Super Mario Bros Devo Gun Build/Tutorial

[Howlrunner]

For some weird reason I just can't explain, I'm on a bit of a Super Mario Bros kick at the moment - I have a Goomba cast on the way, am trying (badly) to sculpt the good guy Goomba, am making a walking Bob-Omb and now, I want to make the de-evolution gun.



Thankfully, the Devo Gun is fairly straight forward (or at least it seems it is so far...). It started off life as one of these:


The Super Nintendo Super Scope 6 Light Gun

This build is inspired by the build done on the SMBmovie forum.

So, first things first, unclip and slide off the sight:



Next, unscrew all the screws holding the gun together. The two circled areas are NOT normal screws. Don't know quite what they are, but I had to resort to drilling them out as I couldn't find any tools to remove them:



Once that's done, cut or pull out all the electronics and wiring you don't need:


Make sure you leave the trigger button and switch circuit (circled in red) in place so that the trigger button has something to push against and spring it back into position.

Place the gun barrel sections back together:


The raised section circled in red (the LED housing), will need to be removed - I cut it off with a dremel cutting wheel and sanded it down smooth.




This hole will eventually need filled.

Next up will be extending the shoulder brace as seen here:




And extending the barrel (with another handle/grip) as seen here:



I have another Super Scope on the way which will provide donor parts.

[Howlrunner]

Use a piece of (scrap) wood cut to size and shape (I used my dremel) to extend the shoulder brace at an angle parallel to the handle:







This wood will be completely covered, so it doesn't matter that it looks horrible at the moment.

Now, anyone got any idea what has been used to cover the (wood) extension in the movie?



Looks like some kind of flexible ribbed rubber to me. Covering from a gearstick?

[Charles Kline]

The flexible/accordion stuff the goes on the adjustable back of office chairs.

as an example:


-Charles

[Howlrunner]

That stuff looks great and I've had a look, but unfortunately I've not been able to find any. I'm therefore going to have to just make a good-enough replica....

I found some ribbed plastic piping in my local DIY store. After cutting it to size and squeeeezing it, I managed to JUST get it to fit over the wooden extension:





Once glued in place and painted black ,the gaps won't be as noticeable.


Next I extended the sights using 25mm diameter PVC pipe which fits inside the existing scope piece perfectly. I added a cut-to-size adaptor to the end and cut a slit in the underside to allow the existing part of the sight to slip inside:





Now I'm just waiting for the 2nd Super Scope to arrive to extend the barrel.

[Chronos]

Very nice! I've got a soft spot for the Super Mario Bros. movie.

[KalashnikovKid]

For the plastic covering. Could try a gearstick gaiter from a car or the top of a shock absorber. Have a dig in your local scrapyard.

Hope this helps

Ta

[mikeymike]

Very cool stuff. Keep making these props, I'm enjoying reading about them all.

I can't say that I'm a huge fan of the film, but it did come out when I was a kid and a Nintendo head, so, of course, I went to go see it in theaters. I convinced myself to like the movie just enough to buy a Yoshi Slurpee and some of the action figures. Looking back, the credits were the highlight of the movie. Anyone remember Roxette's "Almost Unreal"? That was hype! Apparently the group was pissed that the track appeared in Super Mario Bros. - it was originally meant to be on the soundtrack to the Disney movie Hocus Pocus.

Now for your next project: a goomba costume to go with the 1:1 bust that's been floating around! That would look most excellent, complete, on a really tall mannequin.

To get you started, here's my pre-production prop from the movie - it's a goomba maquette (statue) used for designing the full-size costumes. See attached.

[Howlrunner]

I watched the auction for that maquette. Really wish I had bid now!

I don't have the space for a true 1:1 Goomba (they're 8 feet tall!), but I AM going to be making one from the chest up if I can get hold of the correct shirt fabric.

So far I'm here:


Glass eyes are on the way.....

[mikeymike]

Nice. Can't wait to see the final product.

[Howlrunner]

OK, the second Super Scope arrived this morning, so on with the build!

Using your second gun, unscrew everything as before until you're just left with the grey forward barrel (with handle) section. Carefully cut off the handle with the dremel:



Cut out some of the plastic inside the handle to get it to sit flush against the barrel and glue it back on to the barrel, 90 degrees from it's original position (so that it makes a right angle with the LED housing):



Then measure and cut off the excess at the back. Try to ensure a nice clean horizontal cut:



Now, go back to your first gun and use the dremel to cut off the front tip of the barrel (which is angled at about 45 degrees) so that you have a nice clean horizontal cut:



Still on the first gun, cut and glue in a section of pipe, leaving a bit sticking out the front - this will give extra strength when the 2nd gun piece is glued to the 1st:



Then glue the 2nd gun section to the first:



I have also added the orange tips from both guns (one upside down and backwards) to extend the barrel while keeping the 45 degree angle at the tip.

The red circled area will now need to be filled and sanded, along with another section on the top of the gun which can't be seen in this photo, and all the screw holes.

And if I can work out how to do it, the curved shoulder rest should be extended and enlarged to match the profile seen here:

[Trekkie313]

That stuff looks great and I've had a look, but unfortunately I've not been able to find any. I'm therefore going to have to just make a good-enough replica....

I found some ribbed plastic piping in my local DIY store. After cutting it to size and squeeeezing it, I managed to JUST get it to fit over the wooden extension:





Once glued in place and painted black ,the gaps won't be as noticeable.


Next I extended the sights using 25mm diameter PVC pipe which fits inside the existing scope piece perfectly. I added a cut-to-size adaptor to the end and cut a slit in the underside to allow the existing part of the sight to slip inside:





Now I'm just waiting for the 2nd Super Scope to arrive to extend the barrel.

This has to be one of the easiest prop builds ever, nice work! Also how much did they cost you and are you gonna paint it?

[Howlrunner]

You need to get hold of two of the Super Scope guns for this build - you will need all of one and about a third of the second.

I bought both from eBay - including P&P (the guns are large, so not the cheapest) I got the 1st for £11.59 and the 2nd for £9.20.

Once all the holes are filled and sanded, yes, I will be painting it to match the original prop.

[8 perf]

Soft spot for this movie here as well. Brings back memories of being on set. I saw this being made in the prop dept, but never got any pics of it. I was tied up making fungus all day. You did a great job of recreating it.

[Howlrunner]

Soft spot for this movie here as well. Brings back memories of being on set. I saw this being made in the prop dept, but never got any pics of it. I was tied up making fungus all day. You did a great job of recreating it.

You don't happen to know what the shoulder rest extension was actually covered with then do you?


As far as progress, I've filled about half of the holes/gaps, but am waiting for more filler at the moment....

[Howlrunner]

Nearly done......

Fill all screw holes and the parts where the two gun sections have been joined together, along with the areas where the handle and sight were cut off and repositioned.

I have also sanded down the raised ring that was left when the two orange barrel tip sections were glued together:



Then, PAINT!

Actually....... I have the gun finished up and painted, and it looks nice. BUT, I decided that the shoulder rest would just bug me if I didn't try to do it right.

So I'm going to set aside painted pictures until I get the new shoulder rest finished (I deliberately didn't glue this piece on yet as I thought I would probably want to change it).

So, next step, from looking at the reference screencaps I took, I set out the shoulder rest on a piece of paper and sketched out the extended shape it needed. After cutting it out, test fitting it and adjusting slightly, I used the paper section as a template to draw around onto 3-4mm styrene.

I repeated this, cut out the sections, hotglued them to the shoulder rest, cut out a long strip of styrene, bent it to shape and hotglued that on too. NOW it looks the right shape and nice and beefy:





Next up, MORE filler and sanding.....

[Howlrunner]

OK, filler added (Milliput) and sanded down:



And finally, painting...... After looking at all my reference caps, I decided that the main colour had to be a dark blue/grey, with gunmetal silver highlights. I spray painted the whole gun with Volvo Deep Blue Metallic from Halfords, and hand painted the silver sections:







My camera has completely died now, so no more nice pictures for quite a while.

Just need to add the carry strap and then it's TOTALLY finished.

[Charles Kline]

WOW!

Great work, I love how the shoulder rest turned out.

[Howlrunner]

Just bumping this thread as I FINALLY got round to fully finishing this piece - D-ring connectors and black webbing sling were added.

[Madcap]

Looks great! Now I want to hook a VCR up just to watch the movie.

[JMPesce]

That's Awesome!!! Do you think you can make a F.L.U.D.D. from SMS? :O

[8 perf]

Looks Good. Have you posted these pics over on the SMB forum? I am sure Ryan and company would like to see what their inspiration hath wrought.

[blufive]

I have never had a desire to see the movie but this build thread caught my eye.

Nice job! You've put a lot of love into this piece.

[MrSinistar]

"Take these two plumbers...to the DEVO Chamber"

Great build! I wonder if the NES Zapper was used in any props. LOL

[Snarkticon]

Very lovely build! And thanks for giving a step-by-step, Howlrunner. A friend and I are planning to do the Mario and Luigi costumes from the movie and this thread is a HUGE help.

[cyditron]

Now that is impressive. Seems simple enough to modify.