Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

UPDATE!


Great progress on the build! I've got the pistol body nearly right (and that's been quite a chore -- this is positively the last time I take the "bandsaw challenge!"), and the Hubbell plug is mounted in the pistol. That's right -- for the first time, the handle plugs into the pistol, and it looks great!

Full posts tomorrow, and meanwhile, here's your teaser:



Also, waiting for parts to come in for the Wand Phaser replacement handles project -- read more here.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Great work asalaw. can't wait to see more...:thumbsup

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Looking good. Been enjoying this thread.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Thanks!

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

I swear, seeing a phaser with a hero style twist lock brings a tear to my eye....no! Seriously, it does! . I just seems like yesterday when I first laid eyes upon the GJ hero in all it's majestic glory. I can clearly remember my reaction when first noticing all those little springs, the U yoke, and twist lock handle. I thought to myself, geez, the guy who actually sat down and planned this all out from scratch is a freaking genius. All those parts, in both the P1 and P2 ! But once I figured out the clear tip extends when the p1 is placed into it's cradle, I was hooked!!!

This is why I can never ever tire of seeing hero phasers being build, and following threads like these. It's the blood in my veins as they would say ASALAW...you do US, our country, and the phaser lovers community proud!

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

And we're back! Heckuva break, but I also got a lot done. Not as much as I'd hoped, but that never happens anyway.

So here we are, back at the pistol body...

I seem to have remembered getting farther along with it than I really did. And not only that, but I had a setback that cost me an hour. Something of a plot twist...

So to start off, I decided it would be easier to just take off the rear embellishments and remake them than to try to salvage them. That bandsaw blade was pretty rough.


I suppose it could've been rougher...

So I lit into it with my Dremel, which of course made things look even worse...



Yep.

So once again into the Evercoat Forest...


​
I know it looks like a yummy Christmassy minty green, but trust me, that's not what it smells like. The solvents room in Santa's workshop, maybe (known in some circles as Cambodia).

And that's when Jim Lovell radioed in -- Techshop, we have a problem...



See it? Perfectly joined on the bottom, but big gaposis on top. Turned out not to be related to the Bandsaw Challenge -- the damn thing had a twist in the casting. Pretty sure I noticed that all those years ago when I first built it, but I'd forgotten all about it and failed to notice it till now. Thanks again, Masterpiece Models! I hope your children get Rigellian EbolAIDS.

So, back to the chopper... or in this case, the burr bit...



I ground out the original plastic spacer I'd put into the joint except for one tiny section, hoping I could just twist that into shape. Nope, it snapped -- but it still worked for spacing purposes. I clamped it together with the other half of the pistol, put some blue tape behind the gap as a wall for the epoxy, and commenced to JB Welding.

This time I was taking no prisoners!


No, dammit, I said NO prisoners!

So once the JB cured and I removed the tape, I had a nice join again, so of course I decided to make it even stronger. I gouged out some channels and mixed maybe a tablespoon of JB Kwik and slathered it on.





And she's fixed!


I really, really hate it when he says that....

Onto the next post before my uploads start crapping out...


Well, next couple of hours anyway...

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Where were we? Oh, yeah --

That damn pistol body...



More gappage to fix. Fortunately, though, my X-Acto clamps were specially made for phaser clamping...



Cutting past all the puttying, epoxying, sanding, re-puttying, sanding...



I left the hole in the trigger area because I was going to cut all that out anyway to make room for the Hubbell plug. But before going any further, I wanted to make sure I had a lockdown on the front alignment. Simplest method: put in the window, check for fit.



Yep! Looking much better now.

So now I declared it ready for Hubbell implant surgery. Yay!! I've been looking forward to this for months.

So, how to make absolutely sure I sand the plug in the right cross-section so the handle lines up properly? That, at least, was a no-brainer. Lock it onto the handle, tape in your line, then use the tape as a guide to mark it with the back of an X-Acto blade.



Easy! But just for giggles, I put the tape back on, and then took it to the sanding disk.



Not a bad match! Plus there's always going to be more contouring as we go. Although, as this second picture shows, I've already made a mistake... but more on that later...

I used the plug as a guide to trace the cutout in the trigger area, dug that out, and went for a test fit:



Then I used JB Epoxy Steel to rough it into place.



After test-fitting the handle -- perfect fit, thank God -- I continued to epoxy the ever living fµ©k out of it, and then I test-fitted the handle again:



Finally, it was time to contour in the other half of the receptacle, which was actually pretty easy: Tape over the plug to prevent the epoxy putty from sticking to it, then just squish a big gob of it to the other side. As it cures, trim away the excess putty from the outside to flush it with the surface. When the epoxy hardens, gently pry it apart, remove the tape, and presto!



Next post in just a bit...

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

And now, the conclusion of this week's episode...

And still more epoxy, this time to really ensconce the Hubbell plug in there, plus I'm trying to match as closely as possible the look of the original's insides. This is roughed in, but as I go I'll build up more here and grind it away there till I get it to its final look accommodating the metal innards.



Finally, the handle in place in all its glory... or at least all the glory it's gonna get till finishing and painting...



Okay, now for the last little bit... my mistake, which I'm not going to fix because at this point, for this build, it's not worth fixing. I'm actually off by maybe 1/8" or so on the grinding of the Hubbell plug, which actually made my job harder than it needed to be, and affects the look in a (hopefully) subtle way. Here's a comparison:



But like I said, I'm not fixing this. The handle is in the perfect position, and as one of my mentors always says, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." Plus, once it's painted and finished, it'll be very hard to spot the mistake anyway. So where's the harm?


I find your lack of give-a-**** disturbing...

When I get around to doing my scratch build, though, rest assured I'll get it right. Once again, as John Long told me so many times, you have to build one to really get to know it.

So that's it for now. My next step is to get the front screw mounted and the fins cut and assembled, so that I can close the phaser properly for test fits as I build up the internal gizmos.

Except...

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Once again, it's time for



No, dammit! I mean

FRICKIN' LASER BEAMS!!​

Click to expand...

So, I found myself thinking about two different things at once, which is exactly how ideas come out, usually insane ones.



My favorite kind.

So, I've got this stack of clear 0.050" acrylic from Skycraft Surplus, which was insanely dirt cheap, that I picked up as a target of opportunity for future projects...







I always visit them whenever I'm in Orlando, because it's basically a giant toy box for guys like me. I just roam around inside for long periods, till I have to come out for food...


Some visits are longer than others...

I also was thinking about the front window of the phaser, and its wonky shape.



John's window for the MM kit looks pretty damn good to me, so I scanned it, took it into Illustrator, and then...



But will this really be enough phasers to make me happy?

And here's what I have now:



Hah!!

Who says Mac guys can't do Windows?

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

asalaw. your just to cool for school. :lol your posting style rocks. very Informative and you crack me up. very nice work. one question If I may sir. everything you reproduce. like the window and washer. looks like your mass producing them. are you getting ready to build a phaser factory?

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

My wife was wondering what had me laughing so hard.

asalaw, your thread is like the RPF version of Big Bang meets Tooltime (from Home Impovement)…only cooler and hipper.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

sean said:

...are you getting ready to build a phaser factory?

Click to expand...

A phaser phactory

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

sean said:

asalaw. your just to cool for school. :lol your posting style rocks. very Informative and you crack me up. very nice work. one question If I may sir. everything you reproduce. like the window and washer. looks like your mass producing them. are you getting ready to build a phaser factory?

Click to expand...

Hehe... thanks so much for the kind words.

Yeah, mainly for me (I have a huge hole inside that can only be filled by phasers and chocolate. And chocolate phasers.), but also for kit buildups for clients, or the occasional trade or small sale. They're not "runs" per se for selling. I don't expect a lot of traffic in these things, and it's not worth the bother to mail out large numbers of cheap parts even if there were. I've checked, and despite early doubts, I'm pretty sure now I'm not China.

Finally, the advantage to doing it this way is that it's one more part I'll never have to look for or make for the rest of my life, unless I realize my true ambition, which is to die at 123 from a gunshot in the back received while jumping out a bedroom window, fleeing a jealous husband.


I have so many innocent childhood dreams...
but where the fµçk is my flying car?!

But you'll notice I'm only doing that with stuff I laser cut.

The way the laser cutter works, it takes literally maybe an hour to cut as many as two to three metric fµçkloads of these small parts, so if you're making one, why not do a whole sheet? And once I have the artwork right (that's the part that actually feels like real work), cutting and pasting 240 copies is pretty simple.

robn1 said:

A phaser phactory

Click to expand...

lollol

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

redshirt said:

My wife was wondering what had me laughing so hard.

asalaw, your thread is like the RPF version of Big Bang meets Tooltime (from Home Impovement)…only cooler and hipper.

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks, Tom!

And I gotta add -- just as I hit "post," my Wand phaser finished charging an hour early, said "power cell charge complete," and I damn near crapped myself.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

And speaking of m new Wand phaser...

I've been obsessing over it, as you might imagine. So I've been doing some measuring here, some color checking there, and come up with some surprises...

But first, PORN!



YAAAAAY PORN!!!! YAAAAAY!


Help stop phaser abuse. Please give generously.

MORE PORN!! YAAAAAAY!!!!



Whew!!!



But that's okay, cuz

MORE PORN!!! YAAAAAY!!!



Now, the good news is, my MM pistol fits the Wand case like a glove. So when you add back the 3/32" in the P1 cradle that was lost to shrinkage, it's nearly dead-on to the original.

The bad news is, it turns out I was wrong -- John's P1 kit really is too long, by 0.05" in the front. It looks like a uniform stretch overall, so I'm guessing John just slightly overshot with the compensation for the shrinkage. Funny part is, the old MM P1 was exactly the right size, though the contours weren't quite right. So that's the JLong kit on the left in the second picture above, Wand in the center, MM on the right. Weirdly, the Wand is also slightly wrong in the space between the diamond-embossed foil and the front emitter. John's kit has that spacing correct.

But the other good news is, my handle is also dead-on, as you can see from the fit with the Wand case. So all told, I'm ecstatic with my buildup, and when I get around to scratch-building my next phaser, I'm going to have the dimensions as close as I'll ever need to get.

Now the other weird thing: The Krylon Shadow Gray and Zynolyte Dark Gray Primer don't match themselves on my older props. In other words, the stuff I've tested with my new paint doesn't match the stuff I painted with the old paint.

Here's a box lid painted with today's Zynolyte, next to a Burke chair base I painted with the same color number about 12 years ago:



There's definitely a difference. Same with the pistol color:


Easter egg: The Wand side dial inexplicably
matches the Hyde one. Neither is a match to the GJ.

The top one's an old Darrell Hyde unit I bought ages ago, maybe 14 years ago, and painted with the Krylon Shadow Gray back then; the bottom one is the Wand phaser; and they're both sitting on today's Krylon Shadow Gray. As you can see, the Hyde is much closer to the Wand than the newer color.

The handle color fared much better:



Left to right, that's the Wand handle, my new brass handle with today's Rustoleum Dark Bronze Metallic, and the Hyde with the same paint from 14 years ago. If the Wand handle is indeed a perfect match to the GJ color, then a satin or gloss coat over the Rustoleum should nail it.

Meanwhile, none other than robn1 likes to recommend these spray colors:

Tamiya TS-48, Gunship Gray, for the P2 body

Tamya AS-27, Gunship Gray 2, for the Phaser 1*

Click to expand...

Here's where you can look at all the Tamiya paint charts.

I'm going to be looking also at Tamiya and Model Master bottle acrylics, since I have numerous bottles of flat white and flat black in both brands. I'm going to do my best to match them to the Wand pistol body, and post the results here. But I won't be doing that till I get to the finishing stage.

Meanwhile, my next post should cover installing the little bar that goes over the front window, the aluminum clip for the top front, the bottom screw that holds the front together, and the fins in the back. That'll allow me to close up the pistol nice and tight for test fitting the internal doodads, gizmos, and fiddlybits.


Because precise terminology is crucial
in the world domination biz! Now
hand me that radioactive cat and a pack
of Trojans, would you liebchen?

*UPDATE -- 4/2/18: robn1 reports that it was Steve Pielock who suggested Tamiya colors, specifically TS-48 for the P1 and TS-66 for the P2. So the colors referenced above are incorrect. H/t phasernut for spotting the error.

Click to expand...

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

I may have mentioned the Tamiya paints somewhere, but it was Pielock who suggested them.

I haven't been able to get the Wand phaser yet, so I'm loving all the pics everyone are posting. They really did an awesome job with it.

Is that the handle that came with the Hyde phaser? I haven't seen one like that.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

A quick go-back to your front window if you don't mind.
I have a local engraver do a little acrylic laser cutting for me from time to time. He has warned me of the problems of using extruded acrylic vs cast. The concern is that the extruded will develop little microcracks at the edges, and especially warned against contact with alcohol which will penetrate the cracks, expand, and crack worse.
Cast is less likely to do this, and I keep some cast on hand to take to him.
Extruded is of course more readily available and less expensive than cast, but kind of thing is SOP in this hobby anyhow.
Even on the cast, I see little cracks sometimes. I usually ask for more copies than I need and pull the best ones. Did you run into anything like this? I see the link to your acrylic doesn't specify cast or extruded.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

robn1 said:

I may have mentioned the Tamiya paints somewhere, but it was Pielock who suggested them.

I haven't been able to get the Wand phaser yet, so I'm loving all the pics everyone are posting. They really did an awesome job with it.

Is that the handle that came with the Hyde phaser? I haven't seen one like that.

Click to expand...

Maybe so, Rob, but you still like to recommend them!

Yes, they did do an awesome job with it. It has glitches, but I consider them trivial. Here's the Wand Phaser thread if you want to know more about that.

Yes, that's the original Hyde phaser handle. It's a not-too-great attempt at the midgrade handle.

quarryman said:

A quick go-back to your front window if you don't mind.
I have a local engraver do a little acrylic laser cutting for me from time to time. He has warned me of the problems of using extruded acrylic vs cast. The concern is that the extruded will develop little microcracks at the edges, and especially warned against contact with alcohol which will penetrate the cracks, expand, and crack worse.
Cast is less likely to do this, and I keep some cast on hand to take to him.
Extruded is of course more readily available and less expensive than cast, but kind of thing is SOP in this hobby anyhow.
Even on the cast, I see little cracks sometimes. I usually ask for more copies than I need and pull the best ones. Did you run into anything like this? I see the link to your acrylic doesn't specify cast or extruded.

Click to expand...

No cracks so far out of 240 windows cut, but since it's so cheap, and replaceable, I don't worry about it. I'm a little skeptical about cracking on a laser cutter, since the edges actually melt a bit from the heat of the laser as they're being cut. The edges actually come out looking excellent. OTOH, perhaps it's cast acrylic anyway.

Plus, the way it's installed in the phaser, the edges never show. Roughly speaking, I'd say the outermost 1/32" of the window is hidden from view by the channel it sits in. More like 1/8" on the top edge, because of the aluminum clip.

I assume the reason Skycraft doesn't specify cast or extruded is that they're a surplus store, and likely bought this acrylic at a liquidation sale or something like that, so the information probably wasn't available.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

asalaw said:

Plus, the way it's installed in the phaser, the edges never show. Roughly speaking, I'd say the outermost 1/32" of the window is hidden from view by the channel it sits in. More like 1/8" on the top edge, because of the aluminum clip.

Click to expand...

Granted. I was mostly curious if you had run into the problem. Apparently not. Thanks.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

quarryman said:

Granted. I was mostly curious if you had run into the problem. Apparently not. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Yeah, if something like that goes wrong, I like to bring it up and make it part of the thread, partly so everyone can learn along with me, but mostly because I enjoy being congenitally stupid.


Also I like sammiches.