I just finished up a pretty fun project I wanted to share. Since everyone enjoys the E4 Pokemon fan art and crafts thread I figured I’d make a place for people to share their non-Pokemon creations. Post em up! Anything goes!
I’ll start. My take on the ‘E11 Blaster’
Details
A couple weeks ago my buddy asked if I could print a storm trooper blaster for his Halloween costume. Knowing there were files for this blaster available online, I thought it would be a straightforward project. After reviewing the files available I was underwhelmed with all the designs. Most consisted of 50+ small pieces that had to be hand fitted, glued together, and painted to look halfway decent (a ton or work). They were essentially props meant to sit on a shelf. My friend has 3 boys, and I estimate they would have lasted 2-3 days before getting broken at his house.
So.. I decided to design my own from scratch. The goal being to make a durable blaster that looks good with no post processing. Not knowing where to start I began researching. According to Wookieepedia (of course that would be a thing) this blaster is an “E11” and there are different variants based on the storm trooper’s role. After learning this I decided to make my own variant. Something unique but you still know what it is when you see it. Knowing my friend is going to be going through a haunted house (while juggling 3 kids) I settled on designing a close quarters combat variant.
I’m really happy with how it turned out. I designed the entire blaster around a piece of half inch EMT conduit I had laying around. It spans the entire length of the blaster providing a solid “skeleton” for the printed parts to mount to and doubles as a faux “barrel & bolt”. The entire assembly is extremely sturdy. It weighs close to 2lbs which makes it feel great in hand and adds to the ‘realism’. The magazine is magnetically detachable which I think is a cool touch. The dual mounted front flashlights go with the ‘CQB’ theme and will be great for trick or treating.
Best of all…it only has 8 printed pieces with no supports or post processing required .
i don’t know enough about star wars to evaluate the accuracy but this looks phenomenal from my perspective!! what a fun creative opportunity to make your own design, and what a thoughtful gift to give your friend
i don’t know if this counts as art and crafts necessarily but i love modifying gameboys. i’m especially a fan of the gameboy pocket, and have done a lot of mods to bring other systems into that configuration. this one is a gameboy color board that’s been cut up and reconfigured to fit a stock pocket shell. i also added USB-C charging since the original pocket power supply is two AAAs (ie nothing), although the circuit i used doesn’t safely support charging and playing at the same time lol. these batteries can be finicky!!!
Oh my goodness this is awesome! I love the pikachu cheek light! I’m gameboy pocket for life!
It’s hilarious you mention the battery. When I was a kid I was first introduced to rechargeable AAA’s bc my mother was so fed up with me burning through them!
As an adult I wanted to replay the games, of course I went with old trusty but I found the lack of a backlight etc cumbersome in the 2020s so I bought a modified SP. That’s awesome that you can do that!
Transluscent =
Any chance you can bring one of these fellas up to GBA times? If so I will 100% sneak into your pms for a commission! That’s awesome either way. Thanks for sharing!
aw thanks, you’re very kind!! yeah the AAAs are a bear lol, and i’m in full agreement about needing a backlight. i remember having to use my little clip-on reading light to play in bed under the covers, it wasn’t a perfect fix.
i’ve actually never done commissions, i find as soon as money is the motivator it stops being fun for me lol. if you cover cost of materials though I’d be happy to help! or we could do an expertise/arts’n’crafts exchange because you have skills and tools that i definitely lack lol. happy to take this to dms
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