Callahan Full Bore Auto Lock Build

[DalekNim]

I've done both with success. For Vera, I'd be inclide to tint the metallic paint directly instead of doing a candy coat. (Candy coats are GREAT for gold chrome though!)

If you want to go the acrylic route (even though you already got some paints)... Vallejo's "metalizer" range is great.



Apologies, but I don't have the link without searching... look for my threads with the mandalorian blaster, the Blade Runner Concept COP and my Buck Rogers replica... some details there. I also have a technique for doing an "brushed/machined aluminum" look with chrome paint (because "aluminum" colored paint NEVER looks right) but again... search for threads with my nickname 'cause I don't have them handy!


I suspected that might be the case. Vera's outer barrel was 22-ish mm I think, so maybe that leaves room for an inner barrel. (Been a while so I can't remember exactly!)


There are photos of what seem to be people firing the Showtime guns (without the extra Vera parts) at a shooting range. No info on if they were firing blanks or not. Someone on Showtime (the director maybe, or production designer) called the original guns "evil" when fired....!


They did a lot of shooting in Showtime! However, something is telling me that they never actually fired it "for real" in Firefly. The shots at the end of "Our Mrs Reynolds" were done with a fake, loose, muzzle and compressed air. Jayne runs around with Vera on Niska's station but I can't remember if he ever shoots her. (Been a couple of years since I watched the show.)

Thx! I’ll go look for them. I can’t remember where I read it but I did read that the FireFly Vera was a working gun to fire blanks and they did fire blanks. Also I found a prop store in LA that has something like a dozen of the Showtime models that are all working firearms that at a minimum shoot blanks At one point I was going to try to rent one to get all the proper measurements but they wouldn’t rent to individuals only legit productions.

 

[DalekNim]

I've done both with success. For Vera, I'd be inclide to tint the metallic paint directly instead of doing a candy coat. (Candy coats are GREAT for gold chrome though!)

If you want to go the acrylic route (even though you already got some paints)... Vallejo's "metalizer" range is great.



Apologies, but I don't have the link without searching... look for my threads with the mandalorian blaster, the Blade Runner Concept COP and my Buck Rogers replica... some details there. I also have a technique for doing an "brushed/machined aluminum" look with chrome paint (because "aluminum" colored paint NEVER looks right) but again... search for threads with my nickname 'cause I don't have them handy!


I suspected that might be the case. Vera's outer barrel was 22-ish mm I think, so maybe that leaves room for an inner barrel. (Been a while so I can't remember exactly!)


There are photos of what seem to be people firing the Showtime guns (without the extra Vera parts) at a shooting range. No info on if they were firing blanks or not. Someone on Showtime (the director maybe, or production designer) called the original guns "evil" when fired....!


They did a lot of shooting in Showtime! However, something is telling me that they never actually fired it "for real" in Firefly. The shots at the end of "Our Mrs Reynolds" were done with a fake, loose, muzzle and compressed air. Jayne runs around with Vera on Niska's station but I can't remember if he ever shoots her. (Been a couple of years since I watched the show.)

Thx! I’ll go look for them. I can’t remember where I read it but I did read that the FireFly Vera was a working gun to fire blanks and they did fire blanks. Also I found a prop store in LA that has something like a dozen of the Showtime models that are all working firearms that at a minimum shoot blanks At one point I was going to try to rent one to get all the proper measurements but they wouldn’t rent to individuals only legit productions.

 

[publiusr]

In 2020 I entered the world of 'makers' by starting to build a full-size, operator-on-the-inside, motorized, fully electro-mechanical Dalek and joined ProjectDalek my first love is building scifi weapons: the book "Firefly A Celebration, which is a 540-pg full color, large format book about the show.

You might want to put a jamming gripper in place of a Dalek plunger

Jamming Gripper

Gripping and holding of objects are key tasks for robotic manipulators. The development of universal grippers able to pick up unfamiliar objects of widely varying shape and surface properties...

www.creativemachineslab.com

These for the side hemispheres

Fake Safe Camera, Simulated Monitor Camera Model Dummy Security Camera Half Ball Shape With Flashing LED Light For Factories For Families For Shopping Malls - Walmart.com

Arrives by Sat, Aug 5 Buy Fake Safe Camera, Simulated Monitor Camera Model Dummy Security Camera Half Ball Shape With Flashing LED Light For Factories For Families For Shopping Malls at Walmart.com

www.walmart.com

For the eye-stalk

channelnews : EXCLUSIVE:Fly360 Takes On Contenders To 360 Camera Crown CEO Interview

An interesting battle is starting to unfold, between two Companies Go Pro and new kid on the block in the action sports market 360fly, who is also taking on big brand names such as Samsung, Nikon and LG all Companies that are looking to grab a share of the fast growing 360-degree camera market...

www.channelnews.com.au

The Venus Probe/Crimebuster needs to be a Super Dalek

Made for Movie 'Crimebuster' in "Heartbeeps"

www.imcdb.org

 

[GrenadeKing]

you're right about how it was constructed but even firing blanks the aluminum barrel portion would not stand up to a lot of repeated firings. since it was only fired in 2 episodes i have no idea how many actual blank rounds they fired or planned to fire but I would assume any professional armorer would not risk something like that knowing the gun was to be able to fire blanks of any amount on set

I still don't see why it wouldn't work. The aluminum barrel on my 40mm grenade launcher works just fine, I don't see a 12 gauge blank throwing out much more pressure than that. The only place it would, would be in the steel chamber, which is still steel. Might have to agree to disagree.

As an aside, I found some great photos of the gun in this article:
You'll have to scroll down a bit for the photos

And they show it off (along with the other Firefly guns) in this video here:
Skip to about 10:00 for Vera

There's a great close up of the steel part of the barrel in the article. Interestingly, the little grip nub seems to go through it to block it from firing real shells. Unfortunately they left the dust cover down on the extension (if you watch the video, the prop master flips is open before unfolding the barrel). It's a very well thought out prop apparently.

 

[DalekNim]

Ok, with my Dalek finally finished and MegaCon 2024 complete I can once again turn my attention back to this build ...
While I'm preparing some pieces to test out anodized aluminum painting technique colors I thought I'd go ahead and complete painting the bullets which was going to be fairly straight forward.
There are 7 rounds which fit on the back rail and are completely exposed and then the rest go in the magazine. Therefore I decided to do 2 different levels of detail. While I completely painted all the rounds I only gave the most detailed attention to the 7 exposed rods and a couple of the brass cases for the ones in the magazine. The first pic is for the magazine rounds and the 2nd is the rail rounds. For the expose rds I used a matte clear on what would be the lead projectile and a gloss clear on both the silver tip and the brass case.
Right now I don't plan to make the magazine removable. The magnets I installed are not strong enough to hold it in place. If I get ambitious and try to install bigger ones then I'd have bullets that looked good which is why I decided to paint them all.

The next piece I plan to tackle is the suppressor since that is just a standrad chrome painting process that I already have done before. I'm using a platinium undercoat, followed by a gloss clear and then alclad chrome over that and finish with a final gloss clear to protect the finish. I tested both a platinum and silver chrome undercoat and the platinum actually came out brighter so I'm going with that

 

[JOATRASH FX]

IUnfortunately they left the dust cover down on the extension (if you watch the video, the prop master flips is open before unfolding the barrel). It's a very well thought out prop apparently.

Last summer, I went back to revisit my Vera files and started a completely new resin-printed build around the (rather pricey) Saiga airsoft that was released. The aim is to build an airsoft-firing unit that will disassemble like the real thing (nothing glued). I also incorporated the flip-cover over the barrel and the locking mechanism. (I won't hijack this thread with a link but my thread is in the forum.) Interestingly, Vera's barrel did not lock in place; the mechanism was apparently broken!

If you look at enough reference, you'll start noticing some pretty big differences in the various copies of the gun. A small note on the rounds in Vera's "main" magazine- they really only seem to be brass tube that has been sawed into halves and soldered to a plate inside! (In non-firing configuration, which is the one we usually see on screen, the magwell is also very different, much "taller".)

 

[DalekNim]

Yeah I heard that before. My main two references are some pics of supposedly the hero prop from an UK auction site that had the prop up for auction a bunch of years ago - starting bid was $10,000 and it never sold, and a 2 page full color glossy image from a large format Fire Fly book by Titan Publishing in 2012 called "Fly Fire a Celebration

 

[DalekNim]

while I'm waiting for my gloss blue clear paint to arrive so i can do one more test to decide which color I like best (I've got the lavender color picked) I figured I might as well complete the faux wood grips & barrel stock. So I broke out my set of alcohol inks and did the first grip but for some reason the ink labeled 'caramel' was really dark instead of the tan color I was looking for. the grips look nice but they look like walnut instead of what the prop looks like so i went back to Michael's and found a bottle of 'honeycomb' which showed this nice light tan color so i got it. turned out to be a nice light honey color which when combined with some streaks of cocoa alcohol ink made a nice version of the prop's grip. its not obvious from the photo but its actually this nice honey color.
I'm also waiting from some Alclad gloss clear so I can finish doing the barrel & picitenny rail. almost ready to start assembly ...

 

[ssdesigner]

while I'm waiting for my gloss blue clear paint to arrive so i can do one more test to decide which color I like best (I've got the lavender color picked) I figured I might as well complete the faux wood grips & barrel stock. So I broke out my set of alcohol inks and did the first grip but for some reason the ink labeled 'caramel' was really dark instead of the tan color I was looking for. the grips look nice but they look like walnut instead of what the prop looks like so i went back to Michael's and found a bottle of 'honeycomb' which showed this nice light tan color so i got it. turned out to be a nice light honey color which when combined with some streaks of cocoa alcohol ink made a nice version of the prop's grip. its not obvious from the photo but its actually this nice honey color.
I'm also waiting from some Alclad gloss clear so I can finish doing the barrel & picitenny rail. almost ready to start assembly ...

That wood technique is next level. Love to see a breakdown of that.

 

[DalekNim]

Thx! I don't have any pics of the process but here's how i do it.

First step is to sand and prime the 3D printed part as usual - I print everything on my PRUSA i3 Mark 3S at .15mm layer height so typically there is almost no sanding required. My go to primer has always been the Rustolem 2 in 1 filler sandable primer. Once that is complete you'll want to paint the part with a flat white paint. Airbrush or rattle can, you just want as smooth a finish as you can get.
Next you need to get some alcohol inks - I've always gotten mine at Michel's. The colors will depend on what type of wood you are trying to duplicate but you always need 2 different contrasting colors. For the walnut version I used cocoa & Carmel and for the figured oak I used honeycomb & cocoa. You also need a mop brush or make-up brush.
The basic technique is to put down lines of ink in the direction you want the grain to go starting with the lighter color and adding in the darker and then simply brush in the direction you want the grain to be, you need to work relatively fast as the ink dries quickly but you can go over areas that have already dried to create different grain effects and patterns. You can even make knots in the wood. After it dries I usually spray it with a semi gloss clear or varnish which helps sell that it is wood since that's a typical finish used on a lot of wood but you could also do a matte finish like I did on my Amban pulse rifle since that had a flat finish.
Search YT for 'how to make faux wood grain' andyou'll find a lot of vids from crafters who are making these faux wood tumblers with this technique. Make up a few test pieces and experiment until you get the hang of it and then you should be good

 

[JOATRASH FX]

For added depth, I usually add 'grain' with very rough sandpaper. Just do one or two pulls, pressing down hard, over the surface. It's takes a bit of practice to get it to not look like "scratches" but it's pretty effective. (For my current Vera build I've actually modeled the wood grain into the 3d part itself.)

 

[DalekNim]

I oriented the grips such that when it was printed you get a sort of grain pattern that can show through if you use the lighter India inks. I'm not smart enough to model grain patterns on a part in Fusion 360 ... lol

 

[DalekNim]

finally managed to get a lavender shade I liked that closely matched the prop. I've also done a test of the blue which looks good but I want to wait to test one other shade of clear blue I have inbound before making a final decision. All that is left after that is to finish chroming the 'suppressor', rail mount and external bullet tray on the stock and I'll be ready for final assembly

 

[DalekNim]

so I had a little issue with a couple of the pieces I was doing the chrome painting technique on. when I applied the gloss clear over the gloss black I got some orange peel so I had to re sand & re paint the pieces. While waiting for the gloss black to dry again I decided to try and make some actual progress and do some assembly of parts that have been finished being painted ...

I also needed to have the angle of the back end of the stock rail adjusted slightly as when I went to do a test fit it did not fit over the stock block ... probably should have checked that fit before I painted the stock rail so I wouldn't have to completely redo the paint job - oh well, live and learn. the new rail was 3D printed today & primed so tomorrow I should be able to paint it

 

[DalekNim]

New part printed and it fits perfect now

 

[DalekNim]

I've completed the painting of all parts now that I printed the new stock rail. I've also started assembly of the pieces I can while i continue to source the remaining screen accurate bolts that I need to complete assembly. I had some trouble with the black gloss bubbling on 2 of the parts I was trying to Crome and had to red and and re paint a couple of times but finally got it working.

 

[TerranCmdr]

That's looking so great! Apologies if I missed it but are you making the files available at all?

 

[DalekNim]

I don't plan to make the files available but I'll likely offer 3D printed parts kits for sale that folks can assemble and paint as they see fit

 

[JOATRASH FX]

when I applied the gloss clear over the gloss black I got some orange peel so I had to re sand & re paint the pieces.....

For future reference, you don't need a gloss clear if you already laid down a gloss black. While a thick coat of clear can be used for certain effects, when replicating the look of aluminum it's not needed. It also looks like you might've gone a little heavy with the chrome paints. You don't want full coverage because some of the gloss has to shine through.

Your blue is great, but your lilac is perhaps a little too saturated. (The problem with anodized aluminum is that the colors tend to shift in lighting. Some shots of Vera make the colors look darker than they are.) Back when I did my first Vera (the all-metal one) machinists I spoke to said that replicating the exact color with anodizing would be very hard, if not impossible, since the colors change with different types of aluminum!

 

[DalekNim]

Yeah I was following the process used for duplicating chrome instead of duplicating aluminum like I should have. I was really happy with how the blue turned out. I found a dye used to color epoxy when making those epoxy live edge river tables which mixed with the clear really nicely. Unfortunately I couldn't find a lilac that would mix with the clear to do the same type of tinting. I still have a lot to learn about paints and the water based acrylics wouldn't mix when trying to add them to the gloss clear I had for creating a tint. I guess I used the wrong type of clear or wrong type of paint or both ... I also noticed that the images I have of the prop from the auction site showed some of the colors differently than the image I was using from the book which made it difficult to try and match colors. In the ref image I'm using the lilac almost looks like it's darker or grungier so I'm thinking I might try to experiment with some kind of brown/black wash to knock the color back a bit? I'll have to paint a test piece up and try some things out ...