Props Finally Started This...

Thorssoli's HALO3 Sniper Rifle Build

For the most part I'm making this the same way I made my M6G pistols. 3D file is largely based on Bevbor's Pepakura file. I'll be shaving off some of the details that'll work better by hand.

Enough about all that though. I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking:


















I said I'd let the pictures do the talking, but since someone's going to ask, this portion of the rifle is about 32" long. Here it is with one of my ARs (made by Adam) laid on top of it for comparison:


The scope assembly and the muzzle brake will be separate carvings too. Then I'll just have to make the barrel and the recoil suppressor. I'll probably try to knock those out on a lathe, but I might outsource that little chore.

Comments/criticisms welcome. Expect an update late Monday or early Tuesday.

Ouhhh, shiny
How much time did it the machine take to carve THIS one?
I saw it took it 7 hours and a half to make the M6Gs

Each half of the main body was around 13 hours and 40 minutes. A long time, but better than the week I'd've spent building it in pep.

The fact that this is AWESOME just goes without saying. ^_~

I don't know why but whenever you post pictures that involve a ridiculous number of clamps, I get this odd compulsion to ROFL.

How does the CarveWright work out for you if I may ask? I looked them up, and the only review on the Sears website is absolutely panning it due to having to replace parts so often. That's not a very good sample size of opinions though. @_@

Castellan_Craft said:

I don't know why but whenever you post pictures that involve a ridiculous number of clamps, I get this odd compulsion to ROFL.

How does the CarveWright work out for you if I may ask?

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ROFL my friend. By all means ROFL.

I've had my share of little annoying problems with the machine. The good part is that there's a very helpful community of owners complete with a forum on the carvewright website that has kept me from throwing the thing off a roof. I freely admit that even my very first project with the machine was the absolute limit of its capabilities. Everything I've been doing so far is pretty much all it can handle.

I'd rather have a more impressive, professional machine, but the one I need would cost ten times as much as the Carvewright and I really don't have the budget for that just yet.

Oh my, Thor! That is just splendidly done!

You know, I sure could use some clamps like that with all the layers of wood I have to glue onto the MA37.

looking pretty sweet there

Wow. Incredibly cool.

P.S. I know, I know, such comments not welcomed here, but just I can't keep myself...

I was wondering if that file was going anywhere!! I sure hope you end up casting this thing!! Its so beautiful!!

How much did you pay for "Lopez" there and would you say it was worth it?
I've seen you make quite a few things from it and you seem very satisfied.

Looking good!
I love seeing your cnc'd weapons uncut from the boards
They remind me of Gundam Models... But amillion times more bada$$
And everyone loooves to build Gundams

Amazing work. The material you're using, is that MDF?

Wow is all that I have to say and if you decide to cast one I'll start saving up my money.

O_O So...many...CLAMPS!!

As Juliet76 once said. "The man who dies with most clamps wins!!!" You sir, are in the running.
Awesome work.

link4044 said:

looking pretty sweet there

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bevbor said:

Wow. Incredibly cool.

P.S. I know, I know, such comments not welcomed here, but just I can't keep myself...

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Thank you and please, by all means, leave comments, criticisms, or compliments. This sort of thing tends to work like fuel for my projects. That, and caffeine.

Brandon McClain said:

I was wondering if that file was going anywhere!! I sure hope you end up casting this thing!! Its so beautiful!!

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I may end up casting it, but it will be a little while before I do that. Meanwhile, it looks like LeeKeegan is going to be offering up casts of his handmade sniper rifle. I've got one of his M6Gs and a pair of his SMGs and he does great work.

Wtfmfkr said:

How much did you pay for "Lopez" there and would you say it was worth it?
I've seen you make quite a few things from it and you seem very satisfied.

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I picked this one up off of ebay for around $900 plus shipping. With the software upgrades and replacement parts I'm probably into it for about $2,000 now. It's a very low-end CNC machine, so I'm pretty much using it to the absolute max of its potential. It's designed so that hobby woodworkers can add carved panels to jewelry boxes and such. I was already taking it a bit above and beyond that with only the second project I started on it.

Still, I had a very good idea of what I was getting into when I bought it. There's a very helpful community of other carvewright owners who post on the forum on the company's website. It's a bit finicky and prone to nuisance failures, but if you have any kind of mechanical inclination and you can read a manual, it's not all that bad.

If money were no object, I'd prefer a 5-axis machine big enough to just carve out my whole suit of armor. If I'm right, a machine of that scale will cost around fifteen times as much money. So that'll have to wait until whatever I do after the project after the HALO project.

InfiniTTTy said:

Amazing work. The material you're using, is that MDF?

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MDF, yes. I tried cutting a few pieces out of insulation foam, pine, mahogany, and even cast acrylic. In the end, MDF provides the best paintability, workability, and detail retention for the price. Unfortunately, the adhesive they use to bond the wood fiber together contains formaldehyde, so whenever anyone stops by the workshop the dust on the floor is probably giving them butt cancer or something.

Nintendude said:

Wow is all that I have to say and if you decide to cast one I'll start saving up my money.

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If you don't want one of LeeKeegan's, start a penny jar now.

Metalfr3q said:

O_O So...many...CLAMPS!!

As Juliet76 once said. "The man who dies with most clamps wins!!!" You sir, are in the running.
Awesome work.

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I do have a bit of a clamp fetish. As you can see in some of the background shots in my build threads, there's clamps everywhere in the shop. Even so, whenever I find myself in the hardware store I always end up picking up a few more. You never can have enough.

UPDATE TIME: Here's some pics from this afternoon:






I only stopped by to pull the clamps and see how it looked now that the epoxy had cured, but I couldn't help but spray it black before I left the workshop.

Tomorrow I'll be doing some emergent repair work on my boat. If that goes quicker than I expect, I'll get Lopez working on the scope housing later in the afternoon.

Stay tuned...

Man that wood routing tool is really useful! Might as well call it a relatively cheap alternative to a CNC mill! I hope your going to be molding that sucker!

im sure it will turn out like your other projects AWSOME!

man that thing is so smexy i want one if you mold it how much would a cast cost?

You guys with your CNC machines have all the fun great work !

spartan-005 said:

man that thing is so smexy i want one if you mold it how much would a cast cost?

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It's going to be a few large pieces that will take up a lot of material. Shipping will be expensive. That said, I'm hoping to keep the cost somewhere between an XBOX 360 and a Vespa scooter. I can't post prices here and until I've figured out the cost of molding and casting this thing, I don't know how much copies will cost.

Lopez was giving me a bit of grief this morning, so I had to spend a couple of hours taking him apart and blowing out the dust clogging his sensors. By the time I'd left the workshop he was about 63% done whittling out the muzzle brake. When that's done I'll have him start on the scope.

Pics tomorrow at the latest. Stay tuned...