Here is an image of the gun fully assembled but without some of the details I mentioned above. I then braided the electrical wires to add a nice clean look. I disassembled the flashlight and rewired the lights so they could be powered from the battery box. I went to Radio Shack and was able to find a battery holder, as on/off switch that fit perfectly.įor the actual LED, I used a cheap flashlight that is sold at Harbor Freight Tools for a couple bucks. The main 3D file for the entire gun actually had a box attached to inside of the gun, which worked out perfectly for the battery box. The next step was to then build a battery box with a separate switch to turn the LED on and off. I tested this by using a flashlight behind the back side of the button. I chose to 3D print this piece in clear material rather than color, so that when I added the LED to the back, the light would shine through whereas the painted areas would block the light. Last but not least, I needed to install the most iconic part of this gun… the things that everyone seems to recall from the movie… the Little Red Button. I simply used my dremel to cut the proper lengths, and painted it silver prior to install. I was able to find a flexible gas line hose at home depot which had the right look and diameter for this build. For this, I had a hard time finding something local that was gonna be accurate. Another detail that was needed was the silver hose that goes from the viewer, to the body of the gun. I then simply glued it along the edge and then used acetone on a q-tip to remove the printed words still visible on the hose. For the rubber trim, I purchased sprinkler drip hose and cut it open on one side. Other details were very important as well, like the mesh on the lower section of the gun (black non slip shelf liner from Walmart… also film accurate), and the rubber trim needed to go around the opening sections of the gun. I then used spray glue and essentially made my own sticker. I was able to find a screen shot of this image, crop it, and print it on a color laser printer in the highest resolution I could do. One of the other subtle details that add so much to this prop is the tiny screen on the scanner which sits on top of the gun. I’m just glad that they still made this model. The decals used in the film for the missile were actually part of an Estes model rocket called a Bull-Pup. Once I had this information, I began to paint and paint and paint some more.Īlthough Painting the prop is extremely important, it’s the details that make the item look the best. Someone was kind enough to post an image of the paints used to obtain the right look for the various components. During this entire process though, I was constantly visiting The RPF for pointers, tips and tricks to make this prop as accurate as possible. Slowly but surely I was able to have multiple parts assembled, primed and ready for paint. I would also use filler primer to help fill in the more subtle low spots that I could done easily get with sandpaper. Once the parts were assembled, I would then wet sand, and fill and gaps that were visible. I used 5 minute, 2 part clear epoxy for most of the gluing. I began to first assemble the various parts that would ultimately be together and the same color or same component. After MANY hours of printing, I had finally finished printing the 92 parts needed to assemble this prop.Īs you can see form the image above, not only were there number pieces to this gun, but the sheer size and scale of this gun is huge! I used a deck of cards in the image to help illustrate how large it would end up being. So, I had to take the main 3D file back into rendering software, and make some changes. While looking up various free 3D files on Thingiverse, I found that a fella by the name of John Wieger had taken a 3D render made by another artist, and John had converted it to be a full sized 3D printable ZF-1Īlthough John had done a lot of the work preparing the parts to be printed, there were however, many parts that wouldn’t print well how they were, or some of the parts on the list were simply missing in order to complete the build. Much like the Caster Gun Prop I had built about 6 months prior, the Zorg ZF-1 from the 1997 movie, The Fifth Element, has always been one of those items that I’ve always wanted to have as part of my collection, but with kits in the many hundreds of dollars and sometimes thousands, I figured that it would be one of those things I would have to wait to get.
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