So the first thing I did was cut out the two side panels as we worked out in Part 2. Then I took a hacksaw to my shiny new Nerf gun and hoped for the best. This is was the chopped-up Stampede looks like inside the body casing.
You can see the wiring I extracted from inside the gun - the battery terminals hanging down behind the grip and the switch sitting just above it. Here's the outside strip of ally clipped in place around the casing.
As you can see I left a small lip around the outside I was intending to weld these bits to the strips that would run around the top and bottom of the casing. While I've got some experience in welding (Gas and Mig) I've never welded ally before, and let me tell you folks - it's a bitch. Don't do it! It's too hard! Certainly was for me anyway... I wasted a LOT of time trying to get it to hang together.
In the end I said "Sod it!" and pop-riveted the whole thing together, then hid the rivet heads with some filler and a bit of sanding. Good job I left that lip there or I'd have had nothing to rivet to and it would have been back to the drawing board. This was probably the first time I said "Hey ho it's supposed to be a Chaos Bolter so it's not supposed to be immaculate!".... but definitely not the last!
Next, I had to source some tubing to make the barrel and red-dot sight. The red-dot thing was pretty straight froward as I had just the right size tube lying around (this happens surprisingly often in my workshop - all those years of hoarding everything "just in case" finally paid off! Husbands! Run and tell your wives! It's okay to have a shed full of crap!).
It took me ages to decide on the width of the barrel - some tubing was the right width, but the interior thickness was way off, other stuff was thick enough but wasn't wide enough. Eventually I settled on a bit of old drainpipe I has lying around - it's not as thick as I'd like it to be, but I managed to use a joint section and slot another tube inside to make it double it's original width. I didn't want this project to break the bank and looking at the cost of tubing (and the materials it's made from) I decided it wasn't worth the hassle and cost of sourcing something else.
Then I set about making a couple of switches - one for the power, just above the grip, and the other for the clip release. When I was at school we did a project that involved taking cardboard boxes apart and working out how they look when flattened out. It must have been over 30 years ago but let me tell you it paid off! I worked out the final shape I was looking for then reverse-engineered it using pencil and paper until I was pretty sure I'd got a final plan, then traced it out onto the ally and went at it with the clippers. Somehow it all came together and I was able to create a couple of half-decent switches. phew!
Here's how the final-fit of the body panels look.
You can see the power switch above the grip, but the clip release hasn't been fitted yet. You can also see the drainpipe barrel (yes I am embarrassed to type that - how cheap am I!?) and also a hole I cut to get at the jam-clearing panel on the gun itself. I'm going to use one of the bullet-casing exhaust ports on the outer casing of the bolter as an inspection panel so I can get to this - no point having the whole thing jam and not being able to clear it cos it's all riveted up!
You can also see the battery pack from the original Nerf gun that I was using to do some test firings with. This will get replaced in the final version as it's just too big to fit into the front grip.
And yes, you can also see the round knob on the back is supplied by a "well-known brand of mustard manufacturer"!! ; ) Every time I see this picture my mind wanders and I start craving pork pie.... *sigh*
Next time - the finished article!
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