Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS!

[Twangy Rubber]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Well, mine arrived on Saturday and I've just had a good look at it this evening. A couple of points spring to mind:

It's quite detailed, but is the front "assembly" meant to be bent?
When I hold it in a natural grip (ie let the grip slide through the hand until the base of the thumb is against the rear of the gun), the trigger catches against my middle finger and can't be pulled properly... I have to lift the gun up and re-grip to be able to pull the trigger! I think it needs an integral trigger guard to keep wayward digits out of the mechanism!

And more importantly:

I haven't looked too hard at pulling it apart, as I am thinking of doing more of a 'homage' to the designer with a detailed custom paint job.

If it's anything like mine, don't bother trying to take it apart!!

I've watched the disassembly video a few pages back, and was expecting a similar experience, but after 10 minutes prising and bending things I looked a bit like this: :angry

Apart from the tiny pieces that snap on, it's glued SOLID. Even one of the tiny pieces had it's supporting peg covered in glue, so if course that snapped off during removal. There's *no way* I can separate the main pieces without shattering them. I don't understand why other people apparently have no trouble getting theirs in bits (which obviously helps with modding and painting!), or why a piece issued for modding should be glued at all!? I had to take the front and back ends off with a saw... you can imagine the mess that made

 

[Zombie Killer]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

I left my Bison in the sun for a few hours and it came apart with minimal breakage.

 

[maduncle]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Leaving it in the sun - of course!

I started pulling mine apart last night - took about 3/4 of an hour of prising and coaxing - but it did let go on the glue joins where I wanted it to let go. No real damage, just a few more nicks in the body work (more patina).

So now I have it apart - I have a plan:

- etch primer on all parts first (I think it will need a base etch coat on this plastic)
- base coat of steel hammertone blue (intended to represent my guns original colour)
- paint the front knob to look like ceramic
- cut the trigger guard off the handle part
- trim the top vane down a bit
- remove all black pipework where I can and replace with clear fish tank air tube
- mark up and cut away side body panels to the rear to create 'doors' in the body
- hinge the panels
- build a ray gun 'engine' to install inside the body, under the hinged panels, and run clear fish tank tube to the engine from inside the body where the tube would come through from the outside
- add some detail with one or two other parts
- try to fill or mask part join lines
- paint parts of the gun with liquid iron and then rust

All of this by mid August!

The more I thought about it last night as I pulled it apart, the more I liked the idea of adding detail inside the gun, rather than outside - sort of a 'what's under the hood' approach.

 

[amg]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

.... sort of a 'what's under the hood' approach.

:cool Puts a new twist on things

I've been looking at mine very hard, and being as I am a girl :rolleyes I do know a bit about guns but my Dad and Bro know a bit more...who are busy ranchers and though they think the whole thing is quite absurd, just can't help themselves and start to play with the gun and critiquing my designs :lol

This is so much fun :love

 

[XxCALIBERxX]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Mine came in today! Yeeha! Its a lot bigger than i thought it would be. . Looks like the designs need to be changed a bit. .

Cheers, Dave.

 

[fabrik]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Mine's in too! It's huge! I spent most of last night staring at it trying to figure out my next move...

 

[youngpaddy1]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

mine came this morning pyow pyow, this is gonna be a lot of work but fun as hell too.

cheerio

 

[Weta]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Hi Everyone

We have had some cancellations, so we still have a limited number of Unpainted Rayguns available from our US and UK warehouses

You can order right now from the website, and we will deliver immediately

The Righteous Bison Indivisible Particle Smasher

Thanks

Tim

 

[maduncle]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Well - I managed to get somework done last night. I have sanded off a couple of mounting posts on the body to try to create a larger smooth area at the rear as the opening doors in the body.

I then used my Dremel to cut the panels out, now I have a large rectangular hole in the body to fill with ray gun engine parts.

I also completely stripped all the pipework off the 'pipe units' - now I can drill out the holes for the clear fishtank tubing.

Only issue I found is that the Dremel cuts decrease the panel door sizes with material lost in the cutting process, so I will need to get some styrene sheet and put a 'door lip' around the opening parts.

I hope to get the primer on this weekend, and take a few more build progress photos.

 

[RustBelt]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

I was on the wait list just got a secret email from Weta Mine is in the mail as I write this. Its going to be really cool once I tear into it.

 

[Majonaise]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

I thought I'd share some retouched scans of a a few photos I just dug up in the attic at my grandmother's. I'd known that my granddad, (whom I never had the chance to meet) served dishonorably in the 2nd Venusian war.



_MG_8096 t by The_MattJones, on Flickr
I was surprised to find that they apparently relied on an older model of a venerable design that we're still familiar with today!


_MG_8100 by The_MattJones, on Flickr

And a later photo with a different make and model after losing an eye to a martian mugger. Clearly he really liked that coat. And scarf. And those gloves. And that belt... More Here

 

[Majonaise]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

In less farcical news, I've been having great luck disassembling my bison with the aid of piping hot water from a hot pot. Eliminates the issue of breakage if you take your time. does raise the issue of deformation on parts like the flogiston conduit along the sides of the gun, although they only bend a little; no risk of smooshing or becoming irreparably warped from what I can see.

 

[Majonaise]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Oh, and if you're having trouble, the process that eventually worked for me was
1- remove tubes and bits that will hold the two halves of the body together (prying under hot water)
2- rotate the tail cone to get the back of the body to start to separate
3- prise it appart and remove the tail cone
4- pour hot water inside
5- continue to pull two halves appart.

the body's seam is glued, and there are 11 beefy post-and-sockets holding the halves together, all of which are glued.

 

[Tack]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

This is way far away from the finished product but here's what I have so far.



Trying to mix in some of the shock trooper gun in with the Bison. I like the idea of the troops receiving these and modifying them with parts they have around camp.

Also, vacuum tubes are cool!

 

[maduncle]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

I agree on vacuum tubes - I often use them in my builds.

Today I managed to swing by the local hobby shop and pick up supplies for the weekend (paints, glue, paint brushes, filler, styrene sheet, styrene rod... I realised I don't have a lot of hobby supplies).

Meanwhile - here is how the open engine bay (minus the engine) on a Bison looks.

 

[Sigma-LS]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Funny thing about vacuum tubes is that they largely went the way of the dinosaur once transistors came into play. However, the one niche they still filled magnificently was as a magnetron, the heart of microwave ovens and radar and communications equipment to this day. A true raygun device if there ever was one.

That's why I put a sizable magnetron in the heart of my bison build.

 

[HeadCase]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Hoooo-kay...
New member, a month or two lurker...

So - Hi everybody!
I ordered one of the Naked Bisons last night, and registered with the forum just now. So this is really more than just a bit scary. I hope I manage to make something that's semi-worth showing off.

I shall try and gather my thoughts about my entry in the next day or two (and the Bison should be here within 5-10 days, or so Weta tells me) I do have a few different thoughts about things I want to make, but haven't made a decition yet. I can however tell you what it will most likely be called:

The Tremulous Troll Truncator
(It finds itself in sort of a branch off reality to Dr Grordbort I suppose)

 

[Soulinertia]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Be careful taking these things apart people. I just tore my thumb open with a screwdriver last night trying to pry a piece off.

 

[Stewart23]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Ordered my Naked Bison today and am going to T*R*Y to work on it in between working on IRON MAN XXX and AVENGERS XXX

 

[valdi]

Re: Weta - Dr Grordbort's Custom Raygun Contest! - SHOW OFF YOUR CONCEPTS AND DESIGNS

Ordered my Naked Bison today and am going to T*R*Y to work on it in between working on IRON MAN XXX and AVENGERS XXX

Fitting name for the >Bison< :lol
Of course I had to hop over to check out the production photos Stewart23, and I must say they are impressive. Looking forward to see the finished product... And the Bison :lol