In another post, I documented my build of the Fusion Core and Mini-Nuke from the Fallout game series and had mentioned that the Laser Pistol was also one of my favorite weapons from the game. While browsing 3D print files online, I stumbled across this awesome model, originally posted by Yvo de Haas of ytec3D and modified by Matt Davis on Thingiverse.
Over on ytec3D, Yvo de Haas has some amazing projects and a number of 3D print files available for download. Definitely check out his build of the Fallout Laser Pistol as well.
The Laser Pistol was one of my early projects. I think I did this project awhile before I tackled the Fusion Core and Mini-Nuke. It was one of the more complex models I’d printed at the time and needed screws and hardware that I didn’t have. That didn’t stop me though, it just took a while to source the hardware I needed, being as much of a novice to this whole hobby as I was. I think from the time I printed it to the time I finished painting it, it’d been about a year and I’d moved apartments as well.
Painting the model was about the same as it is for most 3D prints, lots of coats of filler primer and sanding in between to smooth out the print lines. I was still relatively new at painting at this point, so the paint job isn’t all that spectacular, but it turned out alright. It was certainly a needed challenge and learning experience though, as the model had many crevices that the spray paint didn’t want to get down into without making problems in other areas for me. Once I got the paint job done on it I was too scared to weather it; maybe this one is a pre-war production model, fresh off the assembly (let’s go with that story).
One of my biggest challenges with completing this build was sourcing the cable that runs along the body of the pistol. I’d seen people use varying things for it, including a thick piece of rope, or a coaxial cable. Now there I was something I had, and thought would work well – a coaxial cable. I fetched by box of random spare cables (something every house seems to have) and found a sacrificial one I could use that was just long enough. The color of it was off though, it was white and needed to be yellow. I had some yellow spray paint that I’d purchased for just this occasion.
The first problem I encountered was finding a way to paint the thing uniformly. The next problem was that the paint started cracking and coming off when I attempted to cut it to length and bend the cable into place. The final straw was that the cable was a tad too large – I thought I’d be able to squeeze it into place but that didn’t work at all and just stripped more paint off it.
In the end, I went back to my box of cables and found a DVI monitor cable I was willing to sacrifice. It was black, which I was much happier with than white, and I gave up on painting it. I’d have to find some other way to turn it yellow or replace it later on. Either way, I called it done for now. It’s still missing a few things, I wanted to add electronics to it, but… that’s a project for another time.
First few split parts printed. 
Knolling out the parts. 
Partial Assembly. 
Test assembly of all the parts. 
Sanding and painting. 
More painting, slowly getting to the correct colors. 
Final assembly. 
Batteries included. 
Don’t try to paint coaxial cable folks, it just doesn’t work. 
Substituted an unpainted DVI monitor cabled instead. 
Final spot in the display case. 
On display with the Fusion Core and Mini-Nuke.
Jumping Ship 
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