scratch built zf-1

Spartan177

New Member
hear goes i like many others always wanted a zf-1 after seeing a few pop up on youtube and the rpf i went online and found a kit that was way out of my price range having a small family and trying to run my own business i figured i would never be able to justify spending that amount of money so i started grabbing as many screen shots and looking at about every source of info available i started to make one i took advice i found on the internet and started with the bull-pup rocket and blowtorch burner then using them for scale i used the screen shot of zorg holding the weapon sideways on and traced the gun on to paper then several hours of measuring and looking at frames of other zf-1's i then made a blueprint of the frame copied on to ply then on to 4mm aluminium sheet i had a frame for about 40 pounds then the real fun started i used monster clay to mould the shell directly on the frame to ensure it would fit exactly i had never sculpted before and it was a bit of a learning curve id sit each night adding and removing clay until about 20 hours later i had something that looked sort of like. i then used a crazy amount of thixo silicone to make a mould of the clay shell which i was intending on slush casting in but on testing the shell ended up thicker in places and i wanted uniformity so i went back to what i was familiar with and fibreglassd it using chopped strand in all the details then layers of tissue and fine matt this ended up being a good decision as its light and strong and it don't feel like plastic and it can take filling and sanding better some tamiya acrylic spray paint and i then had a shell to go on my frame i am lucky enough to have a lathe so all of the accessories i was able to make relatively easily i ended up using all 3 star trek monogram models to make the scope housing and the lower grip fascia the side rails are made of 6mm aluminium and milled on a cheep compound table fixed in my pillar drill these are the only bits id like to redo on a proper mill as they are a bit rough on close inspection the rocket vent rings where made on the lathe and the centres where cast in resin as i couldn't make a nice enough dome on my lathe without the tooling the grip was made with mdf moulded and cast in resin i did a small amount of weathering using black ink scrunched up towel technique the anodising iv done is bit of a cheat i used tamiya clear blue red orange and yellow and cant tell that its not anodised in total i probably spent about 300 pound on the gun not including the clay or silicone which was 200 by it self but can be used again and it took many hours i couldn't tell how many but when you love what your doing time is meaningless
 

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found a few more pictures i got through a couple of phones during the build ;( so im going through memory cards and old phones trying to find as many pictures as i can
 
In the new world of 3D printers its super cool to see something like this being scratch built.

thanks it would make life much simpler having a 3d printer it is on my list of many tools but some of the better things iv made have been with my hands as im not to good on the computer i need to get better with them as it dose all seam to be going more and more that way and some of the things i see just printed and painted pains me as to how long it would take me to make the same prop thanks again for the appreciation
 
hears what i could find from when i was making the moulds for the shell i love what you can do with fiberglass but i hate what it dose to my hands :angryIMG_0265.JPGIMG_0266.JPGIMG_0296.JPGIMG_0297.JPGIMG_0306.JPGIMG_0312.JPGIMG_0313.JPGIMG_0267.JPGIMG_0352.JPGIMG_0340.JPGIMG_0327.JPGIMG_0353.JPGIMG_0321.JPGIMG_0353.JPGIMG_0357.JPGIMG_0354.JPGIMG_0355.JPG
 
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