Still gotta take them to peaks, and lemme tell ya there's one hell of a learning curve to checkering. I made so many mistakes before I finally settled into a groove The acrylic gums up the files really quickly, and then they like to hop around.
It's getting there!
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Gorgeous, just gorgeous. What's the name of the tool? Forgive my ignorance. And the thickness of the acrylic sheet?
The checkering tool I'm using is just a three piece set from Dem-Bart. It's basically v-files. One long, one short, and one with a guide rail. If you're gonna checker, you're gonna want some magnification, too.
The polishing wheel knocked the sharpness down some, which bums me out. Still happy how they're turning out overall though!
Cool. I'll look into that. The smoke acrylic would look perfect on a police conversion. Been thinking of converting a Sid....
oh man... oh man... this is amazing! I love to do stuff by hand and I think you are my new role model... congrats :thumbsup
I loved the black on black look, but that transparency in the grips is such a huge part of the blaster's aesthetic.
EXACTLY!! Man... I need to try this... thanks for the tips about the material and tools. Valuable knowledge. That'll go straight to the builder's log!
Btw you really nailed this... a huge inspiration!
Thanks, Anders. I picked this project because I knew I would have to learn a whole lot of new skills to finish it. One thing that made the sculpting much easier was using transfer screws to get the registration right. I screwed them into the grip frame, lined up the acrylic, and then whacked it with a hammer - perfectly aligned center-punches. The Sid metal is a lot softer than the Tomen grip frame, but I bet you could still use the same technique (just be a little more gentle with the hammer). When all's said and done I'm hoping to to have a 100% Victor-made frame, buttplate (both from 6160 aluminum), and acrylic grips set for converting bulldogs with. I bet they'll fit a Coyle too, since his is cast directly off the Charter Arms. They might work on a Sid too with a little modification, though. I know people have fit his grip frames to their SidKits for ghost builds & stuff. I still have a lot of kinks to iron out in my process before I get there, though.
I never liked that the police model had opaque grips. I loved the black on black look, but that transparency in the grips is such a huge part of the blaster's aesthetic.
Very nice idea to model your own gun from the pictures. If I may, I just think you might have done things out of order there, if you model and build your own grip frame, maybe you should have waited for it to be finished before doing the grips themselves, no?