Half Life 2 Gravity Gun build (tons o' pics!)
- Thread starter Volpin
- Start date
Thanks for the compliments guys! Still plugging away. Going to lose a day this week to the Thanksgiving festivities, but I'm hoping to have all parts built and ready for primer by the end of this week. Rough assembly would be a nice thing to shoot for as well, but one thing at a time... Maybe I'll save that hurdle for the weekend.
More progress:
Got the rear grip finished with the lower plate and side accents. Lower grip butt plate is made from acrylic to take a bit more beating than the sintra would be able to.
The rear drum assembly section has been drilled for a threaded rod that the grip will slot onto. Also added some half-round styrene to the inner support pipe to give a bit of dimension.
A bit more work going into the front assembly as well. The prong arm holders got some small accent pieces - no way I could have made stuff this spindly without the laser cutter!
Quick mockup of the prong and claw arm assembly. I haven't sourced the proper hardware here yet so things are just sort of hanging precariously. Even so, it all fits together pretty well and the end result is quite encouraging!
A couple more mockups with the handle and rear drum assembly. This thing is going to look busy when its finished
More progress:
Got the rear grip finished with the lower plate and side accents. Lower grip butt plate is made from acrylic to take a bit more beating than the sintra would be able to.
The rear drum assembly section has been drilled for a threaded rod that the grip will slot onto. Also added some half-round styrene to the inner support pipe to give a bit of dimension.
A bit more work going into the front assembly as well. The prong arm holders got some small accent pieces - no way I could have made stuff this spindly without the laser cutter!
Quick mockup of the prong and claw arm assembly. I haven't sourced the proper hardware here yet so things are just sort of hanging precariously. Even so, it all fits together pretty well and the end result is quite encouraging!
A couple more mockups with the handle and rear drum assembly. This thing is going to look busy when its finished
agentofzurg
New Member
That is just wonderful. So many more details than the Portal Gun - can't wait to see this one done! Nice work!
Damn it, Volpin, this was next on my bench. Gotta beat me to everything!
Looks great.
Looks great.
TMBountyHunter
Well-Known Member
Yeah he spoiled my plans as well. I was planning to do full HEV Mk V + Gravity Gun for a con next august but now there's just no way it'll measure up, especually since he got Valve on his side
Now I'll probably end up doing something else...
This is still ridiculously awesome. Can't wait to see it finished and become green with envy.
I was literally sitting here and sketching GG construction ideas when I spotted this thread. There are some things here that I don't agree with, but there are no doubts that Volpin's build will be amazing regardless. Now I'm just curious about what happens on the 1st. Unless there is a run being announced I might have to keep on as planned, lol. The HL series is my favorite game series of all time, I have to have one of these, be it through a kit or scratch built.
What a weird, wonky, mis-shapen, unbalanced design.... I love it!
It's gotta be super hard to hold with it being so front heavy, right?
Great work.
Nick
It's gotta be super hard to hold with it being so front heavy, right?
Great work.
Nick
I seriously doubt this! There are so many parts on this thing, I don't know if I could make it even in small-production numbers. This one will be a one-off. I'll have some molds to make one in the future (because I will be making more than one!) but without laser cutting everything all over again I don't know how I could make these available.
Out of curiosity, what are the parts you'd change? Your work is spectacular and I'd welcome the criticism!
Nick, its going to be awkward, that's for sure. I haven't gotten to the point where everything is assembled and I can gauge the feel of the piece yet though. No doubt, its going to be a weird gun to wield.
You could make a neck or shoulder sling if you wanted to carry it around in a convention setting to help distribute the weight better. It's probably too delicate for a con anyway though.
Nick
Nick
Grey
Sr Member
It's the AA battery that powers the entire gun.
Ah, and give away all my secrets? lol
Well, because the model is so low, and there are what appear to be huge discrepancies between the world view and player view, I think it allows quite a bit of interpretation. Thing is, Valve could reinterpret it themselves and while you call your high res model just one employees' interpretation it could very well be the direction they go in the next game, and in that case any differences I might have with it are rather moot.
heh, good point. While I don't have anything that verifies this as "canon" the guy that gave me the file is the guy who also made the models for the world and player views, so I'm willing to take his word for it!
Mo' work!
I went to ACE and bought $45 worth of hardware to bolt the whole gun together. Tons of little bushings, screws, nuts, washers.... fun stuff. I wanted black bushings, but the only nylon they had in stock was white. I recalled from my old R/C days that nylon parts could take dye, so I picked up a pack of black RIT and voila!
As for actual build stuff, I had an epiphany last night as I was going to bed about how to mount the lightbars. Holes were drilled in the facing edges of the bars, with countersunk screw holes in the front barrel assembly and relative holes drilled in the rear body. The front screws are hidden when the barrel is assembled, and the rears hide inside the body casing itself.
The result! Super rigid, really easy to mount, and the whole shebang can be disassembled if needed.
Its coming together! I should have the rear handle mount sorted and functioning by tomorrow evening.
Johnnymuffintop
Well-Known Member
Mother of god. She's beautiful.
Estimated cost? Assuming you're making molds of it.
Estimated cost? Assuming you're making molds of it.
michelmoermans
Active Member
Knew all along that the gravity gun was powerd by AAA batteries! Great work keep it up, this is a great read!
Great work keep it up, this is a great read!checkM8alice
New Member
First class work and info,what more could we ask for, more please. )
)
TMBountyHunter
Well-Known Member
Wooooooooo! Desert Bus!
So now that you've finally announced it, what are you expecting it to fetch? Should definitely beat your Portal Gun from last year's auction.
So now that you've finally announced it, what are you expecting it to fetch? Should definitely beat your Portal Gun from last year's auction.
Wooooooooo! Desert Bus!
So now that you've finally announced it, what are you expecting it to fetch? Should definitely beat your Portal Gun from last year's auction.
I see someone was watching!
For those that weren't, the Gravity Gun will be auctioned off this year at the Penny Arcade Child's Play charity auction. If you've never heard of it, the charity revolves around the gaming community and helps children's hospitals around the world. Last year I donated one of my Portal Gun projects (#2 of 3) and this year I'll be selling this build (#1 of a planned 3)
To that end, I need to finish the thing quick because the auction December 8th! I have a self-imposed deadline of the first to try to keep me on track so I don't neglect the other things I need to have arranged before I head out to Seattle. No idea what it will go for, and I kind of prefer not to speculate... Below a certain amount though, I'll be bidding on it!
Onto the progress!
The mounting plate for the rear barrel section is sorted. I may have gone overboard with the anchors, but better safe than sorry. This section is removable to make wiring easier.
The hole there lines up with a 5/8" threaded rod embedded in the rear drum/handle assembly. That may look slightly off-center in the shot. Don't worry, it totally is. I can't explain why this was necessary without getting into way too much explanation about my own oversights on the build, but suffice to say everything on the outside of the gun lines up properly.
I spent WAY too much time building a small heat sink assembly on the bottom of the gun that nobody will ever see when its on its stand. Whatever, it still looks cool... I'm particularly happy with the mounting solution for this, which uses the rear cover as a mounting point so this assembly will be installed after the wiring is complete to hide all the electronics.
Blocks were added to the front barrel section to serve as mounting points for the light bar cages. I'm just making terms up here, really.
Also drilled out the LED holes in the main barrel beneath the light bars. Hopefully setting them back somewhat will help with hotspots a bit.
A few more rough assemblies. Only screws holding it together now, no more tape! Also, with all the mounting points secure, I can now announce that this is an absolutely awful weapon design and holding it for anything longer than a couple of minutes is very uncomfortable. WOO!
More to come as it happens
