Hey yarginshnarg
I can think of a couple ways of doing this off the top of my head actually...
How hardcore of a project do you picture this as lol?
One way would be on the affordable side (relatively, i mean the saber stuff will certainly be the expensive part), certainly easier/ faster acquiring the parts. the other way, the hardcore way, could get pricey, and could take a while to gather the parts... but the result would be INSANELY realistic!!
heres a few pics of the rifles (i just grabbed these from your link, i hadn't actually seen much of this- used to be gamer but out of loop these days- looks sweet though) they sure look wicked!
this last one is my fav looks wise- love the tubing and plating and stuff!
1st way to do it- affordable way- raid the toy section of your local _____ store for machine guns lol. wouldn't matter if they're neon pink and orange, nothing a little weathering and paint job wouldn't fix. You could look for pieces/ body sections you liked, hack them off and amass what you need to go frankenstein lol. Actually sounds like a wicked project.
You could def use a saber for it, make a great barrel/ body for a lot of reasons- its detailed, metal, and filled with the electronics you need to power this thing lol... could even get someone to make you a custom fusion rifle sound font that would be sweet. might want something bit longer than initiate? but could always extend with pipe etc, and i think your best bet might be a v3 hilt model. You wouldn't want anything with too much girth. But dang man, that said, a v4 sentinel's vents would look SPECTACULAR at the end of the barrel. Also might consider ordering it empty for few reasons i can think of... prob best to get ball rolling just on body and let the functioning of it arrive naturally alongside that... plus when comes time to put the board in, maybe one that uses a secondary momentary switch for blaster block would be perfect if you think about how it'd be rigged into a trigger and light fx etc? Ooo, also you could cut a small stub of heavy UE blade stock, insert a cool plug in it, and have that coming out of tip of barrel to really show the light fx!
second, hardcore way, would require a little bit of caution/ research, and take longer to gather the parts, but its totally doable. Depending where you live, it's often completely legal to purchase isolated pieces of real fire arms. You would want to look into that FIRST lol. i'm not suggesting you do too much of that kind of shopping, because the legal'ness of it tends to decrease a great deal if you do too much haha. But all I'm thinking is, say, grabbing a stock here, a magazine there, maybe one of those wicked looking air cooled barrels (actually i know where you can order perforated metal tubing to custom ID which could achieve same look)... just a couple of the parts that would really sell it. the more metal parts the better, i mean you'd prob need to frankenstein toy parts and make custom parts no matter what, but a real stock etc would go a long way to making it look so intense!
random observation that might be helpful- do you know what a nail gun looks like lol? reason i ask is, if you look at the charge pack area... it's basically a nail gun lol. could luck out at a second hand shop... but i'd honestly just hit up a couple local roofing/ carpentry type places and tell them you'll buy the next nail gun that craps out on them lol. Bet they'd be happy to let it go cheap
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I'd use the saber for the lower barrel (secondary fire?) and run a narrower length of pipe for the main? nail gun for the bottom, frankensteined together with toy machine gun body sections or even a few real bits here and there and definitely all kinds of greeblies.
I think this project would take some real time all the way along- getting the parts, building it up and all that- Def a ton of crafty hand work and creativity needed- but it'd be amazing to see. These things are so wicked looking.
