How to Make a Portal Gun.

This is how i made my portal gun for halloween 2011.

it is one of many way that you can make a portal gun. i made it this way because my experiances with these materials were higher than any other method. 


Ive entered this to the Hurricane Lasers Contest, if you like it enough could you please vote for me at the top of this page.. Thank you in advance. :D

Blue insulation foam for the main shells of the gun.

the barrel and body were made from PVC pipes at 110mm and 70mm  and one clear 65mm tube. also a solid clear acrylic rod at 20mm

plastic acrylic sheet for detailing parts.

three black cables (thick electrical cable is fine) and wire to put inside.  or three wire core foam wrapping strips (like the hair curling things. i found mind at a general store or DIY store)


for the electronics i had two bright blue LEDs and two red LEDs (shoud be orange but i didnt have any) a three way switch, an assortment of wire and a 9volt battery.

emulsion paint, filler primer spray paint, plastic primer spray paint, lots of white spray paint and black spray paint.

car body filler (most commonly called bondo) i used P38 polyester filler.

Glue! lots of glue ranging from two part epoxie and super glue.

also masking tape.

the tools used for this project were:

belt sander, jigsaw, hacksaw blade and lots of craft knifes.

losts of different grade sand paper: corse to very fine.

soldering iron for the wiring.

lots of clamps.

stick the layers of blue insulation foam together and draw on the out line of the shells.

Then roughly cut out the side profile then the top.

Then use a belt sander to bring the blue foam closer to the shape of the back and front shell.

then draw a thickness of the shell and carve out the inside of the shell to hold the rest of the gun.


then paint the shell with the white emulsion to seal the foam from the filler and the paint which will eat the foam if not sealed.

cut two rings out of the acrylic to create supports for the smaller PVC tube with in the larger.

then trace the cut out shape on to the larger tube and cut it out.

place the smaller tube inside using the ring supports, making sure there is enough of th smaller tube out front of the larger to create the barrel of the gun.

then trace the same shape on to the smaller one and cut it out, matching up the cut outs.

glue it all together.

add a PVC coupler to the rear for the handle.

fill the gap between the two tubes and sand it all smooth. then carve in the vent shape at top front of the opening of the hole.

place a hook connector made out of acrylic on the top of the fron barrel section.

spray the plastic barrel with plastic primer then normal primer to get a uniformed finish and sand down lumps and uneven sections.

do the same with the front and rear shells. if there are any uneven sections/ dents in the parts fill and sand again untill you get to the finish you want.

test fit the barrel in the two shells to make sure it all fits together.

cut out and construct the claws out of acrylic.

tyhe last pic shows me showing the claw for size comparrison.

cut out three rings for the barrel end.

first ring is a larger thicker ring for the rear of the barrel. chamfer one side to the thickness of the second ring.  (see photos)
the second and third rings are the same size but the third is chamfered to the front of the barrel.

paint and fill to make them smooth and space them evenly on the extended barrel (smaller tube inside larger barrel)


then paint the whole lot with black spray paint. i used matt but it can be gloss.

spray the shells with filler primer and sand them to a smooth finish.

insert two hook mounting points into the front shell.

add the three small wire emmiter points onto the rear shell. the emmiter points were made in the same was the shells were.

spray them both flat white.

then add some decals for the portal branding. this can either be done in hand painted through a stencil or cut out of vinyl stickers.

then spray a gloss coat over all the shell and logos to give it a great shine and to seal the decals.

wire the LEDs and resistors to the three wat switch with the top position being blue the middle being off and the bottom being the orange.  

when all has been connected wire the battery socket and the lighting system is done.

take the solid 29mm acrylic bar and sand with a rough paper to make a diffuser. this is what the light will be placed at the end of to give the glowing portal chamber.

inside the clear 65mm tube the light bar is held by two more acrylic discs and on them are some detailing (in the pictures i have used two large format printer spool ends.) but use whatever you have to hand.

wrap a small amount of tape (preferably black) around the clear tube with the light bar inside at the end points where the support discs are. make sure the discs are wide enough apart that when in the main gun tube they are just inside the tubes and not visible.

place the clear tube assembly inside the main barrel of the gun and glue it in.

glue the LEDs onto the rear of the diffuser and affix the switch somewhere inside the handle assembly where it will be easily reached by your thumb when holding the gun.

glue the front shell the the barrel assembly so the peak of the front shell is at the same level of the front barrel.

drill two holes behind the hook mounting points. into which glue the wires.
on the top of the barrel behind the hook mounting point drill a hole for the wire.

in the wire emitter points on the back shell drill holes where the wires will be placed.

glue the back shell onto the rear of the gun and drill down through the top hole in the rear shell. (20mm) for another section of the solid bar to be placed to bring the ligth up to the top of the gun. (make sure the main diffuser bar comes back to the same point as the top down bar reaches the lights so that all the light will be used.

once all the glue has dried and set glue the wires into the rear shells and let them set.

now add the front claws onto the mounting points and posision them correctly.