TOS Phaser I (midgrade)

Shipbrook

Active Member
I'm working on a hero version of the phaser for 3D printing, and to give myself a break from tweaking the innards, I fused the parts to make a solid body (but leaving the "metal" bits separate for ease of painting) for a midgrade version. Then I further tweaked the midgrade to produce the fairly plain version from the early episodes of season 1.

TOS Phaser I - Midgrade 02.jpgTOS Phaser I - Midgrade 03.jpgTOS Phaser I - Midgrade 01.jpg

I modeled it in Blender, working from the photos in The Making of Star Trek (which very helpfully included rulers), as well as numerous HD screencaps from tos.trekcore.com.

After printing (Ultimaker 2, using ColorFabb black PLA), I coated the bodies in Smooth-On XTC 3D (which, alas, completely filled in the grooves I'd put in to simulate the removable bottom cover), sanded down any remaining imperfections using a progression of grits from 120 through 2000 (including the whole body on the 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 passes so the whole surface would be uniform), primed, and painted.

The bodies got Vallejo Black (early version) and German Grey (later version), then a coat of Alclad II Klear Kote Light Sheen; the "metal" bits first got a base of Alclad II Gloss Black, then Alclad II Polished Brass (for the emitter) and Airframe Aluminum (everything else). After they'd all dried, I glued the "metal" bits onto the bodies.

The gauge cover on the later-model phaser was cut out from a chunk of 19mm (3/4") clear acrylic rod, and the "power indicator" is an Esslinger jeweled dustproof watch crown refill (4.5mm, Tap 10, Yellow w/ Blue). For the bright silver button seen on the bottom in some episodes (e.g. "Assignment: Earth"), I used a neodymium magnet, which will be very handy for holding it onto a display board on my wall.

STLs are available at Thingiverse, if anyone wants them.
 
Okay, I've now added a hollow version of the later variant which passes all the Shapeways checks for the plastic materials they currently offer.
 
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