I’ve decided to document this process for a few reasons, one being I needed a new gun so I might as well document it’s construction, two being that this thread might serve as some insight for those who have purchased some of my parts, and three being that build threads with lots of pictures are fun, so expect a lot of photos.
**Act I - Cleanup **
The cleanup process is the most annoying part of the whole build, so I try to get it all out of the way at the very beginning.
To start off with, I’ve gathered together all of my parts. They are all in their raw form, straight from the mold, no modification.
Removing the trim from the gun body and the trigger box is pretty simple. You can score and snap it with an Exact-o knife…
Or you can go after it with a hack saw. Be careful with the hacksaw, because it’s far less delicate than the Exact-o knife, you risk it going off course and cutting into the bottom of the gun body.
Here are all of the parts after cleaning and drilling. I haven’t done any filling yet, but that is because the only filler I have on me ATM takes 12 hours to harden, and I didn’t want any down time until the last possible moment. It took about 1.5 hours to get from the start point to here, and that is while getting distracted by the TV and whatnot.
Act II - Assembly
This is where things start to get fun. The assembly process is fast and easy, and it is pretty rewarding to see it come together.
This close up is of 4 holes on the side of the gun near where the Trigger Box goes. The location for each hole is marked with a slight indention on the original cast, which corresponds with other intentions on the Trigger Box. The purposes of the holes are as follows:
A. This hole indicates where the green lever rod goes into the gun body.
B. These two holes are for screws that run from the inside of the trigger box to hold the trigger box tightly to the rear instrument bar.
C. This larger center hole is for running wire to the switches.
Be sure to secure the trigger box with both screws and epoxy.
I decided to go with the tick walled 1" PVC plumbing pipe for the rear handle because the thicker wall will give me a stronger bond. Yes, that little box shape the screw is going through was designed solely for this function. Like with the trigger box, don’t forget coat the joints with epoxy first.
The rear grip is secured just like the trigger box, with epoxy and screws going into it from the inside of the PVC pipe.
Here are the three things you are going to need for the front handle. From left to right: Whatever tube you will be using to slide inside the front of the gun barrel as your silver tip. 1" thin walled PVC plumbing pipe. Then the grip+ears casting, of course.
Here is how it all goes together, if it were not obvious enough. The point of the smaller insert tube is to make sure the PVC is properly lined up with the front ring on the grip casting. The insert tube also helps in the filling process. Be sure to lube up the insert tube before you… insert it; if you don’t, you risk the filler or excess epoxy sticking to it and making it difficult to remove.
Coat the PVC-side of your grip with epoxy, press it against your PVC, insert your insert tube, and then clamp them together with tape or rubber bands while the glue sets. Because the mechanics I have planed for the front handle may get in the way, I didn’t bother securing the front grip to the PVC with screws. I’ve never had one break off of the front anyway.
Now that I have gone as far as I can before painting, it’s time to fill what I need to fill. I’m using an epoxy-putty called Magic Sculpt, which takes several hours to harden, but you can use something like Bondo, or even better, quickset filler putty which hardens in about 20 minutes. The nice thing about the putty vs. Bondo is you can kind of sculpt with it, use your hands, and it won’t droop or run like Bondo can. Squeeze as much of it as you can into the gap. Be sure you have the insert tube in so the putty doesn’t push through and get in the way when it hardens.
Here you can see little bits of putty on the gun body.
Filling the holes drilled to secure the rear grip.
This is the most disappointing thing about my kit. This is an EPIC fail on my part. As you can see, I put in pegs in all of the corners, but I forgot to check their placement against where the screws are supposed to be on the gun track. So when you come to this point, you have two options - you can use your putty to make areas to drill into, or you can ignore the indention on my gun track and just move the screw holes further to the corners so they catch the pre-existing pegs.
So like I said, 12 hour dry time, so that ends this build for tonight. Hopefully I can get pretty close to done sometime tomorrow.
