Yet Another Alpha Meson Blaster - Doctor Who

First Post!

Hi everybody,
A few weeks ago a friend of mine started talking about a project she was going to work on for DragonCon next year (a Star Wars Nerf mod) and that got me interested in building a mod myself.

In the meantime, it was my son's birthday and we took a trip to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff and while we were there I saw the River Song display cabinet.



I've seen a few threads from people putting together their own Alpha Meson Blasters, so I'm gonna have a go at making one too.

There are a few more pictures in my Flickr set if you need more references for your own projects.

I've taken a lot of photos of the original prop and I'm now the proud owner of a pair of Nerf Scout IX-3s.


The thing is, when I got the Nerfs from Ebay, I left them on the table in the house where the kids could see them.
... and they love 'em. So much so that they're a bit put off by their dad taking them apart and hacking them up.

So I'm going to try and keep them as functioning Nerfs throughout the re-build.

This is my first build since I made a replica of Major Kira's blaster for a friend's cosplay in the 90s.
Wish me luck.

Had some great feedback already on this, especially from the detailed photos of the original prop.
Thanks and I hope they don't give you too much re-work time on your own projects.

I've started hacking my Nerf, marking it up generally in Sharpie and taking a Dremel to the plastic.



As you can see I'm trying to keep as much of the original as possible.
Firstly because I'm expecting this will keep the amount of "stuff" I need to add back in to a minimum.
Secondly for structure, as I've already lost two screws.
and finally, as I said in the top post, I still want to be able to shoot Nerfs at the end of the project.

I've got to hack the second half, of the toy next and use some plastic card to fill-in gaping holes.
Then I can start on building up the structure and the cock slide.

I'm baaack.
Has a long summer away from things creative including a long vacation too.

I've been collecting supplies to make this replica and i've settled on Plasticard for the build.
Have used it loads before and I think I can get a reasonable finish on it. I'd be welcome of any opinions though, if you've had bad experiences with it.

Basically, what I have are various thicknesses of card (3.0,1.5,1.0,0.5mm) which I'm building up in layers.
I'm not going to try bending the card, I'll form it into the rough shape and then sand it to get the round/sculpted edges I need.

Following a couple of other A.M.Blaster posts on here, printed out pictures to what I think is the right scale and I'm just getting on with cutting and gluing.
First part is going to be the muzzle end and then I'm going to work on the slide.
Finally I'll work on the nightlite piece.

Hopefully I can get some electronics in here if I can find the space.

Will try to keep this updated now as I go along.

Here's a first go at the muzzle cover for the donor toy.
As you can see the different thicknesses of plasticard work really well, IMO.



Something I didn't remember until today was that, since making the piece yesterday, it pays to leave the polycement to cure.
Even with 1.5mm side walls it feels quite sturdy. I am going to have to add some more plastic into the upper corners where I need to round off the piece though.

Going by scale from the photos I have of the original prop, I'm also going to need to take some more plastic off my donor toy to make it fit inside the box.

The thing is I'm reluctant to hack away too much at the original nerf, as I'm hoping that it will provide much needed strength for the firing mechanism.
We'll just have to see how it goes. I do have a spare

I seem to remember the being told "measure twice, cut once".

The problem I've hit this week is that I made my first muzzle mod based on measurements I'd made BEFORE cutting the donor toy down.
As it turns out the measurements were so tight I can't slide the mod over the end of the original.

Before (including modified trimming marks)


After


The measurements on my plasticard mod are pretty much millimetre perfect against the trimmed toy.
I don't want to take of any more plastic from the original, so I've decided to change my tack and use this first piece as a practise one.

So here's what it looks like now taken a sander to the corners.


...and here's what it should look like.


I'm glad I've done this now, as it looks like I don't have enough definition on the raised surfaces around the top of the muzzle.
Ignoring the fact that I've got the scuplting completely wrong on the rounded corners.

I think I'll double the thickness of the raised parts and see how that looks.

Progress so far.

I know I said I wasn't going to trim down the donor anymore but looking at the curve under the muzzle I've had to trim a little more off to get things to line up the way I need them to.

Now that I've done that, I've been able to cover the upper part of the donor toy and even make the slide.



More pics can be found in my Flickr set if you click on the image.

Plan?
I still need to sort out the pattern for the front of the muzzle & cover the end. Then I can work on the light for underneath.
After that I have a date booked with a sander to round over the edges.
Then paint & decals.

Progress of sorts.
I realised that I wasn't going to get this built without a vice to hold the piece steady while I worked on it.
So I now own a vice!

Working making the firing mechanism at the moment.
The slide cocks the gun and it still shoots Nerf darts with the same power the original toy had.

Next step is sanding to round over all my square edges.

When that is done I'll build/add on the side and top pieces.

I'm putting off the target light at the moment, as I'm worried I'm not going to do it justice.

In the meantime. Here's a picture I just spotted on Tumblr.

- - - Updated - - -

I still need to source the paint for this piece.
Any suggestions?

It looks to me like a matte white or light grey heavily weathered with black