Shopping for unusual hard-to-find costume accessories? -> PDX GUN SHOW

[Prinz Eugen]

Apr 18-19-20 at the Expo Center.
Cost is usually $8 to get in.
Carpool parking is $6/car if you go an a group (in one car) of like 3 or more.

For folks who haven't been, gun shows also draw replica kife & sword vendors of all prices & quality levels, -AND- they're good for military uniform costume touches such as uniform buttons, ribbons, medals, stripes, & insignia, epualets, or ceremonial daggers (hint: PUMPKIN SCISSORS!)

Gun shows can also be a good source for (unregulated/unrestricted, non-firing) gun & weapons parts and solid plastic replicas of firearms. Or you can start with a wooden or plastic stock, or a PVC pipe, and trick it out with sights, a forward grip, parts of a tactical flashlight or a pickatinny rail, a cheapo-scope, a bipod, a muzzle brake the size of a club sandwich, etc. Perfect if you're trying to cobble together a realistic looking (but non-firing) replica of, say, Priscilla's 30mm rifle form Hellsing, or the Mauser-looking infantry rifles from Pumpkin Scissors, or any other outlandish toys often seen in anime:


(And if you're over 20, clean record, and an Oregon resident you could even buy, say Rally Vincent's CZ-75 from Gunsmith Cats, or the Beretta-looking 'thing' that Levy carries in Black Lagoon. But you couldn't bring them to a con - drat.)

Also great sources for history/coffee-table books on Japanese (and other) militaria, so you can identify all that early 20th-century stuff they use in Ep 1 of 'Coyote Ragtime Show,' or get historically accurate source materials for Japanese military styles from 1853 - present. There is often enough WW1 - WW2 source material to be useful for Grave of the Fireflies, Silent Service, or Zipang, and even for other steam-punky / 19th-cen fantasy series too: Sakura Taisen, Last Exile, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Steamboy, etc.

So: Anyone want to meet for breakfast (say 9:30am, at a restaurant nearby, such as off the Delta Park exit of I-5) and then go in as a group? I'm usually in-n-out in 1 1/2 to 2 hrs. Plenty of time to drift over across town for Uwajimaya's festival in the afternoon.

- G

[melchizedek]

Can you buy a hand gun that shoots through tanks? 

[NeonFoxRocks]

Yeah they call it THE DOOM BRINGER! catchy, no? heh i might go and see if they have a good outfit to fit a cos

[Prinz Eugen]

Can you buy a hand gun that shoots through tanks? 

LOL.

You never know WHAT you might find, especially from collectors. That's part of the fun.

If you're thinking of Oland's tank-killer side arm, y'know, that ACTUALLY looks like a break-open flare pistol (approx 40mm, display/distress shell.)  Oddly enough you can buy THOSE at marine stores and they, like agricultural bird-bomb pistols are NOT classified as firearms. Some marine flare pistols have PLASTIC barrels, strong enough to support a cardboard flare or star shell, but OBVIOUSLY NOT capable of firing brass cartridge ammunition. Boating flare pistols are often made at odd sizes so that military rounds cannot fit anyways.

So for Oland's pistol you might actually go hunting around marine antique shops and boating stores as well as firearms. The world of Pumpkin Scissors has a 1930s/40s Eastern Europe feel to it, and it's definitely and alternate world, or at least a substantially altered history. Typical WWi & WW2 tank-killing weapons for infantry were very much like short range rockets, bazookas, or bomb-on-a-stick devices - but these aren't sidearms. There were also cases of desperate men (including civilians) who simply massed against tanks, knowing that many of them would die before taking it out. Greeks took on German tanks by having a bunch of guys roll up a rug, and jam it in between the treads to throw it from its track and immobilize it. Then a couple more brave guys could get atop the turret with a pail of gasoline or oil and try to pour it down whatever openings they could find. Quite a grisly business.

But I'm not aware of any real-world, large bore sidearms capable of punching holes in armored vehicles, but which are carried in a holtser or that funky sort of vambrace seen in the anime.

Lastly - if you buy a real, functioning firearm at a show, then ALL fed & state rules apply. Obviously there's ID and paperwork involved, plus your NICS check. If it's a pistol there's a state law with a tax & thumbprint you have to do as well. If you do buy, I'd recommend that you buy from an FFL or registered C&R dealer. (Just ask.) If you buy from a private collector, I'd have the seller work with you through an FFL; they usually charge only a small fee, and you'll know you've got all the paperwork done right.

Info on NICS: http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics.htm

For Title II weapons (large caliber, destructive devices, machineguns, suppressors, etc.) for sale at a gun show you can pay the price and start the ATF paperwork, BUT you cannot walk out with the item - you have to get your paperwork signed off by your police or sheriff,** send in the your ATF tax and wait for the ATF forms to clear - that can be weeks or months. When it clears, your registration is sent to the dealer, and you pick up your federal registration with the item, at the dealer's place of business. So -NO- you CANNOT walk into a gunshow and walk out with a full-auto MP5 or AK-47. (but you could walk out with a non-firing replica or a dumbed-down, semi-auto version.)


 

[melchizedek]

Man, and here I thought we had a right to bear arms....

[NeonFoxRocks]

Oh, you do...

[Prinz Eugen]

Yeah - but some how the politicians got around the "shall not be infringed" part.
Though they've had 200+ years to try to weasel around it...


ANYWAYS - I and some friends will gather around Elmer's at TEN O'CLOCK tomorrow for breakfast, then we'll figure a way to leave most cars around there, or parked behind [G.I.] Joe's so we can carpool in. (I'd walk, but I *may* end up buying things that are HEAVY.)

- G