Stormtrooper Commlink (scroll down for the refined ver2.0)

Using the Star Wars visual dictionary as a reference I constructed a commlink to resin cast.

Parts included 1 inch PVC pipe, a PVC fitting, 16 rubber washers (4 different sizes), a resin cast Hovi Mix tip (from Keith) and sculptors wire mesh.

The PVC fitting was cut to length and glued inside the section of 1 Inch pipe. Tamiya grey putty was used to remove the seam and molding lines.

The base end of the handle was sealed with styrene sheet. A big dollop of SSP-HG was added and sanded to shape.

The rubber washers where super glued on, and then the handle assembly was primed. After sanding and re-priming a couple of times all mold lines etc had been removed and the handle was ready to mold in silicone rubber (along with the Hovi tip).

To avoid the need to sand seam lines 2 single piece molds were made, unfortunately my time shaping the base was a little wasted as this area became the pour spout :)

The end result is a 2 piece commlink ready for painting and assembly.

The end screen is made from sculptors mesh, formed over a negative template of the tip. The last 3 pictures are a "quick and dirty" prime and paint, just to see how the end result will look.

I have cast a few of these in black resin, I figured that the ribbed part would be the most prone to paint chipping (due to clipping in and out) and it would show less damage if the underlying resin was black.

Commlink ver2.0

I have started to scratchbuild a tip that is more accurate to the one pictured in the visual dictionary. Not only is it more to scale, but it has the additional engraved line.

Hopefully this will mold well to enable reproduction.