Tom’s Andor Corporate Issue Blaster

[thd9791]

This blaster is kicking my ass. Without a mill these channels were absolutely atrocious.. I drilled holes and used burrs and bits to carve it out. Even cutting the fins was a huge ordeal by hand. I’m counting my losses and using what I make the best way I can. A lot of this gets painted black so u can start glue and JB weld at this point. I used mesh I pulled from some old radio!

 

[baron von blondle]

This blaster is kicking my ass. Without a mill these channels were absolutely atrocious.. I drilled holes and used burrs and bits to carve it out. Even cutting the fins was a huge ordeal by hand. I’m counting my losses and using what I make the best way I can. A lot of this gets painted black so u can start glue and JB weld at this point. I used mesh I pulled from some old radio!

Massive kudos to you for going old school on this!

 

[thd9791]

This took two half-days on my mini Zhenguri Lathe, and i did it the classic way, between two centers. I used the countersunk center to drill through the whole thing, and then put it back on the lathe to make a recess for a furniture bolt head. I think it looks pretty ******* good!

I also drilled and tapped for 1/4 20 in the gun, after sanding the end flat, but I’m definitely going to add adhesive in there because resin threads don’t always survive

 

[thd9791]

I went ahead and made the chamfer bigger to better match the prop. I also ground and sharpened a little rectangular tool to sharpen the corners and make the rings skinnier

 

[thd9791]

I’ve made quite some headway on this. I used 220 sandpaper, maroon scrubby pad, and a buffing wheel on the rails. I had already drilled and sculpted the trenches, and I plan on decorating the edge and using putty.. so I glued them in with fresh E6000

Next… the mount was tricky. I wanted to be able to slide the scope in and out. Unfortunately.. at least from my ability to make it, the slot won’t clear the locking area. I guess you can adjust the scope forward and backward, but it would need to be screwed to the gun permanently.

Now remember I made my bracket a bit too big, so I sized up the mount as well, to at least make it look nice.

I made the box by machining some aluminum actually. Right angle, and some scraps. I did not make the back since my side plates were aluminum too.

I opted for two screws instead of a flat bar, hence the countersunk holes. Still wasn’t to my liking, I wanted to sort of field strip the scope!

My solution was to omit the center screw, that way the bracket could come out while it was still fixed to the gun. But it could still rock a little.

So instead of glueing the faceplate down, I made it out of steel and planted magnets in the mount. Then I hammered in a steel lug to fit in the empty screw hole! I can remove the plate and loosen the screws to slide off the scope!

I’m quite proud of this. Took a lot of time and effort haha

 

[thd9791]

I was brave enough to test out the magnets this morning! I love the look, and the “1-“ serial number. I got this steel plate from the back of an old calculator or cassette recorder haha

 

[thd9791]

 

[thd9791]

over the past 24 hours I decided to use up my last bit of milliput. I smeared it in all the gaps, and then sat in front of my kitchen sink smearing water over it to smooth out the surfaces and using a toothpick to shape the edges!

I could not replicate the little things around the fins.. but that’s okay, this is like my own version.

Anyways today I took fresh 220 sandpaper and cut it up with tin snips, which is so satisfying, and went at all the filler to smooth everything down. There is also JB weld in some of the deep holes and E6000 under the greeblies. I lined an aluminum tube under the barrel and capped it with a piece of the Countac (?) kit that the Yoda Lightsaber emitter is from. Glass from my university work study job in the physics dept is in the barrel. (Plano, convex lens) since it really seems there is glass in the muzzle of this blaster.

Just automotive filler primer for now but I like how this is looking!

 

[thd9791]

Creative license on my part. I didn’t really have any greeblies that looked like the little buttons on the side. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the random feeling I got when I saw them floating on the side plate. seems like they made an effort to make the gun look like an entire solid unit, like a modern gun.

So I dug through my audio fader knob bags and actually found a huge fat button that..when turned upside down, had three compartments in its structure inside. So I chopped it down.

Considering the buttons have some gold patterns in them, I found an extra piece of DaveP brass etch from my ROTJ saber. I cut this up..

And using some pieces from the same racecar kit, made my own interesting looking buttons/greeblies.

This is going to get painted black with the rest of the blaster, and then scuffed to show the gold and shiny parts, but boy am I proud of the design and decision making inside. Superglue and tweezers.. Tin snips to cut up the brass