(Ver. 1.0beta)
Blastech
E-11 Stormtrooper Blaster Guide
Tips & ideas on how to build your own Imperial
blaster
By: TK821 Nordic Garrison, Swedish outpost.
First of all I wanna send out big thx to
all fellow troopers around the world,
Studio creations for their creativity, Cinema
Replicas for their fantastic movie props
and of course to George Lucas for
creating
The Greatest Saga of all times.
This
guide is not meant as a complete walkthrough, consider it more as a source of
inspiration:)
My intention is to present the most interesting blaster parts with
pictures and explanations
and I will also tell some general tips and ideas.
In
the beginning I based my project upon Studio Creations walkthrough
guide (called "SC guide" below)
but along the
way I made a bunch of modifications simply because I couldn’t find all the
parts needed.
At the end of the day, it turned out really good and I’ve gained a lot of
experience.
Hopefully
this guide will show you that no problem is impossible
and there is often
several different solutions to one single problem.
To
make the guide easy to follow I've added pictures.
The
pictures is taken with my mobile phone so the quality could be
better but you will still get an idea of what I’m talking about.
Further
on I will hopefully put up 6 high quality reference pictures
(from: above, below,
right side, left side, front and back)
Use
the first picture below of an original ROTJ blaster as a starting point and follow
the numbers below to get more
information.
Please
share the link to this website and feel free to ask
me for advise if you run into trouble.
(
I’ll
be on vacation in Brazil 6-17 November (joy, joy, happy, happy, joy)
but as soon
as I get back I will answer your questions).
So lets get down to business!
/ TK 821
Since
english isn't my first language please
correct me if I
use the wrong words for something important.
The
E11 Blaster parts and details
1.
Shoulder strap connector-This piece was harder to
get
right than I first thought but I managed to find a real solid
electrical wire which I bent into shape. Then I had to make
a small pipe to fit this
new "connector" in, before I attached
it to the blaster. The only way I could get the
right size of
the pipe was to bend a small flat metal piece
(light aluminium) around one of my screwdrivers with the
help of the vice. Then use my skills with the pliars to get a
perfect fit. Note that the wire is no regular homeappliance
wire its much thicker and kinda hard to bend.
You could probably use a thin steel bar or maybe find an old
bag with a shoulder
strap ring of the same type etc.
However the method mentioned above turned out great.
2.
The
most important part of the whole blaster is the barrell pipe,
cause that’s the one part
that everything else will be connected to.
I used a plastic plumber pipe from a
Swedish company called:
www.clasohlson.se
(32SEK) It has the right measurements (32mm)
and is made of a strong plastic
material. Its not as heavy as a metal
pipe but much easier to work with.
I attached window cleaners
from an old BMW according to the "SC guide".
Preferably use a rivet gun in this matter.
3.
If
you check carefully on the original ROTJ weapon there are
4 small hexwrench bolts
attached to the main body. Simply
drill
holes and attach bolts. Use glue if needed.
4.
For this detail I used a square shaped wooden stick and
2 metalplates. Then I took measurements on the original
and glued the pieces together. Then onto the
mounting rail.
Drill holes in the top and glue a small metalpin into it.
5.
Telescopic
sight-This
was probably the part I had the most trouble with.
I tried many solutions but
the ones that looked most like the original had
other flaws and often looked to
plastic so I finally decided to part from the
original. I had one of those mini
binoculars lying around and thought
it would look real nice. As an extra
feature this telescope really
works (8xzoom binocular).
To
make it look more "Star wars" I added some tuning knobs from an old car stereo.
The
scope bracket is a regular pipe clip used for electrical pipes or maybe for
your
water hose. I found the
"bent little rubber tube" lain around and didnt intend to use it
at
first but when I tried it out it just felt so right.
I used one on the mag aswell.
6.
Here I simply used the left side of a
window-lock, remember to
cut the bolt and unscrew the small grip. You probably find one
in your local hardware store.
7.
This
detail follows the procedure of many others: start with
measuring the original part, make a sketch on paper, stick the
paper to a thin metalplate. Then use the hacksaw and some
small hobby files to shape it the way you want. Next up is to
bend it, remember to not overbend as it could easily break/crack.
Drill the holes and connect it to the barrell. I used some small
hexwrench bolts from my old Kyosho modelcar to secure it and
those were also great to put inside the drilled holes to get the
movielike look:)
8.
The endpipe is made of the
ringing bell from my bicycle:)
Just dissassemble all parts and save the metallic bell cover.
My bell was black from the beginning so all I had to do was to
scratch it a bit to get the right rough look.
9.
This part is impossible to find so it has to be tailormade.
I had to do some "3D thinking" and figured out that the first
part looked something like the left picture.
I
used my rough
sketch to make the part out of a metal plate. Finally I bent
the thing into shape and added the shoulder strap connector
ring.
To do the second part (right picture) simply trim it out of
metal, bend it in both ends and drill a small hole where
you put a metal pin. Then glue it to the main body.
The small pin should secure the first part from bending
downwards if it should ever get caught in something.
Its a bit hard to explain but if you check the pics and
do some brainwork you will probably understand.
10.
According to the "PartsOfStarWars"
website these are believed
to be hammers from some kind of rifle. They look rather unique
and I couldn't find anything to replace them with.
The best way to make them was
to carve them out of a small
wooden piece. In the 2 holes i used rivets but I didnt use a
rivet
gun as it would probably crack the wood. Simply predrill and glue
it in place. To get a snug fit to the blaster body I used sandpaper
wired around one of the plastic plumber pipes (exactly the same
way that you shape the pistol grip in the "SC guide").
11.
Just drill a hole and put down a diode, add some glue to make it stick.
12.
Also a very easy part to make. I used a regular screw and a
small leftover metalpiece. Shape the metalpiece and glue
it in the notch of the screw. Then just drive it into your pistol grip.
13.
I couldnt find anything that looked like the original trigger so I made
some
measurements and a rough sketch then carved it out of wood.
To get the
right touch I drilled a small hole and punched in a little
hollow metall pin (dont know where to buy the pins though).
14)
Use a long, straight & flat metal piece and trim the edges,
then bend it into shape. Last but not least drill 2 holes in
the ends and use some screws to make it stick to your pistol grip.
15)
The folding stock-Now this was a tricky part since I had no
metal bars of the right dimensions.
I looked everywhere
until I found these 2 window ventilation devices:
This shows you how far you can get with a little bit of imagination;)
I used the
hacksaw (a lot) and then trimmed the edges before finally
bending the two pieces into
place. A tip is to bend the right and
left piece simultaniously to get a
symmetric look. You have
to do 2 more shorter pieces before its time for some puzzlework
and connect it to part number 16 (see below) with rivets.
Even though this is one of the hardest parts to get right I wont go
into details. But I'll provide you with some pictures and you can also
check the "SC
guide" or follow this link
to get more info on the folding
stock.
16)
Once again take some measurements from your reference
pictures and write down a sketch. Then
cut out the part from a
metalplate and bend the edges real careful. I used the vice
and
put a round metal bar between it and the metalpart
before bending the edges.
This way you create round corners
instead of a 90 degree corners which can
easilly crack.
As you cane on the top-right picture I also made a small
support to get the right angle when the stock is folded
(bottom-right picture).
17.
This is normally the
hole for used cartridge cases.
Since this is a laser rifle we dont need to worry about that.
But this detail still makes a nice touch to the blaster.
To make it look
good begin with making a hole in the main body.
Use a rough sketch that looks something like this:
When
finished with the hole you have to glue a bent metalpiece
inside of the barrell. To get the right fit use a metalplate slightly
bigger than the hole and bend it around some sort of pipe that is
slightly smaller than the barrell pipe. Next up is to glue it from the inside.
NOTE! This
has to be done before mounting the endcaps.
If you find it difficult
to glue you
can use a screwdriver through the
venting holes to push/hold it in place. And as a final ingredient you can
make a little "protective flap" on the side. Use some scrap of metal lain around.
18.
When
all other parts were finished it felt like something was
missing on the right
side of the weapon. So I checked some of
my ref. pics and found that the bounty
hunter IG88 had some knobs
at the right spot. This was exactly what I
was looking for.
Although IG88's blaster is from the ESB version it gave my weapon
a
great look.
So I now have a mixture of the ROTJ and ESB versions.
Why be satisfied with one blaster when you can have two at the same
time:) Here you can see the knobs (I ran out of paint so I havent been
able to paint them yet):
As
for the rest of the parts please refer to the SC
guide.
It contains lots of great and useful info.
I did my magazine according to the SC plans but instead of metal I used
ABS plastic that was left over from my Stormtrooper armour.
The benefit is that its easier to get tight (but yet soft) corners.
If you use metal you will get small chinks between the sides of the mag.
I also filled the mag
with hot glue from a glue gun to make it solid.
The result is a more trendy and fashionable mag than the classic metalic
"World
War II" mag:)
F.A.Q.:
What
is a Blastech E-11 Blaster rifle?
Im no expert in
weapons, however I managed to get my
hands on some imperial blueprints.
Info
page
Sketch
page (ANH version)
I
want
more pictures of your blaster?
I did my best considering I used my mobile phone to take
all pictures but if you're still hungry for more, here's
the
LINK!
Please enjoy the show:)
Why
build your own Blaster?
If
you visit this page I assume you’ve already made up your mind
about building
your own Blaster but I will still explain briefly why
I choosed to do it myself
instead of buying one.
First
of all I love to build things out of nothing, to use my fantasy
and create
something unique gives me great pleasure. Some
people play golf or take a walk
to relax others build blasters
(ok its not a worldwide activity yet) I love to
do all of those things
cause it keeps my mind clear. Also I’ve saved a lot of
money by
doing something I really enjoy.
And
the result will be a personal and exclusive blaster built with
love that no one
else has. If
you ask me its like a piece of art :)
So
what are the alternatives if I’m completely hopeless in building things?
First
of all reconsider your personal values, this guide is made
to give even
the most hopeless case inspiration. I'm in no way an
engineer or professional
prop maker myself, I just use common sense
and creativity. If you put your mind
into it I’m sure you will make the
best looking blaster in the universe ;) And
if you get stuck just ask me
or any other blaster builder for help.
If
you still wanna go the easy way and buy a finished weapon there
are two
major alternatives both with their ups and downs. You can
choose the
“cheesy” Kenner blaster (don’t get me wrong here, they
look good, but not
good enough for a true fan) and paint it black.
Or
you can choose a proffesional collectible like the new one from:
http://www.masterreplicas.com
it looks really good but will cost you
a fortune ($500).
How
long will it take to build one?
Its hard to tell but the effective time is
ranging from a couple of days
to maybe a month. All depending
on how much you work and how
much you research, plan and think.
It also depends on how carefull you are, I like to experiment with
different
solutions and then choose the one that works best.
But if you feel you
don’t have that much time you can finish
quicker and still have a great outcome.
I
started 2 years ago with research and built the first half of the
blaster in approximately 2 weeks
then for some reason I put the project
on ice for a long time before I finally decided to finish my project 2
weeks ago. And here I am with my own blaster tutorial and only
some paintjob left to do.
How
much will it cost?
You may have to spend
somewhere between
$10-$50
all
depending
of how much material you have already.
I
only paid around $7 for the plumber pipe and the paint.
Im
lucky enough to have a father with a great supply of tools
and a big garage with
thousands of objects, accessories, junk
and other stuff. So I found
everything else I needed there.
Where
to start?
First
of all you need reference pictures from the originals
used in the movies. You
can find those on the net, in the
movies or in books.
I
found the book “Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary”
to be
invaluable.
(it's
called “Star Wars: Bildlexikon” in swedish).
Its
quite cheap and should be easy to find.
If
you cant find it in your regular book shop try www.amazon.com
Next
thing is to decide which blaster version you wanna build:
http://www.partsofsw.com/item.htm
I
choosed the Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) version because I think
it has the best look, its more “worn
out” and “rough” and it has
slightly more details attached. But if you
like a clean and simple
appearance you should go with any of the ANH versions.
Collect
all the materials needed, look everywhere and soon you
will be ready to start building:)
Where
do I find these references you are talking about?
I’ve
collected some usefull links here, I recommend that you
print the ones you find usefull:
www.studiocreations.com
http://www.imperial-fleet.com/BBC/
http://www.partsofsw.com/item.htm
http://members.aol.com/yodashous2.anh.htm
http://www.501st.com
http://www.501st.com/messageboards.htm
http://www.masterreplicas.com
If you want more references just search the net, there is plenty of
information
yet to be found. If any of the above addresses doesn’t
work try to cut the link after ".com/"
so that “www.xyz.com/xyz”
becomes “www.xyz.com” or try www.archive.org
There
are also books available that contains great pictures.
I only used the "Star wars Visual dictionary" but try searching:
www.amazon.com for more.
You can also watch the movies again, maybe you'll notice something
that you
haven’t seen before. I realized that I look at completely
different things when watching the Star wars
movies now compared
to the time before I started replica building. In a way
the movies
gets a new dimension and the thing that fascinates me the most is
that
I cant find any big flaws or errors in the movie even though I look more
careful now, this is a good measurement of how extremely well done the
original
trilogy is.
I
don’t have all the original "stuff"
used in the movies?
Well
to put it simple: here's the place were you can use imagination
and get the chance to personalize your Blaster.
I
used the following steps to find the best solution to the above problem,
feel
free to use it as guidance (it works for almost all movie replicas):
1. Look at reference pictures of the original object used in the
movies.
Try to break it down and find part by part. Sometimes common
things have
been used that you can find in your own house?
2.
If step 1 fails (don’t worry it usually
does) read about others
who
have made the prop from scratch like me. Check webforums and
the links above.
3. Look around you and see if you can find things in your everyday
life
that looks almost the same or that can be easily modified to look
just the
way you want it. Check in your garage, toolbox, storage room
or in hardware catalogues, hobby or home appliance shops etc.
You will be amazed of how much things you can use as replacements
to
the original part. This is almost the way the original prop makers
worked when creating the first Star wars movie.
4. Last but not least if you’ve totally
run out of ideas and cant
find an object,
make it from scratch, its often easier than
you think. Just carve it out of
wood or make it out of clay. There is always
a way, improvise and use
your imagination. Cut paste, glue, screw and Scoobydooby doo!
As
an example look at part number 10 on my weapon: The original
part is probably a hammer from a rifle. I used my reference pic in the
Star Wars Visual lexicon and carved one out of a wooden stick.
What
tools do I need?
Here is a
list of basic tools that will cover most of your needs.
If you don’t have them all you could always borrow from some nice
neighbour.
-Hacksaw
-Files
of all different kinds
-Sandpaper
-Screwdrivers
-Hobby knife
-Tweezers
-Vice
to hold your working material
-A
bunch of screws, nuts and washers
-Drillmachine
and drills
-Rivetgun/rivets
-Superglue
-Black paint [spraycan]
(I
used a black matte color called “Hot Paint 600ş”
(39SEK) from www.biltema.se in Sweden. It’s easy to apply and gives your
blaster that burnt/rough
look. It will also stick real easy to any material,
dries quickly and doesn’t
leave any edges if you paint many times on one spot.
I consider it second to
none.
Then
of course the greatest tool of all is your fantasy, ability to improvise and
last but not least your way of using “the force”.
Im
finished, whats next?
Hard
for me to tell but if you have some other interests you may spend some
time on
them for a while. This will help you build up new motivation for
your next project. If you just cant wait maybe you should try my
Stormtrooper neck piece walkthrough:
http://www.muftak.com/ng/tk821/Neckpiece.htm
I’m
also planning to do a Shoulder Pauldron from scratch, if so I will post
a guide
later on:)
Common tips along the way:
-Use
the Star wars Visual dictionary often and wisely. If you’re unsure of
how
something looks just check some other pages how they’ve done on
any of the
similar weapons. There is a lot of weapons built almost the
same as the E-11
and its not only the stormtroopers who uses this blaster.
-Don’t
rush things its better to take your time, it’s the final result that counts.
I
sometimes worked on an idea for several days before starting to materialize
it
and pretty often I found the solution where I least expected. So take a
couple of hours off or maybe even days if you are not completely satisfied.
And remember that it should
be fun to build your blaster:)
-On some parts I used
aluminium plates and it is great to work with
cause its quite soft. But
you have to be very careful when bending it.
I always tried to make "round corners" because if you bend it 90
degrees
it may crack:) And with most
metals you often only have one chance
(maybe 2) to do it right, otherwise it will break into pieces.
-Don’t
be afraid to experiment and modify on your own, it’s only at those
moments
great ideas will be born.
-If
you R2 decide
which of 2 different materials to use, pick the heavier one
cause the weapon
will feel more realistic if you add some weight to it. As
an example rather
choose metal than wood if possible.
If
I get stuck?
Act
cool, take a break and relax, maybe rest your eyes on something
beautiful: www.leiasmetalbikini.com
Then check back in all of your guides and references and get some
time to
think of a good solution. If you still feel confuzed, ask for help
by any experienced blaster maker.
I
started from scratch and this is what I got:
and a pile of junk:
Happy
building and may the force be with you!
Comments
questions and suggestions are always welcome!
Mail: TK 821 Nordic garrison
Copyright
© 2004 TK 821
All rights reserved
Updated: 2004-11-03