Crysis 2/3 - Gauss Rifle

thingiverse

Hey guys, I'm just sharing these files and the story of me making them printable here. But first, some disclaimers and quick information - You will likely need Cura to have any chance at printing this mess of a thing. You need to enable the settings "Union Overlapping Volumes","Remove all holes","Extensive Stitching" and "Keep Disconnected Faces" in the mesh fixes option, if you don't it will likely not work - I have struggled A LOT with getting things to print at all. There are some imperfections and problems with the mesh still - Cura will prompt you with a lot of warnings and not like the file. Just slice it with the settings above enabled, hope it works for you. I used Cura 6.1 for reference - Scale the files to 23600% to get a result that's about 1m long if all parts are assembled - The parts are numbered from top to bottom (the file names) and have to be assembled in that order, of course. Number them immediately after printing, if you don't you'll be in for a not so fun puzzle - The project requires about 1.5kg of filament at real life scale - Part 1 and 10 have two versions, check the updates from May 11th and 13th for further information So, here is the story and everything else: I'm a huge Crysis fanboy and wanted to make one of the guns as a prop for my room. So, I looked for a cool file somebody has ripped out of the game files and quickly found this one. But, as some of you may know, for a game it doesn't really matter if the thing has holes or not. So naturally, it has and oh boy does it ever have a lot of them (picture 2). So I fixed all the holes and modified the mesh to even begin to be printable (picture 3), this included some things I don't like to do, like covering the bolt assembly because it was way to weird to print. But that was just the beginning. Some of the sliced up parts still looked absolutely awful once imported into Cura. So, more mesh fixing in Blender. It takes a while... I spent about 3 hours only on part 7, that was the hardest one to get working, that's why I split it up into a 7.1 and 7.2, just didn't call them 7 and 8 because that would have confused me later on. Right now, not all the files are uploaded here. 9 and 10 are missing, I haven't fixed and printed them, I will upload them as soon as i have done that. Pictures of the final result and some other ones may follow, this is kind of a blog to be honest. Also, the parts are not just the "GAUSS fixed" file sliced up, as mentioned above. I am just including that one for reference and for you to have a look at. The unfixed file is included too. The parts are sized to fit on an Ender 3 bed, I think that's 225x225mm if I remember correctly. If you want me to slice you a part again or have some troubles, feel free to leave a comment, I might be able to help, though I'm not a professional. It might take some time for me to answer since I'm not very active on Thingiverse. And finally, I have one more thing: Please no comments like "Just use Meshmixer", believe me, I tried. I'm not very good with that program, but it went something like this: Me: Hey, this mesh has some problems Meshmixer: Oh, I see, that's a lot of holes Me: Well, can you fix that? Meshmixer: Of course *proceeds to delete half of the mesh* Meshmixer: Done Me: Excuse me, wtf!? Maybe I just have no idea about the program (I don't) and there is an easy way, if so: Well... Wasted I guess... So then, thanks for reading I guess, hopefully there is a person out there who is just as big of a Crysis fan as I am and can make use of these files. Feel free to leave a comment or ask questions. Update May 11th 2020: So, actually lots of things happened since yesterday. First, I ordered a new spool of filament, the one I bought for the project is already almost empty. Right now, I'm printing part 8, 1-7 are already finished. Along with that, I got myself some JB weld because some of the areas are rather small and I want to make sure things stick. Of course, JB is overkill, that stuff is literally stronger than the parts, just wanna make sure though. Next, part 9 is now printable and uploaded, but it still has some problems (picture 5). Cura slices a few layer high hole into the thing, I have no idea where it's taking the geometry from. The hole is only internal though and should not affect structure much. Furthermore, I have added an alternate version of part 1 without the little muzzle I put on it (picture 6+7). I thought it looked good at first, but I'm not so sure anymore. Just choose which one you like more. Again, thanks for reading and special thanks to the people who collected and liked the thing, you are awesome! Update May 13th 2020: I'm a bit pissed right now. I spent 4h+ on getting part 10 printable, but it just wouldn't work perfectly. Once I have printed the file, I will upload two different versions of which both have a compromise. For me, Cura creates either a partially empty layer in the upper part of the model, which likely will not impact structure too too much (hopefully). I just could not get that layer fixed, so the other solution was to slice off a few millimeters from the top and get rid of the hole that way, however there will be a seem on the part that you will have to fill with for example wood filler or epoxy or something similar.I think I'll go with the earlier option and maybe seal the few holes with some glue, they are just one layer after all. Once printed, I will tell you what I think works better. Lastly, I'd recommend you drop the model down one layer because the first layer is a bit small and then will not be as good for adhesion, it will not look any different in the end really. Update II May 13th 2020: I have just remembered something that you should think about too, in general as well as with this project: Change your nozzle from time to time, I have just done that and my printing quality has gone up a considerable amount, the nozzle was pretty worn already. I have printed over 3.5kg of filament with one nozzle, 2kg of which was white filament which often contains titanium dioxide, which increases nozzle wear. I just wanted to share that since the project here is pretty big and I imagine people might use white filament for it to have a good base to paint on top of. Update May 15th 2020: All the parts finally have finished printing, the total filament consumption is about 1.3kg including supports. The final length of all parts together is 102cm, which seems like a realistic and comfortable length. The 10th part printed perfectly and is very strong despite the half-empty layer, so I wont even bother uploading the cut off part. Now, all the cosmetics have to be done and I have to glue the thing together, so lots of time for drying required. Update July 29th 2020: Yes, it has been a while. No, I have not abandoned the project. I’m just too lazy. However, I have finished gluing all the pieces together (okay missing a section of rail still but minor details). Unfortunately, the whole thing is slightly crooked, I suspect that’s because I later noticed one of my axis wasn’t level. It really isn’t too bad though since you can only see it when looking directly down the barrel. Honestly though, I would not recommend attempting this project unless you are willing to put up with some lets just call it unusual steps and tinkering. As you can see, I painted part of the rifle while it was still in pieces because the surfaces would be hard to paint when the whole thing is assembled. I will add some diagrams or the like where I show which faces I’d recommend doing that for. Also, I had a person suggest to maybe add a rod through the rifle to make gluing easier and prevent the thing from becoming crooked. I’d love to do that and might try to experiment with that, however I dont have too much hope since the mesh is so much of a mess that I suspect Cura will just do whatever with it but wont just print it as I want it to (it doesn’t do that in the first place). As soon as the weather clears up (German weather… it sucks), I’ll go ahead and try to get the paint job done. Also, I plan on building a case for the rifle. Furthermore, I will need to either find a scope on Thingiverse or model one myself. Oh, and just a thing: I'm trying to upload pictures right now... WHO THE HELL thought it was a good idea to limit images to 500kB??? I had to compress and resize these images to hell and back. Update September 23rd 2020: Progress has been made, things are closing in on completion of the main rifle. The details are fully painted on both sides and drybrushing is done on one. Originally, I didn't want to make the rifle look too worn but I got carried away dybrushing and I like the result. Also, I have designed a magazine for the rifle after the one you see in game in the special ammo crates. The file however only needs to be scaled to 10000%. Oh and I'm still looking for the moron who introduced the 500kB file size limit, what year is it??