The Tusken Rifle

JULY 14, 2008 FOR SALE: One of the Studio Creations member's built a tusken raider rifle in the studio and decided to sell it on ebay, to fund his next costume project. Bid on this rarely seen prop while you can!

I made my Episode 1-style Tusken Raider Rifle out of a piece of 2X12 board (I got it from the left over bin at homedepot for $5.00). I traced out the basic shape of the rifle body on the wood, using a 1:1 taped-together print out from my computer, then I used a Jigsaw to cut out the shape. I took an electric sander and sanded down the curved edges (60 grit sandpaper at first, then went down to 150 grit for the final smooth surface). I took my handy dremel tool and sanded out a groove along the top of the rifle for the barrel to rest in (a wood chisel would have worked also).

For the barrel I used some metal EMT pipe from the electrical section of the hardware store. The end of the barrel was am EMT pipe connector that worked well at looking like a flash suppressor.

The Scope was made some plastic sink tube parts from the plumbing section. I was really happy to find some tapering tubes in a kit for $6.00. Worked really well for the rifle. The attachment brackets was some thin flat metal I had lying around, bent into the needed shape to hold the scope up.

The side details on the rifle were just bits and pieces cobbled together and screwed to the wooden body.

I spray painted the whole thing a silver color, then ran sandpaper over the edges to rough it up and make it look distressed. A tiny amount of brown paint on a paint brush did well for putting dirt in the cracks and crevices, adding to the used look of the weapon.