Thingiverse user Kilobyte has posted some fantastic pictures of his excellent print of an Mk2 sentry gun, inspired by the video game Team Fortress 2. His printed model was designed by fellow Thingiverse user Riddellikins. I know it isn’t his model – you can get that here – but I think his photo’s and print job show off what a really well designed model Riddellikins created.
If you’re not aware of what Team Fortress 2 is, it is a multiplayer, first person shooter made up of teams of players, each selecting a different role on the squad. A well-balanced crew generally includes all or most of the available solider classes who can counter each member’s abilities with their own. The Engineer can build and repair structures, and also creates sentry guns to be deployed in strategically important areas of a level’s map.
This is the second sentry gun design that Riddellikins has created, but not being happy with his first attempt sent him back to the 3D modeling board to come up with a pretty awesome replacement. Virtually all of the moving parts from the sentry gun in the game can be moved on the real life model. Once he 3D printed the parts, it was assembled with super glue and painted to match the real thing.
The model that Kilobyte created is Riddellikins design, but his print seemed to come out smoother and with less striation and artifacts. He also did a fantastic assembly and paint job and topped it off by taking some extremely clear pictures of the finished product. He printed his version at .2mm resolution with PLA and assembled it using basic modeling glue.
I love it when two different 3D printing enthusiasts unknowingly team up to create something amazing. You can see all of the great pictures taken by Kilobyte on his Thingiverse Make page here. And if you want to 3D print your own sentry gun, you can download Riddellikins’ original 3D model here.