C&D Prop Replica Recreations..

[chubsANDdoggers]

I’m curious how you smooth up the textured finish? Does it sand smooth, or do you use filler primer? I’ve noticed the same textured surface to parts you’ve printed in the past for various projects, and the final product always looks great.

Thanks bud. Honestly it truly doesn’t take much. Couple coats of primer, sand with 400/600 sandpaper… and that’s it. Rinse and repeat if needed but it definitely comes out smooth pretty quickly. It’s actually much smoother than the pictures show it off to be. My only concern with this specific model is the “lettering and numbering” that’s been added to the design itself.

Usually when I work with a part that has those details (this Hero’s scope wheel for example - two posts above you can see a resin print along side a MJF print) I’ll use a resin print to capture said details. Truth is I’m not so sure some of those details will survive the primer/sanding on MJF to be honest. Not even sure I’ll sand most of this print and if I do it will be delicately with high grain of sandpaper.

If interested go to the first page on this thread as I have a bunch of links to previous builds being painted. Might be helpful.

 

[7-11 Jedi]

Thanks bud. Honestly it truly doesn’t take much. Couple coats of primer, sand with 400/600 sandpaper… and that’s it. Rinse and repeat if needed but it definitely comes out smooth pretty quickly. It’s actually much smoother than the pictures show it off to be. My only concern with this specific model is the “lettering and numbering” that’s been added to the design itself.

Usually when I work with a part that has those details (this Hero’s scope wheel for example - two posts above you can see a resin print along side a MJF print) I’ll use a resin print to capture said details. Truth is I’m not so sure some of those details will survive the primer/sanding on MJF to be honest. Not even sure I’ll sand most of this print and if I do it will be delicately with high grain of sandpaper.

If interested go to the first page on this thread as I have a bunch of links to previous builds being painted. Might be helpful.

Awesome. I’ve read through some of your older posts. I actually bought an “mgc” style replacement hammer for my greedo killer from shapeways that I just realized was your design. Kudos! I’d love to get my hands on this bit of kit. How’s the weight?

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

How’s the weight?

Well.. not to much to it to be honest.

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

7-11 Jedi you got me curious. This is without any primer, simply starting with the paint itself. Let’s see how this plays out.

Also side note as far as not adding primer for these parts. Primer will fill the letters/numbers but with jumping straight to the paint, the details hopefully will stick around. The groves here in the grips already start to become more prominent with simply paint being added. Definitely a positive..

 

[7-11 Jedi]

Is it bad I kinda like it with the blue accents? Lol. Makes it sorta otherworldly…

 

[7-11 Jedi]

7-11 Jedi you got me curious. This is without any primer, simply starting with the paint itself. Let’s see how this plays out.

Also side note as far as not adding primer for these parts. Primer will fill the letters/numbers but with jumping straight to the paint, the details hopefully will stick around. The groves here in the grips already start to become more prominent with simply paint being added. Definitely a positive..View attachment 1616564View attachment 1616565

Looking good! On the grips, the texture is actually a good thing, in my worthless but frequently spouted opinion!

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

Is it bad I kinda like it with the blue accents? Lol. Makes it sorta otherworldly…

You mean the blue parts on the printed Mausers itself? Truth is on real c96 all those parts have a tint of blue actually to them. It’s not as predominant as when printing but I did choose blue for a reason

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

Update on the grips.

First, here’s one grip fully dried..

Next after sanding each with 400 gran sandpaper..

And now something I probably should have put off until the sun is back up tomorrow. I re-added another layer of brown spray paint. You can see even without primer and only one sanding they are already coming out much smoother..

 

[deadbolt]

The blue color is case hardening, it hardens the surface of the parts but keeps 'some' flexibility due to not hardening the part throughout. And the bolt (except the knurled grip portion) was left in-the-white, for some reason. I guess wear, but hard to say. I've always been surprised how well parts in-the-white keep over many years, like the polished, raw steel on bolt action rifles for example..never figured that out. Bluing is supposed to protect the steel, yet being left raw seems to do well on it's own?

But, great work on all of this man, these turned out great! I'm glad the trigger issue wasn't too faulty, I tried to make sure it was functional.. =b


-Carson

 

[Vagabond Elf]

You mean the blue parts on the printed Mausers itself? Truth is on real c96 all those parts have a tint of blue actually to them. It’s not as predominant as when printing but I did choose blue for a reason View attachment 1616599

I would think that's just an effect of the - wait for it - bluing? That is, the process used to protect the steel from rust and corrosion. My understanding is that, depending on how heavily it was applied and how it's decayed since, blued steel can look more or less blue.

Meaning that all the parts you printed in black should also be blue, if that's the reason you chose blue.

I'm perfectly ready be told I'm wrong, though!

Anyway, this is pretty amazing. I'm quite certain this 3d model is now functional enough to be of questionable legality in Canada or Australia.

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

Thanks Vagabond Elf and I don’t think your wrong at all. Some parts appear more blue than others and those are the ones I simply printed in blue to stand out. But ya the whole mauser would have a tint of blue to it, except for the parts deadbolt just mentioned above.

Carson your model is perfect bud! The part I created to hold the trigger in place is what I thought I screwed up on. But it’s actually working and holding pretty well.. once I got it figured out that is It’s was these exact parts I was nervous about working properly and was looking to get a run down on but so far so good! In fact one other very small part wasn’t shipped other than the grip screws. Its a part I designed to hold the spring in place on the lock frame. Right now I’m using cardboard to do the job so it’s a little lose right now.

7-11 Jedi ya the grips could keep a little texture to it for sure. I just wanted to show how these prints can be smoothed out pretty easily is all. I probably won’t be sanding these anymore than what I did above. One more round and they’d come out pretty smooth I’m sure

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

“One more pass”
With some “panel line accent color” and we’ll call it a night..

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

 

[Vagabond Elf]

Now, there's a lot of making I don't know how to do - but I do know how to paint, including painting 3d prints.

Which means I have some basis of comparison when I say that's an incredible paint job! Well done!


A question, if I may: I'm under the impression that deadbolt made a CAD model of a C96, which you (chubsANDdoggers ) are now modifying into one of the DL-44s. Is that impression correct? If so, was the C96 model ever shared anywhere?

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

Vagabond Elf thank dude! I appreciate that. I’ll let deadbolt speak to his CAD model more specifically if he would like. But basically he saw that I was working on a CAD model of my own and was gracious enough to share his model in an .iges file. Which meant (from my limited CAD knowledge) that I had to rebuild it from scratch using his model as a template. I couldn’t simply modify his file directly but IMHO I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The details you learn when designing these parts from the ground up is fantastic. I’ve been learning CAD myself for a few years now but only recently saved up enough to get my own program. This has been the best learning lesson I could ask for and I’m very grateful to Carson for extending such a carrot for me to chase and grab hold of!

I do believe it (Carson’s c96 design) was shared at least once prior to another RPF member who used it as well to design their own metal c96 but I could be wrong. If so I stand corrected. Regardless.. Carson’s attention to detail is a treasure. Hopefully I can do it some justice with this specific Hero I’m bring to life.

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

Continuing with this *no primer series to see how it turns out. I sanded all the parts down first this time before I even started painting which should help. *Full disclosure for the silver paint I did use a “paint and primer all in one” as that’s what I had on hand. It doesn’t work at all like regular straight up primer so it still fits the bill. The brass paint is just regular brass paint but I ran out so I was only able to aply one coat..

 

[chubsANDdoggers]

Here’s a shocker to absolutely no one. Moving forward.. simply use primer first. I have to sand it anyways after the 1st coat of paint regardless. Primer will simply make the sanding easier and smoother. Paint does work as you can see but primer still obviously works much better..

 

[Vagabond Elf]

Continuing with this *no primer series to see how it turns out. I sanded all the parts down first this time before I even started painting which should help. *Full disclosure for the silver paint I did use a “paint and primer all in one” as that’s what I had on hand. It doesn’t work at all like regular straight up primer so it still fits the bill. The brass paint is just regular brass paint but I ran out so I was only able to aply one coat..

"paint and primer" is just marketing speak for "this paint has somewhat better adhesion to the substrate than the standard, which was set in the 1980s." These days it doesn't mean much.

And yeah... always use primer. If for no other reason than to have a consistent substrate colour so you have some idea of how the final coat will look.

Anyway, thanks for the info on deadbolt's C96. I don't have any specific plans for printing either the original pistol or any of the props derived from it, I was just trying to sort out what was publicly available. Ta!

 

[deadbolt]

I agree, primer isn't necessary for adhesion of paint. I always found it pointless on metal. But, it's best quality is being more easily sandable than standard enamel paints, it's great for filling in un-wanted details and such. Also good for showing us every single flaw we left behind too, haha. It's handy for certain reasons, but just like glues and such, it depends on the application. A good amount of people assume locktite can be used on anything or everything, just like super-glue or gorilla glue. It isn't, you gotta have the right tool, for the right job so-to-speak =b
I always just used primer mostly to show flaws and for filling them, since it's much more sandable than standard paint, especially glosses. It's basically a filler these days, not sure why it's a standard to prime everything. In this case, it's a good idea I think. It tends to shrink considerably too, so it helps fill in the printed texture without loosing too much detail.

I always found it funny how these manufactures show chrome paints on the cap to be actual chrome (it's vacuum metalized on there), then we spray it, it's everything but. It's works well in this case I think, awesome work, John (chubsANDdoggers)! it's looking really great!
Alsa brand is a fun paint to work with too, the only two-part spraycan I've ever seen was from them. Pretty much like spraying thinned out epoxy. Cool stuff for sure, but I'm not sure if it's still offered or not..


-Carson

 

[Vagabond Elf]

I agree, primer isn't necessary for adhesion of paint. I always found it pointless on metal. But, it's best quality is being more easily sandable than standard enamel paints, it's great for filling in un-wanted details and such. Also good for showing us every single flaw we left behind too, haha. It's handy for certain reasons, but just like glues and such, it depends on the application. A good amount of people assume locktite can be used on anything or everything, just like super-glue or gorilla glue. It isn't, you gotta have the right tool, for the right job so-to-speak =b
I always just used primer mostly to show flaws and for filling them, since it's much more sandable than standard paint, especially glosses. It's basically a filler these days, not sure why it's a standard to prime everything. In this case, it's a good idea I think. It tends to shrink considerably too, so it helps fill in the printed texture without loosing too much detail.

I always found it funny how these manufactures show chrome paints on the cap to be actual chrome (it's vacuum metalized on there), then we spray it, it's everything but. It's works well in this case I think, awesome work, John (chubsANDdoggers)! it's looking really great!
Alsa brand is a fun paint to work with too, the only two-part spraycan I've ever seen was from them. Pretty much like spraying thinned out epoxy. Cool stuff for sure, but I'm not sure if it's still offered or not..


-Carson

I used to work for Sherwin-Williams. About once a month we'd have a DIYer bring in a photo (or the actual object) to complain that the final paint job wasn't consistent. If it was something like a wall, you'd be able to see all the places where the wall had been patched as areas of slightly different colour or texture. Or they'd be complaining that the paint on their wall didn't match the colour chip - which, granted, is a more complex issue, but still usually fit this story.

Every time, we'd ask "which primer did you use?" And almost every time they'd say "oh, I didn't bother." And then we'd pull out our little demo card that shows the difference primer makes.

Primer can often help with adhesion, especially with something that paint won't stick to well like injection molded PET (if one was making, say, a GNK or Scrubber droid). And it is an excellent tool for highlighting areas that might need more filling/sanding. But it's biggest value is that it makes all the materials one is painting the same. This is important if you're colour-matching, or painting a repaired wall, or building R5-D4 with a mix of metal, wood, and 3d-printed parts that all have to end up the same colour of white at the end. Yes, you gould get the same result by painting everything a single colour before going to your final coat, but primer tends to be more efficient. Paint is heavily impacted by what it's sitting on - colour, sheen, texture, porosity all affect the final result. Putting primer down first means that you are always painting primer and thus your results will be much more predictable and consistent.

One doesn't always need primer, no; but in my experience, it's usually a better idea to have primer than not, unless one wants a specific effect that primer would impair. (Which usually means one wants the substrate to show through, slightly.)