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Chrisbutlerart Blog

3D Print: Next Gen Season 1 Phaser "Dustbuster"...

I've wanted this exact Star Trek phaser since I was 9...

This is the "dustbuster" phaser from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Eventually it was replaced with increasingly more angular, aggressive looking phasers...but this one was always my favorite.

This was printed on my Bambu A1 3D printer using four different filaments from my AMS attachment.  It wasn't printed all at once, each color was printed separately and then assembled (with a little bit of super glue). I had one minor fail, but otherwise this was a relatively quick and easy print.

Most of the stuff I print is utilitarian...organizing tools, cable clips, boxes, etc...but now and then its fun to print something just because I've wanted it for a while.   What I always liked about this phaser (and really what I liked about the earlier seasons of TNG) is that it wasn't skewing toward more aggressive and militaristic.   This phaser was a tool as much as it was a weapon. The curves were cooler than the angular later versions, sometimes called the "dolphins".

Four colors, lots of layers, easy assembly.
The whole assembly fit together so well, the superglue is really just a safety.
The emitter all in one stack. The pictures don't do it justice: its very smooth and clean in person.
I'm impatient, otherwise I would have swapped in yellow filament for the trigger and buttons.
The photos really do make it seem rougher than it is, the lighting is highlighting layers you don't really see or feel in the hand.
Ready to boldly shoot things nobody has shot before. Ethically, of course.