Callahan Full Bore Auto Lock Build

[DalekNim]

Ever since first seeing Jane's 'Vera' in Firefly I've wanted to own that weapon. In 2020 I entered the world of 'makers' by starting to build a full-size, operator-on-the-inside, motorized, fully electro-mechanical Dalek and joined ProjectDalek & The Florida Dalek Builder's Group. We attend MEGACON every year in Orlando where we are given an exhibitor's booth plus other Cons in Florida. This past year one of the group & myself built a full-scale TARDIS for our booth when the person who had been loaning us his TARDIS for every Con decided he was no longer going to do that.
To be fair, I had a custom woodworking side business for over 20 years where I started out doing A&C shows selling those 1-piece folding collapsible baskets & some other wood related items and after 7 years moved into building custom made high end aquarium cabinets & canopies for large saltwater aquariums so I quess I've technically been a Maker for a long time.
In any case, last year I decided to get into more SciFi cosplay after making a 10th Dr Who costume for the Con so I'd have something to do since my Dalek wasn't complete yet. That turned into wanting a full-up Mandalorian costume which I completed for this year's MEGACON in April. In Dec of 2022, after seeing the progress of my Mandalorian , my wife thought it would be cool to be able to be Bo Katan so I took another detour and made her a full-up Bo Katan outfit.
While the full costumes are certainly fun, in fact I'm in the middle of developing an orginal character called 'Future Man', loosely based off the Dead Pool character, my first love is building scifi weapons: the Amban pluse rifle, Mando blaster, Hans Solo DL-44, heavy infantry tri-barrel, which I've modified a bit & renamed the 'SMV tri-barrel gamma wave distrupter cannon' and an original weapon I created called 'X-40 cobalt-ion pulse rifle' for my new character.
While this was all going on I really wanted to build a Vera but my initial searches turned up nothing useful for 3D printing. I eventually landed here, finding the well known build of Vera from about 8 years ago but those files were unavailable so I was back to square one. That's when I got my first cunning plan that since I had been wanting to learn Fusion 360 for a long time, this project would be the perfect excuse for that. well after a year of procrastinating I finally admitted to myself that that was going to be 'a bridge too far' and so I came up with a new cunning plan, to find a 3D modeler who could do it for me.
About a month ago I managed to do that & I now have in my possession a full-scale 3D model (30 individual pieces) that I can print. This process was facilitated by the fact that I have a large collection of HD photos of the actual prop from an on-line auction a few years ago that I could give the modeler + info from the book "Firefly A Celebration, which is a 540-pg full color, large format book about the show.
I know that for some reason Firefly weapons don't seem to have much of a following but I've always thought 'Vera' was one of the most iconic weapons in scifi - on par with weapons like Zorg Industries ZR-1 for which I just purchased the kit from 'Jake Can Make' here on RPF and can't wait to start that after Vera is done. I don't normally do a lot of on-line posting but I thought for this case I'd document the journey in acse there are any FireFly fans still out there. While I'm getting started I've included a few pics of some of my previous stuff I've built ....this should be epic1

 

[ssdesigner]

Ever since first seeing Jane's 'Vera' in Firefly I've wanted to own that weapon. In 2020 I entered the world of 'makers' by starting to build a full-size, operator-on-the-inside, motorized, fully electro-mechanical Dalek and joined ProjectDalek & The Florida Dalek Builder's Group. We attend MEGACON every year in Orlando where we are given an exhibitor's booth plus other Cons in Florida. This past year one of the group & myself built a full-scale TARDIS for our booth when the person who had been loaning us his TARDIS for every Con decided he was no longer going to do that.
To be fair, I had a custom woodworking side business for over 20 years where I started out doing A&C shows selling those 1-piece folding collapsible baskets & some other wood related items and after 7 years moved into building custom made high end aquarium cabinets & canopies for large saltwater aquariums so I quess I've technically been a Maker for a long time.
In any case, last year I decided to get into more SciFi cosplay after making a 10th Dr Who costume for the Con so I'd have something to do since my Dalek wasn't complete yet. That turned into wanting a full-up Mandalorian costume which I completed for this year's MEGACON in April. In Dec of 2022, after seeing the progress of my Mandalorian , my wife thought it would be cool to be able to be Bo Katan so I took another detour and made her a full-up Bo Katan outfit.
While the full costumes are certainly fun, in fact I'm in the middle of developing an orginal character called 'Future Man', loosely based off the Dead Pool character, my first love is building scifi weapons: the Amban pluse rifle, Mando blaster, Hans Solo DL-44, heavy infantry tri-barrel, which I've modified a bit & renamed the 'SMV tri-barrel gamma wave distrupter cannon' and an original weapon I created called 'X-40 cobalt-ion pulse rifle' for my new character.
While this was all going on I really wanted to build a Vera but my initial searches turned up nothing useful for 3D printing. I eventually landed here, finding the well known build of Vera from about 8 years ago but those files were unavailable so I was back to square one. That's when I got my first cunning plan that since I had been wanting to learn Fusion 360 for a long time, this project would be the perfect excuse for that. well after a year of procrastinating I finally admitted to myself that that was going to be 'a bridge too far' and so I came up with a new cunning plan, to find a 3D modeler who could do it for me.
About a month ago I managed to do that & I now have in my possession a full-scale 3D model (30 individual pieces) that I can print. This process was facilitated by the fact that I have a large collection of HD photos of the actual prop from an on-line auction a few years ago that I could give the modeler + info from the book "Firefly A Celebration, which is a 540-pg full color, large format book about the show.
I know that for some reason Firefly weapons don't seem to have much of a following but I've always thought 'Vera' was one of the most iconic weapons in scifi - on par with weapons like Zorg Industries ZR-1 for which I just purchased the kit from 'Jake Can Make' here on RPF and can't wait to start that after Vera is done. I don't normally do a lot of on-line posting but I thought for this case I'd document the journey in acse there are any FireFly fans still out there. While I'm getting started I've included a few pics of some of my previous stuff I've built ....this should be epic1

Very much looking forward to this project. Thank you in advance for sharing!

There are still a number of us FF prop builders here, and even more on the Facebook FF prop builders group.

You can't stop the signal....

 

[DalekNim]

Thx. I’ll go look for that FB FF builders group

 

[DalekNim]

Ok so my PRUSA i3 Mark 3S has been running full time and all the parts have been printed except for the 13 shells, I only have 3 printed so far and the magazine is on the printer now - 21 hr print. One nice thing about the model is that with the exception of the receiver all parts fit on my printer without slicing. Here’s a pic of the rifle and all its parts. I’ll post one Of everything once the magazine finishes printing

 

[GrenadeKing]

I can't tell from your pictures, did you base the receiver portion on a standard AK or on the 12 gauge version? That's a detail I've seen people compromise on and, to my eye at least, it throws off the appearance of functionality.

 

[DalekNim]

I can't tell from your pictures, did you base the receiver portion on a standard AK or on the 12 gauge version? That's a detail I've seen people compromise on and, to my eye at least, it throws off the appearance of functionality.

Off the 12 gauge. I have a bunch of HD images of it and even got someone to take some measurements of their 12 gauge for reference

 

[DalekNim]

When that gun was no longer legal to import into the US people started to substitute the AK since it was close and readily available. Even the air soft version became impossible to get so your had to do some digging too find a legacy piece - also, as I mentioned earlier, I was a able to find a bunch of closeup pics of the actual prop from an on-line auction which made seeing the details easier. It’s not 100% as there are small details that are different from the actual prop as it stands now vs photos from the show like the post that the pvs-18 is mounted on. Looks like the original post from pics of the gun from the show may have gotten damaged over time since the pics of that post from the auction prop are different. Without being able to get a 3D scan of these actual prop no replica will be ‘perfect’ but it’s pretty darn close & the paint job is what will make it anyway and that’s pretty straight forward to get correct

 

[DalekNim]

So here’s a pic of all the parts printed - the bottom half of the magazine still has 6 hrs to go. I decided to slice it since I could then orient it so that I saved 4 hrs & 30% less support material. Once that’s done & glued I’ll get back to work on prepping & priming all the parts for painting. About 12 of the parts have gone through my standard prep process and are ready to be painted.

what I typically do is start with a couple of coats of Rustoleum filler/sandable primer, wet sand with 320, hit it with another round or two of primer, sand to 600 until the piece is perfectly smooth and then if I’m going to just use an airbrush for a regular paint job the piece is ready to go. Except on rare occasions due to orientation or part geometry, I rarely have to do any sanding when the part comes off printer. people are still amazed when I show them a part and tell them no sanding has been done. The PRUSA is expensive and the print bed is only 200 x 200 but the prints come out amazing in just standard PLA.

If I want a chrome effect like I did for my Mando armor things are more involved. The next step would then be a coat of Dupicolor black primer which, because of its automotive grade nozzle, is very easy to lay down a perfectly smooth finish. Then its a couple of coats of clear coat and depending on how well that turned out I may need to do a couple of rounds of wet sand with 2000, car polish & buff & repeat until a glass smooth finish is achieved and then it’s airbrush time with Alclad chrome.

I also have a technique for turning plain plastic into wood grain like I did on my Amban pulse rifle but this time I’m first going to try and cover the grips & bottom half off the barrel stock with wood grain vinyl paper. Depending on how that turns out I may just revert back to my wood grain ink technique.

 

[Noeland]

Really nice work! I've been waiting for somebody to put together a decent 3D model of this sucker.

 

[DalekNim]

Really nice work! I've been waiting for somebody to put together a decent 3D model of this sucker.

Thx but I wasn’t actually the modeler. I just provided all the consulting and HD images of the actual prop & review of the model so that I’d end up with as screen accurate a model as possible. Of course it will now be up to me to bring it to life with an equally impressive paint job - no pressure !

 

[DalekNim]

Ok, so phase 1 is now complete. the tedious task of priming & wet sanding all parts to 600 grit is done. Next up will be some testing of various paint colors and compare them against my photos of the actual prop I have from an auction house. Some of the parts are straightforward enough - the black for the receiver, barrel & stock rail for example. as well as the chrome for the suppressor & barrel rest and brass on the handle, barrel brake, shell cases and the wood grain. however, some of the other parts are somewhat more subtle. the lavender on the 2 hinge blocks and light blue on the magazine plates and barrel nest will take some experimentation to get the correct shades of those colors.

I made one attempt to use some simulated wood grain vynal paper with sticky back but it didn't turn out very well. I may make one more attempt before reverting back to my alcohol ink method which I know works.

The other decision I need to come to grips with before I start airbrushing is "factory new" or "weathered"? All my other SciFi weaponry has always been weathered but for some reason I'm debating that this one might look cool in 'factory new' condition. The actual prop of course is weathered and I have a couple of great closeup photos of it that were obviously taken during the time the show was being filmed. The wear patterns are not too agressive - mostly 'rub marks' where a weapon like that would should wear after being handled for years. It doesn't have any real significant wear, scraches, scraps, gouges, etc like you see on a lot of stuff from the Star Wars universe so I'm kinda leaning to copy what I see in that photo. The prop in the auction photos shows significantly more wear & tear since who knows what its been through in the last 18 years but I'm not going to do any of that.

I'm doing this project in between time on my Dalek & I just pulled the fiberglass dome from my mold and I need to do a little repair work on it before its ready to paint - a fiberglass boat builder I'm not - lol. anyway I need to keep pushing on that so this may take a back seat for a short while while I research paints & make a final weathering decision ...

 

[DalekNim]

while staring at the above photo something looked odd ... I finally realized that several parts were missing from the photo. for some reason I put them in a separate box/ anyway, here's a pic with ALL the parts for the rifle primed & ready for paint ...

 

[DalekNim]

while staring at my main reference photo I noticed something I hadn't seen before ... it looks like the barrel and the set of concentric rings next to the front barrel block are actually different colors? And also the fake barrel which is connected to the receiver is black since its part or the original Saiga 12 gauge while the barrel connected to the suppressor is this sort of metallic lavender color? see the below pics. I can't tell if that color extends all the way through that part into the suppressor but I assume it does since that barrel is likely all one piece and they machined that concentric ring detail on a lathe & slipped it over the barrel?
Anyone have any bright ideas on what this color is please chime in. It kinda looks like the blueing you see on some firearms which could make sense as I know they CNC machined all the extra metal parts after starting with the basic Saiga receiver & barrel section

 

[DalekNim]

Since I have my paint booth out while I’m painting Dalek hemispheres and slats I took advantage of it and painted all the black, gold and brass parts since I knew what those were. I also spent an hour this morning at the local Michael’s with my full color photo of the actual prop and held it up to all the paint samples for all the racks & racks of paint until I found matches. I ‘think’ I now have all the proper colors. I’ll do some testing first to be sure but this will be way better Han trying to custom mix paints and hopefully make enough so that I don’t have to try & exactly recreate the color since I always end up needing more paint than I think when air brushing a part …

 

[DalekNim]

A quick pic of the fruits of my paint hunting trip this morning … lol. I now have enough paint for 1o Veras!

 

[JOATRASH FX]

..... It kinda looks like the blueing you see on some firearms which could make sense as I know they CNC machined all the extra metal parts after starting with the basic Saiga receiver & barrel section

The front barrel is possibly anodized aluminum, like all the other addon parts, judging by the evenness of the surface. Blueing is often a little more varied, looks a little more 'oily'. I can't recall if they ever fired the Showtime guns fully extended- if so then it might not be alu after all... I'm not a gunsmith so I've no idea if aluminum would hold up to blank fires.

The breakdown is, from what I remember, you have the two-piece suppressor with outer muzzle sleeve. (The latter added for Vera, seemingly held in place only with a metal pin!). The the actual barrel (your circled piece) and the "stopper ring" probably added to help stabilize the larger foregrip pieces.


Back in the lats 2000s, when I started the old metal replica Alice/Vera project, I spoke to a few machinists about it. One of the problems with anodizing is that it's apparently (from what I've been told) hard to always match exact colors because so many factors come into play. They could not, for example, guarantee the exact shade of gold or lilac, because the aluminum used for my parts might not be the same grade as the one used on the Showtime guns.

There are a few ways to mimic the look in paint, similar to the fake blueing method I've described a few times in threads here.

For the lilac, light blue and gold tones... well, there are a few ways to do it. The most simple is to mix in a tiny (!) bit of color into a suitable metallic, then airbrush it. The trick there is finding the right metallic paint, and also laying it down THIN. With anodizing, you're still seeing the metal shining through; it becomes sort of like a matte transparent color pass that still retains some reflectivity. You have to find a way to mimic that. Tinted clears over some silver/chrome metallics can work. Rattle cans will not cut it, and I've yet to find suitable direct-out-of-bottle paint to do it, so for the 2-3 Veras I've built, I've mixed my own. For my next (and hopefully 'final') Vera build, I'm going to start experimenting again and see if I can get it 'perfect'.

 

[DalekNim]

Thx! If I understand your technique you would first airbrush a silver or chrome metallic and then airbrush a tinted light blue or the lilac matte clear coat over that too mimic the anodized aluminum? Or are you tinting the silver or chrome metallic directly with the color?

Also, Do you happen to have a link to where you discuss your fake bluing technique? Is it in your Vera/Alice build thread?

BTW, I happen to be a nationally ranked competitive shooter & there is no way an aluminum barrel would stand up to a 12gauge blank. However, what they likely did is what we do to lighten gun barrels In our competition pistols. The barrel is made out of aluminum but has a steel sleeve on the inside to take the pressure of a fired round

 

[GrenadeKing]

BTW, I happen to be a nationally ranked competitive shooter & there is no way an aluminum barrel would stand up to a 12gauge blank. However, what they likely did is what we do to lighten gun barrels In our competition pistols. The barrel is made out of aluminum but has a steel sleeve on the inside to take the pressure of a fired round

I would probably agree if the entire barrel was aluminum but that's not the case. The original Saiga 12 barrel and gas system have been shortened dramatically but are still present under the handguard section. The aluminum portion is only the folding extension. The original steel parts are doing all the heavy lifting.

I do think it's purely a fictional prop gun though. It might work with blanks but there's no way it would safely fire any projectiles, aluminum or not.

 

[DalekNim]

I would probably agree if the entire barrel was aluminum but that's not the case. The original Saiga 12 barrel and gas system have been shortened dramatically but are still present under the handguard section. The aluminum portion is only the folding extension. The original steel parts are doing all the heavy lifting.

I do think it's purely a fictional prop gun though. It might work with blanks but there's no way it would safely fire any projectiles, aluminum or not.

you're right about how it was constructed but even firing blanks the aluminum barrel portion would not stand up to a lot of repeated firings. since it was only fired in 2 episodes i have no idea how many actual blank rounds they fired or planned to fire but I would assume any professional armorer would not risk something like that knowing the gun was to be able to fire blanks of any amount on set

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Thx! If I understand your technique you would first airbrush a silver or chrome metallic and then airbrush a tinted light blue or the lilac matte clear coat over that too mimic the anodized aluminum? Or are you tinting the silver or chrome metallic directly with the color?

I've done both with success. For Vera, I'd be inclide to tint the metallic paint directly instead of doing a candy coat. (Candy coats are GREAT for gold chrome though!)

If you want to go the acrylic route (even though you already got some paints)... Vallejo's "metalizer" range is great.

Also, Do you happen to have a link to where you discuss your fake bluing technique? Is it in your Vera/Alice build thread?

Apologies, but I don't have the link without searching... look for my threads with the mandalorian blaster, the Blade Runner Concept COP and my Buck Rogers replica... some details there. I also have a technique for doing an "brushed/machined aluminum" look with chrome paint (because "aluminum" colored paint NEVER looks right) but again... search for threads with my nickname 'cause I don't have them handy!

BTW, I happen to be a nationally ranked competitive shooter & there is no way an aluminum barrel would stand up to a 12gauge blank. However, what they likely did is what we do to lighten gun barrels In our competition pistols. The barrel is made out of aluminum but has a steel sleeve on the inside to take the pressure of a fired round

I suspected that might be the case. Vera's outer barrel was 22-ish mm I think, so maybe that leaves room for an inner barrel. (Been a while so I can't remember exactly!)

I do think it's purely a fictional prop gun though. It might work with blanks but there's no way it would safely fire any projectiles, aluminum or not.

There are photos of what seem to be people firing the Showtime guns (without the extra Vera parts) at a shooting range. No info on if they were firing blanks or not. Someone on Showtime (the director maybe, or production designer) called the original guns "evil" when fired....!

you're right about how it was constructed but even firing blanks the aluminum barrel portion would not stand up to a lot of repeated firings. since it was only fired in 2 episodes i have no idea how many actual blank rounds they fired or planned to fire but I would assume any professional armorer would not risk something like that knowing the gun was to be able to fire blanks of any amount on set

They did a lot of shooting in Showtime! However, something is telling me that they never actually fired it "for real" in Firefly. The shots at the end of "Our Mrs Reynolds" were done with a fake, loose, muzzle and compressed air. Jayne runs around with Vera on Niska's station but I can't remember if he ever shoots her. (Been a couple of years since I watched the show.)