I love Trigun, and as a result I decided to go as Vash the Stampede to the first ever
Ama-Con here in Amarillo.
The futuristic, yet "old west days" setting of this anime offers up some of the most creative and simple weapons. Vash's gun is an iconic part of the show and his uncanny ability to use it is what makes this such an attractive firearm. Completing this cosplay ensemble was going to be a lot of fun. I was able to find the duster fairly easy, a memebr of the
RPF happened to be selling one just as I needed it, as well as the glasses on ebay, but the gun was nowhere to be found. Soooo I decided it was time to build one.
I found some reference pics and then stumbled across a paper build someone had created on
Paper Craft Museum. I downloaded the file and the instructions and got to work. I wanted to use the paper model as a kind of guide for a wooden build.
After just a few short hours I had this nifty little papercraft.
Complete with top-break barrel, removable chamber and bullets!
Now that I had a working scale model to go on, I began working on the mdf model. Starting with the stock (handle), I tried to make it from foam, but it ended up being to light for the mdf barrel. So I re-made it in 3 pieces. A central cut out of 1/2" mdf, and two outside pieces of 1/4" mdf. I filled in the negative space with bondo to make the contour of the handle.
I sanded this smooth and set it aside for later.
Next came the barrel. I wanted to make this one solid piece, as opposed to making the top and bottom separately. I took two pieces of 1/2" mdf and glued them together.
Then I marked it for routing, as I thought this would be the easiest way to get the shape right.
And then ran it down the router a few times using a myriad of different bits to get just the right shape. This took some improvising.
It turned out pretty good, so I moved on to the other bits that make up the barrel piece, the sight and latch attachment and the joint piece. These were cut from 1/2" mdf and glued to the barrel. I also added a resin cast spindle for the chamber (this later broke and was replaced with a pencil that was cut to length and painted.)
The body of the gun came next. This was cut from two 1/4" mdf pieces glued together with the trigger and hammer in fixed positions. I had originally wanted to make it hollow with a working trigger/hammer mechanism, but after a few failed attempts, and the deadline coming up, I went with a fixed hammer/trigger.
This shot also shows the rounded back of the chamber pieces that hold the latch mechanism in place.
I made the chamber from a constructed paper form of the paper craft gun, filled with resin, and coated with bondo to smooth out the sides. This was later drilled out for the spindle and bullets.
Although, the drill press i had access to did not have a deep enough throat on it and I had to drill them by hand which proved to be disastrous. So I had to refill it with resin and decided to just fake the bullet shafts at a depth of about a 1/2".
Here's a test shot of all parts,
and all parts together for a test fit.
Here you can also see the styrene spacer I cut and added to the bottom of the rounded chamber backs.
I wanted to engraving on the side of the barrel along with the screws on each side of the cooling chamber. I grabbed a small engraving set for the dremel, and went to town!
It's a terrible shot but it reads "45 LONG COLT AGL ARMS FACTORY". I think it turned out pretty good for having never done this before.
I attached the stock to the body and filled in the gaps with Apoxie Sculpt, and then tested the joint connection. It fit pretty good all I needed was a bolt to go through, so I took one of the bullet pieces I had molded/cast and fit it through. Perfecto!
The latch was originally made from styrene, but this proved to be too flimsy so I re-cut it from a thin sheet of aluminum I had left over from another project.
Well another major disaster with the drill during my attempt to bore out the barrel rifling ended in me having to remove the lower part of the barrel and remake it. This actually turned out pretty good since I was able to route out the rifling with a half round bit BEFORE I glued the two halves together. It also allowed me to correct the messy routing job on the bottom and make it a little nicer.
Sorry for the bad camera work but you get the point.
I got to finally use my dremel routing attachment to shave down the trigger and hammer and contour the from part of the body where it meets the joint. And after some clean up work, and adding the trigger guard, it looks pretty good.
Well it looks like I forgot to put the cooling vents between the top and bottom pieces of the barrel, so I slapped some Apoxie in there and after it cured, carved them out with the dremel(not shown).
Then came the sanding, primer, sanding, primer, sanding, primer part we all love! Once everything was as smooth as I could get it, the paint went on. I used an aluminum finish for the majority of the gun, and a flat black for the stock.
After the silver and black had dried I clear coated everything and then assembled all of the parts. Putting the latch behind the chamber backs and gluing those down, sliding the chamber onto the spindle and then working the connecting bolt through the joint. Enjoy these finished shots, which includes my oldest son holding me at gun point! (he wanted to hold it so bad!!!)
With all parts put together I had finally completed my first prop build!!! This was a lot of fun to make, and a major learning experience!! There was some details that I left out that I didn't realize until it was already painted (dammit), but I will probably revisit this piece in a few years when I have a few more builds under my belt and make it even better. But for now, I have completed this very cool gun with just a few days left til the con which gives me just enough time to complete the costume! I'll post some shots of my Vash after the con.
Thanks for reading!!
