Wow, I was just about to post new stuff! I've been super busy the last few weeks working on some related projects, but I finally found some time to continue this one.
Here's the overall status of everything so far:
As you can see, I finally got around to priming and polishing the rest of the external parts. I managed to get ahold of two .45 colt rounds to get the new cylinders properly sized. I went ahead and made the original fluted cylinder as well, which looks way more aggressive and super cool.
The plan is to include six cast bullets and six empty casings with each cylinder. The ejector fits perfectly, and the bullets catch, yet still fit loosely enough in the cylinder that even the painted resin ones shouldn't stick at all:
If the ejector mechanism ends up working as designed, I'm going to spend hours just reloading it over and over
As for the barrel section, I'm in the middle of chopping it up for finishing and casting purposes. I remade the little 'arc shield' bits that go around the plant electronics as separate pieces. The originals will be cut off of the master to make things easier to cast. Since the internals are drawn so differently in each scene, it also opens up the opportunity for customization if people request a specific style or combination of parts.
After another can or so of primer and eleventy billion more hours of polishing, these parts should be shiny enough to make some nice semi-reflective casts.
I'm still getting the design for the grips worked out. Solidworks is great for angular stuff, but organic forms are a b*%ch to get right.
I'll be out of town all next week, but the plan is to start casting by the third week in March.
