1. Making the Guns for Bonnie & Clyde
James Hopwood Level 3 Year 1 Production Arts - Props

2. B.A.R (Browning Automatic Rifle)
The Browning Automatic Rifle was the weapon that allowed Bonnie and Clyde to be unstoppable against the police after stealing them from Texas armoires, the cartridges it used were very powerful and had very good range as well . First of all I had to find a template and came across this image: QjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imfdb.org%2Fwiki%2FBrowning_Automatic_Rifle&psig=AFQjCNHg4h7AKaO- 2R_8r3ZrNJvddMzx6w&ust=

3. After several attempts of printing out the templates from PowerPoint on multiple pieces of A4 paper I managed to get the right length of about 47 inches for the gun as I had researched that was about the length they would have been at that time. I had also flipped the image horizontally for general preference.
A4 pieces of paper showing only a segment of the gun
Overlapping of the image so that I can get the image exactly in the right place for when I cut it out
47”

4. Once the template was cut out and stuck together it was then on to cutting it out of wood. I was able to acquire sheets of ply wood from my dad’s work so wasn’t short on the material. All I did was lay the template on the sheet of ply, place some weighted objects on top and draw around the template with a pencil.
Template
Outline
Then with a Jigsaw and a drill, and the help of my dad we then proceeded to cut around the outline (including the trigger and between the barrels). which gave us a B.A.R base template
Scene 12, page 81
X 1
next we repeated the process another two times giving us the amount required for the production – X3 B.A.R’s
X 1

5. The next step was attaching he barrels and the grips
The next step was attaching he barrels and the grips. Firstly what I had done was measure the diameter of the templates barrels, which both came to about 20mm (2cm). I then measured how much I was going to need for each barrel length ways, which came to about 39-40cm for the top barrel and about 22cm for the bottom barrel (I had also measured the other gun barrels as well so knew how much I needed as a total).
20mm
20mm
400mm
220mm
Then I went out and bought 2 cheap black 2m 20mm plastic tubing from B&Q (2 lots were enough for all the barrels). I chose plastic because it was cheap, easy to cut and manipulate and light for when the performers would be moving them around.
However as the barrel on the wood template was the same height as the piping and was wider than the piping, and that it had to fit down the shaft of the piping, we then had to cut the barrel down to the size of the shaft so that the piping would slide over it and the wood would act as a support on the inside.

6. Cutting it on the top and bottom only ensured that it would fit top and bottom, however there was still the width that was stopping from sliding in. to do this we used a chisel to chisel down the sides of the ply, this was made easy at the fact plywood is made up of smaller sheets of wood layered on top of each other.
Because of this it layering, chiselling wasn’t as much of a task, what we did really was take off a layer or two either side
while the other layers stayed in tact. The ¾ “ ply was 7 layers thick.
And with the top and bottom cut down it looked something like this compared to what it originally was :
After
Before
So to recap the process
Plywood mm pipe

7. After all three barrels had been cut and chiselled we didn’t attach the barrels straight away, before that we attached the grips. At first I didn’t know exactly what to use for the grips, I was originally just going to cut some thinner plywood and attach it where the grips were, however with that would have come some serious sanding around the edges, because when the performers are holding the grips I didn’t want the edges to be digging into their hands making it uncomfortable for them on stage. What I needed was some wood with curved edges, my mother then gave me the idea of using skirting board that’s used around door frames and at the bases of walls.
This was normally curved at least on one edge, and came in all different kinds of styles. The only thing was that I didn’t know how much it was going to cost which was something I had to take into account. So when I was buying the plastic piping for the barrels at B&Q I came across this type of skirting board:
Being soft wood meant that it was going to probably be slightly easier to cut and also wasn’t too heavy to be able to move about on stage, as hardwood would probably be heavier.
Being smooth meant that no sanding would have to be done, except for when bits were cut, which meant time could be saved doing other things towards the guns.
Being 2100mm (just over 2m) was quite a lot, times by 2 was plenty to be able to do all the guns grips either side. Also 69mm wide was almost perfectly the same size as the grips for the B.A.R, the B.A.R template’s grip came to about 67mm (but with the actual gun this would either be slightly bigger or smaller due actually cutting around the template, however this being bigger gave us a little wiggle room). 12mm wasn’t too thick so the grips wouldn’t stick out too far, my hands could still get around it so it was ok.
Being bullnosed meant that the edges were curved, and with this specific skirting board both edges were curved, and for the B.A.R this was perfect as the top of it would have a harsh edge either.
Being £3.75 was quite good too, lucky almost, because this was a perfect skirting board to use, we needed two however to be able to do all the guns but as it was so cheap it meant that two only came to £7.50 which was too expensive.

8. Once we had the skirting board, we then had to shape it and fit it to the grip position. The way I got the skirting board to fit the grip position was by using the template, there wasn’t that much that had to be done as the skirting board was pretty much the same size as the grip:
Template
Cut out
Skirting board
I then placed the template on the flat side of the skirting board, because it was easy to draw on than the curved side. all that to be outlined was the curve at the front of the grip and where it finishes at the back
With the outline cut out with a saw, I then had to do the other side of the grip, however it wasn’t doing the same thing as before, as it was the opposite, I then flipped the cut out horizontally where both flat sides were against each other and traced around that, giving the opposite side of the grip.
Then with some wood stain I proceeded to stain the grips to give them more of a realistic interpretation of what the wood actually looked like on the guns in the time.
Left side Right side
Stained

9. We then attached the grips with two screws on either side.
Then after that it was last stretch of painting and attaching what we called ‘relief’ so that the gun wasn’t plain, and attaching the barrels.
In terms of paint, black was only used to colour the body, with the stock I used the wood stain again and the template to outline where it was needed, as for under the grip, it didn’t really matter as the grip was covering most of it up, so I just kept it black to save time.
Stock
Body
Template

10. For export hole where the bullet cartridges are released I used a bit of very thin ply, on the actual it is built into the gun, but as the body of mine was only one ply board I decide to make stick out and define that part of the weapon more.
For the ‘relief’ we put screws in places where it corresponded with images and the template.

11. As for the cocking mechanism where you load the gun, I used another bit of ply wood, thicker than the small piece used for the export hole, but thinner than the 3/4 “ used for the body of the gun., I attached with one screw and super glue. The way I got this shape was that I pulled up another image of a B.A.R but this time with the cocking mechanism as the focus of the image and cut out the cocking mechanism out.
And just to add a little more depth to it we grilled through the cocking mechanism and body of the gun and bolted a bolt through it to give it somewhere the user can hold onto it with.

12. As for the barrels, when all this was done we then slid the barrels on and filled the inside with a little silicon caulking, and then for extra support we then drilled a small screw in at the base of the top barrel.
As for the rest of the barrel, I was slightly stuck on what to do with the connector that holds the two barrels together as I didn’t know what to use, it was minimal but I felt that it was something that was on every image of a B.A.R and was almost iconic to it’s image
On the inside of both barrels
However luckily my dad brought home some plastic pipe connectors , and these worked perfectly, for the connector that held the barrels together I slid one on to the end of the short barrel, and slid one down on the top barrel and lined it up with the other. Then with some super glue glued in-between the connector so that the barrels wouldn’t move and would act as extra support. Then I added one on the end of the top barrel just to make the end look more interesting.
Glue in-between

13. Problems
We only had one major problem with one of the B.A.R’s, during a dress rehearsal the day before the opening night one of the B.A.R’s barrels started wobbling. I wasn’t able to take a good look at it at college so took it home. There we found that both wooden supports on the inside of the barrels had snapped and all that was holding the barrels on was the screw at the base of the barrel.
And the screw that was holding the barrel in place was the only thing holding the barrels up because it was behind the break
They had both broken about here
So the rest of the was being held in the barrel by the silicone caulking
This B.A.R however was believed to be a damaged one from when we were building it, before it had the barrels placed on it the wooden supports were exposed and accidentally the B.A.R was knocked over and both barrels were broken, we fixed them with super glue and it seemed to hold. However whatever broke them that being an accident or just some extra force put down on top of it was just enough to break it.
About where the breakage was

14. So we did was completely change the design of the barrels (at this time all the guns were done) we decided to do what we had done with the other guns and cut into the body of the gun where the barrel would be, then place the barrel in to the position, either glue it or screw it, and have the grips pin it in either side holding it in place.
We cut about half way down the grip with a jigsaw
Then held the barrel in position, while applying glue and screws to keep the barrels together
Then with the grips, we just drilled them back into place holding the barrels in place either side, granted that the two front screws were now drilled into the barrels and not the wood

15. Screws drilled down to hold the barrels together and the grips either side just to hold into place
And two screws drilled up through the wood into the barrels to keep them in place as well for extra support. Note – we didn’t do this for all the B.A.R’s, the original plan was to, however when testing the strength of the others they perfectly fine, I think this one broke due to the fact that it had broken before

16. Winchester Model 1907
Winchester’s model 1907 was a rifle that was used here and there by different armies including the United States. It being an auto loading rifle made it more efficient in combat. During the crime waves in the 1920’s it’s fast shooting trait was an attractive option and was adopted by a number of U.S. police agencies and penal systems. Some of which remained in in service well into the 1980’s. First of all I had to find a template and came across this image:

17. After several attempts of printing out the templates from PowerPoint on multiple pieces of A4 paper I managed to get the right length of about 40 inches for the gun as I had researched that was about the length they would have been at that time give or take. I didn’t need to flip the image for preference as it was already the right way and was the same for the B.A.R. Note – That the process for the guns are very similar so if there's less information that’s because it’s the same process just for different guns.

18. Once the template was cut out and stuck together it was then on to cutting it out of wood.
Outline X1
next we repeated the process one more time giving us the amount required for the production – X2 1907’s as requested by Gary (Director)

19. The next step was attaching the barrels and grips, to make the job easier I was going to apply the same process to the 1907’s as I did to the bar’s – only to go as far as the grip, and have the wooden supports going through the barrels holding it.
However when looking at images of the 1907’s their construction didn’t really change (as with the B.A.R, different types of grips were seen) and the look of the barrel visible on top is in a sense iconic for the gun Whereas I could get away with it on the B.A.R as the template didn’t have the barrel visible on the top.

20. At first I didn’t know what to do as I said my plan was to do the same as the B.A.R, but then when I looked at the design and how we had attached the grips on the B.A.R I had an idea: What I would do is cut out the section where the barrel would be, this was 20mm as the piping we were going to use was 20mm.
20mm
Then with the barrel we would hold it into place and glue using super glue .
And then with the grips (as what we did the B.A.R) would screw them into place either side, meanwhile pinning the barrel in so that it wouldn’t move, also while giving us the authentic look of the barrel on top but not being able to see all of it, as if it was built into the gun

21. As for the grips it was the same process as the B. A
As for the grips it was the same process as the B.A.R, however there was just more to trace around as the grip was only 4cm rather than 7cm, and so was smaller than the skirting board.