Logan’s run DS gun TV conversion

The ds gun from Logan’s run is one of my favourite Sci-fi weapons, coming a very close second to the star trek phaser (TOS).
Thanks to Nicksdad and Rylo, I now have some beautiful replicas. In the case of the Rylo gun, it’s more than a replica. It’s a working flame gun that’s better engineered than the originals.
I do prefer the film version, but I wanted to have a go at making the TV gun.


The trigger and grips were reshaped. I’m not sure if the sloping sides of the grips are too flat. They do have a slight curve. I did get a second set of grips, so I can always have another go.


A new fin was cut from 5mm aluminium plate. It was stuck in place with super steel epoxy. The epoxy was also used to make the “blobs”. A small hole was drilled into the fin and a piece of wire glued in place. The other end was soldered to the glow plug.




Four indentations were made in the barrel with a drill. These will eventually be painted red, blue, green and white, to indicate the different firing modes.
I cut a washer from black styrene sheet to indicate a compressed O-ring. I did the same for the Nicksdad film version.



My original plan was to fill in the slot on the side plate and make a thinner slot further to the right. But for some inexplicable reason I thought it would be a good idea to angle the edged of the plate to match the curve of the grips, thus making it more comfortable to hold. I instantly regretted this, it just looked wrong, and wasn’t there on the originals. Using 4mm aluminium plate, I cut two new side plates. I actually prefer the slightly thinner plates.



I have a couple of questions I hope someone can help me with.
Should only one of the side plates have screws to fix it in place?
The gap between the barrel and the side plates as seen in the picture below. Was this on all of the TV conversions? I’m in two minds about replicating this feature. But if it was on all of the TV guns then I think I should.
In the picture below of Gregory Harrison holding the gun it looks like there isn’t a gap. This could just be the angle we are seeing it from and the dark shadows.
I’m having no luck finding an ALCO MPA 103 switch. I’ve found nothing in the UK or on ebay. Any help in tracking one down would me much appreciated.

Nice work! I never could come up with a better way to simulate the arc welding blobs on the fin than with JB Weld. If you want to see some excellent relatively hi-rez photos of one of the TV guns (inside and out), check out this site:
The Universe of Logan's Run : DS Flamegun.

If you look closely at the photos of the grips--especially the pics that show the top edge of the grips, you'll see that they're actually very curved coming off of the flat area--no hard angles at all. I've only seen photos of two TV guns and I've seen one of those in person, and they both had pretty rounded grips. As for the gap between the barrel and the side panels, the one at the link above has a pretty pronounced gap, but I think it varied in terms of how big the gap was from prop to prop. Sometimes you can really see it in the show even in medium/far away shots. The prop guys who were modifying the guns probably did a lot of eyeballing--nothing too precise or clean, if the two existing guns are any indication! Actually, after comparing all the reference I could find, it looks like so many parts of the prop varied from piece to piece (the gap, the barrel end cap, the belt clip angle, where the switch was mounted, the shape and placement of the fin, how the wire to the glow plug was attached, even the kind of glow plug used) that there is no one definitive version of the thing.

I hope I don't sound like a know-it-all. I'm no expert, and I don't mean to come off like one, I've just studied the reference endlessly and tried my best to learn everything I can about this piece in order to make my own replica as accurate as possible. Here are some photos of my own prop, finished for now (until I can arc weld aluminum for the fin or cast aluminum for the grips!). I've tinkered with it a bit since I "finished" it and posted photos the last time on the thread I started myself, so these are brand new photos:

Hi maxspr1,
You’ve done a fantastic job on your gun.
You’re right about the grips, so I am going to use my spare set. Basically, I’m going to shape them as you’ve done yours.
I think I will have a gap between the barrel and plates. If you’re going to make a TV version you may as well have all the features.

Yeah the gap varied from gun to gun.

Nice pistols all! :thumbsup

I just finished filing the barrel so it now has a gap. I put in an aluminium piece to support the back, and one further up front, so the profile looks more like the real thing.

Actually, I owned a working TV gun that had very sharp contours on the grips. As with everything else on the guns, features like this were all over the place.

The switch on the back was also a basic red momentary switch that still had the head on it. I'm of the opinion that most of the TV conversions had the heads on the switches at one time and they simply popped off over the years. It really makes no sense at all for the propmakers to have removed the switch heads...it would make an already awkwardly placed ignition switch that much more difficult to shoot.

The whole notion of "moved the switch to the back for safety sake" is just silly. Ask anyone who's shot a working TV gun and they'll tell you, the second you grip the gun you activate the glowplug due to the web of your hand hitting the switch. If anything, it's much less safe and was likely done to allow the actor to move from a drawn position to 'fire mode' without visibly switching the front switch first.

Either way, excellent job on your build. Just more so chiming in to say your grips are rather accurate as-is, if I were comparing it to the piece I owned. However, the dots on the back were just painted on and not recessed...nice touch, just the same on your part! :thumbsup

-Rylo

tobor said:

Hi maxspr1,
You’ve done a fantastic job on your gun.
You’re right about the grips, so I am going to use my spare set. Basically, I’m going to shape them as you’ve done yours.
I think I will have a gap between the barrel and plates. If you’re going to make a TV version you may as well have all the features.

Click to expand...

Hi Rylo,
It’s good to know the grips I shaped are accurate to one of the TV guns. I spent a lot of time on them.
I think I’ll paint them black first and decide if I like them, or make a more rounded set like the ones maxspr1 made.

I really think it was just a matter of how much time the propmaker was willing to spend on whatever gun they had in front of them on any given day.

You can soften the edges a little if you wanted to split the difference, but I think the shaper edges make for a more professional finish.

-Rylo

tobor said:

Hi Rylo,
It’s good to know the grips I shaped are accurate to one of the TV guns. I spent a lot of time on them.
I think I’ll paint them black first and decide if I like them, or make a more rounded set like the ones maxspr1 made.

Click to expand...

Did you take photos of the TV gun you owned, Rylo? If so, can you share some? I'm sure I'm not the only person here who would love to see some new images of these props!

As for the variations, like I commented, they do seem all over the place for most of the parts. Again, I wasn't trying to impart expert advice--just giving my two cents based on the photos available now of the two TV guns everyone's seen so far. I originally went with sharp angled grips when I first did my modifications, but I decided to go with the more rounded grips seen on the one on the website I linked to above (which is also the one I've seen in person) when I decided to really base my modifications on this one version of the prop. I came to that decision mostly because it was the only prop that seemed really well-documented in pictures, both inside and out. I apologize if it sounds like I was pushing tobor to do the same modifications i did--there just isn't much detailed reference widely available of any other TV guns.

Regarding the switch: I agree with everything you've said, Rylo, here and in the other TV version thread--the pushbutton switches seen on the prop on the linked site and on the one in the Azarian collection were made to have little caps on them and I'm positive they originally did since that's how they were when brand new. As a matter of fact, Richard Coyle has a photo of one Logan TV gun on his site that still has the cap on it (it's that f-ed up weird hybrid used mostly in the pilot with the movie version fin & trigger and the different long brass tank on the back with the huge end cap). Like I said earlier, i was just basing my own modifications on one particular prop that didn't have a cap left on the switch after all these years, and since the area the cap would have covered is obviously painted black in the photos, the cap must have fallen off while the prop was still in use. In addition, the vintage switch I used on my Logan's Run gun had a really nasty worn cap on it that hardly ever stayed on, so that also led me to leave it off my finished prop.

Incidentally, of the three of those switches on my screen-used Buck Rogers props, one still has the cap, two don't. Those things just don't seem like they were made all that well! And just like Rylo said about the Logan props, some of my Buck props have the standard red-capped pushbutton switches as well. I would bet that the prop guys on both shows had loads of electronics parts on hand and used whatever was convenient or available.

I would love to know more about the settings "dots." It sure looks like they're (slightly) recessed in the photos on Alexis' site, but it makes sense that different props had different dots, since everything else varied so much! Actually, after looking at the pic below, the colored dots look very slightly recessed on this particular gun, but the white dot looks just painted on (you can see it in other photos). Strangely, though, it looks like there's an unpainted recessed circular divot on the side opposite of the white paint dot (you can see it in the photo below just at the right edge of the brass back tank).

I made a new set of rounded grips. This time I just sanded the flat area and left the sides alone. I think I do prefer the new ones, but I’m going to paint both sets and try them on the finished painted gun before deciding which set to go with.


I’ve wired up the bright green led that came with the kit. The plastic tube will be painted black. This will reduce the amount of light but I think it does look better.
The micro switch in the picture will probably not be the one I am going to use. I have a couple of different ones on order. The problem is, they all come with hex nuts and not the sloping collar on the original. If I can’t find a similar collar, I may be able to make something.

Again--nice work! That's looking great!

The DS gun is finished.
I decided to go with the more rounded grips, even though I thought both sets looked good.
I went with the push switch I already had. I couldn’t find anything better. It’s only stuck in place with a small bit of epoxy, so won’t be too difficult to replace if I get a more accurate switch.







Here are some pictures of a standard film version Nicksdad ds gun I put together, just for comparison.

Sweet!! :thumbsup

Ok...how do I get one of those Sandmen blasters??

No, seriously...I need one of those yesterday!! Who builds them, can you build one for me, how long will it take, how much is the cost??

PLEASE contact me!!

The Deep Sleep Gun has always been my favorite gun/blaster prop, without a doubt. Very nice work on your prop!

At last....I just bought a complete Sandman rig from Rylo.

Hopefully, it will arrive well before Christmas!! I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

Jim

Get yourself some Batterys and CC so you will be ready when it comes!!!

shelbyman said:

At last....I just bought a complete Sandman rig from Rylo.

Hopefully, it will arrive well before Christmas!! I'm eagerly awaiting it's arrival.

Jim

Click to expand...

have you got any pics of the movie version wiring,i still need to do mine but i suck a wiring stuff

Smoke if you got em Apollo...I ordered the CC from eBay and have the batteries on hand. You have to know that guns gettin a work out day one when it arrives.

I've not met Rylo and only communicated through email with him but he is very detail oriented, professional, well educated on the subject matter and passionate about what he does. He's also committed enough to invest the time and effort to get the job done right.

From the brief amount of time I've invested researching these props, there seems to be several out there created from various designers over the years. Not many built are accurate representations of the originals.

Jim

I was shooting mine 2 weeks ago and yeah Ry is the last word on these.

He also makes a mean burrito!

shelbyman said:

Smoke if you got em Apollo...I ordered the CC from eBay and have the batteries on hand. You have to know that guns gettin a work out day one when it arrives.

I've not met Rylo and only communicated through email with him but he is very detail oriented, professional, well educated on the subject matter and passionate about what he does. He's also committed enough to invest the time and effort to get the job done right.

From the brief amount of time I've invested researching these props, there seems to be several out there created from various designers over the years. Not many built are accurate representations of the originals.

Jim

Click to expand...