Don Jarr
Active Member
Hi all
I have been working on this on and off for a while now, but finally I have nearly reached the end.
Being a fan of firefly and Serenity, I wanted to make something from it for my collection, so decided on the grenade. I suppose it was the simplest bit to make, but at the same time was appealing as it done something.
I made it on my lathe and milling machine, and made everything myself except the spring. No satisfied with it just being a static model which would have been far easier, I wanted it to open and the red panel on the front to glow when open. The cap has to be turned to allow it to pop up via a spring, and the sliding metal tube inside is a fixed length so it only opens so far. When finished the red panel which is opaque resin, will have a bar LED inserted into it and I have yet to find the contact switch that will turn it on when the lid pops up. (I was thinking along the lines of a simple light sensitive switch, so cap lifts up and light comes on.)
As for size as I could find no reference to it other than the deleted scenes on the Serenity DVD, so I extrapolated the size of it from when Mal holds it in his hand prior to throwing it. I have a chart I made of twenty different size hands, and using an average hand size work the size from that. While some people have big and some small hands, most people fall into the average hand size, so I used that. It might be a few millimetres bigger or smaller than the film used one, but IÂ’m happy with it.
Don
ps, if the cap looks a tad wonky, its because its not glued in place, I just balanced there for the picture.
I have been working on this on and off for a while now, but finally I have nearly reached the end.
Being a fan of firefly and Serenity, I wanted to make something from it for my collection, so decided on the grenade. I suppose it was the simplest bit to make, but at the same time was appealing as it done something.
I made it on my lathe and milling machine, and made everything myself except the spring. No satisfied with it just being a static model which would have been far easier, I wanted it to open and the red panel on the front to glow when open. The cap has to be turned to allow it to pop up via a spring, and the sliding metal tube inside is a fixed length so it only opens so far. When finished the red panel which is opaque resin, will have a bar LED inserted into it and I have yet to find the contact switch that will turn it on when the lid pops up. (I was thinking along the lines of a simple light sensitive switch, so cap lifts up and light comes on.)
As for size as I could find no reference to it other than the deleted scenes on the Serenity DVD, so I extrapolated the size of it from when Mal holds it in his hand prior to throwing it. I have a chart I made of twenty different size hands, and using an average hand size work the size from that. While some people have big and some small hands, most people fall into the average hand size, so I used that. It might be a few millimetres bigger or smaller than the film used one, but IÂ’m happy with it.
Donps, if the cap looks a tad wonky, its because its not glued in place, I just balanced there for the picture.
