T-21 LIGHT REPEATING BLASTER

This baby is the ultimate heavy weapon for discerning Sandtroopers. Based on the Lewis WW2 machine gun, it features in the Docking Bay 94 attack scene in Star Wars: A New Hope. I just HAD to have one! You can read about it on Wookiepedia HERE.

My Sandtrooper conversion is now underway and I'm building my backpack, I'm hoping to have everything complete to debut at Celebration Europe with weapon by my side.

The Stock is wood, the mid-section is a resin cast, and the barrel is PVC up to the first metal clip, then it's a metal extension.

It was built for me by STEVE HIRD (SL 6659), you can see his other work here. Be warned though, he's a busy guy :D Here is his build diary:

First off, the Kit - main body was cast from an actual T-21 but this section had many issues to it, like large air pockets that had caused the cast to have many key details missing. I re-sculpted those parts as I had loads of reference pictures to go off. I wanted to get the gun as close as I could to the real thing and reshaped these sections with Millipiut, -A two part epoxy resin.

After lots of filling and sanding and reshaping, I was happy with the main housing so I then re-added more Milliput to get a smoother more refined finish and then applied the first coat of primer. Once the main section was dry I then had the whole thing Aluminum dipped. This was then going to be used so that when I sprayed the body with a satin black I could then rub the top coat back to reveal the silver underneath with a fine wire wool. Other colours were also used like rustic reds to give a sense of wear and age in the metal look. To give a final desired look I then went back in with an Aluminum paint and dry brushed to give a more controlled weathering.

The top detailed sections like the bridge site and rear site were scratch built, the rear was made from MDF and the bridge was made from ABS and bolted onto the main pipe cannon section. The whole thing received the Aluminum treatment and then I sprayed black to then weather again.

The end of the barrel extension was cut from a metal drinking flask as this was perfect for the job. The inside fluted area of the barrel end was made from a plastic funnel. More pics of that will follow later. The main stock is real wood but as you can see the handle was part of the resin cast and so I hand painted this area to match up with the wood effect. I simply chose a flat medium satin brown and once this was dry, I then dry brushed a satin black with a 2" wide brush across in one direction to give a fake wood grain.

Click the photos to enlarge. (But not all of them are clickable)