Flashy: Phase Two-Barrels of Fun and the Sin of Tra

I made a little more progress on Flashy over the weekend.  I'm really enjoying how the pistol is coming along.  If there's one complaint that I have, it's that I think I'm shooting myself in the foot for being able to wire up some electronics in this thing.  Ideally, I'd like to have an LED light be inside the trapezoidial housing under the front of the barrel.  My problem is I don't think I'm making the gun quite right to do that.

Not much can be done about it at this step.  I guess I'll just press on and see where things go.  This is my first run at the subject, and my first prop ever of this type.  I need to remember that it doesn't have to have all the bells and whistles on the first try.  I need to get some experience with this stuff, and then I can move on to more advanced concepts like "electronics".

Anyway, on with the progress report...

Next up, the barrel!  I'm using a 1.25" pvc pipe for the barrel, cut to about 11" long.  I need it to have a slot in the bottom, running about 9" long, to slide over Flashy's basic frame.  This was done with a dremmel and a quik-lock plastic-cutting wheel.

This led to the next step, modifying the frame to be able to accept the barrel where I want it to rest.  As you can see, the barrel is way out too far.

As I mentioned in my last post, I probably jumped the gun a bit by glueing one of the halves of the pistol grips in place.  I needed to cut out a large amount of the frame to fit the barrel. 

Fortunately I was still able to do so, with one side of the frame still flush witht he base of the Scrollsaw.  Three quick line-cuts, and the frame can accept Flashy's barrel.

Decent hand-size, if I do say so myself.

The barrel needed a few modifications' there are indents on the left and right of the barrel that needed to get marked off and cut out.

Looking better...looking better...

Now we move on to "the Trapezoid".  The trapezoid starts out narrow at the bottom, and goes up the gun at a slope to be as wide as the barrel.  I marked off and cut the two sides out of Sintra sheets.

I then marked off and cut out the indentations on the sides of the trapezoid.

Looking decent!  But...I discovered another problem.  The trapesoids have indentations that are flush with the frame.  The barrel will need to have more voids cut out of them to allow for the indentations.

Next step is the top of the barrel.  There are 5 flat polygons that make up the encosure around the barrel, other than the sides of the trapezoid.  I measured them off and cut them out.

One quick application of hot glue and they're in their basic position.

A little more glue, and the trapezoid is in place.

I really like how this thing is coming along.  It's not going to be perfect when it's done, but I think it is going to be pretty.

Next think is to finish the sides of the trapezoid and get the end-cap in place.

Then it's on to unraveling the mysteries of "Bondo"...