Just wondering. (Blaster Question)

[hirohawa]

Cylinder covers are metal on the hero, period.

Besides the fact that they are, the propmaster was smart and professional enough to know that Resin would shatter off the cylinder the first time it would have fired from the spent gasses of the loads.

[jameth]

[andy]

[Staar]

[clutch]

[racprops]

It is scary, you have to pay $700.00 to $1500.00 for a Steyr Receiver and it is very hard steel so you try to hold it in a mill vice but without damaging the finish…then you try to mill out all that metal.

Heard from a couple of people that have done it, it is no fun.

I know I took a few plastic castings to get my early model right. (I was shooting blind and figuring it out with no help…) I had molded a Steyr Receiver stock and then started machining plastic castings instead.

I have sold a couple of models as guilds to “how to” make the cuts…

The current model has a completely redone new master made of the receiver, so I did it again.

Again I believe I covered a lot of this in my articles.

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

[propsjonnyb]

For those that are interested I have shot and handled a number of Styers over the years and have been fortunate to visit the Styer factory and Shooting School and Range and actually fired a Remington .222 SL and .357 MG and hold three 'Marksman' awards from Styer for 200 yds , 500yds , and 1000 yards and I can personally confirm the details regarding the Styer part of the hero, Richard is completely correct in all that he has said regarding the upper reciever , I have examined the magazine and can confirm it does indeed have a unique rotating cylinder mechanisim operated by the bolt action , the ammobox( magazine ) holds the bullet cartridges and is simply replaced when empty, so you carry spare 'clips' as full boxes. And Styer did at one time produce a transparent plastic magazine ( ammo box ) so you could see how many were loaded at any time .

This is the piece taken from the Styer ( photo courtesy of Phil S.)



And a Styer Mannlincher .222 Remingon SL



and just to be provocative! here's a shot of a different Styer Mannlincher model

[racprops]

The Clip I got had a transparent back cover, so you could see the rounds..

The two holes I dtill in the lower back are where the pin went to hold the clip retainer.

As we have seen in the photos of the prop they let the clip sit a little lower and not fully in the housing, the retainer would not have worked with the clip.

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

[joberg]

Just my two cents here : to think that ABS plastic was non-existant in 1981 is a bit much...since they were available in the industry in the '50s.
That said, we do know that the cost of that gun kept mounting during its build; to farm out just 2 ABS side covers to another manufacturing company (a studio doesn't have an in-house capability of producing industry grade steel/alu mold) would have been prohibitive...they went for the easy way: steel/alu side covers.

[propsjonnyb]

But almost all film and TV props departments do have molding and casting facilities , I very much doubt they were steel shrouds , that woud be excessive and expensive , but low melt cast alloy is possible, as some of the more professional shops have experierenced hot metal technicians , cast or machined aluminium is more likely , but as the majority of prop shops deal in resin and rubber casts it is probably more likely they were resin , and digressing slightly off film topic the Total Recall shrouds for the Uzi's used in that film were resin cast, in fact the majority of static non- functioning props weapons in general - most of the time - are either rubber (stunt) or resin casts, for most films where ' firing' guns are required they are normally hired from agencies unless it's a real requirement (eg Alien - M41a Pulse Rifle ) to have a complete working gun and in these cases the gun would have been either fabricated by an outside gunsmith's or an armourer familiar with film Directors requests- and all that that entails ! I have been using PFC guns for well over 20 years and have fabricated many shrouds and add-on bits and pieces to replicate sci-fi weapons and guns seen on film and 95% of them were cast resin as there is a lot of work in fabricating metal, as any who really have tried will know , and resin is a much easier medium to work with and I've been working with low melt alloys and hot metal for years as well. It doesn't really matter if the shrouds were resin or for that matter all metal at the end of the day , as all they were doing is hiding the 'real' gun inside and since they totally trashed the Styer, to get it to fit as Rich has explained previously, the only real working parts were the bulldog with a longer barrel .

[BeastMaster]

I always thought the bolt lever side cover was resin since I saw the additional japanese photos. a camera flash would turn aluminium white though most of those scrapings are in shadow and are clearly defined (not flashed out) and don't appear shiney reflective metalic as scraped metal would but a dull yellow-tinge resin colour. These scrapings were done to accomodate a better fit for the bullet chamber, so it's possible they were done on the fly whilst the cover was still attatched. I would think alluminium would be too hard to scrape out like that.
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"F*ck it, it's just a movie. Let him worry about it" Harrison Ford

[hirohawa]

A revolver expels gas from it's cylinder that will shatter resin. A notable example was on the RPF where someone tried to fit a BSG clamshell over a real revolver and splintered the resin on the first shot.

The cylinder covers where metal. Remember there are more options than just steel or aluminum. That's all I'm going to say on the matter.

[ironfist]

Isn't. There a vent in the one side of the covers? Also what proof do we have that this gun ever fired a real bullet or even a blank? Wouldn't a real working gun on. Set also require. Experts ln fire arm safty to be onhand at all times?
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The other Karl!

[racprops]

Watch him chase Zora, frame by frame it is clear it fired on set.

Also we were told by the propmaster they has special pryo blanks made.

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

[racprops]

Also fire safety was more lax back in the early 80s.

They tighten up after Twilight Zone and John Eric-Hexum killed himself with a blank.

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

[ironfist]

Sorry thats kind of what Im getting at. Shooting a real bullet, causes back pressure, Shooting a blank with nothing more than some wadding holding in the charge would cause almost none as all the force would be directed out the front of the gun (the path of least resistance). Also this isnt a sealed unit. Front and back of the side plate on the left hand side of the gun are very open to vent anytype of gas, and as for the otherside, there is the large opening thet the Styre arm sits over. So I think that arguement that this couldnt have been plastic/resin because of gas build up doesnt really work here. As with the clamshell on a BSG gun. Whole different type of animal.
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The other Karl!

[hirohawa]

Not really sure why this is being argued. As many people who first hand knowledge of the hero have reported that it did indeed have metal side covers. And blanks do have alot of percussive force, especially when they make big muzzle flares as they do in the movie. Maybe resin would survive - improbable - but maybe.

We will never know as the Hero had metal cylinder covers.

Maybe we can build a time machine and put resin covers on it the day of the shoot and see if they would survive.

[propsjonnyb]

I agree with Ironfist and Beastmaster, as I have my own pyro caps made up to my own design for my PFC guns, the donor in my conversion has a special forward venting system, which I use to make the blaster look more like its counterpart on film , it is a theatrical pyro what most would call a 'special effect' , but its designed to produce, 'flame and smoke' - just as the hero did , there is very little pressure produced and there are vents in the shrouds , so they don't blow off or shatter ! and I suspect the pyro blanks used in the hero were made in a similar fashion to produce lots of smoke and flame , they were not standard .44 blanks as most of the documentary evidence in books, documentaries , talk shows, and articles etc - all refer to pyro charges being used in the hero . Metal or resin , it doesn't really matter apart from an 'all metal' gun such as the Sidkit or Coyle weighs in quite heavily, especially when loaded with its 'dummy' bullets , our 'professional' experts are the police force members of this forum who carry real guns around with then all day - ask them what its like to carry a heavy weapon on the hip and would they like a lighter gun in relation to the weight of a Sidkit or Coyle and see what they say - I suspect most would like a lighter gun real or otherwise -I completely agree - you want it to feel 'real' - I want it to look feel and sound real' whilst be safe and legal to own and use in the privacy of my own home. The two guns that makeup the hero were stripped amd machined right down to the ' bear bones' , on the hero only the CA was functional , the Styer was cut down so much, it was really only used as 'dressing' the bolt action being replaced with a fabricated reduced action one , even the Styer double triggers were replaced , one trigger being fixed in position and the other used on the CA so everything points to the hero blaster being reasonably heavy, as two become one , but not to the degree that Harrison Ford as the actor couldn't carry it about in the scenes where it is extensively used . To add a final point , the interior of the lhs & rhs shroulds have to have enough clearance to allow the free rotation of the cylinder drum, when the trigger is pulled most static models don't bother , Coyles always have had free rotation , but no link to the trigger action , the early Sidkits were tight and then they mimicked the Coyles up to the point Siderio passed away, my final point bein, g it's much easier to fabricate a resin shroud, than a metal one and make all the necessary adjustments reqired for test fitting , as you progress your build.

[Staar]

[joberg]

Wish Doc could shime in...he fired his replica; don't think his shrouds were resin. Also, are we sure the barrel rotated in the hero gun?
Just a thought really, I mean no need to go crazy and try to modify the shrouds when your barrel is static...right? We never see Harrison fire 2 shots in a row. All you need is a working trigger and hammer to fire your bullet in one chamber only. Don't know if that make sense, but sometimes it's better to use a gun that way.