SW Captain Typho blaster replica prototype showoff

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Hi folks,

just a few weeks before the premiere of Episode III I had started to work on the 3D-model of Captain Typhos blaster to have it printed out, so that I had a blaster to go with my costume. And what can I say, I didn´t finish the model until a few weeks ago.

I had it with me at Celebration Europe, and a very small and select group of RPF members got an exclusive look at it, and the response was quite encouraging to go on and finish the project

Anyway, here´s a series of pics of the still raw 3D-printout. The raw model will be cast in resin in the next few weeks, and the cast (done by OdiWan72) will then be cleaned up i.e. smoothed out by me, since the 3D-printer left a few visible ridges on the model due to the print out resolution of 0,20-0,70 mm´s. The scope has not been attached in the pics, due to laziness of the photographer (thanks again, Markus ). The metal parts like the scope and the pin thingie in the front will be exchanged with turned aluminium parts, the still molded screws will be replaced with real screws once the correct ones are found.
The uniform dark black paint scheme was just done in a hurry (I had received the blaster parts just veeery shortly before leaving for London, so the hotel´s parking lot had to act as a spraying booth )

Comments are welcome ! The first pic is one of the reference pics I used.

Michael

 

[mgoob]

Looks good so far.

Interested to see how it turns out w/ all the metal bits.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Looks good so far.

Interested to see how it turns out w/ all the metal bits.

Thanks, the metal bits are not that much of a challenge. The smoothing out will be a bit more work. The prototype´s edges are intentionally sharper than on the original prop, so that a possible softening of some of the contours is not that much of a problem.

At the moment the blaster looks like a scaled up version of the one that came with the Captain Typho action figure, especially with the all-black and silver paint job.

Michael

 

[JOATRASH FX]

That's a pretty decent looking printout there. Care to say who did the 3D-printing? (I'm still thinking of going the rapid proto-route with my Firefly Early pistol.)

 

[jakob2121]

It's also the blaster that came with the Jorg Sacul action figure from CII.

 

[reaper63]

and it's one of my favorites!!! very cool!!!

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

That's a pretty decent looking printout there. Care to say who did the 3D-printing? (I'm still thinking of going the rapid proto-route with my Firefly Early pistol.)

Hey Joa, and Reaper,thanks.

It´s an austrian company that did the printout, with you being in Sweden maybe a company like www.protech.se would be better to suit your needs regarding communication and data-exchange, although they do ship internationally. The guy I work with in Austria uses the same 3D-program as I do, Maxon Cinema4D, which made it really easy for me to send him the original 3D-data, without the need to convert the model into the stl-format or something similarly error prone format. Otherwise I´d probably have used someone closer to my place in Germany. If you want to get a quote from him, the website is www.protozone.at .

@Jakob2121 : Damn, I´m way too much out of the new action figure loop. It´s funny that not too many people seem to recognize the blaster or like it, and I don´t think that marketing it as the Jorg Sacul blaster would help with that :lol

Michael

 

[JOATRASH FX]

Thanks for the tip Michael. I've actually been in contact with Protech (at least I think it was them) but RP is Sweden seems to be horribly expensive. There aren't that many companies here that do it and I've gotten quotes that are close to double what it would cost in the US.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Thanks for the tip Michael. I've actually been in contact with Protech (at least I think it was them) but RP is Sweden seems to be horribly expensive. There aren't that many companies here that do it and I've gotten quotes that are close to double what it would cost in the US.

Then definitely give Thomas at Protozone a call !

And regarding the quotes, did you calculate customs and shipping cost, not to mention the regional taxes that might apply ? This usually can lead to quotes that look good, but if you add the sums up, the difference melts away. But still, protozone are really cost effective and fast, I got a quote in a day, and the model within a week.

Michael

 

[Ham Solo]

Lookin' good!

That's the first one of those I've seen made.

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Lookin' good!

That's the first one of those I've seen made.

Thanks !

And yes, it definitely is the first replica, I too haven´t seen any others before.

That might be because of the Captain Typho character not being that popular, and that the parts that the blaster consists of have not been identified, although there have been attempts at doing so. I believe that it is not completely scratch built, but still, no idea what the original parts were. So I opted for a different way at replicating the blaster.
To my knowledge I am up ´til now the only one who attempted a Captain Typho costume, too.

Not too accurate, still a lot to change and be desired. Really sad, but the blaster took most of my free time that I had allocated for props and costume building over the last two years :lol I have to admit, the accuracy that I strived to achieve through making a 3D-model and having it printed out was only one aspect that appealed to me in doing so, the other aspect was the "clean working", i.e. only pushing the mouse around a bit and being to work in the living room on my laptop, not having to set up a real work place But then again, the cleanup work demands a proper work area, so the clean part of my prop work is gone. Maybe that was why the project took me so long...

Michael

 

[wuher da brewer]

Very cool. I'm excited and eager to see it completed.

 

[superjedi]

Really nice work! That is certainly an unusual replica.

And yes, we all know that Markus is "lazy" when it comes to props. :lol

Just kidding, Markus!! :cool

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Really nice work! That is certainly an unusual replica.

And yes, we all know that Markus is "lazy" when it comes to props. :lol
...

Yeah, definitely ! :lol

Nah, at Celebration Europe we were sitting in our hotel room and drilling the holes for the screws into the various proto parts, since I had no time to do so before arriving in London. And not to mention the four hours we spent in London´s city searching for a hardware store that carries fitting screws and spray paint, tired, sweaty, feet already aching, the air not being the best (nothing like London city air to keep those nostrils a nice dark grey inside). To add to all the to-do-stuff, cheap me didn´t bring an electro drill so we had to drill the holes with the drill bit alone, and bare hands ! Welcome to the 21st century my hairy b*** ! Aaand of course we had to find a book store that carried the SW Vis Dic, since I also did not bring any reference pics of how the parts go together correctly and I was too cheap to get an autograph at Jay Lagaaia´s booth . Lest to forget the psychological stress that I caused him, since I had the feeling that I might have miscalculated the size of the blaster, since it looked kind of big in my hand. But I checked again after we got home, and I am proud to say that the difference to the original prop is probably in the range of around 2%, which I hope you all agree on is really okay.

Michael

 

[mgoob]

did this die?

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

did this die?

Oops, just saw the reply from Mgoob. I haven´t found any time at all to work on the blaster, and with the mold maker buyin´ a new house and hence having no time to do any molding until march work is postponed on this project. But I feel the urge to pic this project up, since the German JediCon is only 3 months away :love

Michael

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Very cool! I think this is the first prop I've seen that used 3D printing.

BTW, for those in the U.S. www.printapart.com is supposed to be pretty good.

 

[mgoob]

Yes, I've heard of the new house slowing things down for us prop guys

Still looking forward to a neat blaster.