A hero 3.5 years in the making...

[Riskbreaker]

Some teaser pictures. This is made from a modern CA Bulldog (the CA handgun roster makes it nigh impossible to get the classic version), a mint condition Steyr SL, and a ton of CNC aluminum. The maker is a film industry artisan who builds prop guns for the movies, so he had all the right equipment and definitely the necessary passion.

The grips have been custom-made, as well. More pics to follow -- we are oxidizing the stainless and anodizing the aluminum right now to blacken or blue the parts, depending on what's what. We should be less than two weeks out from completion.

[hirohawa]

Looks amazing!

[joberg]

WOW This is some serious sh#t for sure. I always admired people working with metal and machining/fitting pieces together like this fine example of a gun ...question: where did you get the amber grips?

[racprops]

I agree: Looks amazing!

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

[Staar]

An absolutely brilliant build and perfectly realised…

Please keep us updated.

Highest regards

MARK
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[Noeland]

Ah, man. A blade runner blaster built by a hollywood gunsmith. That is just as cool as it could possibly be. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Planning to run real ammo through that, or only blanks? Or, will it remain unfired behind glass?
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I don't have enough blasters!

[Riskbreaker]

Thanks for all the kind words. I have no talent in this regard, so they all will be re-directed at my talented smithy.

To answer the couple of questions, the grips were custom-made by the smith. We had a set of Mr. Coyle's grips and a set of old Sid grips but I think the modern bulldog required some tweaks to basically all the fitting parts (the trigger guard, the triggers, the grip frame) so he had to custom fabricate everything. In the end, he wanted to make his own set of grips. He's LA-based and thinks that he found the acrylic manufacturer who supplied the stuff back in 1981 to the original production. The official color code on the grips (they had many shades): amber. Cool.

Re: firing, the smith is actually "sleeving" the chambers with something that will prevent real bullets from ever being loaded in this piece. Just not something I'm interested in and I want to be comfortable having it on display. The cool part is that, because a smith made this, the gun COULD be fired. The machined barrel is rifled and built to firing specs.

Hope to have final-final pictures very soon with all the finished finishes, greeblies, electronics and everything. My hope is that, in the end, this will be 95% accurate or better to the original.

[joberg]

Thanks for the info! It's cool to see a pro at work ...eager to see the final result.

[Bwood]

Is it me, or does the ammo box appear to not be fitting properly to the rest of the gun?

[racprops]

To my eye it looks like the right side cover is a little too low on the gun and that they tired to line the bottom of the housing up with the covers bottom edge lowering the back end of the housing.

There is a little more of the Bulldog showing below the cover on the real one.

Sorry:



Hope this helps and that you can make changes.

I would think a couple of hard sanding passes on the bottom of the cover to lift the leading line and a redrilling of the housing or another housing will fix this.

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

[Riskbreaker]

This is just a test fitting right now before the final finishing is done. Once it is, I'll review with the smith and see where we are.

There's no way I'm getting a new mag housing for the SL, though, so it'll either have to stay put or we'll have to put a new drill hole in the Bulldog.

[racprops]

If I may, I bet you will find the new hole too close to the old one.

I would think a little patch work on the housing will be much easier.

My 2 cents worth.

Rich

PS If you need any other pictures email me.
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I never have enough time to do all I want to do!

[joberg]

Another interesting suggestion is that Riskbreaker's gun smith take a look at the other gun we've seen at Propsummit under "Original film gun in display case" and see if he could identify (maybe with tells the other gun smith left on that gun) who built that one.

[Robotprops]

Joberg, that's a great idea.
Rich is right about the side cover on the right. It might not be only too low, but it might just be too big and therefore sit much lower. And the grip angle should swing back a few degrees. The Bulldog grip frame shouldn't sit against the rear of the grip. The grip frame around the bulldog varies, but is around a half inch all around.
Sorry to nitpick, but I'm just really jealous.

[Gero]

Realy great work!
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"...ist sie teuer?" "Außerordentlich!"

[Noeland]

[Ki-Djowac]

Amazing masterpiece you have there ! Congratz !

[Riskbreaker]

95% complete... only electronics and final weathering remain.







My plan is to ask the builder to shave down the bolt-side sideplate and re-align the ammo box as well as (oy) craft a new grip-frame to achieve the correct grip angle, as ID'd above.

More work remains but we are, I hope, very close to perfection. Does anyone else see any glaring issues? I think with the blackened finish, it looks very, very close to the original. My guess (and it's unfortunate) that the grip frame angle is off by maybe 5 degrees or less.

[Robotprops]

Looking fantastic!
The grip angle is only out by a fraction as you've noted. It might not be enough to warrant a new frame.

[joberg]

Looking great for sure: a work of art ...btw, have you seen the topic "Original film gun under display case"? It's an interesting read for sure; maybe your gunsmith knows more about it than us? (not trying to highjack)