{"id":13,"date":"2022-12-04T05:27:07","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/?p=13"},"modified":"2023-06-03T16:23:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T16:23:09","slug":"3d-printed-retro-raygun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/?p=13","title":{"rendered":"3D Printed Retro Raygun"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I can\u2019t help it, I just have a thing for rayguns. I got frustrated by not owning one a while ago, and I figured the fastest solution was to make one myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went for a once-slick-retro-future sort of look. My initial idea was to build a gun with lights and buttons and sounds and so on. The design, therefore, was done envisioning how LEDs and switches would fit in it. Rather than make design mistakes on a full-featured item, I chose to build a non-functioning model and make mistakes at it instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sketched dozens of rayguns, wore out some pens, and mocked up a few in clay to get the scale right. Next I CAD\u2019d it in the number prophet. Like practically every design, I had to start over a few times as I figured out how to construct what I wanted. This design had some tough parts for a solid modeling program, especially where the handle transitions into the trigger guard and back into itself. Apparently my Sketching Self had it out for my CADing Self.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"sketches\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the end, there were odd artifacts in the model that were easier to fix with body filler than in CAD, so both designing Selves teamed up against my Not Wanting a Fume Headache Self. (Note: the author highly suggests one always wear a badass respirator when working with nasty compounds.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"filled-in<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I printed the gun in two halves on the smooth glass plate of an Ultimaker 2. Then I glued them together with acrylic cement, which may have worked perfectly for all my memory is worth. If not, then maybe I used superglue? Either way, the PLA printed beautifully without any warp. Under a sunny window, however, the daystar wreaked its uncaring wrath, and there was significant warp. The thin point of the fin split apart and had to be filled in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"split<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After gluing together the two halves, I sanded, Bondo\u2019d, spackled, sanded, primered, sanded, spackled, primered, sanded, primered, spackled, sanded, wept, sanded, etc. until beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was my first attempt at realish prop painting and weathering. (I did do a little model painting in college, but it was far less interesting). Getting a shiny, even coat of paint was probably the hardest part of the whole process. One thing I learned (and there were a few) is that dry brushing is awesome. For all the aggravating and tedious parts of the process, dry brushing has an instant satisfaction that was a godsend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I made it for myself, I worked on it exactly as long as it took to feel done. And I\u2019m pretty proud of the final piece. But I already have a list of methods to try next time, and of ways to make it cooler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"model<\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How I made a prop raygun in 42 easy steps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[4,3,6,5],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-model-making","tag-3d-printing","tag-prop","tag-raygun","tag-sci-fi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_4692.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions\/23"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samtastic.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}