Arcane Hextech Railgun Build

[skeplin]

Arcane was the first show in a long time that really inspired me. The story. The animation. The painterly quality. Most of all, the weapons. When the trailer for the second season came out, I was drawn to a single 3 second clip of Caitlyn with some sort of railgun.

When the final episodes of the second season aired, I grabbed as many different screenshots as I could of this beast with the intent to build my own. In the past, I relied on wood, plastic, and foam -- hand cut using methods I had learned from the masters of the craft like Bill Doran and Harrison Krix.

This time however, I decided to model the entire thing in CAD. I watched hours of YouTube videos to learn Fusion360 tricks and techniques. I used as many different reference angles as I could taking screenshot after screenshot. I swear there were scenes designed to show off the model; in one scene they break it down piece by piece to show you how it is supposed to go together. After nearly 60 hours of work over the winter, I finally reached something tangible. And here it is:

The hardest part was trying to design this for 3D printing. After all was said and done, I ended up with 152 individual pieces each with registration points and pegs to ensure it (mostly) went together as planned. While it's not perfect, I am now starting to print and assemble pieces.

I'll post more pictures as I go. Feedback is super appreciated.

 

[skeplin]

After I had modeled the majority of the railgun, I created a scaled PDF so I could print it out to get a feel for it. From that, I realized that some things weren't quite right. The foregrip was too far forward, the stock too long, the handle too thick. I went back into Fusion and re-sized pieces leaving a trail of warnings and errors. I fixed them, but it was a harrowing experience. I felt like I was going to have to restart. (For anyone interested, I've attached a scaled PDF.)

I upgraded my printer game with a Bambu Labs P1S and set to printing. I started with the small pieces that I could get a feel for: the foregrip, handle, and trigger. I printed as many pieces that I could at a time -- then sanding, priming, and sanding until the layer lines disappeared.

The rails had to be printed in three separate parts -- I added tabs in the model to help with alignment.

Throughout this process, I had to go back and redesign or combine pieces to strengthen them. Plastic doesn't act like metal and gravity takes its toll on lightly supported long plastic pieces. The cylinder was originally designed to swing down but without gluing that piece in place, the model was too flimsy to pick up.

I do have scrap piece graveyard of mistakes. Perhaps I can use those for trash bash projects in the future.

 

[Uridium]

Looking fantastic already.... I am eager to follow your progress and see the finished piece.

Have not watched season 2 yet, I really must get to it.

 

[skeplin]

One of the most challenging pieces to the model is what I like to refer to as the "fusion chamber". Notably, the "iris" detail in the middle of the sphere sent me down some CAD modeling holes I had never thought of. I know this isn't a Fusion modeling forum, but let's just say the use of multiple spheres, lofts, and an intersect gave me the final look I was seeking.

It's also worth noting that the skeletal design of this model is inherently weak. You can see the thin connection between the trigger assembly and the fusion chamber and the upper frame and the receiver. I had to beef up the sizes a bit and take some artistic liberties but I think overall it looks close enough.

I designed a primitive moving trigger and used an o-ring to provide the resistance. For a minute I had considered putting a switch in there for lights but opted to build that separately into the cylinder.

Ever so slowly, the pieces rolled off the printer, were primed, sanded, primed, and painted again. It was starting to look like the model on the computer and the paper template I had printed. It is, however, huge. Roughly 45 inches in length. (About the size of a Mauser Type 96 -- I have an airsoft version I used for reference.)

 

[MunsterMahkus]

god this looks beautiful already! cant wait to see more!

 

[skeplin]

I made a mistake. I thought it would be easier to paint each component separately and then assemble. Future projects I'm going to assemble everything, prime, and then using masking for different areas. Painting individual pieces ss working out ok but I'm going to have to go back and do touch-ups. I did spend some time trying to come up with a convincing wood grain texture on the handles. I quite like it.

I've finally started gluing pieces together using two part epoxy. As I mentioned earlier, the structure is somewhat weak so I'm moving slowly to ensure nothing snaps in half.

 

[skeplin]

Assembly continues. I converted a box into a temporary jig to hold everything level while I glued it. I also added a clear acrylic rod to hold the upper and lower pieces of the rails together. Otherwise they flex at this length. Bonus, I redesigned the cylinder with a removable panel so I can add some lights.

 

[skeplin]

When I was building this model in Autodesk Fusion, I noticed a glaring "cheat" in the architecture. In the picture below, you can see a set of four rods that support the panels on the end of the railgun -- they're supposed to extend somehow? Telescoping maybe? Notice the top set of panels -- there are no visible rods to support them. This gave me some heartburn and I had to go back and add some design elements for support since the metal rods would droop over the distance of the "barrel".

Next up -- printing out the scope and hopefully adding some lights.

 

[laellee]

When I was building this model in Autodesk Fusion, I noticed a glaring "cheat" in the architecture. In the picture below, you can see a set of four rods that support the panels on the end of the railgun -- they're supposed to extend somehow? Telescoping maybe? Notice the top set of panels -- there are no visible rods to support them. This gave me some heartburn and I had to go back and add some design elements for support since the metal rods would droop over the distance of the "barrel".

Haha glad somebody else appreciates that. I've modeled quite a few game weapons for print, to say they take 'liberties' with geometry is an understatement. Revolvers with cylinders that could never rotate out in the real world, barrel shrouds that have no way of attaching to match the game, magazines that can't possibly hold the correct ammunition diameters.

Your solution looks great, and with most of this stuff only you and probably 10 other people on earth would catch the detail if you didn't show them

 

[skeplin]

Haha glad somebody else appreciates that. I've modeled quite a few game weapons for print, to say they take 'liberties' with geometry is an understatement. Revolvers with cylinders that could never rotate out in the real world, barrel shrouds that have no way of attaching to match the game, magazines that can't possibly hold the correct ammunition diameters.

Your solution looks great, and with most of this stuff only you and probably 10 other people on earth would catch the detail if you didn't show them

Thanks I really appreciate it!

In one scene, a character strips the rifle down and I watched it over and over again trying to understand how to make it work. Then I remembered a quote from the MST3000 theme song, "...repeat to yourself it's just a show and I should really just relax."

 

[Dogsbody2]

Hope you do Jynx,s Gatling gun next