Every famous hero or villain has a few things that are their signature calling card, their vehicle and their weapon for instance. And Boba Fett appearance in SW:Empire Strikes Back is no exception. His ship, his armor and his blaster are all icons of Sci-Fi. After years of mental planning the time came to add this blaster to my model collection.

images The core of the EE3 blaster is made from a Webley and Scott signal flare pistol mark 1 used in WW1.  Having learned my lesson with the British Sterling for the E-11 blaster, i knew obtaining one to modify was way out of my price range. And that, in and of itself, kept me from even starting the build for so long. What finally got the ball rolling was realizing how much the frame of the gun looked much like the 6 shooters of the old west. Not only are those much easier to come by. You can find very nice toy replicas to cut up, and not feel like your wasting money and defacing an actual firearm. This biggest problem I ran into was finding a toy gun that was big enough for my hand, yet cheap enough for my wallet. I finally found one at Orscheln Farm and Ranch store. It was plastic,fit my hand, had a trigger action and was only $13.

CfEhcZHUAAAnFb5  The next step in the process was to sketch out a 1:1 handle and stock grip to be cast in resin. I was trying to stay true to the original, but realized later that my lower attachment point was in the wrong spot. It shouldn’t have been below the grip, but attached to the back of it. That flaw helped me to decide to make it the way I wanted and not stick to screen accuracy. Which i never do anyway, so why start now? My next decision was the diameter of the barrel. I’ve seen barrel both big and small but decided that the 1.5″ would worked the best and fit nicely in my hand. I had a piece of plumbing pipe from a previous home project. It was a bit long, I hadn’t decided on the length of the barrel yet, so I just attach it to the pistol.

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Now that the basic shape was set, it was time to focus on the details. Joe average may pick up on the fact that its Boba’s blaster. But my fellow modelers will not be satisfied by close enough. The key details I was going for were the thick ring that separates the frame from the barrel, the 1/4″ fins just in front of the ring, the t-tracks on the barrel and the contours of the frame. Most of the plastic on this blaster are made from Plastruct. I even had to order 2 bags of t rails to make sure I had enough. Getting the contours on the frame was accomplished by removing the cylinder and placing a flat piece of plastic sheet on either side. Then cut a second piece of plastic with the curve in it, gluing that piece from the plumbing tube to the gun from which left a gap. I filled the gap with Bondo, and once is was set sanded it into shape. To be honest, one side came out better than the other. But as long as you don’t look real close it’s hard to tell the difference.

The final piece of the puzzle was the stock. My plan was to slide the stock onto the grip frame and either screw or glue it. But once again, I had to decide, how thick, how long, what shape? GRRRRR!! To get a basic stock shape, used the stock that came with the Airsoft Thompson I used to make the Aliens Pulse rifle. The grip tang is 1″ in diameter. I traced the shape onto a 2″ x 6″ pine board I picked up from Lowes. I cut a second piece and glued to two together giving me a block that was 4″x 6″x 12″. Eyeballing the center of the stock, I drilled a 1″ hole and tested for fit. We all know what come next cutting, sanding,sanding,sanding and stain.

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IMG_0413 After priming,painting and the addition of a bb/pellet gun scope she’s finally finished. Isn’t she just purdy. It’s very light to carry. My son thought the stock was a bit short and really thick. You know what, he’s right. But it feels really good when you bring it up and put it to your shoulder. There are modifications that I made that appeal to me for one reason or the other. That being said, I dub this blaster the EE-3K. K is the first letter of my first name.  Every build is an adventure unto itself. I never know where I’m going to end up. I do know that I can mark the EE-3 blaster from my list of future builds. The EE-3K will stand toe to toe with Boda Fett’s blaster here or in a galaxy far far away.