My first Thread on RPF - a Han Solo ANH Costume - for Halloween 2013'.

[Machiavelli]

So, bad news is that when I went to start bluing my Denix and THEN realized that I bought the gun scrubber and not the cleaner/degreaser. Lol. I might have used a few choice words.

Regardless, on a positive note I received my DE conversion kit today!

I have a few pics of the kit I received today.



They are all in excellent shape and just need some finishing sanding. I will pick up the cleaner/degreaser tomorrow and then I can start on bluing them all together later this week!

 

[Machiavelli]

 

[Machiavelli]

Sorry for the slow progress but was working putting the conversion parts on the gun today - I am very glad I did these fittings BEFORE I did the bluing process. I had to shave down a number of areas to get parts to fit on.

Everything on the main body of the blaster fits well now except for the scope and the scope mount (which still needs some adjustment).

I will post some pics of my progress thus far tomorrow evening.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Looking forward to it :thumbsup

 

[Machiavelli]

Hey everyone,

The good news is that I have been able to put together my conversion kit on my Denix with little trouble - it took about 6-7 hours to fit the various parts cleanly - involved a lot of sanding and use of a dremel with the Denix. However, if I had a suggestion - I would go with what other suggest using to remove metal on the Denix - a metal file. They are great for close up detail work and keeping your lines crisp.

The bad news is that I was off on drilling one of my holes for the scope bar and thus the scope looks slightly slanted (tilted up from the front). Ugh! I am sure I am being picky but I just can't look at it now and not see it. lol. I am sure there is an answer to this problem - can't think of one at this moment so I am going to take a day or two off from working on it and come back to it.

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on how to fix this - I would really appreciate it!

Here are some photos of what I have done so far:







I am still waiting on my outfit (vest, shirt, and pants - hope to have those by next week) and my gun belt (hope to have that before the 20th).

In the meantime I am going to take my boots to the local cobbler and have them shined up.

 

[Machiavelli]

Over lunch today I was thinking that maybe if I removed a bit of the right side scope bar's hole (lower part) a little at a time I could make it level - then use JB Weld to glue the bolt to the lower part of the Denix.

The positive is that I could do this fairly easily and quickly and JB Weld is pretty strong.

The negative is that I couldn't re-use the bolt etc.

Any thoughts?

 

[Kevin Gossett]

My suggestion was going to be just that... Lower the hole slightly on the front. Is there room on the inside where that front bolt is for you to JB Weld a nut inside? Then you could still remove the bolt if needed.

 

[seancoleman]

Love the blaster!

Great job! Will be following your progress for sure

 

[Machiavelli]

Kevin that is a great suggestion! Thank you! There is room to get in and use a nut like you suggested (the front hole for the scope bar is located in the area where the ammo clip would be - which is easy to access via the removal of the upper portion of the Denix). I will give your suggestion a try and report back on it this weekend!

Thanks for the compliment Sean. It is still a work in progress but it is getting there.

 

[seancoleman]

Ive been looking to upgrade my Han Solo costume
new blaster is first on the list

 

[Machiavelli]

Sean - I have to admit that this blaster build has been a lot of fun and I have become very proficient with my dremel as well! lol.

Kevin - your idea worked perfectly! I found a nut that matched the bolt, slowly removed material from below the hole, and now it is perfectly level and since I didn't make the hole too big I didn't even have to JB weld it in place!

I will post some update pics of the corrected scope tomorrow. I am hoping to do some final sanding this weekend and start the bluing of the gun on Monday.

 

[Kevin Gossett]

Nicely done

 

[Darth Dookie]

Machiavelli,
nice job on the DEC/Denix DL-44. I received my parts from DEC as well, a few weeks ago and I've been slowly piecing it together. I decided not to blue my scope or flash hider and used some krylon spraypaint and I am very happy with the results. I seriously love my blaster. I'm almost complete with it. I basically have to glue the grill on and I'm trying to decide if I want to distress it. It looks great as a "new" gun...decisions, decisions. It's actually part of my X-wing pilot that I'm building, but I also got MP's ANH belt so that I can double up a Han outfit later-winning.
Good luck!
JD

 

[Machiavelli]

Hey Darth! Thanks for the compliments on my blaster! I am working on finishing it up this weekend and will post more pics on its progress.

Can I ask what exact type/color of Krylon spray you used - maybe item number if you still have it? I am going to try bluing on the booster first - so if it looks terrible it will not be obvious and I may go with painting. Did you use a lacquer finish on top? If so - did you use a matte or gloss?

Also would you mind posting a picture of it here? I would love to see it!

Thanks!

 

[Machiavelli]

So I finally got some shots to share. I spent some extra time on finishing some details including sanding down the groove in the back of the handle and cutting my front bolt for the FH - to make it more flush, cut the T bar for the greeblies etc. The only thing left to do is cut down the bolts for the scope mount so they are shorter and more even.











At this point though, I think the sanding/smoothing is done and I am just going to do a little more with final buffing with my 3 M finishing pads (similar to the 0000 steel wool pads) tomorrow and then move on to bluing starting Monday.

 

[Machiavelli]

After today I feel I have finally completed the sanding/final touches on the blaster. I just need to work on cleaning and degreasing and then bluing. Although, I am having second thoughts on the bluing process vs. painting.

If anyone has tried one or the other - especially both - what would you recommend to a new prop builder to use with their blaster?

Thanks!

 

[hammer326]

VERY cool stuff so far, especially for a first build! I always make an effort to pay careful attention to builds of all sorts that aren't 40 pounds of fibreglass armour, increasing exponentially, until it can safely be called a costume. Not to mention I pretend I know 2-3 things about fashion so stuff like this definitely appeals. Will be staying tuned!

 

[Machiavelli]

All right - well - I finally stopped agonizing about how to finish the blaster and started finishing my blaster!

I was originally planning on doing all the pieces with bluing but in the end I opted with the following:

1) I used BC Brass Black for the brass pieces of the scope - wow! I love this stuff! It turned out awesome...a nice deep black but kept all the details of the brass metal.

Here are some pics of the results - this was about an hour from start to finish - these pics are with it soaking in gun oil to finish curing overnight:

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2) I also finished cleaning up the completed upper/lower Denix and the DEC conversion kit parts and decided to go with black paint for these - I was curious which would turn out better (bluing vs. painting - lol! My money is on bluing right now - we will see). Anyway - I used some Rustoleum grey primer (self etching - good for aluminum and bare metal) and it stuck very well and dried quickly too. The only thing is that it seemed to hide the details of the metal - not sure if I like this. Well, as someone who knows this better than I do said - you can always remove the paint and start over! Thanks kpax!

Here are a picture of before and after the primer:

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I am going to start with the black lacquer paint tomorrow - likely will put the blaster together first (including JB Welding the grill in place and the greeblies) and THEN paint the entire thing at one time. I will let you all know how it turns out soon!

 

[Machiavelli]

So, the parts for primer painting are dry now and with closer inspection - this primer came out making the parts looking like they came out of a kiln. Good point - it smoothed over any flaws. Bad point - it removed some of the detail as well. I am curious how the black lacquer will look on it.

 

[Machiavelli]

Here are some pictures that might make it more clear what I meant in regards to the primer:







Versus the picture of the parts with no primer..in regards to removal of detail.: