STAGE 6 – E11 blaster kit
:: March 13th 2016 ::
THE DOOPY DOO PIPE KIT
Now this might sound like a 1970’s pop song to the uninitiated.. but to those of you in the know, the Doopy Doo’s pipe kit of considered one of the best E11 blaster resin kits available… and it’s made right here in the UK 🙂
The Doopy Doo E11 resin pipe kit
Doopy Doo (www.doopydoos.com) make several resin kits for many of the Star Wars weapons, in either partial (such as this pipe kit) and full versions, and accessories such as sights, scopes, and ammunition magazine elements.
No offence to the family that run the Doopy Doo website – it’s not the best website you’ll ever see but the product is highly rated by many costume and prop fans.
I have to say, it was rather exciting when the box turned up on my desk! Dopy Doo only make a handful of kits at a time and they sell out very quickly so you have to get in real quick when they have stock… and then wait. I ordered the pipe kit as this was the only one they had available at the time, along with the extra tank scope and counter box. All that I needed to add was.. yes, the pipe, and a aluminium strip to mount the scope.
Resin E11 grip
Resin tank scope
Ammunition box
The detail on these items is just great, however many of the guys on the forums have replaced the ‘effect’ screws for real ones so I think I’ll try the same.
Next up is a piece of standard 40mm UK plumbing pipe (thank you B&Q) and the free to download templates from the FISD forum.
40mm plastic pipe and templates
Muzzle and front of blaster
Trigger and rear end of blaster
I have to say that having received the kit and downloaded the template, and having been through the FISD forum and building posts, this does seem a little more complex than I first thought 🙁 I have never worked with resin before and whilst it is a great modelling substrate i.e. it can be sanded, filed, painted, glued, and I’m told drilled.. it can also be quite fragile, so care is the keyword here.
So the trick over the next few weeks is to get resign and plastic pipe to go from this:
Resin and plastic pie kit
.. to something like this:
Finished E11 blaster
The skill will be in the finishing and ‘weathering’ of the paint job. Lets hope that my days of Warhammer 40K and dry-brushing paint techniques will stand the test of time 🙂
BLASTER LEFT Blueprint curtsey of FISD
BLASTER RIGHT Blueprint curtsey of FISD