Jayne's Gun - Aiming for SUPER accurate...it's a long road

Many moons ago I got a Denix LeMat for cheap off ebay (this was before the factory burned down and they became somewhat limited), and I began the process to turn it into a super accurate replica of Jayne's gun. I spent much time pouring over screen grabs, publicity photos, and prop photos. I created my own set of diagrams for the parts, and looked for places to get some or the LeMat parts I needed to make it accurate. Thanks to Paradox for pointing me to VTI Gun Parts for better prices than I had found before.

My goal was to first make all the changes to turn the Denix Navy version LeMat to a Cavalry version, then to convert it from that to Jayne's gun, and in doing so hopefully be super accurate in both form and function. I am not mostly done the Cavalry conversion so I thought I'd post my progress pics.

Here's the Denix, unchanged.


As has been said by others performing similar conversion on their Denix replicas, it is not for the faint of heart and it requires the right tools. Here are the first few mods, the triggerguard and lanyard ring.


Next up was the take down lever. I wanted it to be functional so I milled a notch for it, and drilled the hole for the pin. It now performs the same function as the real take down lever.



That pretty much covered making it look like the Cavalry model, but I also want it to take down like a real LeMat/Jayne's gun. So the entire shot barrel was bored out leaving the correct dished shape on the bottom of the main barrel. The original shot barel has been replaced with a solid aluminum rod that will later become the inner rod for Jayne's gun, no need hollowing out the shot barrel because I have no plan to leave it as a Cavalry LeMat.


To have it take down like Jayne's gun I had to add in a threaded piece, it's not exactly as the threaded breech plug that the shot barrel is screwed onto on a real LeMat...I had to cut some corners here because of limitations to my machines/tools. In the end it will take down exactly like Jayne's gun on the show, the only difference being that the inner rod on mine will not be as long, but that is hidden by the cylinder when assembled so I was willing to let it slide...unless I get REALLY ambitious and try to make it even more accurate in that regard.


Here's a shot of it with the rod removed. It will later be held in the main barrel assembly by the outer sleeve and nose cap. I also had to bore out the hole through the centre of the cylinder so that it would fit over the more correctly sized aluminum rod.


So, you are probably saying, why go to such lengths when there are easier ways to mod the Denix into Jayne's gun? Well...simply because I am loopy. I want to try and make the ultimate replica, and I say that with all manner or respect to the other replicas that have been made, because they kick ass...I just want mind to take down and be as close as possible to the hero gun.

As if all those mods weren't enough, I have more planned. They include, but are not limited to, as well as the ones completed:

• <strike>remove old triggerguard
• install Cavalry triggerguard
• remove Navy "laynard"
• install Cavalry lanyard
• remove takedown "thumbscrew"
• install takedown lever
• remove shot barrel
• create threaded base for "inner rod"
• create "inner rod"
• adjust cylinder to fit on "inner rod"
• remove front sight
• remove ram rod end
• modifiy loading arm to accept partial ram rod</strike>
• remove faux grip nuts and fill back of grips to accept new grip nuts
• make grips more accurate to Jayne&#39;s gun grips
• create and install "scope rail"
• <strike>modify "inner rod"</strike>
• create and install "outer sleeve"
• create and install "nose cap"
• create and install take down lever "thingie"
• add sight groove to top of hammer
• possibly replace some of the screws with more accurate ones
• custom 2 part cylinder

I suppose when it&#39;s all done, if it somehow fell into some rubber it wouldn&#39;t be so bad. IF it did, I&#39;d want to maintain the takedownability (that&#39;s sort of a word) and trigger pulledness (another sort of word) of it in "cast" form.

UPDATE: June 28, 2006
More things checked off the checklist and more progress pics.

I&#39;ve modified the "inner rod", removed the old ram rod end, created a new one (shorter than the real one) and modified the loading lever to accept it.


A pic of the new ram rod partly pulled out.


And a close up of the modified "inner rod"


UPDATE: July 20, 2006
I have not had a chance to get much work done but I do have some progress. I got started on a custom cylinder to match the screen used gun. I had done diagrams for it quite a while back and have started work on actually making it...unfortunately I am having camera problems so no photos of it...so you&#39;ll have to settle for a render of what it&#39;ll look like.

It&#39;ll be a 2 part cylinder like in the show, made to hold 38 special shells. The only part I will use from the Denix cylinder will be the ratchet (the part with the "teeth" used to rotate the cylinder).

Damn, that&#39;s very ambitious.

And it looks great so far.


-Mike

Very good indeed - the wascal has spiwit&#33; Bwavado, a touch of dewwing-do.

Good gravy, that&#39;s a hell of a mod. It looks beautiful so far, I can&#39;t wait to see the finished product. I might even be interested in some sort of hypothetical reproduction - the reason I generally don&#39;t go for resin casts is that they don&#39;t have working trigger mechanisms. But it seems like you&#39;d want to have that covered anyway&#33;

I s&#39;pose you&#39;re also gonna try and match the finish on the various parts of the gun? I remember some of it being silver and some being blackened/blued...

Oh, and if you&#39;re gonna be re-creating the grips anyway, would you wanna make &#39;em out of real wood? I&#39;m not sure if it&#39;s accurate, but it would definitely add a touch of class.

Thanks for the comments guys.

Yes, I will try to match the finish on the gun, not sure how to get a really good blued finish yet, but I&#39;ll sort something out.

Real wood grips would be ideal, though quite costly, at least for real LeMat grips. I lack the wood working skills to make them myself so I will have to go with a faux wood grain on the plastic grips.

Updated the first post with more progress.

Much as I prefer Mal&#39;s gun to Jayne&#39;s, I appreciate fine work, and that is some fine work. I&#39;m eager to see how it progresses.

Where did you get the lanyard ring? Is it a found part or did you fabricate it?

The lanyard ring I got from VTI Gun Parts. It&#39;s a real LeMat lanyard ring.

Oh, man, I just got my trigger guard from them. Didn&#39;t occur to me to see if they had other parts. Got a cat #?

For some reason it is sold with 2 seporate part numbers, but mine came assembled. The Part numbers off the parts diagram are:
3058 - Lanyard Ring
3045 - Laynard Base

Updated July 20, see bottom of first post.

<div class='quotetop'>(dr_slurpee &#064; Jul 20 2006, 11&#58;11 AM) [snapback]1284468[/snapback]</div>

Updated July 20, see bottom of first post.
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Looking excellent&#33; You really are going for "SUPER accurate", aren&#39;t you? Heh, how much of this thing is even going to be Denix by the time you&#39;re done?

LOL, yes I am going overkill on this.

There certainly will be a lot of Denix gone once I am done. The cylinder I just couldn&#39;t live with...I had to go for the entirely custom one like on Jayne&#39;s gun. It&#39;s the biggest job so far of the entire project.

Man... that gun looks fantastic. Thank you for showing how much work goes into it, I love the in progress pictures.

Thanks for the step-by-step. It&#39;s very cool to see your progress toward a perfect reproduction of a very cool prop&#33;

Any update yet?

I&#39;ve not had much time to work on it lately because of work (always seems to get busy when I have something I really want to work on) and my mother being in the hospital. Hopefully I&#39;ll be able to get back to it soon though.