Anonymous commented at 2020-01-14 03:44:59 » #2480577

Fun fact(?): Supposedly, at least some of the M41 props for the movie were made from Thompson SMGs and Ithaca M37 pump-action shotguns (with SPAS-12 parts for the futuristic look), and there may have been actual firing examples. The weapons would have many parts removed and custom components fabricated to join them and form the grips, and would then be placed into a molded plastic chassis.

Firing and non-firing replicas sometimes turn up, and kits can be had to make your own, firearms not provided.

The Smartguns, in turn, were MG-42 or MG-3, with a steadicam rig which, to some extent, actually worked. Throw in some motorcycle parts for the trigger mechanism... Auto-tracking was movie magic, but especially in the modern day could be made doable. And, yeah, supposedly some of those props were fully functional firearms, too.

The handguns were just legit handguns.

The Morita series rifles of Starship Troopers were similarly functional items, made from full-auto variants of the Ruger Mini-14 and, again I believe Ithaca M37 pump-action shotguns. Again, custom fabricated futuristic looking plastic shells, some of which were good quality and used for firing examples, and others weren't so structurally sound and so just for look.

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LivingCorpse commented at 2021-05-25 14:00:35 » #2615894

The Aliens and Starship Troopers rifles are also the inspiration for the real life XM29 OICW. And it's funny the underside of the Pulse Rifle is a grenade launcher in the Alien films, the U1 Grenade Launcher, made out of shotgun parts in real life because in the Alien universe while most ammo type for it are grenades, one of them is is an oversized 30mm shotgun shell filled with buckshot.

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LivingCorpse commented at 2021-08-09 03:04:09 » #2637495

Removed the shotgun shell tag, those are small grenades the underbarrel launcher fires.

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