Now, I’m a big fan of Dr Grordbort’s rayguns, however 1st mate doesn’t pay that well, so they’re a little out of my reach. But,with a little knowledge and meagre tools I shall attempt to construct my own weapon. Read on and follow the journey of my Raygun build from start to finish.
I’ll be updating this as often as I can. Hopefully there won’t be any accidents involving disintegration of fingers or limbs that could prevent me from typing!
Onto the build!
The more astute among you will have noticed that this is the MKII. The MKI was a much smaller version and lacked the disintegration option this the MKII posses. Here’s the marketing spiel for the MKI
A gentleman’s weapon. This small yet powerful device is designed to leave the victim intact and alive. Firing a low density, high frequency, oscillating sound wave the Neural Perturbulator renders the victim unconcious or confused and disorientated depending on the setting used. Ideal for confounding and capture of your foe rather than total disintegration.
The MKI was designed as a small, lightweight weapon that could be carried easily and inconspicuously in the a gentleman’s coat pocket or ladies purse. Of course, the number of Aether-trons required to generate enough charge to allow the disintegration of a man sized object is , well, a lot! They would never have all fitted inside the MKI, hence the MKII is a much bigger and weightier device!
And so, on to the MKII itself. Below is a picture of the major components used in the build and how all these parts fit together.
The main body of the gun is a white plastic sink trap. Although I’ve tried to use metal parts where ever possible the plastic is very easy to work with and I was struggling to find anything decent that could be used for the gun body.
Also on the gun body is a custom brass tank holder, that holds the 8oz CO2 cartridge, which can also be seen.
The barrel is made from parts from two brass candlesticks. The candleholder parts from each candlestick are fastened to each end of a double threaded rod (that was originally the innards of one of the candlesticks. The silver ‘heat sinks’ on the barrel are simply washers. Please note that the bolts connecting the barrel to the body aren’t permanent, they are there purely to hold the thing together for the sake of these photographs!
The rear of the gun body is the brass base from a candlestick with a drawer knob fastened to a large bolt which runs through the gun and connects boths parts of the body together. The nut, which secures this bolt, is hidden beneath the brass candleholder that connects to the body.
Finally, the tube which protrudes from the rear of the gun is a test tube and inside the tube I’ve inserted a coiled copper wire. The tube has had several washes of brown dye to give it a used look
Main parts
Side shot of the raygun
Gun barrel
rear view
Next, I’ll be adding more greeblies and making a grip for the MKII Neural Perturbulator. Watch this space…
22 Febraury 2009
The grip was cut from a piece of 1″ inch wood and attached to the gun body using good ‘ol screws. Nothing exciting there.
I’ve added some decoration to the grip and fashioned a trigger using styrene. Next, I need to make a trigger guard, probably from styrene as well.
Also added a coil made from copper wire which runs from the , er , cylinder to the, um, ’thing’ underneath it. It’s just occurred to me that I need to make some plausible (or maybe not) names for all these thingimjigs and whatsits that are attached to the gun. Hmmm, I shall ponder over a nice cup of Earl Grey…
Gun grip
The Peturbulator has had it’s final paint job with weathering and I’ve even taken time out from my busy schedule to build a stand! I’d love to be able to say that the mahogany plinth you can see was cut, planed, stained and varnished by myself, but alas , my wood working skills came to an abrupt halt at GCSE CDT. No, I took the easy way out and bought it. The pipe is made from some, er, pipe. Copper pipe to be exact and covered with antique gold Rub ‘n’ Buff.
So, there you have it. The Neural Perturbulator in all it’s glory. I plan to create a plaque for the stand, next time I’m on leave from the Discombobulous.
