I started out with a trip to the plumbing section at Lowe's and got some 4" couplers, 4" pipe, 3" pipe, and a couple reducers, I had to assure the cashier that I was NOT building a potato gun ! LOL !
I used the Masterpiece Optimus' Ion Blaster for reference, It represents an updated version of the G1 rifle
The main chamber of the rifle started out as a 4" coupler and a reducer glued together, then using a pattern I made from cardboard, I cut the piece of sintra to curve around it for the raised part. I then smoothed it out with bondo.
The barrel tip is a pvc adapter that I thought looked just nifty
For the barrel ridges in the middle of the gun, I cut the basic shape I needed and formed them with Sintra.
I then glued them in place and smoothed out the joints with bondo and spot putty.
I cut the hand grip and clip from MDF and glued the outside detail, cut from 1/4" MDF to the outside.
For the raised lines in the grip and clip, I used Sintra yet again. I love this stuff and it has been very useful in most of my builds !
I also cut the shapes that go on top of the barrel out of mdf, then drilled them out hollow with my tabletop drill press.
I made the "stock" out of poplar, then made the side panels out of, you guessed it..... Sintra. To make the bend nice and straight, I just scored a line in it with a sharp hobby knife, then I just bent it back, filling in the gap later with spot putty.
I used mdf pucks I cut out and glued together to make the piece joining the 2 front barrel parts , I tapered the 2 middle pucks and smoothed them with bondo to give it the look that the front barrel tube tapers into the inside of the 2cnd barrel tube.
Here I have it mocked up, I attached the grip, and the clip with a wooden dowel and epoxy, I made the front barrel ridges out of bondo. The cut-out square in the main chamber was made by cutting out a square, and then inserting a 3" pvc pipe inside which fit perfectly !
I used my Dremel tool to cut the grooves in the top of the barrel, and a 1" hole saw along with the dremel the cut in the "screwhead" detail on the bottom-sides of the stock., I Glued everything together with either 2 part epoxy or pvc glue, the latter puts of some HORRIBLE fumes so it is to be used outside for sure. I filled in every possible crack or gap and made everything as straight as can be because I plan on making casts of this to sell, I may even add electronic sounds and lights later to one of the casts.
I hung the rifle up outside and gave it a good coat of primer, I used OPTIMUS primer, lol .(get it?)
and here is the rifle now, ready for a final sanding before making a mold ! It's 3 feet long total and weighs under 10 lbs, which isn't bad considering the heavy materials. Of course the resin casts will be much lighter ! In the next pic, you can see a picture of the actual toy I used as reference
I will paint this eventually, but my friends over at The Replica Prop Forum suggest waiting until after I make the molds, so it doesn't mess up the paint.
UPDATE !! Since it's gonna be a little while before I can make a cast of this beast , I decided to paint it anyway, unfortunately during paint prep, the blaster took a 4 foot drop to the concrete and broke into 3 parts, and also smashed the rear part of the rifle.
after shaking off the severe depression of having weeks work of hard work obliterated, I pushed on and fixed it. I even modded it to disassemble into 2 parts to make casting and transporting easier.
and here it is with paint !
