Sgt Reynolds
New Member
Hey all, I kept meaning to post this here, but I also kept forgetting. Now it's rather late in the project but, eh, I might as well right? 
Sorry about the huge images, I tried to downsize them, but vb won't let me...
This will cover the last few months of a long term build that I was only able to work on a little bit at a time (money and time conspire to make my progress slow). It's going to be wordy and long, so, grab a soda and some popcorn and settle in.
I started on the signature end of the barrel first. It seemed appropriate enough. Simple build, just cut up the pieces as needed, though getting the sides of the angular bit to fit properly was still damn hard. Took at least 5 tries.
After that, a little drywall compound here, a little there, and I get a nice smoothed out piece.
Up next I started on the grip section, built hollow of course, this is where the electronics go. Nothing overly complicated, built a small circuit board with a few resistors and mounted a switch, and built a small compartment for a 9 volt battery to sit in so it wouldn't rattle. All told, probably took 5 hours to build.
After that was done, I built up the piece it bolted to, which then in turn bolted to a 3 foot 1 inch dowel that would serve as the primary structural piece in the gun. It runs the length of the gun, from about 4 inches into the stock all the way past the front.
You can also see one of the two blue LEDs there, along with the switch.
Here I made quite a jump with no photos. I built the stock in one afternoon, since it turned out to be much simpler than I thought it would. That bolted on easily after I cut down the dowel. Then I built the slide for the main body of the gun, which ran all the way to the front, minus the space between there. And finally I fitted the front piece that I had detailed already with a few bolts to the front, exactly where it needed to be. Thankfully, at this point, Reach had come out, so I was able to get high quality screenshots from Forge for the proportions, which up until now I had largely guessed on.
And then I moved onto the grip. Here's the rough piece I used to build it so it would slide:
And then a more finished version of the same, as well as a dorky looking me. I also drilled out the cooling holes in the grip and added some cosmetic screws, along with the lower solid rod for the pump action:
Then I had a weekend where the parents were out and about, and had one explosion of progress. I added a PVC pipe in the center to act as the barrel, added more details overall, added the rounded top of the...uh, where the shells are. What's that called? Who cares:
More dorky me too.
At this point I had finished the first draft of my method of getting power to the pump's LEDs. I used a pair of metal rails along the bottom, which met with metal contacts sticking up from the pump. It was dirty and noisy, but it seemed to work.
Then I very, very carefully used my drill-press type dremel addon to carve out the slots in the top. That was NERVERACKING, especially because one of the pieces of balsa that make up that piece was one of those odd, REALLY tough ones, that kept knocking the cutting bit about.
As this progressed though, I noticed the pump action getting sticky, and very difficult to move. Further investigation found the metal rail had been digging into the wood for some time. That wasn't fun. After that, I changed up the LED power line, changing it to just have a lot of slack in the wire that would move with the pump. Of course that meant it could no longer be removed. So I grabbed some old PC parts, salvaged out a male and female 3 pin power connector, and went with it. It works very, very nicely now.
Moving along, I got the ironsights mounted on the middle and barrels end, and finished off the top with the heatsink-style grooves, and mounted a flashlight in it's appropriate place.
Unfortunately the flashlight smells like burning electronics after awhile. Came that way. Nuts to it!
And that's where we are. As soon as I get time, money, and weather co-operating, I'll be priming it and getting it set with a nice paint job, and hopefully some vinyl decals too.
Thanks for looking!
Sorry about the huge images, I tried to downsize them, but vb won't let me...
This will cover the last few months of a long term build that I was only able to work on a little bit at a time (money and time conspire to make my progress slow). It's going to be wordy and long, so, grab a soda and some popcorn and settle in.
I started on the signature end of the barrel first. It seemed appropriate enough. Simple build, just cut up the pieces as needed, though getting the sides of the angular bit to fit properly was still damn hard. Took at least 5 tries.
After that, a little drywall compound here, a little there, and I get a nice smoothed out piece.
Up next I started on the grip section, built hollow of course, this is where the electronics go. Nothing overly complicated, built a small circuit board with a few resistors and mounted a switch, and built a small compartment for a 9 volt battery to sit in so it wouldn't rattle. All told, probably took 5 hours to build.
After that was done, I built up the piece it bolted to, which then in turn bolted to a 3 foot 1 inch dowel that would serve as the primary structural piece in the gun. It runs the length of the gun, from about 4 inches into the stock all the way past the front.
You can also see one of the two blue LEDs there, along with the switch.
Here I made quite a jump with no photos. I built the stock in one afternoon, since it turned out to be much simpler than I thought it would. That bolted on easily after I cut down the dowel. Then I built the slide for the main body of the gun, which ran all the way to the front, minus the space between there. And finally I fitted the front piece that I had detailed already with a few bolts to the front, exactly where it needed to be. Thankfully, at this point, Reach had come out, so I was able to get high quality screenshots from Forge for the proportions, which up until now I had largely guessed on.
And then I moved onto the grip. Here's the rough piece I used to build it so it would slide:
And then a more finished version of the same, as well as a dorky looking me. I also drilled out the cooling holes in the grip and added some cosmetic screws, along with the lower solid rod for the pump action:
Then I had a weekend where the parents were out and about, and had one explosion of progress. I added a PVC pipe in the center to act as the barrel, added more details overall, added the rounded top of the...uh, where the shells are. What's that called? Who cares:
More dorky me too.
At this point I had finished the first draft of my method of getting power to the pump's LEDs. I used a pair of metal rails along the bottom, which met with metal contacts sticking up from the pump. It was dirty and noisy, but it seemed to work.
Then I very, very carefully used my drill-press type dremel addon to carve out the slots in the top. That was NERVERACKING, especially because one of the pieces of balsa that make up that piece was one of those odd, REALLY tough ones, that kept knocking the cutting bit about.
As this progressed though, I noticed the pump action getting sticky, and very difficult to move. Further investigation found the metal rail had been digging into the wood for some time. That wasn't fun. After that, I changed up the LED power line, changing it to just have a lot of slack in the wire that would move with the pump. Of course that meant it could no longer be removed. So I grabbed some old PC parts, salvaged out a male and female 3 pin power connector, and went with it. It works very, very nicely now.
Moving along, I got the ironsights mounted on the middle and barrels end, and finished off the top with the heatsink-style grooves, and mounted a flashlight in it's appropriate place.
Unfortunately the flashlight smells like burning electronics after awhile. Came that way. Nuts to it!
And that's where we are. As soon as I get time, money, and weather co-operating, I'll be priming it and getting it set with a nice paint job, and hopefully some vinyl decals too.
Thanks for looking!
