Lightsabers & Blasters Blaster Building - A WIP

Every Mandalorian needs a weapon or twelve, right? Some might use blades, others blasters. Me, I like my blasters, so I'll be making one or two here with the intention of posting this WIP so others can see how and I can hopefully get feedback, in case someone else has ideas on how to improve. Critiques are always welcome!

That said, let's get into it, starting with the current state of affairs.

Being an owner of a 3D printer, I be relying heavily on it to print parts and components. Most of the files I have were found on Thingverse, which has been a very handy repository of SW prop files ranging from lightsabers to Mandalorian armor. For this first WIP, I am building the blaster pistol used by Cara Dune in The Mandalorian, Season 1, when she and Din first meet and have their scuffle. At one point, they are on the ground, aim at each other, and Grogu is having a drink between them.

The blaster itself is based on a Nambu Type 14, used in WWII mostly by Japanese officers. The prop makers for the show added a flash hider, barrel shroud, and tube-style scope. Seeing as this is meant to be a close-range weapon, however, I want to forego the scope in favor of something more resembling a modern reflex sight.

After firing up the printer, I started with the lower receiver. Unfortunately, the print warped at the base near the back, and somehow received an extra long hand guard, so I had to reprint. Thankfully the second print came out perfect, and I was able to remove the supports from the grip and trigger guard. I should also note I'll be leaving the trigger off this prop so it can't be confused with a real firearm. Safety first!

With the lower done, I began printing the upper receiver/barrel and slide and optics mount. The optics printed fine, but midway through the print, the barrel fell over and ended up in a giant plastic furball. Reprint #2! Second barrel came out fine, and I was able to glue the receivers and the optics together. Then I realized I had forgotten the charging handle...

Coincidentally, I had just gutted an Xbox controller in search of greeblies, and the thumb stick was the perfect size to fit where the charging handle goes, so I saved some PLA and glued it on. It was also at this point I realized I needed to take pictures, so here we go:



You can see the failed lower receiver and barrel keeping the simultaneously-made thermal detonator from rolling right off my desk. For the record, the solid support inside the trigger guard was a pain to pull away, and I've since learned that reducing support infill is a wonderful little tool, when appropriate. Also, while the prints were done in black PLA, everything is a gray color because of sanding. So far, the detonator has gotten a sanding up to 3000 grit for the metal smooth finish, and the blaster has gotten treatment up to 800. Once I reach painting stage, everything will be getting a black basecoat to start, followed by some metallic paint on areas like the barrel and flash hider. The detonator, while they are canonically silver/gray, may get something like a bronze color because sometimes I like gaudy/different things randomly.

 

That's a very good point, actually. I know the cons I've been to have had weapons check stations at the entrance to weed out any real deals, and there are plenty of people I've seen that go orange-tip. I also know the Mando Mercs, which is more or less the standard I'm aiming for, requires pretty thorough weapons photos and reviews to ensure it's non-operational. Nerf guns and airsoft guns are a common starting point for a lot of people, but they basically have to be gutted and made totally nonfunctioning (and that's on top of the extensive modding that needs to be done to make it unrecognizable as a nerf gun...). I hate the idea of marring a paint job with a bright orange flash hider, but you're right, it is a legitimate and unfortunate concern these days. Maybe I can make an orange barrel plug that can be removed for photos, but put in place when I need it to be clearly a prop. A shame the barrel isn't threaded or this issue would be easy...

Also, thank you for the feedback and comments! More will be coming once I manage to get out and buy black primer.

 

No idea which country you reside in, however I know that for most conventions in Canada if any prop resembling a firearm does not have the famous orange tip it will automatically be denied entry. I'm not a member of the Mercs, but our local costume groups all work as one unit for events, so I know that if you attend with a badge acquired through them, you basically skip the whole "weapons check"... however, that's because the SW costume clubs have earned that trust. It'd be a right shame to lose it. If you're sticking to the actual booth, you don't have to worry about the orange tip, but outside of there, I would second Lady B and have something to clearly indicate it's a toy/prop if it's not holstered. Just my two creds, mind you.

Thank you for sharing your process, I'm just starting in the field of 3D printing. It's encouraging to see someone else doesn't get prints done perfectly on the first go. Looking forward to see more progress!

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. For sure, here in America, our firearm laws are much more loose in comparison. Airsoft guns are common and are not regulated outside of the field they're played with on (BB speed, semi-auto vs full auto, etc), and sadly there have been news articles of people getting in trouble for waving fake guns at people and law enforcement in the past.

For my next full post, I plan on having something in the form of a threaded flash hider to add, once the Mando helmet that's printing behind me currently gets done with its 3-day print. On 41 hours and 45 minutes currently . The threads will add a little length to the barrel, but will allow me to print a true orange tip for addition, just like airsoft manufacturers do for replica rifles. Should boost the safety, in addition to the missing trigger, and the barrel has a good spot for me to attach it to.

Also in the plans at some point, I want to make a melee weapon of some sort. That way if blasters aren't an option in a situation, a non-firearm weapon can fit the bill with an obviously fake blade, or just something entirely blunt. This won't be immediate, but will come down the line. Got armor to finish before that, which has already started (for another WIP). Can't have too many irons in the fire just yet.

Edit: @Adalia-Durron your bow actually gives me a very interesting idea for a main weapon! It would be cool to recreate the bow rifle from Rogue One, or something of that nature. It would for sure pass more easily as a prop, in Australia too I bet, and would be different and unique from the other blaster rifles people make as part of their kit. I will explore further...

 

You definitely have it a lot more loose in America regarding this topic

I love the idea of the bow rifle. Makes for a more unique "character". It's one of the things I love about that group, they have a lot of room for creativity and building a unique character. Sounds like you have several ideas already planned out, but I will second @Lady_Belligerent suggestion of the Beskar spear. It's badass and attracts attention (if you're aiming for that). It's also a good social distance maker when it gets too crowded, just saying...

Question regarding your helmet. I imagine you are letting it print in one go with no pausing. How's your printer handling that? Not going to lie, I'm stalling on printing a BD-1 because some parts are 24+ hours and I fear my printer catching fire or something

 

@Fallen-Hero

As far as long prints go, I haven't printed anything past probably 55 hours, but generally you should be able to print around 7 days continuous without too much issue. Past that, you should be giving the printer a break, doing all the preventative maintenance and leveling, etc. Of course, that exact time limit will vary for each device, so you may do some snooping on what others recommend for the specific printer. Personally, I have a Longer LK5 Pro. Not sure if certain systems have forums, but it wouldn't surprise me.

If long prints still worry you, I'd definitely suggest splitting your models. For this helmet, I have it in 6 or 7 pieces. My print bed is technically large enough to do the main shell in one shot, but it would take ages, use a lot of filament, and I don't mind gluing and hitting it with Bondo after. Plus, one piece would possibly make the supports a bit...inconvenient. So for this current print job, it's the face plate only. I did another helmet with half the face and a quarter of the dome, and it did fine, but the sizing didn't work out and got scrapped.

If you are in need of a slicer and splitting program, I personally use Ultimaker Cura for slicing (also great for scaling to different sizes) and Meshmixer for splitting models into bite sized pieces. Lots of tutorials and user support for both, as they're very popular and good at what they do, and pretty intuitive (especially Cura).

As to the spear @Lady_Belligerent, my only wonder would be if it's allowed, since the only one known to exist belonged to Din Djarrin, and was melted down. Since my build will be custom, not canon, it might cause some sort of kickback, but who knows. The beskad, however, is a definite!

And for eye candy, here's the in-progress shot of the helmet. It's the Mountaineer helmet from AlterEgo Armory.



I'm now at 49 hours 7 minutes print time, estimated at 78% completion, but the image is from around 55%.

On a more thread-related note, I reviewed MMCC's costume guidelines regarding blasters and, oddly enough, there is ZERO requirement or mention of orange tips for ANY blasters. Only stipulations are if they are built from projectile-firing toys, the internals must be gutted and rendered permanently inoperable. There is plenty of mention that people add orange tips, which do not count against costume approval in any way (per approval committee), but there is otherwise no requirement. I find that very odd, given how many members are in countries like Canada, Australia, and the UK, which would require it. Regardless, I do believe I will be taking up everyone's advice here and adding one in at least an interchangeable capacity. Matching-color flash hider for photos, orange for all other functions. I also now have STL files for a 14mm threaded adapter, so I can print muzzle devices and make them screw-on in any color I want (say hello to neon green silk PLA muzzle brakes, folks! ).

 

I got the beginner budget friendly Ender 3. I guess I read one too many "caught on fire" stories. I haven't spent much time making things yet and the stuff I have printed didn't take more than 8hrs a piece, so I haven't really had the need to go looking for a program that could cut prints in smaller parts. Taking your suggested one down though! Definitely familiar with Cura as that's the slicer I'm using as well. Thank you for all the info by the way!

That would make loads of sense. However, if it's something you're interested in, I'd ask. Worst is you'll be told no. I have a friend who did carry one with his for a con, but I have no idea if that was cleared ahead of time or not.

As for the rules, I'm not all that surprised. Over at the Rebel Legion, the CRL simply states something along the lines of blasters may be absent where law prohibits. They are written in vague general terms, so it can include all the exceptions and conditions of everyone's location/situation. They do try to be as inclusive as possible in the end.

If you do go for the neon green, I want to see.

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Haha, thank you! Pretty sure you were the inspiration for that from way back when Tapatalk was new to the forums.

 

Time for the next stage in the process!

As I last said, I'll be taking that orange flash hider idea and running with it here, but in a removable form. I know from experience with airsoft that most replica airsoft guns use 14mm negative threads on barrels for muzzle devices, and since orange flash hiders are easy to find in that area, I'll be sticking to that in the name of versatility and availability. First step, of course, was prepping the muzzle of the blaster for threads, which involved grabbing a lightsaber, erm, jeweler saw, and whacking off the existing flash hider.



Veeroooom! Off with the flash hider!



For scale, here's the blaster in my hand. As you can see, it'll be a great size for a secondary blaster or holdout weapon (just like the real Nambu it's based on).



Looks a bit stubby now, but we'll get there!

After what felt like another eternity (only about a day later, in reality), my Mando helmet faceplate finished printing and freed up the printer for the threads and flash hiders. I decided to print multiple files to test fittings, so we have the thread adapter itself, a knobbed thread protector, and two flash hider options. In the end, the thread protector and one of the flash hiders ended up being 14mm positive, so they wouldn't grab the negative threads. Oh well.



Ultimately, I kinda like the aggressive flash hider on the left that ended up threading on perfectly anyway, so all good. I can reprint it in orange once I have orange filament, or simply buy a $4.00 orange tip from somewhere like Evike. I'm also super happy with how cleanly the threads printed out. No sanding was necessary to get the parts to fit up. Kudos to the creator of the files I used!

Now that I had my threads and tip, I hacked off the extra threads on the adapter so all I was left with was the 14mm and a flat spot for gluing.



Next step, paint! But that'll be another post.

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Also, nothing wrong with the Ender 3 @Fallen-Hero, just saying. I almost got one of those too, and still may one day for a second printer. They're nice and popular, and seem do do very well for a build-it-yourself system. Print space on the bed will always be a challenge regarding larger builds, but splitting models is the key! In fact, I've seen tons of models split and designed specifically for the Ender 3, and many file creators on Etsy accommodate smaller printers by splitting files for customers on request.

I should also clarify a bit on my comments about extended print time. The 7 day limit was a recommendation I heard, which I personally stick with and have never actually reached thanks to splitting, but there's really nothing stopping you from printing 24/7/365 aside from maintenance and filament levels. Obviously, once you get to a certain model size and print time, you start running out of filament on your spool, so that's a limiting factor. If you have a printer with a resume function in the event you run out of line, then it's a bit less of a problem. You could also have issues if you're in an area prone to power outages, unless you have a resume function for that too.

There's also the concern about babysitting your print as it goes. Generally, many print issues will happen during the first few layers, such as poor adhesion to the base (fixable) and warping (happens to us all). In such cases, monitoring the beginning stages will help you save filament if you see those issues forming and can stop the print. I personally find no problem in setting a print going, checking once the brim or raft is down, then checking periodically through the day. Then once it's time to sleep, I say a little prayer, then wake up and check my progress. Only times I've really had an issue overnight is the first barrel of this blaster falling over mid-print, and that was because the layers didn't have time to cool before a new layer got put on, and the whole thing flexed and toppled over. If that happens to you, I suggest either putting a tall file on its side, adding a raft for greater bed adhesion, or add a sacrificial model off to the other end that will force the nozzle to move away from the main piece and let it cool before hitting it with another layer. For the barrel, I did NONE of these, so lesson learned on my part .

Never seen a case of a printer going up in flames, but anything can fail catastrophically if you disregard maintenance badly enough, I guess. Sure, your nozzle can get upward of 200 degrees Celcius (, and a heated bed can get warm too, but unless your power supply has major issues, I'd imagine you should be safe to run it a good while. If you really want to be safe, consider an enclosure (they have other benefits aside from possible fire retardation).

I've also done some digging into the lightbow (proper name for the bow in Rogue One, I learned) and found a file I can start with, I think.



It's an RT-97C heavy blaster (I think Cara Dune even uses one in the finale of Mando S1), and the back of the blaster looks very similar to the back of the lightbow:



With some heavy modification and fabbing up new parts, and a hefty dose of patience, I think the blaster is an attainable goal, and would look sweet as a main blaster in my kit! Some backstory shenanigans would have to explain how a Mando got a hold of one, since they're apparently custom-built by each Guardian of the Whills as a personal weapon, but that should be simpler than building the thing!

 

Double Post Day!!!


So with things slowing down a bit for the holidays, I found myself with a little extra time to work. That said, I also find myself in need of some feedback and second opinions.

With all the glue cured and solid, I began painting, starting with a basecoat. I used ColorMax from Krylon, which bills itself as a paint + primer (yeah, we'll see...). I have never used this specific spray on PLA, so I've been curious how it works out.

Turns out, it holds on well...except it feels like I stuffed the blaster up a chimney for some reason.

As soon as it was dried completely (painting was done yesterday, as of this writing), I grabbed the grip and immediately pulled off a ton of sooty black paint all over my hand. Never had this happen, so not sure if it was overspray or what. After a bit of deliberation, I got the bright idea to stick the whole thing under running water and give it a decent scrub, just to see if I could get the excess off while leaving the main layer intact. Thankfully, it worked. Oddly, some of the "soot" showed signs of being hydrophobic, and took some massaging to actually get the water to work on it .



At this point, I have a blank black canvas again, so I busted out the FolkArt acrylic paints and got to work. First up was the wooden handle, which I did in a basecoat of Apple Butter Brown (yum!), then mixed with some Vintage White to get some "wood grain" variation and dry brushed it with a fan brush. Overall I'm happy with that turnout.

For the weathering, I used a combination of Gunmetal Gray and Silver Sterling to add "scuff marks" and scrap lines with a fine point brush. HOWEVER...I think I may have gone a bit too far and gotten a bit brush-happy.

This is where your opinion comes into play!

Does this weathering look appear alright, or does it go too far and make the blaster look like an inverted Dalmatian? I think I got the "even" weathering down on the black areas, but is it too even that it doesn't look natural anymore?



Let me know what you think, please. All critiques are accepted.

And thank you, @Lady_Belligerent for your kind words! This thread has been a blast to work on and share, and I appreciate all the comments from everyone!

 

Thank you for all the feedback regarding printers in general. I believe mine does come with a pause/resume option. One of the reasons why I jumped on it. I guess I have a knack to find all the worst-case scenarios warnings when searching for information. I'll treat like the Cricut then. It can happen if gone unsupervised for an extended period of time and no maintenance. I'm not too worried about power sourcing, one of the rare advantages of this old house is for some reason they wired this one outlet in the basement on its own breaker. Printer has claimed that outlet, so its not competing with anything else for juice.

As for the paint job, I agree with @Lady_Belligerent . Most blasters I have seen have only scuff marks around the edges.

 

Much appreciated on the feedback!

As it stands, I agree with you both, so I've repainted. I think the result is much better now too. I found a matte acrylic paint in a paint drawer and got to work brushing (not respraying at this point). Handpainting goes on thicker than spray, of course, but I found it afforded me two benefits. First, the new black color gives a couple areas a well-oiled look, which is generally good for any firearm to prevent rusting and would be characteristic of a Mando. Weapons are part of our religion, after all. Second, the thicker paint layer helps camouflage some residual print lines that are harder to reach with a sander or are simply too deep to get to practically. Since I don't have a good surface filler yet, this was a huge bonus.

Once the black paint was on, I finished the opposite wood grip and went to work on the silver weathering again...carefully. I tried to stick to the high points, some select corners, and edges where some scraping and buffing would be natural, and generally tried to keep it more subtle. I also, at this point, fit on the flash hider to see the full product. I gotta say, I like this FH much better than the one that printed with the model, and I love the threaded barrel's functionality.



At this point, all I lack is an acrylic clear coat to hold the paint in place. I've skipped that step before on an airsoft gun and it wasn't pleasant. The paint came off on EVERYTHING and looked terrible after a few uses, so I definitely recommend using it.

Nice snag on that outlet @Fallen-Hero. My printer currently plugs into a massive auxiliary battery strip along with my desktop, laptop, paper printer, Dremel, and two computer monitors . The auxiliary battery keeps my computers running in the event of a whole-house power outage just long enough for me to save a document or two before the whole system goes kaput. Don't have to use it often, but weather here does create power issues at certain times of the year with storms and such, so it's a nice thing to have as backup since I don't have a generator.

 

Oh! Yeah, I definitely prefer the paint job on the second go.

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