Mass Effect 3 - N7 Pistol Build

Mass Effect 3 can't come out soon enough! I really liked the M5 Phalanx pistol from the ME2 DLC and originally wanted to make a prop of that, but when I saw that there would be a DLC with more weapons for ME3, I decided I needed to make one of those instead! I ended up picking the N7 pistol because it is very similar to the M5 Phalanx. There was one image of it online, so I am using that for reference.

I used that image to come up with a vector, printed it out and got to work!

I'm building this gun similar to my Battlestar Galactica Colonial Handgun. I have a lot of foam PVC lying around from previous builds, so I mostly am using layers of that epoxied together.


So far Things are going pretty well, though I had a tough time judging how thick the gun should be. I am using references of the 3D model of the M5 to sleuth it out, but I've had to make some adjustments.

I'm building the gun in pieces so that the cast parts will have to be assembled. I figure that this way I will have an easier time of adding moving parts or electronics if necessary. Also, this will allow for the gun to be modded to the M5 pretty easily.

That is starting to look very good. Styrene is such a great material to work with. I'll be following this thread with great interrest.

Looks great so far!

Thanks guys! Here's an update. I did a lot of shaping on the handle today.

Can't have enough ME props ^_^

Awesome!

Great Start

Update! It's been getting too cold in my garage shop, so I got a space heater! I expect to make tons more progress on the gun this week.

Nice work!!

I'm so astonished at how people can make this stuff out of foam. Great job so far.

Mass effect guns are my favorite :P

Sandman0077 said:

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I'm so astonished at how people can make this stuff out of foam. Great job so far.

Yeah that build is looking very good.

Foam can be versatile in solving some problems of prop design/repro. I think it comes down to what material you're comfortable working with and how you solve the design problems presented.

Another update! Here's a close up of the front of the gun. I'm starting to get it to a place that I really like.

Looking good!

Nice work man, you going to have this done in time for me to take a look at in a few days?

This is looking veeeery familiar... The top portion of my M-5 Phalanx kits (the only part that I can tell are different between the M-5 and N7) is molded separately, and would pretty much drop on to one of these guys. If you're interested, we might could work out a swap!

Ahura said:

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This is looking veeeery familiar... The top portion of my M-5 Phalanx kits (the only part that I can tell are different between the M-5 and N7) is molded separately, and would pretty much drop on to one of these guys. If you're interested, we might could work out a swap!

I hope you guys made your pistols the same scale! I wish we had a clear reference on exactly how big these ME guns are.

Looking great so far.

zanderwitaz said:

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I hope you guys made your pistols the same scale! I wish we had a clear reference on exactly how big these ME guns are.

I have millimeter measurements from BioWare of the N7 rifle - that could be used as a reference, assuming all models in game are built to the same scale.

Volpin said:

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I have millimeter measurements from BioWare of the N7 rifle - that could be used as a reference, assuming all models in game are built to the same scale.

if only we had a bunch of side views in game to compare. we're still left guessing quite a bit. Volpin, how long is your avenger? I was guessing about 32"

I had this laying around. Dunno how close it'll be. I just scaled mine to the size of my hand, lol.
M-5 Scale.pdf

Nice,very cool

@Volpin Thanks! I do plan to have this done by the Child's Play Charity dinner. You can certainly check it out then. =)

@Ahura Once I make a mold of this one I'm going to chop it up and make the master into an M5. I prefer the M5 more myself, but figured people would be more interested in the N7 since it's newer. I may make a mold of the M5 as well. Who knows?! =D I would be interested in a swap, but the odds are that they won't be to scale. I pretty much guessed on the size for this.

Here's an update from today's progress. I taped the pieces together so that I can see how it feels in my hand. This thing is as big as my face! The hand guard part isn't in this shot. I'm adding tabs and grooves to each part so that they can be slotted together and glued.

I finally have enough of the gun built to put it all together! Here is a shot of the gun plus an exploded view. The little piece that goes over the barrel still has some work to get it to the right shape and I have another little barrel plus the trigger to do. Soon though, I will be getting it prepped for molding!

Another update! The master is just about done. It's all primed up and ready for wet sanding before making the molds. Booyah!