WIP - ESB Fett a rapidly expanding project

The next challenge was to figure out how to activate the electronics. My options were to mount a button somewhere near trigger (which I'd have to press each time i "fired") or figure out a way to make the trigger activate it.
I definitely wanted the trigger to make the "pew pew".
I got some good advice to not use the button on the board for activation in case it's damaged if the trigger is pressed too hard or something else happens. It's easier (and cheaper) to replace a switch than the board.
This is the simple switch I decided on.



Now I needed to figure out where the board and switch would go. Most of the space in the barrel is taken up by the new battery holder and eventually the wires, so running the board down the barrel wouldn't work. I dremelled out more space on the end of the receiver so the board and the switch could sit flush in there (although, it's not totally flush in that pic. I had a bit more dremelling to do at that point). With this configuration, the switch was roughly in the right place to be activated by the trigger, but the trigger needed to be extended to reach the new switch.



We added a nail to the trigger to extend it. We tried several configurations with bending the nail in different places and angles, until it activated the temporarily taped in switch. This was all trial and error and took a while to sort out. This is what it looks like.



I've had a couple people offer to cast the extended trigger as one solid piece, but I haven't taken them up on it yet. It seems to work for now. It might not last forever, but I can always swap it out later if I need to. The other thing I had to do was dremmel out this part of the receiver. I'm not sure exactly what it's called (hammer plate comes to mind, but i could be making that up). This is to allow the extended trigger to reach the switch.



By this point, I had been working on the rest of the EE-3. I had done more painting and had attached the stock to the D-bracket and the grip. I had also attached the scope rings, the sling and drilled the holes to attach the scope and put in in place.



Thanks for looking. The next update will include the electronics hook up.

Bounty1138 said:

The next challenge was to figure out how to activate the electronics. My options were to mount a button somewhere near trigger (which I'd have to press each time i "fired") or figure out a way to make the trigger activate it.
I definitely wanted the trigger to make the "pew pew".
I got some good advice to not use the button on the board for activation in case it's damaged if the trigger is pressed too hard or something else happens. It's easier (and cheaper) to replace a switch than the board.
This is the simple switch I decided on.

Now I needed to figure out where the board and switch would go. Most of the space in the barrel is taken up by the new battery holder and eventually the wires, so running the board down the barrel wouldn't work. I dremelled out more space on the end of the receiver so the board and the switch could sit flush in there (although, it's not totally flush in that pic. I had a bit more dremelling to do at that point). With this configuration, the switch was roughly in the right place to be activated by the trigger, but the trigger needed to be extended to reach the new switch.

We added a nail to the trigger to extend it. We tried several configurations with bending the nail in different places and angles, until it activated the temporarily taped in switch. This was all trial and error and took a while to sort out. This is what it looks like.

I've had a couple people offer to cast the extended trigger as one solid piece, but I haven't taken them up on it yet. It seems to work for now. It might not last forever, but I can always swap it out later if I need to. The other thing I had to do was dremmel out this part of the receiver. I'm not sure exactly what it's called (hammer plate comes to mind, but i could be making that up). This is to allow the extended trigger to reach the switch.

By this point, I had been working on the rest of the EE-3. I had done more painting and had attached the stock to the D-bracket and the grip. I had also attached the scope rings, the sling and drilled the holes to attach the scope and put in in place.

Thanks for looking. The next update will include the electronics hook up.

Click to expand...

That's some nice work there. I love these sort of inventive solutions. Keep up the good work mate!

After figuring out the logistics of adding lights and sound to my blaster, the work of actually making it all function was still left. This part was well beyond my capabilities, but fortunately my Merc buddy Dennis knows electronics and how to solder. The first step was to solder the new switch to the board. Here's a photo of the soldered switch and board just sitting in the dremelled out receiver.



The board and switch also had to be soldered to the custom battery pack. We decided to make the pack removable so it would be easy to swap out the batteries.



Since we were running the speaker and the LED light down the barrel, we had to extend those wires so they were long enough to sit in the chromed tube. I had originally intended to upgrade the speaker to the lightsaber speaker you can see in the pic below, but we ran into an issue. The lightsaber speaker was 1 Watt, but the original Hasbro speaker was .25 Watt. We didn't have enough juice to make it work. The original Hasbro speaker was also too big to fit in the chromed tube, so we needed to figure something else out.



Fortunately, he had a speaker we could use. It looked a lot like the Hasbro speaker, but had a smaller diameter. It fit perfectly on the lightsaber speaker holder so I mounted it there. We ran the wire for light down the barrel and you can see the LED light just sitting in the diffuser in this pic.



Here is a test while just pressing the button in the receiver. I had both lights and sound. Wohoo!



Here is a pic of the board and switch just sitting in the receiver. We were going to attach them to the top of the battery pack, but later decided against it. Once the hammerplate is in place, they don't move so we just left them sitting there. At this point, I still just had a cotter pin for the trigger and the greeblies were just placed in the right spot to see how they would look.



Here is a test using the trigger to fire the electronics. It also worked! I started to drill and dremel the chrome tube. I've since cleaned it up, but it was nice to see the lights and hear the sounds better from the sides. The speaker and light just sat in the tube with a piece of clear scotch tape keeping them in place for now.



So, that's one way to get the electronics from a Hasbro ROTJ EE-3 to work in a solid resin ESB EE-3. Now that the electronics worked, I still needed to some touch up the paint, add the greeblies and do a bunch of weathering and finishing touches.

Very cool reading. I recently picked up a toy ROTJ rifle off of amazon for pretty cheap and will also take the electronics out to use in my scratch-built EE3.

That's really cool

Sent from my SM-G920T

Thanks guys. I just realized that I never posted pics of the finished (or almost finished) blaster. Here they are.



And, here's one of the EE-3 firing. I'm happy with the volume.



I still have some more minor weathering to do, but its mostly done. I still plan to swap out the chrome tube for a Heiland 2 cell flash tube, but that will be somewhere down the road. Here's a pic from my first troop with it.

looks freaking sweet man, keep up the good work

Looking great man!

With the completion of my EE-3, my Boba was finally complete, but I wouldn't say it was finished. There are always tweaks and upgrades to be done, in addition to maintenance and repairs from frequent trooping.

I always knew i wanted to upgrade my bucket one day. I had originally repainted a Don Post 95. It definitely worked and I was proud of it, but it turned out to be the least accurate part of my build as things progressed. It was also a little small for my large noggin but I made it work.

I recently replaced it with an AnimeFan CC Fettpride Premium helmet. I had originally intended to have it painted by SuperJedi, but changes to my employment situation kiboshed that idea. I took everything I learned painting my first lid, as well as what I learned painting my armour, and applied it this time around.

I used rattlecans on my first helmet, but bought myself an airbrush this time around. You just have so much more control and the color selection is so much better. I used Terminal Fettler's Humbrol paint list (with the exception of the dome and lower cheeks where i used Rustoleum Spruce Green Rattlecan that I just liked it better than Humbrol 78) and RafalFett's excellent templates.

Here are pics with my new helmet on the left and my DP 95 on the right. There is quite the size difference. I used more more (and more accurate colors) on the new lid and was able to achieve more detail. The pics were taken before the final weathering was applied. I'll post up some pics in natural light with the final weathering when it's done.











I like the mandible color, general shape and the squint (visor opening?) a lot better on the new bucket. I also included details such as the thumbprint smudges and killstripe overspray that I didn't attempt on the first go round.

Excellent work, Bradley! Looking forward to seeing this in action next Saturday! We're gonna troop together finally!! Whoop whoop!

Great thread. Awesome pics