Firefly Weapons Collection

[stormtrooperguy]

Man, I keep seeing all these great conversions of Firefly weapons- especially Jaynes Colt and MP, but I have never seen any parts lists or conversion tutorials. Are there any good ones around?

once i get mine done to the point that i'm comfortable offering advice, i'm going to put stuff online.

i've been putting progress pics up as i go, but i've been making a LOT of mistakes, so i haven't gotten all that far.

http://www.stormtrooperguy.com/jayne/

 

[stormtrooperguy]

this is another work in progress jayne gun. like the bigger one, still a lot to go, but it's coming along

i also updated my web page with a description of what i did and some photos
http://stormtrooperguy.com/jayne/mp5k.php

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Thanks guys. :thumbsup

I just finished watching the show again for the umpteenth time and I think I just might need to get working on a couple of those.

 

[stormtrooperguy]

another one... almost done. just waiting for the straight mp5 clip to arrive:

 

[pennausamike]

Elvis has LEFT the building!

I mean, these items are leaving the collection.
The Mal Pistol is a phillipes cast, the Jayne LeMat may be spoken for, the Jubal Early pistol is a resin cast with an aluminum barrel and steel pin under the barrel, the blue hand guys neural bleeder is a static prop with removeable "open" blue rods and "closed" end pieces, the dogtags are for Mal and Zoe, the red box is a yak skin covered box from China like a piece of Inara's set dressing from the BDM Serenity, the Alliance patches are from the Firefly series-the UAP emblem and the IAV Dortmunder was the big city ship in the TV pilot Serenity.

 

[Mechamaniac]

MAN I want me a Jayne pistol!! :unsure

 

[pennausamike]

I need to post more pics of the Mal Pistol tomorrow, but for now, its off to work!

Mike

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Great pics everyone! Mike, I call dibs on the Jubal Early if you're lookin' to unload 'er. : )

 

[pennausamike]

Alright, I didn't get to Mal pictures yet, but here is a Firefly prop/costume preview.

Everybody wants to be a Browncoat, but what about the Feds?
The hat is a modified Confederate sailor's hat, the helmet and armor are, of course, Starship Troopers pieces waiting to be accented in purple and the pin and patches are a little bit of mix and match between the series, the BDM and my input. The gun is a piece I made for another project, but it will serve as a fill-in so I can have the costume ready for the Can't-Stop-The-Serenity showing in Philly.

 

[KidL]

Awesome! Great pics... keep 'em coming! :thumbsup

 

[stormtrooperguy]

The gun is a piece I made for another project, but it will serve as a fill-in so I can have the costume ready for the Can't-Stop-The-Serenity showing in Philly.

excellent to hear more costume prep for those. there are a bunch of us in the boston area getting dressed up for that showing.

 

[stormtrooperguy]

finally adding more of my pics!!

and as i've mentioned, pretty much nothing is more than 1/2 finished

jayne hat knitted by my wife, jmtwo resin lemat, jmtwo pistol plaque (unfinished), patrick henry bowie with sheath i made, troublemaker t shirt i made using artwork posted here.

wash dinos from walgreens, resin pal, radio used in the message (needs painting still!), serenity christmas ornament on its stand, and some blue sun stickers that came with a t shirt.

peaches from propstore.com (i got these because it was one of these cans that river knocks jayne out with in serenity), phillipes mal pistol / wood grips / brass thumbscrews, jmtwo mal plaque, bills from a run here, coins from boba debt.

mal pistol holster i made for a friend of mine that's doing a mal costume, with my pistol in it.

jayne's bandolier from serenity. ethiopean cross found on ebay, replica wwII defence medal ribbon, capewell release, and airsoft mp5k. the mp5 sill needs the clip replaced with the right style, and technically needs the grip modified, but i probably won't ever bother with that.

jayne's big gun from serenity. needs a magazine built, the strap needs to be attached properly, and the receiver needs to be swapped out with an sd2 style, which may or may not ever happen.

not shown, i also have the belt and pouches that go with the bandolier. sill working on the pistol... i've got a colt 1911 and just need to give it some love.

current state of my jayne costume for the serenity screening in a couple weeks. i'm growing out the sideburns a bit, and getting my hair cut on saturday.

 

[pennausamike]

Re: finally adding more of my pics!!

SNIP... i've got a colt 1911 and just need to give it some love.

Your whole Jayne collection is truly amazing. Far as the MP-5 grips; I'd rate that as the final 2% that costs the world and gains you next to nothing. The mags are a worthwhile upgrade but I think you'd have to stand beside a real Serenity Jayne picture POINTING at the movie prop grips and your costume prop grips for most people to even realize there is a difference!

I highlighted your Colt comment because I was getting ready to do a Jayne Colt autoloader before my situation changed. That mod is gonna take more than some love! It is a fairly heavily modified piece and would require either some serious resin-cast piece or machined piece addition to properly represent the movie Colt. Not saying I've seen them all, but I've seen at least a half dozen modified Jayne Colts and none of them felt authentically close to me.

Good luck and enjoy the CSTS shindig!
Mike

 

[staticguy]

I might as well put my the pics of the first prop I ever painted. These pics where from a test of my homemade light box.

I will put of pics of the rest of the parts of Jaynes outfit I had made soon.

Here is what I done by DragonCon last year:

tk7602 your page is reinspired me to make the bandoleer. And your outfit is top notch!

 

[stormtrooperguy]

Re: finally adding more of my pics!!

but I've seen at least a half dozen modified Jayne Colts and none of them felt authentically close to me.

yeah, i've noticed that too... i keep hoping for a resin kit to show up that really looks the part, and none have yet.

my fallback plan is to just modify the grips on it and keep it holstered. then it will at least look good on my hip.

but i know that one of the girls doing a river costume will want to pull it out and shoot us with it.

i've got a straight mp5 mag coming to me for the mp5-k, so that one will be easy.

i might make the big clip back he carries on miranda too, which has something like 14 of the bigger mp5 clips in it. so at that point, resin casting a bunch of them would be a good thing

oh yeah, and i never really mentioned the blue sun sleeveless shirt that's under all of the other stuff in the pics. i used that to provide some contrast between the black gun trunk and the guns. i've got 2 of those. one with sleeves that i wear regularly, and the sleeveless one that i will probably cut a slash in and put some bloodstains on.

who else has stuff to show? we gotta keep each other inspired!

 

[stormtrooperguy]

Here is what I done by DragonCon last year:

tk7602 your page is reinspired me to make the bandoleer. And your outfit is top notch!

thanks!

i remember seeing you last year. did you customize the boots? that's still been a sticking point for me... i've got tactical combats that i'll have with me for my BSG costume at dragoncon, so i was thinking about making some wrap around addons for them for jayne. not spot on, but close.

oh yeah, and i've got some work gloves that i picked up a while ago like you're wearing too.

on the gloves note, dick's sporting goods had a pair of bag gloves that were a near perfect match to the ones jayne wears in serenity. they have an embroidered name on the wrist that i need to pick out. but the padding, fingers, etc... seem to match.

 

[staticguy]

The boot are just standard jungle boots, and I made the black part, it is just a clip on wrap around. It's 3 strips of nylon sew together and buckles on the ends. I will take better pictures of it.

The gloves are West Chester work gloves, and I used black leather dye on the swede parts to make them black. Help weather them at the same time. I never did find real black gloves.

 

[pennausamike]

My finished phillipes Mal pistol.
I used automotive semi-gloss black, (my favorite fake gun finish) and Rub and Buff for the "metal" and Walmart brown, black streaks and red mahoganey stain under a gloss clearcoat for the grips.

The grips look better than they photographed,
the "metal" photographed nicer than it looks,
(tho' still acceptable to me).

 

[pennausamike]

Why I would never build props as a business:

I just sold this Jayne pistol on eBay.

It went for $280, thirty more than the minimum I would take for it.
But even at that, I produced an all metal, fully machined replica for
a labor rate of $5 per hour.
Don't quit the day job, eh?

On the plus side, the new owner seems genuinely excited to be getting it.
So, if it went to a gen-u-wine Browncoat to be enjoyed and appreciated, and it defrays some of the costs of MY Firefly/Serenity prop addiction,
it wasn't all for naught!

Mike

 

[stormtrooperguy]

!!!!!!!!!!!


crap! i should have bid on it. i'd have given you at LEAST $285!

what a steal!

oh, and to go back a couple of posts, i decided that the incorrect grips on my guns was going to annoy me too much. so i ordered an A3 style grip for the bigger one, and a whole new mp5-k and a grip for the smaller one.

the mp5k i used is a real cheap 1 part one: left side / right side. no easy way to replace parts. so i got a marui knockoff. time to make little jayne gun #3