Customized Bowcaster

Apollo

Hunter
I really love the look of Bowcasters, but their design is flawed for our purposes due to the fact that the bow part of the gun is fairly unwieldy. With an actual bowcaster under my belt I decided to build my own custom bowcaster. It won't have a bow (would it just be called a 'caster' then?) but it will be built essentially the same way that my Republic Commando one was.

DSCN0330.jpg

DSCN0331.jpg

DSCN0332.jpg

DSCN0333.jpg

DSCN0334.jpg


There is a portion of the stock behind the plastic panel that has been cut out to provide room for some resistors, some capacitors, and a battery. The hole drilled into the handle goes back into that space. The handle itself will be wrapped in friction tape so that the wires coming out of the hole will be covered up. There will be another area drilled out above the handle where the wire will go and hook up to some LEDs; blinking and non blinking! So cool
 
this is a sample of what the internal wiring will sort of look like. There will be another green LED and instead of a ton of small capacitors I'll just use 2 big ones. The green LEDs stay on constantly and the yellow one blinks

DSCN0325.jpg
 
I knew I wouldn't be able to wait a week :D. Actually most of what isn't dry is stuff that I had to go over after I sanded so I think it should be all good by tomorrow afternoon. I metalized the wooden panels for the stock and added some sintra detail to the one with the switch. The other one is plain now, but it will definitely have some writing on it later. I'll also have to add some grime to the panels since they just look off to me and I think it's because they're too clean. My question for you guys: should I lacquer this? I wasn't going to because I figured having it shiney would make it look not worn, but then I saw sci-fire's woodgrain tutorial that mentioned making pieces look lacquered and I remembered that Tigris' is lacquered and it looks boss. I guess the second question would be: what's the best way to lacquer? I've seen brush on and spray on so if anyone can help me out there I would be much obliged.

DSCN0340.jpg

DSCN0341.jpg


The wiring was fun, but I just realized that the circuit board is too big for the hole in the stock, d'oh! I'm going to have to trim it down and then it will just barely fit in there with the 9v battery. All I have to do really on this part is hook up the LEDs, battery, and switch; all of the resistors and whatnot are set.

DSCN0342.jpg

DSCN0343.jpg
 
Looks great so far! I have to say that I am not a fan of the way the Wookie weapons looked in EPIII. Yours kind of reminds me of 4-LOM's rifle.
 
Getting closer to being finished! I added all the lights today. Unfortunately the wiring was just too complicated in that small of a space so I had to settle for no blinking. I think I might go back and add some resistance to the green lights to tone them down a bit, but I'm not sure. I also added the barrel so it looks a lot more like a gun now. All that's left is to add the scope mount and scope, do some stuff with the stock, and paint detailing and weathering. The wires will be mostly covered up when I'm done too so it won't look so messy. Thanks for the kind words as well.

DSCN0367.jpg

DSCN0368.jpg
 
I've been moving kind of slowly on this project but I got the last big addition done today. I stuck on the scope and I really think it sets the piece off. After this I just have to do detailing stuff that won't change the overall look of the gun any, but should provide some nice 'pop' to it.

DSCN0427.jpg

DSCN0428.jpg

DSCN0429.jpg


Let me know what you think
 
It's been a while since I touched this, but it's still not actually where I want it to be. I'm thinking about taking off all of the plastic (none of it is glued except for the scope mount) and lacquering the whole thing and maybe changing the metal pieces to copper or bronze or gold. I also think it would be good to add some detail to make it look more functional and less like a piece of wood with some plastic. I really like the design, it just needs to be refined
 
Perhaps you should do something with the long stretch of pipe in the middle of the stock, like adding some magnet-like rings along it's length or perhaps wrapping it in some wire?
 
I was thinking about this piece all day and I came up with so many ideas that I might just need to make another one.
 
This thread is more than 15 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top