Hmm what ideally needs to happen is reduce the barrel od to fit. Bush the slide end to accomodate the smaller diameter.
Damn I miss my lathes and mills 
Ditto… big time. 
I miss having access to all the gear that makes up a tooling workshop.
Snap a screw? No problem, knock up a carbon rod and burn it out on an EDM. Now it’s sweaty palms and tiny easy outs. 
The voodoo and black magic required to perform a simple operation without the right gear is mind snapping when you’re used to having it around.
Like BME’s Sten stock. To make the piece that slides into the back end kind of like a keyway arrangement would be a 10 minute job with a milling machine but I guarantee I’ll end up doing a modular build with tapped holes, screws and three bits of steel to get what’s needed.
Ah well, I does like a challenge. 
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Holy shit that is a lot of material, that seems like an oversight of the one who modeled it.
Either the unit they were using for reference was quite a bit different or they didn’t test print/fit.
Was it the mag base causing the issue?
Not only that, it looks to be quite weak because of what looks to be low infill, print orientation and wall count, wont surprise me if bme shears off whatever extends past the grip with one firm whack with the mag out.
Completely different mag.
The whole kit, was 3d printed to go together…with its own dummy mag.
It was never meant to fit onto a KEle, or have its massively wide mag pass through.
Getting it to fit, meant taking to it with a chainsaw…very thin walls.
But, it fits.
Im going to have to lop the end of the barrel off.
Pulled it apart, no easy way to seperate outer shroud, from inner shroud.
Inner barrel is further in.
The protruding barrel tip wont be missed, as the end of the slide sits flush with the muzzle extender…
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Oh yea a good trick used to use for snapped screws on the line machines was mig weld an Allen key to the snapped screw. The heat would unfuck it a bit and you have leverage.
Not applicable to something like M3 but I could get it with M6 and up.
The amount of snapped screws I’ve extracted by all means. Oh boy
Hammer and sharp punch to get the fucker moving.
Progress.
Chopped the barrel tip off, it now is able to go as far forward, as it can…
Starting to look the goods.
@Maiphut , getting dangerously close to victory, without any @Friendly_Fire assists…!!
Couple of issues…
1: gap of about 2mm between end of gel barrel, and muzzle adaptor.
I dont think i can close it by butchering the inside of the muzzle extender further. Either leave it, or cut some rubber to shape, and glue it on…
2: barrel tip/ 3 holes on each side may need drilling out to get gels through…that will create a rough surface which may shred gells. Maybe just remove when firing…
Whoops…thats better…
This one has the rear sight on.
It sits a bit too far forward, so may have to cut the retention slot off, and try screwing in a couple of tiny screws, for newly positioned retention slots…
Looking good. Now you just need a holster leg 
I might go for the “sex machine” holster, from “dusk till dawn”…!!
Being a none load bearing part the infill wouldn’t really cause any dramas, but yeah that only looks to be 2 wall passes, I do at least 3 regardless of what I’m printing, but then in some parts it looks to only able to be 2 walls thick anyway.
Orientation wise there’s only so many ways you could print something like that, regardless of which way thou the weakest point is always going to be the layer lines so just depends what direction any force is going to be impacting it, always want layers to be perpendicular to impact direction, if possible.
Yeah that’s starting to look the business, BME. 
A coat of paint and it’ll be a stylin’ addition to your movie prop collection. 
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Tube safari successful, @BME ? 
For anyone looking for tubing for build applications it’s worth keeping in mind that most Toyworld stores have brass alloy and aluminium tubing of different diameters in their hobby section near the Tamiya paint.
Very handy for lightweight M16 gas tubes.
Nah, not much luck.
Toyworld at morayfield was the closest, and they only had up to 12mm OD.
Too small.
Aliexpress, different story.
Ordered alloy tubes of 15, 16, 17 mm Outer diameter … for about $24.
hard to measure without calipers, but the 3d printed tube is about 16mm diameter.
Sizing either side, should be safe…get one that that fits.
Takes about 10 days to arrive, so i’ll sand / paint in the meantime…
Ok, first round of painting done.
So far, for prep, i have…
- sanded 600, then 1200.
- sprayed a coat of plastic primer.
- Let it dry, light sand again with 1200
- one coat of gloss rattle can black ( best colour match, for M93)
Still got bloody print lines…!!
I think i will let it dry overnight, light sand again, use that as a base coat, and try 2 more coats.
@DChapo , does that sound about right.?
Whats the best way to remove the lines properly.?
Anyway, results so far…
Starting to look the goods.
I’m still awaiting the alloy pipes, to run a smooth bore barrel (pathway) from the the cut down barrel, to the front. That will also aid with retention / stop pivoting…
Also…AH used to sell gas blowback M93r’s, and i saw one on the wall last time i went in…
Hmm…
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There’s a fill primer I use for my prints that will, as you may have guessed, fill any shallow layer lines then you sand it down until the print material is mostly visible and you’ll be able to see the layer lines that are deeper but the surface should be smooth, id the makes sense.
I’ll probably be doing some painting like that tomorrow so will take photos as I go.
It uses to be a grey-blue colour but this is the stuff I usually use and works just fine
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I used Bunnings plastic primer
Dulux Dura Max. It’s clear.
Is there any great difference.?
Apart from the fact that dulux is clear…
Will a sand down and recoat achieve mostly the same.?
Well the main difference is that those ones from Bunnings are JUST primers whereas that one from supercheap is made to fill small crevasses and scratches etc and when sanded down leaves a smooth surface ready for paint.
I don’t have anything half painted to demonstrate ATM.
Basically my process is
- Sand with 120grit to smooth out rough patches
- one coat of filler primer, allowed to dry
- wet sand with 120grit until plastic is visible, allowed to dry.
- if I missed some spots or isn’t to my liking I’ll repeat the prime and sand
- once smoothed, 1-2 coats of whatever I’m using depending on how it covers, some paints o my need 1 others a light 2nd
- then 1-2 coats of clear with a light go over with some steel wool or similar to take the fur off .
Depending on the layer height used it will be more visible, something done at a layer of 0.3 will be much more visible as opposed to say a 0.16, the layers are a lot more compact as a result.
That stuff is good if there’s big gaps in the layers, like sometimes you get these little tags coming out of the print like it’s over extruded as it moves to another position and when you pull it off it leaves a little cavity.
Filler primer I good for the smaller gaps cause it’s more viscous and will flow into those gaps more than a putty.
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