My Adventures in 3D Printing and Leather!

[CJSomerset]

I'm back! It's been a year (or three) I'm always building something, it just hasn't been models for a while.

Back along I started working with leather and found it was something else I really enjoyed. And then, during the first lock down I found a plastic stahlhelm on eBay for £14 so with some leather and a bit of drain pipe, some plastic elbows 2 coke cans and assorted junk that I had lying around + lots of weathering. I made this! ( It's full size and wearable)



Fast forward a couple of years and I went back to work after Xmas 2021, and one of my workmates was talking about a 3D he had got, and how easy it was to use. I knew nothing about 3D printers so I liked the idea of a machine that just worked out of the box, and my Birthday is in mid January! So a Fortnight later I had a Monoprice Delta Mini!

A tiny little machine that cost £140 It worked really well, but I soon got bored of printing things I didn't really need or want so I started looking into 3D cad software so I could design my on stuff.. I didn't want to spend too much as I didn't have any idea if I would be able to use it. I loved technical drawing at school ( it's the only thing I'm actually qualified in) but I have never even opened a CAD program. I choose FREECAD because as the name suggests it's free. However I have to say it was a steep learning curve and the software is pretty temperamental . Luckily there are plenty of Youtube tutorials so I started making some Very basic bits - trays, boxes, some new knobs for my toaster. Every design was a little more complicated and used a new technique and 6 months later I'm now at the stage where I can design most things.

But the print detail I could get was never good enough to use for modelling. And then it hit me! If I can't make fine detail for scale models, WHY NOT MAKE BIGGER MODELS!

So I started looking at making a 1:1 scale pistol.

Originally I was going for a sci fi ray gun. But then I remembered the mask and thought that a sort of steam punk Nazi pistol would match. Using such small printer I had to make it in sections and then glue them together. Of course every thing has visible print layers but with some setting tweaks and a lot of sanding some car filler and plenty of paint. I came up with this..







I was quiet chuffed, so I made it a leather holster.

Now I'm thinking "What can I do next?" and the idea of a steam punk rifle started to evolve, but I wanted to stretch my CAD skills a bit more. The pistol was mainly made of shapes that I could already make, and being imaginary, whose to say that I had done it wrong. I decided to try and make a faithful replica. ( At least as faithful as I could). I thought I'd stay with the German theme and I was still keen to do a rifle But then I remembered the MP40 and I was smitten.

Of course I had no idea how to make it! So I started collecting pics and found an American company that made a working replica. And they had a really nice side profile drawing that had the measurements for the length of barrel and the distance between the sights. Using this I printed out a full scale image so I could measure everything else and started making the barrel collar and the front sight. Laying the parts on the plan ( Like a balsa wood glider) as I made them. Still only being able to work in small sections ( about 3 inches at a time) I sanded and filled everything as the next piece was printing. I got the whole of the barrel and the magazine made before I realised that, this is kind of my thing now, so I might as well buy a better / bigger printer. Enter the Ender 3 S1 which certainly made the bigger handle parts a lot easier . Though no quicker.

This is what I ended up with......









There's a few curves that I still have not mastered making in Freecad and the folding stock had to altered a bit as the mechanism is internal so I had no clue how it worked. AND it turns out that the American replica has a none original bolt slide making it shorter that it should be But overall it's pretty convincing ( the bank teller thought it was real )

Total time to print.... not really known, I'd guess about 6 days! I made both the large side pieces together and it took 24 hrs just to print them. Over all it's taken me a bout 2 months of evenings and weekends.

Total cost ... Filament is pretty cheap, this is probably less that a whole roll which cost £14. Paint however was about £60 not that it was hugely expensive, just that I didn't realize how much much I would need! I do have some left but not much. There's nearly a whole bottle of Primer and gun metal used here.

Well this is certainly a long post, but if anyone is still reading and is actually interested, I have lots of build photos.

Oh and I updated the mask!

[digger303]

AMAZING and I love it.
It's really well done. You might have to buy a resin printer now to compliment the filament printer you have for the small stuff.

[aur0ra145]

That is so COOL! Really nice job!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Well it is wonderful to have you back posting
Those are most impressive, the helmet gas mask is amazing and the pistol fabulous.

We have similar interests in 3D printing, leather, woodwork and scale modelling.
I have watched most of, if not all of Nigel Armitage’s videos and I have his book..super leather worker from the UK.
Just saved the blasters for Hans Solo, Bladerunner and Mando to 3D print.

Hilarious to see the similar yet different pathways.
Please keep coming back to ism forum, it is great to hear from you
Scott

[cor]

That's awesome.

[Tomcat64]

Absolutely stunning work & great to see you back posting again

[LWWales]

Beautiful work! Keep it up

[CJSomerset]

Thanks for all the nice words.

I'm starting to think of the next project, may be a Bren Gun?

[MrBowcat]

Awesome work, I particularly like the pistol.

Just one thing to note though, the scopes on backwards.

[DRUMS01]

Welcome back CJ, and that's some exceptional multimedia work you have done.

You say you are pleased, while we are speechless!