I finally decided to build this kit after it had been sitting in my closet since 1993. At first glance, the detail looked great but as I started to research the “real” armor I noticed some problems.

All the pieces had really soft edges and inaccurate details. Some pieces could be brought up to “spec” with just some adjustment others would have to be trimmed away and rebuilt. Worst of all, the blaster was entirely the wrong size, a crappy casting and inaccurate.

At the waist, I had to reshape the crotch and butt plate and decided to remove the blocks that hang from the belt as they were molded in place and should hang free.

I used an Xacto knife to sharpen edges, re-shape armor plates and cut under the armor where appropriate.

The helmet was a big mess! Besides the general cleanup and edge refining that I did on all the other parts, there were some problems with proportion and shape that would have to be fixed.

I cut off the “ears”, extended and reshaped the “snout” with putty, removed the front grill and “microphone” tips, cut out spaces in the “teeth” and lined the inside of the helmet with epoxy putty.

I had to completely reshape the eye holes with epoxy putty. I pushed Sculpey through the eye holes from the inside and sanded the lenses round.

The inside of the helmet was painted black and the trim was made from a thick plastic coated cord from the craft store.

The BIGGEST problem with this kit is the torso barely has a neck and there is no way to attach the helmet without gluing it directly on the shoulders. So the helmet would sit correctly, I decided to sculpt a head for it. And if I was going to go to the trouble of sculpting a head, I’d use my own! I used Sculpey for the head and epoxy putty for a neck seal to hold it.

I constructed a base from styrene to simulate the decking on the Death Star.

The Blaster looked OK at first glance but it’s way too big, the casting is bad and the sights and folding stock are CARDBOARD. I downloaded the ENH version E11 templates from the Blaster Builders Club and used these reduced to 27% to build a new one from scratch.

I cut a new barrel from 3/8″ brass tubing and the grip, magazine and Hengstler counter were made from laminated styrene. The receiver spring was made from copper wire wrapped around 1/4″ aluminum tubing.

Pictured here is the completed magazine with styrene details. The front and rear sights were made from pieces of brass as were the folding stock and trigger guard. I removed the pistol grip that was molded into the Trooper’s right hand so the new one could slide in. Unfortunately I couldn’t attach the trigger or trigger guard until it was put in the Trooper’s hand.

Here is the completed body of the gun. It has a 1/8″ brass barrel, the muzzle is laminated styrene and the bolt handle is a VERY tiny nail.

I made the “scallops” out of 1/4″ aluminum tubing, Dremeled to fit and super-glued in place. Here is the barrel with magazine, front and rear sights, end cap and scope rail attached.

The scope was made from aluminum and brass tubing, a wooden dowel and the blue cone-shaped “clicker” from an ink pen.

The t-tracks covering the barrel vent holes were made from styrene t-bars. All I had to do was cut them to length and taper the ends to make it look as if they were inserted into the holes.

I stripped out a few wires from a 9-volt connector, wound them around a tube and super-glued them in place. This was by far the HARDEST part of the entire project. Those damn wires really didn’t want to cooperate!

The final gun compared to the original kit’s version.

Here is the final assembled gun. I also used a little silver paint to simulate wear. I kept it pretty minimal as I figure a Stormtrooper with a cushy assignment like the Death Star probably has pretty new gear and probably doesn’t see a lot of action (Besides smugglers and Wookiees running loose…)

The final kit, with and without helmet.