Saturday, July 21, 2012

Mass Effect 3 M-25 Hornet SMG

So, whatever photo deficiency there was in the last post was, this one will more than make up for it. Sorry if you have 56k!

I started this sometime after PAX, and worked on it in-between commissions. Then I did a flood of progress while waiting for silicone for another project.


This is my favorite SMG from all of the mass effect guns so I wanted to give it a go.

The reference I used was provided generously by this dood: link to dude.

Here's the concept shot. I'd like to thank Brian Sum from Bioware for the dimensions.



Complex bevel: 45 degrees to 30 degrees to 20 degrees. No dremel involved!




Top rail beginnings



Side panel



Progress:



Did I mention the grip is friggin tiny? (yes, this is the correct size.)



Main body parts coming together



Middle layer

(note my ummm... "precise" inner drafting for the cuts)



Little recessed detail thingie with complex bevels around it.



Test fit



With removeable magazine action! Too bad it doesn't distribute beer.



Did the little bits near the barrel tip, as well as the barrel tip itself.



As well as the "spine" of the grip, and the bolt housing. You can see here that I deleted the bolt on the left side of the gun, despite there being two on the reference. Just didn't make sense and it bugs me.



Then I added a few details to the top rail, and enlarged some of the bevels using a dremel to take down the hard edges, and hand sanded 80 grit and 150 grit for the rest. It went rather fast, but I have the whole rest of the gun to go. There are a ton of fillets and bevels all over the place.





I used PVC to make the rounds on the rear of the "carrying handle" 



Then the voids were covered in styrene.

Heres some kind of detail made carefully in styrene.



Finishing up the beveling on the front end: 



More styrene details



The priming adventure



First pass, lookin good!



Just about done, I left the hard part for last. The little dimples on the sides, and the annoying little circular inserts





The dimples seem to angle in on a plain from the back, and turn into fillets as they meet the forward edge of the recess. I decided, of course, to use styrene. I made little risers, and then made little templates to cut the sheets. ( Want to play a fun drinking game? re-read this post and take a swig when you see the word "styrene")



To acheive the greatest mating surface area, I dremeled the little edge of the styrene to meet the angle it rests at. 



Heres a view installed, looking down the side



Fun. 



A few more passes. Did this on both sides, mind you. Kind of hard to keep the fillet constant. 



You can hardly tell the dimple is there (1/8th inch deep, just like the design) but it was worth it. Heres a picture of the first screw plug insert. 



Masking the grip. Getting much faster at cutting custom masking strips. 



Orange stripe thingie. If you have one of these near your magwell, you might want to get it checked out. 



Last circles cut out on a scroll saw, then sanded. The thin styrene ring was dremeled. 



I've never seen the top of the magazine removed, and I think mass effect guns fire conventional rounds nowadays so I decided to have a modern looking magazine tip. (its removable) 

I modeled it after an MP5. Styrene. 



Stencil drafting





Painted and weathered. I took too much off this side, so I re-did it. 



CAM aircraft lettering decal set. Works pretty good for the little stuff. 



Done!











My friend Kai who goes by kommissar on the Replica Prop Forum connected me with Rana McAnear, who you might have seen around the cons dressed up as Samara. They modeled the in game character after her, so its as canon as it gets! I loaned her the hornet for a cross-promotion.



On the left is Corey Gaspur, lead combat designer of Bioware at sdcc 2012. The next day I shipped it to Eric Jarman so he can cast it and run around nekked with it. Man, everyone gets to enjoy it but me!

As always, follow me on Facebook!


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Team Fortress 2 Medipack


Ok, I'm a little behind. There's a huge gap in the blog timeline, and I've got quite a few things to post. I'll start slow.

About four months ago, I was contacted to make a medipack. At the time I was working a 12 hour day job. I might have missed a photo here and there.

Here's the best reference I could find on the web. I would credit it, but honestly I didn't write down the source and it got lost in a black hole. Whoever you are, thanks!



Annnnyhowzile.  MDF, of course. Mostly 1/8th inch to keep the weight down. The Trim is half inch.



Then these knob thingies. The collar around the PVC pipe section is styrene. The knob is MDF laminated in styrene. The notches were cut with a scroll saw. 


Getting that lid (pictured with the painters tape) was a pain to get fitted properly. It had to be removable yet still stay on with significant friction. Jah, zhe friction es goodenflaugen! 


This circle thingie is about 3 layers of mdf laminated together to save weight. The first two layers had inner circles cut out to save weight. The vents themselves are, you guessed it, styrene.


Styrene box is styrene. (There's actually a very slight drat angle on each side, and a sharp one on the top side.)


Because Commercial piping doesn't come in all sizes, I had to scratch build piping. ( I dont have a lathe.) I make two circles cut on the scroll saw, and bend the styrene around it. The seam is filled later. This keeps the diameter perfectly accurate to the drawing, and I find myself doing this on rifle scopes a lot. 



Similar concept as above, except the top and bottom are styrene. I drilled a hole in the top, fed the scroll saw blade through it as you would with wood, and used the saw on a slightly lower RPM. works great!
This is the cuff that goes around the air tank, which is not pictured, but is made out of a large section of ABS which has MDF caps that were cut at a beveled angle and then hand sanded into curved shapes. Annoying, but it works. 


Coming together. This is for those of you curious about material usage. 


Sealed + basecoat


I make my stencils out of thin styrene, and clean up the fuzzy edges with 400 grit sandpaper. 


The cord was from a dead laptop adapter. Keep your thick power cords, they're awesome for props. 




 




Finally, something that isn't a gun! even more ironic, in game this thing is used to heal. But still, its attached to a gun in game. So there. Gun nut reputation preserved.

See updates before I blog them (which can take forever...) on my facebook


Jah!