ABOUT ME

How it all started.

I have been a Star Wars fan since 1977 when the first Star Wars film ‘A New Hope’ came out and been hooked ever since on Star Wars and Sci-Fi Movies. I was an impressionable 17 year old at the time.

In 2016 I stumbled across a video on YouTube showing a how to convert a Hasbro Toy Stormtrooper Blaster into a more realistic screen accurate version of the E-11 Blaster, using a “Doopy-Doos Conversion Skin Kit”.
I was quite impressed with the end result, so decided to have a go myself.

I purchased a Hasbro E-11 Stormtrooper Blaster on eBay and the E-11 blaster conversion kit from “Doopy-Doos” and went about making my first E-11 Blaster.
Although I was happy with the results I felt the sounds and fire LED were really letting it down, so decided to see if there was anything I could do to improve it.

This is when I came across the Arduino Microcontroller and started watching videos on YouTube on how to program the Arduino to do what you wanted it to do.
After many weeks of trial and error I eventually got some working code which had realistic E-11 Blaster sounds and fire LED that vastly improved my Hasbro E-11 Blaster.

I also converted a Hasbro Nerf F-11D Blasters which was sort of based on the First Order F-11D Blaster and installed electronics. It was far from being anywhere near screen accurate but looked and worked OK.

I then started searching for more ideas for Blaster Electronics and came across a YouTube video by Tkarena.it of his E-11 Blaster with some really impressive sound and lights effects called ‘FX-Blaster’.
The electronics was based on an Arduino Nano and a small MP3 player module, with the Arduino code being open source was freely available for download.

I purchased all the parts needed to make these Electronics and went about trying to make it. Eventually after some trial and error, a few fried Arduino Nano’s and hours of frustration trying to understand how the Arduino Code worked, I managed to get it all working and installed in my Hasbro E-11 Blaster Conversion.

I was really happy with the Electronics, but now wanted a much more realistic looking E-11 Blaster.
So I searched the internet for some E-11 Blaster Files. but most of the ones I found weren’t suitable for installing the electronics I had designed. The best files i could find were by ‘Raymond Herbert – Blaster-Master’ and you could buy these already printed on eBay, so I took the plunge.
I then set about prepping it by sanding all the parts, after a lot, and I mean a lot of sanding I then painting all the parts and put it all together.
I ended up with a really nice screen accurate E-11 Blaster but my electronics would not fit inside.

So now was the time to invest in a 3D Printer and learn how to 3D design my own E-11 Blaster.

The Start of 3D Printing

After hours of watching YouTube Videos on 3D Printers I purchased my first one the JGAurora A5, this was a great printer at the time with a large build volume.
This was another learning curve, and many hours of watching YouTube Videos on How to do stuff, but I think I eventually got the hang of 3D Printing.
Since my JGAurora A5 I have had a few 3D Printers including some Creality Printers.
I now currently own a Creality K1 and Babu Lab P1S with AMS which are both great printers and fast, speed is a huge bonus.

Now to Learning 3D Design

In order to design my own STL Files I would need to learn 3D Design. I started out trying to learn and use Blender. I had some success but I found it quite a difficult process.
I looked at other CAD Software but it was just so expensive. I then found that Autodesk to a Hobby Version for FREE of Fusion360 so decided to take the plunge and learn Fusion360.

Again many hours of YouTube Videos learning just how Fusion360 works I was able to design my own E-11 Blaster from scratch which would be designed to take the electronics I had designed.
I’m now designing 3D Props and Electronics a lot of the time and do possibly 2 commission builds a year,

I started my website PropTroniX back in 2019 and so far I have done really well selling STL files and electronics through the website even without advertising it.

The software I use to host my online shop is now getting a bit outdated and starting to have issues especially when there is a new PHP upgrade, so I have decided its was time for a change and that’s when I created this website with WordPress & WooCommerce.

Currently I am only doing Star Wars Props but will be looking to expand to other Film & TV Props.(So any idea’s on what I should attempt? Drop me a message with your ideas and suggestions)

Regards Phil