May 19, 2016 | By Tess
Last week, to the delight of many gamers, DOOM, a reboot of the first person shooter video game series Doom which was first released in 1993, was officially released. In celebration of the new video game’s launch, MyMiniFactory teamed up with DOOM’s publishing company Bethesda Softworks to 3D print a massive, life-size BFG, the video game’s iconic weapon. In the aftermath of the game’s release, the team behind the giant 3D printed weapon is now telling us how it was made.
The BFG, which has been referred to under a number of names including “Big Fragging Gun” and “Bio Force Gun”, originally appeared in Doom (1993) and has since reappeared in further Doom installments, including Doom 3 (2004) and the Doom movie (2005). The iconic video game gun has also appeared in other video game franchises such as Quake, which paid homage to the weapon with its own BFG 10K, and has been recreated in a number of cosplays. There is little doubt however, that My Mini Factory’s 3D printed, life-size BFG, could be the most impressive of them all.
In creating a model of the BFG, the team at MyMiniFactory had to first design it. The designing process, which was led by Kirby Downey, took days to recreate in Solidworks, using materials and files courtesy of Bethesda. When the 3D modeling for the BFG was complete, the model then had to be sectioned off into over 70 individual parts to make 3D printing possible.
The next step of 3D printing the parts was a huge process in itself, as the printing took over 1,000 hours (more than 40 days) to complete. Each part was printed from a rigid.ink filament. According to the team behind the BFG, after some initial difficulties in receiving the filament, the printing process with it went as smoothly as possible. The 3D printing itself, which used more than 20kg of filament, was streamed on MMF TV.
After the 3D printing was done, the MMF team took care of the post-processing, which included assembly, glueing, and painting. The post-processing, which was led by Sarah Wade, took an additional 72 hours to complete. After completing the final touches on the BFG, there was little doubt that the project was a success, as the video game weapon—which took three people to hold up—looked real as can be.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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