BUILD THREAD: Star Trek TOS Phaser Rifle
- Thread starter Mr. Nagata
- Start date
Lichtbringer
Master Member
I love this build and thread. 
love
love
Chrisisall
Sr Member
Wow, this is one I would have loved to thought of to do!! I can see from your work thus far that this will turn out PERFECT.thumbsup:thumbsup
Gonna sell it?
thumbsup:thumbsupGonna sell it?
DrMcoy
Sr Member
bravo!
love love love projects like this.
i'll never forget a high school pal started carving a pistol phaser from balsa and it looked great - but not sure he ever finished.
also, what a feeling it is to have some extra parts you need just laying around from other projects that work perfectly for what you need -- how often does THAT happen...and the slip washers being an exact fit -- i bet that felt good. i know how much time i have spent just wandering the aisles of a hardware store or hobby shop looking for some elusive bolt, screw, toggle or some such, so to have something you need be right under your nose, well, feels good.
thanks for posting your build pics...look forward to updates.
love love love projects like this.
i'll never forget a high school pal started carving a pistol phaser from balsa and it looked great - but not sure he ever finished.
also, what a feeling it is to have some extra parts you need just laying around from other projects that work perfectly for what you need -- how often does THAT happen...and the slip washers being an exact fit -- i bet that felt good. i know how much time i have spent just wandering the aisles of a hardware store or hobby shop looking for some elusive bolt, screw, toggle or some such, so to have something you need be right under your nose, well, feels good.
thanks for posting your build pics...look forward to updates.
darthgordon
Sr Member
Okay, this is impressive.
Yeah, it's always nice to be able to use leftover materials from another project. I'd feel better about the acrylic tubing except for the fact that before the screen-used rifle went up for auction, I was taking a guess at the overall length. I thought it was more like 36"-38" as opposed to 34". So even though I had a piece of the correct 2" tubing from another project, I went and bought a new piece of 2.5" tubing thinking that was correct size. So now I have THAT lying around. Hopefully it will come in handy some day.
Speaking of components I had to go out and buy, I did have to buy some ripped tubing for the inside of the cylinders. I just got a general purpose ribbed hose from the hardware store. While not 100% accurate, it's close enough and it was only $10:
Cut to length with a piece of balsa inside to keep it straight:
Painted them up. The copper paint I had on hand was Rustoleum Copper Metallic, but it wasn't really orange enough, so after I painted them, I oversprayed them with Tamiya Clear Orange and the color seems pretty close now:
Assembling the tubes was easy. I used a drywall screw through the end caps which screws right into the balsa running down the tubes. Everything is tight, so no glue was necessary. Which is good because gluing transparent acrylic to anything always looks a little messey because you can see the bonded edge:
I also painted some small acrylic domes for the light lenses. I wanted to use colored cabochons, but I didn't have any in the right size and color. So these are just painted with clear red, yellow, and orange and clearcoated:
I satin clearcoated all the blue parts. I'm starting to see how it will all come together:
Speaking of components I had to go out and buy, I did have to buy some ripped tubing for the inside of the cylinders. I just got a general purpose ribbed hose from the hardware store. While not 100% accurate, it's close enough and it was only $10:
Cut to length with a piece of balsa inside to keep it straight:
Painted them up. The copper paint I had on hand was Rustoleum Copper Metallic, but it wasn't really orange enough, so after I painted them, I oversprayed them with Tamiya Clear Orange and the color seems pretty close now:
Assembling the tubes was easy. I used a drywall screw through the end caps which screws right into the balsa running down the tubes. Everything is tight, so no glue was necessary. Which is good because gluing transparent acrylic to anything always looks a little messey because you can see the bonded edge:
I also painted some small acrylic domes for the light lenses. I wanted to use colored cabochons, but I didn't have any in the right size and color. So these are just painted with clear red, yellow, and orange and clearcoated:
I satin clearcoated all the blue parts. I'm starting to see how it will all come together:
Wonderful build!
And quick too!
And quick too!
Chrisisall
Sr Member
You GO girl!
Last edited:
Jsimon999
Well-Known Member
This is really tremendous. I started one of these last year and basically abandoned it out of frustration. The scaling I did was quite off I felt and even worse my finishing skills at the time were really not up to par.
You've inspired me to take another crack at it. Someday.
thumbsup
Jon
You've inspired me to take another crack at it. Someday.
thumbsupJon
Yeah, it's always nice to be able to use leftover materials from another project. I'd feel better about the acrylic tubing except for the fact that before the screen-used rifle went up for auction, I was taking a guess at the overall length. I thought it was more like 36"-38" as opposed to 34". So even though I had a piece of the correct 2" tubing from another project, I went and bought a new piece of 2.5" tubing thinking that was correct size. So now I have THAT lying around. Hopefully it will come in handy some day.
Speaking of components I had to go out and buy, I did have to buy some ripped tubing for the inside of the cylinders. I just got a general purpose ribbed hose from the hardware store. While not 100% accurate, it's close enough and it was only $10:
Cut to length with a piece of balsa inside to keep it straight:
Painted them up. The copper paint I had on hand was Rustoleum Copper Metallic, but it wasn't really orange enough, so after I painted them, I oversprayed them with Tamiya Clear Orange and the color seems pretty close now:
Assembling the tubes was easy. I used a drywall screw through the end caps which screws right into the balsa running down the tubes. Everything is tight, so no glue was necessary. Which is good because gluing transparent acrylic to anything always looks a little messey because you can see the bonded edge:
I also painted some small acrylic domes for the light lenses. I wanted to use colored cabochons, but I didn't have any in the right size and color. So these are just painted with clear red, yellow, and orange and clearcoated:
I satin clearcoated all the blue parts. I'm starting to see how it will all come together:
no trigger?
No trigger yet. Since it's non-functional, I'm just going to glue it on.
