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3D Printed Klingon Disruptor comes to you from the original Star Trek

If you’re ever at a loss as to what to 3D print or model next, Star Trek is an endless well of interesting weaponry and tech, especially if you want to go the retrofuturistic look of the original series, with this Klingon Disruptor being a perfect example of that.

Accomplished prop maker Steve Radtke of Valor Replicas is behind this creation. No stranger to the world of Star Trek, he has made a similar Phaser Rifle in the past.

“This is a replica of the Klingon Disruptor used in the Original Series of Star Trek. It’s another great example of crazy 60s sci-fi design,” Radtke tells us, “It’s a great design that didn’t see much screen time. It was only on like 4-5 episodes and it wasn’t shown in plain view. So, I began by finding photo of the screen used prop that was sold at auction.”

Using these photos the dimensions of the Disruptor were ironed out and the prop could be modelled in Fusion 360 from there.

During this process one of the biggest challenges were the various “finned” piece – those being the heat sink-like parts which contain several small pieces in close proximity. You can see an example on this near the end of what would be the barrel.

To solve this the pieces were sliced into individual discs which could be glued together after printing. This allowed the clean look Radtke wanted without the need for more supports.

Printing, then, took around 20 hours to complete over several days with the raw plastic needing some assembly. We do get this interesting exploded view because of this.

The plastic was treated with filler primer and sanded down until smooth. The metal parts got their sheen thanks to the Aluminum Plate colour from Testors’ Metalizer Lacquer Paints line.

For the unique green colour of the rest of the piece a custom olive green was mixed up. This, along with the grey parts, were airbrushed on.

Once painted and assembled the Klingon Disruptor is 13 inches (33 centimetres) long and looks damn good once on display. A nice clear stand is used in the glamour shots in the gallery below.

Those attempting to make their own version can grab the files to do so from Thingiverse, where they’re hosted for free.

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