Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Mass Effect M-98 Widow Anti-Material Rifle, Nerf Version

This one wasn't a terribly hard build. To be honest, the hardest part was figuring out the relative dimensions of the gun, because there aren't many clear screenshots of it being held by a human character online.  I watched several YouTube videos of people playing the game to try to get a feel for how long it was, as well as examined it in-game myself, but it was hard to find a reference point for what to compare it to.  As such, I examined the Wikia article on it, and realized the game developers had named it an "anti-material" rifle, which seems to be a misspelling of "anti-matériel" which is how the really big sniper rifles are described.  Ie, this thing is designed to stop something big and armored in its tracks, like a fifty cal would. Thus, I felt comfortable making it somewhat longer than a normal rifle, but I don't think I'm that far off from the game version, if at all. Overall, I like how it feels at 51" long, barrel-to-stock.

The scope does have a 4x zoom, and there are actual crosshairs inside it. I'm kinda proud of that.

It started out as a Nerf Longshot I got from the thrift store, and it is fully functional.  It has a six-dart magazine, and unfortunately will only accept the older Streamline darts (the orange ones with the skinny tip) and it will not fire the new blue Elite darts you can get in stores now. I think it's just something weird with the internal mechanism of the blue Longshots that keeps them from using the newer darts.  All that being said, I will be including six Streamline darts.

The thermal clip on this weapon was particularly tedious because I had to arrange 31 LEDs into a 1" pipe split in half. Plus, I had never worked with that many red LEDs, so I must've burned through 60 of them trying to get my resistance right.

The switch is on the left side of the stock and the three AA batteries are stored in a battery holder on the underside of the stock. To access the batteries, you have to remove the piece of foam wedged into what used to be a spare magazine holder; you might need a flathead screwdriver or pliers to get the foam out.

I'm asking $160, which I think is more than reasonable.







Here's where you buy this awesome gun!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/196475342/mass-effect-m-98-widow-anti-material?ref=listing-shop-header-2

Monday, July 14, 2014

Mass Effect M-96 Mattock Replica

This might be one of my favorite projects because it turned out so well!

It started out as a Nerf Rayven, but turned into a pretty close replica of one of the hardest-hitting assault rifles from Mass Effect 3!  I am really impressed with the results.

But enough of my excitement--see for yourself.










The Nerf gun takes four AA batteries, located underneath a panel that is held in place by one screw on the right side of the stock.  Additionally, the illuminated thermal clip requires an additional four AA batteries, located in the foregrip of the gun. To access these, slide forward the part of the black tube that is a different diameter than the rest of the pipe. Lift the first battery out, and then tilt the gun upside-down for the rest of the batteries to slide down and fall out.

The switch for the lights is on the left side, just forward of the trigger, underneath the panel on the side. For my giant hands, it is easily accessed by the trigger finger, by reaching through the trigger guard. Lefties should have no problem reaching it.

The Nerf gun is still fully-functional, and to fire, prime the gun by holding down the second trigger (the lower one) and then pull the primary trigger to fire.

I'm asking for $175 for this one.

Here's the link for this item on my Etsy shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/196486085/mass-effect-m-96-mattock-replica?ref=listing-shop-header-1