Just wondering. (Blaster Question)

[ironfist]

This is not a dig at anyone or any company. Just a simple question.
We as a whole seem to be all in search of or trying ourselves to make the Holygrail of holy hero BR Blaster. Correct? So why on earth dont we all want the side covers of the bulldog chamber to be white resin? Dont we have photographic proof that the insides of the covers have the paint scratched off to show the white plastic? Also what was the thinking of the all metal kit from Sid? Was it cheaper for him to pour pewter for the ammo housing and clip than resin? These parts were always plastic?
Again
these are just questions I have and I would love your input.
Thank you.
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The other Karl!

[andy]

For Siderio I think the reason he used the same material for the majority of the gun is the fact that the metal alloy he used actual expanded after cooling, while the resin shrank. It kept the pieces proportionate, and able to fit together.

The photos of the hero show the white behind the black, but some have stated they think it is actually aluminum rather than resin. It too would show up white. I personally don't care what the painted parts material is made out of, as long as it is durable.

Andy

[propsjonnyb]

Andy is probably right in his evaluation , personally I believe from all the evidence available books, documents, photos, etc that the shouds were resin cast sprayed , the ammo box was an original Styer cut to fit which is made of plastic (so ABS /Resin is a good substitute) , the Sidkit 'all metal' was, in my opinion, poured into the set of molds and as Andy suggest were done to keep the model pieces in proportion and Richard did the same for his model although he himself does insist that to be correct and accurate to the hero , the ammo box should be resin and I completely concur. I would also suspect the left and right shrouds were definitely resin, just to keep the weight down - have you tried holding and 'all metal' one for any length of time - you end up supporting your tired arm with the other !

[andy]

I may be misremembering, but several of the people who saw and held the gun in person said the cylinder covers were metal. With the gun being tossed onto the floor and such, resin would have shattered (referring to scene with gun hitting floor in Bradbury). They would be right behind all the weight of the gun, and also protrude the most. They would have taken the brunt of the force of even a small drop. The force from the blanks alone would also have blown them clear across the room. I seriously doubt they were resin. Color of the scratches means nothing IMHO.

Andy

[clutch]

[jameth]

My personal opinion, and that's all it is is that most screen used props are very poor quality and made to only survive filming. 95% of movie props knowone cares about and get thrown away.

So for me I prefer idealized props. Dead on SA is not possible as many different props are used during filming and most information is sketchy. I said most. I like idealized props.

When I got my Deluxe Blaster from Rich my first thought was not all that great. I quickly fell in love and you could never get me to part with it now but,...And this is nothing against Rich. I'm not nuts about the floppy bolt lever. I don't care if it's seen opening in some scene. A real gun like this would have a bolt lever that does not open on it's own. The bolt action lever should go farther back as well. Again a real gun like this would do that. And I think the lighting housing/Ammo clip would have to be metal. No real gun like this would have any plastic on it. I guess you could argue the Glock route and some add on stuff is high impact polymers, etc. but still I say no plastic

Again this is nothing against Rich, his attention and effort to make it as SA as possible is amazing and I am very happy with my baby. The second trigger and bolt lever will have springs added and I will figure out how to make the bolt go as far back as I want (actually did that but then the end piece spins around on it's own). So I can finish this baby perfectly and exactly as I want it.

But, and again this is just my opinion I think there is a fine line between SA and silly. Trying to copy a crack in a Boba Fett Helmet scene in a pic taken 20 years later and never seen on film is silly. Trying to copy the screw ups that both the film makers and prop makers would change if they could does not make sense. If you want a screen accurate Millenium Falcon or Star Destroyer your gonna have glue marks all over it. Evil Master Replicas made the right choice when they made their Flacon model Idealized.

Just my half cents worth

I avoid resin whenever possible and am so glad I have a mostly metal prop.

[propsjonnyb]

Andy , I am sorry for contradicting you slightly, and I'm not asking you to take my word on it , but a properly cast resin ABS piece can be stronger than steel, and be made to look and feel like steel even down to being magnetic ! so to say it will shatter when dropped on the floor is a complete misnomer - granted resin as it is used in making garage kits and replicas is sometimes brittle and sometimes of very poor quality - I concur , but ask anyone in the industry who knows what they are talking about or speak to any member of this forum who has made a lot of replica weapons in resin, especially professionally, will confirm that fact , and a lot of Japanese replica guns are made of ABS and alloy construction and you could certainly throw one of those at a wall and it wouldn't break ! I am not saying I know for a fact that the shrouds were resin or plastic on the hero because I don't - I only said IMPO I think they were, to lower the weight of the original gun, but I do know for a fact that the ammo box was an original Styer and that was made of plastic and that fact can be comfirmed officially by Styer by quoting the serial number on the gun, or by visiting the Mannlicher Europe Shooting Center Wr. Neustadt, Austria and now that you mention it , they could of course be black anodised aluminium shrouds just like some of the current guns , which of course would be light weight. As you probably know the Styer ammo box held the five cartridges in a 'unique' rotating cylinder mechanism and the second trigger was a hair trigger and not a trigger for a second barrel, the bolt action travel was about an inch of travel, not the reduced action we see on Rich's gun - cycling the bolt revolved the cartridges in the ammo box loading one into the breach - one could then use either trigger to fire the weapon , cycling the bolt again ejects the spent cartridge and loads a fresh one ,until the ammo box is empty , reloading was done by simply exchanging the empty ammo box ( magazine ) one with a new full one.

[phase pistol]

On the real thing the bolt lever falls open easily, and the bolt only pulls back a little way. A screw keeps it from pulling back farther.

Karl

[Staar]

An interesting debate for sure and I think everyone has good points here. My thoughts on the Sidkit's metal covers are supported by the logic of Andy's point about the shrinkage and also by jameth's about SA vs fantasy. Personally I LOVE the steel Sid used on his because it gives the weapon a lot of heft which relegates it straight into the realm of a fantasy weapon.

The issues of SA have been argued to death so lets turn our thoughts to the originals covers…

Looking at the original blaster there is a single part that (for me) tells me that the covers were metal. If you look at this shot of the crack in the cover under the sight rod its clear that the crack has been creased inwards on the edges and not just cracked and split (which I would expect from resin or plastic)



Its certainly NOT conclusive but I also like to think that the crisp edges of the scratches on the cover seem to indicate that the underlying surface is hard because even where there are some pretty heavy scratches it does not appear that an actual gouge has taken place..

My thoughts naturally..

Regards

MARK
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[jameth]

[jameth]

[jameth]

Is this the rifle?????????

http://www.cabelas.com/gun-inventory---gonzales---fine-rifle---1466955-steyr222sl-gon.shtml

[racprops]

Yes that is the rifle.

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[jameth]

[racprops]

And there was a lot of cutting and machining, the safety had to be cut off its arm and then drilled for a mounting hole, the cocking arm is BENTED in to wrap around the cylinder...

The bolt was thrown away and not used, they made up that 1/2 round bolt...

The Plastic ammo housing is part with the trigger guard and had to be cut and trimmed as well.

One the prop the ammo clip does not sit in all the way as it does on the real rifle.

And there is more...

Check out the many articles on my site http://www.racprops.com/

Rich
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[Staar]

[jameth]

[jameth]

Rich, and whoever else wants to chime in,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270570518562

Since we are on the metal/plastic/resin discussion I was wondering about the 2008 sidkit found above.

How does the New Coyle compare to the Sidkit???

Good and bad???

[Staar]

[Nexus6]