MIB Pulsar project

Here is something i have been working on the last few weeks. The MIB Pulsar. Bought this from Rusty85 a few weeks back. The castings are pretty nice but unfortunatly the halves were assembled very badly. One side is shifted about 3/16 and in some places the space between halves is 1/4" so it needed to come back apart. The good thing is because there is such a big gap there is enough room to get a cuttin tool in it without doing any major damage to the original castings. Also the grip was broken off so that needed to be reattached






Here is a Toro part i will need to ID










This top bar is a mess and since it is nothing more than 1"x 1/8" aluminum strip i am going to replace it.








What a mess....




My first plan is to reattach the grip. It really needs to be done first so the grip is lined up properly. It could be a pain to get them to line up if i leave it for later. I need at least one side attached. I am going for the minimalist approach. I just want it attached enough so i can get behind it and reinforce it properly. I also wanted to keep exterior changes and mods to a minimum so if resin doesn't need to be there i didn't let it stay. I put tape on anything i didn't want the epoxy to get on. I do not want to ruin any detail. I epoxied the grip on and then before it was cured scraped away all resin on the exterior surfaces.




Luckily one side of the grip broke up high so i had multiple surfaces to line up to make sure it is lined up propely.


I ended up having some of one of the knobs. The indicator line and position of the 2 set screws match up perfectly. I am leaving the original for now just to have something else to register to when i reattach the halves. I'll cut it later and use the real knob.




It looks to me like one person started claying up this thing for casting and then someone else saw the mess they were doing and took over. Some areas look like they were finger painting with clay and then the other side of the same area is clean as heck. I am going to try to clean up as much of the clay marks on the smooth surfaces and leave any clayed in areas since this is the stunt rifle.




God what a mess. I am going to have to do something about the front sight too.


and after a few hours of cutting it came apart.


and a few more hours of cleanup and it's looking pretty good. The one grip that broke lower didn't hold up to my "repair". It's fine. I have one well located grip i can use it to line up this broken one.




From what i can tell this casting is straight and lines up real nice. If i line up one area all others look right.










The nose piece needs love too. The front facet is mostly missing and it has more claying issues.




Although the castings are nice they are super paper thin in some areas. If this is not fixed and reinforced it will take nothing more than a push with the finger to mess it up. So i epoxied these areas thicker and started to reinforce the grip.




Here is the nose cleaned up.


I can't really go any further than this until i have the gun halves together to determine how far apart these should be. As it sits they are a hair wide which is a good thing.


Unfortunatly the little center tip fell apart with the slightest touch. Glad it happened now.


Fortunatly there is enough left for me to measure and make a new one out of aluminum. There is supposed to be some recess work at the end so i will look though screencaps and try to figure out the details of it.


Here it is as it sits yesterday. I have thickened the thin spots and reinforced a few areas like the screw holes along the side of the barrel shroud. I have almost all the screws collected to replace the ones on the gun. Also I have a few areas i need to mold to replicate details needed elsewhere.




Thickening up the grip before i reattach it. I'll need to get the halves matched up before i can tackle this.


So here is the plan. This is a stunt casting and i want to build a hero version. I do not however want to ruin this casting by modifying it and cutting it all to heck which is what will be required to build what i want. I am going to reattach these halves and get this this as perfect as i can but not modify it or change too much on the outside. I am then going to mold it and keep it as is. There are so few of these i want to leave this piece as is once repaired. To build a hero means i will have to cut a casting to heck and reconstruct it like the original. All the side aluminum parts need to be cut off and remade in aluminum. The top cap and side plates need to be removed and remade seperate so they can be chrome like the original. All the holes, slots, barrel holes on the sides need to be reopened. The top acrylic tube area needs to be removed and a real piece of clear tube installed with real aluminum rings. Also i am probably going to remake the whole top rail with all the slots in aluminum too and have my buddy weld the top aluminum strip to it like the original. Also need to cut the lower front grip and rail off and mold the visible half of the rail to create the other half and make the rail seperate from the grip and then mold the grip so i can have a racking front grip. I have some work to do.

wow, you have amazing patience. It looks to be turning out great! Hope the hero version works out for you.

This has great potential and with your dedication I dont have any doubt. Good luck, looking forward to more build progress photos!

OMG, that's a lot of work!
I'll be following your progress on this one

Great pics and details so far, looking forward to more, best of luck with the Hero!!

Schweet! Nice fiberglassin!

Sean

After seeing your Mal pistol work I am very excited to see what you're going to do with this... Any Plans of molding it>?

Yes i will have to mold it to make the hero and to recreate certain areas that are messed up. If your wondering about casts i am sure i will not be doing any big run of them. The original maker is a member and the license holder Factory Ent is also a member so it's probably not the best thing.

That looks like more work than the original one I did. You are on the right track. Don't know the kind of tools you have but some of those are machined. No complex curve machining just a hand crank mill is what I had back then. I don't know if I'd have the patience to do it.

from a giant MIB fan to another. you have my respect sir! that is a serious undertaking and it looks like you have the skills to pay the bills. lol.

looking forward to your progress bud!

Yes it's quite a bit of work but there are so few of them i think it is worth it. I don't mind glass work too much. Just have to keep lots of big fans blowing downstream! I was hoping you would recognise the Toro cap at the bottom of the grip or the cap on top that hides the rear mounting point for the top aluminum rail. I'll get new side parts machined. I only have a small hobby lathe but i can get it on paper and to a machine shop. Thanks for commenting on the build. I hope i can do it justice.

I hope you do as well, lol. I really love the equipment from the first movie and it's great to see this piece getting the proper love.

The gun looks fantastic so far, I know you'll do it justice!

Thanks Pat, couldn't have started with out you!! Also, thanks for not pulling a Jack Fauth on me! Speaking of......

No progress on the Pulsar but did have a family reunion today!! Looks like i have some work ahead of me Lucy!

Can't wait to see what you do with them! I wish I could have finished them myself, they're amazing!

Going to start working on this again soon. Found some parts and made some jigs.

I cut out some round jigs to properly locate and space the halves. I am going to have to epoxy the rear half then twist the front end to straighten it out. It had a slight barrel droop because it was assembled the first time twisted.





Here is the epoxy i am using. They use this stuff for building wood kayaks. I also have been using this on my ZF.1 shells. Good stuff!



I was able to find the correct side knobs that were missing. They also are used on the Tribarrel on the receiver and is used for the trigger on the grip.



Here is the tribarrel, it was missing one button on top and the trigger button.





I was also able to locate an NOS box of the proper knobs that have the aluminum body and black top.



and while i'm at it, i also found these matching coax connectors for the tribarrel, which is what is on the real prop.



Thats about it for now. Hope to find more parts and start getting the halves together sometime soon.

GREAT STUFF! What a wreck of a mold to start with!

Looking great!

Great work! This is one of my grail pieces, and it's a pity that you don't see more of them around. This is a true labor of love, and I think I'm not the only one who is happy to see someone do it, and take the time to do it right.

This is something I have considered building for a long time, you may see a PM from me soon...
Also: subscribed.

Love it so far. Just wished it was available to more people.

Looking back at whoever glassed the shell, The fiberglassing job on that thing is god awful!!!!!

I don't know how I missed all the updates you did on this thing, I looked for a while to find some of the knobs but never had any luck with it, looks like you did though. Glad that this thing is getting some love!

Thats some good timing Pat, just got done cleaning up after working on 3 projects and this was one. FINALLY got the broken grip back on and strengthened. I used TC1630 yesterday to get the grip held in psoition and today got it stregthened with epoxy resin and glass. I have about 7 layers of glass. I will probably give both sides another 5 or more in the grip area to make sure it doesn't come off again. It lined up nice!

Broken one is on the bottom half in the first pic. Second pic show the 2 halves together and how they lined up.

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Looks great Glenn! I just got a PS3 and was considering buying the Bluray to get some good screen caps to see if there was anything useful for reference. How are you going to go about doing the top chamber that's supposed to be clear with the alien inside? I remember that the rings that hold the clear tube in place were misaligned.