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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!oh6
From: OH6@PSUVM.BITNET
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: phaser needed
Message-ID: <4231OH6@PSUVM>
Date: Sun, 26-Jan-86 19:38:50 EST
Article-I.D.: PSUVM.4231OH6
Posted: Sun Jan 26 19:38:50 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Jan-86 05:31:16 EST
References: 14300003@uicsl
Lines: 53


      Last Halloween I dressed up as Mr. Spock and, as a University employee, I
Lines: 49

didn't have alot of money to spend. I came up w/ some (well, let's be honest)
*ingenious* Ideas on how to make the costume -- my masterpiece was my Phaser.
     
Here's how I did it:
     
         I picked up two highlighter pens (I can't remember the brand; they
were ^ 3" X 1" X 1/2" and already nearly a perfect shape for a Phaser II unit.
One's body was florescent(Sp.) green, the other orange. I spray painted all but
the bottom 1/16" of the green pen gloss black (I decided to let a little of the
green show just because it looked good against the black--artistic license.).
I cut a ^ 1/2" by 1/2" piece of white typing paper rounded two adjacent
corners and taped it on the lid as a button.  I put black electrical tape
around the orange pen, it was to be the handle for my Phaser I unit.  The only
thing I did that required any skill at all (and it required more patience than
skill) was to design the body for my phaser. I bought myself a 1' X 1' sheet of
thin (^1/32") construction cardboard and built a box for the body of my phaser.
the phaser was ^ 7" long ^ 1 1/2" high and ^ 1/2" wide.  It tapered down to a
1/4" square in front, and had a slow gradual taper to a 1/4 x 3/4" back. It had
a notch cut in the top the length of the green pen for the Phaser II unit (I
packed the front & back of the notch w/ foam rubber so The pen could be held
firmly and still be removed--WARNING:if you spray paint the foam rubber
don't put the pen in until it is thoroughly dry, other wise the foam will
compress and cease to hold the pen.). I also cut a hole in the bottom of the
box, slightly smaller but the same shape as the lid to the orange pen, this way
the pen could be held in place by puting the lid inside the hole, inserting the
pen from the outside and snapping them together. **rough** illustration:
     
     
                              __    v notch v     _
                          __--  |________________|  ___
                       ,--                          ___|     profile
                        --__                  ___---
                            --____________ ---
                              ____________
                       ,------  * hole *  -------------,
                        ------____________-------------'    bottom
     
The body was also spray painted gloss black.
     
I know these instructions may sound "Hokie" but the end result was great. I
won 3 (yes 3) contests for best costume and people were always asking to see
my -ahem- Phaser. If you'd like a template for the box give me your adderss,
netnews doesn't exactly lend itself to computer aided design.
     
     I've also been told that there are costumers that lease authentic phasers
though I tryed to find one w/ no success.
     
                                           Kevin M. O'Boyle OH6@PSUVM.BITNET