Boba Fett EE-3 Blaster Carbine

This is my first fictional gun, and I chose the weapon of one of the most iconic characters in Star Wars, Boba Fett. It's an EE-4 blaster, made by the same company as the Stormtrooper's E-11 medium blaster. This is the saga of my experiment.

(I'm really sorry to you Star Wars fans, this is not a real blaster. But you still shouldn't point it at people.)

PIC IS FROM vanityfair.com

You will need:

Scissors

Glue (school and hot glue (plus hot glue gun (doy)))

Ruler

Hobby Knoife (knife for those of you who aren't knife nerds like me)

A good pic of the gun

Rubber bands

Pen

Cardboard (I used double ply, and shoebox cardboard)

Now build the gun!!!!!!

First, choose a good picture of the gun. The one I have up above is from starswars.fandom.com. It will be 30 inches long.

Now, draw a good rectangle around it. Then cut it half with the ruler. Divide each half into 15 equal strips. Remember to be precise with your pen. Basically, each half is a right angle. Use the metric side of your ruler to divide the hypotenuse if each triangle into 15 parts. Or use another method, I don't care, as long as you end up with a 30 box long grid over the picture of the gun. Each box represents an inch. Now take your cardboard and ruler and pen, and draw a grid 30 inches long, (30 boxes long) and 10 inches wide. Then draw the gun onto the cardboard.

Now, this is very important. It must be precise. If you don't need the grid, if you can draw it by eye, AWESOME!!!! Good for you. But this grid method is what has worked for me.

Once you have the gun drawn, cut it out. IMPORTANT: cut off the scope, trigger gaurd, and take a half inch off each side of the muzzle, where the vanes will be. Now trace the gun. If you are using thick double ply cardboard, you will only need 4 layers as the base.

Add two layers of double ply on each side of the muzzle, making each the same length, but decreasing in width. Like a Minecraft hill. You are using cubes to create a round shape.

Add three layers of double ply on the area in front of the trigger, in the same rounding method as the muzzle.

If you are using school glue, here's where the rubber bands come in. Use them to hold the layers together to dry.

Strip a layer of cardboard from its double ply configuration. You should now have a ruffled layer and a smooth paper layer. Strip off the ruffled layer, so you have cardboard paper. It should be about 10 inches by 12 inches. Wrap it around the muzzle and make it smooth. Again, use rubber bands to hold it together to dry.

Take that shoebox cardboard you been saving so diligently.

There will be a bare place on the muzzle, just remember.

Each vane will be 10 inches long. Fold a piece of cardboard in half (10 inches long REMEMBER!!!!!) Then fold it into a "W" shape. Each vane should be just over half a centimeter all along its length, on each side of the bottom of the vane should be about half an inch of cardboard to glue flat. Like an upside down T, with the cross bar half inch long, and the stem of the T over half a centimeter.

If you do it properly, you will have 10 vanes around the muzzle. Four on the right side will be partial. All four to the butt of the gun are 4 1/2 inches long. The top two to the end of the muzzle are 4 inches, and the two partial below that are about 1 1/4 inches. See pics by the way. (It helps)

Now that you have the muzzle properly vaned, glue a circle of cardboard on the front of the muzzle. Make sure it is even with the edges!

Strip another strip of cardboard paper like you did in Step 2. It should be at least a foot long and 3 inches wide. You will wrap this around the area in front of the trigger. Make it Smooth!!!!!!! Then take 2 half-centimeter wide strips of shoebox cardboard, and glue them around each end of the now smooth cylinder. Next, fold 2 more strips of shoebox cardboard in half, and glue them. Cut them into trapezoids. TRAPEZOIDS, YOU HEAR ME!!!! Each should be about half an inch tall when you glue them to the sides of the cylinder. One on each side.

NEXT, make a short cone out of shoebox cardboard (it's exhausting to keep saying shoebox cardboard, I'm calling it SC from now on) Anyway, the cone should be an inch long, with an inch in diameter on the short end, and 1 1/2 inches on the wide end. Glue it onto the end of the muzzle.

More beef is necessary. So, see the pic with the drawing on cardboard outlined in blue? You will draw that and cut it out, one layer for both sides. Glue it!!!!!!!!

Apply some SC on the top, so it hides the cardboard grain. See pics of course

Now, you still need a trigger guard. Fold a half-inch wide strip of SC in half. The resulting strip should be at least 7 inches long to give you some leeway. Now glue it over the trigger like you see in the picture. Now, glue SC all over the stock so you can't see cardboard grain. It should be nice and smooth, and look like one piece instead of layers. You are now done with the gun!!!!! OY, HERE'S A TIP, if you plan to paint this model, you should do that now, before you put the scope on.

Yeah, I know its a lot of pics, but its necessary. Check out some pics of scopes, so you know what I'm talking about. First, make a SC cylinder about 5 and a quarter inches long, and 3 quarters of an inch wide. Glue two strips of SC (shoebox cardboard) onto the ends, leaving about half a centimeter on each end to glue other bits. The strips will be about 3 quarters of an inch wide, and 6 inches long to give you leeway for mistakes.

Make another cylinder about 2 and 1/2 inches long, and wide enough to stick onto one end of the first cylinder. Then put cling wrap over one end of the cylinder. MAKE SURE IT IS SMOOTH!!!!! Hot glue it on and glue another strip of SC around it to hide the cling wrap edge. Glue the finished eyepiece onto one end of the first cylinder.

Now, add inch long pieces of double ply cardboard to the ends of the strips wrapped around the scope. These are the scope rings, and should provide only about 3 quarters of an inch of separation between the scope and gun.

Next, make a SC cylinder about 3 and 1/2 inches long. The small end must be big enough to fit snugly SNUG around the other end of the scope cylinder. Cut a piece of clear plastic (from a salad container or clear plastic water bottle) smaller than the large cone end width. It must be a perfect circle, and be able to fit into the cone about half a centimeter in from the large end. Glue it. BE CAREFUL!!!!! Do not get glue on the piece, only on the edges. Glue the small end of the cone onto the end of the scope. IT MUST BE SNUG

Now take another strip of SC, about 2 inches long and an inch wide, and glue it in a V-shape over the top of the cylinder.

Make two buttons of SC, by glueing two strips of shoebox cardboard into a half inch cylinder. The diameter must be about 2 centimeters! Glue two SC circles on top, and then glue the buttons onto the V. These are scope adjustment knobs, for aiming range and horizontal adjustment.

You now have a completed scope, and it should look like mine in the pics. If not, I missed explaining something, so go ahead and tell me.

TIP: If you are painting the gun, put cling wrap over the plastic parts, so they aren't painted over, especially of you use spray paint.

Glue the scope onto the gun, and make sure it is straight. Then draw crosshairs on the cone end of the scope and make sure they are straight. I would suggest using a permanent marker or permanent pen. If you make a mistake, use rubbing alcohol to remove the marker. You are now DONE!!!

IT'S DONE!!!!! You now have an extremely accurate model of Boba Fett's carbine blaster. And you didn't have to buy a model!

If I left anything out in this Instructable, or you have questions, ask me. I would love any advice.

Thanks for sticking with me here, guys! Don't shoot nobody with this thing!

And for the Star Wars fans, May the Force be with you.

-The Cardboard Armorer (and now Cardboard Bounty Hunter)