Another Fullcock Takagi PKD Blaster upgrade

[Bondo Fett]

Hi gang, here is another thread showing the upgrade of the Takagi water pistol blaster. My goal is to just address a few of the most glaring- to me- issues with the blaster and paint it up nicely. I'm hoping to not get too focused on proportions and dimensions and just build it out of the box. For my purposes the stock water pistol is pretty decent as it is. The orange grips were not even glued on and they came off without any damage.

For this build I'm planning to fill the handle with a reasonable facsimile of the Charter Arms pistol grip guts. Again, not going for total accuracy- I don't want to work that hard.
It took a lot of careful work with a Dremel and Xacto knife to get the plastic sides off the pistol grip frame. I also driled out the barrel so I could get into the interior. In the process I seem to have caused quite a few fractures throughout the body of the blaster. The plastic itself seems pretty fragile, although I'm sure it is polystyrene. So I brushed Tamiya Extra Thin cement over all the cracks and poured a little epoxy into the body to firm up the whole thing.

I made the handle frame out of 1/2" MDF and 1/4" MDF. I got them as close as possible and bonded them into the plastic frame with epoxy.

The plastic grip frame is just about 1/2" so the piece fit in with no trouble. Quick brush coat of primer to check the look. Good for a start.

 

[joberg]

Looking spiffy so far...eager to see your next update and transfo

 

[Bondo Fett]

So, one of the modifications I want to make is to fix up the tubular gizmo above the cylinder on the left side (gun sight? Laser tracker? The part with the two green LEDs). It is kinda crudely cast and doesn't stand away from the body in a very realistic way. I figured I would keep the center section with the two shallow flutes intact and add some sections of dowel rod on the ends. Unfortunately by pouring epoxy resin into the body I got ahead of myself and filled in the whole inside of that area, making my plan much more difficult. Luckily one of my coworkers has a ten inch 1/8" drill bit and I was able to carefully ream out a channel through the epoxy puddle. It's a little hard to describe, but I think the pictures show it:

 

[Bondo Fett]

Haven't conquered the gun site issue yet but in the meantime I am casting up new pistol grips. I toyed with the idea of filling the stock grips with amber-tinted resin, but I decided agains it for the risk. So I pulled a quick mold of the grips and now I can try playing with some encapsulating epoxy without risking my original grips. I know a member (or two?) have done this already and are offering castings for sale but I wanted to do all this myself, and besides, I make molds for a living so it was no big thing for me to whip up.

I packed the hollow grips with clay so they wouldn't float (or leak and fill up with rubber). The rubber is Polytek 74-40 urethane. It is extremely user-friendly and easy to work with- 1:1 by weight or volume, and is very tough and stable. It does not need de-gassing and gets super fine detail. But unlike silicone it must be released before you cast anything into it. Otherwise the stuff makes incredible glue. Mann 200 or 300 works great with it.

When I get back from vacation I'll de-mold it.

 

[joberg]

Yep, it shows that you know your mold making stuff Impatient to see the result of the de-molding!

 

[Bondo Fett]

And here is the mold. Pretty pleased with it, a few super tiny bubbles, but I can live with that.

And here is the resin- some encapsulating epoxy with a bunch of amber polyester-and-epoxy dye. The shop is pretty cold right now so I won't be de-molding these for a few days. Really happy with the way all the bubbles floated up.

I left the meniscus a little high 'cause I thought I would be having to sand a bubble-filled surface down flat, but all the bubbles rose up and popped like it was a carbonated beverage. Well, I've never used the stuff before. Back in a few days.

 

[joberg]

Beautiful molds and great amber color...eager to see their births

 

[Bondo Fett]

Here we go-

I'm satisfied with the results. Just a few tiny nubs I can pick off with a knife. The epoxy must have shrunk just enough that now the backs are nice and flat and I doubt I'll have to sand them at all. They were a little rubbery for a while ( a result of pouring when the temp is below 70), but I post-cured them on my heat vent for an afternoon and now they are nice and hard. There are many extremely small bubbles uniformly throughout the castings (another consequence of pouring when the temp is below 70), but they are so hard to see I might let it ride. Also, might change my mind after I polish the surface a little bit.
I have enough resin in the kit to make another pair, I might do it just for yucks. Or for safety. I have no idea how well this stuff drills.

 

[joberg]

They look great from where I stand

 

[Bondo Fett]

They look great from where I stand

Exactly. Might not pass the 6" test but I think I'm OK with that. BTW, thanks for your kind comments!

 

[Bondo Fett]

Some progress with the pistol grips: I picked the bubble boogers out of the diamond texture and rubbed the parts with some Meguiar's Mirror Glaze 105. Drilled out and counter bored the cast bolts for some 4-40 stainless cap bolts. Very happy with the results in spite of the zillions of micro bubbles in the resin. What looks like residue in the diamond texture are actually scratches from my Xacto that will probably be covered by some weathering later.

 

[joberg]

I like `em

 

[Bondo Fett]

Ground out the as-cast posts on the body to make room for new pieces. Now I have to figure out how to back-fill this hole when I can't really get inside this thing.

 

[Bondo Fett]

And a little more work:

 

[joberg]

Attach a small thread to a piece of plastic a little bigger than the hole, place the piece through it and pull on the thread when the piece is inside the gun; apply crazy-glue (or other) to secure it...cut the thread. Fill it with Bondo, or your fav. filler

 

[Bondo Fett]

Attach a small thread to a piece of plastic a little bigger than the hole, place the piece through it and pull on the thread when the piece is inside the gun; apply crazy-glue (or other) to secure it...cut the thread. Fill it with Bondo, or your fav. filler

That is a great solution, thanks. I had been imagining myself mashing some putty in there and hoping to prop it up with a pencil or something fed through the open barrel. That would have been a three-hander.

 

[joberg]

That is a great solution, thanks. I had been imagining myself mashing some putty in there and hoping to prop it up with a pencil or something fed through the open barrel. That would have been a three-hander.

Thanks, I forgot to tell you that the thread is situated in the middle of the plastic piece. So, a little hole in the piece, pass the thread through, knot the end...and voilà!

 

[Bondo Fett]

Thanks, I forgot to tell you that the thread is situated in the middle of the plastic piece. So, a little hole in the piece, pass the thread through, knot the end...and voilà!

"Check, got it!" (In the style of Sgt. Apone)

 

[Bondo Fett]

Results: using Aves Apoxy Clay to fill in the big gap, then polyester glazing putty (I promise to post the brand later) to do the surfacing.

Haven't done any sanding yet.

 

[Bondo Fett]

BTW- I love using a cabinet scraper to get into the tight inside corners. Somehow it works better than an Exacto knife. Just a big piece of spring steel, and if you keep it sharp on a flat file it works like the dickens.