Stojespal
Member
I just received my first order from Alchemy Arms, their Trigun revolver. I gotta say I'm pretty damn impressed, doubly so for the cost - $65 US plus 12 shipping, So what did I get? One extremely well-casted set of three parts, with exceptional surface detail. They've also been sanded down some in spots which is appreciated, but none of the early finishing work seems to have damaged the fine detail. Apologizing right now for my camera; it's a very dark black resin and even the flash didn't bounce much off, but once I start cleaning and painting better pictures will come.
There's a little bit of flash, and on the muzzle some fairly tiny pinholes that won't be a problem at all to solve. No bubbled spotted anywhere else in the kit. There isn't much depth in the barrel, so you may want to drill that out a bit - a 7/16" drill bit will get you to 0.4375 inches, and smoothing it out with a little sandpaper should get you spot on to a nice .45 caliber muzzle. Just be careful centering!
Which, admittedly, is my only complaint with the kit. The aluminum(?) post for the cylinder is a very nice touch, and appreciated, but the cylinder itself seems slightly undersize and on mine the hole was drilled just a touch off-center. This leaves a bit of a large gap between the cylinder and frame, either at the top or the bottom.
The kit can probably be made to actually open, though not in the 'proper' way - the frame release lever is cast as part of the rear grip, and isn't a separate piece. The way it comes together, it wouldn't be hard at all to mount a couple little neodymium magnets perhaps, just to hold it together. You'd need to drill out the center of the frame hinge and put a proper axle in there for it to rotate on, but that's simple enough, and the fit is very nice and flush in the area. It'll open this far, because the arm on the end of the frame piece goes up into a recess in the barrel.
I admit I was surprised at how small it actually is, though that's not a complaint against the kit - it's pretty damn precise compared to the original and related single- and double-action revolvers. What threw me off was the grip size, it's proportional to the classic 1873 SAA and not the more modern styles of DA revolvers, especially equivalent size monsters like the Raging Bull family. That said, how big IS it?
Pretty darn nice! And much more comfortable than I'd expected for the grip, as long as you ignore that highest 'finger groove' which is far too small for anyone. My middle finger rests nicely on the large second groove, my ring and pinkie wrap clean around the lower swell, and the web of my thumb doesn't ride up into where the hammer would be. It's not got the bulk of the Blade Runner gun, but it's definitely a gorgeous piece on its own.
Definitely got my eye on some more stuff from Alchemy Arms in the near future, that's for bloody sure.
There's a little bit of flash, and on the muzzle some fairly tiny pinholes that won't be a problem at all to solve. No bubbled spotted anywhere else in the kit. There isn't much depth in the barrel, so you may want to drill that out a bit - a 7/16" drill bit will get you to 0.4375 inches, and smoothing it out with a little sandpaper should get you spot on to a nice .45 caliber muzzle. Just be careful centering!
Which, admittedly, is my only complaint with the kit. The aluminum(?) post for the cylinder is a very nice touch, and appreciated, but the cylinder itself seems slightly undersize and on mine the hole was drilled just a touch off-center. This leaves a bit of a large gap between the cylinder and frame, either at the top or the bottom.
The kit can probably be made to actually open, though not in the 'proper' way - the frame release lever is cast as part of the rear grip, and isn't a separate piece. The way it comes together, it wouldn't be hard at all to mount a couple little neodymium magnets perhaps, just to hold it together. You'd need to drill out the center of the frame hinge and put a proper axle in there for it to rotate on, but that's simple enough, and the fit is very nice and flush in the area. It'll open this far, because the arm on the end of the frame piece goes up into a recess in the barrel.
I admit I was surprised at how small it actually is, though that's not a complaint against the kit - it's pretty damn precise compared to the original and related single- and double-action revolvers. What threw me off was the grip size, it's proportional to the classic 1873 SAA and not the more modern styles of DA revolvers, especially equivalent size monsters like the Raging Bull family. That said, how big IS it?
Pretty darn nice! And much more comfortable than I'd expected for the grip, as long as you ignore that highest 'finger groove' which is far too small for anyone. My middle finger rests nicely on the large second groove, my ring and pinkie wrap clean around the lower swell, and the web of my thumb doesn't ride up into where the hammer would be. It's not got the bulk of the Blade Runner gun, but it's definitely a gorgeous piece on its own.
Definitely got my eye on some more stuff from Alchemy Arms in the near future, that's for bloody sure.