The successor to the PKD (LAPD 2019)

Being a huge fan of Blade Runner and it’s iconic hand cannon (as well as a bit of a gunsmith in my spare time) I have always wondered two things.... 1. How it actually works (in 'universe' not reality) and 2. What a new version of that pistol would look like in a sequel set thirty to fifty years later.

The first one I am still attempting to answer and believe that I may be close to being able to make a semi functional model (future thread on the way when I’m back in the States).

As for the second, well, we know how THAT blaster turned out don’t we...

So... after working as a stunt man and action director/performer for nearly twenty years, the time has now come for me to make my directorial debut and for that film (a Sci-Fi Action Thriller) I have decided to attempt to create a spiritual successor to my favorite movie gun, the PKD.

My first sketch is below.




The reasoning I had when designing the blaster (and why I did not care for the new one) was that the most important thing to follow in order to produce a worthy successor had to be in following the way it was made, not just copying the exact shape and making it a bit different.

So... here goes my reasoning.

The original blaster was a mixture of an American pistol and an Austrian Rifle. The Charter Arms pistol was a revolver currently in production and the Steyr rifle was a much older design.

Being a bit of a ‘gun guy’ as I mentioned previously and knowing a thing or two about functionality,
I decided a low bore axis pistol - a modern revolver like the Chiapa Rhino or it’s older uncle, the Mateba, should be the (currently most relevant) inspiration for the base.

Being that the grip angle and several other aspects of the Italian design are very different from both the Charter Arms Bulldog and the current American offerings, I thought I would imagine a large frame Smith and Wesson equivalent (just with the barrel firing from the bottom of the cylinder) and use that as the base pistol.

For the top half, I selected a thirty to forty year old Germanic design (not Austrian but close) in the HK G3 rifle and after a bit of tinkering around with an Airsoft prop and checking some real world reference, the design came to life.

Being based in Japan for the time being (as production of the film is here) I have access to very cheap used airsoft guns that are in very good condition (the Japanese take care of their stuff) and so can go and grab a few cheap revolvers to start modifying.

And as the ‘studio franchise’ pitching process is very different here to the States, (the director literally brings EVERYTHING to the production), I am building the prototype prop weapons and armor with my own small production team before shooting a test reel and asking for lots of money

I hope that you all like the sketch, I will be posting some pictures of the build as it progresses and hopefully can share some of the pre-production process of the film with you all as well.

Please excuse my heavy text ramblings and if anyone knows how to link a picture to the thread from an iPhone, I would be most grateful if you could share that knowledge with me.

Thank you for reading and if anyone has advice/criticism/guidance I would love to hear it.

Intriguing! Looking forward to this : )

Like the imgur comment says, looks an awful lot like the 10mm pistol from Fallout 4

Kokanee said:

Like the imgur comment says, looks an awful lot like the 10mm pistol from Fallout 4

Click to expand...

@Kokanee Thank you for the comparison - Very interesting! I haven't played the 4th Game as I don't have much time these days and I only own a PS3 but having just googled it - it does look quite similar doesn't it!

From a first glance, I would say that they have used the Mateba as a very direct lower part influence as the grip angle is very similar. The top part is an amalgamation of a few firearms - perhaps a Czech AK variant and a bit of an HK shape. It has the Mateba hammer too and what looks like a P38 style slide on steroids.

I don't think that those switches make much sense though... I put the mag release of the G3 inside the trigger guard because that's where it will actually go when I 'mate' the two halves together. Even with a Frankenstein Airsoft prototype, the actor would be able to drop the mag from the trigger guard with their index finger. It also looks a bit like the 'set trigger' on the Steyr.

When I manage to put the 'other side' sketch up, you will see that I have included the HK bolt as I want it to be as functional as possible and agree mostly with the ideas of Phil Steinschneider and Richard A. Coyle's breakdown of how the PDK would actually work. As a magazine fed weapon with an upper barrel/chamber for some kind of Sabot/Rocket round, I want to have access to the chamber. Plus, we might shoot some 'live fire' with blanks in the States for the film and it's possible that a .308 sized ' dummy round' with a .22lr blank or live primer with some flash paper could actually fit in there. (It would of course be in the wrong place for the G3 but that's another story!

Thanks again for drawing my attention to this and I hope that you enjoy the evolution of the prop!

Thank you Mike J. looking forward to showing more as it progresses

I dig your sketches; can very much see them as a next model pld. I assume you’re wanting a translucent grip similar to the original? Is it a slide design rather than bolt action?

A few updated designs above. Apologies for the randomly attached pictures, I'm still figuring out how to do it properly!

As you can see, the left of the blaster has a full working charging handle or 'bolt' for the top barrel's chamber.

The selector mirrors the HK one but with safe, fire and HE (high explosive) instead of the usual markings. As is the case with the real HK trigger group variations, I might do a few different versions of the blaster with burst fire/full auto etc.

The next stage will be to add internal parts designs before making a cardboard/paper mock up for size and scale.
I'm a complete noob with 3d software so I'll be doing the construction the old fashioned way...

PKD; friggin autocorrect.

Thank you for your kind words @EasternBloc

I really love the translucent grips so I will certainly get a pair made when the time comes.

I believe @Soulinertia does a rather stunning set of clear grips which would fit the look I am going for nicely.

There will be no reciprocating slide but the 'bolt' will open the chamber to feed the 'rocket round' and the bullets fed from the magazine will load via a feed ramp into a cylindrical chamber above the trigger area. The ammunition is supposed to be case-less so there is no ejection port but I may have an AR15 style takedown system with two pins holding the upper and lower receiver together in order to clear any internal malfunctions.

I'm very much attempting to make this function as the PKD was 'intended' and not just have a revolver in there (although that might be the case for the test reel prop until I get back to my workshop in Texas)

Although I really like the 2049 one (Officer K´s Blaster), I love this design as much as the original. Great work so far!

That is very kind of you to say @Stor Lard - I am slowly warming up to the 2049 one after checking out a phenomenal version made by RPF member @JOATRASH FX but still prefer the original look and feel of the PKD.

Thank you so much for the encouragement and I hope that my design, when built, can live up to the promise of my premise!

Sub'd :thumbsup

Thank you all for reading the thread and encouraging me to do more and thanks @Soulinertia for subbing!
I'm in post-production on a very challenging film for the next six weeks, but I'll update the thread as often as possible.

Below is a very rough internals illustration - I went through a few versions after trying to make the 'internal cylinder' concept work, but the magazine and barrels are just in the wrong place for that idea to be functional, on both my new design and the original PKD.

What does work however, is having a rotary/helical magazine with multiple chambers, similar to a Calico machine pistol except with the magazine forward of the trigger guard like a Bizon smg.
My justification for having such small rounds (roughly the size of a .17HMR) would be that the case-less/sabot ammo of the future has higher powered propellant and the bullets themselves are made of a denser alloy so even a smaller bullet would still have plenty of stopping power. If anyone has played Mass Effect (the first one with the BB sized projectiles used in the early auto rifles) then you get the idea or at least the theory. If any of you own or have shot a rifle chambered in .22-250 Remington, then you should have a very good idea of what I mean.

Hello again everyone, or anyone that is interested after so long...
I have been on location non stop for almost six months but have finally got back to the workshop and...

...the studio manager greeted me sporting a huge grin, eager to show off the Ultimaker 2 Extended+ that he had just installed.
So...I decided to get my hands dirty with a 3d print (my first ever) and went over to Punished Props and purchased Bill Doran's plans to make his 'updated blaster'.
Replicant Blaster 3D Print Files (Digital Download) - Punished Props Academy

My intention is to use it as a scale comparison whilst I rip apart a g3SAS airsoft gun and an MP5K model gun for the small parts on the new design blaster prototype.

Being that I currently live in Japan, I got myself a few of these too for a further scale comparison. Now I'm really going to have to get those @Soulinertia grips aren't I?

looking good! will be interesting to see this made physical.

Kokanee said:

looking good! will be interesting to see this made physical.

Click to expand...

Thank you Kokanee I'm looking forward to show more as it progresses!

So...3d printers eh?
Wonderful things, until they stop working.
It seems our Ultimaker suffered a little during transport and half way into the print of the receiver plate cover, decided that it's x/y switch didn't want to play anymore.
Unfortunately, it was a hardware issue and not something that could be fixed locally so it's off to the distributor in Tokyo for fixing for a week or so.

But... I have set this time aside for building the blaster and I'll be damned if something so trivial as a broken printer is going to delay me so, moving forward, it's back to the old school approach - MDF, pencils, rulers, tools and all that good stuff.

First drafts on the board and the subsequent musings are below, where you will see that I have used the acquired parts as reference. (Got to love the second hand stores in Japan that are full of broken old Tokyo Marui guns!)

Draughting the first pattern to scale on MDF