The creation of the E-11 blaster rifle
Page 05
Page 05
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After having found lots of screws, I decided to use two round headed screws that looked pretty good back on the scope rail.
Can you find them in the photo?
Try looking, it's fun.
Can you find them in the photo?
Try looking, it's fun.
Two guide marks were hammered into the scope rail for where the holes for the scope mounting bolts were to be made.
After finishing the pilot holes, a larger drill bit was used to make even bigger holes before drilling the final size that the holes should have.
It's always better to use this method because if the pilot holes were drilled off-centered, you can always use a small file to center the pilot holes again and drill it bigger afterwards, but if you start drilling the hole as large as it should be when the pilot hole is off-centered, then it's all screwed.
It's always better to use this method because if the pilot holes were drilled off-centered, you can always use a small file to center the pilot holes again and drill it bigger afterwards, but if you start drilling the hole as large as it should be when the pilot hole is off-centered, then it's all screwed.
For the final step of the exciting hole making, I used an 8 millimeter thick drill bit, even though I'm using 6 millimeter thick bolts to mount the scope onto the scope rail, because this way I will have more adjustment space to get the scope in the right position once bolted onto the scope rail.
Finally the scope could be mounted onto the blaster and it's all looking more like an E-11 blaster rifle than ever before, and looks pretty cool.
Free cola from the neighbor across the street, cheers.
Free cola from the neighbor across the street, cheers.
As I was already working on the scope rail before, I thought I might as well make the mount for the Hengstler counter which is to be mounted on the scope rail also.
Here you can see I've drawn a template after some measurements for the Hengstler counter mount found on the Internet.
Here you can see I've drawn a template after some measurements for the Hengstler counter mount found on the Internet.
After cutting the template out, I glued it onto of a sheet of 1 millimeter thick aluminum and cut it to the right shape using a tin-cutter.
To bend the part, I stuck it in a vise and hammered it to a 90 degree angle.
After the template was removed from the part, the surfaces and edges of it were sanded smooth.
To make the holes through the Hengstler counter mount, I temporarily super-glued it onto the scope rail underneath it and drilled some small pilot holes through it.
To make the holes in the Hengstler counter mount bigger, I used a small file instead of a larger drill bit so that I could better align the holes in the Hengstler counter mount with the ones of the scope rail.
After the holes were done, I could attach the Hengstler counter mount underneath the scope rail with some temporary bolts to see what it looked like.
When I tried mounting it all on top of the gun body, it appeared that the measurements for the Hengstler counter mount didn't fit the rest of the blaster rifle, so I had to make a minor adjustment by bending it slightly outwards before bending it back in again some distance after the first bend, but this looked sort of cool anyway, so it didn't bother me that much.
This is the Hengstler counter, also known in the Star Wars universe as the scope power unit, but in reality was a box that could pretty much count numbers up to 99999999.
After having heard many tales and adventures about something called resin, I finally got to see for myself what this stuff is really like, and it sure is nice.
After having heard many tales and adventures about something called resin, I finally got to see for myself what this stuff is really like, and it sure is nice.
Using a small screwdriver, I cut open all the air bubbles underneath the surface of the resin to later fill them in with bondo.
The bondo was applied all over the Hengstler counter where there were air bubbles before.
With a large flat file and some sandpaper, I got the surface of the Hengstler counter smooth and flat all over.
Since I had to apply bondo on most surfaces of the Hengstler counter, all the casted screw heads that were on it earlier had vanished, so I made new holes for some real screws that I screwed into the Hengstler counter.
On some versions of the E-11 blaster rifles, there were two coiled wires coming out of the Hengstler counter, running down to a couple of cylinders that were mounted on top of the clip housing, so I chose to make two holes for a couple of wires too, using a small sharp screwdriver to grind the holes into the front of the Hengstler counter.
Having looked for some coiled black wires for the Hengstler counter for a while, I later got the idea of using some regular wires that I pulled the insides out of, and replaced them with a couple of steel wires that will help maintain the coiled look.
To coil the wires, I wrapped them tightly around a screwdriver and pulled each end away from one and other to give them the right look.
After the coiled wires were finished, they were super-glued into the holes of the Hengstler counter.
In this photo, some holes were drilled through the Hengstler counter and the mount so that I could screw the mount onto the side of the Hengstler counter.
The mount was attached to the Hengstler counter with four small screws.
The coiled wires that I made for the Hengstler counter will also be connected to the cylinders that will be mounted on top of the clip housing.
Here you can see the custom drawn template that I made to make the cylinder holder.
Here you can see the custom drawn template that I made to make the cylinder holder.
After cutting the template out, I glued it onto a piece of sheet metal and trimmed the part around the edges of the template with a tin-cutter.
The required holes were drilled through the cylinder holder where the two cylinders and two small pins will be placed.
Having run out of any larger drill bits, I had to use the cone shaped "expandomatron" grinding bit to make the holes bigger, followed by some filing.
After all the holes were finished, I stuck the cylinder holder in a vise and bent it to a 90 degree angle.
You may have noticed that the cylinder supporters I made were too long, that is because I had planned on making half the length of them into small pins that would go inside a hole at the front of each cylinder, holding them better in place.
The cylinders were made out of brown fiber tubes that had the exact same width as the original cylinders were said to have had.
Here you can see that I've taped around the tube to make a steady line for where I was to cut it with a hack-saw.
Here you can see that I've taped around the tube to make a steady line for where I was to cut it with a hack-saw.
Both cylinders were cut to the right length and fit perfectly inside the holes that I made for them earlier.
The holes that the cylinder supporter pins will be put into later on were drilled halfway into the cylinders.
After the holes were finished, they cylinders sat very well and sturdy on the holder.
The small rods that should be placed in the middle of the cylinder holder were made of a 3 millimeter thick steel rod that was cut using a hack-saw.
And when mounted, they both looked pretty much like this.
For the end caps of the cylinders, I used two photo film rollers from some old cameras.
The camera film rollers had a whole lot of teeth on them, so I had to cut these off and sand the parts smooth.
After the parts were sanded smooth enough, I cut the front and back parts off to use them as the end caps of the cylinders.
And when those were mounted, they looked a lot like the ones in that photo over there.
The last parts needed for this amazing targeting sensor were the two small nuts for the front cylinder covers.
The small nuts were super-glued onto the front cylinder covers, but still needed their holes filled with bondo.
After filling in the holes of the small nuts with bondo, the targeting sensor was finally finished.
Here is a convenient composite photo of every angle of it, minus maybe some.
Here is a convenient composite photo of every angle of it, minus maybe some.
Seeing as the original back sights of the Sterling sub-machine guns were a lot thicker than the one I made, I applied some bondo onto two of the plastic bondo appliers I had and stuck them to the inside of the rear sight.
When the bondo had almost hardened, I removed the bondo appliers and started cutting away the excess bondo with a sharp blade because this is a lot easier than waiting until the bondo has fully hardened to then sand it, which takes a lot more time and causes a lot of dust that covers everything.
But do that anyway if you'd like, I'm not stopping you.
But do that anyway if you'd like, I'm not stopping you.
After some extra crack filling was done, along with some groove cutting, the back sight was finally finished.
Two small screws were also added to the sides of it.
Two small screws were also added to the sides of it.
I had to draw my own templates for the two barrel vent covers that are located in front of the ejection port and behind the utmost front hole on the side of the gun body.
After having drawn many different ones, I finally figured out the right shape to make mine as close to the originals as possible.
After having drawn many different ones, I finally figured out the right shape to make mine as close to the originals as possible.
After cutting out the templates and gluing them onto a sheet of aluminum, I cut the parts out with a tin-cutter and trimmed the edges around the templates with the metal chomping tool.
The front vent cover was bent to the right curve and was then super-glued onto the gun body.
The same thing was done to the other one in front of the ejection port as well.
