Incredible replica project from designer Todd Blatt:

About two weeks ago, Thingiverse user astaines downloaded this 3d Warehouse blaster, modified it to be printable, removed the trigger, and uploaded it to Thingiverse.  This bothered me for a few reasons. First off, the model originally designed and uploaded to 3d Warehouse wasn’t too accurate to the screen used prop.  It wasn’t designed for 3d printing, and isn’t very smooth either.  It had to be glued together, and you couldn’t see through the scope.  Nonetheless, this blaster got lots of attention from The Replica Prop Forum and the 501st Legion.   Lucasfilm/Disney copyright issues aside, it bugged me that the 3d Warehouse model was uploaded under a free and nonrestrictive licence, yet the Thingiverse one was under a noncommercial license.  I felt I could do a better job slicing it up for 3d printing, make it smooth and accurate, be able to be assembled with no glue, and I wanted to put it up under a less restrictive licence.

On Wednesday I used a few reference pictures of the original screen used prop, and started sculpting the blaster from scratch in AutoCAD.  Friday I brought the files and my MakerBot into MarsCon where I had an artist’s table set up.  The rules of the sci-fi convention specifically stated that you couldn’t bring in realistic-looking weapons, so I didn’t.  I made it there.  The print takes about 6 hours at 120mm/s using the new 7.0 firmware at .2mm layer height. It’s very fun to take apart and play with.

I actually printed two blasters over the weekend and sold one to one of the Scout Troopers from the Tyranus Garrion.  The files for this project are uploaded here, and be sure to check out my company Custom 3d Stuff.

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!