I can't aim for shiet...
Welcome curious readers!
You're in for a wonderful treat because today we're going to build a Gunblade!!
Crowd: YaY!!
I got the idea to make one when my friend asked me if it was possible.
I was going to start on making a Masamune out of a 4 foot piece of wood I had left, but making a Gunblade meant I would have a sword and a gun... so I scrapped the katana project.
He sent me an image of the handle he designed a long time ago for art class, and after a 3 earlier sketches, I've settled on one design.
(This was the gunblade my friend designed years ago.)
To make it, you'll need to give up my MOST HATED GUN, the Hornet... which is a heavy piece of pure crap.
It weights several Mavericks yet fires only the same amount as 1. It has an annoying recocking mechanism which will hinder your shots useless if you forget to cock it after every pump. It's hard as hell to remove the AR since the tube is glued into the 6 bladders AND it's a pain to even open the gun's shell casing.
The only plus side it has is that it's great for spare parts, you can make 6 guns out of just 1 stupid Hornet!
You'll also need:
LOTS OF SCREWS (at least 26)!!
Lots of 1/4" boards of wood (usually ranging from $.90-$1.80 a piece at Home Depot).
X-acto Knife or Razor Blade or Box cutter.
Epoxy
Paint (Spray paint if you want, but I prefer hand painting the wood since you get a better control over it).
Dremel or Rotary Tool
Crayola Barrel or 1/2" copper tube
1/2" PVC tube
a chain
common sense
and some imagination~
First off, we're going to build the skeleton of the gun
Look at the picture below (Stolen from Renegade's Hornet post)
The parts you'll need are the ones outlined in blue.
TAKE THEM OUT!! Pieces ABC has to be sawed off, but Piece D you can just unplug it.
STOP FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS FROM THIS POINT ON IF YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN GUN FRAME!!
Okay, now that the easy part is done, the real challenge begins.
Now we're going to be making EVERY OTHER PART of the gun.
I'll start off with the barrel.
Make the cuts/openings/breech as big as you need to fit your bullets in. (Mine was a 2" opening with a 2.5" crayola tube inside it, you can use copper if you want to, but it'll weigh your gun down)
To make the frame of the gun, you'll need to place your gun skeleton+barrel on a piece of board and trace the outline of it, now that you have an outline, just draw how you want the blade (mine was a Machete, you could make a broad sword, or katana, whatever you want), angle you want the handle (I tried a 30 degree angled handle, but it looked too much like a rifle, so I raised it to a 10 degree angle).
You'll need to place the screws in the following locations.
2 in the barrel. (Front and back)
2 on the side of the blade where the 3 pieces of wood meet.
5 under the bladder area (5 around the triggerless trigger section)
4 around the fire button
6 under the handle
4 above the handle
2 in the end piece holding the pump in
and 1 in the middle of Piece K (locking the uppder handle with the middle section of the gun).
Here's my frame from the side view
and here's the top view (Letters were placed to help you match up the side and top, and the measurements are of how thick that section is)
That part will take your a LONG time, so you better be patient,
When you're done with the frame, you are almost home!!
Here's a wood cutting tip I've used plenty of times.
(The second pic is actually how I made my handles)
To sharpen the blade, you need to first sand it down until both sides of it curves together.
I suggest you sand it by hand or a power sander so it'll be more even.
Then to sharpen the edge, here's a simple to make tool that will help you.
(Hold it vertical and sand it that way first, then when it's really thin, tilt the tool more horizontally for a SUPER thin sharp edge.)
To help you sand that block of wood you call a handle, just sand the edges first, give it curves if you want (I make the middle of the handle thinner then the sides). Then follow the steps in the bottom section of the diagram to make a fingering tool.
IF you are actually up to this step, then HOLY FREAKIN CRAP you are Hardcore my friend.
To attach the chain, you just need a single bolt/screw.
Drill a hole on both sides of the end of the plunger, insert the chain, and screw in the bolt (Finished)
That's the super fast way, but if you got a minute, then I'd suggest you saw a small slit at the tip for the chain to freely move down (Look at pics for reference).
The final step is pretty slow... but it's more exciting then watching paint dry.
It's painting the gunblade!!
Take the gun apart (That's a lot of unscrewing)
For the barrel and bladder and air release button, I spray painted it aluminum colored (closest color to steel). Make sure when you're painting you have all breeches, buttons, plungers covered with something, tape, etc. or else!!
The rest of the gun I hand painted in black, except the blade which was hand painted in aluminum.
The Hollow Skull on the side of the blade is just a symbol of a Shinigami Rep. I took from "Bleach".
It's made out of a very tough painter's "oat tag" (dammit I forgot how to spell that word...)
I'd suggest you either put a symbol that you'd like or none at all (I only did it 'cuz Hattori Hanzo did it with Beatrix's sword.)
If you get up to here, then please allow me to put on a hat so I can take it off to you.
That was an exhausting couple of weeks eh?
And now you have a kickass piece of eye candy.
The ranges
with 2 pumps the pic was a typo, it's and easy 40 ft straight (hit the floor at 50 ft)
when it's plugged, with 3 pumps I got an avg of 55-60 ft
and since I didn't want to push it any farther, I left it at 3 pumps only.
Ah, before I forget, here's a bunch of pics of my Gunblade
Why a Gunblade?
heh, but in all serious now, I did it for the same reason anyone does, to hopefully be immortalized in the directory~ *cross fingers* maybe this time
In case you're wondering the name of this GB, I'm calling it "Christine" after my friend.
Why? 'Cuz she's one badass mutha that don't take lip from no one!!
She once beat the **** out of some girl on the train for insulting her for being AzN, hehehe.
Edited by b00m13, 05 April 2008 - 09:53 AM.
