chinbeard
Active Member
Hellooooooo RPF! Guess what?! I started another Mass Effect pistol! I was tapped to make the Carnifex heavy pistol from ME 2 & 3 for PAX Prime. However, I was also asked to make one for a wedding photo shoot in May, I was excited to get a start on this one much sooner than expected!
Since I have more than one commission for this gun, I will be making a mold of it. The master is being built from a bunch of scrap wood and plastic that I have lying around.
I nabbed my references from troodon80 on deviantArt: I used the Paladin images because it is more robust and the color is better for reference:
Mass Effect References by Troodon80 on deviantART
I started as I usually do, by drawing detailed vectors from said references:
View attachment 93059
The core layer of the gun was cut from 3/4" MDF. I'm starting to think that the MDF that I got is grainier than other MDF I've seen folks using. I've only used one sheet of it since I make mostly small things like pistols.
View attachment 93060
The next two layers were cut from 1/8" (white) foam PVC and 1/4" (black) foam PVC. The colors are irrelevant; that just happened to be the colors of the scrap I had lying around.
View attachment 93061
The handle bit was rounded a whole bunch with my rotary tool and a sanding bit.
View attachment 93062
I used a paper template for all of the details on the side of the gun. This thing got pretty nasty by the time I was done with it, but it got the job done.
View attachment 93063
The details on the rounded hand guard bit were carved in with some wood carving tools and small files. The circles were made by cutting discs off of a 1/4" acrylic rod and stuffing them into holes drilled into the PVC.
View attachment 93064
The first round of priming and sanding is always pretty satisfying. The holes that go all of the way through the black PVC layer were drilled and then cut/refined with an X-Acto knife and small files. Some of the shallower detail bits (switches and the groove on the bottom MDF part of the hand guard) were filled with Magic Sculpt and then sanded to preserve the edges.
View attachment 93065
The detail on the front of the gun was a little jenky. I ended up using more 1/8" foam PVC to fill in the grooves and accommodate the full girth of the barrels.
View attachment 93066
We got barrels (PVC pipes, clearly)! I also added the switch details with some 1/16" high impact styrene. The cross-hatched bit under the barrels is a piece of PVC pipe that I cut to shape and then carved the lines in with some small files.
View attachment 93067
Finally, I did a crap ton of priming and sanding (and priming and sanding). This sucker is ready for a silicone bath. I'm building the mold box now and will be pouring goo later today!
View attachment 93068
I will have more updates later this week when I get the cast pieces cranked out!
You can always check out my daily updates at my facebook page and/or twitter.
Since I have more than one commission for this gun, I will be making a mold of it. The master is being built from a bunch of scrap wood and plastic that I have lying around.
I nabbed my references from troodon80 on deviantArt: I used the Paladin images because it is more robust and the color is better for reference:
Mass Effect References by Troodon80 on deviantART
I started as I usually do, by drawing detailed vectors from said references:
View attachment 93059
The core layer of the gun was cut from 3/4" MDF. I'm starting to think that the MDF that I got is grainier than other MDF I've seen folks using. I've only used one sheet of it since I make mostly small things like pistols.
View attachment 93060
The next two layers were cut from 1/8" (white) foam PVC and 1/4" (black) foam PVC. The colors are irrelevant; that just happened to be the colors of the scrap I had lying around.
View attachment 93061
The handle bit was rounded a whole bunch with my rotary tool and a sanding bit.
View attachment 93062
I used a paper template for all of the details on the side of the gun. This thing got pretty nasty by the time I was done with it, but it got the job done.
View attachment 93063
The details on the rounded hand guard bit were carved in with some wood carving tools and small files. The circles were made by cutting discs off of a 1/4" acrylic rod and stuffing them into holes drilled into the PVC.
View attachment 93064
The first round of priming and sanding is always pretty satisfying. The holes that go all of the way through the black PVC layer were drilled and then cut/refined with an X-Acto knife and small files. Some of the shallower detail bits (switches and the groove on the bottom MDF part of the hand guard) were filled with Magic Sculpt and then sanded to preserve the edges.
View attachment 93065
The detail on the front of the gun was a little jenky. I ended up using more 1/8" foam PVC to fill in the grooves and accommodate the full girth of the barrels.
View attachment 93066
We got barrels (PVC pipes, clearly)! I also added the switch details with some 1/16" high impact styrene. The cross-hatched bit under the barrels is a piece of PVC pipe that I cut to shape and then carved the lines in with some small files.
View attachment 93067
Finally, I did a crap ton of priming and sanding (and priming and sanding). This sucker is ready for a silicone bath. I'm building the mold box now and will be pouring goo later today!
View attachment 93068
I will have more updates later this week when I get the cast pieces cranked out!
You can always check out my daily updates at my facebook page and/or twitter.
