Cosplay+ laser questions

So, over the course of a little less than a year i plan on cosplaying as my character from Fallout New vegas, I played the energy weapon play through which was a lot of fun because It used lasers.

I plan on making a replica of my favorite energy weapon the Laser pistol called "Pew Pew". Pew Pew - The Fallout wiki - Fallout 4 and more - Wikia

The only issue is, that to make it "attention to detail" i need to have a yellow laser/orange laser with crazy bright muzzle flash. I saw somewhere you can combine a red+green laser together with a Dichro to make a amber colored laser which would be perfect. I of course want to follow as much safety as i can when i build this prop. Probably going to add a cap to it so i don't accidently blind people.

Also, lasers in that game are not just "points" they are more like Lines or...something, is there any cat eye lens i could use? that would make it basically be a line instead of a single point.

One more point to make i am trying to keep it as cheap as i can, so the cheaper the better.

Thanks in advanced!

That will be a cool cosplay build. The AEP7 laser pistol is pretty crazy looking!
I have the line lens if you need that.
Good Luck.

I love the Pew Pew. You can only get it after collecting a number of star bottle caps.
You know I think you might not want to use a real laser for this prop. You should use a bright orange LED to make the flash. That way no one gets hurt and to have a beam in the orange wavelength visible in general indoor light conditions you would need a lot of power. That's not cheaply done. It will cost you and you would have actually made a real weapon.

So I would stick with an array of orange LEDs. Make them stick out a little from the end of the replica so it looks like it's actually exiting the barrel.

Hope that helps and please post pics when you're done because I had this on my mind a few times myself and would love to see it!

I agree with using a led instead. If it's just something to have, and it just stays at your house, go ahead and use a laser. But taking it to an event poses several possible problems other then eye hazards. Like dropping it and killing the diode when walking threw the crowds. Or getting it confiscated when security at the venue finds out you have an actual laser.

mmm, well i was planning on having a safety on it so it couldn't fire the laser unless i wanted it to, but i can see your point even if i use this with a line lens it would be considdered unsafe? 300mW 532nm 650nm 2-in-1 Dual Color Green Red Light Laser Pointer Pen Black at Laserpointerpro.com

i was looking at that as a possible build around so i would not have to worry about building crazy drivers or apparatus.

really don't know why i'm infamous, must've been a long time ago or something.


So, after thinking about it i think the first thing to do is actually build the prop's pieces so i think i'll start there. Once that is finished move onto the electronics. The addition of the laser pointer would be a final step sense its basically Plug-n-play if i do it right. So i guess i'm getting a little ahead on myself with the laser pointer, So by then if i figure out that LED's would do better than a laser pointer I'll head in that direction, but i'd still like to talk shop about orange/yellow laser pointers, The obvious 2 cheapest options would be green+Red with dichro glass. And... CNI's Orange laser (200-300+ usd...yikes!.)

You still won't see a beam though. As I said it would have to be extremely powerful to see a beam in daylight. You won't see the replica fire like the real pew pew unfortunately.

We aren't there yet

I suppose not - getting a really bright beam requires high power density and thefor high powered lasers that would be too dangerous to use on the general public.

One thing you could do, however, is use powerful LED's to simulate the muzzle flare, and lasers to project a bright dot onto whatever you are shooting at. The high divergence of the LED's make them bright but harmless if viewed from a distance. The laser dot would still illuminate whatever your target was brightly.

Obviously this is not as good as having a special effects beam added in, but it could combine two aspects without much danger. To get really visibly beams you need high power and/or a very foggy/smoky environment. The latter would have been provided in many bars, restaurants and such in the past, but since smoking bans popped up there is little chance unless you bring in a fog machine yourself.

Personally, I'd be more worried about it getting damaged or confiscated. I've been to the Phoenix comicon numerous times, and it can get extremely crowded there. Plus with how strict some of the venues are getting with the scrutiny of "weapons". It's completely possible that they wouldn't allow it there. My cousin almost had here staff confiscated at last years con, because it was an actual wooden stick!

Benm said:

I suppose not - getting a really bright beam requires high power density and thefor high powered lasers that would be too dangerous to use on the general public.

One thing you could do, however, is use powerful LED's to simulate the muzzle flare, and lasers to project a bright dot onto whatever you are shooting at. The high divergence of the LED's make them bright but harmless if viewed from a distance. The laser dot would still illuminate whatever your target was brightly.

Obviously this is not as good as having a special effects beam added in, but it could combine two aspects without much danger. To get really visibly beams you need high power and/or a very foggy/smoky environment. The latter would have been provided in many bars, restaurants and such in the past, but since smoking bans popped up there is little chance unless you bring in a fog machine yourself.

Click to expand...

That is kind of the direction I was heading, cheap laser, cheap LEDs, put them together make something that has sounds, some of the visual effects, and fully functional energy cells that power the device just like in the game.

I still would want a safety of some kind of it, the new aep7 laser pistols/Rifles have a safety on it I might add to it, or just stick with the trimpot on the back. I also plan on adding a mini Jacobs ladder when the trigger fires, it'll recharge the caps (in game obviously) and make on the prop 1 or 2 short arcs as if the gun is recharging it's capacitors.

My idea was to make it ark between the wires on the capacitor array, that way I could attempt a side-ways Jacobs ladder, using a high voltage gap spark igniter.

Chrisbee said:

Personally, I'd be more worried about it getting damaged or confiscated. I've been to the Phoenix comicon numerous times, and it can get extremely crowded there. Plus with how strict some of the venues are getting with the scrutiny of "weapons". It's completely possible that they wouldn't allow it there. My cousin almost had here staff confiscated at last years con, because it was an actual wooden stick!

Click to expand...

I went to the Cleveland one and bought a replica sword, they checked it and let me carry it around outside. If this thing were to be confidcatable it would be in my car till I walk up on that cat walk, for sure. Definitely don't want to lose it. I appreciate your concern the prop will probably cost me several hundred and will want to use it multiple times....don't want to lose or damage it.

Ok, so after doing some shopping around the price of a dragon lasers aroura series is actually quite managable to me, especially if someone that is actually a Gold member can hook me up with their discounts/coupons if possible.

I would totally understand if someone would not want to do that for me, It's just any number of assistance would be great.


Also, fyi the handle+ trigger and trigger block have been finished, not painted or assembled mind you, but printed.
http://imgur.com/ZNhO2Cn