Killer project, dude.
Aliens M56 Smartgun
- Thread starter Ultimate Badass
- Start date
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Thank you! I realize that HCG is coming out with a pretty sweet replica of Vasquez's smartgun to display and some people have been ragging on me about it (playfully I know). Interestingly, I absolutely need the weight of the real MG42 for what I'm doing...can't wait to show you guys why (soon!). I'm glad some of you guys are digging this project despite it only being in the parts-assembly mode at the moment. The real fun/build will begin after I get back from Dragon Con.
Tracking down parts and doing the research is a big part of the fun.
Mike J.
Master Member
I love nailing a part ID.
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
You're right...tracking down the stuff is A LOT of fun. The most fun I've had getting into this project hasn't been posted yet...but it'll be coming. I hope you guys appreciate it when I do get around to sharing it (I'm pretty sure you Aliens fans will).
OldSkoolEffects
Well-Known Member
And it never hurts when you have friends to help with research, amirite?
Man, that brings back memories - I used to shoot one of these things back when I served; the Danish armed forces used MG42s back then (known as the LMG M/62 - pretty good shot with it, too, and you're right, it's sorta heavy).
- which, of course, is another reason there's probably plenty of them in existence. Maybe not vintage ones but they stayed relatively unchanged because the design was so good; it remains the only single-barrel machinegun to reliably break the 1000 rpm limit, as far as I know.
Anyway, turning an instrument of destruction into an AWESOME toy, what could be better?
- which, of course, is another reason there's probably plenty of them in existence. Maybe not vintage ones but they stayed relatively unchanged because the design was so good; it remains the only single-barrel machinegun to reliably break the 1000 rpm limit, as far as I know.
Anyway, turning an instrument of destruction into an AWESOME toy, what could be better?
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
OK, now it's time to lead into the biggest part of the project: the harness. Plenty of people have known for years the ID'd parts for the actual gun as well as the headset (you can find this information readily in this thread, but that information came from others on here way before me). One of the the parts of the project that I am aiming to make my mark with is the harness itself, because the reference out there sucks. I'll be posting more photos a bit later (I have to give you guys a reason to keep coming back), but I will share some with you now.
The first piece of the puzzle was finding an actual Cinema Products model III vest. This is NO easy task. Thankfully, I have found a couple of amazing people in the steadicam community that have been a huge help. The vest itself isn't anything that needed extensive research on. The vest was all-black, with a quick-release mechanism triggered by pulling the lever over the right shoulder (you all saw Drake do it while he was retreating to the APC). Well, I posted on a steadicam group page that I was looking for one of these vests and I waited...and waited...and prayed. Finally, someone super awesome came to my rescue:
This baby has brand new pads and the correct quick-release mechanism that not all of the vests had (or so I've been led to believe). Obviously, I need to modify this just a bit by removing the buckle clips from above the "CP" logo on the chest plate, and also by dyeing the leather straps on the back (they're currently tan). I will show a lot more photos of this when I'm going through that process of modifying it to make it accurate. And no, these aren't cheap if you were wondering. You can buy a completed Ghostbusters proton pack for what the vests cost.
The interesting thing about the steadicam vest is that MOST steadicam operators attach the arm on the right side of the chest, not the left as it was attached in the movie. I think it's funny that the left side attachment is referred to the 'goofy side' within the steadicam community.
Also, I will say that as I've suggested, I intend to replicate both Vasquez's and Drake's smartguns. While their vests were the same (prior to some modifying to fit Jenette Goldstein), I will need two. I have found an actual screen-accurate vest and am waiting for the kind gentleman who has contacted me to return from a movie-shoot in a couple of weeks and then that should be in my possession as well. Photos of that vest will come when it arrives in my possession.
I've got some more awesome stuff on the way. If anyone out there wants a lot of reference of the vest for their own projects I am more than happy to help eventually once I have time...probably not before the middle of September (yeah, I'm that busy).
The first piece of the puzzle was finding an actual Cinema Products model III vest. This is NO easy task. Thankfully, I have found a couple of amazing people in the steadicam community that have been a huge help. The vest itself isn't anything that needed extensive research on. The vest was all-black, with a quick-release mechanism triggered by pulling the lever over the right shoulder (you all saw Drake do it while he was retreating to the APC). Well, I posted on a steadicam group page that I was looking for one of these vests and I waited...and waited...and prayed. Finally, someone super awesome came to my rescue:
This baby has brand new pads and the correct quick-release mechanism that not all of the vests had (or so I've been led to believe). Obviously, I need to modify this just a bit by removing the buckle clips from above the "CP" logo on the chest plate, and also by dyeing the leather straps on the back (they're currently tan). I will show a lot more photos of this when I'm going through that process of modifying it to make it accurate. And no, these aren't cheap if you were wondering. You can buy a completed Ghostbusters proton pack for what the vests cost.
The interesting thing about the steadicam vest is that MOST steadicam operators attach the arm on the right side of the chest, not the left as it was attached in the movie. I think it's funny that the left side attachment is referred to the 'goofy side' within the steadicam community.
Also, I will say that as I've suggested, I intend to replicate both Vasquez's and Drake's smartguns. While their vests were the same (prior to some modifying to fit Jenette Goldstein), I will need two. I have found an actual screen-accurate vest and am waiting for the kind gentleman who has contacted me to return from a movie-shoot in a couple of weeks and then that should be in my possession as well. Photos of that vest will come when it arrives in my possession.
I've got some more awesome stuff on the way. If anyone out there wants a lot of reference of the vest for their own projects I am more than happy to help eventually once I have time...probably not before the middle of September (yeah, I'm that busy).
Duuude!!! What a score! Can't wait to see more!
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Alright guys,
So it's been a while but now I have some free time. I have some big time photos for you and I hope you appreciate what I'm about to share.
Everyone saw the steadicam vest I sourced...well, as I implied before, I have another on the way. It is not yet in my possession but once it gets here I'll be sure to share some photos (it's the same model vest but it's more accurate in terms of coloring and will need less modifying).
The steadicam arm is biggest piece of the puzzle when it comes to the smartgun. The thing is, even though it was a Cinema Products model III arm, there are DIFFERENT variants of the arm, and, go figure, through my research and hours of staring at screen shots, I've confirmed that Vasquez and Drake each had a different variant of the model III arm. I was able to make connections with a few awesome people in the steadicam community who essentially reviewed the screen caps I pulled from my Aliens DVD and they were able to identify every single component of each arm.
Here are some reference shots:
If you look at Drake's arm, you can see some silver-colored anodized parts. Now, if you look closely at Vasquez's arm, you will see that hers has no anodized components (aside from the piece that connects the arm to the vest which you can see in the first reference shot above and below):
Here's another reference shot, of Vasquez's gun and the steadicam arm:
So as the story goes, I spoke to enough awesome people in the steadicam community, and I was ultimately directed to a gentleman in California who is essentially the go-to guy in the country when it comes to all things steadicam-related. He is quite difficult to get a hold of, but I managed to get a cell phone number off of someone and though I rarely call strangers, I gave it a shot. I got a generic voicemail message and figured what the hell, I wasn't giving up that easily. I left a message and waited...and prayed...and hoped. Well, God answered my prayers. Later that day I got a call back from the guy and though he was in a hurry he said he would like me to email him reference of the steadicam arms and he would get back to me.
I sent him a bunch of screen caps (I essentially pulled every single frame from the movie that showed the arms and sent him about 30 pictures). A few days later he emailed me back and dropped some insane news into my lap...this guy DESIGNED the model III arm for Cinema Products. He built every arm that was produced in the early to later 80's, and, yes, he inherently built the arms used in the movie! He admits that he did not know ahead of time that any of the arms he was building would be used (the arms were donated to the film by someone who had purchased the arms from Cinema Products...they weren't obtained directly from Cinema Products for filming).
ANYWAY, so it turns out that the guy who designed and built the arms in the movie was going to be BUILDING MY ARMS. I WAS PSYCHED! This may not seem like a big deal, but it's a HUGE deal. I don't recall anyone ever going this far as to ID that each steadicam arm was different, and also to find someone to ID each component of each arm...then only to be connected to THE guy who built them; my mind was blown.
First things first, the arms are extraordinarily expensive. I opted to have Vasquez's arm produced first and Drake's can wait for some time in 2015. Without getting into specifics, I can say that each arm costs over twice of what the actual MG42 cost me. Overall, my expected budget of each smartgun including vest + arm + gun + headset is $17,000 - 19,000 (yes, for each).
I don't mind the cost, as the guy who I am commissioning to build my arms has been amazing. He was going to build me look-alike modern arms using titanium. I saw some photos of these arms, and they are beautiful and very, very close to the screen used arms in appearance (most of you would not even realize it was different). However, there were subtle changes with the newer arms he builds. I asked him if he could somehow source the older, screen accurate pieces to build my arms...I wanted my Vasquez arm to be EXACTLY like the one in the movie so I could share the experience of walking around with my second favorite movie prop of all time...I wanted to experience what Jenette Goldstein did.
Well, FEAST YOUR EYES:
LOOK AT THAT WORK OF ART!
Here is a comparison shot (the top is Vasquez's arm and the bottom is mine):
NAILED IT!!!!!!!
The arm construction continues (he is still sourcing parts to complete it). Overall, parts have come from all over the world for this steadicam arm build...here in Pennsylvania, Utah, California, Brazil, Berlin amongst other places. Steadicam operators everywhere are donating/trading the specific pieces needed to make this arm exact to the movie's arm. As much as I love the overall prop and all of its components, I will ultimately be the proudest of the steadicam arm. I also realize that I am not the one building this steadicam arm (much like I am not restoring the Cadillac being used for my Ecto-1 build), but these projects are so complex and significant that there is really no way that I myself, nor anyone that is not an expert in the matter, could.
More photos to come soon!
So it's been a while but now I have some free time. I have some big time photos for you and I hope you appreciate what I'm about to share.
Everyone saw the steadicam vest I sourced...well, as I implied before, I have another on the way. It is not yet in my possession but once it gets here I'll be sure to share some photos (it's the same model vest but it's more accurate in terms of coloring and will need less modifying).
The steadicam arm is biggest piece of the puzzle when it comes to the smartgun. The thing is, even though it was a Cinema Products model III arm, there are DIFFERENT variants of the arm, and, go figure, through my research and hours of staring at screen shots, I've confirmed that Vasquez and Drake each had a different variant of the model III arm. I was able to make connections with a few awesome people in the steadicam community who essentially reviewed the screen caps I pulled from my Aliens DVD and they were able to identify every single component of each arm.
Here are some reference shots:
If you look at Drake's arm, you can see some silver-colored anodized parts. Now, if you look closely at Vasquez's arm, you will see that hers has no anodized components (aside from the piece that connects the arm to the vest which you can see in the first reference shot above and below):
Here's another reference shot, of Vasquez's gun and the steadicam arm:
So as the story goes, I spoke to enough awesome people in the steadicam community, and I was ultimately directed to a gentleman in California who is essentially the go-to guy in the country when it comes to all things steadicam-related. He is quite difficult to get a hold of, but I managed to get a cell phone number off of someone and though I rarely call strangers, I gave it a shot. I got a generic voicemail message and figured what the hell, I wasn't giving up that easily. I left a message and waited...and prayed...and hoped. Well, God answered my prayers. Later that day I got a call back from the guy and though he was in a hurry he said he would like me to email him reference of the steadicam arms and he would get back to me.
I sent him a bunch of screen caps (I essentially pulled every single frame from the movie that showed the arms and sent him about 30 pictures). A few days later he emailed me back and dropped some insane news into my lap...this guy DESIGNED the model III arm for Cinema Products. He built every arm that was produced in the early to later 80's, and, yes, he inherently built the arms used in the movie! He admits that he did not know ahead of time that any of the arms he was building would be used (the arms were donated to the film by someone who had purchased the arms from Cinema Products...they weren't obtained directly from Cinema Products for filming).
ANYWAY, so it turns out that the guy who designed and built the arms in the movie was going to be BUILDING MY ARMS. I WAS PSYCHED! This may not seem like a big deal, but it's a HUGE deal. I don't recall anyone ever going this far as to ID that each steadicam arm was different, and also to find someone to ID each component of each arm...then only to be connected to THE guy who built them; my mind was blown.
First things first, the arms are extraordinarily expensive. I opted to have Vasquez's arm produced first and Drake's can wait for some time in 2015. Without getting into specifics, I can say that each arm costs over twice of what the actual MG42 cost me. Overall, my expected budget of each smartgun including vest + arm + gun + headset is $17,000 - 19,000 (yes, for each).
I don't mind the cost, as the guy who I am commissioning to build my arms has been amazing. He was going to build me look-alike modern arms using titanium. I saw some photos of these arms, and they are beautiful and very, very close to the screen used arms in appearance (most of you would not even realize it was different). However, there were subtle changes with the newer arms he builds. I asked him if he could somehow source the older, screen accurate pieces to build my arms...I wanted my Vasquez arm to be EXACTLY like the one in the movie so I could share the experience of walking around with my second favorite movie prop of all time...I wanted to experience what Jenette Goldstein did.
Well, FEAST YOUR EYES:
LOOK AT THAT WORK OF ART!
Here is a comparison shot (the top is Vasquez's arm and the bottom is mine):
NAILED IT!!!!!!!
The arm construction continues (he is still sourcing parts to complete it). Overall, parts have come from all over the world for this steadicam arm build...here in Pennsylvania, Utah, California, Brazil, Berlin amongst other places. Steadicam operators everywhere are donating/trading the specific pieces needed to make this arm exact to the movie's arm. As much as I love the overall prop and all of its components, I will ultimately be the proudest of the steadicam arm. I also realize that I am not the one building this steadicam arm (much like I am not restoring the Cadillac being used for my Ecto-1 build), but these projects are so complex and significant that there is really no way that I myself, nor anyone that is not an expert in the matter, could.
More photos to come soon!
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Too….Much….Awesome….
Ouch! my eyes…..
Great story too!
Ouch! my eyes…..
Great story too!
Bravo, sir. Bravo.
OH MY! you my friend are insane and I mean that in only best way. Absolutely amazing dedication and passion, I love it. Congratulations on a wonderful project.
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Thanks guys! Here's a photo I wanted to post in the last post:
Take a look at this photo:
Those circular discs are called trunnions. The one on the left in the photo is screen accurate. The one on the right is a newer version trunnion. Right now, only 4 of the original trunnions are needed to fully complete the arm. I know that a number of them did come from Brazil and a few just came in from Berlin as I eluded to earlier. I realize that most people won't even see these things in person, nor care probably, but again, I'm going for a homerun with this just like with the Ecto build.
Interestingly, I have also found the gentleman in the UK who currently owns the Vasquez arm. I've gotten some information from him, and he has stated that the arm had gold springs in it when he acquired it - there are 3 different colored springs used in steadicam arms, with gold springs being the most expensive as they support the most weight. I cannot confirm 100% that the Vasquez arm had gold springs during filming, but it did when this gentleman acquired it from the people that acquired it from the Aliens crew. Still, judging by the weight of the MG42 without the modifications, I think I need the gold springs, so that's what I have requested be placed in my arm (one of the reasons the arm is so damn expensive).
Take a look at this photo:
Those circular discs are called trunnions. The one on the left in the photo is screen accurate. The one on the right is a newer version trunnion. Right now, only 4 of the original trunnions are needed to fully complete the arm. I know that a number of them did come from Brazil and a few just came in from Berlin as I eluded to earlier. I realize that most people won't even see these things in person, nor care probably, but again, I'm going for a homerun with this just like with the Ecto build.
Interestingly, I have also found the gentleman in the UK who currently owns the Vasquez arm. I've gotten some information from him, and he has stated that the arm had gold springs in it when he acquired it - there are 3 different colored springs used in steadicam arms, with gold springs being the most expensive as they support the most weight. I cannot confirm 100% that the Vasquez arm had gold springs during filming, but it did when this gentleman acquired it from the people that acquired it from the Aliens crew. Still, judging by the weight of the MG42 without the modifications, I think I need the gold springs, so that's what I have requested be placed in my arm (one of the reasons the arm is so damn expensive).
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Solos blaster
Sr Member
Amazing man. I wish I had the funds to track down all these parts. Congrats!
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't say that I "have" the funds, especially not with the Ecto-1 build, but this is just something I've always wanted to have since I was a kid so it's got to be done!
Ultimate Badass
Well-Known Member
Those are tension springs...they come in 3 colors, gold being the most expensive (and what I need).
hairykrishna
New Member
This is going to be an amazing build. The smartgun has always been my favourite sci-fi weapon - you're a lucky guy to be building two! Not sure if you've already got a source for the second MG42 but there's a lovely looking deactivated one for sale here in the uk; http://www.dandbmilitaria.com/deactivated-mg42-machinegun-SN.-8934.html
