NegativeEleven

I got mine from Tandy, I think it was 2 square feet and that was enough for the patch and two flaps. edit: it says 5-6square feet for $30 on Tandy's site. I know I didn't get 5 square feet, but I think it was $21 when I bought it.

Real suede isn't supposed to go in the washing machine, so I try to remember to take off the flap every time I wash it (that's why I used velcro for that). Although twice at DragonCon, I left the hotel room without the flap because it was forgotten at the bottom of the armor box. Ah the perils of removable pieces that you don't notice while you're wearing the suit! I can't remove the riding patch, so soon, I suspect, we'll see a difference between the two and I might have to swap that out for fake suede.

I was at the army navy store last week and saw they had 3 more of the fighter pilot helmet lenses that I used on my scout bucket. I bought em all and threw mirror tint on one of em. I've got lots of mirror tint because I also make Cobra Viper helmets and you have to buy that stuff by the roll (3ft x 30ft). It's in the window section at Home Depot, labeled "Privacy Film." I figure the mirrored eyes will be great for recognizing myself in pictures at conventions where there's a lot of scouts. If you see a picture of a scout from DragonCon 2013 with an Ewok in his pouch, that's me. I just read that the Shadow Scout is supposed to have a mirrored lens, too. If anyone wants one of the other 2, let me know. There's some surface scratches, that's why they're at the military surplus store, but they work great. It's thinner than the acrylic lens I got with the KS kit, but not quite as dark. I glued a piece of sintra in the nose and just used one screw to hold it in place (lens already has a hole there). It's super easy to replace. You can see I also used screws for the snout detail. I noticed some paint chipping last time I trooped. Loosen two screws to pop it off and repaint, glad that wasn't glued down. If you just want some mirror tint, I'm happy to mail that out too. It should just fit in an envelope with a stamp. Trooperbay charges $5, but like I said, I've got a lot of it. I can put enough for 2 helmets in an envelope for $2.

If anything, it'll just leave ashes on the surface that'll wipe off easily. Perhaps if you must have real blast damage, just use ashes, maybe a clear coat to make em stick.

I used a sewing machine... actually my mom came to town and used my sewing machine because I couldn't figure out how to get it under there.

My only criticism would be the pressure button looks a little low. It should stick up almost 1/4 inch. Other than that, it looks perfect.

Ah, I see. Thanks. I didn't think to search the 501st boards. I should let Chris know to take the link off his site... but he's a little pre-occupied with his R2 being stolen.

Has anyone bought from Cushman Custom Creations? I just found their link on TK409's website (great source of info for building Tusken, Boba Fett, Sandtrooper, C3P0). Cushman makes vac-formed replicas of guns and shells to fit over paintball guns. They've got the MG42 and MG34. Obviously, there's a good bit of work to do to make a vac-formed shell look good, but it's a start and way easier than trying to cut it out from the few plans I've found online. I'm a little reluctant to hit "buy" when I can't find anything dated on the site. Based on the look of the site, they could have gone out of business 10 years ago or they may still be operating. Link: Replica MG42 (unbuilt kit)

I'm sure at some point in the battle of Endor, Imperial troops would have picked up Rebel weapons. Also, remember the Rebel who was wearing Scout armor for some reason? Must have been some deleted scenes we didn't see... And hey, what's that? A TK with Han Solo's DL-44 blaster! All joking aside, it would be cool to have that Rebel rifle. They also used a similar one on Hoth. I'm slowly working on the Endor version of the DL-44 for my collection. It's not gonna be anytime soon because I'm waiting for a friend to make casts of the scope. M19's are hard to find.

This guy lists the identifiable parts from real world guns. http://www.partsofsw.com/EndorBlas.htm Don't think I've ever seen a complete one for sale.

I'm pretty happy with this first pull (the blue is clay from the original that was stuck in the mold). I haven't trimmed anything, just had to break off the pour spout parts to get it out of the mold. There's definitely some air getting trapped in a few spots. I think I can just cut a little away from the mold to get that figured out. The new screws on the finger guard didn't come thru in the casting, so I might have to cast those separate and glue em on or put real screws into each blaster. The other side looks amazing. A couple of bubbles in the mold, but those can easily be cut out of the castings with an Xacto knife.

It's mostly gravity more than magic. I don't think you can read how to make molds, you just have to try it (much like StudioCreations vac-forming tutorial says you have to be prepared to ruin a lot of plastic while figuring it out). I'm on my fifth gallon of silicone, but every bad mold is a learning experience. You figure out where air gets trapped and where spills are gonna happen. I am thinking my next step is to buy a slower curing resin. The one that cures in 7 minutes doesn't let bubbles rise before it is hard. I built a vac chamber to get bubbles out, but I can't leave it in there long enough to get all the bubbles out.

Update May 2014: Sale thread over in the trade forum: http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=11557 ------------------------------------------------- Almost there guys. A lot of people have asked when I'll make more blasters. I am almost done with a 2nd mold of my modded Kenner blaster and should be able to pour more next week if everything works out. Here's a rundown of the process. I started with this straight up recast of a Kenner blaster I found on eBay. You could even see the outline of the "Return of the Jedi" stickers that were left on it when it was molded. I sanded off some of the excess details and cut off the trigger. Sanding the texture off the handle took a while and required cutting off the pressure button, so I replaced that with the correct transistor and slotted screws. I carved away at the scope for a while so I could put the accurate scope ring on there, then built up the base underneath the scope ring with bondo. Size compare with an older scout's movie sized blaster: This was one of the first two-part molds I've made, so a lot of trial and error led to decent castings with a lot of air pockets that had to be filled with bondo before I could sell them. Making blasters took a long time and since it's a Kenner (10% larger than the original), I felt I couldn't sell them for the $80-$125 that other blasters are going for on the boards here. I cut it to half of that, despite the fact they were way more work to make because of the incorrect mold. Now that I know a lot more about making molds, I decided to remake it. I figured if I'm pouring close to $100 worth of silicone, I might as well make the original blaster better before I mold it. I've spent the last month and a half trimming more of the details, cleaning up the lines, and replacing some other parts (especially the screws in the finger guard). I tried a different approach to the scope's mold. I made it one piece split down the inner side of the scope where you won't see a seam and I made the eyepiece the pour spout. If the resin is relatively bubble-free, this will take almost no effort to clean up right out of the mold. I'm trying the blaster mold again with several pour spouts so air doesn't get trapped in the spots I always had trouble with in the last mold. I had to keep adding cuts to the silicone on the last mold to let the air out and that led to a lot of excess resin that had to be cut away when the blasters were made. I was wasting a lot of material and making more work for myself. Hopefully this will work better and I can be back to pouring blasters soon. Based on troubles I had with the last mold, I've already made separate molds of the barrel and the rings on the back (power supply?) so that if those pieces don't cure properly, I can make replacements to screw on right away. I have troops on Friday and Saturday, so I should be posting early next week to let you guys know if I'm back in business.

Hardhat liner isn't going to fit. I put the cradle from a Hasbro Darth Vader in mine. It's small, but adjustable. I put the elevator bolt from the visor thru a piece of sintra that I cut to fit where the top part of that cradle was. I should really take some pictures one of these days because it fits really well and isn't as hot as all that padding.

The one on the Blu-Ray is upside down, so you want the opposite of that. The notch in the rectangular part is on the bottom. The one when Han steps on the twig also has a regular collar on his flight suit. That was a "stunt" costume, not as detailed as the "hero."

I've been struggling with this myself. I put a piece of sintra the size of the holster inside the boot that I riveted thru. I've got elastic around that, snaps around my leg. I've also got snaps at the top of the boot attached to my suit (inside and outside of leg). It still likes to droop about 3/4" lower than the other one. I might try some foam in there next weekend.

Here's the WOF (best star wars blueprints I've found, especially for Fett) blueprints for the MG-42. It's a similar body, but different barrel. The debate about the scout sniper rifle is whether it's the DLT-19 with a scope or the DC-15x (sniper version of the clone troopers rifle) which is more like this one. The scale at the bottom should be enough for you to figure out the measurements.

Did you ever post up the plans for the main body? I'm having a hard time finding specific measurements for this thing. Got myself 2 rounded L shaped steel bars (2ft - .6 meters) for the barrel. I've got a friend with access to a computer controlled cutter, just gotta get the drawings to him. The T-21 he's working on looks perfect.

Re-reading some of the threads I've been saving pictures from, I see that Marcel's rifle is the DC-15x... I had assumed it was the DLT-19. Wookiepedia says that the scouts carry the DC, but I can't recall if it's actually called that in the game itself (I played it a lot, but the last time was probably '08). The bodies of both the DLT and the DC look like the same heavy machine gun base. The barrel and the scope are where they really differ. It looks to me like the one from the game was meant to be the DLT, but it PS2 graphics being what they were, made it look different. That explains the bigger holes in the barrel and the flat edges on the flash hider. Since it's still only for "non-canon" events, I'd like Marcel to just pick one or the other (easy choice since he's built one) and say that's it. I don't care which. I'm probably still going to use the signpost bars I bought for the barrel (which have differently spaced holes than either). I just want to know which way to make the flash hider, which scope to use, and what to call it when someone asks. EDIT: I see now, that the DLT-19 is basically just a real world German gun from WWII, the MG34. The DC-15x is the newer model, but basically the same gun only lighter, the MG42. These real world guns look almost identical to the Star Wars versions. Weird. I didn't think to look for them because usually they changed em up for use in "our universe." Also, there aren't any cheap airsoft versions of them, like there are for most real world guns.

Yeah, I'm anxious to start building one of these, but if a specific one is gonna be added to the CRL, that's what I wanna build. I'm definitely gonna talk with my GML about it. His brother's got a scout sniper rifle that he built years ago and after seeing it in action, I got real jealous. I think one scout sniper per troop should be a rule, but I don't get to troop with that guy very often. There's a lot of scouts in my area now and this would be an awesome way to stand out from the crowd. My opinion on this... I think the E-11 should be dropped from the conversation. I don't think any of the source pics look like that. DLT-19 makes sense since Sand Troopers already carry it and there's accepted plans out there. The DC-15 would be easier to build because you can start with the body of a Hasbro. Even though Wookiepedia says that's what the scouts have in Battlefront, I really think the screen grabs look more like the DLT.

I know you were in a hurry to finish it, but I hate that I didn't clean up that seam more before I shipped it. I've got a new mold for the scope now and there's no seam lines visible on the castings from it. Gonna work on the blaster's new mold next week.

Like BJ said, once you get into the 501st you'll see in your local garrison that some events are specifically labeled "no blasters." On Star Wars Reads day, we weren't supposed to have any blasters at the county library. I think the scout's boot holster looks weird without a blaster in it, so I specifically asked the person in charge and was told that I could leave it in the holster. Every troop is different and every security/law enforcement person is different. Went to a party a couple of weeks before Halloween last year and then went bar hopping downtown in costume. I thought our Cobra Vipers would have trouble carrying airsoft rifles that looked real, so I made sure I took em apart, pulled out the trigger, and we painted them white (like the action figures). The only cop who stopped us didn't even look at the guns; he didn't like the mirrored visors on our helmets. Two weeks before Halloween, he was worried about not seeing our faces. The scout's blaster is pretty obviously a prop, but not everyone is as familiar with guns and Star Wars as we are. At DragonCon, all weapon props are supposed to be peace bonded, but every scout I asked said they never bothered with their blasters. I asked about it when getting our Cobra guns peace bonded and the guy checking them said something about how many weird guns he's come across in his life that didn't look like guns, but were still capable of firing a projectile. I replied that if someone wanted to go to the trouble of fabricating a gun that doesn't look like a real gun just for the purpose of bringing it into an event like this, wouldn't it be easier to just buy their own yellow zip-ties to fake the peace bonding. It's all an illusion to make everyone feel safer. Of course, at an all ages event with lots of different attractions, if a child's overprotective mother doesn't know what we're dressed as and sees what she thinks is a real gun, she can freak out and cause a problem for everyone. So back to the original rule, it's up to the event coordinators to decide and to make it clear to the attendees that their event is safe.

That's a good question. It's obviously vac-formed, so someone out there can make more, right?

Lou, don't know if you noticed, but Craig's Garrison is Australia. So if he has someone there trying to make it, I'd say let em try first. I shipped Craig a blaster last month. International shipping is so expensive, it more than doubles the cost of most things I make.

The merch and branding officer from my garrison has a swamp trooper (i think he converted his scout and hasn't gotten the swamp one 501st approved yet). I'll check and see what his snout's like. Edit: looks like he just left the original greeblie on there.