Props ventrue's MA37 Assault Rifle (WIP)

[ventrue]

Is this costing you a small fortune to make?

Depends on how rich one is, doesn't it? ;-)

Let's just say it's somewhere in between building it from cornflakes boxes and a real rifle. And burning those parts all the time reeeally adds up after a while :-D

wow, quite the impressive build. I enjoyed reading through this. Keep up the good work, and then when you're done, make a real-life Spartan Laser! ...jk. But seriously, this is an awesome job, keep going don't let it die.

Don't worry, nothing's dead here. I'm just slightly busy somewhere else right now (and waiting on some parts anyways, so it doesn't really matter).

 

[loxton117]

I love this build! its a great idea to be making it this way!

 

[harican89]

wow. die idee das so zu bauen ist wirklich cool, auch wenn ich keine vorstellungskraft habe und nicht weiß womit du das drahgerüst später füllst oder auskleidest. aber die elektronik ist wirklich beeindruckend.

 

[ventrue]

wow. die idee das so zu bauen ist wirklich cool, auch wenn ich keine vorstellungskraft habe und nicht weiß womit du das drahgerüst später füllst oder auskleidest. aber die elektronik ist wirklich beeindruckend.

(I'll answer in English if you don't mind, don't want to "split" the audience into two languages ;-))

Thanks
I plan on covering it with normal paper and just filling the resulting cavities with resin.

 

[ventrue]

Major Update reported in this morning, and guess what he brought

Progress: Worked on the back part. Decided to not make the grip and this small addon thingy on top separate pieces after all, that way I'll have more room on the inside for all the goodies. I'll probably also shorten the mag a little for the same reason.
Once I have the grip hole in I should be about ready for the resin... I'm curious how that's going to work out.

And in case you're wondering, I still haven't managed to get those displays to work and I still have no clue why. I did order an alternative though that should arrive in the mail any day now.

Pictures:

This is all one big piece now. Looks a bit like a spaceship if you ask me.

As usual, excuse the picture quality. My crappy camera is really crappy...

 

[Spitfire22V]

Looking great so far Ventrue! As a longtime airplane modeler, I really appreciate things built up of sticks like this! Seems like you'll have an awesome AR when you're finished, and it will be constructed in a unique way. Keep up the great work.

 

[Erikm1811]

Hey Ventrue just gotta say, AWESOME!!! I too have just recently discovered the joy of all things Arduino. I'm using one to control the electronics for my armor. Just out of curiosity, I noticed that you had your ammo counter and direction finder set up as 2 separate circuits. Does that mean you're going to have 2 Arduinos in your prop gun? I know Arduinos can use shields and such to add features, but I don't know THAT much about them yet. I am also in the idea-formulation stage (not even planning yet) on how I'm going to build my Jorge HMG. Would love to hack a Nerf Vulcan to make it fire darts, but as I understand it, the guns are made exactly opposite of each other when you look at the direction of ammo travel through the gun.

 

[killerownz11]

Pictures:

This is all one big piece now. Looks a bit like a spaceship if you ask me.

As usual, excuse the picture quality. My crappy camera is really crappy...[/QUOTE]

^ piller of autum ;D

 

[active84u]

Reminds me of Tron. Looking good.

 

[ventrue]

Looking great so far Ventrue! As a longtime airplane modeler, I really appreciate things built up of sticks like this! Seems like you'll have an awesome AR when you're finished, and it will be constructed in a unique way. Keep up the great work.

Thanks

Too bad nobody will know about all the wood once it's hidden under a nice pile of resin :-(

But if it doesn't work, I'll glue on some wings and throw it off a cliff :-D

Hey Ventrue just gotta say, AWESOME!!! I too have just recently discovered the joy of all things Arduino. I'm using one to control the electronics for my armor. Just out of curiosity, I noticed that you had your ammo counter and direction finder set up as 2 separate circuits. Does that mean you're going to have 2 Arduinos in your prop gun? I know Arduinos can use shields and such to add features, but I don't know THAT much about them yet. I am also in the idea-formulation stage (not even planning yet) on how I'm going to build my Jorge HMG. Would love to hack a Nerf Vulcan to make it fire darts, but as I understand it, the guns are made exactly opposite of each other when you look at the direction of ammo travel through the gun.

Thanks

No, it's all one circuit. I only had one breadboard and two seven segment displays at the time, so I couldn't do both at once. Aside from that, the direction won't be displayed as a number anyway, that's just for debugging. The graphic display that can show all this stuff at once is still in the mail, travelling the continents, desperately trying to find me. I hope.

I don't have any shields and I don't plan on getting any, because I don't really like the concept. I prefer putting stuff next to the Arduino and connecting it with wires, that keeps things more transparent in my opinion. I also won't stick the whole Arduino in there, because there's not enough space. I'll solder something equivalent together myself later.

I didn't understand the Jorge-HMG-Nerf-thing you mentioned, because I know none of the three very well. I do know however that Jorge's bullets travel in the same direction as mine: out the front
Other than that, I can't help you. But this wouldn't really be the right place for extensive help on other projects anyway.

^ piller of autum ;D

Mh. Nah. Well, maybe visually elongated while entering warp speed ;-)

Would you mind editing your post to add the initial QUOTE-tag? You accidentally deleted that.

Reminds me of Tron. Looking good.

Thanks

 

[ventrue]

Progress: I tried the cover-with-paper-then-dump-resin-inside-it thing (in case any of you were wondering how I wanted to turn this into a solid non-wireframe model and didn't ask: That is how) and I am really happy with the result. I still have to see how the detailing works out and how well the pieces fit together in the end, but so far I'd say it's a highly recommendable technique.
You can see from the pictures what I did: I glued paper onto the frame, then put my usual resin-cotton-glass mix inside and let it cure. Unfortunately it didn't stay on the vertical surfaces as nicely as I'd hoped, that's something I need to improve for the larger parts, but nevertheless, it worked. The primer is drying at the moment, aside from that I did nothing to the surfaces, they came out just like that, which is really amazing I think!

Pictures:
Paper only:

Wet:

Dry:

 

[thatdecade]

Looking really good ventrue, giving me lots ideas to finish my own AR.

 

[ventrue]

Looking really good ventrue, giving me lots ideas to finish my own AR.

Yay, inspired someone! Awesome :-D

 

[ventrue]

Progress: Doesn't look like much on camera, but a lot of work went into this and it's a major step forward!

In case anybody is looking really closely and/or thinking ahead:

• The direction indicator is not perfectly precise, because for some reason the gyro is a bit moody and still slightly drifting towards one side.
• It's a white display, I'll turn it blue with some blue plastic. I'll need a second layer anyway to hold the other display elements.
• The size of those numbers should be pretty accurate (see image below), but I had to move the direction indicator down a little because the display ends there. They wouldn't give me one without an end :-(
• I don't think the graphics (i.e. what's on the display) are entirely correct yet, I'll need to re-check that. (Does anybody know good reference material that covers all ten numbers and isn't blurry or distorted? And while we're at it, does anybody who has played Reach get the feeling that the rate of fire is too slow?)

Pictures:

Schematic of the display, hopefully not distorted. The red rectangles are the display and its active area, without Adafruit's PCB.

Photos of the real thing, because they have a higher resolution than the video and don't look quite as crappy:

Video: Those who have already watched the last video can skip ahead, the display is the only thing that's changed.

 

[active84u]

Omg, that's really cool.
I non electronics understandum gizmo wotsit, but very awesome )))

*edited in- yes after playing H3, Reach's rate of fire seems slower to me*

 

[thatdecade]

Nice graphical display! You really have the shapes down!

How bright is the display? You think it will be ok behind the blue tinting?
Are you going to use that same breakout board in the final install? looks a bit wide

I think if you re-do your video with your camera in a fixed location you won't lose focus as you move the board around.

 

[ventrue]

Omg, that's really cool.
I non electronics understandum gizmo wotsit, but very awesome )))

*edited in- yes after playing H3, Reach's rate of fire seems slower to me*

Thanks
Well if you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them (no gurantees though, I'm an amateur!).

Nice graphical display! You really have the shapes down!

How bright is the display? You think it will be ok behind the blue tinting?
Are you going to use that same breakout board in the final install? looks a bit wide

I think if you re-do your video with your camera in a fixed location you won't lose focus as you move the board around.

Ha, thanks, but when you look real close there are actually a few things about the shapes that need to be re-done. The right vertical part of the two is a pixel too wide, for example ;-)

It doesn't have the same brightness as a backlit TFT from a phone or computer screen, but it's extremely readable even in a bright environment. I think it'll be just like in the game if I can find plastic in the right shade of blue.

Yep, I'll use the same breakout board. Comes soldered to the display and ready to use, so there's really no point in ripping it off. I'll just cut away the parts that are in the way. I'll also cut away a small part of the display itself (that small corner on the right), so that it fits into the model. (I bet if Ms. Fried ever happens to read this she'll refuse to sell me anything else... so many people want those displays and I plan to cut them into pieces :-D)

Good idea with the camera, I'll try that later today!

 

[JUSTINIAN 117]

That looks really awesome. Do you think you would consider making a kit for the ammo counter?

 

[Finelargeaxe]

We may be on the verge of being able to make a REAL MA-37...or MA-5...possibly even the Spartan's HUD! That looks incredible!

 

[ventrue]

I think if you re-do your video with your camera in a fixed location you won't lose focus as you move the board around.

Ok, I've tried it but it didn't work. The problem is, believe it or not, that in video mode the camera can't focus at anything closer than maybe 30 cm :-(
Let's face it: Sooner or later, I'll just need a better camera

That looks really awesome. Do you think you would consider making a kit for the ammo counter?

I guess I could make one when I'm done, but this is more pricey than you might think, so I'm not sure if anybody would actually want it.

Just to give you an idea: The whole bundle would definitely cost more than 100 € (the stuff above almost hits that mark already), quite possibly even more than 200€, especially if you want it shipped to any remote places like, say, North America. And that's just the essential parts, no parts of the model, nothing special to make the kit look nice and nothing to make it easier to assemble.

We may be on the verge of being able to make a REAL MA-37...or MA-5...possibly even the Spartan's HUD! That looks incredible!

Haha, I'm always very sceptical when I hear the words "real" or "HUD" ;-)
But yeah, realism (acording to the game) is my goal