Continuing on with my Fallout 4 build (check out part 1!), I’ll now talk about the props I made. I decided to make Righteous Authority, a laser rifle, because its my favorite rifle in the game. Why? I don’t know, its not that amazing spec wise. But it looks cool and has a badass name. I also made the new pipboy, and some small pieces for the vault suit. I’ll admit I’m not exactly a props expert. When it comes to sewing, I’m obsessed with perfection and using professional techniques and materials. With props though… I just want it to kinda look like the thing I’m going for haha. I did get a ton of positive feedback on the rifle though, made me feel really good! 🙂
Righteous Authority
This rifle was super fun to make. I gave myself a mandate that I couldn’t buy any new materials and could only use scraps from my random crafty stuff box. It was like being in kindergarten again, what can I MacGyver together with random crap like cardboard and styrofoam? Turns out, a whole laser rifle.
I started by making the basic rectangular block shape with cardboard surrounding a styrofoam base. From there on, it was really just layering with craftfoam and cutting out smaller pieces to attach one by one. I made the grip and stock similarly out of craftfoam, but also covered in TerraFlex so it would be strong enough to grip tightly. I literally just focused on little piece by piece, making it up as I went along, and eventually something like a rifle formed. The long thin piece is an old chopstick. Something kind of interesting is that I made the front low hanging part that the stick goes into just out of thick craft foam. I had to do this because the rifle was a few inches too long for my suitcase, and I needed it to fold a bit. This was… not super amazing because now my paint is all cracked in that part and the stick doesn’t look quite straight. I may strengthen it later and get a bigger suitcase haha.
To finish it, I added tons of gesso and Modpodge. Not too much though, or it would look too smooth for metal thats supposed to be corroded. Then I added several layers of acryllic paints to make it look weathered. I made the fusion cell separately out of styrofoam, craft foam, and tons of gesso. Instead of painting the label, I printed it out and glued it on. The cell inserts into the gun with a working latch. (Thats about the neatest part I could add to it). I painted a thick wire yellow and glued it straight on the top, then used craft foam for the metal bits. Then it was all sealed with matte clear coat.
Pipboy
This pipboy was made from a 3D printed kit my friend got me for Christmas. It came with a ton of parts I had to assemble, plus the screws and little bits needed. So I freely admit that part is not my doing, and I do not take credit for the pieces or the cleverness of how its supposed to be put together.
This was my first time using 3D printed anything. I tried to sand it by hand, but it didn’t really work. I also tried to use acetone, but it just gooped up horribly. I ended up gessoing all of the pieces. This ended up being a bad idea. Turns out the maker designed it for the ridges to be taken away, not filled in. Thus many of the pieces don’t quite fit together right. The tape desk is supposed to be functioning but can’t really slide out due to it being too thick. All of this is my bad. Many of the screws though were super hard to screw in due to odd angles. Even though half the work was already done, this project was super incredibly difficult for me, way more so than the rifle.
At some point I did get something resembling a pipboy together though. After some clever paint, it looks pretty ok. I broke the latch the first time using it (tiny 3D printed parts not such a great idea) so I glued the whole thing shut. My arm is small so this is fine. Eventually I’ll try to find a metal latch and fix that. I lined the inside with the same pleather as the vault suit collar and cuffs.
Other
The other little pieces I made from craft foam and Dremeled to get smooth edges. I tried something new for the painting part. I mixed Modpodge with metal powder to make it silver. It was too dark though so I used silver paint anyway. Oh well.
