Re: Looper Blunderbuss - Finished Prototype Gallery on pg. 13
So this weekend turned out super busy for me. Between Halloween clubbing with my wife, getting a new tattoo, and taking Jack apple picking, I had no time for ANY blunderbuss work. Thankfully, my boss realized that he gave me two nights of double-time (a big no-no at our hospital) so he gave me Monday and Wednesday night off! That may not mean much to you, but to me, it means I have more time to work on the gun's molds AND I get to celebrate Halloween on Halloween night! After a repeat viewing of "Hot Fuzz," the wife and kid went to bed and I went down to my workshop.
I finished prepping the gun for molding. The blunderbuss is essentially a hollow tube, so I had to fill in the larger gaps. The barrel was covered with a disc made of comic backing board. It's now only about 3/8" deep, but I plan on creating the illusion of depth via flat black paint.
The slot where the slide is mounted was filled with NSP shaved down with my box cutter. I recessed the clay plug about 1/4" so I know where the slide goes during assembly of the slushcasts.
The gap in the gripframe where the trigger goes was filled with more NSP. I pushed it in a bit deeper than the other gaps because I initially thought I was going to make a non-functional trigger "plug" to fill it...but I changed my mind later.
All of the larger mounting holes were also filled with NSP, but I made sure I'd be able to visualize them during construction of the slushcasts.
In a few respects, the slushcasts will be BETTER than my prototype. For example, the backside of the rear endcap on MY gun is quite ugly: Because I needed to be able to disassemble it, you can see the gap between the aluminum tubing and the grip plug. I filled those gaps in with NSP and continued the grooves of the weld line into the clay to make it look more accurate.
To save myself the trouble of having to clay up the rails on the YHM-5005, I decided my mold line would be on a bias. Since the line is now on a smoother surface of the gun, any flashing can be taken care of with a single swipe of my Xacto. I haven't started the claying process of the main body's mold, but I'll finally stop by Lowe's to pick up some MDF tomorrow.
All of the smaller molds are already clayed up and awaiting their foamcore boxes. The trigger will be molded nearly complete. When it's time to assemble, I'll shave down the trigger into only what would be visible on the actual gun and then mount it with a couple of drilled holes and some epoxy.
The triggerguard (and it's mounting screwheads) is also going to be a single piece, with the pour spout resin being sanded into rods and mounted into more drilled holes in the gun.
The slide (and the cap nuts used to mount the slide grip to the slide body) is going to be a solid piece as well. The prototype's slide has to be two pieces in order to be mounted to the gun and still retain functionality...but I imagine that with some work, the resin blunderbuss' slide can ALSO be made to function.
And here's where we stand now. I hope I get my rubber in by Monday afternoon...I'll update again when I do.
Thanks everyone!
-Jonaas
cool:love
