Deckards Blaster resin printed grips

[falcon dude]

So Im getting back into replioca props after a very long time. My last build, a very long time ago was this one:

FULL METAL hero Pulse Rifle - nope, no droop here!

So after a VERY long time of collecting parts, and with a lot of help from Matsuo, my full metal PR is finally (almost) done. Only thing left to do is cut the base off of the HCG mag and attach it to my real Thompson mag, then hook up the wires for the counter. I might put in some wooden grips...

www.therpf.com

which I sadly no longer own (gonna have to make another one!).

Anywho, I have a nice 12k resin printer and I need to print the amber grips for the blaster. I have clear Sirayatech resin but I guess Ill have to dye it amber. Has anyone ever done this and can point me in the right direction?

 

[dcast]

the Anders Blade runner blaster has some nice grips... for example...

Just be mindful of your grip orientation when printing and penetration level of your supports. You'll have to sand them to smooth them out, and give them a nice clear coat to bring the out the luster in them.

PKD-2019 Blade Runner blaster. by AndersFP

I have printed at 0.2 layer height for the most part. The small parts (triggers and switches) ar printed at 0.05 layer height to get all the detail.Version history:1.01:Unfortunately I discovered a problem with the clip - I made the "on/off box" too big, so the switch lever did not protrude far...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[falcon dude]

Yup, those are the grips Im printing

 

[Starganderfish]

I printed mine about 12 months ago on a 2K Mars 2. Worked great.
Get yourself a magnetic flex-plate and you can print them flat on the plate - no supports required, no cleanup or sanding required.
I did them twice because I wasn't happy with the first set.
First time I used standard Anycubic Clear resin which I dyed with a few drops of Tamiya X-26 Clear Orange acrylic paint.

Unfortunately, clear resins can be quite prone to yellowing from UV light, and Anycubic is particularly bad and can verge towards a brownish "burnt" look. I found that the brownish-yellowing combined with the orange clear paint, gave the grips a dull, more brownish appearance.
I swapped over to Nova3D High Transparency resin which is specialised for ultra clarity and resistance to yellowing. Combined with the Tamiya Clear Orange, it was night and day compared to regular resins.

Just check the Nova3D site for layer times - I vaguely recall layer times were actually really high - 3.5-4 seconds or so, which is crazy on a mono printer.

I was super happy with the result... sadly, the parts have sat in a drawer in my garage for 12 months. It's on hold till we move house and I can have a larger workshop with room to begin experimenting with electroplating. I hope to electroplate this and a Hellboy Good Samaritan, as well as a growing pile of other prints.

 

[falcon dude]

Thanks Starganderfish. I didnt know you could add tamiya paints to the resin. The Siraya Tech clear resin is supposedly very good and doest yellow over time. How do your grips look IRL? Is the color prettyh much like they look in the pictures?

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[Starganderfish]

Thanks Starganderfish. I didnt know you could add tamiya paints to the resin. The Siraya Tech clear resin is supposedly very good and doest yellow over time. How do your grips look IRL? Is the color prettyh much like they look in the pictures?

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No worries. You can add almost any colour to resin - it's such small quantities it doesn't really affect the printing, Liquid food colour, pen ink, highlighter ink, powdered pigment (though they're really hard to get well dispersed and tend to settle out over the course of a print). Just be aware that opaque paint will make even clear resins opaque, so try and use translucent colours for clears. Also, colouring clear resin is a lot easier than colouring coloured/opaque resins because the pigment in the resin itself really dilutes and washes out the colours.
They pretty much look like that in real life - a nice clean clear amber. Hit them with a UV protective gloss clear coat after curing and you'll get a really nice glossy clear finish.

 

[falcon dude]

Is it just me or does the color of the original grips look more like whiskey than amber? Whenever I look at those grips I can almost smell the whiskey.

 

[Starganderfish]

Is it just me or does the color of the original grips look more like whiskey than amber? Whenever I look at those grips I can almost smell the whiskey.

I think it's because the middle layer sandwiched between the two orange grips is metal, rather than orange plastic. This makes the colour quite a bit darker after assembly. You can see it in the pics from Paragon's when theirs is disassembled: