Bioshock Infinite Triple R repeater machine gun build

I played through Bioshock Infinite a few weeks ago and really loved the game, but right before I played it, my friend Bill Doran of Punished Props had posted a picture he liked of one of the in-game weapons, the Rolston Reciprocating repeater.

I really loved the design of the gun, and fell in love with it even more while playing the game, in fact I probably used it more than 80% of the time! I REALLY wanted to have this gun and quickly talked myself into building it ! I almost didn't go for it though, I was a little intimidated by the project to be honest with you. I read over Volpin Props write up for his Terrible Shotgun and decided to go for it, and here we go !

I first gathered all the reference pics I could (which wasn't much) and took a good side shot that could give me something to get my scaling figures. I found that the Triple R was possibly inspired by the old Lanchester sub machine gun so I scaled my build to be the same length, 33 inches or so long.

It was time to start building, and I started with the stock. I used 3 pieces of red oak laminated together with wood glue and as many clamps I could use.

After letting that dry overnight, I started shaping it on my belt sander with a 60 grit belt. I also went out and bought a wood rasp and a sure form recommended by some prop builder friends. shaping the red oak was a lot different than the MDF that I've gotten used to working with, it definately took some time to get it right.

My next step was that iconic barrel and heat shroud. I was in luck that the diameter and thickness was the same as some readily available PVC pipe I could get from the home improvement store ! I knew there were 8 rows of 1 inch holes in the shroud, each row offset from the next. I took some paper and wrapped it around the circumfrence of the pipe and trimmed it so the ends would just meet. I folded it to get 8 perfectly spaced folds and used that to mark the rows on the pipe. I then found the spacing of the holes through some measuring and the math stuff they tried to teach me in school and maked those off as well. Each hole was cut with a 1 inch hole saw in my drill.

I cut the inserts in both ends from 1/4 inch styrene and sanded them round by hand. No laser cut parts here! I shaped the front sight from a block of Sintra and the sight "cage" from a strip of styrene heated and bent to shape.

Up next was the receiver. I used some PVC and fittings of the proper diameters, and used MDF for the plate for the bolt. I coated the MDF with super glue which gave me a nice sandable surface ! Details were added with Styrene.

To attach the stock to the receiver, I made it so it would plug in like a lego. I glued the appropriate size pvc pipe piece onto the plate I made from 1/4 inch styrene. I then drilled a hole into the end of the stock and screwed a bolt into it so it would stick out into the pipe. I filled it with a batch of Smoothcast resin and it was solid ! That sucker isn't coming off ! I used Apoxie Sculpt to make the transition of the wood stock into the plate . I also made a butt-plate for the stock with more 1/4 inch styrene with a texture on one side.

The trigger guard was made by heating a strip of styrene over a wooden buck and trimming it to fit.

I made the Magwell from some acrylic sheet in my plastic bin, first making some paper patterns by hand. This entire gun was made without any blueprints!

after attaching the magwell to the gun, I made the clip from the same material. I installed some rare earth magnets in the end of the clip and inside the magwell to hold the clip in place while it is attached,

Next was the bolt handle. I cut a round piece out of 2 pieces of red oak, stuck a washer between them , drilled a hole and put a screw though them and finally chucked it into my drill press. The drill press was like a lathe and I shaped the knob with my dremel with a course sanding drum attached ~ ta da !

Finally it was the part I feared the most. The rear sights. It should be a little wider, but I didn't have room for it to be any wider with starting all over on the receiver .I made it the best I could out of Sintra and styrene and I feel it turned out pretty good !

And finally a mock up !

I finally got to start painting this bad boy !  First I added some detail to the ammo clip. I noticed in some of the pictures I had, that there was a groove/window cut lengthwise into the clip so you could see how much ammo you are pumping into that attacking fireman! I cut the groove into it and went by a local gun shop, who were nice enough to donate some empty rounds from the back of his pickup truck. I made an insert for the clip and now real bullet casings show through the groove ! Groovy !
I painted the main body a rustoleum oil rubbed bronze and stained the stock with light walnut stain.

And last but not least, the final product. I weathered the entire gun just like the video put out by Volpin Props using black and brown acrylic paint. I then used Rub'n Buff silver to do all the weathered edges and such.

Thank you for reading ! Feel free to like my Facebook fanpage also !

Bioshock Infinite Machine Gun barrel shroud.

I recently started a new project in building the Triple R repeater machine gun from Bioshock Infinite. I have had several questions on how I did the spacing for the holes in the heat shroud. First thing I did with the tube for the shroud was to make sure the ends were squared off, so that when I stood it on a level surface, it would make a right angle with an L square. Next I took a piece of paper that would wrap around the tube and have both ends just meet, and folded it to make eight evenly spaced folds, I used that to make eight marks around the diameter of the tube. Using those 8 marks and the L square, I made 8 lines along the length of the tube for the 8 rows of vent holes to be cut out with the hole saw. Once I measured out the spacing between the holes along the lines, I used a little plastic cap with a hole in the center of it to draw the pattern on the tube. Lastly I just cut the holes and cleaned them up ! HERE ARE SOME PICS !

Mass Effect M-12 Locust SMG

This is my newest project, The M-12 Locust sub machine gun from Mass Effect. I really like the design of this gun in the series and started off to make my own.

After gathering reference material for a few days, I made up a blueprint to scale and made some copies so I could cut some up to use as patterns. I started off my cutting a basic frame out of MDF with my bandsaw.

I cut out most of the outer pieces in separate parts so they would form the proper channels and panel lines later when attached

Some of the outermost details and panels were made from Styrene and Sintra, here I also have started making my bevels and shaping the curves in the gun.

The spine bevels on the rear stock was formed with Apoxiesculpt, as was the finger grip on the front grip. Smaller panel lines along with the grooves on the bottom grip and rear spine were made by hand using needle files and crossing my fingers, seemed to have worked !

I did a few coats of high build primer , started the application of spot putty, and started building out the front barrel assemblies. The main barrel was a pvc pipe connector turned down on a lathe to give it a slight cone shape, then I cut the notches in by hand. The smaller barrel was a tube wrapped in styrene that had the recesses cut out already. Much easier than trying to carve them in later !

Here I am well on my way into painting , The grips were masked off first and sprayed with Rustoleum textured paint, then painted over with a satin black. The white stripe was painted on and then I scraped chunks out of it with my hobby knife, scuffed up a bit and the whole thing was coated in a flat clearcoat before weathering.

   Weathering was pretty straight forward. I just painted flat black acrylic paint into all recesses, cracks, and panel lines, then wiped most of it back off with a damp wad of paper towels. I also used the dirty paper towels to dingy up the whole gun. This project was my first real foray into drybrushing and I learned a lot doing it. I feel I went overboard with the silver drybrushing on some parts, but overall I am very happy with the learning process on this.

There are more pics of this and many other builds on my Facebook fanpage at Vector Sigma Creations