Blog Of Justice: Cop Killa's Gun

One of the larger and more laborious builds from the project was Cop Killa's infamous Gun.

Cop Killa In Action!

The finished gun is approximately three foot long and features a shell-dump mechanism.

The Finished Gun

In order to keep the weight down, the frame was constructed around a piece of PVC tubing.
This ensured that there would be a reliable structure on which the rest of the gun could be built as well as housing a second smaller tube which would act as the sliding mechanism for the shell dump.

The slide mechanism

Hot glue heaven!

We tried to convince Jonty it would look like a gun eventually...


Didn't stop us getting excited though...

After building the main box for the body, Tom and I became very excited with the functioning shell-dump - taking several photos of ourselves posing with what was, in truth, no more than a water pipe with a wooden shoe box stuck to it.

We promptly texted Jonty (the actor playing Cop Killa) pictures of the gun, as well as a video of us dumping shells from the body.
As you can imagine, Jonty was underwhelmed, no doubt wondering if he would have to act out all his scenes with a prop that looked like some poorly made ventilation system.

The build continued though, and slowly the body was built up - using insulation bricks to form the body.
This made sure the weight was still kept to a minimum as well as allowing us to tweak and carve the bricks to shape.

Adding the foam

Slowly the gun was taking shape - thanks mainly to copious amounts of hot glue.

The next step was the muzzle. Tom and I had already decided we wanted a tri-barrelled weapon and so using three small PVC tubes and some off cuts of MDF we started to construct the shape.

Barrell in progress

Bore-ing

With some perseverance and a little more guess work than perhaps should have been used, the MDF was cut and filed to shape, before being attached to the gun with a wooden plug.

Taking shape.


That's more like it

With more insulation blocks, carving and copious hot glue, the gun was starting to take shape.

The next step was to start panelling the body. The foam blocks were rigid but could be easily dented. Also we knew they would soak up paint, making a convincing metal finish difficult to achieve.

Using plasticard, cheaply reclaimed from old ice cream tubs (that Ben's dad for some reason had loads of) we began panelling the whole gun.
Tom did most of this himself, alone in the dark recesses of his father's workshop.

Finally the wooden handles were screwed in place and a stock was added at the rear.

A vast quantity of rice crackers were eaten during the project

Panelling up

This was also a perfect time to take more pictures of us posing with the gun.

Say hello to my little friend

It's a trap

The gun was then sprayed black (a perfect base for a metallic finish) taking care to mask off the wooden section which would remain plain.

The gun then left Tom's workshop and went to Ben's house for detailing.
At this point shooting was well underway and Jonty was no doubt curious as to what the gun would look like, having already shot several of his scenes.

The first thing Ben did was fill and sand the barrel to give a smooth surface to the ragged MDF.
A large cartoony dial was made and added to the front as well.

fill, sand, repeat

the wheel off an airfix model was used for the centre

Using some hoses and valves, Jonts had acquired, Ben then detailed the body. Destroying to old freeview boxes to provide anachronistic circuit boards for the side.

The struts came off an old hornby railway bridge

An ammo cartridge was then made from more foam, covered in cardboard panelling (we had run out of plasticard.)
Many spent, blank rifle rounds were used to create open windows in the cartridge. In the original design the canisters were going to attach with magnets but we felt it was unnecessary and would cause a lot of problems during filming.

Rummaging through Ben's boxes of junk provided many cogs and bits to detail the surface. Some old fuses were added as well as bits from an old game called 'Torpedo Run' (Ben thinks that's what it was called, either way it was very good.)

Boo-lets!

The pipe is the barrell from an old BB gun

an old ADSL unit stuck to the side.

The cogs and wheel are from a broken Tomy game from the 80's

More details were then added, including old flash bulbs from a camera, various switches and even a few n20 cylinders, Ben found at a music festival, after a rubbish drugs party.

n20 canister wrapped in aluminium mesh

Here is the finished gun prior to painting.

The gun was then dry brushed silver to pick out the detail. Various highlights were picked out and Ben gave it several washes of green, red, blue and black to give the metal a worn alloy feel.
Copper and gold paints were also dry brushed into certain areas, before the whole thing was lacquered to a sheen.

paint job

without stickers

with stickers

on the lawn of Powderham castle

The final touch was to add some stickers and labels which Ben knocked up in photoshop.
Originally the gun was meant to be Russian, so Ben used Babel fish to translate(ish) vague insults about Jonty into Russian.

These were then attached to the gun. Detailing like this really helped to break up the colour scheme of the weapon.

Ben's crass instructions

The finished sticker sheet

Translation (probably)

Plug In Baby
This gun is a mere penis enlargement
Batteries inserted anally
This is the tool of my trade, there are many like it but this one is mine.
Jonty has a CRB check - he can't be a paedo

Then for some reason the next one is:

   8. My fingers your bum = two hours of fun
     12. It is not really 1978 but we are doing our best and yes, i know the microchip is an anachronism.
     13. This is the last sticker I've done - pretty much out of ideas, but i am a very lazy man.
     16. What are you doing in under here?

To finish off, here are some pics of the gun in action, as well as Tom and Ben dicking around during the build.