Portal Gun Upgrade WIP

[FONT=Calibri]Last year I made a portal gun for the most part out of stuff I had around the shop. It was basically something to carry around at Dragon*Con 2011 between outings in Subject Delta and Daft Punk. I wasn’t really keen on carrying it around as it was heavy (the front was solid bondo) and I assumed everyone would be telling me at the con how much mine sucked compared to Volpin’s and Throwing Chicken’s. Surprisingly, it was a huge hit at the con and Jonathan Colton (who wrote Still Alive and Want You Gone for the games) actually stopped me in the lobby as I was passing by to check out the gun, and eventually gave it his seal of approval.

You can find the old gun’s build thread here:[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]http://www.therpf.com/f9/dark-jedi-1500s-portal-gun-signed-jon-117256/[/FONT]

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[FONT=Calibri]After attending some smaller cons, I noticed that a lot of people still want to see a portal gun, so I decided to build a new one to carry around at conventions now that the old one is a signed collectable.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri]The build started off the same as before with the barrel constructed from sections of PVC. Only really difference on this one is I rounded the front angle.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]I tried to carve the shells out of foam, but the very organic shape and no flat reference point made it very difficult for me. The method I ended up using was sculpting the shells from Apoxie Sculpt. I put wax paper over the PVC and built a base of Apoxie, then ribbing of the desired outline. The entire front shell is apoxie while the back one used bondo to fill in much of the curve. After some bondo and sanding work, I had some very nice (and heavy!) shells.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]The new nozzle was made by lathing a piece of MDF, then casting a copy with an acrylic tube inside.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]Testing everything together:[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]The shells were cast as three part molds. This allows me to brush on several layers of resin/micro bulb filler mixture before slush casting. I found 65D works best and I did not need to add any foam filler.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Calibri]I didn’t make the original claws with hooks as I believed that it would be too fragile for a convention. I still wanted to keep this one rugged so I made a new faux hook base for the claws. Unlike the previous version where all the claws were wood, these pieces are made of Smooth Cast 300.[/FONT]
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Looks great man. You thinking of offering these for sale once your done?

Strickler said:

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Looks great man. You thinking of offering these for sale once your done?

Yep. I'm waiting to have pictures of the completed gun before I post anything in the Junkyard, but I am planning to cast up a few kits which would include the front and back shells, the piviot point to add to the top of the barrel which matches those on the bottom shell, the nozzle, the faux hooks, the claw tips, and the rib detail that goes on the diffuser.

Colour me ridiculously interested when you do offer them.

So the documentation has been a bit lacking as I was in a deadline to get the gun done for friday and I already covered the castings the rest of the build was very similar to the previous gun except the parts were newer. That said, here is the result:












Also, I am working on having three kits avalible in the Junkyard here in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.

Is it weird that out of all the things you've done with this, i love love LOVE the buttons to change the portal type (I have no idea why, I just think it looks really...real)

Good work! Now i'm even more psyched to get mine next month! (Although being a mass produced replica I doubt it'll even be a scratch on yours)

I'd be fibbing if I said I wasn't pondering the purchase of one of your kits when they become available...

Aphelion said:

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Is it weird that out of all the things you've done with this, i love love LOVE the buttons to change the portal type (I have no idea why, I just think it looks really...real)

Good work! Now i'm even more psyched to get mine next month! (Although being a mass produced replica I doubt it'll even be a scratch on yours)

Thanks for the compliments. Unfortunatly I cannot take credit for the lights as the light, sound, ans switches are part of Crix's portal light and sound kit. (if I didn't mention this before, the gun has sound. There is a 2" speaker hidden behind the front emitter). This also proves that Crix's kit will fit in this gun if you chose to go that route.

FYI I put 4 kits up in the Junkyard. Check out the link here if you are interested:

http://www.therpf.com/f13/portal-gun...6/#post2225252