Monday 1 August 2016

Replica Blakes 7 Liberator Field Gun with power pack and holster with light and sound.
This took nearly a year of research comparing the acrylic I turned on a 1920's Zyto lathe.
The grip is from a 1970's Black and Decker drill side handle and the rest of the main parts are EMA tubing.
Finding the right 'curly cable' was a bit of a detective job, as the BBC seemed to use GPO curly phone cables, the modern phone cables have a flat edge to them, but the original GPO ones are round all the way.
Once I knew what it was the hunt was on, after a few weeks emailing various places, got a reply from a company who actually had one of the original GPS 'curly cable' machines.
Working with them on the specification, they produced the cable for me to the GPO specifications, even with the correct colour coded inner strands (you can not see them but nice to know they are the same as they were in the 70's).
Locking plugs were the only modification that the BBC prop Guru Mat Irvine did on these props, as the original ones had a lighter coloured holster and a phono plug that kept pulling out, the locking din plugs solved this problem.  The early ones also had a strap over the holster to hold the gun in place when running, these were also removed and the darker holsters were then made as the straps were not used and got in the way.
The circuit I designed plays the firing sound and also the tube lights up with a fading after glow.

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