another Blade Runner blaster toy rip-off VERY GOOD!!!

[Bwood]

I suggested changing it, by building on the original toy's design. Trying to re-convert it to the original blaster style by completely retrofitting the grips strikes me as being pretty unoriginal. My opinions only, of course ….

[Baron Von Blondle]

Well after a trip to the local toy gun dealer I found 2 potential candidates for extending the grips. please note this is just experimenting at this stage and still now I have no idea which route I'll be taking with this part of the build...





any thoughts?

Respect
P.
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[Noeland]

Chop that grip off! (I like the first blue grip much better than the half beretta grip!)

I'd create a grip frame from wood or MDF, and make the grips themselves out of some nice cocobolo wood, or something equally as exotic looking. I like making grips though.

I can understand you wanting to make something that looks like the movie gun because you managed to find a toy that is so close on both sides. It's rare, so I'd probably be compelled to go that route in terms of design. You can build it to fit your own hand perfectly too.

You can mount the new grip frame to the hollow housing with milliput, or mighty putty, even bondo. All 3 make very good fillers for cavities and adding weight to empty plastic shells.

Then just pick up the proper size cap screws and mount your grips to the frame.

If you're comfortable with molding and casting, hell, you can take the wood grips you made and cast them in amber resin.
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I don't have enough blasters!

[Baron Von Blondle]

wow thanks Noeland, I'm not too familiar with woodworking (not since school anyways) but have also been thinking of a soft wood carving...may be a bit ambitious though for someone who hasn't tried it in 20 odd years!!! That's also why I was considering the translucent orange fimo clay, I'm pretty sure I could sculpt a decent one for a frame...um....maybe....

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P.
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[Noeland]

Well, if you're not comfortable using wood, then you can always create the grip frame from lexan, or some other thicker plastics. You may have to stack & glue them together to get the proper thickness if you go with styrene or something I'd imagine. Plastics would give it some weight.

If you're good at sculpting you can certainly make some killer grips with clay or putty. Heck, you can probably make the grip frame out of it too.

I made some revolver grips with milliput a few weeks ago. My first time doing that. It turned out OK. I've never used the translucent types before. What kind of results do folks get with those?

I like the shape of the revolver grip you posted though, maybe start there. It looks though like you'd need to add material to it though in some way.

I'm no master wood worker or anything. I just use a dremel tool with sanding wheels, a couple old wood files, and then sandpaper to smooth out the shape of he grips.

I posted some of what I've done with wood grips here:
http://www.propsummit.com/viewtopic.php?t=1018&highlight=steampunk

Maybe it wiil help some.
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I don't have enough blasters!

[Baron Von Blondle]

your grips in that post are amazing! nice work! do you think balsa wood would be easy for a beginner to work with? or is it too lightweight?

I've also come across this stuff http://www.craft-products.com/polyform-plastic.asp may be worth playing with it. It can be coloured too so..hmmm...

I've never used the translucent clay before but the main concern with that is it needs to be baked hard in the oven, so I'm thinking it may crack easily or be too brittle.

thanks for the tips! much appreciated!

oh one more question, just to make life easier, are there any templates for the grip inner frame floating around?

thanks again

Respect
P.
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[The Loyalizer]

Balsa wood is very easy to work with. Carving it, sanding it, shaping it, all very easy. Thing is Balsa is very soft, so it will get dents and nicks in it even after you've sealed and lacquered it. If you're planning to only display it and it wont be handled, then it shouldn't be a problem. But if you're planning to handle it, then I'd suggest going with a stronger wood.

A good choice is pine, its soft, takes shape well, and you can shape it roughly with a dremel then bring it to final detail and shape with some higher grit sand paper.

My biggest advice is go slow with the dremel, better to take off a little bit at a time, than go too far too quickly. The advantage of doing your own grips is you can fit them exactly to your hand and to the shape of the gun's grip frame. Using pre-existing grips means modifying them to fit the shape, which is sometimes more headache than it's worth.

Just my opinion tho.

Edit: on the subject of translucent clay. While I haven't worked with the stuff myself, I have used other polymer clays. An alternative to baking it in the oven would be to boil it. I did that with a small sculpture that was going to be used as a master for a mold, it hardened it up nicely, and without any offensive odors. I had only a couple of really tiny cracks when it was done, but nothing that required more than a little dab of super glue to fill. Granted that pot I used is now forever consigned to that kind of thing, wouldn't try cooking in it after boiling that stuff.
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[Noeland]

Thanks. I'm going to make a set for my full size blasters when spring comes back around.

I agree with Loyalizer, balsa wood is pretty weak stuff. But if you just want to experiment and try things, it's not a bad choice at all. Pick up a few different kinds of materials and see what you like working with the best. You never know what may come of it.

Baking clays is not my idea of a good time! This is why I like Milliput so much. You have about 40 minutes or so before it starts to set up, and it's very much like clay in that time. And you can smooth it out with water on the tip of your finger. It cures with no odor, no fuss. I prefer putties to clays. There is also a very nice metal putty they sell at wal-mart that I like quite a bit, but it's pricey.

Really, I like to just wander around the hardware store.

That Bromley stuff iooks interesting. I would worry though, since it reacts to heat and can be re-used, about having it in the final piece. I like stuff that sets up and stays set up once I'm done with it.

I don't think there are any templates for the grip frame floating around. I could certainly make you one though. It would be easy enough I think
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I don't have enough blasters!

[Baron Von Blondle]

ha typical me not thinking things through with the remouldable plastic... my display table is near to a radiator too so that could be a disaster haha.

I guess I can just experiment. though another valuable point you made is that putty can be smoothed with water, the polymer clays wouldn't like that I don't think.

Inspired by your positive encouragement yesterday I hacked off the handgrip...



Now I've got to stop dithering and do something

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P
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[joberg]

You should go to your local hobby store and ask for specific epoxy/resin type to strengthen balsa wood (used by RC plane modelers) works very well, applies smoothly and gives an extreme strength to your balsa (after a good water sanding it can be painted with no problems)

[clutch]

www.magicsculp.com good stuff

[Baron Von Blondle]

Had a eureka moment earlier and decided to cut out the plastic barrel and replace it with some metal piping...

not bad for a rush job I think. (the masking tape is to mark where the bottom screw will go)







and now a glass of wine..it is friday!

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[joberg]

Good idea that piping!

[Baron Von Blondle]

I'm still struggling with ideas for the grip and have reached an idea..perhaps...If anyone has any loose grips and/or frame (left and right side) that they would be willing to scan 1:1 scale for me?. Then the idea being I can print it out as a template and base a mould/sculpt around that?

other than that I considered taking a casting and making a mould of the grips from my previous toy conversion pictured below



...gah...this is really bugging me! help!

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[Robotprops]

PM me your email. I have a few 1:1 vector drawings of grip frames I can send as an eps or a pdf.

[Baron Von Blondle]

pm sent, thanks!

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[Noeland]

You could always just trace the outside shape of that toy blaster grip and use that to make your grip frame, and as the basic shape of your grips.

You'd have to add some material to go up inside the body of your toy, etc. of course.

Are you creating your own trigger guard too? I have found that aluminum bends well, and looks pretty good on these models.
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I don't have enough blasters!

[Baron Von Blondle]

[Noeland]

Here is a quick and dirty sketch for you too. Made from a stunt copy, and I took the grips off my hartford to show you what the grip frame looks like sans grips.









Good luck with the build!
Njc-----
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I don't have enough blasters!

[Baron Von Blondle]

way too cool Mr. Noeland, thank you most muchly!!

Respect
P.
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