzzle. I believe that is more accurate.  I will be using a different template now for future builds and also getting measurements from other sources to confirm the positioning. 

 

Thank you for stopping by. 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2021 by Bulldog44

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

They came out great, love the crinkle paint, I used that about 30 years ago on some auto parts and took some getting used to, using a heat gun worked well to obtain a better wrinkle.

 

Nice work

[Bulldog44[TK]]

2 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

They came out great, love the crinkle paint, I used that about 30 years ago on some auto parts and took some getting used to, using a heat gun worked well to obtain a better wrinkle.

 

Nice work

Thank you! I will give the heat gun a try next time. 

[T-Jay[TK]]

Congrats, Brian, on finishing both of these blasters.  They turned out great and I love the wrinkle paint, too.

 

Just wondering about how close the end-caps are to the rear sights. Can you still push and rotate them? It usually takes a little gap there to do so.

 

Looks like the Phoenix Props blaster still needs the muzzle screws on the front. Got some - in case you lost yours, let me know.

 

Again, congratulations on getting these two beauties ready. I guess your next project will be a blaster rack...?

Edited September 21, 2021 by T-Jay

[Bulldog44[TK]]

42 minutes ago, T-Jay said:

Congrats, Brian, on finishing both of these blasters.  They turned out great and I love the wrinkle paint, too.

 

Just wondering about how close the end-caps are to the rear sights. Can you still push and rotate them? It usually takes a little gap there to do so.

 

Looks like the Phoenix Props blaster still needs the muzzle screws on the front. Got some - in case you lost yours, let me know.

 

Again, congratulations on getting these two beauties ready. I guess your next project will be a blaster rack...?

Thanks Tino! I have the muzzle screws but forgot to put them back on for the photos. Thanks for pointing that out. 

 

For the end caps, I have them pushed forward in the photos but they do slide back a bit as they should showing the proper gap.

I got a bit restless getting them done as I am out of working space at home. I will get the screws on there today and glue the power cylinders as well. Never ending project. 

 

Hoping to post up my latest full resin Sterling soon. I have it all assembled and tested. Has a functioning folding stock, the mag clip locks in and the charging handle can be pulled back somewhat. Keep you posted. 

[Troopacoola[TK]]

Lovely work Brian! As always!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Bulldog44[TK]]

16 minutes ago, CTID said:

Lovely work Brian! As always!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 

Thank you Marc!

[T-Jay[TK]]

1 hour ago, Bulldog44 said:

(...)   Hoping to post up my latest full resin Sterling soon. I have it all assembled and tested. Has a functioning folding stock, the mag clip locks in and the charging handle can be pulled back somewhat. Keep you posted. 

 

      

[Bulldog44[TK]]

Tino,

Here is the first completed sterling parts kit. Almost all the parts are resin except for the springs and the pins to hold the stock together and rear sight. Some parts screw on like the original parts and others had to be glued. Pretty straightforward though. 

The receiver tube is all resin. I made a mold of the an RA Props tube I drilled out with a template. It’s not as pretty as a machined receiver but it looks very nice. Super light and fairly durable. This mold is only for testing out making resin copies.

 

I am in the process of making a new mold of a receiver tube I sourced in Japan. I had to remove 1mm from the inner diameter using a drill and sandpaper on a dowel. Not perfect but it works well enough to slide the bolt in the receiver.