Selfmade Aluminium Babylon 5 PPG

Hi,

recently I started researching in building my own Babylon 5 Aluminium PPG. After reading the PPG threads here on therpf I thought I share my progress findings. So I stopped lurking and registered an Account

After I had found some measurements I started to make a CAD-Model. With the added bonus that I learn to use Fusion360, I get a 3D-Model I can use to generate drawings from, and if I get Measurements wrong I can easily correct those.
I started with modeling the Muzzel because I found good reference measurents (I have included a pdf with the muzzle drawing in the attachments).
The main Body is still a rough model. I am still figuring out the exant measurements of the details, and which details are screwed on, and which are machined into the main body.

If some of you guys know some more resources or perhaps measuremts of PPG parts please share ;-) Some of the PPG threads here on the Forum are from the mid/late 2000s and some of the pictures in them, are missing or not accessable anymore.


This is my first real attempt in making a prop replica lets see where it all leads me to

Today I worked a bit at the Main-Body. I corrected some measurements and I added some Details. Does anybody know the thickness of the PPG I havent found measurements on that so far. I only have side views of it.

I also found an article about the ppg here: http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Auricon_PPG_Pistol There it has different side vents. (elipsis instead of the three holes, and diagonal groves at the cap-side)

Interested to see how this comes out - several previous machinists have sworn to never do it again, so I wish you the best of luck!
You can ask Starbuc if he has good measurements of his hero prop - I have one of the casts from this thread, but it may be slightly off: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=225803

IIRC, there was a sexier metal version made for one of the movies. If you can get a correct set of Pachmeyer grips (out of production, I think?) you can determine most of your side view measurements from them, and since the muzzle is a cylinder, it's diameter can give you the measurements of the thickness of the body of the pistol from a corresponding top / front / rear view.

This reminds me of my project to recreate Iria's revolver from Zeiram 2. There was a lot of measuring, a little guessing, and a few mistakes. It's still unfinished.


-MJ

aetherdeus said:

Interested to see how this comes out - several previous machinists have sworn to never do it again, so I wish you the best of luck!
You can ask Starbuc if he has good measurements of his hero prop - I have one of the casts from this thread, but it may be slightly off: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=225803

Click to expand...

I am also very interested how it turns out. The Muzzle is one of the challenges. I will ask Starbuc if he could give me measurements of his hero prop, that would be the best. Thank you for the thread link this one I haven't found

Mike J. said:

IIRC, there was a sexier metal version made for one of the movies. If you can get a correct set of Pachmeyer grips (out of production, I think?) you can determine most of your side view measurements from them, and since the muzzle is a cylinder, it's diameter can give you the measurements of the thickness of the body of the pistol from a corresponding top / front / rear view.

This reminds me of my project to recreate Iria's revolver from Zeiram 2. There was a lot of measuring, a little guessing, and a few mistakes. It's still unfinished.


-MJ

Click to expand...

To get the grips will be not easy. I live in germany we dont have much access to guns or gun accessories. But its legal to buy gun grips That I allready researched.

At the moment I am using two side view drawings to get my measurements, I loaded them into Adobe Illustrator and use the measurement tool to get the dimensions. That gets me into the nearer Ball Park. When I get better measurements I can change them very easily.
I dont know the movie Zeiram 2 but I have googled some pictures of the revolver. There are a lot of parts. I can imagine how much work that is.


Today I worked at the base shape of the grip and the side plates (see attached picture). I am trying to do a little every day, and it also helps me in learning the CAD Program. As electrical engineer I havent worked much with mechanical CAD packages, but the principles are easy to learn and it helps to look and think outside of ones box

I use Illustrator all the time

Here are all the pics I have. I'm sure there are more out there. Perhaps you'd like to pick and choose your favorite features to include?


-MJ

Mike J. said:

I use Illustrator all the time

Here are all the pics I have. I'm sure there are more out there. Perhaps you'd like to pick and choose your favorite features to include?


-MJ

Click to expand...

Cool thanks for the pics.

What version of the gun is that in the pictures 2,3 and 4? it looks different with overall more details oval barrel vent holes instead of circles, groves at the cap end, some thing that looks like a fire select switch (pic 2) is it a version from one of the movies or from the crusade series?

Also is that a modified Maglite head in pic 1?

Yeah, Crusade, I think. And I do think that's a Maglite.

Uch, the grips are way out of production - camp out on ebay and sometimes a set shows up, but don't really trust any other listings on online stores.
Aha! I thought I had a measurement shot saved from somewhere - when I find wherever I left my calipers I'll double-check these, though.

The designer of the Crusade PPG made it more elaborate, so that people couldn't duplicate the design in resin. He was mistaken. He also designed three accessories for the pistol. Clockwise from the top right, a double-barrel TASER projector, a flashlight, which is a cut-down Mini-Mag lite, and a Tracker. All three accessories use camera hot shoe mounts to connect to the pistol. The only accessory I ever remember seeing on the pistol was the Tracker, But I have no idea what it is suppose to do.

David.

Mike J. said:

Yeah, Crusade, I think. And I do think that's a Maglite.

Click to expand...

Cool, I have looked at the MagLite website i think there is only the mini maglite that fits the profil link: http://maglite.com/shop/mini-maglite-led-2-cell-aaa-flashlight.html

That can help in replicating the light modul and with todays LED tech it can even be functional.

aetherdeus said:

Uch, the grips are way out of production - camp out on ebay and sometimes a set shows up, but don't really trust any other listings on online stores.
Aha! I thought I had a measurement shot saved from somewhere - when I find wherever I left my calipers I'll double-check these, though.
View attachment 544333

Click to expand...

yeah I thought that ebay is the best solution. I looked at the parchmeyr website, they have grips which are the same design and the right frame size, but they are in one piece not in two and out of some neoprene material. A temporary solution could be to cast some original grips in resin.

The measurement shot I allready found somewhere here on the forum but thanks for posting it.
The plus minus 1-2mm tolerance is a bit much, especially when there are measurements of 2 and 4 mm (25%-100% potential error). I also have another picture of a ppg where the lenght of the body is not 75mm but 85mm.

Krel said:

The designer of the Crusade PPG made it more elaborate, so that people couldn't duplicate the design in resin. He was mistaken. He also designed three accessories for the pistol. Clockwise from the top right, a double-barrel TASER projector, a flashlight, which is a cut-down Mini-Mag lite, and a Tracker. All three accessories use camera hot shoe mounts to connect to the pistol. The only accessory I ever remember seeing on the pistol was the Tracker, But I have no idea what it is suppose to do.

David.

Click to expand...

a design against resin castings thats fun but something like that is more of a challenge for people than anything else and we got a "mk2/crusage" version of the ppg. I think that can be another fun project to make a replic of the crusade version. But first I finish the "standard" B5 version that design is easier to model and to make.

I think the tracker could be something like a sci-fi-future scope/scanner.


I have worked a bit more on the CAD model. I corrected the dimensions of the cap and I added holes and screws to the side plates. I used M1.4 and M2.5 Screws because their heads have nearly the right diameter.

The ppg has made a little more progress. I have added the details to the "left slide" and the horizontal bar with the step in it on the left side. I also also made the coil type part that is under the muzzle. I also made the cutout in the main body for the grip. I still have to model the trigger housing and trigger button, the "fire select/saftey?" switch also the grip need cut outs. I still have to add missing details to the main body.

It starts to look more and more like a ppg.

Hi,

I am still working at the CAD model. I had no time or energy the last two weeks to do anything at it. I will post updates when worked at it again. I just wanted to let you all know that I am still at it and dont plan to abandon the project.

Wow. Your model looks great (another Fusion 360 fan here). I don't know why I didn't see this thread before! I'll be following with interest, especially when you start making chips.