I just knew it would be worth to have a life size Phaser II replica on hand someday. Now I can hold it on my hand and visualize ideas in life size 3D. I am presently envisioning something using a Thompson submachine gun or AK-47 as a conceptual template.
Looking at images of the Thompson submachine gun and AK47 as well as the WNMHGB phaser rifle this is an initial concept that has come to mind. Some of the proportions might be off and there would be details to work out, but this could be a starting point. The muzzle/emitter could be larger than that of the Phaser II. The grip could still be a power pack and for a cleaner look the rifle is steadied by a hand grip (like an AK47) instead of another pistol style grip. Instead of three energy chambers there would be two on top. The stock would likely have to be a bit longer than as is drawn in the pic. The main body or chassis of the rifle is basically a play on the phaser pistol design. As such I envision something leaner and distinctly less bulky than the WNMHGB phaser rifle.
So happy to see,Warped9, you're keeping your designs true to Star Trek. It's always a pleasure watching what you design next. Great job!!!
The two chambers evoke the top phaser one in profile. I can even see them rotate towards each other like nacelle caps when firing…or not. Great phaser carbine
I love the design! It's true to the original source for inspiration. I guess I just wonder where you'd use it? The Phaser 1 is extremely powerful on it's own. It can disintegrate people and even concrete walls (Return of the Archons) Phaser 2 can cut tunnels through solid rock (Devil in the Dark) and with it's standard power packs can kill several hundred people. (Omega Glory) I guess, I'm a little confused what a phaser carbine can do that a phaser 2 can't?
Better accuracy at longer range? Although there is no obvious targeting screen as on the second pilot rifle. Maybe a pop up screen could be added? Interesting take on this, @Warped9
I would say range. sustained fire and perhaps different firing modes. As you've said Phaser 1 and Phase 2 seem to make a rifle configuration, or Phaser 3, redundant. But maybe not. For decades one point of discussion has been how phasers were used in "Balance Of Terror." Phasers have long been accepted as being depicted as beams of energy, but in BoT we saw them as bolts of energy. Many have written this off as either a script error that should have had the actors saying torpedoes rather than phasers or as an fx mistake that depicted the phasers the wrong way. But the dialogue in the episode supports the idea of the phasers being used like torpedoes rather than beams. What if it's not really error in either script or fx? What if it was more a limitation of the fx? Ship's phasers could be seen analogous to naval ship big guns. This is understandable since those creating TOS would most likely have thought in terms of what they were familiar with--WW2 naval warfare. But naval ships have other guns such as rapid fire cannon for anti-aircraft and, today, anti-missile purposes. Normally I wouldn't look beyond TOS to seek answers in regards to the intent of what is being depicted in TOS, but I will make an exception here. In DS9 we see the Defiant firing its phasers in rapid fire bursts more like a fighter aircraft cannon rather a continuous beam of energy. What if that idea had been there way back in TOS, but they were challenged to actually depict that? Just as the idea of the holodeck was actually conceived during TOS, but not shown until TAS and then made a regular feature in TNG. So what if a phaser rifle not only has greater range and greater sustained firepower, but also can be fired more like a machine gun rather than simply as a singular beam weapon? In "The Devil In The Dark" mention is made of them being able to dig their own tunnels with phasers and we're assuming they're referring to Phaser 2, but we never actually see them doing this. Maybe they were just referring to being able to bring that kind of firepower into use even though they didn't get specific as to what exact device would be employed. Recall that in "The Cage" they opted for a phaser cannon to try breaking into the Talosian community, and thats thirteen years earlier. Maybe in TOS a phaser rifle could do the same thing and thus would be suitable for tunneling. In a heavy firefight a rapid firing phaser rifle could be useful just as a submachine gun proved useful on the battlefields of WW2, Korea and Vietnam. And rapid fire automatics are still widely used today. In "A Piece Of The Action" we saw the ship's phasers used to stun a large group of people simultaneously. Possibly a phaser rifle could do something similar to pacify or immobilize a large group pf people or animals. We can speculate that in TOS we never, or rarely, saw the need story wise for something like a phaser rifle, but that doesn't mean such a situation couldn't have existed. A Phaser 2 wounded the Horta. Likely a mass of Phaser 2s in concert could kill it. A lone phaser rifle would most likely kill it. Given ship's phasers proved ineffective against the cloud creature of "Obsession" then a phaser rifle wouldn't have made any difference either on the ground. Tracy referrenced going through numerous power packs with their Phaser 2s while fighting the Yangs. I would speculate a Phaser 3 would have longer lasting power reserves and thus be more useful in a heavy fire fight. A phaser rifle might also be useful at targeting objects at extended range as well as attacking aircraft or small spacecraft. We can also speculate that if the newer prop had existed then uses for it could have been found story wise. It's a little vague at this point, but I have the idea of having a small targeting display for targeting objects at extended range along with the controls for different settings.
Phaser pulses used like proximity blasts re-appeared in DS9's "The Adversary" with phaser rifles set to fire "expanding energy pulses" which looked like balls of energy so your thinking here is very reasonable. Have you considered a better power source other than the phaser-2 power pack? The original phaser rifle always stood out as having not just higher destructive power but also having a power source to match it.
Yes, I have been thinking about that. I could make the dual cylinders atop the design the actual “power pack” that could be swapped out. The firing grip could simply be a familiar looking phaser style handle or maybe a smallish backup power pack.
You could make the twin cylinders look like the P2 handle/power pack, just without the trigger button, so suggesting a similarly engineered component, and therefore it has three power packs, but I do still like the call back to the original ribbed cylinders of the WNMHGB rifle.
I always took the initial use was specifically said to be "proximity mode" to try and find the hidden BoP. Were photon torpedoes ever seen before "Balance of Terror"?
The absence of photon torpedoes in "Balance Of Terror" doesn't tell me they didn't yet exist in universe. They existed soon after in later first season episodes. And they certainly existed in universe at the time of "The Doomsday Machine" and no mention whatsoever was made of utilizing them against the planet killer or at least why they weren't or couldn't be used, leaving fans to speculate for decades. So they easily, and most likely, did exist at the time of "Balance Of Terror" and for some unspoken reason they weren’t utilized.
I wanted to give you folks a sense of how this was proceeding. It's evolving some as I progress and figure out the detailing.
Beauty. Spitballing: Maybe only one cylinder/coil instead of two (as shown) or three (if you put a third cylinder under the two)?
One cylinder could work perhaps as a variant. I even considered ditching the cylinder(s) and going with something else entirely, but I wanted something of a visual conection to the WNMHGB phaser rifle. I'm presently working on the firing grip detail before I move on to the beam emitter and the rest. I gotta admit it would be interesting to actually build this as a full size replica. I do like the idea put forth upthread about having some sort of light effect in the cylinders.
Given any thought to how someone might carry it in a non-combat fashion? And how it may be set down while part of a landing party?