Rat King Exotic Sidearm- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

Sorenzo

Well-Known Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
It's been a long while since I did a build thread here, so I thought i might share our latest commission with you all.

We were approached in October to make the Rat King Exotic Sidearm from Destiny 2. I have loved the look of this gun since I first saw it before the game was released, so I jumped at the chance to make it.

How to Obtain the Rat King's Crew Exotic Hand Cannon in Destiny 2.jpg
This piece was displayed at E3 this year.


Obviously I knew it was going to be a challenge, particularly with the level of detail in the barrel section, but I've been working with a very talented 3D Artist by the name of Glen Johnston on a couple of other projects my studio has been working on this year and I knew that this would be the project that he could really show his ability!
You can see some of Glen's previous work HERE

He uses Blender, which for a completely free and open source software package is unbelievably good, as you will see in the following posts.


22292462_1460525450662239_1320095378_o (Small).png

He started out by sculpting a simple Rat form, working from reference pictures of the actual design and real rats.

22292259_1461296727251778_328988139_o (Small).png

Once he was happy with the sculpt he started retopology to clean up the mesh. Once this was finished he through on a simple rig to make it posable.



RK_1 (Small).png

From there it was a matter of moving the limbs into position. Once he was happy, the rat was mirrored to create the other side of the barrel and then he copied and repeated the process until he had 6 posed rats. After this further sculpting was required to adjusted the pose, add details back that was lost in retopology and add the fur.
 
Last edited:
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

RK_3.png

Here we can see the rats being positioned together along side the rat skull which was drawn separately then scaled and position to match.

RK_4.png

At this point the positions of the rats was more or less locked in place, with just a few minor adjustments required after the addition of the body of the barrel that they sit within. Glen then set about sculpting in the finer details of the fur and the chiselled rock texture.

Comp 1 (0-00-00-00).png
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

RK_7.png

The next stage was to tackle the Handle section and the magazine. This was all pretty straight forward modelling to be honest, the only complexity was adding the texture elements.

RK_9.png RK_10.png RK_13.png RK_12.png
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

At this point in the process it was very much a matter of sorting out the smaller details.

I used our in house Ultimaker 3D printers to do test prints of sections of the pieces, primarily to test it for scale but also to explore how the parts would be connected.

23163815_10214771475780655_1591751068_n.jpg

We end up settling on a simple enough tongue and grove solution as it lended itself best to the molding process that I had planned for each part. I'm hoping that it can be molded without the need of a seamline.

23432591_1489353464446104_1390905152_o.png

23433074_1489353467779437_1788244317_o.png
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

The level of detail on this piece is quite intense, in fact our CG guy said it was the most polygons he's ever had in a model! We had always intended to have it printed off site by a stereolithography printing specialist, but this was going to be expensive and take time. We end up using Materialise to do the printing, the lead time was 7 days, which wasn't as bad as we expected.

In the down time I decided to print a full sized version on the Ultimaker to use to prepare for the molding.

20171115_094200.jpg 20171115_161552.jpg 20171115_170153.jpg


I was blown away by the level of detail that the Ultimaker achieved, obviously there was quite a bit of support structure to be removed, but after it was I coated it with some primer.
If an FDM machine can do this the SLA prints should be next level!!

20171115_171626.jpg 20171115_173142.jpg 20171115_173214.jpg
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

I knew the barrel and magazine would be simple dump pour molds, for the first mold anyway. (I very well may make more molds, to speed up productivity)


I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how I could mold the handle section without any seem lines. The handle has a beautiful ribbon wrap pattern on it, a seam line along that would not be ideal.

I'm hoping that I can do a 2 part mold with the pour coming in from the top, the split along the top surface of the handle section and a core running from the top piece, through the cavity of the handle registering with the main body of the mold.

I built a box of of MDF with a large section to fill up the void. I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to get it level positioned even within the box using spacers and clay.

20171120_135908.jpg 20171120_140654.jpg



I figured the this method wouldn't be the easiest to free a casting from, but I was pretty confident that it would come free, with a bit of a struggle once the resin has been fully cured.

The biggest concern was the silicone getting locked in the trigger cavity, but I came up with a solution for that.

The shape created by the hollow of the trigger is conveniently a perfect circle. I simple cut a disc of 0.5mm styrene and attached it to the body.

20171120_143341.jpg

This will prevent the silicone from bonding to itself and locking the piece in place, but also give me a nice clean casting with minimal clean up, I HOPE :D
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

This looks great so far. I don't know if you're making a version specifically based on the first picture you linked, but the magazine doesn't stick out like that in the actual game.
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

This looks great so far. I don't know if you're making a version specifically based on the first picture you linked, but the magazine doesn't stick out like that in the actual game.

Yes, This has been a hot debate in my studio. The mag doesn't not stick out in the game, but the gun commissioned and displayed by Bungie has this beautifully designed mag, so we decided to make it.

It's now a matter of personal preference, if you like the mag it can be made to stick out the bottom, or even removable with magnets, if you don't, you can just cut it short and have it flush with the body.
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

Yes, This has been a hot debate in my studio. The mag doesn't not stick out in the game, but the gun commissioned and displayed by Bungie has this beautifully designed mag, so we decided to make it.

It's now a matter of personal preference, if you like the mag it can be made to stick out the bottom, or even removable with magnets, if you don't, you can just cut it short and have it flush with the body.

I found this concept done by Adrian Majkrzak whose resume on Art Station lists him as a Senior Concept Artist for Bungie working on Destiny 2, so it seems like the designers original intent was to have it sticking out. Obviously that changed somewhere between the concept art and the development team who implemented the gun.

I think your build is coming along great and this is easily my favorite looking exotic in the game so far. :thumbsup

adrian-majkrzak-am-destiny2-ratking.jpg
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

I found this concept done by Adrian Majkrzak whose resume on Art Station lists him as a Senior Concept Artist for Bungie working on Destiny 2, so it seems like the designers original intent was to have it sticking out. Obviously that changed somewhere between the concept art and the development team who implemented the gun.

I think your build is coming along great and this is easily my favorite looking exotic in the game so far. :thumbsup

View attachment 775411

Oh wow, I've not seen this concept before, thanks for sharing. I'm sure my CG guy will really appreciate this.

Thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying the build so far.
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

We got the prints back and were simply blown away by the results!!!

Rat King Kit 1 (Medium).jpg Rat King Kit 7 (Medium).jpg


View attachment 775984



They were printed by Materialise here in the UK on their Big Frame High Definition Stereolithography machines using the Somos Xtreme material.
The resolution is incredible, we went straight to molding with ZERO prep!

Rat King Kit 2 (Medium).jpg Rat King Kit 5 (Medium).jpg
Rat King Kit 3 (Medium).jpg Rat King Kit 6 (Medium).jpg


View attachment 775985 View attachment 775986 View attachment 775987 View attachment 775988

The resolution is incredible, the barrel was flawless, so we went straight to molding with ZERO prep!

The only sign of obvious build lines was on the flat parts of the handle, which was a pleasant surprise. I was still uncertain as to whether the molding technique I was going to try would actually work, so for the sake of getting a pull out quickly I decided to just poured the silicone, I figured I will be making more than one mold in the future and can always sand out the build lines on and the castings and the master for a subsequent mold.

Rat King Kit 1 (Medium).jpg


Rat King Kit 7 (Medium).jpg


Rat King Kit 2 (Medium).jpg


Rat King Kit 5 (Medium).jpg


Rat King Kit 3 (Medium).jpg


Rat King Kit 6 (Medium).jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

Holy smokes! thats a print! amazing...
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

Holy smokes! thats a print! amazing...

Yeah, it was heavy expensive, but worth every penny!

- - - Updated - - -

So December came and went in a blur, guess it's time to update this thread seeing as the project is now completed :D
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

As I suggested earlier, i want to avoid sanding away split lines in the casting as much as humanly possible. For the Mag and the Barrel section, I used simple dump pour box molds using Mold Max 30 from Smooth On.


The Barrel was stuck in place and the using an adjustable mold box I quickly had it covered in silicone. This is a 24 hour cure, so plenty of time for air to escape from those minute details of the sculpt.

20171120_174733.jpg 20171120_221759.jpg


The magazine was mounted upright using some non-sulphur clay and then a quick box was built around it using some foamex. Didn't take a picture of the box because, well, it was a bit boring really :D

20171120_181852.jpg
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

Molding the handle was a little more complex, but I had a plan and I stuck with it.

The initial idea was to make it in 2 parts, one section would be formed along the top face of the part with a core that would run down the cavity for the magazine.
The second part would be one solid piece, I knew this was ambitions and that freeing the master and subsequent parts would be difficult, but figured at worst I could slice the mold open to assist releasing the part.

I wrapped the master in tape and used clay to get it lined up evenly in the box. I clayed right up to the top surface

20171120_144353.jpg20171120_145751.jpg20171120_152116.jpg

Registration keys were added to the clay and some pour spots made of clay.

20171120_172438.jpg20171120_172444.jpg

The final step was to position a aluminium rod down the centre of the magazine cavity, I figured this would help keep the core in place, but would also allow me to ensure the core had registered correctly to the main mold.

20171120_172823.jpg
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

The top was poured with Mold Max 40 from Smooth On, this has been my go-to silicone for the vast majority of my work.

he 24 hour cure time means I rarely run into problems with bubbles of trapped air and I've learned to schedule when I pour to last thing before I leave for the night so it's ready fro demolding the next day.

Once the first pour was cured I opened up the mold box and started to clear away the clay.

20171121_132600.jpg 20171121_132901.jpg 20171121_133951.jpg

Once it was all cleaned It was re-inserted into the mold box and closed up ready for the second pour. You can see from the last image the reg keys in the core section, this along with the aluminium rod should ensure the piece line up.

20171121_134530.jpg 20171121_135659.jpg 20171121_135802.jpg
 
Re: Rat King Exotic Hand Cannon- Destiny 2 - Prop Replica Build Thread

Despite trying everything, a number of pictures keep uploading upside down :/

The second part of the mold is poured from the open underside of the box. There were some bleed holes drilled into the MDF space saver. I deliberately did not add mold release to this section so that the silicone would bond into the fluffy surface, giving the mold some support and also saving a bit of time with the opening/closing of the mold box.

20171121_143511 - Copy.jpg 20171122_135112.jpg

The mold came out perfect. Releasing the master was a struggle due to the overhung section at the bottom of the handle. I pulled about 4 or five copies before I started to notice some damage to this section which prompted me to re-think the design and create Ver 2.0 of the mold.


20171122_135244.jpg20171122_140342.jpg20171122_140350.jpg
 
Last edited:
Before I go into Ver 2.0 of the mold, here are some of the first castings pulled. The only areas of concern were the teeth of the rat skull and the mouths of 2 of the rats on the barrel, it didn't take long to work out the kinks and subsequent castings were just about perfect.

The Barrel section was cast using Task 4 for Smooth On as it is perfect for these ultra fine, high detail parts. Only downside is a 16 hour cure time.
The Mag and Handle were cast from Smooth Cast 321 but I may move to SmoothCast 310 in the future as I use it more regularly than the 320 series, it just doesn't like the cold weather as much and it's pretty cold here at the minute.

20171122_200503.jpg20171122_200530.jpg20171123_163907.jpg20171123_163938.jpg
 
This thread is more than 4 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top