Continuing to be in a holding pattern waiting on a few items, but I realized I could actually go ahead and re-do the 3rd shin tool (the one with the pair of stylus brushes on it). I've forgotten the fictional name given to it. Is it the
vibroblade? (edit: Anti-Security Blade) Whatever it's called, it's the shin tool in the left shin inboard pocket on ESB.
I'm re-doing all my shin tools. I think this will be the third time in this build. Maybe the last! If I don't screw it up. I acquired vintage correct Paterson parts some time ago as well as a second real stylus brush and held off doing the
vibroblade tool because I was thinking of getting a friend to tap the second hole in the stylus brush rod for me.
But he couldn't do it right away so I sat waiting for a while. Then I changed my mind. I got worried about damaging the stylus brush, a very rare found part, or worse. I decided to just assemble it without the extra hole and screw. If I change my mind again later its not a problem to add the extra hole whenever I want.
As before, these are the parts, this time with all correct vintage pieces, the correct vintage Paterson squeegee model, and two vintage stylus brush rods.
Was it gaffer tape or electrical tape? Maybe different ones had different tape. Only the gods of Fett can tell us 100% for certain. Unfortunately I am only a mere mortal. The shim is there because the gap in the squeegee cutoff is 5mm wide, while the smoked visor plexiglass material is 3mm, so a 2mm shim helps make a solid insert for the plexiglass. That's how they did the originals, too.
I'm using
RafalFett's dimensions for the smoked visor piece.
One little detail to be mindful about is making a notch in the squeegee arm at the top end so the top of the rod can sit inside it a little. This allows the body of the rod to sit flush against the edge of the squeegee arm.
I'm not sure it matters as much with the replica stylus brush rods since the knurling on those tend to be a bit on the shallow side.
This is the assembly without screw in the top. The tape is the only thing holding the rods on. As long as the tape is taut it seems to be fine.
The assembled ESB next to my weathered PP2 version:
Our references for ESB don't really show the weathering on this very well. In fact it mostly looks unweathered. I might hit it with some light weathering that it would've gotten while in the shin pocket when the suit pant legs were getting weathered.
More comparison with the PP2, which has replica stylus brush rods made by
Mojo Fett :
Here it is with the unweathered vintage squeegee:
this will arrive in the near future and I'll weather them all together... vintage chemical stirrer: