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[JarheadinDE]

I am going to use a airsoft M-79 grenade launcher as a base for my N'Gant 9118. The thumper's design looks to make for an easy conversion.

[Shurik Bhar'vani]

I am going to use a airsoft M-79 grenade launcher as a base for my N'Gant 9118. The thumper's design looks to make for an easy conversion.

Good thing they're actually being made again then  otherwise you'd be in for a rough time finding one.

I'd make a joke about how expensive a blaster base that'll be, but since I make my blasters from deactivated airsoft pistols I probably shouldn't throw stones 

[Ikaan Deema]

  That's a really neat idea, JarheadinDE. If I had the budget I might do it myself. I'm surprised you're doing the 9118 as well; I hadn't/haven't seen many people looking at doing it, though admittedly I don't surf the forums very often.

Right now my carbine is still just in the planning stage, so you're a bit more on the ball than I think I am. I haven't even started doing templates for it. In fact, I've mostly been meandering around the garage trying to figure out what to do next on my weapons. Since I've mostly been doing my work later at night, I've had to keep it down so my housemates (read: parents) don't complain about not being able to sleep. So power sanding the things I'm actively working on has been out of the question. And with the weather being unpredictable recently, I haven't been able to work on or finish any of the things I wanted to do.

That said, I made a little, literally a little, bit of progress on my axe. I know most people who get on any sort of a roll in the forums crank out this much progress in an hour, so it's really not much. I've got my axe blades temporarily attached to the handle. I have yet to fill and sand one of the blades, but I'm hoping to have that done, and the other one painted by the end of tonight... If I stop messing around and actually get stuff done.

Anyway, here's a picture of where it's at right now.

[JarheadinDE]

Good thing they're actually being made again then  otherwise you'd be in for a rough time finding one.

I actually already have one from my days of playing airsoft & doing Vietnam era reenacting.

[Shurik Bhar'vani]

That's a really neat idea. If I had the budget I might do it myself. I'm surprised you're doing the 9118 as well, JarheadinDE. I hadn't/haven't seen many people looking at doing it, though admittedly I don't surf the forums very often.

They're made by a company called King Arms, in full size and shorty versions.

The full size will run you...about $280 USD whenever it gets back in stock, plus shipping. It's pricy for what amounts to a tube with a button in the receiver

[Ikaan Deema]

Hi all. I've been slow on working recently. The weather was depressing and not conducive to working on things out in the garage. I've made some progress on my axe at least. This is about where I'm at. The blades have been finished and permanently attached since this pic was taken. I still have some work yet to do, but it's looking pretty good, even if I do say so myself. The angle distorts the scale a bit. It's 4' long, and 15" across.

[Ikaan Deema]

Hello again. Sorry for going MIA so frequently. I'm trying to get back into working on my kit. I've still got a bit of work on my axe to do yet, but I took some time tonight to do a full size design for my 9118 carbine. I'm thinking about putting a Viper grenade launcher on it as well, but I'll design that separately. This is what I have for the design of the 9118. I have a plan for how to build it, so now I just need to pattern everything out and actually make it. Which, knowing me will take far longer than it needs to.



I'm going with a take on the Star Wars Galaxies version of the carbine, just because I think that design makes more sense and is more appealing.

[Ikaan Deema]

Well, I'm finally back. Life's happened, and I didn't have a workspace for a while, but I'm getting back into it. Starting with my weapons. I've been working on my 434 Death Hammer a little, and I've been working on my second attempt at the 9118 N'Gant-Zarvel heavy carbine. My first attempt failed splendidly, and I lost my workspace shortly after that so I wasn't able to retry until recently.

Anyway. I've been working on the second attempt at the 9118 the last 4 nights or so, and I've got process and progress pictures to share. I'll also share the pics of the 434 as well, but I'll add those in an edit after I've checked what ones I've already shared so I don't post any repeats.

Anyway, this is next image is what I started working with. I'm using the brown composite board(?) as an inlay for the stock, to give it some weight, otherwise the carbine would be barrel heavy. I know the frame looks really weird with all the notches in it; I used those to attach some of the pieces to, since it was actual wood and wouldn't fall apart on me if I did it that way.




These are most of the pieces after they were cut out. I skipped a few steps in documenting this, so I'll try to do this from memory. After cutting the frame out with a scroll saw, I used a wood file and sand paper to make the stock/handle fit my hand -specifically to eliminate the awkwardness of thumb positioning- better. It's still not perfect, but I'm satisfied with it as it is. After that, I attached one of the pieces that's going to act as the frame for the receiver. It's actually attached in the picture; it's the same as the first piece to the right of the frame, minus the hole in the middle. I also aligned all those pieces to give a general sense of where everything was going to go.






After that, I worked towards finishing the skeleton of the blaster. The black piece that isn't in the previous pictures is a piece of old vacuum cleaner tubing I salvaged from our last vacuum, with the dowel seen in the previous pics running through it for stability. I used a smaller dowel I had, cut into pieces, to attach the two frame pieces for the front of the barrel. The dowel and barrel sections still aren't attached to the main body of the carbine, but that's on my list for next time. This is the completed skeleton of the carbine.




With the skeleton done, I was able to start filling it out. I used a heat gun to help shape/fold sintra around the receiver and the barrel. It doesn't look as good in the picture, but you can still see that it's coming along. I'll include the source image I'm working from again for reference.





That's where I'm at right now for that.


**Edit with Death Hammer progress

So, I haven't made much progress with the 434 yet, but have been working on it a bit. I attached squared dowel pieces of various sizes to the top of the handle to taper up to the main body of the pistol, then sanded them down so it was actually smooth. Looking at it now, I can tell the handle is too thin, but since I was already planning to add "grips" I'm going to use pieces of sintra to bulk it out a little. I also solved a problem I was having where if someone was holding the pistol they could see down the entire length underneath the pvc pipe used for the "shielding." I've taken part of the bend from a different pvc pipe and attached it in a way I hope looks like it's the inner barrel connecting to the receiver (I apologize if that makes no sense, but it will with the pictures). I've also decided how to attach the outer pvc pipe; I'm going to put wooden pegs into extra holes I've drilled into the pvc. There are probably much better ways to do it, but it's what I've got. I'll cut the pegs to length when the time comes, and probably use some furniture tacks I've got that look a bit like rivets to cover the pegs, and keep the pvc from trying to slip off of them. There's still plenty of work to do to get it finished, but it's getting there.

[Ikaan Deema]

Update, I've been working a bit more on a few of my weapons. It's not a ton of progress, but it's something. Sorry for any blurriness to the pictures my phone camera isn't the best.

Some refining to the paint job on my war axe, and the attachment of the brackets (for aesthetic purposes only, made out of sintra). I still have to do the brackets and upgraded paint job on the other side, but it's getting there.



Finished the various pieces of my combat axe, and put it all together as a test. I'll have to take it apart, refine the pieces and paint them, but I think it looks okay. The "rivets" are just for aesthetics, there are actual pegs pinning the pieces together. The blade needs some more work too.



I also started working on my grenade launcher attachment, based on the in-universe Viper model, for my carbine. So far it's mostly the frame. I plan to sculpt/shape the grip with bondo and make the siding layers with sintra before attaching them. The barrel is slipped back onto a disk of wood (matched to the barrel diameter) which is bolted to the frame. As such right now it's only attached at the back of the frame, so I think I'll need to do something to make it more stable.







If anyone has any feedback or suggestions , I'd love to hear them.