Repainting the Disney E-11 Stormtrooper Blaster

Halloween isn't too far away, but if you're looking for a kid-friendly blaster for your ANOVOS armor this Halloween, it's not too late to get one ready.

The Disney E-11 electronic Stormtrooper blaster is a good place to start. You can find them on Amazon being sold by Disney Merchandise themselves, or from third parties on eBay. They're no longer sold in Disney Parks; from what I know, you can only purchase them online. The original MSRP on these was $24.99 if memory serves, so keep that in mind when purchasing one from a third party as to not get too badly fleeced (but keep in mind that prices my include shipping costs from these sellers).

Edit 2017-02-01: this blaster is now quite expensive, and getting it for less than $100 is a steal. If you don't need the sound and light FX, you may be better off spending $150 on a HyperFirm B-Grade blaster.

Although the blaster is cool, its white color sticks out like a sore thumb on an otherwise screen-accurate costume. I'm going to discuss repainting the blaster to better match the costume, while retaining some of the safety orange features that let others know it's not a dangerous item.

Obviously, retaining the orange features don't make it as screen accurate as possible, but I already have a HyperFirm blaster for screen accuracy. Making the Disney blaster screen accurate, or spending money on 3D-printed third-party parts, wasn't my goal. Other troopers on whitearmor.net have done these things and more if you want to search the forums there for additional information. I'll elaborate more on this at the end of the post.

For now, I'll discuss the steps I took to repaint my Disney E-11 blaster. Because I did the repaint several months ago for a birthday party for my cousins-in-law's son (while simultaneously working on improving my bucket), I didn't take any pictures of the actual process, but will describe the steps I took using pictures and disassembly of my already-painted Disney E-11 blaster.

• Cut off the orange tip

For me, there was no easy way around this. Other troopers were able to twist off the orange tip with little effort, but when I tried to twist the tip from mine, it started cracking the front of the barrel, which required a little repair with CA glue to fix. If the tip won't twist off, I recommend a coping saw or a Dremel with a wide cutting disk (which is what I used). I stored the orange tip in a baggy.

• Removed all the screws

As you're holding it, on the left side of the blaster, there's only one screw for the battery box.

All the structural screws are located on the right side of the blaster; there are 9 in total. All the screws are the same length, which makes reassembly easier.

I stored the screws in the same baggy as the orange tip.

• Started to disassemble the blaster

Once the screws were out, the blaster came apart with very little effort. The barrel rail, scope and orange trigger came off easily. I didn't paint the trigger and bagged it with the screws and orange tip. The pistol grips were also easily removed at this point as they're secured by the removed screws and slip-in tabs. I decided to not paint these as the paint would wear off easily from these parts anyhow, and bagged them as well. 

• Removed the barrel rails, scope, trigger, and grips 

The barrel rail, scope and orange trigger should came off easily. I didn't paint the trigger and bagged it with the screws and orange tip. The pistol grips were also easily removed at this point as they're secured by the removed screws and slip-in tabs. I decided to not paint these as the paint would wear off easily from these parts anyhow, and so I bagged them as well. 

The same is true for the rest of the barrel rails. Although I wasn't going for complete screen accuracy, I knew that the original E-11 props were modified guns with plastic drawer guides added as rails to the barrels, and therefore wouldn't have any worn black paint with metal showing through, again because they were plastic on the originals (edit: thanks for the corrected info Kalani!). Because of this and because paint would wear off of these parts easily, I decided to remove them from the blaster and not paint them. Taking them off isn't very tricky; I simply used a flat screwdriver to release the clips from the inside of the blaster (be careful as the clips are fragile and tend to snap if too much pressure is applied. I bagged these with my other loose parts.

• Removed the clear inserts inside the barrel

I obviously didn't want to paint these because I wanted to retain the lighting effects of the blaster after the repaint. These were held in with two screws each. They're a different length from the other screws and should be stored separately. The insert on the right side is easy to remove, but the one on the left side has the rear screw covered by a PCB with the dual-color LEDs attached to it. This is held in place by its own screw. I simply unscrewed the PCB, finished uninstalling the insert, and then screwed the PCB back in place. 

Speaking of which, to do the repaint, it's not necessary to remove the electronics for the repaint. You're more likely to damage the electronics of you try to remove them - especially the leads for the battery box. I'll discuss these parts more later.

• Sanded off the insignia and lightly sanded the surface of the blaster to increase paint adhesion

I've no pictures of this, but basically the Disney blaster has a big Imperial sigil on it. There may be one on each side; I can't remember.

I carefully sanded this down by hand. Also, I lightly sanded as much of the blaster as I could, including the scope, in order to get better adhesion for the paint. After sanding, I wiped down the blaster to help remove dust from sanding.

• Masked the electronics

Instead of removing the electronics, I simply used masking tape to cover them up during the repaint.

• Painted the ejection port gunmetal, then masked it with painter's tape

For the ejection port, I actually started painting the blaster with gunmetal spray paint, but just on this area. After the paint had thoroughly dried (at least several hours), I covered the port with painter's tape and carefully traced the edge with a hobby knife so that only the port was masked. I then carefully pressed down the edges of the mask to ensure that black paint wouldn't penetrate the mask.

• Painted both sides of the blaster and other parts flat black

I picked up these paints from Home Depot:

I first used the flat black paint & primer on the two sides of the blaster and the scope. I made sure to turn the pieces in-between coats before applying the next coat, to ensure all the edges are painted. The last thing I wanted was to assemble the blaster and discover that there was an under-painted edge, especially where the pieces mated. 

I painted the left side with the battery box cover in place as to not paint the inside of the battery box and compromise the contacts. I also moved the blast/ stun switch between coats to ensure that both sides of the switch were painted.

* Be sure to read the instructions on the spray can for proper application and reapplication.

• Dry brushed gunmetal details on the raised edges

Instead of painting the blaster gunmetal, then black, and then sanding some edges to show the metal (which can be tricky, especially if a place gets over-sanded down to the plastic), I decided to use an old miniature-painting trick and use a drybrush technique, which basically involves dipping the brush in paint, removing a lot of the paint by brushing a paper towel, and then leaving the brush mostly dry to paint along raised edges. I did this using a Testor steel paint for the blaster halves, and a Testor brass color for the scope.

Make sure to also dry brush the battery box cover so that it matches the rest of the faux ammo counter and the rest of the blaster.

It's not perfect, but very nice for something I just plan to pal around with for the kids.

• Applied satin coat

Finally, after allowing all the paint an ample amount of time to dry, I applied a satin coat to normalize the flat black and glossy highlights to a uniform, semi-gloss sheen as seen on typical E-11 blasters.

* Be sure to read the instructions on the spray can for proper application and reapplication.

• Removed masking tape and reassembled

Once all the paint was more than dry, I basically reversed my disassembly to reassemble the blaster.

I also put the orange tip back on by gluing a plastic pen cap onto is inside and using that to glue it back onto the blaster using good 'ole E6000 (in case I need to take it back apart again, like for making a blog post :P ). As mentioned earlier, I'm keeping the orange hardware to let others during Halloween and parties know it's not the real deal.

Regarding the Disney Blaster and 501st Approval

In the US, a blaster is NOT required for 501st Basic Approval.

* Because the UK garrison was a separate club that was absorbed into the 501st, they have different rules and do require a blaster for basic approval. I can't speak to if a repainted Disney blaster will work for approval, but given what I know of their strict standards, I doubt it.

Some have asked if the Disney blaster could be modified for Centurion approval. On that, I'm not certain. Size is the main issue. Even with 3D printed parts, the blaster isn't as full-sized as screen-used E-11s or props cast from molds created from them. It would be good enough for Basic approval, and might be good enough for EIB certification, but perhaps not Centurion - although I can't say for sure if anyone has tried for Centurion with a modified Disney E-11.

Top: Disney E-11; Bottom: HyperFirm/ HFx E-11 Elite

So that's it for this entry. Next, I plan to finish modifying my ab/ kidney/ posterior armor for better no-gap fit and eventual certification for EIB and Centurion. Until then...