Half There

Slight update from yesterday's post. I still need to grind the edges down so all 24 pieces fit together perfectly.

New Project!

I'm rebooting my Clock Town clock project because I'm better equipped in both materials and knowledge to complete it. It'll be 70cm from end to end.

Plasma ShotDONE

Here it is. I roughed it up a bit before clear coating, so there's a fun worn look, but it's easier to see up close. It's pretty strong since there's a metal frame and all the pieces are back-filled with resin. Even the tubes have a steal wire running through them to keep orderly. As you can see after first impressions, the butt end is a little rougher than the barrels because the shape was hand sculpted. Never again. 3D printing all the way, even the big pieces next time. I decided it will not light up, but I may put on some glowing paint on the bits where the lights would be. It's a lousy compromise, but consider that my last prop gun (impact hammer from UT3) was made almost entirely out of cardboard, wax, and a spray can. It's funny, I'm talking like people are listening. lawl

Paint and Frame

Metal frame with first piece attached. I used urethane foam to hold the handle in place. In a previous post I mentioned using "great stuff" insulation foam for the inside of the handle...well it doesn't become solid without open air, so it stayed in a liquid state. Then it later bulged part of the handle and deformed the plastic shell, so the handle you see in the back is new. Also, everything has a base coat of black and silver.

Primed and Ready ish

I'm slow with this whole prop business. Here are most of the pieces all primed and ready for paint. Maybe it's easier for me to understand just what I've made because it's all grey now and I work in 3d a lot, but it's starting to look pretty good. Just have to finish making the left hand grip, then I'll make a small metal framework for everything to sit on, wire it up, paint it, and just like that, I'll be done. I'd give it a year.

Cheating

Alright I'm fed up with my poor plaster sculpting skills, so I turned to my printer for help. In the words of a scholar, "see the difference?"

The Birth of a Part

There it is, beautiful yes? It's hollow so I'm filling it with Great Stuff. Not sure how well it will work, but if it fails to add structural stability, I can always make another because I have the mold. I'm only planning on making one of these guns, so making molds for one-off parts is overkill. But I wanted to have a save point because you can't always "undo" in real life. Great Stuff is not "undo" friendly. What I should have done for a one-off part is take the foam sculpt, coat it in polyester or some other durable but sandable material (instead of plaster), and work with that.