My reworked E-bay nightmare...

I've often seen the phrase on this board...

"There is something we've all bought before we found this board that we wished we hadn't"

This blaster was mine.

In all fairness, though, when I first got it I really liked it and thought...this is just the coolest. Then after playing with it for about 5 minutes and breaking off the trigger guard...

Then I found this board a long time later and was inspired by some of the things I've seen and decided that I must redo this hunk of resin, wood, and foam.

Here are some pics as it looked not too long ago:



:puke :puke :puke

• I cleaned up the shape and irregularties
• I resculpted the breach
• Made a new trigger and trigger guard out of layers of sintra
• Replaced the foam core barrel with pvc pipe
• Made cooling fins from sculpey (ala my other thread)
• Sanded and filled pock marks, air bubbles and crud holes
• I didn't have a nice looking screw for the handle so I sculpted one in Kneadatite
• I found that many bad places on the gun (stock mainly) were filled with some kind of soft clay like material that broke away easily and crumbled (this is why the trigger guard broke away so easily!!!)

These are a few pics of the work:





And in primer...




I cleaned up some of the detail and tried to make it look a bit more Webley-ish. One day I may even use the same method I used on the trigger and guard to make a more correct looking hammer.

I have yet to add the greeblies, scope mounts, scope or blaster tip (which is done, just not affixed).

Is it passable now? Comments are welcome and ideas for change are as well.

That looks great, the first 2 pics looks like its made out of tootsie roll.

I just bought that $6 scope from Wal-Mart today

WOW! That's like the difference between night and day! That's really comming along great, I can't wait to see it done!

Originally Posted by cal196

That looks great, the first 2 pics looks like its made out of tootsie roll.

"Ev'rything I see... becomes a Tootsie Roll to me!"

Much better!

great job !!

The New and Improved Blaster... Now with 100% more Ultra Flat Black!!!!


I decided to leave some air bubbles unfilled. On the parts that would be metal I thought it almost gave a nice weathered "pitted" look.



Thanks for the kind words everybody!

I chose to leave some casting bubbles, and flaws in mine too. It just gave it that 'been around the galaxy' look. Your on your way! Keep it up! A little here, and a little there, viola!

Awww...man! I left the darn thing outside after painting it and then it rained!




The flash really washed the color out of the rust. It's a lot darker in person with mixes of oranges and reds. I'll try to take a better pic tomorrow. Now I'm starting on scratchbuilding the stock greeblies!

Are you going to scratch build the bomb racks, or the mid-chamber wings? May I suggest you contact Fetthunter for the bomb rack. You will not be disappointed! His castings are crisp and clean. If memory serves me correct, they are only $7. Its a shame to see a nice blaster rusted

Originally Posted by Buckeye_01

Are you going to scratch build the bomb racks, or the mid-chamber wings? May I suggest you contact Fetthunter for the bomb rack. You will not be disappointed! His castings are crisp and clean. If memory serves me correct, they are only $7. Its a shame to see a nice blaster rusted

I'm probably going to go ahead and sculpt the bomb racks. I used to sculpt gaming miniatures all the time and I feel pretty sure I can do one of these then just mold and cast for the second one.

Do the wings come from the same model kit or have they ever been identified?

I'm not sure anyone knows what they are exactely. Sidewinder made a template up not to long ago. You can cut them out of some plastic, or styrene.

Here are Sidewinders dimensions.

The master for my 1st stock greeblie...


I just realized upon further inspection that the hole to the farthest right inside the brass ring does not have a raised area around it. Have to pop that back off.

I think I even have an idea how to do the A, B, and C that are by the holes on the model pieces.

Your turning that piece of **** into a very nice blaster. Keep up the great work.

My improved master stock greeblie:

Wow, talk about making the best of a bad situation. I cannot wait to see what this blaster looks like when you are done with it.

looks great!!

keep it up!

Sa'weeet!

You completely turned this blaster around. Amazing work! Talk about a complete salvage. My hat off to you sir!

1st casting from the mold of my master stock greeblie #1:


I was kind of doing this one in poorly lit place and didn't catch a couple of the air bubbles. I like to pour the resin and then go around with a disection kit pointer to pull out the bubbles. I figure the less clean up there is to do the less time it takes to get painted and used!!!

I'm about 50% done with the second stock greeblie and will post a pic of it when finished.

Thanks for all the great comments everybody!!

Finished the master for the second stock greeblie today and thought I would update the thread with a new pic:


So off I go to mix up some silicone and catalyst!

Dude, that's Insane!! Your master looks better than the real thing they cast off of for the movie...

Now, should you ever decide to make masters of the double banded scope mounts, that would be cool too (hint, hint)!

Where's the SEEKER's "SEAL OF APPROVAL" (amazed) pic when you need it??? This is AMAZING! Keep the good work and the updates. Looking great!

Robert

My 1st casting from the second stock greeblie mold:

Nice FREAKIN' work!

Those look GREAT!

That looks goooooddd

You know I started this thread with showing the original gun so I would be remiss without showing the original quality stock greeblies!

Here they are grouped with the ones I've made and painted:


In retrospect I like the originals so much I may just use those instead...

Would anybody be interested in getting a set of these (4 pieces in all)? If so, I could post someting in the Cargo Hold or you could just PM me. I promise nice casts with minimal prep work!

Hadn't updated in a while so I thought I would post a few pics with the stock greeblies on...the blaster tip added...and some drybrushed "Boltgun Metal"

I think I may go back and drybrush some more black over some of the rust areas to tone down the rust some. Good idea? Bad idea?

Ehh, I think you might want to remove some of the rusting as you said It looks like you overdid it. Great blaster none the less.

It´s really wet in the Sarlac, isn´t it ? ;-)

Good work, bro, it looks 1000 times better than the poor "thing" you got from ebay. The rust is too much IMO , remove a little bit and you can be proud of a very nice prop !

Greets
tk2647

Man I am liking your reworked E-bay nightmare!

Yo sure did a great job of rescuing that blaster fantastic weathering too.

It's been a long while since I updated this thread and thought I would throw something on here with a little more progress.

I airbrushed over the gun some and will fine tune weathering once I'm done and happy with the overall mechanical look of the gun.

Added the bombracks.

Made a close-to version of the scope rings from a different scope mount from a $3.00 scope from eBay.

And used the eBay scope plus part of the scope that came with the blaster originally to make it look more like a asi.

Please comment on the placement of the scope!!!! (I haven't placed the frontmost mount block yet)

I wan't to make sure that is as close to the original placement as possible before I mount the other block. Thanks!!!!

just out of curiosity, who did you buy it from on ebay? so that others will know to steer clear of them, unless they have the time and patience to work magic like you have.

Originally Posted by saint_nasty

just out of curiosity, who did you buy it from on ebay? so that others will know to steer clear of them, unless they have the time and patience to work magic like you have.

Probably no issue with that. I bought this thing years ago and as I recall the seller had no other prop items for sale or any listed in their feedback.

The seller may not have even known that he was selling off a piece of crud. Afterall I was kind of happy with it when I first got it.

I'm a LOT happier with it now, though