DDC Defender Fest

[RodanAZ]

A Defender was always on the list of blaster reps I wanted to build, but it just got moved to the top of the to-do list. My wife and her two best friends have recently decided that we (the three of them and all the husbands) will be Leia and Han for Halloween this year. My wife and I are ROTJ, and the others are ANH and ESB. Coincidentally the friend going as ANH Leia wants me to build her a blaster for her birthday... looks like she's going to get a defender!

Off to the internet I went, and picked up a couple of Rubies Defenders, and a 3D printed ROTJ Defender. One of the Rubies will go to the wife's friend, and will be a fairly basic build. The other Rubies and the ROTJ Defender will stay in the collection when done, and I may get a little more involved with the builds.

I'm starting with the Rubies, which are pretty well documented here, but it never hurts to have another build and more pics.

For now, I'm starting with cleaning them up, and filling/smoothing the parting lines. It's a tedious process, and I'm trying to just hit it for a little while daily.

The one nice thing with two of them is I can work on one while the other is drying...

The ROTJ version will be waiting a bit until I've made some progress on the Rubies, but is going to require a good bit of work to smooth out the printed finish.

This will be my first 3D printed project, so there will be some learning going on! I'm more used to metal, but I've built lots of static models over the years, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Gregatron]

I picked up two of the Rubies blasters, last year, and built both the ANH and ROTJ version. It was a lot of fun. I'll have to post a photo when I get a chance, to show how nice these repaints/upgrades can turn out.

Looking forward to seeing how this project goes!

 

[sbeall]

Very interested to see where this goes. This will probably be the route I take to do the ANH Defender, also. Any thoughts of replacing the plastic barrel with a metal tube?

 

[RodanAZ]

Definitely giving that some thought... real metal tube for the barrel, real wire wrap and adding some weight.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

Very interested to see where this goes. This will probably be the route I take to do the ANH Defender, also. Any thoughts of replacing the plastic barrel with a metal tube?

For mine, the seam on the barrel cleaned up very well. I replaced the barrel section between the front sight forward.

You can see the start of the work here: My Builds: Imp Field Knife, R1 Rebel Helmet, Jyn Doll, Ahsoka Hilts, Rey Staff, etc

The end result is here: My Builds: Imp Field Knife, R1 Rebel Helmet, Jyn Doll, Ahsoka Hilts, Rey Staff, etc

For The Return of the Jedi version, I used a resin cast of a real pistol. My Builds: Imp Field Knife, R1 Rebel Helmet, Jyn Doll, Ahsoka Hilts, Rey Staff, etc

It should be noted that the Rubies is made from the MR replica and they used the wrong version of the pistol. The difference is the magazine section. Not a big deal but I just thought I would mention it.

 

[Gregatron]

For mine, I replaced the barrels with brass tubing and added lead weights inside the grips. A real cord was coiled around the ANH barrel, and I scratchbuilt a cube-sight to stick behind the barrel. I also removed the triangular locking block tips (accurate for ROTJ, but not ANH), and remodeled those areas. The ROTJ blaster was a similar process, but with the addition of rubber bumpers for the squares along the body, and a 3D-printed flash suppressor. The ROTJ was painted black, and the ANH gunmetal with gloss black grips.

 

[Gregatron]

Here we go.

 

[sbeall]

Thanks for the ideas guys. Great looking blasters.

 

[RodanAZ]

Thanks for the input, guys. I found some valuable information through your posts.

Not much progress lately... still filling gaps, sanding and smoothing.

I worked a bit today on adding some weight, so the blaster will have a little heft. I'm using steel BB's for ballast, and casting resin to seal them in place. This will probably take a couple of applications to complete.

 

[RodanAZ]

Been a slow month on these, but DDC #1 (the simple clean up and paint) is nearing readiness for paint.

Since the pics above, I added some steel tubing and more bbs to the front of the barrel to give it a little more heft in the front. I'm about done cleaning up all the molding seams, and one of the last steps was to fill the void under the hammer.

I decided to try some construction expanding foam, and decided to both Rubies while I'm at it...

I went a little overboard on the first one... stuff comes out fast!

After it sets, I'll cut it down, and do the final finish with hobby putty. I hope to get to painting it over the next few days.

 

[RodanAZ]

So I skipped pics on a few steps, but finally finished Defender #1, the ANH version that will be a gift for one of my wife's friends. Again, this one was just a cleanup, and paint... nothing fancy.

Now I need to get cracking on the ROTJ version for my wife. I've been playing with filler primer, but there's still a lot of cleanup on the 3D printed parts...

 

[RodanAZ]

So, this project hasn't exactly been a speeding freight train of progress...

But, I am nearing the deadline for the ROTJ version... and it's getting close. Most of the work was just priming, sanding, priming, sanding, etc... It took an expenditure of liberal amounts of filler primer, but it's nearly ready for paint. I also filled what voids I could with steel bb's and epoxy to give it a little weight.

Someone needs to make a nice resin cast of one of these... dealing with 3D printing is waaay too much work.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

So, this project hasn't exactly been a speeding freight train of progress...

But, I am nearing the deadline for the ROTJ version... and it's getting close. Most of the work was just priming, sanding, priming, sanding, etc... It took an expenditure of liberal amounts of filler primer, but it's nearly ready for paint. I also filled what voids I could with steel bb's and epoxy to give it a little weight.

View attachment 1076219

View attachment 1076220

Someone needs to make a nice resin cast of one of these... dealing with 3D printing is waaay too much work.

 

[Mara Jade's Father]

I got my resin kit from OdiWan72
see my build staring here... My Builds: Imp Field Knife, R1 Rebel Helmet, Jyn Doll, Ahsoka Hilts, Rey Staff, etc

 

[RodanAZ]

I saw that he had sold several of them ~ 4-5 years ago, but didn't find anything currently available when I was searching.

 

[RodanAZ]

Finished basic painting on the ROTJ Defender... still needs some weathering.

Took a group photo while I was at it...

Rogue One E-11 and A180 are airsoft... E-11 has the R1 forend mounted light, and Wannawanga T-track, but still needs a lot of work. I elected to leave the A180 functional rather than removing the safety and cutting the rear receiver. ANH DL-44 is also airsoft... my first blaster. ESB DL-44 is Denix/Field Marshall. Defenders from this thread.