Eldar Shuriken Pistol from Warhammer 40K

[Faroth]

So I started working on something I had wanted to do for a while, making sci fi prop pistols. Many of these are simply resin kits that I'm painting up decent but some of them are going to be made from scratch.

I was going to make a bolter pistol from the Warhammer 40k game, but it seems like there are quite a few people who have done that, so I decided an Eldar Shuriken pistol would be much more interesting to do.

Below is a picture of one of the miniatures for a Shuriken Pistol.

It is suppose to be a futuristic weapon that shaves off a thin layer from a metal star shaped rod in the clip and fires it out the barrel at incredible speed to have these shuriken stars spinning through the air at your enemies.

I started off with layering 1/2 inch aspen wood (easy to sand) with 1/4 inch plywood (strong and against the grain of the other layers) for a basic shape.

Then i got things sanded down to be smoother and added the side wings for the front.

I plan on filling the front part with foam and coating it with resin or bondo. The clip receiver will be a PVC pipe and a sculpted clip that will fit into it.

The oval things on the pistol are soul gems. In the game the spirits of fallen soldiers are kept in the gems and they use then to adorn their armor and weapons.
Not sure what I will do with those other than to sculpt them on and give them a really cool paint job. Somehow I think making them clear or using plastic gems will just look lame.

 

[Berserk]

looks very cool, keep it up!

 

[G17RDY]

Great start so far.

 

[Nerfenstein]

Looks awesome so far. Always great when people veer away from the obvious and try something new, there are some great Bolter's around.

 

[Faroth]

Update: Eldar Shuriken Pistol from Warhammer 40K

I've gotten some more parts filled in on the pistol.

The wood half circle on the bottom is mostly just as a reference for the foam filling and to give a nice stable piece to glue things to.

The back hammer like part is sanded and in place. Will do more sanding later to blend it in and shape it a bit better.

Roughed in the shape by gluing in sheets of foam.

Finally I sanded it down and added the clip.

Since it shoots out the equivalent of ninja throwing stars, the barrel is flat.

Next i need to cover it in some two part resin for a nice solid exterior and add some more foam in the rear to get that shape down.

 

[Aestivalis]

Re: Update: Eldar Shuriken Pistol from Warhammer 40K

I was always a fan of the earlier versions of the Eldar shuriken weapons myself (with the drum magazines). But that is some great work, and I feel inspired to follow your lead and do something similar. I'm a great follower of the Nerf gun threads, and I think the recent Nerf Vortex line (especially the full-auto electric Nitron) could be cosmetically converted into "working" a shuriken catapult. I am about 80% done with my Nerf Recon-based storm bolter (I will have a detailed posting when I am finished), and I think a shuriken catapult may be in my future as well...

 

[Faroth]

Re: Update: Eldar Shuriken Pistol from Warhammer 40K

I think the recent Nerf Vortex line (especially the full-auto electric Nitron) could be cosmetically converted into "working" a shuriken catapult.

Nice. I didn't even know they came out with these. I was thinking of those air guns that softly blow out a circular foam thing but these look pretty cool and easily adaptable to a shuriken gun. Great Idea. Looking forward to seeing how yours turns out.

 

[Ardathair]

Ardathair on deviantART - Old mock up/wip of my Shuriken pistol. It's got a lot further since then and is nearly done ready for the mold to be taken and then I can cast I nice resin one up.

 

[Faroth]

Nice Ardathair. Good to see someone else taking a liking to the Eldar instead of always the space marines.

I'm working on some sanding and the foam for the next step for mine, I'll post some pics again after that.

I can already tell that once I have this done, I'll want to make some more Eldar props. We'll see.

 

[GlueWorkshop]

You look like you know when to use what material for a scratch build. Great work!
-Jaye

 

[slickum]

cool thread!! really looking at doing a exarch full costume this year and was going to start with a few weapons and go on to a helmet. thanks for the push to get going. cant wait to see how it turns out.

 

[Faroth]

Thanks Slickum and Glueworkshop. I think knowing your materials is an important part to model making. And it also depends on what you work best with. I'm sure there are people that could carve this entire thing out of wood and it would look perfect but I am not the best wood carver so for me its just the base form to give it some strength. Plus it would be a bit too heavy then. As of now it feels pretty good. Not over weight yet. So the foam and Resin help with that.

I have added a layer of resin to the foam and sanded it a little.

When i first put the resin on i thought to myself "oh, it doesn't have to be perfectly smooth, I'll just sand it smooth later." Well i certainly wish i would have paid more attention to the surface and made it more even because sanding this has been a long annoying process. The resin dries rock hard which is great for a prop and I know I can eventually get a nice smooth hard surface out of it, but it's taking a while.

I had sculpted some foam for the back part as a base.

I was going to start on that, but after my current sanding experience I think I'm going to leave it off until i get this front part all set. Then when i do the resin for the back I'm going to try and get it as close as possible in the first place for some minimal sanding.

At least the clip was pretty easy to sand and is turning out well. I just need to sculpt he bottom piece of that and ad a few details to it. I also need to figure out a way for ti to stay centered in the receiver as it is circular and spins a little since it is just held in place with magnets.

 

[Faroth]

Sanding that front part has taken a number of different times and days to sand, putty, sand, prime, repeat. But in the end it turned out pretty good. I might still try to smooth it out a little more but over all it is ok. Problem with Eldar is that in their history they are artisans and are ancient with wisdom and skill so to try and make an item that represents their level of workmanship is a bit of a task. Hopefully I get close.

I made the clip removable and with a huge magnet in the top for it to click into place when put in the receiver. This seemed to work out ok, unfortunately when i added the extra resin detailing on the bottom part, it added too much weight to it and now it falls out pretty easily. Not sure exactly what I am going to do to resolve that, maybe more magnets or a metal clip or something.

I did add a shuriken to the top of the clip. The idea of how the gun is suppose to work is there is a solid metal rod shaped like a shuriken, then the gun shaves of a micro thin layer of the metal and fires it out the front like a magnetic rail gun.

I also had some problems with the clip spinning since it is round and only held in place with a magnet so I added a small grove to the top and glued a bit into the receiver to hold it all straight.

I added the front site on to the pistol, and just started adding the back shroud. This too will need a lot of sanding, but at least it is mostly flat surfaces on the side so hopefully that will go better than the front piece.

After that it is finishing off the detail on the grip and trigger, finishing the clip, and adding some soul gems to the sides and it should be done.

I also want to add some fine detail that just is not possible in the 25mm miniatures but I am not exactly sure what to add yet. It needs to look hightech and artistic so i really don't want to add screws or too many panel lines or anything. (Technically these guys make stuff by growing and altering a substance known as wraith bone, so even their guns would look more like a smooth 3D printed item than a metal cast and screwed together one.) I might include a jack port in the handle for "jacking into" the weapon and possibly a small display on top, but I really do not plan on illuminating this one or giving it any more moving parts other than the removable clip so perhaps that would be best left to a second try or a cast of this one.

 

[mikkonator]

Very cool, wonder if you ever finished? Contemplating on making a shuriken cannon