3D printed Half Life: Alyx pistol

[TimDRX]

Hey all, currently 3D printing this lovely looking weapon from HL: Alyx. I've only ever previously printed and painted stuff, so I'm looking to develop some new skills with this build. I really want to work some electronics in, but have no idea where to start!

The model has the pistol's grip hollowed out, there's plenty of room to stuff LEDs and a battery in there. In game these lights turn off in sequence as bullets are fired, to act as an ammo counter and turn red when empty - is there any practical way I could replicate that on this model? Any recommendations for LED hardware to use here? Cheers!

 

[JGwinner]

I'd love a working shotgun - need one for the house anyway

Where did you get the STL files for it?

The best way to do the LED's would probably be to use a prop Teensy - it could also do some audio, although the deep notes BANG are going to be hard to do.
I'd think with this model, use of sheet metal would be good. You could get a small sheet metal break from HF, might be OK at bending the plates, with an inner PETG 'frame' to hold it to the rest of the pistol.

I have a 1911 from Rock Island - a set of pistol grips and some bolt on parts would be pretty rad

== John ==

 

[TimDRX]

I'd love a working shotgun - need one for the house anyway

Where did you get the STL files for it?

The best way to do the LED's would probably be to use a prop Teensy - it could also do some audio, although the deep notes BANG are going to be hard to do.
I'd think with this model, use of sheet metal would be good. You could get a small sheet metal break from HF, might be OK at bending the plates, with an inner PETG 'frame' to hold it to the rest of the pistol.

I have a 1911 from Rock Island - a set of pistol grips and some bolt on parts would be pretty rad

== John ==

The STL is from Dream of Props on Etsy;

This item is unavailable - Etsy

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www.etsy.com

The seller has models of all sorts of sci fi weapons, plenty of tempting stuff there...

It doesn't have moving parts out of the box, the trigger is part of the body model, and I'm not entirely sure I want to change that - it's surprisingly sturdy!

Unfortunately the project is on pause for a few weeks as it's too cold to print, getting too much warping.

I did acquire some neat luminescent paint though - think it'll do nicely for the glowing "Combine energy" parts. ;D

 

[AlanJames1987]

Hey TimDRX did you ever finish your build?

I just finished my build of the same model from that seller. I didn't add any LEDs for the first build and as you said it has no moving parts.

I'm starting a second build soon to build it all around a working air soft gun. However, I noticed that the base gun in the game doesn't match any purchasable gun in real life. Specifically the trigger not touching the trigger guard can't be found in any model of gun that also matches other details (the style of hammer, the grip area on the slide, the style of handle). It looks like Valve invented their own base gun for this game.

Enjoy these pictures and if you want any from the build process I can post those too.

 

[AlanJames1987]

I actually just found out that the name of having a trigger like that is a "double action" gun. The trigger both pulls the hammer back and fires it. From what I can tell there are no 1911 guns that are double action, so the base gun doesn't exist in reality.

 

[Mozzie]

I actually just found out that the name of having a trigger like that is a "double action" gun. The trigger both pulls the hammer back and fires it. From what I can tell there are no 1911 guns that are double action, so the base gun doesn't exist in reality.

I think what we are looking for is a Para-Ordnance LDA
Don't know if there are any airsoft versions

 

[AlanJames1987]

That does look exactly like what we are looking for. Now that I know the name I can start looking around.

I ended up getting this airsoft gun, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZLCD8TY

Unfortunately, I have to repaint it but the paint it coming out pretty well.