Gun Case Printer Friendly Version   By DNDOPMAN - Dec. 31, 1969 I started building this gun case about 3-4 months ago for a friend. At that time I only had two molds…the wizard tower mold and the tomb mold. I have progressively ordered the molds as I needed them to complete this project. Molds Used: Gothic Arena Accessories Mold #42 Gothic Panel Accessories Mold #43 Gothic Additional Accessories Mold #44 Gothic Dungeon Builder #45 Gothic Graveyard #46 Wizard's Tower Mold #50 Tomb Mold #56 Floor Tiles Various Sizes Mold #201 Dimensions: Height: 13 inches Width: 19 inches Depth: 12 ˝ inches Blocks used: 2348 blocks Weight: 37 pounds with the gun Other materials used: ˝ inch MDF board Alleen’s Craft Glue Red satin fabric ˝ inch DOW blue board Elmer’s Wood Glue Home Accents – Patina (paint) Anita’s Acrylic Craft Paint Games Workshop Acrylic Paint Green Felt Tools used: X-Acto knife Razor Saw from X-Acto Miniature mitre saw and mitre box Soldering iron with homemade “spoon” end (for cutting grooves in the foam) Homemade electric foam cutter Ruler Plastic mat (24” x 36”) with 1” grid printed on it T-square Legos The Tomb: I guess the best place to start is the tomb on top. I used the standard building plans Bruce has listed on his website with a few exceptions. The first exception is that I extended the tomb to be 3 arches long instead of just the 2 arches. I did this mainly because I think it looks better and because it allows you to see the tomb inside it a little better. The second exception is that instead of just having the underside of the roof as a plain white foam board color or a solid painted color to match the tomb, I edited a map of Middle Earth to fit the dimensions of the underside of the roof. I then printed this out and pasted it on the underside. My thinking was that if you were to actually walk under it you would be able to see the map of Middle Earth instead of a plain roof. The last exception was that the braces that Bruce shows how to make for the underside of the roof are made of foam board. I made mine from blocks. I took one of the ˝” x 1” long floor tiles that had a design on it from the Tomb Mold and 2 of the triangle blocks from the same mold and made the basic shape of the support. To make the top small triangle for the support I trimmed down 2 more of the triangular blocks from the Tomb mold and just used the narrow tips (1/2 inch from the narrowest end is where I started measuring) to complete the support piece. For the actual sarcophagus, I used the pieces from the Gothic Panel Accessories Mold #43. I thought the robed figure went well with the overall theme and also looked good as a relief for the top of the sarcophagus. *Note: For the remainder of the Gun Case I basically went off of the Chess Board design on the Hirst website. I didn’t want the Gun Case walls to be as thick as would have been needed to make it an exact copy of the design so I allowed myself only 1 inch thickness for the front of the drawer and the rest if the walls are ˝ inch thick. I will go into detail how I made each piece as follows: The Drawer: It took me a while to decide how I was actually going to make the drawer. I have never had any experience in cabinet making so I had no real clue where to start. So, I decided to start with the dimensions of the gun that I was going to use in the gun case. I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to have the look of a molded spot for the gun to lay in the drawer. I also knew I wanted the material to be shiny like silk so I started with that information. I measured the overall length, width, and height of the gun. I put the gun down on a piece of DOW foam board and took a Sharpie marker and outlined the gun on the foam. I measured about ˝ inch out from the ends of the gun and made my first cuts…making a rectangle that would be just large enough to contain the gun. I cut this same piece 3 more times. I stacked the rectangular pieces one on top of the other and glued them together with Elmer’s Wood Glue. Once the glue had time to dry I took my soldering iron with a “spoon” shaped attachment a friend made for me out of an existing copper core soldering iron attachment and started cutting out the foam within the bounds of the Sharpie outline of the gun. A lot of trial and error finally got the foam to the desired shape and depth that I wanted so that it would lie in the drawer properly. After a couple of hours of sculpting out the foam I was ready to cover the face of the foam piece with batting. I purchased some cheap batting from Wal-Mart at the same time I got the red satin material and glued it to the foam with Alleen’s Craft Glue. This batting would give the gun a little padding to rest on so that it wouldn’t be resting on the harder foam (especially hard when the surface has been melted with a soldering iron). Once the batting was attached and the glue dry, I flipped the piece face down onto a large piece of red satin. I started folding the edges toward the bottom of the foam as if I were wrapping a Christmas package, making sure to leave enough material so that the gun could settle down in the foam as it was supposed to do without stretching the material. I then glued the edges of the satin to the bottom of the foam and let it dry overnight. At this point the foam insert for the drawer is pretty much done, so I set it aside and covered it for later use. Once I was done with the foam base for the gun, I knew what the inner dimensions of the drawer had to be. Knowing this, I started taking basic 1” x ˝“x ˝” blocks and laying out a frame for the drawer. By this point I had already decided that I wanted to use the Chess Board type of design and integrate it into the gun case and as such had to allow for the fact that I wanted the drawer to slide in and out and be pretty much hidden in the overall layout of the piece. In other words, I didn’t want the drawer lines to stick out too badly. I started building the individual pieces of the Chess Board, such as the front door and the window arches. I started gluing them all together using Bruce’s plans for the Chess Board but I didn’t want the front of the piece to stick out too far so I narrowed the depth of the front door design by ˝ inch. I also didn’t have Gothic Dungeon Accessories Mold #41 for the smooth tile pieces that would form the contour of the pillars on either side of the entryway so I instead used the decorative base pieces from Gothic Panel Accessories Mold #43. These worked out pretty well I thought as an alternative to the other pieces. To make up for the fact that I had no curved pieces I used the Gargoyle statues from Gothic Panel Accessories Mold #43 on either side of the steps to spruce up the front steps. Instead of using the corner pieces from the Chess Board design, I instead decided to use the columns from Gothic Additional Accessories Mold #44. I determined the height of the drawer based on the height of the foam with the gun lying on it. I decided that about 1”to1 ˝” would suffice and adjusted the design accordingly. The thickness of the front face of the drawer is 1” thick. I also pasted a piece of a cereal box on the inside of the drawer behind the door for support for the door and to assure no light comes around the door. For the floor of the drawer I used a piece of MDF that I cut with Craftsman saw. I glued the entire drawer down to this piece of MDF so that it would have a sturdy base and also so that the drawer would have a smooth surface on which to slide. The Cabinet: With the drawer completed, I could now start on the cabinet portion of the build. I made allowances in building the face of the drawer so that the outside of the cabinet would fit flush with the outside of the face of the drawer. This also allowed me to have enough room inside the cabinet so that the drawer could slide freely. For the base of the cabinet I used another piece of MDF board. The base of the drawer sits on the base of the cabinet so that the two pieces of wood form the smooth surface on which the drawer will slide in and out. I, again, looked to the Chess Board design for the sides and back of the gun case. I made several of the arches and tried to space them out evenly. As I reached the level of the top of the drawer I decided I would go up 3 more rows of blocks before stopping for the top of the cabinet. I realized that the span across the cabinet was quite large and that the Tomb sitting on top of it may actually cause the roof of the cabinet to sag, so to get past this problem I went up one more row of blocks and on the second row I notched out the corner blocks so that I could put a 3” x ˝” x ˝” block across the corners. These blocks, coupled with the fact that everything was built on ˝” thickness allowed me to be able to use another piece of MDF to give the top a lot more support. I then glued up the third and final row of block. I placed the piece of MDF down onto the angled pieces and glued it down as well. Nothing fancy here. I just didn’t want the board to be knocking around when you move it. For the outside of the cabinet I decided to use the corner design on the Chess Board to separate the windows, but I had to modify it slightly. I modified the design to only be ˝“thick. I also varied the design at the top using several pieces from the different Gothic molds. Once I had the outer wall of the cabinet built I glued these pieces that separate the windows to the outside of the cabinet. I felt like it looked a little to barren so I took the small recessed arch fillers and made some supports for the top that would be going on later. With the walls built, the add-ons between the windows, and the supports for the top I was pretty much done with the cabinet. All I had to do now was glue felt on the bottom of the cabinet. I measured out a large piece of felt and glued it to the bottom of the cabinet. The excess I trimmed off with an X-Acto knife. The Top: For the top, I took all of the 1” x 1” floor tiles I had to form a solid base for the tomb that would be resting on top. Once I had cast enough floor tiles, I glued them all together and then glued them down to the MDF on the top of the cabinet. From here on out I knew that I had to dress it up a little or it would look plain. I went back to the trusty Chess Board design and used two of the chess piece designs for the corners of the top and to add symmetry to the top. I took decorative trim panels from Gothic Panel Accessories Mold #43 and tombstones from Gothic Graveyard #46 and glued these back to back. I then used these to separate the “chess” pieces. In the center of the floor I wanted to place the Tomb, but after looking at it I thought that the other pieces overshadowed the Tomb. To get by this I decided to put the Tomb on a raised platform using MORE floor tiles. I never thought I would run out of floor tiles until I started going through them, and then they went quickly! The Paint: For the paint I just used the basic painting instructions listed on Bruce’s website. I based it with dark grey. I added a lighter grey next to bring out the texture. I then finished it with a really light shade of grey to give it highlights. For the roof of the Tomb, which I am especially happy with, I was going for a weathered copper effect. I used a product called Home Accents Patina to get this effect. I suggest this product to anyone as it’s easy to use and I think the effect is great. I painted the door three different shades of brown…Anita’s Earth Brown, then Moccasin Brown, then a light coat of Latte. I went back over the door in splotches with the Moccasin Brown. For the metal work on the door I used Games Workshop Dwarven Bronze and went over it with the patina paint to try and give it a weathered look. In closing I would like to say that I had a blast making this gun case. I started this as a gift and am finishing this as a gift for a good friend. This is only the 3rd piece I have made, the first being a Wiz tower and the 2nd being an ashtray for the wife, and I am happy with how it turned out. I hope you all get as much enjoyment out of looking at this thing as I do and I am more than happy to answer any questions or take comments/critique from others. Jason Tidwell a.k.a. dndopman( or bottlecapman to Imahilus lol) HAPPY HADDING!   0 Ratings     12345      Public Comments Please log in to post a comment    You must be a registered member to post comments. You may sign-in Here.

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