Star Lord Quad Blasters

I figured I'd hop on the Guardians of the Galaxy bandwagon and try my hand at some new space guns.

Like a lot of my projects, this one will be modeled and printed, because I'm addicted to the marvels of modern science.

I know there are a couple models out there, but none of them had all the details that I wanted, so I decided to make my own from scratch. Luckily, Marvel put some of the screen-used props out on display, so there a ton of good reference pics that show some of the overlooked details.
For example, the cutouts on top of the gun with the metal mesh inside them, and the inner front heatsink, as seen in this pic:


Anywho, after a few days of modeling, this is what I've got so far:


Each part is a separate body, with 16 total parts to be printed and cast. This might be the most complex piece I've built to date.
As you can see, the lower rear section is still missing the little bolt holders that attach to the bottom of the grip, but that's next on the list of parts to finish (with the grip to follow, because that flange is going to be tricky to model).

The plan is for the laser tubes, knobs, forward sections, and "heatsinks"/shrouds to be buffable cold-cast metal, with everything else being normal resin.



...but wait, there's more! Since I've already finalized a few of the parts, I've gone ahead and printed them:




They were printed at .1mm layer height to maximize accuracy and minimize the amount of sanding to clean them up.

After the time-honored tradition of filling, sanding, filling, sanding, filling, sanding (did I mention sanding?), and buffing, the grain is completely gone.

Here's what's done so far:



The laser housing fits perfectly into the top half of the gun to hold the front heat shield thingy in place over the heatsink, but there's no way I'm going to risk marring my beautiful polishing job for a photo before it's molded!
I had to do some fine-tuning with the model to get the tiny rings on the laser tubes to come out right, but it was worth it. With some more wet sanding and further polishing, they should have a fairly reflective shiny finish.

I'm hoping to have the prints finished by the end of the week, then comes the fun part...
Stay tuned, more updates to come!

Excellent job so far!

I'll be honest, having done the nerf gun thing, I think this is the way to go. Also, high five fellow M2 buddy! What support settings are you using on the end of that barrel? They look a lot more dense than I usually go for with Simplify3d, but it's obviously working for you.

Any chance you'll be sharing these files?

Also a quick word of advice. If you're planning on cold-casting, mold those parts separate from anything not being cold-cast. I made the mistake of molding the upper section and lower section in one solid piece, which made for a terrible time trying to cold-cast.

Ein said:

What support settings are you using on the end of that barrel? They look a lot more dense than I usually go for with Simplify3d, but it's obviously working for you.

Any chance you'll be sharing these files?

Click to expand...

I used 50% support just because I didn't want to bother with a ton of filling for the front face.
I might release the files on thingiverse once I sell enough casts to recoup the design/casting costs.

Kevin Gossett said:

Also a quick word of advice. If you're planning on cold-casting, mold those parts separate from anything not being cold-cast. I made the mistake of molding the upper section and lower section in one solid piece, which made for a terrible time trying to cold-cast.

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm avoiding. There are 16 parts total to print, and about half of them will be cold-cast, so they're all being molded separately.

Great job! Would be interested to know how much a kit would cost?

OOOoooooo..... wow........nice work. keep going! I think I read somewhere that the blu-ray will be released 1st or 2nd week of December! Then we'll all have better shots of EVERYTHING!

Got a few more parts finished tonight:
(cell phone pic because I forgot my camera)


Now all that's left is the grips and the back ends of the laser tubes, which are both almost done. Hopefully the masters will be completely finished and ready for molding this weekend!

adamsbio said:

Great job! Would be interested to know how much a kit would cost?

Click to expand...

It's looking like about 130 for a normal resin kit, 145 for buffable cold-cast kits (MAYBE LESS, depending on materials cost)
I'm also looking at offering carbon fiber vinyl wrap or hydrographic dipping for the grips (since it's pretty apparent that the screen-used pieces were hydrodipped), but that depends on whether I can find a good source.

I'll start an official project run thread this weekend when I finish both grips!

sounds good!

Hell yeah, that sounds reasonable!

For one or two?

Nice Work, they look Great so far...!

Modeling on the grip is done!
I'm still not as good with organic modeling as I'd like to be, but this will be a good base to hand-sculpt some of the fine fillets and raised edges onto.

By just eyeballing it, it looks like the grip flange has the right contour. After the test print finishes, I'll know.

Here's what the whole gun looks like so far (minus the two laser emitter greeblies inside the top laser shroud):


I've already started molding all the small bits. Tomorrow I'll be boxing and claying up all the large pieces, assuming I have enough clay.


Side note: there's one more detail I haven't seen brought up. On the back of the top purple piece, there's a tiny switch:

I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the gun's safety switch, or if it was put there for production purposes to control reference LEDs or something. Based on the close-up shots from the pieces on display, the trigger is a separate piece from the grip, so maybe the originals did light up?

I am in awe.

I've always thought that was a screw to help secure the grip to the top section.

Your right Kevin the hole on the top of the grip (circled in green) is probably a screw for connecting the grip, but I think he is talking about the thing (circled in red) on the bottom of the top piece of the gun.

Ah! Totally didn't see that.

I've been REALLY busy today..(yesterday? last night? I need sleep)


I'll probably have to get more silicone to finish the last couple of molds, but the first few tests came out pretty well:


I'm excited to see how the big pieces turn out!

looking good!.......i'll keep an eye out for your interest thread.......

I've seen the masters in person, they are gorgeous. This is THE blaster to get for anyone doing a Star Lord costume.

Also STOP using Oomoo! I have a thing of Mold Max 30 if you need to borrow some.