Project: T-21 Light repeating blaster

Scale: 1:1
3D Printed, CR-10 V2, PLA, Mono X resin

We wil guide you step by step in the process of building this blaster.
You can find the KIT in the regular shop.
If you have any questions feel free to send us a message on Facebook or Patreon or by mail.

RnD photo gallery.
I am using these to do my research and help Skylu to have enough reference material to work with.
It can be a little tricky as I supplied him two different Lewis Gun photos and also some in-game reference. Best source so far have been the pictures from US based weapon auction houses, they post real good quality photos.

After Skylu did most of his work on the model he gave me a run on the images he got for me on the T-21. After reviewing he added some details .

Close to 35 files are included in this model so I dedicated last weekend all my printers to spit out the blaster. In advance I ordered a steel exhaust pipe, 85mm x 500mm with a 2mm WT.

I noticed the weight on the steel tube and figured out that a light weight option was needed for trooping so I decided to split the shroud in two and merge one section with the grooves/ribs.

After dry fitting the parts I figured out that a couple of practical changes needed to be made in the model as I will show you in the images below.

In the slideshow above you can see and find most parts sliced and ready to print as I did it before I made up my mind to adjust parts for the Patreons.  Note most of the things are printed solid or with atleast 6 walls and 15% infill. It should last not break ;)

I added holes in the front section of the shroud so the shroud knob (gas regulator) and its lever could be installed in a stronger way. Its set to hold with a M4 screw countersunk 25mm.
The Lever pin has to be glues in places.

The next thing to do was making the shroud printable for most printers. I sliced the shroud in two parts and made a connection strip for extra strength and easy assembling purpose.
The fin part was hard to align and hold in place during the test assembly so I added grooves in the front shroud section and the tapper joint. This should make things easy. Using the 3D printed shroud instead of the steel version, it will save you over 1kg in total weight!

I added an extra part, Stock swivel plate and an additional hole in the stock to house a metal swivel.
Still if you going to include a metal swivel I would not strap a sling on it an have the weapon rest on it in full weight. If you want to use a sling add it around the stock at the stock bracket point so it gets supported by the two steel tubes.

I hollowed this part out for two reasons, 1: you can print it with 100% infill now without adding to much weight. 2: You have a place to putt a selector switch for BlastFX ;)

Same as the part last part above, I hollowed it out so you can print it with 100% infill for a very strong part. Also the room created is good to hold some electronics even when the two tubes cross the open space. The little squares are for rare earth magnets 5x5x5mm so you can have easy acces to the electronics. Of course in the drum plate are magnets spaces as well. If you don't plan to include electronics just glue it all together.

One of the main downsides of 3D printing is the weakness of layer stress. The black part is the bolt and I printed it. The area with the two screw holes where no match for a little stress and snapped pretty easy. So to prevent this I redesigned it and simply by making a 45x15x2mm plate and a 3D printed bolt with matching holes and slot we have a pretty strong piece now. The hole sin the bolt are made for M4 headless screws.

I replaced the full 3D printed bolt with an aluminium strip and socket part. This to prevent accidental  breaking off.

Maybe the most important part of the blaster as most of the weight and strength will come down to these two. NOTE: dont think about it, just print this 100% solid
I added two extra M4 screw holes for headless screws, add some extra glue between the two parts and screw the together. For finishing it up simply fill up the screw holes and sand it so they wont show. An extra thing I added was a small stop edge for the shroud so the parts wont tilt.

My buddy gave everything a resin coat and dropped it in the UV chamber, sanding will be next.

Adding the firts black coat is always a good way to find POI's, as you can see there still some areas that need some extra filling and sanding. We are going to do that and add an extra layer of matt black. the final black layer will be Plasti Dip for the first time ever used by 3D-PROPS as an experiment.

A nice idea but not the best, Plasti Dip is a delicate paint to work with. Not really a paint but a spray on rubber coat with the possibility to peel it off after damaging or just because you want a fresh new layer. But during the curing process its very delicate, when sticky it grabs on everything and when removed it might peel off right away so make sure it doesn't touch unwanted parts or areas. Also let it dry for at least 24 hours in a room temperature.

But I have to see how durable it is but I like the looks of it so far.

For the weathering I used a simple airbrush touch with GUNMETAL GREY from VALLEJO
After that I dry brushed the blaster with DARK ALUMINIUM from VALLEJO and finished it with a matt black airbrush touch on the stock, grip and ribbs.