Anders Pedersen / Tip Top Workshop PKD blaster build

wayouteast

Sr Member
I've finally completed my long in-progress build of the excellent Tip Top Workshop kit of Anders Pedersen's wonderful PKD blaster. Thanks to his generosity, the original STL files are available free on Thingiverse. Tip Top Workshop have worked with Anders to produce a pre-printed resin kit of all the parts, including a few that are only available through them. The kit comes in two options - just the resin parts, or with a 'hardware pack' containing all the screws, bolts and other fixings required to assemble the kit. There's also an add-on pack of some of the parts cast in metal. Tip Top also supply a pair of beautifully cast clear amber resin grips, which was a real incentive for me to splash out on the kit rather than print the parts myself.

I purchased the 'resin-only' kit (no hardware, since I already had some of what was required). I also bought the metal-cast upgraded parts - triggers, hammer, cylinder arm and pin(s), bushing (which is lathed from aluminium) switches, sight, weaver knob and binding post.

Having bought from Tip Top before, including their Hellboy Samaritan, I knew the quality would be really high, and I wasn't disappointed. The parts are beautifully printed/cast, and require only the necessary minimal sanding and filing that any well-printed/cast kit requires to lose any fine layer lines, flash or printing artefacts that remain.

Ander's kit has some great functionality - the triggers are 'pullable' (although not connected to anyhting mechanically). The cylinder spins and can be swung out to load the supplied bullets. And the bolt action works too. The tolerances on the well-designed parts are deliberately really fine, so at the sanding stage, there's some fettling to do to ensure the moveable parts will still operate smoothly once there's added thickness from the priming and painting. had to judge the final fit and make the raw parts just a little bit 'looser'. The fit of all the parts, though - metal and resin - is absolutely spot on.

I laid all the parts out, along with their respective hardware bits, before drilling and tapping all the necessary holes and doing a couple of dry fits between sanding/filing sessions with increasingly finer abrasive pads. At this stage, as suggested, I also added an M10 threaded steel rod to the barrel and an M8 rod to each of the individual bullets (which are designed with exactly this in mind). This adds a nice bit of weight to the gun.

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(yes, I know I fitted the sight the wrong way round in the above photos :lol:)

I was happy with the fit. There were a couple of extra things to do before moving on to the priming and painting stage, though. I wanted to add a hammer spring, since that can clearly be seen through the grips on the original gun. Tip Top provide a metal hammer and also a small domed part that fits into a depression in the bottom of the hammer. So JB Welding this to a short length of steel rod and adding a compression spring gave me something that will be close enough when viewed through the grips.

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The kit comes with a metal weaver knob, as seen on the gun nowadays. I wanted to have the slotted screw that's seen in the same place in the movie. But I wanted to retain the option of swapping this out with the weaver knob in the future if the fancy took me. The supplied weaver knob has an M3 thread. The closest slightly domed slotted screw I could find in the UK (a fillister head screw) had a much larger shaft. So I removed that, drilled out a socket in the back of the head and JB Welded an M3 bolt in there. Now I can easily uncrew the slotted and replace it with the weaver knob if I want.

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At this point I also assembled the metal cylinder arm/sleeve/pin with the internal spring and JB Welded the sleeve to the arm so that the whole thing was one functional piece. I also JB Welded the metal cylinder switch arm to the back of the cylinder switch. The parts were all going to be painted separately, since the replica is assembled very like the actual gun, so with that the parts were all ready for a final inspection, rub down with fine steel wool, polishing and priming...

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I used Hycote standard grey acrylic primer for all the parts (including the hardware for the receiver since I wanted that to be a darker steel than the standard stainless steel of the bolts and screws).

I did three light coats of primer, wet sanding between each one with finer and finer Micro Mesh pads. After the final coat the parts were given a polish with a lint free cloth and then left to cure for a couple of days. Note the extremely professional painting/drying set up I have in my 'shop' (upstairs room)! :lol:

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Once all the parts were fully cured they were ready for paint. I had decided on Alclad II metallic laquers for the final finish. I knew I wnanted this gun to be fairly pristine, as it would have been on set, so the finish needed to be as perfect as I could make it. After much experimenting with different metallics in the past, and several horrible disasters along the way, Alclad are paints I've had success with before and they're a known quantity for me now, and I'm fairly confident in them. The colours I'd decided on were: 'Steel' for the receiver and bolt lever and the switch on the receiver side; 'Stainless Steel' for the Bulldog frame, cylinder, cylinder pin switch, weaver knob, inner grip frame, barrel, triggers, hammer, trigger guard and other parts; and 'Polished Aluminum' for the bolt itself and the butt plate. The shells would be 'Polished Brass' and 'Copper'. There's also a tiny brass accent on the left front magazine cover. The magazine and magazine cover would be satin black. And the rear covers would be gloss black. The outer grip frame, as far as can tell from photos, is matte black on the flat surfaces and gloss black on its back and front edges (of course with the signature wear at the bottom from the grinding of the butt plate.

The Polished Aluminum, Polished Brass and Stainless Steel need to have a gloss black basecoat. And the Steel and Copper need a matte or satin basecoat. So all the parts were basecoated in either gloss or satin black, depending on their final finish, again using Hycote rattlecans. Painting went well, with only a couple of minor runs to deal with (easily, with a quick wet sand and recoat) and I was really happy with the results.

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The edges of the amber grips were wet sanded to give a nice flush edge, polished and then given a couple of coats of Rustoleum Crystal Clear.

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Again, once touch dry, the parts were all set aside to cure for a couple of days before starting assembly - the bit I was most looking forward to!
 
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I forgot one stage in the 'painting' process in my last post. After the metallic parts were cured I rubbed graphite powder into them all using a soft, lint-free cloth. In all probably three rubs and polishes with the graphite powder gave them a really nice - and surprisingly robust - finish. If you polish really well you don't really need any protective top coat, and the parts can be handled without any graphite coming off onto your hands.

The graphite powder also come in handy later, too!

Anyway, on to the assembly!

Anders provides a really useful clear illustrated guide to assembling the gun with the files/parts, and I followed that.

First the triggers are attached to the Bulldog frame with 2mm pins, along with the respective small springs that make them 'pullable'. Then the hammer and hammer spring are inserted into the inner Bulldog grip and the grip itself attached to the frame, again with short 3mm pins. The cylinder pin switch is inserted and screwed into place, loosely enough to allow it to move back and forth.

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The cylinder is then assembled onto its already assembled swing arm. This pivots around a long bolt that secures the front of the trigger guard, so that is attached at this point. I double checked the functioning of the cylinder both empty and loaded. Any slight catching was alleviated with the application of a small amount of graphite powder to the points were the parts were rubbing. After this they moved freely, and the cylinder both spun and swung really nicely. I was relieved that the cylinder pin switch worked really well too!

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Next up is to bolt the outer grip to the inner grip, and then attach the barrel to the frame. This is where it really starts to look like the proper gun!

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The receiver goes on next, after that weird cylindrical thing at its front end is inserted, and is then bolted to the barrel at the front on each side. The rear of the receiver will be secured at a later stage when the cylinder cover goes on. I also added the three grub crews and larger button head on the top of the receiver at this point, along with the switch on the right side. Once the receiver is in place, the bolt is inserted and the rear receiver cap pushed into the receiver itself and screwed loosely to the bolt so that it can still rotate. This was another point where judicious application of graphite powder onto the surfaces that pass over each other really helped the mechanics operate smoothly and well.

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The right cover is then bolted in place. This also secures the back of the receiver. The slotted screw and binding post are attached. On the other side, the sight is glued and screwed (belt and braces - the screws are very tiny!) to the cylinder cover and two white wires (if you decide you want them) are attached to its inner side. I had decided that I wasn't going to have working green LEDs in the sight - the original gun never shows them working, and without the proper means to do it it would have been very complicated for me to have drilled out the length of the metal sight to accommodate the necessary wires. I did still want the white wires though. The other ends were just tucked in fromt of the trigger guard as if they were going into the magazine housing. Once the cover was bolted to the cylinder arm I re-checked the functioning of the cylinder. All was well, thankfully!

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I added the supplied magnets to the magazine housing and to the magazine itself and fitted it in place. The gun is really looking good now, so I'll end this post, since there's some electronics to be done before the assembly continues in the next!

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I stupidly didn't take any 'in progress' photos of my ham-fisted wiring and soldering in the small confines of the magazine! Probably just as well. There was a lot of swearing. I did need to slightly Dremel out the inner part of the switch housing to get the switch I was using to protrude enough. It was easy enough to do but I had to go carefully as the space is very small and I didn't want to mess up the switch opening itself.

Anyway, the five LEDs and the switch and the battery were all eventually wired into place. I used the wiring layout suggested in Anders's instructions, which is a simple series circuit. The only change I made was to use a battery holder... just for ease of changing the battery eventually. I also added a 270 ohm resister between the battery and the switch, just to dim the LEDs a little as they were very bright at full power.

Once it was all working safely I fixed everything in place with hot glue, which has the added advantage of strengthening and insulating all the joints. Yes, I could have used heatshrink tubing, but I had run out, and ... reasons. Enjoy this photograph of the horrendously messy result which looks like a spider has indulged its most cherished halloween desires in there! It all works... that's the important thing.

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Electronics done, all that remained was to attach the grips and the butt plate. I used slightly longer M3 bolts for the butt plate than those suggested (16mm rather than 12mm) just for added security.

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And Deckard's blaster was complete! I'm really happy with how this ended up. I know it doesn't have all the functionality of a Tomenesuke or one of the other high end replicas. But the bolt action works, the cylinder works... it looks amazing, it's (as far as I can tell) really accurate... for a resin kit, I think it's absolutely fantastic! I think Anders Pedersen has done an incredible job and I'm filled with admiration at his skills and commitment.

I'd like to thank Anders, and also Tip Top Workshop for turning Anders's files into such a brilliant kit. I'm completely thrilled at what it enabled me to achieve. The kit is available here - Anders's Blade Runner Blaster 3D Resin Printed DIY Kit.

I have one of the old water guns that I converted a while ago into something that looks a bit like the 'worldcon' blaster. But this is a whole next level, and it's pretty much the blaster I've always wanted!

Here it is alongside my water gun conversion and an old solid resin casting that I painted up to look like one of the 'standard police issues'. I'll post some 'beauty shots in a following thread. Thanks again to Anders and Tip Top... and thanks to anyone who's read this far! :D

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Truly stunning execution! Many thanks for your detailed building and painting notes, and also for your excellent photographs. Absolute perfection.
 
That's what I call a detailed tuto + build + great paint job=great result.(y)(y):cool::cool: My only critique is that the slotted screw should be painted black (but that's just my two cents;))
 
That's what I call a detailed tuto + build + great paint job=great result.(y)(y):cool::cool: My only critique is that the slotted screw should be painted black (but that's just my two cents;))
****! I've just double checked the photos of the 'as delivered to the set' gun and you're right! The slotted screw, and all parts of the binding post, and all the bolts on the covers are all black, and I've never noticed! Extraordinary how easy it is to see what you expect to see! :oops:

Hmmm. I'm in a quandary now... do I repaint them? I'm not 100% sure I like the all black look, even though it's more accurate. I shall sleep on it perhaps!

Thanks for the heads up! :)
 
Its perfect as is but.. instead of painting the slotted screw black you could do a transparent smoke wash over it to darken it so it still has a metal look like 'blued' steel but doesn't blend completely into the black cylinder cover so much
 
Thank you for posting this up, I've got all the parts printed, along with the TT hardware kit and grips just need to get motivated, this will help!
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone! My eventual decision for the slotted screw was similar to David3's suggestion above. I painted it gloss black and then slightly 'metalised' it with a couple of graphite powder rubs. This also very slight lightened it, so that it looks black, but stands out against the true black of the cover behind it. I did the same for the end of the binding post, too, as well as the screws on the black sections. I think it works, and it's certainly more accurate at any rate.

Thought I'd take a photo with its younger sibling, too! :cry:

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Great execution wayouteast (y)

Got a self printed version of this on the go myself, shall have to try your trick with the graphite on the receiver and see how close I can get to your superb finish.
 

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