Update: COMPLETED!
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So I've been playing around with EVA foam for a Cerberus Trooper build (Thread link in my signature) from the Mass Effect universe, and OBVIOUSLY I need a weapon to compliment it. I could have gone with numerous amazing available kits or modified a NERF gun but that's really not my style. No...I'm more of the beat and bang on something until I've learned it inside and out, even if it throws me into alternating fits of anger and depression with just a slight chance of actually creating something I'm overly proud of...So I went with what my reference photo for my armor build is holding. An M-27 Scimitar shot-gun.
Since I've never built a prop that wasn't already partially assembled and/or a modified doodad attached to an existing thing-a-ma-bob, I went about the You-tubes looking at various other prop makers (mostly Volpin's work and Punished Props fantastic build videos) and how they do what they do. First step, blueprinting in InkScape.
I'd love to say this was super easy and took me no time at all, but truth be told, I probably spent 40+ hours scaling, drawing, redrawing, rescaling, learning shortcuts that could have saved me tons of time, deleting my work unintentionally (D'OH!) starting over, redoing things a dozen times until I was partially satisfied, etc...etc...etc... I'm still not 100% happy with how it turned out (it's unsymmetrical as all get out since I did pretty much everything freehand...on a touch-pad...on my lap-top), but at least I had something I could work from. I cut out my patterns onto taped together sheets of cardstock, and to the woodshed I went.
After several hours gluing, hacking, trimming, and rough sanding, I arrived at something resembling the base of a weapon.
Now it was time to start sanding, sanding, sanding (and throw in the barrel I'd already mocked up, just for grins and giggles...
Once I was happy with the overall shape, I started making all the little outboard "wings" and figuring out how to attach them while still being able to paint the thing properly. While I'm not overjoyed at my current method for accomplishing what I set out to get done, I have learned a metric tonne of stuff just by getting as far as I have now. Having decided that I am only going to be partially satisfied with this "prototype" no matter how much more Bondo, putty, or greeblies I throw at it, I decided to just primer/sand/smooth/repeat and get it ready for learning painting techniques.
Which brings you all up to date with this project. I'm about 2 weeks into this, including time spent in InkScape, and I am estimating I've got another week (thanks to drying time and my recently increased IRL work-load), before it's "done" enough to be useable for my character to debut at Comikaze here in LA next month...At least that's the plan.
After assembling this in it's current state, there are several things I would have done (and will do, rest assured) differently when I re-build this with the knowledge I've gleamed from doing this the first time. I now have a much better understanding of what things work well together, and what things to absolutely stay away from and/or not frakking do until it's ready to be assembled for the last time. While it's not horribly out of scale, it does need to be about an inch smaller overall. Something I couldn't have foreseen until it was built and in my hands. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of what I've accomplished, I just know I can do so much better. That is eating away at me like you wouldn't believe. Or maybe you would...Seems I'm not the only one with an addiction to accuracy around here. Even if it's on something that doesn't exist in the real world... :wacko
The hope is that version 2.0 can be molded and cast as a hollow bodied kit (Also something I'm currently learning how to do thanks to a lot of help from You-tube and my local Smooth-on rep) that will light up and have some sound effects (FINALLY! Something I'm actually proficient at doing already). I'm already reworking all my drawings to give me a better blueprint with cutaways, and channeling for lights, working trigger assemblies, and a racking slide that actually slides/recoils when it's "fired".
Stay tuned for updates...Paint and finishing on version 1.0 is on deck next.
~~~~~~~~~<<<~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>>~~~~~
So I've been playing around with EVA foam for a Cerberus Trooper build (Thread link in my signature) from the Mass Effect universe, and OBVIOUSLY I need a weapon to compliment it. I could have gone with numerous amazing available kits or modified a NERF gun but that's really not my style. No...I'm more of the beat and bang on something until I've learned it inside and out, even if it throws me into alternating fits of anger and depression with just a slight chance of actually creating something I'm overly proud of...So I went with what my reference photo for my armor build is holding. An M-27 Scimitar shot-gun.
Since I've never built a prop that wasn't already partially assembled and/or a modified doodad attached to an existing thing-a-ma-bob, I went about the You-tubes looking at various other prop makers (mostly Volpin's work and Punished Props fantastic build videos) and how they do what they do. First step, blueprinting in InkScape.
I'd love to say this was super easy and took me no time at all, but truth be told, I probably spent 40+ hours scaling, drawing, redrawing, rescaling, learning shortcuts that could have saved me tons of time, deleting my work unintentionally (D'OH!) starting over, redoing things a dozen times until I was partially satisfied, etc...etc...etc... I'm still not 100% happy with how it turned out (it's unsymmetrical as all get out since I did pretty much everything freehand...on a touch-pad...on my lap-top), but at least I had something I could work from. I cut out my patterns onto taped together sheets of cardstock, and to the woodshed I went.
After several hours gluing, hacking, trimming, and rough sanding, I arrived at something resembling the base of a weapon.
Now it was time to start sanding, sanding, sanding (and throw in the barrel I'd already mocked up, just for grins and giggles...
Once I was happy with the overall shape, I started making all the little outboard "wings" and figuring out how to attach them while still being able to paint the thing properly. While I'm not overjoyed at my current method for accomplishing what I set out to get done, I have learned a metric tonne of stuff just by getting as far as I have now. Having decided that I am only going to be partially satisfied with this "prototype" no matter how much more Bondo, putty, or greeblies I throw at it, I decided to just primer/sand/smooth/repeat and get it ready for learning painting techniques.
Which brings you all up to date with this project. I'm about 2 weeks into this, including time spent in InkScape, and I am estimating I've got another week (thanks to drying time and my recently increased IRL work-load), before it's "done" enough to be useable for my character to debut at Comikaze here in LA next month...At least that's the plan.
After assembling this in it's current state, there are several things I would have done (and will do, rest assured) differently when I re-build this with the knowledge I've gleamed from doing this the first time. I now have a much better understanding of what things work well together, and what things to absolutely stay away from and/or not frakking do until it's ready to be assembled for the last time. While it's not horribly out of scale, it does need to be about an inch smaller overall. Something I couldn't have foreseen until it was built and in my hands. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of what I've accomplished, I just know I can do so much better. That is eating away at me like you wouldn't believe. Or maybe you would...Seems I'm not the only one with an addiction to accuracy around here. Even if it's on something that doesn't exist in the real world... :wacko
The hope is that version 2.0 can be molded and cast as a hollow bodied kit (Also something I'm currently learning how to do thanks to a lot of help from You-tube and my local Smooth-on rep) that will light up and have some sound effects (FINALLY! Something I'm actually proficient at doing already). I'm already reworking all my drawings to give me a better blueprint with cutaways, and channeling for lights, working trigger assemblies, and a racking slide that actually slides/recoils when it's "fired".
Stay tuned for updates...Paint and finishing on version 1.0 is on deck next.
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