Bolter Blog

hey! for those still checking this place out, just an update,
i am working on a plasma pistol, again 40k style (i dont own or claim ownership of the IP ect yadda yadda) and taking photos along the way, once it’s done i’ll be posting a tutorial around making it.

Well, final part here, lots of work to be done, and i warn you, some parts will be left vague so you can customize them yourself.

my email is Kai@neovampire.com i would like very much to see some shots of your final pieces if you do follow this guide

Alright, lets get started shall we?
first, remember those strips you were cutting and sticking onto the housing parts? well i have some left over strip sitting to the right hand side of this pic, you need to make some strips that are about as big as the left hand side strip.
it’s abit thicker because its going on the top of your housing pieces.
gauge it by eye, measure it, or just make it bigger and trim it once its glued, all of that works fine.

first you need to get this section here, youll have a few gaps, but thats fine, green stuff them up as you go along, it’s easier that way.

now a nice long strip for the top here.
cut the strips nice and big and keep them all the same length, it’s pretty important, but can be solved with some liberal use of green stuff.
you may notice ive green stuffed the left side of the tube in the below shot, feel free to fill in gaps you think need filling.

now a fiddly diagonal bit, youll need to trim the edges on two sides to slant somewhat,

because it’s going here!

trim it down, always trim it down, and then apply the smaller top section.
don’t forget to do all this for both sides, as otherwise the next step may be tricky

a nice big square/oblong of the card is needed, cut a groove the same shape as the aera of the tube that will get in the way of this big plate you’ve cut, trial and error, trim it, check it against the tube and don’t glue it till your happy with it.

once it’s glued… you guessed it, trim it..
and feel free to sand some edges to give it a nice smooth feeling, if thats not what you want, sand the rough edges so they are sharp, razor sharp enougth to cut any heretic with but a mear.. uhem.. whatever, just touch it up alittle, green stuff the mistakes and slipups, and get it feeling more solid.

now its barrel time, drill a hole through your tube that will be used as a barrel, notice the hole is closer to one side than the other.

once your happy, glue the thing down, but leave abit of room at the bottom for the “tray” thing most bolters have below the barrel.

now, use some left over tube from the tube that you glued to the top of the gun, so long ago ago, add a cap to it, just like how you done earlier as well.. and yeap.. trim it if you hadnt guessed.

use a knife or something to shape the other side so it fits nicely near the back of the pistol frame.
if your not sure where, just check a few pics below.

now i mentiond before about getting plastic screws, they arent too hard to find in a good hardware store, so trim the tail off them and glue the heads wherever you think they should go.

and volla! add some more green stuff,
i done some fairly easy and obvious bits, carved a sight to stick to the top, the funny plate thing below the barrel, and now you can see where to attach those weird tube cap things we just made.
i experamented with adding some sculpy to the handle to give it a more ‘customised’ grip.
and a few other bits of detail, really just let yourself go in terms of imagination.
if you really want a cocking slide just cut a groove into the body of the housing, attach a trim (as in thin strips of plastic) around the groove and then carve yourself a knob/slide grip thing to glue at one end.

one further bit of customisation is ading an emblem, for now i wont share how i make them, because its just alittle carving.
if you really want me to provide an emblem “how to” i could, but youll have to email me, if i get enougth requests, i can see what i can put together.

i actualy really like how this eagle aquilla came out, my first one that has feet, so heres a close up.

and that is it! as i said, my email is near the top of this post, any quests, requests or other stuff, like showing me your version of a BP you made with this guide, just send them that way and i will reply. 
now, go bust some heretic heads, trooper!

TFTD: Zeal is its own excuse.

good grief! well here we are again, everything’s working, and now the guide will continue,

unscrew the magazine that the gun came with (remember i told you to keep it?) take the fake shells out, they are too small to use.. i tried it myself, didnt work out.
and yes thank you for noticing, i have mutant feet, i plan to never let a doctor remove an ingrown toenail from me ever again..
well British ones at least..
look can we get back to the guide already?

chop off the clips and bracket that are on the side of the mag, they are to clip two mags together, but since we are only using one, its not needed.

now as i said, i’m making an immovable magazine for this version. if you want one that does come out, then don’t do this bit obviously..
screw it back together,

hacksaw + your magazine, right along the lip of the mag, you can see the ridge/lip thing ive cut along.

not either green stuff up the screw holes and other holes you’ve made on the mag, OR if you want a mag that shows shells in it, cut a panel from the mag and glue pieces of pipe the thickness of your desired shells into the mag.

when your greenstuff has dried, trim it down, so its all smooth,
now what i’ve done next is used a heat gun to toast up a few small strips of plastic to glue onto the sides of my magazine, have them pretty thick, use the following pictures for refference.
why a heat gun? well so i can give them a curve to the strip, so it follows the shape of the magazine.

now, again, this bit is not required if you want your mag to be removable,
cut a plate the shape of the inside of your mag shield, and glue the thingy down.

you can see ive glued one of the curved strips of plastic i’ve made onto the mag, and green stuffed it alittle.
i’ll be adding a second later so you can see the choice of plastic makes little difference, i just had a piece of clear plastic handy at the time. and i was too lazy to cut some white plastic into the shape when the clear strip was a perfect size.
got it from a plastics off cut bin, they practicly give the things away.

again a nice little shape you can get from a plastics factory offcut bin is this half rod, chop a couple of bits off the rough width of the bottom of your mag (check the next pic or two for refference)
if you cant get a shape like this, just use a shape you like.. 3 sided triangle rods are pretty cool, or just use a few strips of plastic card glued together and carve them into the shape you desire.

glue the buggers down, do it carefully, looks weird if they arent lined up nice, dont forget to sand the edges if you want to.

now glue the mag into the plate that you stuck inside the mag shield, where you cut the mag in half provides alot of surface area, makes it stay in there very well, as i discovered when i glued it in and then decided to take it out to check something.
the shield looks alittle flimsy though.. it really isnt, but it looks flimsy, and that wont do.

cut some nice thin strips and glue them down around the edges of the mag shield, like ive done in the below pic.

trim them down afterwards too..

thats part 6! now i’m going to write up part 7 right now.
should be done in a half hour.

TFTD: Zeal is no excuse.

right, next part will be up real soon, as i got my computer fixed!

new blog post will be up in a few days, sorry ive been hit with a virus and need to reformat everything, taken me this long to get online to inform you guys. keep checking back every few days. on a side note, i got my copy of black reach yesterday, wow its crammed full of mini’s!

Had a fun labor day? get back to work.

Okedoke, right now, with the shell thing unglued, it should look sorta like this, so glue it already.
i encourage you to use the glue from behind the shell, not the front, if you get glue in the beveled trenches you made so carefully, it will be a pain in the butt to get clear again.

Make sure, if there is a gap between housing and shell, that you have it away from the beveled box we made near the front of the housing.
It’s much easier to fill the hole with greenstuff that way, do that when you feel like it.
I pushed some through the hole, left an amount at the back of the plate to anchor it, and pressing my finger against the stuff i left at the back, i pressed it flat very carefully with a small piece of the 1.5mm plastic card i trimmed off something of the prop earlier.

In this pic i haven’t put the green stuff in yet, but i have in real life, actually done it now.
Nows a good time to do the inchish/thumb wide strip around the edges, like you done in part 3 to the other housing part.
make sure its the same size, otherwise it will look funny.

speaking of greenstuff, theres a few ruts and places on the base gun that are kinda in the way of seams you’ll be gluing over, so fill them up, also if you have any angles which look ugly, glue them up.
you’ll notice in the pic below this one, i’ve done that for an area around the magazine shield.

Yep, as you can see, i’ve spread that greenstuff all over the place, i made too much and once mixed its useless after a few hours, so i went to town with it.
Once dried trim it and sand it down.
Now you need a plate of plastic card to add to the mag shield, the little groove i cut is for the trigger guard.
Use regular card to make a template again, and then cut it into plasticard.
If its too big then trim it, too small? start again with the template.

Much better.
Glue it down.

You can glue housing 2 down if you like.
Make sure it lines up properly.
If all the surface of the strips don’t touch the surface of the base gun, then sand it.
This applies for both of the housing pieces

Now you’ve started, may as well glue housing 1 onto the gun too.

Now make a template for this bit, its being attached to the housing, not the mag shield.

See?

Once your happy with the size of it, and the fit, glue the thing down.

Next up, the fourth side of the mag shield, why this bit now and not before?
Because this will be using the bit you just stuck down as a partial base, depending on how you made yours at least.
Template it, or just glue it down and trim it like the capping on the tubes we have made previous.

Doing alot of gluing this part, glue the tube down now.

It’s starting to look abit more like a bolt pistol isnt it?

Well thats it for now.
Part 6 will be up as soon as i’ve done enougth work for it.
~Kommissar

TFTD: It is better to die for the Emperor than to live for yourself.

Happy labor day!
or something like that.. shouldn’t it be happy no labor day, or day free from labor? whatever.

As i mentioned in part 3, we will need a tube thats been modified to a size that you consider fit for the shell of a bolter, or an ejection port where the spent shells are spat from.
Once you’ve modified your shell to the point of perfection, cap it with plastic card, just like we done with the tube in part 3,

Sand down the edges after you’ve trimmed it to size, perfection is important.

To get a gauge of how i done it, this is the part of the tube i cut away first, and how much i adjusted the size and gauge to get what i wanted.

Now, either be silly and paint ink or paint onto the bottom of your mini tube, and press it against the surface of your housing plate (No.2, not No.1) or just draw an oblong of how big you want your ejection port to be.

Once your happy with it, carve it out, and if you make it too small, simply make it bigger, infact its better to have it too small to begin with, since you can easily adjust it in size, just put the tube under the hole and push it up against it if your unsure, there’s a pic a few below to show how much i would suggest you have the tube stick through the hole.

As you can see, my square and the actual hole i cut are different sizes, but do not be fooled by the second box i drew in marker on the housing plate,
this would be for another part of the ejection port, so draw a nicely sized box, or look further down to see what its for, beforehand, so you know what your making.

 I haven’t glued it yet, so no gluing just yet! but you can see how far i want the ejection port to stick out.

Now, that little box i drew extra? i beveled it, don’t forget to sand edges you bevel, for a better effect.

Next up, time to cut some very thin strips of plastic card to be used as a boarder for your ejection port.

But herr Kommissar?
you ask
How thin?
This thin, roughly. i reply (told you i have some funny cuts and scars on my finger tips)

Now with these strips you’ve got the supplies to make a careful boarder around your ejection port,
Notice i havent glued my mini tube yet, but i am gluing the boarders down.

After they are glued, bevel them, if you mess up, slip your knife under the strip carefully and redo it.

Now you are happy with it all, feel free to press the mini tube up against the hole to see if it looks good, if it doesn’t? do it again.
Once your satisfied, you can trim the back of the minitube off, you’ll need to remove some of it, otherwise it will be longer than the strips we will glue onto the housing, like we glued onto Housing plate No 1 (see part 3), and if that happens, well it wont fit together properly.

Thats the end of part 4 trooper, good work so far, next part should be up and online as soon as the adeptus ministratum releases it.

better cut a new set of wideish strips for housing number 2, just like you cut for housing number 1 in part three, it may save you some time.

TFTD: Nobody is innocent, there are merely varying levels of guilt.

Well, before i get started i’d just like to say thanks for everyone’s support, this blog got over 400 page views on Saturday, all from different IPs!
ive posted it in a couple of forums i frequent, but one place (of several) ive seen that i haven’t posted, was 4chan TradtionalGames board, of all places! so yeah a slight shoutout to the chan users.
remember you lazy gits, if you have something to say, feel free to leave a comment here.

done a half arsed attempt at a banner proper like for the blog, it may showup tomorrow, when my monthly usage on hosted images shows up.

for now i will be using photobucket, chances are, for good.

got a ton of photos over the weekend, instead of having it as one huge 30 something picture post, i will split it up alittle so you guys get a post a day for the next few.

right, first up, remember that tube you cut up abit last part? i do hope you have not glued it, because A, you don’t want it glued right now, and B, i didn’t tell you to glue it yet.

well that tube is going to get some work done on it,

first up, glue a piece of plastic card to the back of the tube, make sure it matches up with where the base gun and tube meet, then trim it down.

notice how i’ve trimmed it? this is what worked best for me, if you find a different way, great! a better way? tell me. don’t forget to sand the edges down so its nice and smooth.

now do the same thing to the front of the tube, but rather than trimming it to fit the body of the base gun, just trim it all around the circle of the tube. that make sense? good. Done!

Now for the housing!
place the housing on your base gun, where you want it to end up, and pay attention to where surfaces end, and begin, if you line your housing piece like i have mine,
you’ll notice where the shape of the base guns body will curve away from the flat piece of housing.

 mark where it begins to curve, and continue along the surface which remains flat, all the way to where the body of the base gun finishes, right where the magazine shield ends. mark this line on both of your housing pieces, now before you do anything, you need to work out if you want a left or right handed pistol. left handed? then make sure the left housing plate is the one you work on last
right handed? then obviously have the right housing plate be the last one you work on.
from this point on, i will label the housing parts. feel free to write “1″ and “2″ onto the inside of your housing plates.
since i’m making this one right handed, the left plate is what i refer to as housing 1, the right place will be housing 2.

now, you’ll need to make some strips of plastic card, make sure they are evenly measured the entire way along the strip, otherwise your in for some extra sanding later.

working with housing No1 (left plate) line up the strip with it, and mark where it sticks out from the housing.

use a ruler to make sure your line is straight, score it and then either cut or snap it along the line.

glue that bit in place!
make sure it’s right upto the edge of the housing.

now.. do it again!
mark it

trim it

and keep going until you have worked all the way around your housing piece, from one point where you marked it, to the other, following the line you made.

nice work!
now, part 4 will be out soon, in which we will be working with housing part 2

in advance, i suggest using a left over piece of the tube you used earlier, to cut something you think is an appropriate length for a bolt shell, cut out a section from it, lengthwise, and bend it in on itself, till its a size and shape your happy with.
don’t shape the top to look like a bullet however.

TFTD: To admit defeat is to blaspheme against the Emperor.

well after only 8 hours, i’ve had over 100 people visit the blog, and now my monthly limit is exceeded.
in otherwords, i’ll be using photobucket to host my images, i’ll also be changing the addys of the pics in the previous posts, pretty much now.