3D Printing
During the Covid Lockdowns in the UK, I had a lot of time on my hands and ended up being quite bored at home. After a lot of thinking this led me to buy a 3D printer. This was to expand on my hobby of building and painting model airplanes and other miniatures. After some time doing research and looking at reviews I settled for an Elegoo Mars 2. It ended up being my trusty workhorse for a long time, but was eventually sold to "Stretch the Coffee guy" at a cafe across the street from the Rebellion offices. I upgraded to a bigger printer, this time an Elegoo Saturn S.
Regardless of printer, I have always had an interest in making things, my biggest problem is often the context in which I make. 3D printing helps me get motivated to create, as im making a physical object. Being a little bit of a weapons enthusiast some of my first things where prop guns from games and movies I like. But my printing quickly expanded to other things, some of which I cannot show here due to NDAs.
Most of my prints are no longer in my own possesion, as I either made them as leaving presents, or gave them away as gifts. I need to get better at taking pictures of what I make.
Leaving Gifts
The above was one of my first leaving gifts, made for one of the Technical Artists I worked with at Rebellion during my first years there. I had somewhat naive plans in my head of turning it into a “standard” leaving gift thing. However life circumstances and time constraints made that quite hard. I did not have to make the model for this myself, but ended up modifying it quite heavily. It also took multiple attempts to get right, as I was just learning the ins and outs of 3D resin printing.
Since the first leaving gift took a few tries, I had a lot of parts left over, enough to build another Blade Runnder blaster. This time I decided to go a bit further and remade large sections of it, optimizing it for resin printing. I also re-designed the front to look more like something out of Destiny 2, which I was playing at the time. It spent a few years on a bookshelf before being given to one of the Photogrammetry guys at Rebellion. I belive it is now (possibly) framed in an appartment, somewhere in London.
The Unsorted
In-between the leaving presents and the various props i made, there where other projects as well. Going from left to right; We had 3D scans of a lot of Rebellion staff, my project’s producer among them. So I turned him into a power armored knight to have on his desk! In the middle is a project that began as a commission, but then the buyer cancelled, so I brought the half finished print to work, where it was dropped by my neighbor and shattered into bits. He was very upset about it, so I made another one and finished it. It is now (I think) with him in LA. And to the right are two Destiny Ghosts I printed for a pair of friends back in Malmö.
Blade Runner PKD
After the first tries, and the printing of many little army men and figures for friends around Oxford, I re-indulged in some of my favorite sci-fi movies and games. So it didnt take long until I made the Blade Runner gun; Deckard PKD Blaster. These where my first foray into adding lighting to a prop, soldering is a pain, but now something i can do. The original with the painted wood grip is still at the desk of one of the two talented material artists at Rebellion. The other which is a Cyberpunk inspired re-design is with another Tech Artist friend at what is left of Fishlabs.
Halo M6g
Continuing on with my hobbies I of course had to make and print a Halo M6G. As with most of my prints I have done what i can to make the work as fidget toys, which also leads to them breaking often. Learning how to print things that can survive being played with is a journey im still on. Like with the PKD, I put a lot of time into adding lights to this one, the “laser/light module” is held on with embedded magnets and depending on if it was a laser or light type had one, or five LED in parallel (I did not use actual laser, just a red LED, im not making things to blind people with). Like before all of these ended up being given away. I did however make sure all of them have a serial number on the frame, ranging from 001 to 005.
The Squirtirov
During my time at Rebellion I only had a Tech Art Lead for a brief period. He and I became very close friends so when he was on his way out after an offer from DICE, I went into overdrive. I found detailed blueprints for a soviet Makarov pistol, recreated it in 3D, and converted it into a magazine fed water pistol. Designing this took far longer than I expected and a lot of failed tests. Then I enlisted my friends in the material art team to make an engraving design inspired by Sniper Elite 5 (operation Kraken was a thing in it, so octopus!). Finally I found a pelican case on Ebay and assembled it all into what is to date probably the most elaborate leaving gift I have made. It now graces a desk somewhere in the DICE offices!
Fallout Plasma Pistol
So, when I was in the process of moving out of Oxford, I had a fair bit of downtime. When my hands are idle things get made, so I ended up finding a design for a Fallout 2 inspired Plasma Pistol. I made it and a boatload of micro-fusion cells. This project gave me an opportunity to experiment with pigmenting my own resins. For it I made a custom transparent green that was used in conjunction with some LEDs to make the nice radioactive green glow that I would expect out of a Fallout plasma weapon. This was given to a good friend and Environment Artist at Rebellion. It has since partially broken, but since im gonna say its “covered” by my long-term-service gaurantee. So a new part is made and posted his way!
The Razor Crest
This was my final print before I moved away from the UK. I made it as a leaving present for someone who was my mentor at Rebellion and is a very close friend. When he made the move from the US, I remember him commenting about how he had to leave many of his Star Wars models behind. So as a final thing before moving, I made the bigest version of the Razor Crest from The Mandalorian that I possibly could on my printer. I got it wired up for lighting and painted in the span of 2 and a half weeks. It currently resides with my friend back in Oxford. And yes, it ended up being approximately as big as my cat!