Customizable Pirate Pistol

thingiverse

I'm new to 3D printing and have been having a lot of fun with the hobby. Every year my wife and I do a pirate theme for our home Halloween decorations and I was looking for an old flintlock style pistol for my costume. I was having a hard time finding any in the style that I was looking for so I decided to design my own using Tinkercad. ...And I got a little carried away. What I came up with is a way to customize your very own pirate pistol using some basic parts. Decide what grip you like (the 'A' category), a mid piece (the 'B' category), and a muzzle (the 'C' category)--or even just a muzzle (A) and a grip (C) for a more basic look. All the pieces are designed so that you can pick what you like and they will all fit together so you can pick your pistol how you want it--with a couple caveats that I'll highlight later. Printing Instructions for 'A' Category (applies to all A models): I wanted heavier feeling pistols so I went with a 50% infill--this can easily be scaled back to save on filament, so feel free to go down to 20% if you'd like. Print facing down towards the bed (files should load with proper orientation). I used supports TOUCHING BUILDPLATE ONLY with a 55 degree overhang allowance. Printing Instructions for 'B' Category: Again, these should load with the proper orientation so no need to rotate any of them. All B category prints will need supports, except for B2-Jolly Roger Mid piece prints fine without them. If you have decided to use A3-Old Pistol Grip as your A piece, I'd recommend selecting B1.2 or B3.2 as your mid piece. They are SHORTER than the other B category mid pieces and will fit much better than the full size B pieces. You can still use full sized B pieces, but because the trigger on A3 is more decorative, the B piece just won't fit quite as flush with the grip piece. I used a 20% infill for all B pieces on my guns. Printing Instructions for 'C' Category: No supports needed for C1 or C2, but C3 may have some looping without support depending on your printer. Again, I used a 50% infill looking for a heavier feeling gun. I have also experimented with 20% infill and everything was great at that level as well. How I Painted My Pistols: Just a reminder: I'm new at all of this! I feel like my paint jobs aren't great, but the nice part about printing old-looking pistols is they can get beat up and you can blame it on them being ancient. I used a 'hammered aluminum' spray paint for all my muzzle pieces (C) and all my mid pieces (B). I used a brown spray paint for my grips (A) and then added some grain patterns using blacks and dark brown acrylic paints from Walmart. I then heavily watered down black and brown acrylic to add some aging and rust to my pistols. I sealed the paint job using a matte polyurethane spray (also from Walmart). Assembling the Parts Together: I've made this gun a few times now and most of the time the piece fit so tight together I haven't needed any glue. I painted all my pieces (A, B, and C) before assembly and began by sliding B (mid piece) into A (grip) and positioning them where I wanted. I then pushed C (muzzle) into place--this required a lot of twisting and heavy pushing to get into place because it is TIGHT. Some of my paint on my muzzles was scratched as a result of the tight fit, but I actually liked it and felt that it made my pistols look old. Once all my pieces were in place I did a little touch up work and finished it off with my polyurethane spray.