So what if I didn't print it myself?
For the past year or so I've been contemplating getting a 3D printer. I had watch what my friend Rick was printing and posting, and blown away with his projects. I just wasn't sure if it would be for me. When I do a project, I typically do it start to finish. And detailed work is typically not something I do as well.
I wanted to go through the process of building, sanding, and painting to see what I thought of the work. Since finishing the project, I have learned that I miss the process.
For Christmas, my wife gave me a DE-10 kit off of Etsy. I liked the DE-10 design because it reminded me of a revolver and thought it would look better without the scope. (I think Star Wars puts too many scopes on the handguns)
Putting the blaster was pretty self explanatory. I just butted them up to each other until it looked like what it was supposed to. Fitting the pieces together did require the sanding that I had been hearing about. I would sand and fit, sand and fit, sand and fit until the pieces were snug, but could come apart easily. I learned about the delicate nature of the plastic when I snapped the handle off of where it connected with the body. A little extra epoxy should do the trick. No. It didn't. How about Gorilla Glue? Yes! It held together nicely and I let it dry overnight.
That's when I learned that Gorilla Glue expands as it dries. UGH!
With an exacto knife I picked out the hard blobs of glue.
I also learned about how if you push the pieces too hard, they will split and wound up with a crack up on the barrel.
I used bondo to fill in the seams, and the gap where the scope would have attached. I also built up "gunk" in areas where I would figure "gunk" would build up over time. I would accent these areas when it came time to weather the gun.
Once the bondo dried, I sanded. And where I needed another coat, I put it on. Filling the hole on the top of the barrel took a few applications.
The it was time to prime it. I went with a matte silver spray primer.
At this point it was really coming together for me. (Even with the barrel tilting up ever so slightly)
The next step was the grip. I applied a few coat of plasti-dip spray.
I wanted to highlight some of the insets of the grip with gold and bronze, so I taped those areas before spraying so that I could more easily remove the coating to paint later. I also taped where the handle meets the body.
It still looked pretty plasticky. So I applied graphite powder to the entire body, and applied some clear coats on top of that.
Now to add some more gold and bronze accents. Why gold and bronze? Last October I went to Galaxy's Edge and built my own lightsaber following the Protection and Defense template. Who wouldn't want a blaster to match their saber?
With my new and shiney blaster, I knew what it was time to do. Time to make it old and dirty! First thing was applying the graphite powder to the gold and bronze, and then I went over the entire thing with black acrylic and wiped it off. Hitting it in places with brown and black/brown mixed together. I got into the nooks and crannies with it. I was really happy with how it went. But it didn't really "go with" the light saber.
I took the light saber apart and rubbed it down with the grapphite powder, and applied some clear coats to that. Now it was more a matched set. I kept the saber looking more "clean" and the blaster more "dirty". Thinking a jedi would definitely take better care of the former rather than the latter.
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