Well, it took me two iterations with Shapeways, but I finally got the part to fit just right!
On the first pass, I printed the fist as a solid, using the same models I had printed on my FDM printer. The Shapeways fist is much more solid, and the printed fist was much heavier than the original. It didn’t fire very well from the spring loaded launcher.
So, I broke the model up into three parts, and shelled out most of the material.
This didn’t change the cost much, due to the way Shapeways calculates things, but the finished fist is within about 1 gram of an original fist.
The fits are all “size on size” so some filing is required to get them together.
Here are some assembly shots:
And finally a happy Voltron!
Of course, the bright white fist doesn’t look right, so I went about painting it. I just used Vallejo Acrylic model paint and hand brushed it on. I put on 3 layers of primer, and attempted some sanding (this didn’t really work, which is a well known issue with SLS Nylon parts). I then applied two coats of black paint, then did a little masking to put on the red stripe.
I left the part that inserts into the arm unpainted, as I was worried about interfering with the fit or bits of paint rubbing off and gumming up the mechanism.
That is Voltron’s happy face, trust me.
If you need a replacement part like this one, here is the Shapeways link:
