3D Printing Han Solo’s DL-44 Blaster from Star Wars!

This classic and iconic prop from the Star Wars films will make you feel like a smuggler.
Odin Odin (181)
1 hour

Designed by Alan Stanford, this rendition of the famous DL-44 blaster wielded by Han Solo in the Star Wars universe is a perfect project for those just starting out in the world of 3D printing. It offers enough complexity to challenge your overall skills and force you to learn the ins and outs of your printer, but is rewarding in the ease of its final construction. I’ll show you how to paint it in a later article using acrylic paints and a foam brush.

The DL-44 heavy blaster pistol, also known more simply as a DL-44 blaster pistol, was a type of heavy blaster pistol produced by BlasTech Industries that was used during the years of the Galactic Republic and the Age of the Empire. It was considered one of the most powerful blaster pistols in the galaxy, delivering massive damage at close range; however, it overheated quickly.

This print can be accomplished on almost any printer, as the pieces can be laid out according to your printer size. If you’re really new to 3D-printing, I strongly recommend taking the slower route and printing each piece individually. This allows you a good amount of security if you get something wrong. If, however, you’re feeling confident and have a larger print bed like the one on the Anycubic Kobra Plus, you can print the whole assembly in one go.

Anycubic Kobra PlusAnycubic Kobra Plus ×1

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Print settings
Print settings
Alan Stanford

Each printer and filament will have a bit of unique wiggle room, so be prepared to make adjustments as you go. On my Anycubic Plus the following settings worked quite well:

  • Nozzle temperature: 215 (PLA)
  • Bed temperature: 90
  • Resolution: 0.2
  • Infill: 15% hexagonal
  • Supports: Tree supports. You want to go as minimal as you can with these.
  • Rafts: Yes. I found these to be helpful maintaining the parts on the bed.

You’ll need to sand down the pieces individually in order to get them to fit right and prepare them for painting later on. You’ll also want to look carefully at the reference picture for the blaster, so you don’t put the scope up too high like I did the first time!

Printing the pieces: why support matter
Printing the pieces: why support matter

Supports are important for this print, as I discovered when I tried to print sans support and ended up with some glitches in the print.

This sort of thing is easy enough to correct if the impact from the lack of supports is minimal. This is just plastic, after all! I heated up a butter knife and carefully melted the plastic into its correct shape around the scope adjustment knob. A little sanding, and it'll look fine beneath its paint!

Don't overdo the supports, either!
Don't overdo the supports, either!

Going overboard on your supports is liable to cause other problems, however! On my first try at printing the blaster’s main chassis, I added heavy supports, and they became too completely connected to the model. When I removed them, they left one side badly scarred in a way that even sanding couldn’t fix. I had to go back and redo it with minimal tree supports instead.

Removing supports
Removing supports

As you can see here, removing my tree supports proved much easier, but I’d still have liked to go even lighter with them. When I try my hand at a more complex version of this model, I’m definitely going to take an even lighter touch to the supports if possible. Adjusting the overhang is pretty vital with your supports, since that defines the angle at which the supports will be placed.

Ideally, supports will just pull away with minimal cutting. Any points they leave behind can then be sanded down carefully.

Internal grip
Internal grip

The internal grip sits between the two pieces that form the grip itself. On this model, it doesn't have a hole defined for a screw, even though the grip pieces do, so if you add a real screw make certain to pre-drill your hole.

Printing the external grip
Printing the external grip

The external grip pieces are grooved and usually painted to look slightly brown - depending on which set of reference photos you're going off of.

Printing the hammer
Printing the hammer

It's not completely clear why a blaster has a hammer, beyond that the original German handgun used to form the base for the original blaster model had one. For our purposes, this is the piece that our newly-built grip connects to.

Printing the trigger section
Printing the trigger section

The trigger on this model is static and quite delicate at a low infill. Other models have more advanced trigger designs with working mechanisms, but those are a bit more complex to print and fit together. In this case, the trade-off is an easily-snapped trigger if you play around with it too much. You'll want to reinforce the trigger with some clear superglue if you plan on taking it out and about for cosplay purposes.

Fitting the trigger and grip together
Fitting the trigger and grip together

This model is designed to snap together, the plastic groves interlocking on the various pieces. This will initially leave some unsightly gaps. To rid yourself of these, carefully sand your parts down as you fit them together, in order to get a close fit. Then use superglue to join them permanently. Later, during painting, any remaining gaps will vanish!

Printing the frame and barrel
Printing the frame and barrel

I showed you some pictures of this earlier pre the removal of my supports. The final version turned out alright, though, as you can see from the striations that appeared in the print, I still need to perfect my settings.

Fitting the frame together
Fitting the frame together

The barrel piece slots into the groove created by fitting together the grip and hammer with the trigger section. A little sanding will absolutely be required to get the fit nice, here. Superglue will hold the pieces together, but don't apply until you've gotten it sanded down the way you want!

Attaching the outer grip
Attaching the outer grip

An easy enough step, this just requires lining up the pieces well. You can sand it down afterward, to ensure that the rounded bottom of the grip is smooth--the most important part is getting the pieces of the grip to fit snugly against the main body of the blaster. Just superglue it down. You can pre-drill a screw hole and add a screw later.

Printing the muzzle
Printing the muzzle

This piece turned out to be quite neat to print. I found that I did not need to print this with supports, and, indeed, supports might have clogged its more delicate features. From what I can tell, having the right print temperature for your filament is key to getting something like this to come out correctly.

Connecting the barrel
Connecting the barrel

The barrel on this model doesn't fit as well as I'd like - the connecting point is too small, so the connection will always be loose. You'll need to apply some superglue and just fit the muzzle onto the barrel directly, eyeballing it to get it even.

Printing the sight
Printing the sight

As I mentioned earlier, I tried printing the sight sans supports. This almost worked, save for a little mishap with the control knob. But, rather than waste all the good plastic I'd put into an otherwise serviceable print, I just cut away the excess plastic that had unspooled around the knob, then melted it into the right shape. A little sanding and some paint will see it turn out perfectly.

Printing the sight brackets
Printing the sight brackets

This model is very strange when it comes to the sight brackets, as they're a bit too small for the scope! I could see adding some screws to make it all fit together, or you could size up the model slightly. For this test, I just fit them together as best as I could and glued it down. I'd be more subtle with a more complex model that I'd actually plan to gift to someone, but for my own use this was acceptable.

Attaching the scope and completing the blaster!
Attaching the scope and completing the blaster!

The final step is to attach the scope! As you can see, I messed up a little and put the scope bracket too high up on the blaster! This is correctable, but I'd suggest just avoiding that mistake in the first place when you do it. You may also want to do some of the painting first before assembling this final piece, with more painting following to complete the look.

Either way, there you have it! I'm quite pleased with the result, and look forward to trying my hand at one of the more complex versions of this model in the future. Go ahead and post pictures of your attempts in the comments! I'd love to see how your version turns out.

Ditch those latex masks for something much cooler this year!
Michael Michael (175)
0

Why we do wear masks at Halloween anyway? In its Gaelic and pagan roots, Halloween involved souling or costuming yourself in a disguise to keep evil spirits from seeing you.