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Smitty's TB Blaster 2012


Smitty

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Darn it all!!! I still dont have enough Silicone to finish the molds. The scope mold is about half full so one more batch of silicone will definitely do the trick. The good news is the rest of the blaster molds are finished and I have one complete set of castings assembled minus the scope and trigger guard. The trigger guards will be machined from steel just like the ones from my previous blasters.

 

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Thanks for the compliment John! I stated earlier that that the trigger guards would be machined out of steel. I went with Aluminum instead. I cranked out 14 trigger guards tonight and they turned out real nice. Tomorrow I'll line 'em all up and hit them with flat black paint. Right now I am casting parts with last years left over white resin but when production actually starts they will be cast in Onyx black resin. The rest of the silicone has been ordered so expect an update on the scope early next week!

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A pile of trigger guards and the development blaster. The trigger guard on it is a little shorter where the front part meets the grip than all the other trigger guards.

 

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Voila! The scope came out of the mold beautifully!!! Lonewolf I think you'll be happy to know that the "SINGLE POINT" text showed up in the molds. Like you described on the droopydoo scope it does appear in the castings ever so slightly. Also the serial number on the scope showed up as well. Here's pics of the unpainted development blaster Enjoy!

 

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It's a beauty mate, looks like this could be the most accurate version yet.I think you have the last ring detail spot on size wise.

Scope turned out great.The raised singlepoint lettering will look more obvious in black resin. The open end is great, as long as we are seeing the screen grab correctly.

 

Will you sell as an unpainted/unbuilt kit?

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The open end of the scope is not part of the mold. I drilled that out after the fact. I won't drill out the ones on the production blasters as I'll leave that up to the buyer. Every one of these that leave the United States will only be available in kit form, that way I won't have to worry about customs blahdity blah blah. Stateside buyers will have the option of a fully finished blaster. I'm pouring up the last of the white resin right now. As soon as I have those out of the molds I'll offer those in this thread at a discount to scrounge up the cash for the black resin so I can start production. There's a slim possibilty a 3rd one will come out too but I doubt it. The resin bottles are getting pretty light LoL

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Well I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that on the blaster pieces, there is a large contrast in glossy/matte surfaces where I laquered parts of the blaster which will require the blasters to be painted but this wont sink the entire ship. I will be painting the kits before they ship out with a flat black paint that very closely matches the resin. So the whole point behind black resin is not lost, if the paint gets scratched, the scratches will not show up as bright white scratches. Now for the good news! There is a large contrast in glossy/matte surfaces on the scope. This results in the silk screen writing appearing much more boldly. So the words "Single Point", the front cone and the rear eye glass and turret caps look extremely realistic against the matte surface of the scope's body. I will not be painting the scopes in order to preserve this effect.

 

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should be soon. I'm still trying to get the perfect castings. The black resin is a little more viscous than the white resin so it traps air more than the white resin. Rotating the molds seems to help but I still get those fly in the ointment air bubbles on the scope castings. One things for sure I'll be offering quite a few "factory seconds" kits for the low-low.

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Ok here's the first castings out of the molds in black resin. Due to texture issues the blaster gets a coating of black paint to give it a uniform appearance. This one is sprayed with a flat black but I'm gonna test out a satin black next to try to get a closer match to the black resin of the scope. The scope of course is unpainted. These parts on going out to Lonewolf as soon as I give the paint on the blaster a couple more days to cure before packaging it up. What you see here is the typical quality you can expect for me to ship out when production starts.

 

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Looks great, I love the way the scope shows every detail and the distinction between the textures of it. It has turned out much better than I hoped.

I will give the blaster a wee sanding and another paintjob, I enjoy this type of work.

Looking forward to receiving this blaster now, thanks Smitty.

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Ugghhhh!!!! I tried out a new satin Black finish today from rustoleum. Stuff was total crap. I think I may have saved the paintjob but only a few hours of drying time will tell. Looks like I'll have another preproduction blaster for sale tomorrow. The good news is, I finally got the hang of working the scope mold and produced a flawless casting of a scope today so thats something to celebrate!

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Yep, this paintjob is total garbage. I'm gonna pair it up with a scope thats not the best of castings and let it go for practically nothing. I'll assemble it tomorrow and post it in the pre production thread for a the Low-Low.

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