Bryar Pistol: My Final Design

As some of you may have seen, I have for some time been working on making a replica of the Bryar Pistol prop used in the live action cutscenes from LucasArts' Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2 game.

I have now finalised the design (at least for now :rolleyes)and have been in contact with Futurescape3D about having it 3D printed in stainless steel which is now going ahead so I thought I'd show it off here as it will probably be some time before I source and install the electronics even after I receive the final print:



I scoured the web unsuccessfully for reference pictures of the original prop or any real information about it and eventually came to the conclusion that the image from the back of the Dark Horse comic was as close as I was going to get. I couldn't work out if it was a photo or a drawn image but comparing it frame by frame with every shot of the super low res cutscenes I extracted from the game all the features I could see matched up. I also found various images of the toy pistol that came with a Kyle Katarn figure and details on that seemed to match up to both also.





I managed to get in contact with the original prop designer to see if he remembered any found parts he used in the build or if he had any photos of it. He was very nice and told me it was completely scratchbuilt based on one piece of artwork he was given, handed it over to LucasArts and never saw it again. Also he had no photos of it but said it looked like the reference I had from the back of the Dark Horse comic from what he could remember, it being 20 years since he'd done it.

I also took inspiration from details on the Dark Forces gun (the speaker holes looking part in particular was helpful ) and all the various existing builds I could find.

It is fully electronics ready and I plan to use one of Erv's Blaster Core boards, if I can ever get hold of one, along with probably a triple red Cree XPE2 and maybe a laser pointer through the central hole, running off two 18650 batteries in the grip section. I will probably keep the feature set fairly simple as the gun didn't have an alternate fire in that game (and the Blaster Core doesn't have a charged shot feature anyway) likely without greebly LEDs (there weren't any on the game weapon and I couldn't find an aesthetically pleasing location to add them either) or laser propagation LEDs (too much trouble to leave enough of a gap between the front 'grip' section and the ribbed part I am calling the 'heat sink' on the top) unless the material ends up being in any way translucent with bright LEDs inside.

I may have a removable clip with a contact switch or I may put some kind of LED on the back of said clip (there is some vague detail on the game texture labeled "brypclbk-0"). If I find some kind of multi-LED circular sectioned ring thing I could use it as an ammo counter or maybe just have a power indicator there but I expect I'll just finish the blaster without either.

If you guys have any suggestions, comments, ideas or tips on assembling blasters or the electronics within I'd love to hear from you

Very cool! I have this planned for one of my next projects and planned to use that same pic from the book cover. It will be interesting to see what it looks like because I've never seen anything 3D printed in metal.

Minor update for anyone interested in this project:

I was planning out how to utilise the ray propagation effect on the blaster core board and thought if I had the part I think of as a 'heat sink' printed with thin walls and in plastic instead of stainless steel I might be able to have some LEDs inside shining through and producing something like this effect:



But then I discovered you can 3d print in copper which is kind of what I assume the 'heat sink' part would be made of in real life if it were acting as one and that it looks brown in the games because its old and tarnished, just like this 3d print:



So I'm going with that instead of an effect that isn't really necessary and I'm not even sure would work, especially after the part was painted and weathered. I will definitely want a fairly weathered look to this prop as Kyle Katarn has obviously had it a while, having received it from his father when he went to the Imperial Academy and he then became an officer, defected to the Rebellion etc.

This is my favorite representation of this blaster. It been a shame that it has gone neglected for so long. Good luck.

Real nice!

But if you build it in stainless steel, then you wouldn't be able to have it blued?
Is the disc under the barrel supposed to be a circle? It does not look like it is perfectly circular in your bottom right reference image.

Thanks for the comments guys

I hadn't thought about the stainless part making it unblueable... Hmm, maybe it will just take longer for the blueing to take? It being uneven won't bother me, I did some research and Kyle has had the pistol for 12 years at the time of JK: DF2 so I'd imagine its pretty heavily used...

I see what you mean about the disc, it also looks a little thicker than mine there... I've messed around with some more shapes and I can't seem to get it to match what we see there, I'm wondering if its just a little compressed? I don't think its a sharp corner or anything, that's the lighting in that particular shot, i'll upload some more

Ok I found another shot of it straight on and further away without the effects of perspective:



I think its maybe slightly smaller than mine or it might just be the positioning of the bolts, which are off in my design I reckon, but still circular...

I traced from that front view and remodeled the barrel end, I'd guessed most of the dimensions pretty accurately but some things were a couple mm off, corrected now



[UPDATE]

Well as soon as I finished the newer version I heard from Futurescape3D that the printing had started, so I guess I'll be going with the original model Not a big deal, the changes were minimal and mostly 1 or 2mm. Exciting that the printing is progressing, I have a couple of progress pictures, the unpolished grip sections and an in progress shot of the barrel end:

More printing progress pics including the grips 3d printed in wood

This is brilliant! You've done an excellent job with modeling this blaster. I agree with MJF - the Dark Forces 2 blaster is is my favorite version of the Bryar pistol and it's wonderful to see someone tackle it after all this time!
Do you have any plans to make the files available for those of us who can print at home? Pretty please? There is one already on Thingiverse, but it's the less interesting JKII version.

Few more progress pics:



Thanks I'm pretty pleased with the model myself. I was vaguely thinking about making some casts if there was enough interest...

tomleech said:

Minor update for anyone interested in this project:

I was planning out how to utilise the ray propagation effect on the blaster core board and thought if I had the part I think of as a 'heat sink' printed with thin walls and in plastic instead of stainless steel I might be able to have some LEDs inside shining through and producing something like this effect:

http://i493.photobucket.com/albums/rr291/omgleechtom/index.gif

But then I discovered you can 3d print in copper which is kind of what I assume the 'heat sink' part would be made of in real life if it were acting as one and that it looks brown in the games because its old and tarnished, just like this 3d print:

http://learn.colorfabb.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/copperFill_web-20-580x387.jpg

So I'm going with that instead of an effect that isn't really necessary and I'm not even sure would work, especially after the part was painted and weathered. I will definitely want a fairly weathered look to this prop as Kyle Katarn has obviously had it a while, having received it from his father when he went to the Imperial Academy and he then became an officer, defected to the Rebellion etc.

Click to expand...

It's possible that it's stained wood, just like the grip inlays, similar to the stock of a rifle (though of course wooden rifle stocks don't usually cover the top of the barrel). Just a thought. *shrugs* Regardless, it looks great so far.

ARKM said:

It's possible that it's stained wood, just like the grip inlays, similar to the stock of a rifle (though of course wooden rifle stocks don't usually cover the top of the barrel). Just a thought. *shrugs* Regardless, it looks great so far.

Click to expand...

Probably not for the reasons you stated about the position. Now if the barrel and grip were flipped as he did in those pictures above, then I would say it was possible.

And also, the grips are not inlayed, that are simply positioned on the surface. IMHO, it would have done it (if I was not totally ignorant of any prop building skills :wacko) as an inlay. I think it would look better visually and I also believe that it would be a better match for the back cover artwork posted above.

Still awesome though.

Mara Jade's Father said:

Probably not for the reasons you stated about the position. Now if the barrel and grip were flipped as he did in those pictures above, then I would say it was possible.

And also, the grips are not inlayed, that are simply positioned on the surface. IMHO, it would have done it (if I was not totally ignorant of any prop building skills :wacko) as an inlay. I think it would look better visually and I also believe that it would be a better match for the back cover artwork posted above.

Still awesome though.

Click to expand...

The grips being inlay rather than on the surface was my longtime impression from the artwork, but there are two reference screenshots below where I'm not so sure:



The two where the bryar is pointed to the left of the camera seem to show a raised edge on the grip.

Don't disagree that they are more attractive inlaid though, but if reference shows otherwise so be it

E Williams said:

The grips being inlay rather than on the surface was my longtime impression from the artwork, but there are two reference screenshots below where I'm not so sure:

http://i1353.photobucket.com/albums/q672/tomwleech/bryar reference_zpsyjprqstw.jpg

The two where the bryar is pointed to the left of the camera seem to show a raised edge on the grip.

Don't disagree that they are more attractive inlaid though, but if reference shows otherwise so be it

Click to expand...

Agreed.. However you could still inlay them and have them thick enough to be raised above. Visually no difference but construction wise it would ensure proper placement and stability. Not that it looks like he is having any construction issues.

Does anyone think that this blaster looks incredibly similar to the one Rey is using in the new TFA trailer?

Yeah I considered that the 'heat sink' might have been made from a shotgun pump or something, especially when I thought the prop was made from a real gun of some kind as shotguns have a more angled grip like that and it would made sense to reuse it. In-universe though there's no reason to think it'd be made of wood and in thinking about what it was, why it was there, what function did it have, I reckoned the shape and placement suggested some kind of heat sink. I'm really glad I chose to go with copper, I think it looks really good and fits with the whole aesthetic, plus it has a 'functional' reason to be there that makes sense to me. If the prop ever surfaces I'm sure it wont be made of copper but that definitely won't be the only thing wrong with my version :lol

The wood grips are actually designed with a smaller raised area on the 'back' that seats into the grip for placement and stability like MJF suggests You can kind of see it on the exploded transparent diagram in the first post.

In other news I managed to source a Plecter Labs Blaster Core v3 and all the other electronics are on the way, although I still need to decide on the LED. Obviously it'll be red and I'm thinking I'll use a tri cree xpe2 so I can potentially have a laser pointer through the center hole, but I have to decide if I want all three in deep red, have one yellow or what. It seems pretty excessive brightness-wise to have all three dies of a tri cree for the main blast, not to mention potentially too bright to point it at someone so I'm still thinking about that. I could also have an RGB LED in there to have different colours for different sound fonts but I don't particularly care about that...

Just want to mention that his gun was a cut down carbine/rifle.

Yeah I thought exactly that, Rey's blaster has a longer barrel:



but as Lichtbringer says Katarn's pistol was a cut down rifle so maybe we're seeing a new canon Bryar pistol here, either way when they release a toy of it we'll have a good base for making Bryar pistols :lol

WOW!!! I must have missed that on the Rey figure... thank you for the pic, I thought it looked kind of similar - what a cool easter egg if this was an intentional design inclusion.