Caffeine

So, most of you know already that I've been working on one of my more impressive projects, and that would be Coco Adel's kickass gattling gun. While I'm still working on bending the laws of physics to my will such that it will actually fold into a little studded leather purse, I have at least finished this awesome gun.

For those of you unfamiliar with the source material, here is Coco demolishing a bunch of grimm.

Thankfully, the friend I made this for wanted it to be smaller than that, so I at least had that going for me.

I started with a bunch of .25" PVC pipes and one of the leftover coasters from our wedding, which just happened to be a perfect size to use for the gattling barrels' connector pieces. I cut lots and lots of small round holes out of about 15 layers of foamcore board, and eventually we arrived here, my first small triumph in taking on this rather daunting request.

After cutting small circles out of many still small but somewhat larger circles of foamcore, I then got to do the exact same thing several more times, but on a much larger scale, this time for the actual ammo drum. Again, there were lots of layers and holes to be cut out of all of them, this time all big enough to shove a 3" PVC connector through so that the barrels could fit into the drum... and be able to be removed again from said drum.

This is a nice before and after comparison with the large hole stuffed with PVC connector and the layers all getting cemented together.

From this point, the rest is a flurry of more foamcore, some wood, bolts, metal studs, a spring, some more PVC fittings, and a few random bits of thin plastic, until we eventually get the other bits of the gun including the grip with the trigger button (which can actually be pressed and stprings back), the handle by which the whole thing is carried (bolted to a piece of wood and into the large PVC fitting where the barrels fit into so that the weight of the PVC doesn't make the whole thing come apart), the little panels on either side of the gun barrels, and the bit underneath with the studs. I didn't take too many progress photos because I was too busy swearing at all of the little shapes and details I had to figure out how to construct and then attach properly without them falling off (there's a lot of spots on here where things just seem to magically dangle or float without any support... a cosplayer's worst nightmare).

Somehow I managed to get all of the shapes in there that I needed to, which meant I was ready for several coats of shellac & mod podge before the painting could finally be done. As for the painting, I used a spray for all of the yellow, then brush painted the black (and the metallic gold bits for the studs along the bottom... **remember to undercoat your metallics**)

Here's how the gun looks all done, and sorry for not having a few more progress shots in between. But  who are we kidding, the final product is the most exciting part anyway.

And there you have it! I'm delivering this lovely item at Matsuricon (8/19-8/21) so you can expect to see some photos of the mighty firearm in action with my friend as Coco!