TV Guns on Battlestar:Galactica
The Sci Fi Channel has been showing the new Battlestar:Galactica series. Some of the guns shown are either non-functioning props or existing handguns with extra crap bolted on to disguise their pedestrian nature. A good example of this are the sidearms that the pilots use while on a mission. They appear to fire some sort of armor piercing high explosive round that's fully capable of taking down a Cylon battle driod. (All photos from the series courtesy of GateWorld.net.)
However, not all the firearms used are examples of the prop sculptor's art. The majority of the guns shown are actual present day firearms, although ones that are chosen for their exotic profiles.
In a recent episode entitled "Kobol's Last Gleaming", one of the characters attempts a suicide using a small sidearm. As you look at the picture below, please note how curved the frame is under tha barrel. It actually resembles a dolphin's lower jaw. There also seems to be something wrong with the front of the trigger guard, like there a slide or switch attached.
The gun that was used was a Vector CP-1, which was a crappy South African handgun that was designed to look like a ray gun from Star Trek. The safety was a slide set into the front of the trigger guard, so you could push the safety off with your index finger while drawing the gun. It was chambered for the 9mm Parabellum, and according to this webpage it would often fire if it was dropped. Compare the pic below with the previous.
The same gun was used as a terrorist's handgun in an episode entitled "Bastille Day". In the scene pictured below, the hero disarms the terrorist and turns the gun on it's former owner. Zoom in close and you can see the odd safety sticking off the front of the trigger guard.
There were a few other handguns shown in the series so far, but they all seem to be Makarovs, which are cheap Soviet-era guns that were issued to officers. A pic is below.
Every so often, the camera will pan past some armored Marines standing watch in the corridors. These guys are always carrying long guns of some sort, but I haven't been able to get a good enough look at them to tell what they are.
In "Bastille Day", a commando boards a prison ship to put down an inmate revolt. They did show the assault rifles that the Marines were carrying, but there was so much stuff clipped to them that I couldn't tell for sure what they were. A pic is below in case you have better luck than I did.
So there you have it. I'll let you know if I can get a better look at some of the gear they have.
