Pulse Rifle scratch build

[LukaFilm]

Hi!

I'm a new member to this forum, but I've been visiting it for over two years now! I've followed a lot of great builds from you guys and finally decided to join and start my own... so lets go!

As the title plainly says it's gonna be a pulse rifle build. After a couple of weeks of research and reading through every pulse rifle build on RPF I decided to do a scratch build since i cant afford the real thompson replica and other stuff.. especially since i live in Europe so i figure the taxes and shipping would kill me :lol

Ah, I also should mention I want to do it as realistic as possible, so i'll try to make all parts separately and then assemble them, just like you would on a real parts build.
OK, enough talking, now pictures:

I started by cutting the basic form for Thompson

next I made the simple trigger mechanism

added the upper part

I also made the spring mechanism inside the gun so when i pull it back the spring pushes it forward, kinda like the real thing... kinda...

filled the space between the pipe and plastic with car filler and dremeled the hole

then roughly shaped the handle

these lines were somehow tricky to do, and I can still see they're not perfectly even but i figure it's close enough..

then I started to make side covers from thin plastic

finished shaping the handle

I got some more pictures but imageshack is not cooperating Anyway i suppose this is more than enough for the first post :lol

Feels good to be a member finaly, Ill post the rest tomorrow, byy

 

[MrPinski]

NICE WORK MAN! Looks like a gun already!

 

[zanderwitaz]

excellent! Im glad to see this isnt based on a pre-made m1a1 for once!

 

[Jonny B]

Impresive! Keep that attention to the details because it's awesome so far. Don't rush it and this is going to be an epic build.

 

[cavx]

Very good work.

 

[gyoung2993]

VERY NICE........WOW.......Great work to detail so far.......

 

[quest]

awesome! Definitely be keeping an eye on this one

 

[madmax]

Check out this build on the BBC

Blaster Builders Club • View topic - my 3th pulse rifle in the making (update finished)

 

[LukaFilm]

Thank you everybody!!!

As I promised i'm posting the rest of the pics today..

this part was tricky to cut out.. i don't really know what it's for? some kind of reinforcement maybe? or just design - to look cool?

i applied a coat of primer over it all

hard to see in this picture, but i painted the handle too. first i sprayed it with grey primer too, and i intended to spray it with black later. but then i started thinking... when prop guys were making these for aliens they used real thompson submachine guns, and their handles are just wood painted with red wood paint. and on that they sprayed black. so black paint could chip from usage, right?
so, i scrached off most of grey and painted it with wood paint too, and then ill put black over it and chip it.


this picture is my main inspiration for aging the rifle. i like the worn and dirty stuff so I can't help it :lol

ok after the grey primer i spayed everything with silver/metal paint.

and then the black!

the reason for that is I'll try to make realistic paint chipping, so when I scratch the black silver would come through. I sprayed one coat of hairspray on silver hoping it would make chipping easier.. i had some good experiences with that before!!

thats it for now. Thanks again for the support, and more pictures coming tonight..

 

[lharles]

Wonderful! I'm impressed!

 

[Canobi]

This is a great build, and I love the attention to detail your putting in. I'm watching with much interest :thumbsup

 

[DocBlizzy]

Wow man that is very impressive! Looks great, looking forward to the finished product.

 

[Chaank]

Sweet!

 

[LukaFilm]

hi, I've aged the thompson using that hairspray trick.. I'm satisfied with how it turned out. especially because if you look really close at the damage you can see that silver is under the black paint. It has the "layers" the real paint would have.

I'm trying to do the details as close as possible to the real thing, but i just don't have all sizes of rivets like the real one has, so i'm using screws and whatever i find. it will have to do...

for example the two levers for single and auto shooting are made from something that looked similar :lol I just put the screw in it and cut it to length. improvising... improvising...

since I didn't think about the magazine slot before i had to make something up at this stage :lol i dremeled a bit of wood, and screwed a thin piece of aluminum over it.

the part of magazine that goes in the slot is also made from aluminum, so it wouldn't break...

the magazine, of course, is really just a piece of wood with styrene around it

it really fits very tightly in the slot and everything seems strong

that's it for today. I hope you like the progress and thanks for watching!!!

 

[Gigatron]

To heck with the pulse rifle - you should just make replica thompsons :love.

I have a resin thmpson (cast from a real one) in my pulse rifle, and it isn't nearly as clean as yours. Great job :thumbsup.

-Fred

 

[Felgacarb]

Very nice- I think I need to learn how to do this styrene over wood method- your work looks great!

 

[Noeland]

Incredibly impressive and wonderful work!!! Thanks for sharing it, can't wait to see more.

 

[bryan603]

This is looking awesome so far. I can't wait to see this finished.

 

[superfreak1000]

looks awesome!! i love the weathering you did on it!

 

[Filandrius]

I'm in love with that thing. Styrene-covered wood: genius. It looks absolutely real, incredible work. I'm stuck to that thread, can't wait to see that completed rifle.

EDIT: Oh and that part you were wondering about? It's called the "pivot plate". It's basically what holds all the levers from the other side in place.