Glad to hear about your improved personal circumstances, it looks like you've kicked 2021 off to a great start, as this phaser rifle looks gorgeous. It's clear that the phaser rifle prop had a lot more controls and features than I previously noticed, even before you gave it the "Donny treatment". Judging by your exploded views it seems that the triad of energy coil thingies rotated during operations, presumably to recharge or cool off. Fascinating stuff!
Congrats on the promotion and the new home! Love the rifle - the way you implemented the power pack is a revelation, and tying the scope in with the tricorder monitor works perfectly. Have you thought about rendering crosshairs or targeting scanner images?
I always thought this design was a bit... hokey, but seeing it like this, I appreciate it a lot more. Glad you're back and doing well!
Love this, I was just checking your threads yesterday to make sure I hadn't missed a notification. This is a great touch and a rare case where making prop more "primitive" makes it better. About the power packs, could a user insert three individual phaser power packs if they needed to in an emergency? And how to you eject the panel to in order replace the power pack?
@Donny - Looks wonderful! I particularly like the blending (or joins) between the rounded parts and the body (like the targeting block connecting to the body) or the back side parts to body. Very nice and the phaser rifle does look pretty intimidating from the business end.
Congrats on the new promotion. Great to see you back to modelling and thanks for sharing what you do; it's such a privilege for us to see what you are up to. As for the phaser rifle all I can say is that those files and a 3D printer should really get together.
There's a good bit of parity between Unreal and Marmoset's material rendering. As far as translucent materials go, those are pretty difficult to get right in Unreal. When I port this baby over to Unreal, I'll be glad to share my translucent materail setup with you! Yes, the energy coils rotated around a central axis. It seems to be inferred that the coils signify different power levels, as the connection points between the copper coils and the housing are red, orange, and yellow, respectively, which could've been tied into the red, orange, and yellow controls/indicator lights on the side. So, pressing the yellow button would've rotated the coils so that the "yellow" coil was selected, and then lighting up the yellow indicator light? I dunno. All speculation, but from what I've read about the original prop, the coil housing did indeed rotate. When I get it in Unreal, I actually want to render a "video" screen on the monitor that functions as a magnified view of what's ahead of the phaser with a targeting crosshair rendered, yes. No on the Phaser II power packs being compatible, as those are actually a good bit longer and wouldn't fit into the recessed bay there. The rifle's power pack is actually pretty small. I know that may seem odd, but I was watching Arena last night, and if those tiny photon mortars can pack the punch they did, I assume the technology contained in this tiny compact power pack can pack a similar punch. Ahh...the future! As far ejecting the panel, I imagine one of the buttons on the side releases the power pack from the body so that it can be removed. I didn't actually model this mechanism, but that's how it works in my mind I'm glad you noticed! Some of those curve joins were pretty complex/difficult to get just right, which may have been why I gave up on modeling this all those years ago. This blended joint was particularly difficult, but I'm glad I persevered and got it right! Reference:
We see Kirk rotate the power coils as he's talking to Dr. Piper right before setting off after Gary. Right around the 37:40 mark in WNMHGB.
Nice! I admit I didn't watch the episode close at all when I was modeling this guy But doing so now, I see that Kirk delivers the finishing blow to Gary with the coils out of alignment http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x03hd/wherenomanhasgonebeforehd850.jpg
I thought I read somewhere years ago that the coils were the power packs, and that you spun them as you exhausted one and moved on to the next. But admittedly I have no idea where I saw that or even if it was an authoritative source. The linking of them to the color of the buttons seems an attempt to link them to power levels as you have suggested, which makes sense given the three barrels on the hand laser, with which this was contemporary. So I’m quite happy to reset my head canon to “Donny” and move on.
I love finding out how practical that prop actually was. It was sturdy too, as Kirk gives the tubes quite a yank!
The prop has held up quite well too. Most of my references were photos of the actual prop taken in at least the last decade, and it's in amazing condition for being over 50 years old. https://www.flickr.com/photos/karltate/albums/72157649418365688
interesting that the stock appears in both horizontal and vertical configurations. Wonder if that was intentional or if it's just a result of it being held on by one bolt. I can't think of any ergonomic reason to have it horizontal.
An unusually tall person could brace the horizontal stock against their bicep, and carry the rifle around in the same "shoot from the hip" stance human Starfleeters use when they carry the pistol phasers. Who's to say there weren't nine-foot-tall officers who carried around Type-3s as their regular sidearm?
I think it was the original intent that in horizontal mode, the stock served better as a carrying handle. Also, when in vertical mode, visibility into that smaller scope is blocked, so if the user needed to use the smaller scope they'd have to return the stock to horizontal position (even though I can't quite come up with a reason to have that smaller scope to begin with, since the targeting monitor makes it quite redundant). Let's also theorize this rifle could be attached to a tripod or similar mount. The stock may serve better in horizontal mode in those situations. Either way, I believe the original prop was intended to be "locked" into either mode, and was not a result of the stock simply being held on by a bolt that wasn't tight enough In some fan-made schematics, the stock also serves as a safety mechanism. With the stock in horizontal mode, the rifle cannot be fired. When vertical, the safety is now off. I actually like this explanation the most.