Any suggestions for making a Terminator 2 gun mech enclosure box?

[Timstuff]

A year or two ago I bought up a Terminator 2 control panel that came with a set of positional guns. They aren't the official "movie accurate" guns, as they are a set of Uzis made by Taito, but they work exactly the same way, and have pretty much the same mounting footprint. My problem is, that when I bought the guns, there was no enclosure box around the guns' mechanics. See the pic below for what I'm talking about:



The boxes below the guns are for hiding and protecting all of the mechanics that the gun is connected to. With my guns, everything is open and exposed. I need to somehow make a set of enclosures that will be durable, and look arcade accurate. Unfortunately, I don't have a clue when it comes to machining metal, and I have no connections with anyone who does. Also, even if it was as simple as giving a guy at a machine shop some specs and getting the enclosures a week later, I can only imagine it would cost me an ungodly amount of money.

I really want my positional guns to have good enclosures, but I really just don't know what approach I should take with it all. I know that the ideal would be powder-coated metal, but I don't know where I'd go for that or what the cost would be, and I'm not sure what alternatives would be viable. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[vertygo]

wood and shiny black laminate ?

maybe some sort of air duct metal, it's really pliable and you could easily cut it / change it, then paint it.

Not really accurate, but just my 2 cents.

[Timstuff]

That might be the route to go. My grandpa has a few pairs of metal cutting shears, so maybe I should try my hand at cutting out some new metal enclosures-- however, my one concern is about how I can make sure that no-one is going to cut themselves on the edges, since I imagine that the cut metal can be kind of sharp. Does anyone know if sanding the edges of cut metal can make it safer? If not, what options are there to ensure safety to the user?

[vertygo]

solder, curling the edges so they interlock, or maybe a strip of something over the edge (wood, plastic, etc)

[Timstuff]

Seeing as I was quoted a ballpark estimate of $150 just to have the framing on my guns re-powder-coated, I think I'll take my chances with making the new enclosures rather than looking to a machine shop. I'll keep your soldering suggestion in mind for the edges, too.

[vertygo]

Please post pics and process in the projects area.. I really hope I can find some guns like that one day, and I'll probably end up doing something similar to you. Oh, and other people might like it too.. ya ya.. that's it.