Ray gun from thrift store odds and ends. Finished!

TheSt.LouisKid

Sr Member
A lot of the hobby was getting me down what with all the recasting, people inventing rules as to when it's okay to recast, and other odd types of behavior. Those of you who know me know that I have produced many custom kits as well as kits of some more less common items. It was a fun personal challenge to make a good kit and help encourage others to assemble their own kits. Enter the recasting and greed so the kits came to an end.

I don't see offering kits any time soon. I decided to get back to the roots when it was fun. So I have been doing what I did when I was kid. I have been looking for stuff to make a fun project. Maybe it will inspire others to do a similar project and work on their creativity. The items I have found for this have never cost more than $3 so it is something for you who are on a budget.

First bunch of stuff I found.
From top to bottom the stuff I have found...
1. Computer vacuum cleaner nozzle and brush attachment.
2. Childs microscope main body casing.
3. Some kind of pistol grip thing(maybe a video game controller).

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Re: Ray gun from thrift store odds and ends.

Maybe this instead. A bit more interesting than the other. (and remember, Goodwill isn't a real charity. They are "for profit". Best to make donations to your local church thrift or Salvation Army.)
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Re: Ray gun from thrift store odds and ends.

Here are the grips. The black textured plastic is from the take out boxes from a restaurant called the Claim Jumper and is inset into white styrene. So a free source of material with purchase of the meal. :p

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Re: Ray gun from thrift store odds and ends.

A picture before paint so you can see everything together. As you can see, the blue and clear parts are from the Buzz Lightyear gun. The Forbidden Planet gun had no trigger guard so I am going without one as well. The red part had sort of a shape that reminded me of the Forbidden Planet gun when I saw it there among all the junk. I added the strip styrene and gave it a styrene forward sight and sighting fin in a style to give it a thirtys art deco style to arrive at a clean "astro punk" look. It can't be complete without the stereotypical lightening bolt which I carved from styrene.
Next is paint. The grips are left off at this point as I will paint them separately rather than apply now and mask them.

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Re: Ray gun from thrift store odds and ends. Getting close to done.

That looks awesome mate. Strange that as soon as I saw the thread title "ray gun" I instantly pictured the gun from Forbidden Planet. I guess its just such an iconic piece.
 
I like it. It definitely has that familiar "retro futuristic" look, and looks like it could actually function in whichever universe it came from. Nice work!
 
Awesome project !!!! Creative and artistic. You captured the retro feel and created a piece of beauty and design. Perfect execution! I have a place in my heart for a few retro projects myself. AND . . . I am in love with Metallic Blue.

Gordon
 
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