Metal and wood ELG-3A Blaster

eethan

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Hi,
I guess it's time to start posting something instead of just lurking here and there and posting a few raving comment about other people work :)
I was saying to myself that I would see if I could finish this and maybe then posting a fake wip thread but this makes no sense, I'm here to get feedback and hopefully starting the thread will force me to finish that prop no matter what!
So, this is kind of my first real project, it's of course more complex than I thought and for now, I have no idea if I'll manage to finish it or not. For sure it will take some time, so I hope this will not be boring.

I'm trying to reproduce as faithfully as possible with the small amount of pictures that I found the ELG-3A blaster, Padmé's blaster. I don't have a metal lathe, I however have wood working skills (I've been building guitars for a few years now)

It all started with a few aluminum tubes that I cut to length. I don't know why exactly but I often do 2 times the same object at the same time so there will be two of them.
ELG-3A_001.jpg


Then I started testing how to shape the main aluminum tube with a rasp and a hand drill...
The handles will be made in left over one century old french walnut coming for a bed found at my in laws' farm. It's what we call character grade wood in guitar making, it's a bit curly in some places, there are knots and worm holes but I like how it looks.
and a first mock up of the blaster: (lol!)
ELG-3A_002.jpg


I then created a medium template of the handle and used it to cut two handles with a router (well, actually just one for now)
ELG-3A_003.jpg


then routed the handle to the "good" thickness and made rought bevels that will be finished by hand later on.
ELG-3A_004.jpg

ELG-3A_005.jpg


second mock up, where I'm at for now:
ELG-3A_006.jpg


I hope you guys will like it.
Please feel free to comment and give feedback. I'm also looking for good pictures of the actual prop if someone know of any. I only managed to find a few promo pics as well as some movie snap shot.
cheers
 
Looks like a good start! You did all the shaping on the large tube with a drill? If so, how did you chuck that large of a tube on a drill?
 
Looks like a good start! You did all the shaping on the large tube with a drill? If so, how did you chuck that large of a tube on a drill?

Thanks for you comment. :)
Yeah all the metal work is done with a hand drill, a metal rasp and sandpaper. It's of course not finished, it's going to be a lot more rounded.
The funniest part is actually how I attached the tube to the drill, I use a violin clamp for that...

ELG-3A_007.jpg


cheers guys
 
I actually now ordered that:
EXM-503MCM1.jpg
I hope it will help when I receive it :)
In the meantime, I have wood work to do anyways!
 
Hey there,
I carved a little bit the handle to start refining the shape, and also made the curved bed at the top of the handle to accept the metal cylinder radius. All that is still quite rough, I took close up pictures to show the defaults and motivate me to push it further.

ELG-3A_008.jpg


ELG-3A_009.jpg


ELG-3A_010.jpg


ELG-3A_011.jpg


ELG-3A_012.jpg


ELG-3A_013.jpg


ELG-3A_014.jpg


I hope you'll like it. I know it's not much of a progress, I sadly don't have too much time on my hands...
cheers
 
Hi,
Sorry, no big update to show yet but I worked a bit on the blasters, started doing a recess for the trigger on the first handle and cut the second handle. I'm still waiting to receive my new turning tool for the aluminum, I think I ran on a bad shop to order from, I hope it will show up eventually...

routing the trigger recess with a dremel (I then drilled it completely and cleaned it with a rasp but have no picture of it)
ELG-3A_015.jpg


then I started cutting the second handle and had a bit of a surprise when putting it to thickness, lots of worm holes than I didn't imagine were there.
ELG-3A_016.jpg

I then removed more wood and got something a bit bitter even if there are still some holes. I'll finish those two handles anyways because I like the worming but will certainly find a more normal piece of walnut to make a more screen accurate version.
here, carving the handle, chilling outside my workshop downstairs while it was 33 celcius degrees in my appartment. A chair, a knife, blue sky: pure fun!
ELG-3A_017.jpg


this is a comparative version of both handles, the second one on the right is a tiny bit narrower due to all the worming, but I think the proportions work better than way and I'll keep those measurements for the next ones. It's a bit hard to guess the thickness of those handles based on the movie snapshots, I hope I'm not too far off...
ELG-3A_018.jpg


the current state of things:
ELG-3A_019.jpg


I hope you guys like it, don't hesitate to comment :)
 
Hi,
here is a new update, I finished one of the handles,
first a small trick for people working with wood, if you have a knot in a piece of wood that you loose or simply if you have a hole, a natural way to hide it is to use another knot that you would take in a piece of pine. second trick is that to do that, I use a drill bit larger than the knot and drilled the pine on the oposite side of the knot until it fell out of the plank.

ELG-3A_020.jpg


the result after waxing the handle:

ELG-3A_021.jpg

ELG-3A_022.jpg

ELG-3A_023.jpg

ELG-3A_024.jpg


I hope you like it.
I also finally received my tool to put on my drill and turn round pieces, hopefully that will help and I will be able to show more progress on the metal parts.
thanks for viewing, please don't hesitate to post comments, I feel lonely here ;)
 
Really nice work here, that's craftsmanship! I'm not a big fan of this blaster design, but your work is definitely top notch! Love the "lathe" work, and the woodworking is really beautiful. Nice!
 
Hi, Funny you should ask, I had a PM the day before yesterday about that same thing!
I did not finish it yet, I had to put it on the side for lack of time and a metal lathe. The metal work on it is almost impossible without the lathe, I know because as you can see in the picture, I really tried on one piece with a rasp and even if I got close on that part, there are so many more difficult ones to still make.

As I'm explaining in that thread:
I moved across country, quit my job and am working like hell for almost a year trying to setup here with a workshop and renovating completely a place to live.
I plan to buy a metal lathe for Christmas and get back to that seriously at the begining of next year. This is a project dear to me and even if this is taking forever, I will manage to finish it some day and when I finally do, offer a very limited run of high end handmade custom blasters with your choice of wood for the handle.
thank you very much for checking on it (y)
 
Hello there :)
So, just a little teaser to say that after all these years, this -very dear to me- project is back on track in full force, with better tools, awesome references and a deadline!

Now, this is indeed just a teaser, this is a quick test I did today, I eyeballed the shape, my plan is not yet final and I was just testing with material that I have available at the moment. The final blaster(s!) will be super accurate :)

blaster_rpf2.jpg


I'm super exited to be back on that project, it's gonna be awesome :)
 
Went throught your thread again buddy and saw this tool. Is this attached to the head of the actuall drill or does it function as a counterpart for ghetto lathing?
Hey Markus, this kind of chucks can come with several types of attachments, at the time I bought it it came with a CM2 morse tapper collet. This doesn't work well on a normal drill, so I bought a straight collet with the same threading to put on the chuck and on the drill.
It's just stuff that you have to be carefull about when you buy the tool :)
 
Remarkable work - any shots of your spinn-y set-up would be exciting, I also can't afford or have the space for a lathe and find myself sticking <2" things in a drill press and working them vertically
 
Remarkable work - any shots of your spinn-y set-up would be exciting, I also can't afford or have the space for a lathe and find myself sticking <2" things in a drill press and working them vertically
thank you very much :)

You can indeed use the kind of chucks I posted earlier in a drill press, it will work nicelly actually. I know of some really pro guitar makers that do all their guitar knobs and small piece like that.
I have to say that since making props (and eventually guitars I hope) is now my full time job, I now bought a metal lathe for this project, my old setup had a lot of limitations and this is what made me abandon the project a few years back.
I'm now working on that and the result is much more professional :):
P_20210208_172849.jpg



I'm super excited by this project, I know the prequels dont necessarily have a lot of fans but I'm putting all my heart and soul into this blaster and the result will speak for itself :) I hope people will like it :)
 
hoho!! beautiful set up!

Yea, Ep. 1 especially had its own aesthetic. It was all machined parts that were slightly curvy and awkward.

are you of the belief that the "lighter" played any role in the prop? I can't remember it for the life of me but I found one at an antique store and passed it over, weirdly the body is very close to the blaster and the cradle for the lighter has the same profile as the handle of the blaster, but it's too thick
 
hoho!! beautiful set up!

Yea, Ep. 1 especially had its own aesthetic. It was all machined parts that were slightly curvy and awkward.

are you of the belief that the "lighter" played any role in the prop? I can't remember it for the life of me but I found one at an antique store and passed it over, weirdly the body is very close to the blaster and the cradle for the lighter has the same profile as the handle of the blaster, but it's too thick
thanks man :)

there was indeed a lot of machined parts, for the naboo forces blasters for instance, but this blaster was apparently not machined. probably sculpted and chromed. it's actually quite assymetric in some parts. The barrel and tip seem to be metal though But I have no idea if they actually used a lighter for that. I want to say no because I never ever saw any evidence of a lighter that had exactly the same tip and I'm pretty sure that the long barrel tip and the short barrel tip have a slightly different shape. So I would say that the body was sculpted and chromed and the barrel and tip were machiend from aluminium :)
 
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