Fallout 4 Laser Musket (Pic Heavy)

Hello everyone! This is my first official thread here, although this is certainly not my first replica!

I'm currently working on the Laser Musket from Fallout 4. Specifically, I'm doing the "extended long barrel" variant seen in much of the promo art. All said and done, it will also include a lighted core and sounds!

I've already poured a month and a half's worth of weekends into this project, so I figure I'm at a pretty safe point to start posting pictures! Here's my progress so far:








Now, to try and keep the thread a little light I'm only posting some of my pictures for now, but I took plenty more, and am happy to share if anyone is interested in them!

Here's the slightly abbreviated description of the work I've done, too (Lifted straight from my tumblr post about it):

The “coil” section was made by making a single one of the blocks coming off of the center disk, then molding it and casting a set of twelve more. That way I had matching set with without having to make twelve individual pieces, same goes for the the square caps on top. They were then arrayed around a sintra disk.

The “claw” piece, as it turns out, is actually based off of an alternator rotor. I considered trying to find one, but ended up deciding to build my own, which gave me more control over the final design, and allowed me to make a mold. The claw is the only piece that has, and probably will be, 3d printed. It was designed and molded in CAD, and printed it on my Solidoodle.

After staring at the Musket, it occurred to me that the “extended barrel” mod was built off of the original musket’s iron barrel. The barrel is octagonal, which is a rare stock material to find, and meant I had to make my own. It was cut, very carefully, on a table saw from a piece of alder. The cast barrels have a piece of 1/4" pencil rod out the end to strengthen it and give it a better attachment point for the rest of the gun.

The front grip comes off of the laser rifle. It was made from a piece of alder, then layered with some semi-flexible urethane to build the second step up. The finger grips were made from a piece of styrene that I shaped and finished flat, then molded. They were cast with Siltool resin, and wrapped around the grip before the resin completely cured.

The stock is made from two stacked pine 1x6′s. It was shaped, then smoothed with bondo. The biggest challenge came in hollowing out the groove where the original musket bolt would have been. To try and conserve some silicone, I made a tight fitting wooden mold jacket. So far, the biggest I’ve made yet!

I cast the stock in a few stages, first by brushing a layer of siltool in both halves, then I placed a piece of 1/4″ pencil rod protruding from the front to give it a mounting point for the grip. I also placed a 2 pieces of 1/8″ pencil rod in the front to support it where it thins. The mold was closed and the the piece was filled solid to the back of the had grips. Then I poured the seam of the butt with a thin layer, leaving the center hollow.

And here's the point I'm at right now!



I plan on doing this thing in kit form, and have done molds of everything so far. That's been the most tedious part.

Well, I'm sure I've glossed over a good bit of my work to get to this point, so if anyone has any questions, please ask!

Looks good so far!
Do you have any good reference pictures of the finished product? I want to replicate a gun from the game as well, but am still deciding on which one specifically.
I was also thinking of doing the stock laser pistol, from either fallout4 or the slightly different design from fallout 3

Beautiful start.

I want to build one of my own eventually. I bookmarked this post where the builder applied a fake wood texture, you may want to check it out.

Excellent build so far. I'm really enjoying the pictures. You do clean work.

Ted.

Looks good! And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for filling and cleaning up your 3D printed parts! I can't stand people 3D printing stuff and just slapping paint on it! I'm going to try this after I build the laser rifle, since I can make the barrel part at the same time. It will be tricky to do, and that rotor part is the one giving me the most concern.

Thanks for feedback everyone!

Ascherr said:

Looks good so far!
Do you have any good reference pictures of the finished product? I want to replicate a gun from the game as well, but am still deciding on which one specifically.
I was also thinking of doing the stock laser pistol, from either fallout4 or the slightly different design from fallout 3

Click to expand...

I'm actually playing the PC version right now, so I can easily pull a ton of reference straight from the game. I actually took reference for the Laser Pistol and all its attachments for a friend, if you needed it.

zapwizard said:

Beautiful start.

I want to build one of my own eventually. I bookmarked this post where the builder applied a fake wood texture, you may want to check it out.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I definitely plan on doing aging down the stock and doing a wood texture to it. I figured it would be better to start with a clean stock and work back, then to back myself into a corner by adding the aging into the mold. Thanks for the link!

Prefect42 said:

Excellent build so far. I'm really enjoying the pictures. You do clean work.

Ted.

Click to expand...

Thanks, that means a lot!

Sluis Van Shipyards said:

Looks good! And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for filling and cleaning up your 3D printed parts! I can't stand people 3D printing stuff and just slapping paint on it! I'm going to try this after I build the laser rifle, since I can make the barrel part at the same time. It will be tricky to do, and that rotor part is the one giving me the most concern.

Click to expand...

YES! This is without a doubt my biggest pet peeve! I view 3d printers as another tool, not a machine that magically gives me final parts. I hate when people don't bother to finish a part and skip to the paint. It feels so cheap to me! I refuse to use bare printed parts in any of my final builds. But I digress.

A friend of my pointed out that the rotor comes from an alternator. If you plan on doing yours as a one off, you can probably pick up a real one on ebay. The ones I found that were close were around ~$50.


Anyway, I started working on the mounting bracket that supports the crank today, I plan on knocking it out over the weekend.

Props N at said:

Thanks for feedback everyone!



I'm actually playing the PC version right now, so I can easily pull a ton of reference straight from the game. I actually took reference for the Laser Pistol and all its attachments for a friend, if you needed it.

Click to expand...

That would be really helpful, as I currently don't have access to in-game models

This looks really good. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Question: Why are you casting the stock? The wood one looks pretty darn good, why not just use that?

Ascherr said:

That would be really helpful, as I currently don't have access to in-game models

Click to expand...

Just PM me whenever you want the files, and I can get them to you!

GhostMinion said:

This looks really good. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Question: Why are you casting the stock? The wood one looks pretty darn good, why not just use that?

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'm casting it for a few reasons. I wanted to make this in kit form so that I can do a run of it, so it was best to have a mold instead of trying to replicate the wood every time. Plus, since I started building the stock with the idea that I was molding it, I made it from pine. Its cheap and easy to work, but dents too easily. If I was planning on using real wood, I would have used a harder wood. And I've also never made a mold that size before, so part of me really just wanted the challenge!

Updates!

So, the body of this post is gonna be lifted straight from my Tumblr post, because that's a lot to retype!

Also, I try and keep this as short and sweet as I can, I got a lot more images, and leave out some of the finer details, but please feel free to ask me about something in particular! Either way, it's still a wall of text!






And one for size reference!

I’ve been working on this nearly non-stop since I made my first post, and I’ve gotten a lot done! Plus, I have a definite deadline now: Comic Con International! I managed to score a Sunday badge, so I’ll be bringing this thing along with me!
The first part I tackled was the bent bracket that supports the crank. I had been racking my brain on this one since I started the project, and ultimately settled on a relatively simple solution. I made my part as a flat piece, doing all of my finishing work and locating points, and molded it that way, as opposed to bending it first. I cast this part in Siltool, which is a casting urethane similar to the more common Smooth Cast, but has one major advantage: Siltool remains soft for a sort while after the resin has solidified. The resin is solid and can be handled, and I you’re careful, it can be de-molded and formed around an object. I build a specialty jig for the bracket to be formed around after the part has been de-molded, but before it has completely cured. Once fully cured, it becomes very rigid, and should be able to support the motion of the crank.
Next, came the mounting plates. There are a series of three plates that the rotors, coils and the clear chamber are mounted to. The first one, closes to the player, took a good bit of effort. There is a lot of detail in it, considering it is the part the player sees the most. It actually appears to be two plates together, with the top one notched out for another smaller piece. The two disks and the small grill piece were made of sintra, and my inset detail on top was cut from styrene. There are a few small detail parts that will get added later, but I left them out of the mold to make it easier to paint, since the plate is rusted and they are not.
The two other mounting plates where identical, but had different thicknesses. The middle is thinner, and has locating marks for the resistors that get placed around it. The thicker one has locating marks for some details on the front, as well as a guide hole for the laser barrel.
The laser barrel took some work simple in the matter of trying to keep it perfectly square and smooth. It worked out so that the top and bottom of my box could be 1/2″ sintra, and the side walls only had to be 1/4″. Doing that gave me the proper spacing for the reliefs on sides. I achieved the chamfered edge on the slopes by taping off the angle from the front edge to the point on the inside surface and filling it with bondo. Then cut my groves into the top edge on a mini table saw. The edges were hit with a roundover on the router. Lastly I added the detail screws, and spent a large about of time sanding this thing to get it incredibly smooth. I got the mold made over this weekend.
A few of the misc parts I have started are the crank lever and the handle. The lever was simple, and I got it molded this past weekend also, the handle is coming along pretty smoothly as well. I also began the trigger and started thinking about the gears.
That’s it for now! Expect more soon, again, I gotta have it done by SDCC, and that’s mere months away! As always, feel free to ask questions!

Back with some updates!




^ It's a gif! ^




The biggest thing I’ve done since last update is the trigger mechanism. I bent the trigger brackets out of sintra and cast them in siltool. The trigger itself is cut from sintra and has a hole on top to receive the spring. Similarly to the brackets, the hand guard is sintra wrapped around a form, and was then molded and cast in siltool. After assembling the trigger mech, I added a spring to it, but I need to go in and adjust the range of the trigger. It currently goes all the way down and touches the hand guard. When I’m done, it will also trigger the lights and sounds.
I’ve also done the front most lens and the focusing thingy behind it. The actual “lens” part was made using a sintra disk and a fine toothed gear to give it a bit of texture, and a smooth dome was used to make the lens. Since its the same front and back, I made a small mold of the part to save myself the work of doing it a second time. The body of the lens is a sintra disk, and was wrapped with a layer of sintra to give it more depth. I added another disk front and back to give the reliefs around the border. I bored a hole along the edge to get my cut away, and added some disks. A screw will eventually be added through it.
The focusing thing that sits behind it and in front of the other lenses is a set of stacked disks. To get the ridges, I simply drilled holes around the perimeter before cutting out the disk itself, then rounded over all the edges.
I also finished up some other parts, including molding the resistors and the rear sight mount.

I also just finished the core that sits withing the glass chamber today! I’ll get pictures of that up soon!

Thanks for looking!

The trigger looks great.

Sluis Van Shipyards said:

Looks good! And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for filling and cleaning up your 3D printed parts! I can't stand people 3D printing stuff and just slapping paint on it! I'm going to try this after I build the laser rifle, since I can make the barrel part at the same time. It will be tricky to do, and that rotor part is the one giving me the most concern.

Click to expand...

And even if you don't want to do filling, most people don't even seem to have the decency to sand the surfaces, but these look superb.

More updates!







Its so close!
I finally got around to making the core piece that’s inside the clear chamber. The shop I work in has a nice mini lathe that I’ve been dying to learn to use, so I asked my boss to teach me. The core was turned in a few pieces, for simplicity’s sake, out of a stick of delrin.
I also finished up the lens assembly last weekend. The housing for the set of two black lenses were made from a stick of delrin using my new found turning skills. The lenses themselves are made from siltool that was cast into a dome then turned to the right diameter.
I also got around to making some of the minor details, including the rear sight mount and a set of fins that run along the bottom of the laser barrel. The sight mount was a piece sintra that was wrapped around a pair of 1/4″ rods and folded back on itself. The “fins” for the laser rifle are just cut from a sheet of 1/32″ sintra.
The last major part I’ve been working on is the muzzle to the laser rifle. It’s easily the most detailed part of the whole project, and why I’ve put it off until last! I only seriously started it yesterday, and have made some real progress.
I also built a small mounting block (not pictured) the helps to properly attach the rear mounting plate (where the crank and everything mount), to the stock. Before this, the mounting plate bolted awkwardly to the stock because of the way the bolt hit a relief in the plate. This little block brings it all the same level and prevents the plate from spinning.
Because of that, I’ve been able to start truly mocking up the gun. I finally attached the bracket for the crank to the gun, and and got the crank and gears assembled. All I need to do for that is figure out the reverse turning on the one main capacitor rotor thingy.

Well, I plan on having the model done by the end of the month, so look out for updates!

The mechanism looks like it works. Nice job.

Thanks! I just got to get the rear set of coils to spin in reverse! I've started planning out my gears tonight.

Wow, looks amazing man! Looking forward to more updates.

Almost done!


Here's the kit, minus the hardware!





All the parts have been made, and final assembly has begun.
The last major part to be finished was the laser muzzle. The bulk of the muzzle was made using sintra blocks layered based on the divides in the muzzle. The most tedious section was easily the “fins”, which were styrene.
I finished a few detail parts, including the clips that hold the yellow tubing in place, a reducer for the tubes, and a few “terminals” that get bolted onto the mounting plates. The rear sight was made from a stick of 1/8″ brass bent around a form, and the slide was two brass tubes spanned with a strip of styrene, then molded. I also finally parted the clear acrylic chamber.
I also had to do a recasting of the stock, because there was too much flex happening on it with all of the weight of the parts on it. It was causing parts to misalign and I was worried it would break. I welded up a super sturdy “T” armature for inside the new casting. The downside is there is more weight, the upside is it is impossible to flex.
I’m currently working on assembling the gun. There are some holes that needed to be drilled, and all the seams and flashing needed to be sanded off. I also had to run the wiring for the electronics down the stock. That required trenching out a path down the center of the stock gluing wires and bondoing over the path. The electronics will be hidden inside the laser barrel.
The work will be done this weekend, and leaving only the paint and final assembly!
Expect to see the final product soon!

Wow, all those parts look perfect. Even the faux resistors. I couldn't do it this way, I would spend hours trying to find the perfect off-the-shelf bracket instead of just building it.

Is that little button on the grip the hold for on button?

Believe me, I spent a few days looking for the right resistor before giving up and making my own.

Its actually the button that does the lights and sounds when the crank is turned. I originally wanted to have it all work through the crank, but there wasn't a good, reliable way to have it trigger every time. So, I decided to cheat it and put the button where my finger lands so that I can press the button as I turn the crank. It's good to because now I can quickly turn my lights on without having to crank the thing.