My First Scratch Build (Critique Please!)

Okay so I guess a good question at this point would be where should I have posted the picture so it actually shows?

?action=view&current=littleM16zpsa6f8940e.jpg

Click on the "Use rich formatting" button (below right) and from your photobucket page, you have a little table of link codes. Select "IMG code" and it will copy the code to the clipboard.

It will look something like this:

[ IMG]http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a628/Stephen_Social/littleM16_zpsa6f8940e.jpg[ /IMG]

(I have inserted a space between the "[" and "IMG" and "/IMG" so that the code can be displayed)

Paste it into your post and you will get the following:

Stephen_Social

Okay so I guess a good question at this point would be where should I have posted the picture so it actually shows?

I personally use Photobucket, and have had good luck with it.  But any site that will post your picture is okay- a lot of places offer this now, like snapfish and umpteen others that hope to make money from you when you order hard copy prints.  The latest version of this forum has made it a little easier to post pics now- you do not need to specify a size.

Thanks for the help guys, I got the picture posted, now how about a little input on the subject at hand? How does the M16 look? (Mind you it's still a work in progress.)

I'll be really impressed when you scratch the ACOG or the EOTech.

Fly-n-hi

I'll be really impressed when you scratch the ACOG or the EOTech.

I was planning on going really low-tech with the sights so a basic ACOG wouldn't be that difficult. BUT (you need context of why I'm building the rifle)....

I'm building this rifle along with a shotgun, pistol(s), knives, ammo, a chainsaw, and a few axes to populate the interior of a civilian car which will be heavily modified and tricked out as a part of a Zombie Apocalypse diorama I'm putting together.

So... with that said, while the ACOG would be easiest to build having a holographic sight of some sort would be the best option to kill off a hoard of the undead. ACOG enhanced zoom effect is a bad thing when it blinds your close range vision!

Stay tuned, because I think I've got an idea for how to put together a holographic style sight without too much effort.  ;-) 

Stephen_Social

I'm building this rifle along with a shotgun, pistol(s), knives, ammo, a chainsaw, and a few axes to populate the interior of a civilian car which will be heavily modified and tricked out as a part of a Zombie Apocalypse diorama I'm putting together.

Fly-n-hi

Stephen_Social

I'm building this rifle along with a shotgun, pistol(s), knives, ammo, a chainsaw, and a few axes to populate the interior of a civilian car which will be heavily modified and tricked out as a part of a Zombie Apocalypse diorama I'm putting together.

Ah...that sounds pretty cool!

It should be! The idea is to replicate what it'd be like if an ordinary citizen took it upon themselves to defend the general population from the undead and tricked out their car for the job. So I'm going to take the most "soccer mom" hatchback civilian vehicle I can find, build it up stock(ish) then add things on a normal person might design to fight the zombies.

I'm already excited about it.

And I think there should be a Civilian Zombie Response Vehicle Group Build! That'd be a challenge of true creativity!

Stephen, i'm by no means a scratch builder, so my critique might be of limited value, but, i think the flash suppressor is a little too big relative to the rest of the rifle, both diameter and length.  I assume you've used the same material for it as you did the jacket of the barrel, i'd suggest something a little smaller - if that is possible.

Other than that, i think the general shape is great and the whole idea sounds pretty good.

looking forward to further updates.

Thanks for your input Chris. I'm actually uploading an updated picture of it after another night of work in just a few. Take a look.

Okay so here it is after a second night of work. It still needs some tlc before I start painting it but it's coming along nicely, or so I think.  The part I like the least is the handle, but that was a HUGE pain in the you know what. It just wouldn't come together for me how I wanted it to.

It is very recognisable as an M-16 variant.. I think the sight should be horizontal, like the barrel. But the rest of it looks good in my opnion.

That is very good. It will look even better once you paint it.

Yep - that's an M-16 alright!  Great job on it so far.  The flash suppressor looks much better too.

i'm with joeleonetti - it'll look great with some paint and dry brushing for effect.

it looks good. if you wanted to add the 'lumpyness' of the forward grip you could try wrapping it with thin strips of tape (or by building it with alternating sized circles of styrene)

Making that yourself saved you some money. And will fit your uses to the "t".Great craftsmanship.

Fly-n-hi

Stephen_Social

I'm building this rifle along with a shotgun, pistol(s), knives, ammo, a chainsaw, and a few axes to populate the interior of a civilian car which will be heavily modified and tricked out as a part of a Zombie Apocalypse diorama I'm putting together.

Ah...that sounds pretty cool!

Great idea!

I am not even going to attempt to scratch build anything at this point.  Your project seems to be coming off rather nicely.  One of things, magazine well should be extended to almost right up to the barrel.  here's a photo of it as a reference: www.google.com/imgres

Also, if you don't want to reshape to resize the flash hider/suppressor, you can actually turn it into a silencer, which you will have to add bit more meat to it.  

Keep up the good work and looking forward to seeing some more photo!