Dec 31, 2015 | By Benedict

The force is strong with this maker: An ambitious Star Wars fan has built a two-foot long, 3D printed Star Destroyer ship, made from thousands of individual 3D printed parts.

The Star Wars franchise has always been known and loved as much for its merchandise as for its films. Forbes recently forecast that Stars Wars: The Force Awakens merchandise could generate around $3 billion in sales in 2015, with a further $5 billion over the next 12 months. That combined figure is almost sixteen times more than the film itself made at the box office in its staggeringly successful opening weekend.

Although official Star Wars Finn and Rey figurines will likely fly off the shelves as well as their Jar Jar and Qui-Gon ancestors of the early 21st century and the Solo and Vader figures of the 1970s onwards, the merchandise-consuming public is undoubtedly different from that which encountered the previous two trilogies. Although countless dads of the last few decades have endured sleepless nights working on a home-made wooden Death Star, 3D printing has made it (relatively) easy for film buffs to design and produce their own extremely accurate unofficial merchandise, largely thanks to the increasing affordability of consumer level 3D printers and filament.

The two-foot, 3D printed Star Destroyer built by Reddit user [SovereignGFC] is a perfect example of fans doing it themselves—not to spite the mega-franchise and its associated merchandising companies, but to inject a degree of creativity and involvement into the model-collecting experience. The Star Destroyer is actually only partially based on those seen in the movies, with its creator deciding to put his own spin on the iconic ship.

The ambitious maker fed endless supplies of Inland PLA into his PowerSpec 3D Pro FFCP 3D printer to print the thousands of individual parts for the giant 3D printed spacecraft, before assembling it and painting it with gray spray primer and white paint with block-offs.

For any similarly ambitious makers out there who feel like 3D printing their own version of the design, the STL files are available on the project’s Reddit page. “To be honest, they're a horrible mess I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy,” their creator admitted.

3Ders can offer just one piece of advice to those thinking of taking on the immense challenge: “Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.”

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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