Blade Runner "Inspired" Blaster (Scratch Built): PKD-13

[zenx13]

Greetings everyone!

I am new to the RPF Forum and wanted to share my Blade Runner Inspired Blaster project to date. I have been working on it (on and off) for about 4 months but some of the items I collected for the build go back a number of years.

I was not sure if I had the right skills yet to build a matching replica so I started with this “inspired by” version first. I hope the deviation doesn't upset anyone - I was hoping to use this as a vehicle to learn and add an interesting item that would hopefully fit into the Blade Runner Universe.

My main area of work is in Terrain Building and dioramas and the material I work with most often is XPS Foam (highly compressed pink insulation) so you are about to see a lot of pink!

I will post photos and some description of the stages I am at so far.

Cheers!
Sean

 

[zenx13]

Here is the beginning of the build. Using a number of found pieces: plastic tube, pen cap, printer cartridge cover and a spray bottle top. There is also a bit of wooden doweling and some conduit pipe. The rest of the prop was constructed out of hand cut XPS foam - all held together with masking tape and wishes! The handle grips were quick mock-ups for sizing.

It was a good start - I felt the overall look (longer than a traditional PKD) still had a good Blade Runner feel and was ok to proceed.

 

[zenx13]

The next phase was to hand sculpt the side and bottom pieces. I wanted to include LED lighting so the left side needed a removable plate to access a battery pack (plate is displayed but not the side piece). I was really happy with the sculpting on these pieces and felt a future "accurate" build might be possible.

 

[zenx13]

Some electrical work for the 5 LED lights. I made a housing for the 3 stacked watch batteries and all tied to one switch (to be mounted on the right front panel.

 

[zenx13]

Now that everything was fitting into place and I was pleased with the overall look I created a wooden insert to replace the foam one as the main gun inner blank. This was required for rigidity and to house the upcoming trigger mechanism and aluminum mounting plates.

 

[zenx13]

Next was the work on the triggers - here are the three steps from cardstock template to rough cut aluminum to the final version (2 were made).

 

[joberg]

Alright...interesting design with found pieces. What kind of finish do you envision for the pink foam? Bondo or something else?
I'm sure that you know that your grip is a bit too big for your hand, so I guess (since it's a mock-up) you'll transform it in the future.
I'm eager to see how you're going to go about painting and finishing the prop

 

[joberg]

Ooops, didn't know that your next update was going while I was writing my comment. O.k. aluminium! Good choice

 

[zenx13]

Alright...interesting design with found pieces. What kind of finish do you envision for the pink foam? Bondo or something else?
I'm sure that you know that your grip is a bit too big for your hand, so I guess (since it's a mock-up) you'll transform it in the future.
I'm eager to see how you're going to go about painting and finishing the prop

Thanks for the comments! I have had really good success painting wood glue on the outside of the foam to make it stronger. The handle has a lot more work coming on it - will be posting shortly.

 

[zenx13]

I thought it would be interesting to make wooden handle grips stained in a "orangy" (is that a word?) finish. As I am going for "Blade Runner inspired" I have some latitude.

 

[zenx13]

The "sighting" mechanism was made from a plastic pen, some plastic lid edges and green LED lights. I fashioned a couple of thin aluminum mounting brackets. Here is a mock up of the build at this point (gotta love masking tape!):

 

[zenx13]

Here were all the items on the project at this point:

 

[zenx13]

I wanted this "inspired" blaster to have a working Steyr receiver section and developed this mechanism:

 

[zenx13]

I felt the triggers needed to have tension but I was not prepared to develop fully working versions on this build. Her is the mechanism I developed - the outer aluminum plates are also used to mount all the items onto the gun blank.

 

[zenx13]

The wooden grips were adjusted for fitting and the mounting holes drilled out. Here are some photos with them attached to the project (some final filing / sanding is required for final shaping).

 

[zenx13]

Current status to date with all items bolted on. The metal barrel was filled with sand to add some extra weight to the project. It feels really comfortable in the hand now the grips have been fully shaped. I am really pleased with the project and hope to spend some more time on it soon.

 

[stussy]

nice work mate

 

[zenx13]

nice work mate

Cheers - a little unconventional but I am pleased with the results so far.

 

[joberg]

What kind of material/medium are you going to use for the barrel and Steyr part?

 

[zenx13]

What kind of material/medium are you going to use for the barrel and Steyr part?

I am going with what I have right now in the photos. The Steyr top barrel (plastic tube) has been modified to work as a bolt action (see video above). Like I mentioned- this is a “inspired by” build not a true replica.