However, that being said, the one fandom that I cannot comprehend, I just don't understand, is Doctor Who. Call me a heretic, but I cannot understand for the life of me that show. I have tried, I watch about a season and a half (I started with the 9th Doctor mind you) but could never get into the groove of the show. People said that I would like the show the deeper I got into it... but alas, the deeper I got, the less I enjoyed it.
With that, I come to my next point, I love making props. I don't care what it is, or where it comes from, I love making things. I may not be a 'Whovian', but that doesn't mean I can't love their props. Its funny, when I was offered the chance to make this particular prop, I wasn't super excited, but as soon as I started to do the tinniest part of research, I was hooked (which for fandoms I am not familiar, tends to be the outcome).
For me its the trill of the chase. The chance to learn about something and make it as accurate as possible is what makes building enjoyable for me.
I could not tell you the first thing about the Doctor Who character River Song, but I could tell you about the characters blaster.
The original commission was to turn this Nerf N-Strike Elite Firestrike blaster into the Song blaster because the bones of the blaster looked close to that of the desired prop. I was going to 3D print a few pieces and cut a few other pieces off to make the Nerf look close to the original.
When I really started to look at the Nerf, the amount of work that would go into that modification, just to end up with something close, outweighed the amount of time to print the prop from scratch. I was very excited to find a model, on my favorite website (thingiverse.com) and 9 hours later had all the pieces I needed to assemble the blaster.
I did drop a few of the parts into another one of my favorite websites (tinkercad.com) to make a few touch ups and adjustments.
Tinkercad is a wonderful tool for makers just starting out with 3D modeling. I tried 3-4 programs when I first started thinking about making 3D printed things, and I was trying to drink from a fire hose. Tinkercad has a wonderful tutorial, and user interface.
The nice thing with Tinkercad, for just starting out, is it gets you to think about objects (that you want to print) as a series of filled in shapes (orange above) and empty shapes (smokey gray above) that come together to form the object. Something that is also important, is the order in which those solid shapes and empty shapes are grouped to create different effects.
After I made my adjustments I sent it to my printer and printed the blaster. The 7 pieces took about 9 hours to complete at standard resolution, 15% hexagon infill, white ABS.
Sidebar about infill: through the settings I can change the amount of infill an object has. If I wanted to print a 1"x1"x1" cube, I could print a solid, 100% infill, cube (which would take 1hr, 14 min and 11.93m of filament) or I could print with a lower default infill, 15% hexagon, (which would take 32 min and 3.13m). Lowering the infill still provides stability and integrity while conserving resources such as filament and time.
Once I had all the pieces, assembly was simple. Using ABS I was able to acetone weld the pieces together. Basically using acetone to melt the plastic and fuse it to another piece of melting plastic. Once the acetone evaporates all that is left it 2 permanently bonded pieces of plastic, or in the case of this project 7 pieces into one solid piece.
Something I found interesting with this model was that the creator included space inside of the slide of the blaster to include a piece of 1/2 inch PVC. I found it odd when I found the model and even considered not putting the PVC in, however, I tested it out and found 2 benefits: 1. it provides structural integrity to the blaster 2. it adds weight to the blaster. Giving things proper 'weight' or heft is something I have been investigating and in the future I am going to look for ways to add some in.
Once I assembled the blaster I weathered with acrylic paint, black and light tan. Once my weathering paint was on I hit the high points of the piece with 120 grit sandpaper to bring out the white of the blaster to show wear and tear. A matte clear coat to finish it off and it was ready for delivery!
All things considered, I am very happy with this prop piece. Not only did I get a chance to make something I have never made before, I also got the chance to try a few new, to me, techniques. (And the person who the commission was for loved the work and my attention to detail, so that is always good!)
Until next week, Ill keep making. Thanks for stopping by.
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