TPE DLT-19 Resin Kit

[Kev Vader]

I have recently purchased a resin-cast DLT-19 kit from TPE (The Plastic Empire) who is based in Victoria.

Initial turnaround time from when payment was made was stated as being 2 weeks, but that blew out to 6 weeks. Lesson #1: give yourself PLENTY of time leeway.

I plan on doing a comprehensive build thread for this weapon, so here is the first submission - the various resin parts which I received.


















































As you can see, there is a lot of trimming and filling to get done before I start painting.

[Sly]

Nice, shall be watching this one.

[crypto]

Nice one !

Have fun with the trimming !

[Diatium]

Yay you're going to have fun building it

[Dino]

Kev, just a recommendation. I drilled a 1 inch hole into the stock (from the barrel end) as far as possible, then when fitted together I used a chrome curtain rod. Gave stiffness to the soft resin, and looks cool along the barrel when you look through the venting holes. Be keen to see how it comes along.

[Kev Vader]

Thanks for the tip!

Kev, just a recommendation. I drilled a 1 inch hole into the stock (from the barrel end) as far as possible, then when fitted together I used a chrome curtain rod. Gave stiffness to the soft resin, and looks cool along the barrel when you look through the venting holes. Be keen to see how it comes along.

[Dino]

Anytime.

[TerrorFirma]

Fun times ahead mate, they are good kits and go together nice. Subscribed to this!

Terror

[major payne]

Kev, just a recommendation. I drilled a 1 inch hole into the stock (from the barrel end) as far as possible, then when fitted together I used a chrome curtain rod. Gave stiffness to the soft resin, and looks cool along the barrel when you look through the venting holes. Be keen to see how it comes along.

And when you're finished, don't lean it up against a wall, as it will eventually break in half... mine did

[Kev Vader]

UPDATE:

Drilled out the barrel holes using a bench drill with an 11mm bit. tidied up the holes with a round file and wet/dry 600.

Trimmed excess resin from all major pieces, as well as removing all visible seams, using hobby knife, 400 grade sandpaper and wet/dry 600








Removed excess resin between the legs using bench drill and flat file.



I found a piece of aluminium tubing which will fit perfectly down the centre of the barrel, so will follow advice given and include that in the build.

[Cyclops]

Nice work Kev , coming along nicely .

[Diatium]

Looking good Kev!

[Kev Vader]

A productive morning.

Bored out the muzzle so that it would sit tight on the piping. Having never worked in resin before I immediately noticed that the heat caused by drilling tended to make the resin tacky, and tricky to drill. So I started off using a 5mm bit, and worked up in increments to 14mm, and then drilled the final hole with a 20mm auger.






The hard part would now be to replicate that incremental drilling process in order to form a hole for the pipe that will join the barrel to the stock. This hole had to be dead-plumb and around 6" deep in order for the barrel and stock to marry up perfectly.




Which, much to my considerable amazement, I actually managed to get pretty close!!

withe aluminium rod inserted, it straightened out the very slight kink in the barrel and is as close to plumb as could possibly have hoped for.




















I then disassembled it and gave all the pieces a scrub with some warm soapy water and the wife's toothbrush, in order to remove dust and debris and get it ready for filling a couple of blemishes.

[Cyclops]

All this care and prep work will make for a really cool finished product , nice work mate .

[Altair]

Looks like a productive morning mate... just put the toothbrush back before she notices