SerenityMovie.net

[pennausamike]

[pennausamike]

Not quite finished, but an update, anyway.
The brass barreled Jubal Early pistol.



This was originally a Harley Davidson knife box, with the Harley logo etc etched on the glass.
I replaced the glass with plexiglas.
That was REALLY a pain to do, because the glass is glued to the frame and acts as part of the lid's structure.
I had to break the glass out and rebuild the lid.
I have one of these for my YoSafBridge pistol, and the wood warped without the glass holding it in place.
Sigh....
Still, I like the overall look.



A Mal pistol will fit in one of these.
I still have to stain the gun supports in mahogany and polyurethane them.

Which I have now done, and included the display description and estimate of value:

[BrownCoat1]

Very shiny!
_________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[pennausamike]

Too busy, too many irons in the fire...
Even so, I'm pushing ahead on wrapping up my Firefly/Serenity collection.



I have been "focusing" on finishing these outstanding projects, and I added one.

The Wash pistol display.
I machined off the Smith & Wesson emblem from the box, built the dummy speed-loader and acquired a checkering tool to finish the grips.

The Yo-Saff-Bridge pistol display.
Good grief, I'm STILL priming and puttying!
This is kinda like those walnut Mal pistol grips;
I'll finish them, but I get burned out on the tedium.

The Dobson Vektor.
I have some puttying and sanding to do here.
I'm having a hard time leaping into that until I finish the Yo-Saff-Bridge pistol.

And the new acquisition and project.
I bought a replica of the Jayne "War Stories" apple spearing knife.
I''m going to display it in a plastic apple with the caption:
Wash, "But, these apples are good and healthsome."
Jayne, "Yeah, grenades cost extra."

Finally, I decided it wouldn't be too big a deal to make the "Jaynestown" knife.
Time will tell whether I got that right or not...
Mike

[pennausamike]

A little more progress on the Jaynestown Knife:

I based my sizes off the fact that the Jaynestown knife fit in Binky's sheath.



Mine has an 8" long blade, 3/4" long black piece with a 3/8" thick brass hilt and a 5 1/4"-ish handle.

I made the blade out of stainless steel and I'm making the handle out of wood;
carved and painted to look like stag horn.



The blade is basically done except for painting the grid and a final polish.
The brass hilt is done and the black plastic piece just needs paint.
The "staghorn" grip is very in-process....

Mike

[pennausamike]

I'm also finishing this up:

My Vektor build-up in process.

Metal barrel, dummy chamber, opened up the ejection port, and a bunch of weight in the grip.
I'm modifying the mag base area to look like a magazine and NOT a battery pack!



Everything's done, I'm just letting the paint dry overnight.
I can't decide whether to display this with Simon's glasses
(the only Simon prop in the collection)
or with Dobson's stuff.

Mike

[pennausamike]

The Dobson collection as of now:



I really should just break down and buy a replica of Dobson's third pistol,
after I find out what it was, of course.
Both travel documents books are someone else's work.
The passport is from the Browncoat Ball in Philadelphia,
the travel papers book was thoughtfully included in with another purchase from a 76th member.

The Astra and Vektor, muzzle on:

[pennausamike]

Alliance props from "Fool Me Twice":

Everything a squad of troops needs to round up some pesky smugglers.



The magazine pouches were a dirt cheap purchase in bulk.
They WERE green, but an hour and a half stewing in a bucket of Rit dye and hot water made them black (mostly) like I needed.
The "magazines" are scrap wood cut out in the shape of L-85 mags.
Lighter and cheaper!

Oh, and you won't be hearing these boys saying,
"Sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don'tcha think?"

Emblemology.

Not sure what all I need, but hopefully I'm covered.



Bought some here and there, a little horse trading,
and this is what you get.

[BrownCoat1]

Very impressive as always Pennausamike.
_________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[Loire]

Bloody fantastic Mike, keep her lit, as they say here. \L

[pennausamike]

"Boy, sure would be nice if we had some grenades,
(and some knives, and a big gun, and a funny hat made by Ma Cobb,)
don'tcha think?"



This is a couple of projects off my "to-do" list, tho' neither is perfect.

First up, the grenades; these were one of the first props I decided to build after seeing the BDM Serenity on DVD in early 2006.
I wanted them to be really screen-accurate.
Then I found out the spring was a much larger diameter.
Eh, that was OK, mine would still light up when they were popped open.
Then I found out the movie grenades counted down when they opened.
Sigh.....
So, my grenades sat around like this:



for about three years.
But recently, I've decided I need to wrap up all my Firefly/Serenity unfinished projects.
So I finished the grenades that they just pop open when you twist 'em...
...which is still pretty cool.

Far as the knives, I have no idea why I felt compelled to take on the Jaynestown knife
when the whole idea of the work I'm doing is to finish unfinished projects.
Well, actually, I do know.
After I built the Jayne War Stories apple-spearing knife,
I realized I only needed one more knife to be able to display all of Jayne's knives.
Plus, it'll look good with the QMx Hero of Canton poster.

I've shown the other building steps;
the one that didn't turn out so well was masking and painting the grid pattern.



NOW I'm willing to say I'm not going to take on more work to strip and fix it.
As I've noted before, without a close up pic for comparison,
I think it will display nice enough.
If I wait to get it perfect, I may never display it.

Mike

[pennausamike]

Another wrap-up was my Zoe back-up pistol.
I've had the thing basically done for a while now, just needed to weather it a bit.



But, to get it back together, it is necessary to build a little fixture to support the internal mechanism
until you get the cover on to hold everything in place.
The "pins" in the fixture are number drills and the holes in the fixture are only a .001" bigger or so.
This way, you can assemble the action around the pins, put the cover on,
and then push the pins out with the original screws.
I was really pleased with how this worked, so I'm keeping the fixture in case I need to disassemble my Zoe pistol in the future.



I also printed up Altrans tickets for "Mr. Malcolm Raymond" and "Mrs. Zoe Raymond",
along with a baggage claim ticket.
I have a spare set of Zoe dogtags like the ones in my Mal and Zoe Amnesty display.

Mike

[Lemming]

You know Mike, I do still enjoy seeing these updates every now and then, even though it is very quiet around here - this whole thread is a a terrific archive. Bloody nice work sir!

Nick
_________________

[pennausamike]

[BrownCoat1]

Amazing! Really digging the grenades! If I was as gifted as you I'd make some for my 76th costume. LOL
_________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[pennausamike]

Wash's Mateba Pistol:

Just as a reminder, this started as a piece of resin seen sitting on Wash's coveralls on the first page of this thread.

First, the case:
I bought a Smith and Wesson pistol case that had the emblem embossed in the lid.
So, I machined that out and made an engrave-able plate to go in its place.



Inside the case is the pistol, a fan-made Lyndono patch, and a "speed loader";
and of course, the receipt for the pistol signed by Wash himself, Alan Tudyck.

[BrownCoat1]

Nicely done Pennausamike!
_________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[pennausamike]

Just an update:

I've been working on my YoSafBridge pistol display for a while now.



There are three main elements that are taking some time to complete.

First, was the pistol Saffron, I mean Bridget, I mean Yolanda; pulled on Mal and Durran Haymer in "Trash".
The casting was REALLY badly pitted and covered in pinholes.
(There is a picture of it earlier in the thread under the, "why there are no updates", post.)
Even after all the work to clean it up and rebuild broken down parts, painting STILL exposed some pinholes!
Sigh...
Fortunately, the weathering I did on the pistol covered the most glaring places.
On the plus side, I decided to go with a satin nickel finish on the frame and slide to contrast with the machined parts;
and the silver and gunmetal painted parts.
I'm very pleased with the contrast and overall look.
As with the Wash pistol, (and any number of these projects, really),
it seems hard to believe these will ever turn out right many times during the build process.
It is always a mixture of relief and satisfaction when they turn out OK at the end.

The second element of the display that became more work than intended,
well, let's quote Mal:
"You and lipstick are a dangerous combination, as I recall".
That's right, Saffron's other weapon was the "goodnight kiss".
Just buy a tube of white lipstick, right?
Not quite...
First, I could just never seem to remember to look when I was at the store.
I finally added it to a shopping list,
and then couldn't find a cylindrical lipstick tube.
(They're all square-ish now, it seems.)
I was getting ready to search eBay when I thought, "nuts, I'll just make that, too."
I'm pretty sure I'm now in possession of the fanciest non-lipstick tube on the planet!
And since the "lipstick" itself is white plastic, I don't have to worry about it ever melting or crumbling.

The last element of the display will be the pictures.
I'm thinking a miniature frame work to hold two pictures of YoSafBridge and the lipstick tube.
I also need posts to hold the pistol.
I haven't really sorted that out yet, but once that's done,
I'll post better pics of the pistol and the completed display.

Mike

[pennausamike]

The finished YoSafBridge display:



I removed the Durran Haymer elements from the display because it was too crowded.
The wooden frame/divider I made for the inside came out as I hoped,
but the stain isn't quite red enough.
It still worked out OK, and I might incorporate this concept into another display down the road.

[BrownCoat1]

Shiny!
_________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[pennausamike]

Things will get rolling again after Christmas.
(I'm building some presents, including a resonator electric guitar.)

But to post info that some may not have seen:
The Internet Movie Firearms Database is a great resource.

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Firefly

Here's wishing a Merry Christmas and a Joyous Holiday Season for all!

Mike

[pennausamike]

Why I haven't gotten anything done for a whole month.
In addition to another home project, I built this for my son over the last 27 days:



On the left, it is the electric resonator guitar.
Has a unique sound because of the metal cone inside the hollowed out area of the solid body.
While it can be played like any electric guitar,
it really shines when put pretty clean thru the amp and played with a slide.
Old Delta blues, or things like Led Zeppelin's "Hat's Off To Roy Harper" are what this guitar was made to play.

The guitar is a kit.
Except for a complete lack of useful wiring info, everything is there.
So it's all about finishes and proper assembly.
The resonator was a little more challenging than a comparable 6-string electric would be,
because there wasn't any info on how to mount the resonator.
(I left it free-floating; I hope that's right...)
I needed a long drill for the neck pickup wiring.
The neck glues in, but I put a backing plate on it for strength.
Alignment of the metal, string-holding tail is important.
The main routed hole for the resonator is off center,
so, making that look decent required some fudging.
You get the idea.
Not, "carve your own guitar", difficult; but still a fair amount of work.

In the Serenity Companion volume, a picture of an acoustic resonator guitar is shown on page 32,
but the guitar Jayne was playing in the movie was a standard acoustic, as seen on page 31.

Now, back to the Firefly/Serenity prop projects!

Mike

[BrownCoat1]

Wow. Your talent seems to know no limitations.
_________________
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

[TheOperative92]

Guitars aren't guns! But seriously, wonderful work. The kit came out really nicely. The electric steel reminds me of Muse. The guitar player used to play a steel guitar all the time before he started building his own custom models. That's really beautiful work.
_________________
"Being a hero takes more than wholesale sunglasses and a bad attitude."
A funny facebook status helps a lot too...

[pennausamike]

[pennausamike]

Not really an update, just a gratuitous shot of some main character weapons from "Fool Me Twice".



From left to right:
Buddy Lee Creek's "AK-on-steroids" with some more detail work done; still unfinished.
Quintan Shang's silenced revolver carbine.
General/ rancher Dan Anderson's generic assault rifle (Stg-44).

[Loire]

Ooo.. look at the lovelies! I want .. Especially the revolver carbine..
L

[Loire]

So what do bullets look like in the 'verse?
I mean, they cant be exactly the same, as the weapons themselves dont eactly sound the same, and ammo capicities seem alot higher for some of the guns in the show.
Eg. Mal's gun in the BDM, he checks the ammo from the thin cartridge at the bottom. Anyone any ideas on this front?
Apologies if this has cropped up elsewhere..
L

[Lemming]

[pennausamike]