Han Solo Blaster - Rubies Mod (more than paint)

[JadeD16]

Hey guys,
I'm pretty new at this whole prop making thing, I've done some stuff from scratch that's turned out not so good. So I decided that I was going to start with a base. So I grabbed myself a Rubies Blaster. I wanted to do more than just the paint job I've seen, so I am doing as much modding as I can to make it look... more awesome. Well I will let the pictures explain further...
Oh and sorry the pictures are kinda crappy, I should've used my real camera, but my phone was just lying there so...


First I cut out the solid piece to make it look more like the real thing. Obviously clean-up will be needed.
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Next up I needed to fill in the long strip thing. As you can see I made good use out of an old gift card... Something I have a lot of...
I filled in what needed to be filled in with some apoxy.


I just have to wait for all the apoxy to dry... this is what I'm left with at the moment.

EDIT: I don't have a shot of the original blaster, but this is one hot of the finished piece.

 

[7-11 Jedi]

Looks like a great start! Can't wait to see where it goes!

 

[JadeD16]

Looks like a great start! Can't wait to see where it goes!

thanks!

 

[JadeD16]

Just a little bit today. I drilled out the holes in the flash suppressor.
I added an extra row of holes along the seam...

I still need to do some clean-up on the holes.

 

[cjchiu]

Nice. The scope is gonna need lots of work. Interested in seeing how you rebuild it.

 

[JadeD16]

Nice. The scope is gonna need lots of work. Interested in seeing how you rebuild it.

Me too! I have a Star Wars themed wedding coming up, hopefully I can figure it out and get it done by then, or I'll just have to paint it up the way it is... Then do the scope at a later date... I think that I might redo the scope with PVC, or some sort of pipe.

 

[T K]

Awesome start. One of these days I'll need to build a DL-44.
Keep at it and you shall get her done!

 

[JadeD16]

I've started on the scope. I cut some pvc pipe to size as well as cut off the wider end of the scope. Now that they're glued together I can get on with filling it in.

 

[JadeD16]

Just finished the main filling in... It still needs some touching up, and sanding.

Next up is trying to figure out how to secure the scope to the body, then filling up the top.

 

[grenater]

That looks good so far I thought about doing something similar myself.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

 

[JadeD16]

That looks good so far I thought about doing something similar myself.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

Awesome start. One of these days I'll need to build a DL-44.
Keep at it and you shall get her done!

thanks! now the hard part begins; rebuilding the top.

 

[JadeD16]

So today I did a little bit of everything, yet not getting a whole lot done.
First I glued in the handle pieces, and filled them in using Apoxy (I wish I had taken pictures of that, but I didn't) -- After doing that I painted the handles. I'll go in and repaint them with higher detail when I'm done, but I just wanted the base coat down. I also wanted to switch things up from just the sanding gluing and Apoxying.
Next up I worked on the top. I filed down what need to be and put on the first top piece (cover-up) once again using a gift card.
That's about it for today. It's coming along nicely... I need to get something to weigh it down a bit before I fully seal it... Then it's on to mounting the scope.
--I marked the places I cut off with red.

 

[JadeD16]

Not a whole lot was done today. I mostly just focused on the support for the scope. I dremmeled out the pieces from the original scope, I had to sand them quite a bit... The plastic this is made from doesn't really like being dremmeled, so there is a fair amount of clean-up needed. I also cut out a piece from the original scope barrel and used it to make the curved part (see first picture). More of the top gap was filled in with, you guess... gift card.
That's about it. I think I may take the weekend off... Though with it just sitting on my desk there is a good chance that won't happen.

 

[JadeD16]

OK. So today is the day I will be filling in the top, as well as the seams. In the blaster I put in some air dry clay I had around to weigh it down a bit.

 

[JadeD16]

I've glued it together and filled in all the gaps/seams, using Apoxy and or super-glue. It's all been sanded down, and is currently outside with a first coat of primer.
Though I do still need to figure out how exactly I'm going to mount on the scope. I hot glued it temporarily where I want it to sit, but I still need to find a way to put the bracket/holder things on so that it looks right.

I screwed up the paint on the handle, so I sanded that off with everything else... So that will need to be redone.

 

[JadeD16]

After the second coat of primer I realized I forgot to fill in the gaps between the hole thing and the rounded part. I had accidentally pulled off the rounded part. :facepalm

 

[T K]

Ah, we all make mistakes. I was just at a troop and my E-11 hit a box and the front sight came off.. Haha. It's always a work in progress.
But keep it up! You're doing very well.

 

[JadeD16]

Today I started on the scope support, and realized I lost a piece I painted yesterday. Hopefully I can find the little circle... I guess that's what you get for doing something the 'I'm going to paint you separately so I won't have to worry about masking you later on' way. (i.e. the right way.) ugh. Any who. This is what was done today... Excluding the silver paint job.

 

[JadeD16]

Ok... So my day way definitely more productive than it has been the last couple.
Firstly I finished the silver coat yesterday... and today I mustarded the paint chipped parts.

Next up was the the black coat with the muzzle taped off...

After that was finished I took the tape off and lightly sprayed over the silver with back, and then another light coat of silver. (I wish I had gotten a close-up, but I forgot.) You can kinda tell the difference in the two pictures below.

After the paint was finished, I began on weathering it.

As you can see I still need to paint the handles, as well as some other details that need to be done...
I've made some headway on the scope today. We are down to the home stretch of this replicating adventure.

 

[JadeD16]

ALAS I am done!... Well kinda. It can pass as done, but I know I'm going to go back and redo somethings. Mainly the scope. When I was drying it was knocked over by the wind and the paint was still a little tacky so it got all sandy/gross. Overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially form my first (finished) prop project. As I'm writing this I realize that I forgot to add the top piece thing to the scope.