Blake's 7 Liberator Wand / gun

prusaprinters

<p>Liberator weapon from the classic BBC TV series Blake's 7</p> <h3>Print instructions</h3><p>A bit of background to this model.</p> <p>For those wondering what this is, in the 70's the BBC produced a sci-fi show called Blake's 7.  In it the crew of rebels/freedom fighters acquired a ship of alien design called the Liberator. <br/> The hand weapons found on board that ship are basically what is modelled here. </p> <p>Of course searching for 'Liberator Gun' usually gets you something quite different which is why I titled it Liberator Wand.</p> <p>The originals used EMA plastic model parts, found parts and the barrel and 'ribbed' sections were cut to shape out of clear acrylic on a lathe.  <br/> I made several replicas a few years ago using original parts and manually lathed the acrylic parts at the time.  As acrylic has a tendency to shatter I made several extra spares of the clear parts.  I recently found these again while going through the garage.  </p> <p>So as I now have a couple of 3d printers I decided to model up and print the non lathed plastic parts, including the electronics belt box and also the holster for them. <br/> That way I can assemble another using the spare acrylic bits I had.  I also ended up modelling the acrylic parts too, to get the sizing right for the rest.  </p> <p>As such you can print out the complete sci-fi blaster, but unless you can figure out how to print them optically clear then it just won't look the same.  If you do print them out clear I would love to see the results and find out how you did it :)</p> <p>The original tv props used 5 pin din/xlr style connectors with curly wire connecting the gun part to the belt box.  The originals also used a Friedland bell push button for an activator which are still available today, although I have modelled that too so you can print a faux one out.  <br/> The models are sized for the correct connectors and button and as I fitted electronics to the original for sound/light I replicated that in the 3d models so there is space for a circuit and speaker etc in the belt box. <br/>  <br/> The 'gun' section consists of the body, inner barrel mount, ribbed section and barrel.  It also has a 2 part trigger button.</p> <p>Printing/Assembly</p> <p>Parts will need reorienting on the build plate for printing. The body is printed handle upwards.<br/> The barrel plug is printed with the hole for the barrel pointing up.<br/> The ribbed section and barrel are also printed pointing upwards.</p> <p>The only part that needs support is the body, although I did add a 10mm brim to the barrel due to its length. Unfortunately its a bit too high for my MK3 so I had to print it on my CR10S.</p> <p>The body needs support under the rim and in the centre where there's a hole for wires to enter.</p> <p>3 self tapper screws are used to hold the body, ribbed section and the barrel holder together.  <br/> The barrel is glued into the barrel holder. <br/> There is a 5mm hole there for a white led to light up the barrel.  Depending on your printer it may need reaming out to size.</p> <p>There are 2 more screw holes which on the original prop were used to connect the hemisphere/handle to the front of the gun.  As I designed it as one piece they are no longer needed but I've left holes so you can add 2 more screws there to match the originals.</p> <p>The 'gun' part connects to the belt box via a 6 core curly cable that in the show contained the power pack for the weapon.  I used it to mount the electronics and speaker inside. <br/> The wires inside were connected up to the led and push button and when properly wired up pushing the button activated the electronics which lit the led and played the distinctive firing sound.  The led then fades off after the shot.</p> <p>There's also a single part holster I did for it that replicated the one in the show.  The original used 2 sizes of plastic tube and an ema plastic hemisphere but I did it as one piece. <br/> You need a large printer to print it though due to the height.  I used my cr10s. Although you could cut it to fit on a smaller printer.</p>