division 6
Master Member
When I did a bakelite stock on my MG34 I used a cheap black primer that I buffed with a tee shirt then applied transparent orange and brown ink to the rag and worked it in over the black.
Cassian Andor (Andor Series) Blaster (MW-20 Bryar Pistol)
- Thread starter Mara Jade's Father
- Start date
GreyGuard38
Active Member
Personally, I love this idea! Give it a go!
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
I also think the pivoting barrel and trigger is more flatter in luster than the gloss of the main body. Hard to tell if the barrel is also a brass base or it is just not as weathered.
My preferred metal weathering method is to do the undercoat in the metal color sprayed in several layers and wet sand each layer. Then do a the finished color just enough for full coverage. Then wet sand the entire thing and especially work the edges to wear down to the metal paint color underneath.
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Retroneon
Active Member
In these shots, there seems to be blue/white verdigris for the final layer of color on the simulated metal parts.
joberg
Legendary Member
Careful with trying matching colors from a pic without a grey scale. I don't see verdigris on the copper (I know that would be a natural rust color for copper
) But that means that Andor hasn't cleaned his gun for decades! Not possible...the wear and tear is from usage: putting the gun down, handling it, holstering it back and so forth.
Edged
Well-Known Member
My kit arrived. Now, I’ve made plenty of models in my time, but honestly haven’t used or attempted anything printed before. I’m totally ignorance of the process, unfortunately, but what I do know is EVERY print I’ve seen comes out SUPER rough and looks like it requires a bunch of prep work, so I was totally amazed when I opened this up last night!
I don’t even think I’d need to sand it all that much as the striations kinda look almost metal and wood, anyway. The artist said he doesn’t sand the model directly at all, but rather uses a filling primer.
Anyway, excited to get started on it.
I don’t even think I’d need to sand it all that much as the striations kinda look almost metal and wood, anyway. The artist said he doesn’t sand the model directly at all, but rather uses a filling primer.
Anyway, excited to get started on it.
Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
Nice!
The truth is that any 3d print can need more or less finishing work depending on how the printor set it up. My guess is that most folks selling things on Etsy and the like are trying to minimize the time needed to churn out each print, and that in turn ends up maximising the amount of work needed to clean them up at the end. Looks like whoever did this for you has a very different philosophy.
Edged
Well-Known Member
That’s pretty much what he said when I asked. I had inquired if he had a superior printer to most others and he admitted that he did not. Actually, I’ll just post his answer here.
“The big differences are, how well you maintain your printers, the quality of filament (that's a big one) and the single most important thing over all others that makes the biggest difference is the model. A model that was design with all aspects of 3d printing taken into account. I know if may sound out there but I can take a model I designed and pretty much print beautiful parts on a 200.00 printer. After 14 years messing with 3d printers the model is what I found makes the single biggest difference”
My guess is, the majority of Etsy sellers are using a free shared file they found online made by a capable artist, as a digital asset, but perhaps not as he stated optimized for printing.
Tbh, he was more expensive than most other kits, but I think it was worth it. In addition to the quality of the print, it also has a spring-loaded automatic rotating barrel. Most of the other choices had the ability to rotate, but it was done manually by hand.
“The big differences are, how well you maintain your printers, the quality of filament (that's a big one) and the single most important thing over all others that makes the biggest difference is the model. A model that was design with all aspects of 3d printing taken into account. I know if may sound out there but I can take a model I designed and pretty much print beautiful parts on a 200.00 printer. After 14 years messing with 3d printers the model is what I found makes the single biggest difference”
My guess is, the majority of Etsy sellers are using a free shared file they found online made by a capable artist, as a digital asset, but perhaps not as he stated optimized for printing.
Tbh, he was more expensive than most other kits, but I think it was worth it. In addition to the quality of the print, it also has a spring-loaded automatic rotating barrel. Most of the other choices had the ability to rotate, but it was done manually by hand.
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
Some Sellers are better than others on Etsy when it comes to print quality. I did Poe’s blaster. See it here: My Builds: The growing of an eclectic collection
Not much clean up was needed and most issues were handled with filler primer, sanding and repeating a few times. IMHO, the end result looks much better in person than it does in photos. I also will be getting Andor’s blaster from this same seller because I like his print quality.
Not much clean up was needed and most issues were handled with filler primer, sanding and repeating a few times. IMHO, the end result looks much better in person than it does in photos. I also will be getting Andor’s blaster from this same seller because I like his print quality.
Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't argue with that in the slightest, and I think your man there has more experience than I do so I don't want to challenge that - but from what I've seen, many of the rougher things were printed with well designed files, too. My guess is that a lot of "purchase this 3d print" stuff was printed with 0.3 or even 0.4mm layer heights and probably pushing the printer as fast as it will go. Personally, when the visual appearance is important I print at 0.08 to 0.12mm layer heights and about half the printer's normal speed. That makes a huge difference to the amount of work needed to clean them up - smaller layer heights means the "valleys" between layers are not only closer together but are actually less deep, and the lower speeds means the mechanical accuracy of the printer is a lot better. But of course, more than twice as many layers and moving at half the speed on each layer means the printer is working about four times as long. For someone who's business model calls for turning the printer over as fast as practical, that's an understandable decision but it does shift a lot of work to the buyer and gives people a one-dimensional understanding of what 3d printers are capable of.
Plus, your seller is not only setting things up to be easy to finish, they are then doing some of that finishing work by hitting things with a filler primer before sending them out. That's a person who's clearly very concerned with the appearance of the final product, and willing and able to put some time and effort into that before delivery. I'm quite impressed!
That’s one beautiful kit
Edged
Well-Known Member
Thanks, Guys. And thank you for clarifying that, Elf! I’m learning more and more about these printers and the process. I’ve noticed the seller i bought from only lists one at a time and it took 4 days or so from when I purchased mine for it to ship, so it looks like he’s making them to order and he’s not rushing at all. I paid $60, about twice as much as some of the other options, but I think now that you’ve explained it in more detail it’s definitely worth the extra expense. He also includes all the hardware needed for the action features as well where most (if they even have a working trigger) just say you can “use a pen spring” ect.
Mara Jade's Father
Master Member
This is the kit I’m getting: Andor MW-20 Inspired Blaster KIT Spring Loaded Trigger and - Etsy
Like I stated above, the kits are very clean and I like that he has all the parts included for a spring trigger.
Like I stated above, the kits are very clean and I like that he has all the parts included for a spring trigger.
Vagabond Elf
Well-Known Member
Sure, as long as you have paint that will stick to copper. Getting paint to stick to metal isn't always as easy as it seems, but it would work.
For maximum effect you'd probably want to work without primer, which will complicate the "get the paint to stick" part, but isn't unsolveable.
Another possible problem would be the carrier medium, if you used spray paint, and the solvent base. Paint is pigment dissolved in something, the solvent base is whatever the pigment is dissolved in. Spray cans also use another chemical to make the spray can work. Either of these chemicals can react with certain types in unpleasant ways. Paint meant to go on plastic is less likely to have this issue, but paint meant to stick to metal doesn't care if it dissolves plastic or not. And I personally wouldn't depend on the copper to prevent the paint from attacking the plastic.
So you'd want to do a little bit of experimenting to find paint that stuck well to copper but didn't attack whatever plastic you printed the prop in.
One thing I don't know enough about to comment on: how durable copper plating is. Copper is a relatively soft metal, so I could imaging copper plating being too fragile for a prop meant for trooping or cosplay. But I honestly don't know - this could also be a complete non-issue.
