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Author Topic: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0  (Read 6179 times)

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Offline ANAKIN SKYWALKER

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E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« on: March 08, 2014, 12:32:12 PM »
Hey everyone, finally done with these blasters so I figured I'd do a build log.  I'll go ahead and skip the assembly of the sterling itself, since you can read how I did that the first time here.  E-11 vintage build for Juansith *PIC HEAVY* 

Enaswede had me do a dl-44 for him last year, and during that build, he mentioned to me that he had a sterling all put together and needed someone to work some magic on it.  I pointed him to the blaster I did for juan, and from there it was basically "when can I send the parts?"  So, I got all of the parts, ordered the remainder of the stuff that was needed , and got to work.  I'll try and dig through for some old pictures tonight or tomorrow of the original finish of the sterling he sent, but man was it a terrible texture of paint.  Luckily, I have access to a sandblaster, which made quick work of the cruddy paint, and I began powdercoating.  Andy wanted satin (20% gloss) and I wanted flat on mine.  So, I did mine in flat first, to be sure everything fit in my oven (which it did, by 1 mm), and it came out perfect.  I did Andy's in satin, and it looked "good" but we both agreed it just didn't look right.  So, I had to re-sandblast the blaster, and re-coat it in flat black.  It was definitely worth it in the end.  By this point, all of the modifications had already been done to the bolt and magazine, so it was pretty much ready for install once I fabricated a few more parts.  Each blaster needed a pvc fake barrel, a speaker mount that fit nicely but had plenty of room for wires to pass through, and a chassis ring for the rear of the blaster.  All of those parts were made from aluminum (besides the fake barrel). 






The fake barrel was also anchored to the front with a brass coupler that fit the ID of both the muzzle and the pvc barrel to go with the spacer made for the rear end of the barrel. 


On Andy's I had to flush mount the ray progression leds.  His gun already had a ring for the pvc barrel (and it cause lots of headaches because it was permanently attached).  So, I put the pvc barrel on the mill, and using my digital readout, made 6 perfectly spaced square slots that held the leds.  They may look a little weird in this picture because of the fish eye effect of a camera phone and because they weren't totally clean yet.  Andy will tell you how dead nuts they are when he gets it. 

Now, having learned from my mistakes on my blaster, I did not braid many of the wires to keep them looking picture perfect.  On mine, it was incredibly difficult to insert the rear chassis because of the tension from the braided wires.  They weren't stiffly holding the BC, but because of the number of wires and the fact that I braided them, they collectively had very little give.  I used thinner wire and refrained from braiding them on Andy's. 






Wish I could tell you why this one came out blurry.  It was just showing the wires all tucked neatly in place so they sat flush within the barrel (which was cutout opposite the leds)






again, I can't capture the alignment with a phone camera, but they really are dead straight and perfectly spaced.  Also in that picture is the speaker mount and chassis ring. 


just a hint at how many wires I had to tame.  Mine was worse because I used a screen. 


Dangit.  This was an important shot, so of course it didn't come out right.  I machined a holder for the bargraph leds to keep them straight and evenly spaced. 


The aluminum mesh and fabric tape that I used to hide the wires.  Came out great. 



Test holding the led ladder with hot glue, later affixed with jb weld. 

And that about wraps it up.  My blaster uses the BC 4.0 and the screen and screen switch in the counter, but both of them have functioning magazine and S/F switches from the stock gun, and the aux switch is in the grip where the locking screw sits (actually used the locking screw for the plunger). 

Here's what my blaster looked like after about half of the parts were attached to the scratch receiver.



And here's a tested (and working) concept for a swiveling hengstler counter mount. 





the screen would have gone in the hole where my finger was pointing.  It really did work, but it would have taken a lot of tweaking to perfect, and the counter stuck out a little further than it should have with the swiveling mount.  In the end, I chose to just put it on the front of the counter. 


That's what mine looked like when the wires were all routed.  Lots more connections to make. 



Various shots of the screen in action






















and the final detail, the counter to cylinder wires.  I used 18 gauge solid core from radioshack.  curled up perfectly. 

















So, final specs on mine:

Sterling rebuilt with scratch receiver
BC 4.0 with color mini screen
Fully powdercoated (besides the plastic counter box)
Real m40 scope (crosshairs aligned vertically for a more realistic look), powdercoated flat black
Real eagle hengstler (hengstler 400 counter) milled for mini screen
Satellite board for color changing ray progression
color changing muzzle flash
6 led bargraph
1.5W kobitone speaker
1.3mm recharge port
2x 14650 battery pack
functioning magazine
functioning select fire
functioning trigger
Weight:  8 lbs

Andy's:

Prebuilt semi auto sterling base
BC 4.0
Fully powdercoated
Real M40 scope
Real eagle hengstler (hengstler 400) counter
Gino t-track
Satellite board for color changing ray progression
color changing muzzle flash
6 led bargraph
1x 2w high bass speaker
1x 1.5w kobitone speaker
1.3mm recharge port
2x 14650 battery pack
functioning magazine
functioning select fire
functioning trigger
Weight: 8 lbs

I'll try and get some good glams but I can't promise anything.  They are too big and heavy for my light tent, so I may not be able to do much better than I already did above.  Anyway, here's a video and thanks for reading. 

E-11 build #2 and #3











« Last Edit: March 08, 2014, 12:55:42 PM by ANAKIN SKYWALKER »


Offline Clark Kent

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2014, 12:54:45 PM »
darn thats nice Alex. holy cow is that ever nice.

Offline Forgetful Jedi Knight

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2014, 01:12:21 PM »
Great job Alex. Those came out really well.


May the force be with you all!

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Offline Master Elenos

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2014, 01:26:23 PM »
WOW ! Those blasters are amazing, great job.
I love all those little details.

Offline enaswede

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2014, 02:25:05 PM »

"When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master!"
Click here to view my personal lightsaber & blaster collection!

Offline Clark Kent

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #5 on: March 08, 2014, 02:34:59 PM »
LOL, i dont know which is better, Alex's E-11 or enaswede's meme, LOL.

that is really cool, how did you do that with all the monitors?

Offline enaswede

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #6 on: March 08, 2014, 08:01:07 PM »
LOL, i dont know which is better, Alex's E-11 or enaswede's meme, LOL.

that is really cool, how did you do that with all the monitors?

Thanks but my vote is for Alex... "Photoshop" <Skew Tool> :)

"When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master!"
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Offline jedicri

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #7 on: March 08, 2014, 09:17:01 PM »
Great job there Alex!   Awesome, just plain awesome!

Offline scottjua

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2014, 11:03:11 PM »
super awesome!!!

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Offline Boxster

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2014, 11:34:49 PM »
Well, that is just plain awesome!

Offline ANAKIN SKYWALKER

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #10 on: March 09, 2014, 10:30:47 AM »
Thanks everyone.  These really are a labor of love (and cursing), so its nice to see comments like this in the end. 


Offline enaswede

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #11 on: March 13, 2014, 11:00:50 AM »
My E-11's Final Resting Place! :)



Thanks Again Alex!

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Offline BEN KENOBI

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #12 on: March 13, 2014, 04:10:52 PM »
 :)) :)) :))

Those are rally nice alex!!The art of wiring ------like it or like it not lol. :))

Offline aretoo

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Re: E-11 ANH Stormtrooper Blasters with BC 4.0
« Reply #13 on: May 20, 2014, 06:28:46 PM »
That is awesome! Thanks for sharing! I'd love to do one!

 

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