Friday 2 November 2012

Build: Fallout New Vegas: Maria pistol

I've been a big fan of Fallout for a while now, and while I do want to make some of the iconic weapons from the newer games - the plasma rifle, for example - I'm going to start with an easier one - Benny's pistol 'Maria' from Fallout New Vegas.

As the reference picture (right) shows, it's a lovely gun - a highly ornate unique 9mm pistol, golden with engraving and pearl grips.

For a fun little project, I'm using a base gun and making the alterations. Unfortunately, living in the UK, it can be hard to get hold of fake copies of real firearms. The Fallout 9mm is based of the Browning Hi-Power pistol, so I jumped when I saw this for sale for a fiver (bottom right):

OK, so it's not the exact right gun - the Fallout one is a different version of this, but it's only that the grip is slightly more shaped, the groves on the slide are slightly further along, and the trigger is different. The main obvious problem is the grips, but they can be removed easilly enough.
When I bought this, an airsoft-prop-modifier by the name of Lycaneyes had already changed it for soemone's costume prop - mimicing the lovely brown and black colourscheme of Claire's Browning from a Resident Evil game. Unfortunately when I recieved it, the gun was so coated in paint by the ownder that it no longer works, and you can quite clearly see the brushstrokes etc. So stage one of this build is stripping down all the paint to try and get the surface smooth again and to hopefully get it working - it's a spring-powered toy pistol so if I can unclog is, the slide will pull back and the magazine will come out, etc.
Hopefully in a week or so I'll have some progress, as it's currently sat in a bucket of white spirit.

Thursday 1 November 2012

Post-illness catchup


It's been ages since my last post as I've been quite unwell for the past while. Luckilly I seem to be over most of it, so I'll start being more active again.

Anyway, MCM October Expo in London has just been and gone, and I had a great time. My costumes were my new and improved NCR ranger armour:











and my original design novice assassin, based on Assassin's Creed 2/Brotherhood:

















I also threw together an MGS1 Meryl costume to enter a contest - I had no hopes of winning and wasn't surprised, but as every entrant got a nice artbook and tshirt, I thought it was worthwhile.
We had a lovely Assassin's Creed cosplay group on the Sunday, but on the Saturday it wa just my partner and myself as NCR ranger and Boone (in NCR gear).

I'm hoping to start my next costume projects soon. For this coming year I'd like to put together a better MGS cosplay (Either Eva or Meryl in the sneaking suit), Lilith from Borderlands, and maybe one adventurous armor project that I'll get to closer towards the time.
My immidiate little project is another Fallout-based one, so keep tuned for step-by-step attempt at making Maria, Benny's gun.