More works in progress

[Toll]

Started off as an M14...Right now it's looking awfully C1A1. Honestly I don't even know what to distinguish it as.

Ion core in basically some spruce 2x4's that I've been messing with for prototyping. Two seperate loader ideas. One is a magazine style spring torsion "clip"(shudder) and the other is a large box mag in a 50 cal ammo can which is rigged up with halo guts.

The board/etc are all shoved into the butt, the rail is a SKS reciever cover (a poor choice in retrospect) and the copper pipe is basically so I can see the damn barrel. The pictures don't do this thing justice, it's rather large.

I've got my final drawings down and it needs six peices run for it in order for me to bang it together, which as far as my ideas go is really simplified.

I end up needing something like 30$ worth of walnut from the mill down the road. At that point I'll see how good looking the peice is...if its a+ I'll probably finish it with some boat varnish...if it's one for the blooper reel, I'm loading duracoat into the hvlp

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u68/Mattstempaccount/IMAGE_242.jpg
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Additionally I am working on getting a marker together to load first strikes from an an internal magazine and it'll end up looking something like this :

http://s165.photobucket.com/albums/u68/Mattstempaccount/?action=view&current=IMAGE_230.jpg

[Toll]

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u68/Mattstempaccount/IMAGE_230.jpg


Just occoured to me I didnt post the rest of this ~.~


Bolt action sheridan chambered in first strike with an internal magazine is in the works, this just just a vague KP style mock up. Need some parts machined but they are simple enough. I clearly need a lathe handy

[Toll]

Haven't updated in a bit. School and whatnot.
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u68/Mattstempaccount/IMAGE_263.jpg
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Still waiting on duracoat, 50cal ammo box and the m14 grip

[Warwitch]

Hey thats pretty sweet man. You could have some vacuum molds made from them and produce some bodies. :headbang:

Or you could pop over to Smooth On (http://www.smooth-on.com/) and make your own molds.

[Toll]

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u68/Mattstempaccount/IMAGE_270.jpg
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[kcombs9]

Looks great!

Function well? how much does it weigh?

[Toll]

weighs as much as an Ion in a 2x4 right now ..oh ho ho!

It has yet to fire a ball in anger so I dont want to start taking measurements and whatnot. I just got done wiring it up and have a slight miscalculation to fix, after that its bending a fork for the trigger guard, dropping in a trigger and attatching my ammo can.

I have a dragunov style one in the works...but I will never again use an ion ¬.¬

Now that I have a bit of time:

Backstory

Every year the local field (Diehard Paintball in Cottam, Ontario) has a heart and stroke fund raiser. I had intended to make a design that I could coax some one into buying at this fund raiser and donate the money to the charity. This is no longer the case as I don't feel it is something I would ever sell to some one, I am not happy enough with the work on it...but thats beside the point. This will most likely end up donated to the field as a wall hanger/conversation peice/etc or simply become something I am bored with and move on.

Initially this marker started off as what would have been an M14 underfed with a box. Unfortunately at that point I still had my head up my *** about what my capabilities, skills and realistic expectations were. As it turns out my initial plan went all to hell and I have since sacrificed many a 2x4 in the persuit of my goal. Unfortunately I, as most people, didn't know enough to know I didn't know enough. My goal was simple. I wanted a box fed, fully automatic, milsim custom marker. Boy oh boy did I not even have a clue as to what I had gotten myself into.




The marker

It is a raw, stock Ion that I have placed into the "stock" I have made for it. The stock is dowel pinned together and houses all the necissary internals within the butt/grips. Its done for a specific reason : things break. I can remove all the bits with relatively simple take down. I purchased the ion its self for something like 60$. Initially I thought "great, no problem, I'll just cram that stuff in there and go". Things dont actually work like that.


Loader

The ammo box is actually a 50cal box I am going to convert, though later on I plan on wandering down to walmart to see if it wouldnt be better to just find a plastic box rather than this ginormous thing. Internally its a Z boarded halo with rip drive. Capacity is sitting around 350-400 paintballs. If I were to do it again I would probably have used a pulse with an RF link because its easier to find. Lacking that I'm sure I could have done some intelifeed thing.

That sweet Camo job

The paintjob on the outside was very simple and crude use of rattlecans and graph paper but at a distance it looks pretty good. I am less than impressed personally but I'm a hard judge. As I stated earlier I have some ideas for a KP style stock as well as a Dragunov style marker using some similar design ideas. I'm going to end up using my hvlp's and Duracoating it to make it look a bit less chincey/plastic. The exterior is done with just a bit of clearcoat although tomorrow I am going to take a satin conversion varnish to it. All I did was grab some grid paper and try my best not to make stupid shapes or accidental swastikas. Cutting them out was time consuming but not terribly difficult.

Painting sequence-
Washcoat
Base coat of black enamel
Khaki spray
Attatch stencils (spray adhesive if you're lazy, gluestick if you've got too much free time)
Spray green
Spray clearcoat
Bust out the hvlp for the clear laquer (2x coats)



Tools

Not going to lie, I have access to a great shop. The thing is that I didn't need access to alot of stuff, most of it was very, very simple.

I used :
-Table Saw
-Router bit in a drill press
-Universal vice
-Clamps clamps clamps
-Drill press

Thats all. In retrospect there wasnt much to this but I managed to drag it out over the course of 5 months.


Retrospect :

I wish I hadn't even started this thing. Seriously. It's been fun and a good learning process but over all I would have been happier just buying a damn airsoft gun and shoving the guts in there. If I had to do it all over again (and I am sure I will when I manage to break it) I would have done the following:

-Used an Automag. No need to dick around with regulators/boards/etc. I could just have dropped it in and run. Maybe would have had to fabricate a few parts but it would have been much simpler than doing all this jazz. Full auto is over rated.

-Maybe not done air thru stock. This was a pain in the ***.

-Rather than having the board in the grip I would have rather had it somewhere else compartmentalized so I could have used a set of m16 grips for that "feel". As it stands the grip is too thick for people with average sized hands to hold comfortably.

-Used a pre-existing stock and modified it. Getting the stock to look the way I wanted it out of 2x4's was the most time consuming part. Due to the fact I had to make all the parts custom to accomodate a board/etc this really relates back to the automag

-Based my design on an actual gun rather than something I just kind of brewed up. Not that it looks terrible but I can tell where it is I lost direction on my original idea.

-Used 1/2 plywood rather than pine/spruce for added structure and quite frankly ease of use. 10 2x4x10's (I **** you not, thats how many I wasted exploring ideas and such) cost about 21$ so I think I made out alright. In the future I would definately have used OSB/Ply rather than real wood if I knew I was going to be duracoating/painting rather than staining and finishing.

-Be 100% sure that the can is facing the right direction before you spray. I had a beard full of glue for the better part of the day