Gundam 0083 90mm GM Rifle

I had some major surgery at the beginning of the year and decided I needed to make something during my recovery. It had to relate to my other projects, and be relatively easy. I needed to be able to do most of the work from home, as I wasn't supposed to be driving much. I settled on a Gundam rifle.

Some Gundam rifles, especially from the Universal Century timeline, are based loosely on real weapons. In this case, I chose one based on the L85. I love bullpups, but the L85 is ugly as sin. The Gundam rendition is pretty cool though! Luckily, I scored a Chinese made airsoft springer on ebay that was broken and didn't have a magazine or any accessories or about 15 bucks. Perfect.

Since anime guns vary in look between drawings and screenshots, I settled on the Master Grade Rifle that came with the GM Custom. It was my favorite take on the rifle, and resembles the L85 most closely.

Basically, I had to merge these two rifles.






 The stock had to be hacked down, with the "wedge" shape eliminated. The cheek guard was not salvageable on the airsoft version, as it was far too flat and rounded. The entire sight and carrying handle assembly had to be scratch built, as well as the top and bottom of the foregrip. The magazine would have to me custom made, and the magwell moved back further. Lastly, the grip had to be relocated and the misc. plates and details made.


I stripped out all of the internals, and the "weights" (some are lead bars, some are compressed sand wrapped in a rectangular wrapping. The cheap airsoft springers are notorious for having these.) I hacked off the top of the foregrip first and scratch built the receiver extension out of styrene. The vent holes were covered as well.

I got sidetracked and made some hand armor while I was at it. As I said, I was making this from home, so here's a progress shot in my workshop (The kitchen)

I continued by wrapping styrene around the edges of the carrying handle frame. I also covered up some sections in the front of the foregrip that got hacked off. You can see the tons of screw holes that will need to be filled in later.

I visited the shop (against my doctors advice) and cut out a few MDF parts all at once. The buttpad was one of the first. here it is installed with the now wedge-less receiver. The magazine was made out of styrene, and the misc. detail bits molded into the receiver were cut out or relocated.

Some more MDF and styrene details on top of the foregrip being blocked out.

Some tedious styrene wrapping.

I wanted this thing as light as possible, so I even made the cheek guard parts layered for minimum weight.

The grip was lowered and all the odds and ends started getting filled in.

A few more details, screw holes, and gaps before paint!

These were taken my my friend Eric from the ever popular Impact Props!

 

I painted the rear sights and some inserts black to give it a more modern look.

Thanks for looking! More projects here: Zprops

Yoko Ritona's Sniper Rifle

I decided to take a break from my M-29 commission since it was such a headache, and decided to start this rifle that was recently commissioned. Its much more simple to understand, and reading blindsquirrel's blog made the process a little smoother.

Heres a picture of the rifle in context:

I started out with the stock. Instead of making it out of solid MDF like blindsquirrel did, I decided to make it out of 1/4 inch MDF walls to save considerable weight.

Then I did the magazine well and scope rings/rail. I added the curve into the design so that it had a perfect surface to glue to the gun's main body. The part was wrapped in styrene, and was given styrene ribs for detail.

The thickness of the scope rings was obtained by gluing a 1/8th inch sheet of mdf to a 1/4 inch sheet, then cutting out the part.

Starting to come together. The magazine uses styrene sheet for the details.

I regret not taking more pictures, but I've been a bit behind on things lately. (despite working 70 hours a week on these commissions.)

here it is after primer, and some testing of my black paint. For some reason, the new flat black painters touch cans seem to have a hint of gloss in them and make the surface look uneven when it is not. I will coat it with krylon ultra flat black the next time I go to the store.

I used a real folding+extending rifle bipod and installed the guards on the feet. I had to cut a square hole out in the middle of them to allow the bipod release buttons to come through so it can still be adjusted.

Just about finished now. I simply need to sew the sling to the buckles. 

As you can see , I had to redo the lenses since my client wanted ones that were different from mike's build. 

I love the rear shot. The rear lens features a semi transparent blue tint. 

Removable magazine:

removable stock plate, for much more storage:

You can see where my grass is starting to have a bad day in this shot:

phew!