July 24, 2015 | By Alec
Over the past few months, the Destiny video game has proven to be a huge hit in the 3D printing community, evident by the large number of props that have been recreated with a 3D printer. The link with the game's many awesome guns is evident, as we saw this awesome 3D printed replica of the Bad Juju rifle only a few weeks ago. And now the South African designer Kirby Downey has taken things even further, 3D printing a functional airsoft version of the Thorn rifle from the same game.
Destiny, as any gamer will tell you, is a huge MMO shooter from the makers of Halo. It has been quite a hit since its release in September of last year, largely because it has somehow successfully managed to take Halo's praised competitive combats into the MMO realm. With a very large arsenal available, it is perhaps hardly surprising that prop designer and airsoft enthusiast Kirby Downey was drawn to this project. Kirby is a London-based product designer from South Africa who just loves 3D printed creations that do something. 'I specialize in taking objects and adding a technical and mechanical side to it, first making it work mechanically before adding a story to the product using shapes and forms,' he says.
As he explains to 3ders.org, Kirby has been passionate about Destiny for a while and has been enjoying recreating props from the game. Having recently taken up airsoft, it was a logical combination. He therefore set out with a very interesting project: to encase a functioning airsoft pistol into a 3D printed body of the Thorn rifle. 'I used solidworks as my designing software and used my existing thorn model and adapted it to fit the airsoft pistol. To get the volume of the gun I took a photo of it, outlined it and extruded a box around it,' he tells us. 'I 3D printed this and fitted the gun and made the changes need to make it fit. I then made a V" of the shroud which fit better and some changes were made for the final model. I also tested the barrel length to see if the bb's would pass through without interference.' All in all, it took about eight hours to design.
Encased inside is an electric CYMA Glock 18C AEP airsoft pistol, while the body itself was 3D printed in Verbatim PLA on a Makerbot Replicator 2. Consisting of ten separate parts, they took about 48 hours to print – not so bad for a model that is half a meter long. 'Once I was happy I put it together and it worked the first time!' he tells us. It's fantastic finish was provided by Catherine Wood. 'Its base coat was matt black with a coat of dark silver and varnish to seal it up, very simple but effective,' the designer adds.
As you can see in the clip above, the gun actually fires really well, urging the development of a Destiny-inspired airsoft battle. And to ensure it doesn't break halfway through, the design has enabled the use of three 5.3 mm Metal dowels. These improve t the strength of the model, while it can also be used and even dropped without breaking. This solid design does mean that the gun has to be dismantled to reach the battery, but the rest of the gun is easily used and accessed. 'For the battery holder I glued a green acrylic hemisphere which I got from here,' Kirby adds.
If you're interested in recreating this absolutely awesome gun for yourself, you can find all the 3D printable parts on Kirby's myminifactory page here. Kirby, meanwhile, is already working on more Destiny-style gear, being inspired by official recognition of his work by game developers Bungie. With the Destiny expansion The Taken King expected to be released on 15 September, he has already begun work on similar weapon replicas from that game. In short, we will doubtlessly hear more from Kirby in the coming months.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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