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Thread: Annie's old gun

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
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    Waitpinga
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    835

    Default Annie's old gun

    I was asked by our town's acting society, to carve a rifle stock for their production of 'Annie Get Your Gun'. They gave me a printout of a photo someone had googled of the gun in questions... an old Winchester single-shot lever-action. Armed with this rather fuzzy photo and some text which gave the actual length of the complete rifle, I calculated what I hoped the dimensions of the actual stock would be and created a pattern.

    They said it could be made of any sort of wood but as it happened, I had a piece of American oak who's dimensions suited the purpose so I used that. In the actual rifle, the trigger housing and fore-stock were brass, but I did the whole thing in wood which was later painted a gold colour. I also cut the lines where the metal mounted to the wood to create the illusion of two materials, as well as the shoulder plate. The technical wizards fitted a bit of pvc pipe for the barrel which housed the mechanism that created the flash and smoke when the rifle was 'fired' during the performance of the play. All in all I thought they did a pretty convincing job of the finished piece, at least when viewed from as far away as the first row.

    Here are a couple of shots of the raw stock.





    And here are a few shots taken during the final dress rehearsal of the gun in action...





    Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the performance myself, but those that did said the girl playing Annie was brilliant.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2012
    Location
    Braidwood NSW
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    Default

    That's really brilliant Whittling! What a fun project.
    It looks great. Well done!
    Love the photos!

  4. #3
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    Jul 2013
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    Perth
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    Default Smy

    Ssmy kinda gal...

    S'all I'm a sayin'

    Cheers!

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    McBride BC Canada
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    Stagecraft props are meant to be convincing but durable illusions.
    You did it right. The pvc barrel would have dropped the weight from
    maybe 3.5kg down to maybe 2kg which is a positive result as well.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
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    Waitpinga
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    Thanks guys. I learned a bit about the character Annie Oakley in doing this project. Oakley started out as the daughter of a poor farmer who was 'discovered' by Frank Butler, a sharp shooter in Bill Cody's Wild West show. In the play there is a spirit of competition between them that escalates until Annie deliberately throws a shooting match to save Frank's pride. In real life, Frank recognised the freak talent she had and took a back seat to her in the show. Frank courted her and they were married but never had any kids. She was a strong proponent of women's rights and spent a lot of her life encouraging them to learn to use a gun as a defensive tool. When she eventually died, Frank was so devastated that he refused all food and followed her just 18 days later.

    This prop rifle was given to the girl who played Annie in appreciation of her performances once the season had run its course. My wife and I have known her and her family since she was only small. She shares a birth date with my wife so there was always that connection with her while she was growing up. A beautifully sweet young lady now, its exciting to see what else she will do with her life.

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