The Guns of Firefly?

[Early]

I'm not just stopping with the mold, or flashy lights! I also plan to turn it into an air soft gun too (Minus the pussy orange barrel tip).

For the air soft version, I plan to have the hammer work with the firing of balls. And when the hammer is manually cocked back, I plan to have the hair trigger release more pressure for longer range.

this is the picture I've been working with,

but thanks for the bright one with the quarters. I plan to use it for more detailing. When I can I'll post a rendering of my CAD drawing of MAL's gun.

I still like to find out what type of gun this is, because most civil war colts have a handle grip almost perfectly perpendicular to the barrel, but MAL's gun grip is wider angle from the barrel!

The gun is big, I wish the series lasted long enough for us to see him pistol whip someone with it!

 

[Early]

Dude, I just looked at the thread (Kaylee)!

Its made of WOOD . Its a beautiful replica, but its like mine a copy from the show, screen cap pictures and our imagination. I thought it was micron to micron cast copy of the original prop one. The difference between the wood and my last image posted is that the top of the gun should be octet, matching or continuing the contores of the barrel a bit to the hammer.

At first glance you don't see it, and I admit I didn't either. But a fanatic-sorry fan would want a copy as close to the set one as possible. Like star wars fans wanting the original trilogy on DVD instead of those crappy cgi filled special editions!!!! Its not the same :banghead: .

But KAYLEE, thanks a million for the wood copy pic and thread, I realized I did my handle wrong and am reworking it!!! I got excited, but having read the thread I found out that they made that gun off a screen cap, like I'm doing!

I should've used "Early" as my screen name instead of propguy.

 

[GhostRider66]

Sorry, wrong thread.

 

[nomadboi]

Propguy, I am curious- what do you do, props wise? I run a small prop weapon business myself, mostly other people's creations but I do some custom fabrication on occasion. www.fightdesigner.com

 

[Carl N. Brown]

I tweaked the brightness and contrast on that screen shot of mal's gun:

Must be a military model: it has a loop for a lanyard.

 

[Kaylee]

Hey propguy -- read through the whole thread.
Towards the end a guy is hawking resin copies, but the first few pages is the custom made "Envy" one.

The pistol is indeed a replica, but apparently by folks with a good deal of experience with Firefly props -- the paper money in that pic is screen used, as I recall them saying.

It -- like the original -- is a series of brass castings (including the barrel! ) built around a Taurus clone of a Smith and Wesson double-action revolver. (Look at the trigger and trigger guard - that's the dead giveaway. )

I still like to find out what type of gun this is, because most civil war colts have a handle grip almost perfectly perpendicular to the barrel, but MAL's gun grip is wider angle from the barrel!

I'm afraid you won't find what type of gun it is, as it's custom.
The barrel, like you noted, is octagonal like the early Colt percussion revolvers. (But many companies, such as Green River, make all different manner of octagonal barrels you can order). The grip frame is similar to a Remington 1858, but seems a little thicker. The magazine baseplate looks familiar, though I can't place it -- I want to say it's off some little European pistol. Not a PPK I think, but same general idea. I suspect the little rods in front and the rear sight are found parts off of some other revolver, but I don't know which. The body is likely a custom casting.

Were I to make a repro, I'd likely start by having a Remington 1858 barrel mounted to a .44 cal Taurus or Smith revolver, and having a custom body made to go around that. Not that I've thought about that in any detail or anything.


PS -- this grip look familiar?

 

[Early]

Hey nomadboi guy, PropGuy is just a name I picked off the top of my head in order to get into the discussion. Now that I look back, I wish I picked "Early" the red bounty hunter in the "objects in space" episode. In truth I'm an electromechanical engineer. As I've said I have access to a rapid prototype printer. What it is is a machine that builds layer by layer any object imaginable. Its like cutting an "A" out of a hundred sheets of paper and then stacking them together and now you have an "A" block. The rapid prototype printer does the same thing, but if you stretch your imagination, you can make any shape you want, the mathmatical morbius loop, pimped out rims of a bently, a minature firefly class ship, or cylon raider paperweight. The actual printed peice are not really meant to be used as an actual product, but to let you physically feel it or make a cast from it.

Now imagine if your designing a game controller. To make a solid cast for mass production or even to see the first model, you'll burn about 10 to 30 thousand, plus the weeks to create it. With a rapid prototyper, you pay a fraction, wait 1 night and then you have the physical peice, from which you can now hold in your hand the next morning and say, "yes this is an ergonamical controller, all the bottuns are easy to get too, this is what we're going with." or "lets tweek this handle a little and move over this button." With the rapid prototyper you get a physical copy of your idea quickly, before you set it into stone with a cast mold made. And this sums up what I can work with.

As for the wood gun look at these 2 pictures

The side protrusion are too big on the top wooden one, plus the bolts are half fuse into the gun which the wood has it seperated from. And the barrel its ugly.
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From the side its look beautiful, you couldn't tell the difference but as a detailed nut that I am, I'm fixing it! Here is a look at mine:

(I spent hours conceptually CADing it, You think I'm going to let some1 steal the image!)

Once again thank you all for your help, I will post pictures of the progress. And Kaylee, thank you (I hope your as cute as the original) I will offer you a the first detailed cast copy (all working) that I can sell. And nomadboi, I've seen your site and I think thats amazing that you can do machining and casting all that from scratch. I'm very conceptual, I design in 3D CAD for a living, and am very conceptual when designing, I hope show you all reading this thread the end result.

(and to nomadboi a cast can be made for metal ones too, but since you're a prop guy I would imagine you'd liked them in light pastic that looks like metal, and I've been shown that with right mix the plastic can be made to look heavy! Its just an idea, I don't want to push sales on any of you, I'm just a fan sharing work for a slight fee )

 

[ScorpioVI]

That looks good bro!

 

[Early]

rendered image___________________________wireframe___________________actual pic

another blended image

This pic was the one I did my CAD drawings off of. From imagination to reality!

I want to cheat a little more, so I'll ask you kaylee and any1 else if you can post a pic of the inner trigger mechanism of an actual revolver. Earlier post discussed the revolver that mal's gun is based off of (and yes I know now its a custom gun). I can figure it out for myself, but I want to save time from sizing the hammer and trigger to my cad files. (I'm not going to make the bullet barrel revolve with the firing because its covered up, but I will include it and make it come out, so one can pretent to load it, and NO I won't design one that will work with actual bullets, because I'm in california, not texas!!)

HEY WHO CHANGED MY NAME!!!!

 

[Strings]

Don't know who changed your name, my friend. But you get a decent prop version of Mal's pistol at a decent price, I WANT one (actually, two: Spoon would cut anatomy off if I didn't get her one too)!

 

[M99M12]

YYYAAAWWWNNNN

 

[Kaylee]

HEY WHO CHANGED MY NAME!!!!

Umm.. that was me. You said you wanted it that way, right? :embarassment:

And Kaylee, thank you (I hope your as cute as the original) I will offer you a the first detailed cast copy (all working) that I can sell.

Well I don't know about the cute part, but THANK YOU! Shiny!
(Can I get one in hollow metal I can put around a real Smith? )

The trigger assy is from a Taurus clone of a Smith and Wesson -- here's the snubby version --


And here's what the trigger looks like -


Even in California, you can find a reference pistol in most any gun store -- Smiths are common. If you want an original trigger to use as a base, try the same store, Brownells, Midway, Numrich Gun Parts, or of course.. ebay.

Anyhow, were I in your place I'd not bother with a repro cylinder (the middle turny-aroundy part of the revolver) since Mal's piece appears to be magazine fed. However, I'd really recommend seeing if you can find a junker Taurus or Smith (prolly not the J-frame "snub nose" version as some parts are different on that model) and taking it apart (carefully- ask how!). Just seeing how the hammer and trigger work together will prolly help your repro quite a bit.

-K

(And PS -- don't let anyone talk you into taking apart a Colt double action revolver instead. Ya need three hands and the help of God himself to get those things workin' right again if you buggered one up)

 

[Strings]

>(And PS -- don't let anyone talk you into taking apart a Colt double action revolver instead. Ya need three hands and the help of God himself to get those things workin' right again if you buggered one up)<

Sounds like the ONE time I detail stripped the slide on a Beretta (96, if it matters). We decided that you needed an acrylic hazmat style box to do it safely, as there are more spring-loaded "Jesus!" things on that assembly than I've ever seen anywhere else...

 

[Early]

Look what I did in adobe photoshop CS. Any1 can rip the bottum mirrored pic, because its public copy, but I had to protect the top one because I spent hours doing the CAD. Any1 (especially Kaylee) who wants the original (without my name sprawled across it) for aesthetic enjoyment may ask me for it (under the verbal agreement you'll never post it on the net or email it around ).

This one bellow just further show I actually did the special effects.

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Thanks a million for all your help again. As I've said before the prototype printer is cool process. And I want to say that this is for fans, but don't expect $40 mass production toy like those gay lightsabers. I'm doing a custom job to make it look realistic and working in some slight respect. It ain't a toy you give to your kid, its one you wear to sci-fi conventions or place behind glass!

This one thread has been more invaluable to my project than google!

When I finish my first one, I'm going to do a fan film of me pistol whipping a reaver with it, because this is a MAN's gun, man! A big gun to bust a cap or beat your enemies with!

 

[eab]

Any way you would be able to through the guts of a gas airsoft revlover into that frame?

Also could you do Jane's gun?

 

[Silver Bullet]

And Kaylee, thank you (I hope your as cute as the original)

Kaylee is beautiful, and one of the nicest people on this forum.

 

[Silver Bullet]

And by the way, Kaylee (our Kaylee) is the original. She's been around on The Firing Line/The High Road way before Firefly was on TV.

 

[13A]

Anyone interested in seeing Serenity can preview the first 9 minutes Here:

http://video.vividas.com/CDN1/3929_Serenity/web/index.html

Go see it and support a pro-liberty gun movie.

 

[Early]

Some 1 asked me if I can do Jayne's gun. And the answer is yes, if I get the right information. Eab, you have to remember I'm here on this site speicifically because I tried searching for pics and info on the guns without any luck. This thread has been invaluable to my project and thank you all (especially kaylee) but at the moment I'm working on MAL's gun from which I will be posting more pics soon. I did a little research on Jayne's gun however. If you can find a good side views of his gun, then post them. Now take a look at this link
http://johno.myiglou.com/lemat.htm, jayne's gun is base off a lemat design. Now a strange as it looks I think this gun is dope. And you would too after reading the page, but for practicality, nothing beats the colt. It (lemat) was designed and built by the french so don't expect to find a working one. If germans played with this model, we'd have some crazy cowboy stories. I think in the series, Jayne's fictional version its a mini grenade launcher under the main barrel. There is no way that I can make pieces that fit onto an original lemat to reshape it into the fictional version Jayne carries, because 1. I'm in california and I already said I won't be making working ones. 2. The original lemat's are 20 to $40k, which is odd for something so badly manufactured, that most or all surviving 1's don't work at all. A very interesting design though and I think I would like to recreate it.

I just about figured how to create the hair trigger effect (pulling the hammer back and locking it) for MAL's gun. Oddly enough I couldn't find any descriptive images, blueprints, or tolerance specs on fire arms in general. (Exploded view don't count because it shows you how to put it together, but doesn't show the actual size). Any 1 can find blueprints for starship enterpise G, but no guns? I'd figure the government doesn't want 13year old johny machining a real one at the schools machine shop, from a drawing he pick up on the internet. I thought it be an easy search, because guns are older than the internet, and they haven't changed much in a century. The bullet cylinder (in my gun) isn't going to revolve with firing, because its covered, so whats the point of seeing it spin. Plus I took out the big spring for the hammer because its not needed, it will have like .03 newton force spring (a weak one and on trigger too).

I going to design 2 ways of opening the side panel for imaginary reloading, and I'd like you guys to be the judge of it! One where is comes out parrallel to the gun and the other swings up like the hood of a car. The safety on the side is actually the lock for the panel, since series died so young, we'll never know how it truely looks reloading or opening it. When I'm done with the images you'll see. And by the way does moving GIF's work in this forum?

 

[Kaylee]

Hey Early..

Ain't that LeMat cool? A lovely gentleman at a Civil War re-enactment last weekend let my father and I handle his. Didn't have the time or space to experiment with it though. Anyhow, modern reproductions are available, though they're relatively expensive. At $600-700 or so, they run about three times the cost of most Colt and Remington repros. But gosh they're cool:

http://navyarms.com/html/le_mat_rev.html

Unless CA's passed some new laws I don't know about (which wouldn't surprise me in the least!), you could even have one of these shipped right to your door, since black powder guns aren't under the same laws as modern arms.

I'd love to see a modern version of the LeMat made, that takes modern cartridges and say a 20g. center barrel, perhaps break-open loading. But mechanical challenges aside, once again we run into the ATF and special taxes to even buy the duggern thing, so such a thing is not likely to ever be made.

Anyhow, as far as Mal's goes.. I think that although the prop is built around a revolver, the gun is supposed to be some kinda funky semi-auto.. witness the magazine up in front of the trigger guard we see him occasionally checking. That layout wasn't uncommon in the early part of the 20th century when folks were first trying to figure out how to make a semi-auto pistol, but pretty much fell by the wayside when Browning's slide-and-link system was developed.

The magazine-in-front-of-the-grip layout isn't really used today expect in sized-down subguns these days, and of course their semi-auto derivatives. Still, it might well make sense for longer heavy revolver cartridges -- as much sense as a Desert Eagle does, anyhow.

-K

 

[Early]

I am really sorry everybody, but my file(/image) hoster completely screwed me! I had posted a couple of cool images, some I made from scratch. They are not gone, I have a copy. But I have to redo my folders. I am so f-ing mad! :banghead:

Geez I hate free services!!!! I don't like image hoster because of the incredible limits they put on you (bandwidth, file size, bin size), so I tried thefilehut which lets you store up too 250 MB at maximum file size of 2MB. But now I'm screwed, all my other post, my myspace profile. All of it is screwed because of the free service! I can't wait to make some money so I can buy a domain and some space!!!!
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PS. I'm surprise the lemat never made it into a video game. 9 shots, and the buck shot of last resort. Obviously the programers can design it to load modern cartridge bullets, but this is a bad mofo of a gun! Kaylee, didn't it make you feel more masculine than a colt?

 

[Strings]

I actually got to handle an original Le Mat at a gun show several years back. As I recall, you were supposed to use the shot barrel FIRST, then switch to the std shots. VERY interesting gun, and one day I WILL have a repro!

Just started thinking... you COULD have the center chambered in something like .500 S&W mag, and load it with snakeshot...

 

[Boss Spearman]

I've seen Serenity twice, and probably watched the original Firefly episodes 3 times each (so far)

 

[ScorpioVI]

 

[Boss Spearman]

Great shirt!