That is the question I keep asking myself.
It is not easy to fast forward and rewind and also zooming into each scene in a DVD. Not only would your mind go nuts but your remote would go as well. The problem I have at the moment is how would the trigger looked like.
In the original Star Trek Megazine, the trigger was never shown. They just point a red line at what seemed to be it and labeled it as the trigger. But after searching at the StarTrek.com website, the props showed otherwise. So, if I want to do either versions, I could but it would look hokey.
Then again, these movie props are usually made from resin and therefore, in order to save time and cost, (I assume) the propmakers would just drill a hole and bung in an electrical switch there.
So, aesthetics aside, I think I shall push away this problem until I have the electronic circuits up and running.
This is one of the pictures where the trigger is
actually an electrical push-button switch
(pic from www.startrek.com)
This version has a long tube for a switch instead
(pic from www.startrek.com)
Or, I could just make a trigger that looks like this
(Photo courtesy of nexus from startrek.com.my)
This is from John Eaves, who created the Phaser rifle,
his sketch indicated an extendable butt stock and
a folding grip. I wanted to use the foregrip as housing
for the batteries. So, this idea might have to change
The extendable butt conflicts with the diagram drawn in
Deep Space Nine's Technical manual. But then again,
John's sketches might just be a proposal, unless they
(Paramount) say the website is canon
The picture from the startrek.com website is too small
for me to see the details. Maybe I should invest in the
Deep Space Nine DVDs as it was mentioned his sketches
were in there. However, it did not say anything about the
Phaser Rifle being included although it was being used in
the TV series just before the "First Contact" movie
