WardenTorBaaL
Member
This is my first ever prop build, so any advice/feedback is much appreciated!
As most people on here already know, the Death Ray from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is also the Sonic Rifle from the TV Series Firefly, making its debut in the episode titled “Ariel”, but held upside-down and with a scope.
Thank you F-N-S for this picture, it's been super helpful!
My plan is to be Dr. Horrible for Halloween (Red) and I thought the Death Ray went better with the red costume than any of his other rays. I know it exploded in Episode 3, but Dr. Horrible saw fit to rebuild it, and that’s my story until Joss Whedon says otherwise.
I will be the first to admit that I pretty much copied the procedure Volpin uses to make his MDF weapons, the work he does is amazing, and I feel most comfortable working with MDF over other materials. Obviously my work is nowhere near the quality of his, but I figure I have to start somewhere.
Anyway, on with the build:
Here’s the rough shape of the rifle/ray. I started with a piece of ¾” MDF. This piece is 24" long and 6.75" at the widest part.
Then I added ¼” MDF to the outside to make it a bit thicker and to add some of the detail. Here you can also see the block that will eventually become the butt of the ray.
Here you can see the grooves routed out of the 1/4” MDF to run wires for the LEDs
For the scope, I spent about 45 minutes at Home Depot trying out different PVC pipe combinations that would work, and ended up with the following:
1 – 1 ½” straight coupling
2 – 1 ½" to 1 ¼" reducing bushing (the 1" couplings have an Outside Diameter (OD) of 1 ¼")
2 – 1” straight coupling
1 – 1” to ½” reducing bushing – this was used on the front with a piece of ½” pvc pipe
1 – ¾” straight coupling (this happened to fit snugly inside the 1" coupling)
1 – ¾” to ½” reducing bushing – this served as the very back of the scope
Here’s a pic of them all pieced together:
For primer I’m using Krylon Primer – Ruddy Brown color, and here’s a pic of the pipes primed and then covered with Bondo Spot Putty to reduce the inevitable lines at the joints:
Here’s a test fit of the size pieces, you can see the wiring running inside the body:
For what I’m calling the “Beam Concentrator” – basically the front part of the rifle – I used a 4” PVC end cap (it has an OD of 4.5”), a threaded lamp rod (also called a nipple), and some Apoxie Sculpt. One note about the threaded lamp rods, you can’t use regular nuts on them, you have to use the ones that they sell in the same section as the lamp rods (the lamp section at Home Depot):
And finally a picture of where I am as of today with the project, the main body has been primed (at least the pieces that will all be the same color), and I’ve started with my first layer of Spot Putty:
More to come!
For more pictures, here’s the link to the Flickr Photoset:
Dr. Horrible's Death Ray - a set on Flickr
-Dana
As most people on here already know, the Death Ray from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is also the Sonic Rifle from the TV Series Firefly, making its debut in the episode titled “Ariel”, but held upside-down and with a scope.
Thank you F-N-S for this picture, it's been super helpful!
My plan is to be Dr. Horrible for Halloween (Red) and I thought the Death Ray went better with the red costume than any of his other rays. I know it exploded in Episode 3, but Dr. Horrible saw fit to rebuild it, and that’s my story until Joss Whedon says otherwise.
I will be the first to admit that I pretty much copied the procedure Volpin uses to make his MDF weapons, the work he does is amazing, and I feel most comfortable working with MDF over other materials. Obviously my work is nowhere near the quality of his, but I figure I have to start somewhere.
Anyway, on with the build:
Here’s the rough shape of the rifle/ray. I started with a piece of ¾” MDF. This piece is 24" long and 6.75" at the widest part.
Then I added ¼” MDF to the outside to make it a bit thicker and to add some of the detail. Here you can also see the block that will eventually become the butt of the ray.
Here you can see the grooves routed out of the 1/4” MDF to run wires for the LEDs
For the scope, I spent about 45 minutes at Home Depot trying out different PVC pipe combinations that would work, and ended up with the following:
1 – 1 ½” straight coupling
2 – 1 ½" to 1 ¼" reducing bushing (the 1" couplings have an Outside Diameter (OD) of 1 ¼")
2 – 1” straight coupling
1 – 1” to ½” reducing bushing – this was used on the front with a piece of ½” pvc pipe
1 – ¾” straight coupling (this happened to fit snugly inside the 1" coupling)
1 – ¾” to ½” reducing bushing – this served as the very back of the scope
Here’s a pic of them all pieced together:
For primer I’m using Krylon Primer – Ruddy Brown color, and here’s a pic of the pipes primed and then covered with Bondo Spot Putty to reduce the inevitable lines at the joints:
Here’s a test fit of the size pieces, you can see the wiring running inside the body:
For what I’m calling the “Beam Concentrator” – basically the front part of the rifle – I used a 4” PVC end cap (it has an OD of 4.5”), a threaded lamp rod (also called a nipple), and some Apoxie Sculpt. One note about the threaded lamp rods, you can’t use regular nuts on them, you have to use the ones that they sell in the same section as the lamp rods (the lamp section at Home Depot):
And finally a picture of where I am as of today with the project, the main body has been primed (at least the pieces that will all be the same color), and I’ve started with my first layer of Spot Putty:
More to come!
For more pictures, here’s the link to the Flickr Photoset:
Dr. Horrible's Death Ray - a set on Flickr
-Dana
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