the ribs on the lewis

[sam]

Has anyone figured out what type of ribbing is used on the t21?

[TD1043]

Well, from the two Lewis guns I have (which are not that well detailed), the ribbing on both are quite different. I bought one and the other was given to me as a gift for working on someone's new helmet. The first one the person used this very thick coax cable (if it's coax), and the second one the person used what looks like black ribbed gutter extension material. You can see pictures of what these look like by going to my site.

[maj_hassel]

I went with the irrigation pipe route. The only problem is that you usually have to buy a 10' length of the pipe (there might be places that offer cuts - I don't know) and it tends to be imprinted with manufacturing information.

It's also a larger circimfrence than the gun, at least it was on my Hyperfirms. I had to cut a slit down the length of the pipe, and then slid it over my gun, overlapped the edges until it was snug, and then measured and cut off the excess pipe.

I used sun/weather-resistant electrical tape all over to hold it together and cover up the print that was embossed on the pipe. It's a bit shiny so I might give it a coat of spray on rubber coating (Plasti-Dip) to dull it a little and smooth out some of the wrinkles in the tape.

Here are some pictures of the gun with the tape but without the coating so you get an idea how it will look on the gun:

I hope this give you some idea of what your gun will look like if you use the drainpipe method as opposed to the wrapped cable method.

Good luck!!

[Art Andrews]

The ribbed tubing is definitely the way to go. I know for a long time people thought it was a wrap, but will the new DVDs you can clearly see it is not a wrapped wire, but is tubing similar to what maj_hangover used. The only difference I can see between his and what is seen on screen is that his ribs are much wider than those seen on screen. From what I can see, there are 14 ribs and the tubing starts with a rib and ends with a rib.

[maj_hassel]

... The only difference I can see between his and what is seen on screen is that his ribs are much wider than those seen on screen. From what I can see, there are 14 ribs and the tubing starts with a rib and ends with a ribr.

From what I've seen of prop shots, the tubing ends with a small collar on the side closest to the barrel opening. I could easily be wrong too.

Looking at the screenshots and with the knowledge that the prop crews foraged parts from places like aviation junkyards, I'm assuming that the actual tubing used was some kind of dust cover (an example of a dustcover can be found on some shock absorbers) or boot.

It could also be some sort of fitting like this flexible isolation tube http://www.envproduct.com/catpicflexibletube.jpg.

I'm sure we'll never know what was the actual part that got used but for costuming purposes the irrigation pipe works well enough.

[Art Andrews]

I could totally be off here, but what I see, appears to be some sort of ring a considerable distance in front of the ribbed tubing with lines that come back to the tubing. I can't tell if those lines go under the ribbed tubing or if they hook to the tubing and pull it taut. Is it possible that the ribbed tubing was attached at the back and then this method was used to attach it at the front? I don't believe the collar/ring actually touches the ribbed tubing but is some distance in front of it and only the lines come back to the ribbed tubing itself. Take a look at the following pics.

[maj_hassel]

As far as I can tell you're right. I must have been looking at a fan-built prop instead of real one.

Nice screen-captures BTW.

I wonder if there's anyone who's going to try to replicate the frayed thread coming of the front strap - LOL!

[SethB6025]

If those lines are some sort of strap that is holding the ribbed section in place, it could support the idea of it being a strut boot, or some other ribbed rubber material.