In early 2015, a company named ANOVOS offered a pre-order for Stormtrooper armor kit, at a price that I couldn’t resist. I have to wait for the end of the year before they start shipping them, but in the meantime it gives me a chance to research what I’ll need to do when the kit arrives. I also have time to work on other aspects of the Stormtrooper, like the E11 Blaster.
The first blaster I decided to test with was a Rubie’s Stormtrooper E11 Blaster – it looks fairly close to the original prop, just out of scale. It’s also really cheap so I didn’t mind if I messed anything up on it. Out of the box, the blaster is all white with orange accents.
The first thing I did was shave down the top T-track as it was way too high. I also took the blaster apart and cut out the area between the scope rails and main body, as well as the area between the scope and the scope rail. I had to add a small shim along the areas I cut out since cutting out those parts left gaps so you could see into the barrel.
Other modifications included creating my own power cylinders out of spare styrene that I had laying around, shaving off the molded D-ring on the back of the blaster and adding my own from an old gym bag strap, drilling out the holes along the barrel, adding an inner barrel from PVC piping, and painting everything.
Custom power cylinders and D-ring.
Inner barrel made from 3/4″ PVC pipe being glued into place.
I’d like to eventually use something like green stuff or bondo to hide the seams and screw holes, but that is for the future when I have more time.
This was a good experience as it was the first time I used a rotary tool, and it gave me some ideas for what to do when I build my next E11 blaster – a Doopydoo’s kit from England.
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