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Hi all, I finally took some pictures of this thing, it's not straightforward as it's too big for my piece of paper and is very reflective. Instead of trying to document it like a model I've opted to make it look silly/pretty/instagrammy, with soft focus etc. It's Riff Raff's laser from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, as a full-size prop. I doubt very much that it's made the same way as the original but the shape and size feel about right. I put it together over a week of lunchtimes before we went to a screening last year. The main ingredient is two sets of 15mm knitting needles. I channelled our very own Nigel Heath and bent these using a heat gun and a bending spring. I don't have any bending springs so I made one by winding wire around a pen. It took a fair while, but not nearly as long as it would've done to go to the hardware shop and discover they didn't have the spring I wanted I used a pan to guide the curve and then cut the ends off square. The needles go into holes drilled in a broken turned boss salvaged from our sofa. Lots of epoxy keeps it all together, and I drilled all the way through the boss and each tube to pin it with more wire so there'd be some sort of mechanical joint. The not-authentic ribbed bit is part of a hose coupler, which hides a step between the boss and the rear part. That and the grip are made from pine dowel wrapped in thin styrene sheet. I cut the sheet slightly too long to leave recesses at the ends of the tube and expoxied ping-pong balls into them. The small ball is from a craft shop and has a plastic lightning bolt glued into a saw cut. I painted it all with some awesome shiny rattle can paint from the hardware store. I wouldn't recommend it for models though as it rubs off - maybe the pigment is graphite powder? It was great for this as it took no time and looked just fine on the night. It's probably obvious that I had a great time making the LASER. It's sometimes liberating to just get it done rather than fret about the finish or the details. Plus it helped us win the Best Couples' Costume prize at the screening which was awesesome. Not often that the Mrs. and I get to stand on stage while seven or eight hundred baying twenty-somethings raise the roof with applause! Cheers, Will

Ever since I was a lad I always wanted a jetranger and now I finally have one. I made this to tryout making my own decals from scratch. I scanned in the logo from my business card and then using my colour laser (thrown out in a skip) I printed them out and printed a custom reg (Rodney Stewart Greenway) and bobs your uncle. I'm happy if anybody does have an italeri or Esci 1/48 scale Jet ranger they don't want I have beer tokens As always best seen from a few feet away Rodders