I've collected Star Wars props for years but apart from assembling, kit bashing, painting and weathering, I haven't really BUILT much.
So I thought I'd try my hand at a build that is a step up from buying a finished item, or assembling a kit. I know it's still not building anything from scratch, but we're taking baby steps here. My project of choice is the Episode 7 stormtrooper blaster. This will be my first 3D printed prop project.
First off, I want to give a HUGE shout out and thank you to @T5H for the absolutely AMAZING 3D models! This is the most well thought out, organized, and professionally presented product I've seen for 3D printing. He not only has created Super accurate parts, but has done ALL of the hard work in positioning the parts, indicating what needs support, what hardware to use to assemble it and even constructed a very polished and easy to read INSTRUCTION MANUAL with step by step pictures and tips. It even includes files for the decals! I was absolutely astonished at all the hard work that went into this project, and he just offered it up for free! Seriously, thank you so much for this. You are a treasure to the community!
Now, onto the build. I never thought I'd get into 3D printing. Always thought it was cool, but had no knowledge on how it worked, and i always thought it was really expensive to get into. Fast forward to last summer and my Sister-in-law had a cheap 3D printer kit mis-delivered to her house. The company was in china, so for the cost of shipping they weren't interested in having her send it back. Hey, free 3D printer! She gave it to me since she knew I was into projects. But I have to say, for a $200 printer kit that was actually free, this thing prints REALLY WELL! I've seen some $2,000 Filament printers that don't print as well as this cheap piece of junk. I spent some time doing research learning how to really dial it in and I think it helped a ton. Anyway, the printer is an Anycubic Linear-Plus Kossel / Delta style printer. It took about 2 evenings to put together and another few days of tinkering with the settings.
Step 1. Printing out all of the parts. I started with the white parts first. Using T5H's handy instruction manual makes it super simple to know what parts to print in what orientation with what color filament. I'm on the last white part now and then will switch to black, then silver.
My goal is to print every part in the highest quality my printer will allow (.1mm layer thickness) to minimize sanding and cleanup. I'll then use predominantly spot filler primer and fine grain sand paper to get rid of the grow lines (surprisingly they're barely noticeable already, considering how cheap this printer is). and then I think i'll be painting it with spray Appliance lacquer instead of spray paint. I used white spray lacquer to paint another project and it came out super glossy and smooth. I'm hoping it will do the same with this.
Here's a few pictures of the printer and the parts I've printed so far. Stay tuned!
So I thought I'd try my hand at a build that is a step up from buying a finished item, or assembling a kit. I know it's still not building anything from scratch, but we're taking baby steps here. My project of choice is the Episode 7 stormtrooper blaster. This will be my first 3D printed prop project.
First off, I want to give a HUGE shout out and thank you to @T5H for the absolutely AMAZING 3D models! This is the most well thought out, organized, and professionally presented product I've seen for 3D printing. He not only has created Super accurate parts, but has done ALL of the hard work in positioning the parts, indicating what needs support, what hardware to use to assemble it and even constructed a very polished and easy to read INSTRUCTION MANUAL with step by step pictures and tips. It even includes files for the decals! I was absolutely astonished at all the hard work that went into this project, and he just offered it up for free! Seriously, thank you so much for this. You are a treasure to the community!
Now, onto the build. I never thought I'd get into 3D printing. Always thought it was cool, but had no knowledge on how it worked, and i always thought it was really expensive to get into. Fast forward to last summer and my Sister-in-law had a cheap 3D printer kit mis-delivered to her house. The company was in china, so for the cost of shipping they weren't interested in having her send it back. Hey, free 3D printer! She gave it to me since she knew I was into projects. But I have to say, for a $200 printer kit that was actually free, this thing prints REALLY WELL! I've seen some $2,000 Filament printers that don't print as well as this cheap piece of junk. I spent some time doing research learning how to really dial it in and I think it helped a ton. Anyway, the printer is an Anycubic Linear-Plus Kossel / Delta style printer. It took about 2 evenings to put together and another few days of tinkering with the settings.
Step 1. Printing out all of the parts. I started with the white parts first. Using T5H's handy instruction manual makes it super simple to know what parts to print in what orientation with what color filament. I'm on the last white part now and then will switch to black, then silver.
My goal is to print every part in the highest quality my printer will allow (.1mm layer thickness) to minimize sanding and cleanup. I'll then use predominantly spot filler primer and fine grain sand paper to get rid of the grow lines (surprisingly they're barely noticeable already, considering how cheap this printer is). and then I think i'll be painting it with spray Appliance lacquer instead of spray paint. I used white spray lacquer to paint another project and it came out super glossy and smooth. I'm hoping it will do the same with this.
Here's a few pictures of the printer and the parts I've printed so far. Stay tuned!
