This is a project I've had brewing in the back of my mind for a while now, ever since I had finished my Portal Gun build a few years back. The Grav Gun is a lot more complicated than its physics-manipulating sibling, and I've finally gotten to the point where I think my propbuilding skills are at the level where I can do this thing justice.
The problem up until now is that (like in Portal) there are 2 versions of the gun; the "equipped" model and the "environment" model. The equipped model is far more detailed, but only includes the upper left rear section of the gun, as shown when the player is holding it. The rest of the model doesn't exist. The environment model is a full 3D model, but pathetically low in resolution.
I had a chance to visit Valve a year ago, and spoke with one of their lead designers who really wants to see this thing made. To that end, he provided me with an excellent 3D model that he had made personally, which shows the gun in all its detailed glory. With this in hand, I could finally start my project (before anyone asks; I'm sorry but I do not have permission to distribute this file or post any higher-resolution imagery)
I've been working on the build for about a week and a half, but wanted to have some more substantial progress before I fired up a build thread. This is the first project where I've used laser cutting before (service provided by Ponoko) so there's a lot of new ground to cover.
It took about 3 days of plotting and measuring, then the plans for the gun went to Ponoko about 2 weeks ago. I got these in the mail just this past Tuesday:
Most of whats there will get you about 65% of the way to having a grav gun, but there's a lot of sanding and molding yet to do.
For instance, the cages that fit over the illuminated bars. I made these out of 4 sliced sections of acrylic, with styrene added for the beveled edge. I'll need to mold this and make 6 copies.
The front barrel assembly shown here is 4 pieces as of now, but will eventually need to have 4 more layers to be complete. There's some apoxie sculpt in the edge that will be sanded for a bevel
Main section of the rear body going together. I went with clear because that was the only .080" plastic they carried and I didn't want this thing to be too bulky. Before sending these out to be cut, I made a few paper mockups to be sure of the dimensions. Good thing too, the first 2 attempts were wrong!
Not everything is getting laser cut though, the cylinders on the back of the gun as well as the prongs have both been lathed & sculpted by hand and molded. The claws were one of the smaller molds I've attempted, and glad to say they came out very well.
I did mention there would be illumination (of course there will, right?) and I'm planning on putting an Arduino in the body of the gun to give the LEDs some nice PWM pulsing effects. Boards are off at BatchPCB.com getting printed, should have them back in a couple of weeks. There are just shy of 100 LEDs in this thing. Gonna be BRIGHT!
I'll be updating this thread as the project commences from here on out. Deadline is December 1, so gonna have to move quick!
EDIT: Deadline is so I can make the Child's Play charity auction event in Seattle on December 8th with the gun in-hand.
The problem up until now is that (like in Portal) there are 2 versions of the gun; the "equipped" model and the "environment" model. The equipped model is far more detailed, but only includes the upper left rear section of the gun, as shown when the player is holding it. The rest of the model doesn't exist. The environment model is a full 3D model, but pathetically low in resolution.
I had a chance to visit Valve a year ago, and spoke with one of their lead designers who really wants to see this thing made. To that end, he provided me with an excellent 3D model that he had made personally, which shows the gun in all its detailed glory. With this in hand, I could finally start my project (before anyone asks; I'm sorry but I do not have permission to distribute this file or post any higher-resolution imagery)
I've been working on the build for about a week and a half, but wanted to have some more substantial progress before I fired up a build thread. This is the first project where I've used laser cutting before (service provided by Ponoko) so there's a lot of new ground to cover.
It took about 3 days of plotting and measuring, then the plans for the gun went to Ponoko about 2 weeks ago. I got these in the mail just this past Tuesday:
Most of whats there will get you about 65% of the way to having a grav gun, but there's a lot of sanding and molding yet to do.
For instance, the cages that fit over the illuminated bars. I made these out of 4 sliced sections of acrylic, with styrene added for the beveled edge. I'll need to mold this and make 6 copies.
The front barrel assembly shown here is 4 pieces as of now, but will eventually need to have 4 more layers to be complete. There's some apoxie sculpt in the edge that will be sanded for a bevel
Main section of the rear body going together. I went with clear because that was the only .080" plastic they carried and I didn't want this thing to be too bulky. Before sending these out to be cut, I made a few paper mockups to be sure of the dimensions. Good thing too, the first 2 attempts were wrong!
Not everything is getting laser cut though, the cylinders on the back of the gun as well as the prongs have both been lathed & sculpted by hand and molded. The claws were one of the smaller molds I've attempted, and glad to say they came out very well.
I did mention there would be illumination (of course there will, right?) and I'm planning on putting an Arduino in the body of the gun to give the LEDs some nice PWM pulsing effects. Boards are off at BatchPCB.com getting printed, should have them back in a couple of weeks. There are just shy of 100 LEDs in this thing. Gonna be BRIGHT!
I'll be updating this thread as the project commences from here on out. Deadline is December 1, so gonna have to move quick!
EDIT: Deadline is so I can make the Child's Play charity auction event in Seattle on December 8th with the gun in-hand.
Last edited:
