3D Printed Star-Lord Blasters. With LED cartridges and pullable trigger.
Here you can see my Star-Lord Blasters. I designed them in 3Ds Max and ZBrush, split them into seamless parts, printed them at 0.05 on the Prusa MK3S. I then sanded everything to a fine grit, depending on what kind of surface I wanted.
These props are a study in metals. To paint them, I used a mixture of airbrush techniques, with Alclad II paints, Steel Wool to add microsurface imperfections to simulate the brushed aluminium effect, and liquid latex for the chipped effect.
I saw on the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie that Peter Quill reloads one of the Blasters, so I decided to design my own mechanism to implement light effects into the cartridges. I wanted it to be clean and professional.
For the cartridges, I first printed a mother mold, and after pouring the silicone, I cast different effects in resin to try them out with the different LEDs. The definitive idea was to 3D model the cartridge as a vase, and then print it in clear resin, polish it and pour epoxy resin with smoke effects as well as custom 3D printed ones. One of the best and most unique ideas I have ever had for sure.
You can clearly see the different sheens and layers.
I used Steel Wool to create a brushed effect throughout different layers of paint.
The scorching effect was achieved with Alclad II Hot Metal Red, Blue and Pale Burnt Metal. All three are airbush paints. It was very important to sand the edges slightly, so they would capture light coming from up above.
I also hydrodipped the grips! They turned out great, after practicing 4 times or so. I managed to make the transitions between sides seamless.
To add extra sheen after the clear coat, which dulls it, I used graphite powder, right before the acrylic washes, or 1 and a half days after applying oil washes. This allowed me to play with different shines, while still protecting the airbrush lacquers.
The Blasters feature one of the best ideas I have ever had. I created a mechanism for the cartridges to light up, but without having any switches on the outside.
The LED cartridges have no external switches, it all happens within every cartridge. The clicky sound they make when turning the LEDs on and off is also very pleasant :)
I also modeled nine different effects, printed in clear resin and painted the way I wanted to. When I mixed them with the epoxy resin in the tube, the areas that were not painted became invisible, making up for that ethereal awesome effect.
This is the smallest mechanism I have made so far. I can turn the LED on and off by twisting the pieces, and I can also extract the whole circuit out, allowing me to cange the batteries if I need to. Everything is non-destructive, but still clean.
3D Printed Starlord Blasters with LED cartridges. Explanation!