• BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Looks like a lego guy at first.

    The significant plumes of smoke generated when the weapon was fired indicate that it does not make use of commercial small arms ammunition propellant (‘smokeless powder’), and may instead use blackpowder or an alternative propellant. This makes the use of ‘separate-loading’ ammunition (i.e., propellant and projectile loaded separately into the weapon) more likely, as well as increasing the likelihood that the weapon was a muzzle-loading design—that is, loaded from the bore (‘front’ of the barrel), rather than the breech (‘rear’ of the barrel) of the firearm.

    the weapon appears to use an electric firing mechanism. Images of the firearm show that an electrical wire passes through each endcap. …This high voltage creates a hot plasma arc between two conductive contacts that can be used to ignite flammable materials

    • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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      4 months ago

      Black powder, model rocket igniters, and ball bearings shoved into a piece of threaded pipe that’s capped on one end. You can build one of these in less than 30 minutes.

      Hardest thing to get in Japan would probably be the black powder and it’s completely possible to manufacture that yourself. Everything else comes from the plumbing aisle of a DIY store and a model rocket shop.