Several months ago, someone asked if I could make Ezra’s slingshot. I immediately jumped at the chance to add to my Star Wars: Rebels collection of goodies. (In case you’ve not heard me say it before, Rebels is my favorite Star Wars. See Kanan posts.)
In addition to the slingshot, I thought it would be cool to be able to “upgrade” across seasons of the show, so as an additional surprise, I decided to also build Ezra’s wrist communicator and make them swappable!
One of my absolute most favorite things about 3D modeling and design is the ability to rapidly prototype and test things out. What you see here are the first three iterations of the slingshot and then the final piece. All modeling was done with Fusion 360, and these prints were all done with Matterhackers Silver PRO PLA.
Because I wanted the props to be hot swappable, I modeled holes into the bottom of the unit that nicely fit 3mm x 6mm magnets.
With a scrap piece of paper, I made a template of the hole layout so I could transfer it to the gauntlet piece.
I have to apologize for skipping ahead a little bit as I forgot to take photos of the beginnings of the gauntlet. The gauntlet is cut from 3mm EVA foam from TNT Cosplay Supply. I then coated the gauntlet with Styrospray to give it some rigidity. (Curious about Styrospray? Keep an eye on my YouTube channel for a full video coming soon.)
After I had sanded and primed the gauntlet, I used my template to cut out three holes and embed magnets there as well.
I then coated the entire gauntlet with SC-94 from BJB Enterprises. SC-94 is a water based flexible coating that I recently picked up (and mentioned in my BJB Enterprises unboxing video). Because I had some of BJB’s pigment in exactly the right color, I didn’t think to check if it was water-based and mixed it into the SC-94 (It can be tinted with any water-based pigment or acrylic paint – don’t do what I did!). While this had no right to work, with several coats and frequent brushing, I got it to look really good, though not as smooth as SC-94 should. On the bright side, I wanted to give the gauntlet a fabric textured look anyway, and took advantage of strategic brush strokes to get a linen type of look. I’m planning to try it again on some armor I’m making as a final coat, and I’ll get a spray gun for it for that purpose.
I coated the final 3D print with Smooth-on’s XTC-3D before spraying it with some Rust-o-leum Metallic Spray paint and doing a little weathering with some acrylic paint. You can also see the texture on the gauntlet better in this photo.
I then modeled the wrist communicator and gave it the same treatment.
XTC-3D, metallic spray paint, and a little acrylic paint for the weathering and details, and the communicator was done as well.
Check out my little video of the quick change!
But not one to stop there, I’m already working on Phase Two of this commission… a “functional” version of the slingshot!
I’m 99% done with the parts. I may need to tweak them a tiny bit, but this version of the slingshot will fold up and down just like on the show and WILL have electronics for that energy effect. Keep watching!
A final note, my Patreon backers have been following along on this build from the beginning and will continue to get to watch as Phase Two unfolds. I want to thank them so much for their continued support!
