AEP7 Laser Pistol (Fallout 3)

INTRODUCTION

This is a build like my other builds, the most cost effective way to make something that doesn't need a huge workshop. In this case, a prop Laser Pistol from the game Fallout 3. (also appears in Fallout New Vegas)

The most expense parts of this build will be the paint as the rest of the Build Is done with Foamies Foam,(6mm and 2mm), Foam Board, plastic from a bucket, an empty gift card, some threaded lamp parts, two different sized dowels and a few other miscellaneous items.

I did not take meticulous measurements.I didn't take dimensions from the game, I just made it as well as I could from eyeballing In game pictures. A bit of trial and error and the fact I threw one of these together for last Halloween. I had a lot of mental notes on what I did not like about that build. These notes I incorporated into this build and it took three times as long. Part of that was taking nearly 150 progress pictures. The rest was making templates and building the thing. I had a few problems along the way. I got angry at Gimp and my printer, because when I used Gimp and set the measurement to inches or millimeters when I then printed the template it was still messed up. I messed around for a while before just throwing a 1 inch by 1 inch index mark on the templates. So if you print it out out the index square does not measure up you will need to adjust the printer

On a side note this build actually changed a bit due right during the process due to the Laser competition. I will go into those changes the last few pages. I'm mentioning this in case you notice something off from a previous picture.

If your interested in the build please leave a comment, or any suggestions.

Anyways on to the build.

Step 1: Tools and Materials.

TOOLS:
Box Knife ( I prefer a folding version) You can use a X-acto knife too but you will go through a lot of blades. Or just use both.)
At least 10 Spare blades
Cutting mat
Contact cement or rubber cement ( I suggest Elmer's Rubber cement. it seems to have  less fumes.)
Hot Glue Gun
At least 10 extra sticks of glue
Pencil
Pen
Accurate Ruler (seriously this is mandatory. A lot of rulers are printed wrong. Check it out with a good tape measure. Nothing worse than measuring out an inch with one device only to find out later it was really 13/16 of an inch.)
Tape Measure
Rotary Tool (I use a Black & Decker Wizard with the Flex shaft)
Small sanding Barrel (medium grit)
Medium Sanding Barrel (medium Grit)
Fiberglass cut off disk (Not for actually cutting anything but for utilizing as a platform to spin and form round items)
Assorted Pliers
1/4' drill bit
3/8' drill bit
3/16' drill bit
Drill (I use a cordless)
Sandpaper (fine and medium grit)
Scissors

OPTIONAL:
Wide finger nail file (a foam core one as it's more flexible. Or c.p .)
Long Tweezers
I used my Daughters origami square. its a calibrated piece of clear acrylic. Works great for cutting exact lines on the foam board.

MATERIALS:
Assorted Threaded Lamp Rods and accessories.
I used:
6', 1 1/8, and a 2inch piece.
2 knurled brass nuts
4 or so regular nuts
2 couplers
6 7/8' washer

1/4' dowel
38' dowel

1 used up plastic gift card...(it's a stiff 1mm plastic)
Boiling water.
Chunk of plastic from a square bucket
Sharpie Cap

Panel Cap
small orange wire nut

1 piece of 110 lb card stock.
6mm Foamies brand foam
2mm Foam
Foam Board (you want the dense craft foam not the cheaper poster mount stuff.

PAINT:

Krylon Fusion Gray (This is what I wanted but My local hardware store was out so got Rust-oleum Gray Primer. since it was the closest match. NOTE: DO NOT USE THE RUST-OLEUM It cracks way to easy. Find the Grey Krylon Fusion.
Krylon Camoflage. Its almost olive drab so the closest I could find to the in game color
Silver Paint ( I did not use the krylon paint shown in the picture. Instead I used Rust-oleum American Accents silver and a brush.)
Yellow Paint (Krylon accents again.)
Painters Tape
small wide paint brush

Plasti Dip Spray on for the handle.

Step 2: Before You Start Tips

Tips and Basics.

The Foam Board needs to be cut pretty exact. So you should use a fresh blade when cutting. a straight edge, a measuring device that you know is accurate, (some rulers and craft rulers don't match a good tape measure.) And your cutting mat. You will be doing a lot of cutting and you will tear up any other surface you try to cut on.

Cut quite a few 2x2 squares to start off. I'd suggest 12. Make sure they are perfect as everything else is based off these squares. I also cut a 3/8 hole in the exact center of 8 of them. Do them individually unless you have a drill press and a jig of some sort.

When using hot glue once its down its there to stay for the most part. You can use the tip of the glue gun to clean it up a little.

This build needs a little bit of artistic talent. Writing out Exactly how to make each part wouldn't work so your going to have to use Everything I've included. Pictures, the main write up and notes on the individual pictures.

NOTE: There is a known bug that you will occasionally not be able to add notes to a picture. I have even tried re-uploading pictures that I have gotten this bug on to no avail.

Use proper ventilation when using rubber cement or contact cement.

Scavenge material. I used a bit of 2mm plastic I cut out of the side of a square sided bucket.

This is a pretty extensive build I'm not going to go over every single aspect of every single piece. Saying that I do want someone who wants to build this to be able too. But they need to have a little but of initiative to come up with their own way to do some of this or add that little extra to really make it bang.

Step 3: The Handle

The handle is where I start. It takes the most time to carve with a rotary tool. It is also one of the messiest parts So I suggest doing it outside, use a mask and safety glasses. I originally based the shape and size on my drill handle and the way it looked in game.

You will need 5 layers total. The middle layer is modified for the trigger housing. The two outside layers are not as long due to the top and bottom tongues being left off. Use rubber cement. Hot glue can dry to quickly, and doesn't form a smooth connection you will need during the sanding phase. I prefer Elmer's rubber cement as it doesn't seem to release fumes as bad as some of the other commercial brands, and since you will be using a lot of this during the build you can develop a headache. At least I did until I switched to Elmer's.

If you haven't used rubber cement before you should know how to use it...Glue up one side with a light coat The lighter the better. Do the same to the second piece you want to glue. Wait for it to dry then carefully stick them together. AND I mean carefully. You screw up and it's almost permanent. You wont easily be able to separate the pieces. Another reason you should start off with the handle as you will need to sand it into final shape and if you mess up on the gluing a little you can fix it during the sanding. This will get you use to using the rubber cement. This does take a bit of artistic ability but not much. The templates give you the basic form the rest is just evening out the layers and rounding out the edges.

So 5 layers...I have provided a template. You should be able to get the whole handle on one sheet of 6mm foam. Cut it out, Use a utility knife. I prefer a folding version. Line up the edges. You want to make sure you glue the edges well as you will be putting a bit of force on them during the sanding process and you don't want any peeling. Then head outside because the next part is messy. Wear safety glasses and a dust mask. Use a rotary tool and a medium sized, medium sanding drum. You will want to round out the formed finger grip area much like any pistol grip.

Google pictures of grips if you need to get more ideas than what I showed in these pictures.

Step 4: Pommel

The pommel is the piece that goes below the handle. The construction is similar to the handle, however this time there will be a bit more forming involved. It will also use 6mm AND 2 Mill Foam. Once again I've added a template for this. Just make sure that the 1x1 square matches up to your measuring device. Some printers will fit to paper and may need to be re-sized.

Between the template the pictures and hopefully the instructions, you should be able to figure this out. Do note however I took some artistic licensing in this build and made the pommel a bit longer than what it should be. I did this mainly to give it a biggest foot print and so it can stand up on it's own.
The longer tapered piece Is the top and bottom. It wraps around the shorter pieces. If you want to cheat a little, bend the longer piece tip to tip so it mostly matches the contours of the smaller piece and dip it in some boiling water for a few seconds. This will quickly heat and shape the foam. Pull it out of the water in about 5 seconds and hold it for about 30 seconds. It should retain the shape. I boil water in the microwave for this and never on the stove top. That way the water is just the right temp from taking it out of the microwave, placing it on the counter. Grabbing the pieces, bending them, and giving them a quick dip.

I cut out 4 half circles in 6mm foam and added it to the back as can be seen in picture 5. There is also a 2mm piece as well. It could have used 1 more 2mm piece but I made it work. The 6th picture shows another support piece glued in place. A lot of pieces like this are cut as I needed them. It is only glued on the bottom to hold in place. It is needed to make the glue up easier and to aid in where the edge pieces bend in.

I did not glue the top all the way down during this part. Leaving 2 inches free of glue so I could add a custom piece as seen in the pictures. Its needed to add a bit of strength to the tip. Once the tip is cut and glued in I glued down the last 2 inches.

Next comes the outside 2mm layer. It is on the template and when glued down covers all the previous seams. Next is a top piece, it is a bit smaller than the rest of the pommel and the edges have been sanded down quite a to match in game pictures. Don't glue this part down yet as some fitting is still needed to place the grip.

The in game pictures have this piece and the handle fairly far back. You can notice this in the last few pictures where I had the handle a bit to far forward before placing in the top layer. I've also added a collage of screen captures of the pistol from inside the Mod program Bethesda has given the gaming community to make mods for the PC version of Both Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

Step 5: Main Barrel

Ok lets put away the Foamies and Elmer's rubber cement for a bit, pull out the craft foam board and hot glue.

First your going to need 5 2x2 pieces of foam board and 4 2x6 in a half pieces.
NOTE this makes the barrel 3 n a half inches shorter than what game version looks like. I made the decision to shorten the main barrel do to aesthetic reasons and  to make the finished prop a little more user friendly.

Follow the pictures to see exactly how I cut and glued this up. First though, you do not what the outside edges flush with each other. You will fill in the recess with hot glue to help form a rounded corner.

start with the bottom piece find the center and come out 9mm on each side of it. This is where the handle will slide in.That makes the dimensions of the cut out  11/16' by 3 and 15/16'. You want the handle to slide in here easily but still held by friction.

Next you want to hot glue the 2x2 pieces onto the bottom. One flush with the front. two in the middle and only spot glue one on the back. It will need to come out later. Now glue the sides on. do not make them flush with the bottom. See the hasty gray and black cross section I drew up in GIMP.

I would add notes to it but I am currently getting the gateway and json bug when trying to write notes.

You see how the middle section is gray. The hole in the center is 3/8 to fit threaded lamp rod. The top two corners are showing a 45 degree angle and the bottom are rounded. I slightly over filled each corner with hot glue. waited for it to completely dry. This leaves slightly lumpy corners. Like on the bottom corners in the picture. I then used a brand new blade and shaved off a bit of the glue leaving a fairy nice 45 degree angle. the next step takes care of this.

I then pull out the Elmer's Rubber Cement and coat the whole piece and a sheet of 110 lb card stock. Leaving the seam at the bottom I carefully wrap the card stock around the barrel. Trim with scissors.
The flat sides are nice and flat and the corners are almost rounded now. Next I follow the same procedure with 2mm foam. Leaving the foam a little over large.

Be careful with this foam as you can stretch it a bit. You really just want to line up at the center on the bottom and carefully "roll" the foam. The seam is tricky. The easiest way I have found is to not glue the edges at first but leave 1/4 inch bare. This allows me to over lap the joint and with a sharp blade cut down the seam through both layers. Remove the excess and then glue the last 1/4 inch on each edge.

Slide the Handle grip into the groove and mark the inside. Glue two bits of 6mm foam so the handle can ride along the notch.

Here comes the fun part. Take the 5th 2x2, take one of the lamp rod nuts and carefully notch out the middle of the square to fit the nut HOT GLUE in place.. Use some of the left over card stock to glue down one side. Flip the 2x2 over and lightly score the paper part of the foam board to accept a washer. This lets the washer recess a little. Use the rubber cement to glue down. This piece gets glued on the front end of the barrel.

For now we are done with the main barrel body. On to the front.

Step 6: Barrel Front and Support.

This bit is a little difficult...Lots of pieces here. basically we start off with a 2x2 squares again. Only this time the side pieces are also 2 inches long. But because of the way its construed final dimension are 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 x 2, and that's before the 6mm foam is added. This part is similarly construction as the main barrel. I went over board on the glue on this piece. I later cleaned it up with the tip of the glue gun.

The fourth picture shows something new. Using an aluminum craft ruler (its no good for measuring by the way. It's not calibrated right. )I drew a series of lines into a 3 by 12 piece of 6mm foam scoring it. Using multiple smooth passes at 13/16, 15/16, 1 1/4 and 1 3/8 inches from the top. Once painted these lines will simulate layered metal parts.

Before gluing on the outside we need a piece that makes up the front of the prop. Once again I supplied a template for some of the more odd shaped parts. Once the rectangular piece is glued on the front we can wrap this with the 6 mill foam we scored. This piece is 12 inches long and we need to center it on the top before gluing. There is not much wiggle room on this one. For now we are only gluing the top and sides. We have some work to do on the sides.

Once the glue is set we need to cut the bottom of the foam (see the 9th picture) Right at the corner of the rectangular front plate and on the back side of it we need a straight parallel cut. Once this is done we fold the foam over on itself. In Fallout this is actually a flat piece rounded to the outside but I'm willing to take a little artistic license here. Picture 10 shows it folded over and glued. We need to add a small piece of 2mm foam here. it will need to be approximately 2 inches by 1 3/4.  Two matching score marks should be added to match to the ones on the 6mm before being glued down.

Now that part of the 6mm foam has been cut and folded over on itself we need to deal with the legs. I used a piece of rectangular foam board that had rounded corners flushed it with the end and taped it in place. Next I dipped just the first inch in boiling water to mold the foam to the correct curves. This comes in handy when adding the front support.

Speaking of which lets start on it. The included template has the pieces.

UPDATE: after everything was completely finished I do not like how the support was finished. It's a little flimsy. I'm thinking the flat part needs to be made of stronger material....see pictures for the notes marked UPDATE:


Trace and cut out. Once again tape and heat with boiling water the V shaped part. Dry and glue in the longer pointed piece. The top ends I purposely left long on the template. they will need to be cut to to match where they join the main body. the bottom cylindrical pieces can be made with dowels, bic pens, marker bodies ect. You just need to gut the ink out and cut to size. Cover with foam but make sure part of it has the 3/8 dowel. You will need to sand the dowel a little to be able to force thread a brass lamp rod coupler to it. It's hard to explain but use the pictures as reference.

There is a strange piece on the front of the support. It almost looks like a heat sink of some sort. I made it by gluing to 2mm pieces together, then cutting out 1/8inch wide pieces to get strips. The finished dimensions should be something around 2 inches by an inch and an eighth. The strips are set 1/8 of an inch apart. These strips are set onto a piece of 6mm foam an Inch and a half by three inches. The top part cut at a bevel. Again you will need to look at the pictures to see what I mean exactly

Time to add the small details. The longer ones are an 1 1/4 by1/4 inch. The shorter are 11/16 by 1/4 inch.  On the top if you go off a center mark they are 1 1//4 inches apart on the outside edges.  The bottom nook needs two longer ones. and are similarly placed. The side pieces I placed them where they looked like they belonged from game pictures. The difference to the sides is that there are corresponding divots I used a small sanding barrel to sand into the side. These divots represent where screws would go. Lastly there is a triangular piece that goes on the front and bottom of the support member.

Step 7: Rear Barrel

Once again we are building on the earlier steps. Start off with foam board. 2x2' squares. this piece needs to be 2 and 9/16 long. This time I just made a simple box. No need for drilling out the center on this one Either. We are going to use a different way to attach this. We do need a 2 9/16 piece of 2mm foam to glue and wrap.

Now we need to make what amounts to a tenon that will fit inside the main barrel. Remember that I said to only spot glue the back part of the main barrel? Well now you need to carefully cut out the 2x2 piece. Using some scrap foam board we are going to make a 2x2 tenon that will slide into the main barrel body. We also need to notch out the bottom so the tenon will fit over the handle tenon. I purposely over glued this part I didn't want it to fail. Check the fit. It should be very snug. You can sand the corners lightly to help it start easier.

Now we need to add two 6mm pieces at the back. Both need to be the same shape as the barrel so just use it as a pattern to trace these to parts out. The second layer is tricky. It takes a BRAND NEW razor to cut this. I used a new pink eraser to get the angle. Rested my aluminum craft ruler against the eraser. Do not use the utility knife for this we want just a plain blade. Rest the blade against the ruler and slowly slide the blade back and forth across the foam. Take your time. Get it down on this piece because there is one more piece we will cut the same way later on.

Grab some more 6mm. This time a 3 1/2 inch piece. I don't give both measurements because I glue and cut the seam in place. Its hard to get an accurate measurement due to the thickness and the way the foam wraps around anyways. You cant even really try to dry fit it. Never works out.

TIP:
Where the rear barrel and the main barrel meet, I over hung the 2mm layer by 1mm so the foam will cover the seam when attached to the main barrel

Using my sanding file I rounded the edges on the back side of the piece. This is critical to the look of this section of the prop. Take your time and get it right.

Next we need a 2 1/2 inch piece of 2mm to wrap around this. Its offset from the side closest to the main barrel by 3/4 of an inch. There is some detail work involved before gluing up though. We need to cut out a rectangle that is 1 7/8' x 1 1/2 inch. I marked this size out on the 6mm layer and didn't add the glue to this section. THEN wrapped the piece. I was able to trace and cut out a nice clean rectangle. I then jut a separate 1 7/8 x 1 1/2 rectangle to RE glue. I know sounds counter productive. But since I shaved the edges just a little it should come out fine.
There are some more screw divots to sand out and some Joints to pen in. Only these have some u shaped bits. This is really up to your artistic ability. You can't trace it out before due to the way the foam stretches so you have to do it this time while part of the build. See the pictures.

Now we need more triangles of that 2mm bucket plastic. I know we have 2mm foam but trust me the harder plastic works much better for this application. The top 7 pieces can all be the same size. The bottom 4 can match as well. We will also need a chunk of 6mm for the upper right corner. Well to be precise three layers of 6mm. Take your time carving and sanding it out.  The last detail is the power nob. I used I flanged hole cover. You can find them in the hardware store. to this  hot glued a hacked orange wire nut. By hacked I mean I cut it almost in half to get rid of the bottom part. Depending on what size panel flange you have will depend on what size hole you need to drill for your newly constructed power knob.

Step 8: The Side Vent.

The main build is done, now on to the details.
We need a 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 inch Piece of 6mm foam. Two triangles made out of more 6mm foam. Three triangles out of the bucket plastic. the short leg of the triangles are 7/16. 1 1/2 inches long. We need to simulate a hing. I used 1/4 inch dowel. The dowel should be 1 1/2 inches long. Carve a shallow grove every 1/4 inch. I then sharpened each end slightly in a pencil sharpener. Just enough to add a slight bevel. Next I sanded a third of one side off. and glued it all up.

Now that we got this far are we gonna glue it on? Nope here is the hard part. we are going to cut the main barrel. Don't cringe now. Seriously its not that bad. Slide the rear barrel into the main barrel. Position the vent centered on the left side. Carefully trace it with a pencil. I use a mechanical makes for sharp lines. Remove the rear barrel and the vent and cut out where you just traced. Now we need to glue the piece we just cut onto the Rear Barrel tenon. You may want to slide the tenon in part way just to make sure its aligned properly during glue up. Now glue the vent onto that.

Simple. Not to hard.

Step 9: Cable and Cable Clips.

This one isn't that hard.

Need 14 inches of coax cable, sharpie cap, 1/4 inch drill bit, drill, pliers, some scrap foam, and Hot glue.

Using the drill and bit drill out the sharpie cap from the open end to the closed in. Use some scrap foam and pliers to grab the sharpie cap as we don't want an accident this late in the build. Take it slow and you will get there.

Now pull the cable in through the cap leaving about an inch inside. Fill most the way up with hot glue. Use some 6mm foam to bring the end of the cap flush.

We need to use a medium sanding drum to sand out an area in the front barrel assembly for the sharpie cap to be glued too. Just be careful and dry fit often.

Lets make some cable clips.
Grab a used up plastic gift card, cut 1/2 inch strips off the short side. We need two. Throw in some boiling water. Toss in a small chunk of 1/4 dowel to wrap the strips around. You will probably need two pair of pliers to manipulate the pieces. The card will be very malleable in the water but soon as you take it out it will harden up. once you have the right shape round the tails with a knife or scissors.

Step 10: Cable Nut.

Another short step. But we learn a new technique.

Glue two one inch squares made from 6mm foam. But offset one square so there is 8 points looking down from the top. Cutting off the points will give you a rough octagon. Use the 3/16 drill bit to make a shallow hole in the bottom. Pull out the rotary tool and fiber glass cut off disk. We are going to want to put two dabs of glue on the disk opposite each other. We also want matching glue dabs on the octagon shape we made. Same side as the hole we drilled. The hole is where the screw on the cut off disk sits recessed into the foam.

Once the glue is dry, put on your safety glasses and dust mask. Might want to head outside for this too. Turn on the rotary tool and using a sanding file turn that octagon round. You may have to shut it off a few times to check.You will also want to bevel the edge in just a tad then round over the top. if you start of with course grit switch to medium and then fine for a nice finish. Now we need to add divots in the top 5 is the right number. Use a protractor, compass what ever you need. I used a gaming die. A d12 to be precise.

Now cut a 3/8 chunk out of a bic pin. It's the perfect size for the cable to slid into. We want to cut out or sand out a recess in the bottom of the "Nut" for the chunk of bic to fit into.

This gets glued to a 3 inch by inch in a half piece of 6mm foam. The tricky part is the front edge needs to be beveled again. We have done this once on the Rear Barrel assembly just do it again. We also want to do the pen trick again and score the long edges just a bit over 1/8 of an inch in.

Step 11: Side Thingies and Trigger.

The round side thingies. I call em nacelles because they remind me of the Nacelles on the side of the Star Trek shuttle craft. I think they are supposed to be capacitors of some sort.

I used 3/8 dowel cut 3 1/4 inches long. Wrapped in 2mm foam. Cut out three little "windows". I then took 3/4 inch strips of 2mm foam and used the pen method to score lines in them approximately 3/32in from the edge and wrapped each edge. The back end needs to be capped with a single layer of  6mm foam rounded. and the front a cone shaped piece 1/2 inch in length.

To cut make the cone you can use a disc of 2mm foam. cut a 135 degree wedge out of it. Glue the edges together. This makes a hollow cone. Fill with hot glue. Cut the bottom of the cone off once the glue dries to get to the desired circumference. OR use the same method we used to make the cable nut.

Need two of these.


The Trigger is made from some of the bucket plastic, (2mm) the gift card plastic (1mm) and a 3/8 chunk of 3/8 dowel use the template. It's a difficult job cutting the recces out of the inside of the bucket plastic but makes for a nice solid trigger assembly. The credit card plastic is sandwiched between two pieces of the bucket plastic. If you use a small sanding drum on the bottom corner once all three pieces of plastic are glued up the chunk of dowel will fit right in. I used rubber cement and then beefed it up with a small amount of hot glue. Add a piece of foam just inside the trigger hole in the handle to help retain the trigger it.

Step 12: Pre Paint.

These are all the components

Step 13: Templates

All the templates in one spot.

NOTE on the templates. I use Gimp to do my image manipulations. Somewhere between Gimp and my printer it does not print the correct size. Even when setting the measurement to inches or millimeters to draw up the templates it ended up printing about 15% smaller than actual size.  I messed around for a while before just throwing a 1 inch by 1 inch index mark on the templates. So if you print it out out the index square does not measure up you will need to adjust the image or parameters on your printer.

Step 14: Painting.

I didn't take step by step here photos. I made three light coats to get to what the pictures look like.Except for the handle grip. Its about 5 coats of the plasti-dip. Then I taped off a section to spray on the gray strip. I could have used a strip of 2mm foam painted gray but wanted to try this first. If I have to I can always go back and do this.

I had two problems The first had was with painting the coax cable yellow. Three coats looked good but it never completely dried. Or I should say it dried but remained tacky. Must have been due to the vinyl coating on the coax. Krylon Fusion in yellow would probably bond ok. Or they have Yellow Plasti-Dip in spray...What I did was just squirted some regular white Elmer's glue into my hand and coated the tacky cable leaving a really fine layer. This sealed it well and when dried was not tacky.

The second problem was I then tried using blue painters tape to mask off the main barrel to paint the yellow accent stripes but when removed pulled some of the green paint. I repainted one layer of green to reset then I re-masked a second time but first drug the tape across my jeans to make it less tacky but the painters tape STILL pulled small flecks of the green paint. I eventually just masked it off with regular paper wrapped tightly around. There was some over spray still that got under the paper so I then masked off the yellow stripes with paper and sprayed the barrel with the Krylon camouflage again.

I still need to find a good way to paint on the warning signs. Once I do I'll update.

To age I like to use Kiwi shoe polish and a boot brush. Apply some kiwi dab off the majority on a spare rag and brush in the rest. Use your finger or a toothbrush to get into small areas.

I then dry brush some silver paint on to simulate where the paint has been either scratched or brushed off or the metal parts have been shined by constant rubbing.

Not much more can be said for this build. It's pretty much complete. It can still be dissembled into all the major pieces just encase I want to modify something later on. The front barrel is held on with the threaded lamp rods, washers and nuts.  The rear portion is just friction fit into the main barrel.

If anyone want's info on a particular step, that i didn't fully cover, just ask.

Step 15: Secret Step: Adding a Real Laser!!!! Mini Update.

Well I figured I'd go a head and add a real laser. One of the reasons I made this build modular was so I could later add a real laser. Or what ever else I felt like doing. I got one of those cheap lasers with different tips. Each tip has a different design. Well throw those tips out and tear this puppy apart.I scored the thin metal with a razor blade then using two pliers simply tore the casing off.

You will have to figure out a way to mount the laser to your threaded rod. I got the one I did because it seamed close. In fact it's perfect if a little weak. OR so I thought. First I took a barrel coupling for threaded rod and ground the threads down slightly on one side so it would fit over the dissembled laser. It fit perfectly and flat. Should be no problem for the laser to be able to shoot down the center of the long threaded lamp rod shown in the first picture.

I was wrong in this assumption of coarse. I tried fiddling with it a bit but what I found out was that the laser itself was not truly centered in its own housing. So I had to modify my original plan and the original build of the main barrel. I cut out the front of the barrel and added tenon to the front barrel assembly that would hold the laser housing AND slide into the main barrel just lick the rear barrel does. So I pulled out the ol knife and cut along the thin line of hot glue holding the 2x2 foam core in place. I actually used a duller blade because I didn't want to accidentally slice all the way through when trying to cut the corners.

Next I needed a cradle to hold the laser, electronics and batteries. For this I threw on a shorter threaded rod onto the coupler and slid it into a spare 2x2 piece of foam core that I had drilled out the center. I then fashioned a cradle for the batteries out of two layers of 6mm foam.  I pulled battery connections from an old broken MP3 player.

I took a momentary switch I had pulled from an old piece of electronics, tinned the tips and soldered on 14 inch leads. I then made a jumper and bypassed the switch on the board the laser was already attached to. I should have went and gotten a better soldering iron. I used my wives jewelry iron ant it was a bit to big but I managed.

One of the leads was soldered to the battery connector cannibalized from the mp3 player. This I hot glued to the rear of the cradle. The other lead was soldered to the positive connection on the laser housing. If your not sure where that is just hold the momentary switch down and touch the lead around till you find it. See the close up picture (#6)

Now I carved out a section of the pistol grip the placement was to be able to slid the switch inside.I only took out a 6mm by 8mm chunk. I needed a x-acto knife to do this.

Now once this is done every thing is ready to go together. The laser cradle assembly gets a nut and washer on it then slides inside the front barrel assembly. A washer and knurled nut goes on the outside.tighten the outside so no threads are showing outside the knurled nut. If you don't have it right you will need to pull the assembly again and readjust the internal nut. Once you have that figured out you just have to feed the switch through the inside of the main barrel assembly. Tuck the switch inside the pistol grip and put everything together.

If either the front ore rear assembly are too loose to fit into the main barrel you can use painters tape, electrical tape etc to thicken the inserts a little. You can also use a different threaded rod size to attach the front barrel tenon to the main barrel internal support. I didn't have one the right size so couldn't do such yet but that's the plan when I do get one.

Step 16: Sketch Up Model W/Dimensions

Not much to tell here. Just sketch up images. If anyone wants dimensions let me know. I'll throw one up. I'm working on a few Fallout items by pulling the mesh files, cleaning them up and figuring out dimensions.

UPDATE:
Threw one on there with some dimensions.