Thanks fellers! Now back to Tamer's ATIC project.
First off, it was time to break out the razor saw again and hack off the part of the stock gun that was forward of that block which was the furthest forward point of the Kenner team's gun prior to their modifications.
Next, I drilled out the hole for my main barrel using a 1/4 inch paddle bit and my cordless drill. Just past the t-shaped recess for the stock barrel was a floating rectangle of plastic sandwiched in between the two halves of the gun that served no purpose that I removed. Behind that was the plastic receiving shank of a screw that is one of the three that holds the two halves of the gun together. I removed the screw and drilled out the plastic shank so our barrel would clear. "remember, we want the barrel to be able to travel back inside the gun body for simulated recoil and to allow the barrel to be shortened to be able to stow the gun in it's traveling position inside the walker. The screw hole will have to be filled later.
After completing this task, not only does the gun barrel fit and travel like we need, but it is tight enough inside the gun body not to need any sleeves installed in the interior of the gun to contain its length in a lateral way. Sweet! "i still dont know how the paint will hold up to the inch-inch and a half of barrel travel for stowage we are talking about though" I may need to incorporate some sort of installation to make and keep the barrel straight as this epoxy gun extension tube is prone to warp a bit with age.
First, I will repost the pic of the original ATIC Prototype which was built by the Kenner team in the early 80s to show to corporate in a bid to revitalize the line that was never produced.
These shots are of a mock up of the alterations i performed to the gun today. The main barrel is about a mm two narrow by my calculations looking at the proto pic and while I would like to correct this, it would depend on if I could find something the right diameter to use. The upper and lower piece are just scraps from some resin missiles that I had lying around that I cut to what seemed the appropriate length and glued in place to get a feel for what should look right.
this last shot shows the mocked up gun with it's barrel pushed back inside by 1 1/2 inches to allow clearance from the rear bulkhead while also allowing clearance of the rear of the gun to what would be the position of a forward bulkhead when we get around to making one. I have the front of the gun propped up with a lighter as the factory mounting joint inside the gun is still loose.
As soon as I get these barrels figured out, that's the first thing I am going to fix.
