I’ve been playing a lot of Satisfactory over the past year or so. I picked it up a while ago after discovering it via some YouTube content creators and thinking I might actually enjoy playing it more than I initially thought I would. And I ended up diving into it around Update 4, I believe.
So, after playing a while, I decided I wanted to make a replica of something from the game. I didn’t want to do anything super complex, and wasn’t as super in confident that I could model any of the weapons they give the player (at least for now). I figured the Build Tool (Construction Tool?) they give you in game would be a neat replica to make, and shouldn’t be too challenging to design and 3D print.
Spoiler alert: it took me a lot longer to design and print out than I would have liked, and I started and stopped many times over many months cause I didn’t know how best to proceed in modeling it.
As with any project, first step is to gather reference images. I started up a new game save, as the initial cut-scene is when we really get to see the most of the build tool. After that, you only really can get shots of it during the ‘twirl’ emote, scanning for resource nodes, or when building. It was plenty to get started on modeling.
Then, the trailer for Update 5 dropped. (If you’ve been following the game, that should tell you how long I was working on modeling this thing.)
I noticed so many little differences on the tool in the trailer, and in-game now too. The dev’s had tweaked the model in a number of different places. Most of the changes were subtle, but I liked the tweaks they made, even if it did make certain parts harder to re-model. The trailer made for amazing reference though, and I was able to step through it slowly and take screenshots of many different angles that helped to clarify details I had been inferring earlier.
On to Fusion 360. I am developing such a love-hate relationship with this software (story for a different time). To start with, I imported two things, a reference image for scaling (thank you Punished Props!) and an STL model someone had ripped from the game and posted to Thingiverse. Now, while this model was more or less directly from the game, maybe cleaned up a little, it was not modeled or sliced up in as nice a fashion as I wanted for 3D printing. That said, it was really nice for getting the initial scaling of the item and then for sizing details to each other as I modeled.
Some of the harder parts of the shape of the model for me were the odd angles that flow from grip of the tool to the head of it. I was able to accomplish these details using a variety of planes at different angles and lofts. After lofting many of the parts, I had to use an additional set of constructions planes to get the cut angles correct. It was a bit of a brain teaser, trying to sort out how to build up the base model and in what order.
And during all of this, I was attempting to keep in the back of my mind, how I would go about printing each of these pieces. What orientation would be best for detail resolution, for sticking to the bed, and for final assembly. I wanted to to be able to take the thing apart to a reasonable degree; both for painting and to replace anything, if a part of it broke.
Around the time I started getting to trigger, the cap for the button, and the cage around the head of it, I was starting to realize how small of details were on this thing. The cage itself, I modeled with a 3mm diameter for the material used, as that seemed to be to-scale with the rest of the tool. And with the shape of it, there was no good way to print it (nicely) on an normal FDM machine. The cap too, was rather small and I knew I was going to want to print it out in multiple pieces. By the end of it, I was really thinking that this model would print best on an SLA printer, which I definitely don’t own.
Once I had completed the model, I decided I just wasn’t happy without adding some sort of electronics to it. Yes, it would make a nice display or cosplay piece as-is, but it would be so much cooler if it had lights and the button worked, and all that jazz. As much as I wanted to, I decided it was going to be too much of a challenge to add in something like an Adafruit Feather board with an accelerometer or other programmable board, let alone a speaker to get all the fun sounds the tool makes in game. There was just not enough space for me, at least, to work with. Maybe someone else could have made it work, but at this point, I just wanted to be done with the project. I did my best to hollow out the model and locate components, and make it easy to swap out the battery. I figured I’d keep the bare minimum and go with a set of LEDs hooked to a small battery with a mini-pushbutton in series. That way at least, I could push the button on the replica and it would light up. Simple enough.
With the 3D model complete, it was time to send parts off to the printer. And while those were printing, it was time to make an exploded diagram and parts list for the replica. I tried something different with the sub-assemblies in the model, showing them separately instead of my usual of making a note about them and leaving them shown assembled. There were a lot of small pieces to this model and the drawing ended up looking rather crowded in some areas, but I think it turned out alright. It took me far longer to make this drawing though, than some of the others I’ve done. (Story of my life with this replica it feels like.)
Next up, after everything is all printed, it’ll be time to paint and sand, and do some soldering, and heck, maybe see about trying something new; bending and soldering brass rods for the cage around the front; a new medium I’ve never worked with before, but would like to make an attempt. All of that coming in a Part 2 post, whenever the weather is finally warm enough to paint outside.
Reference material taken from: Satisfactory, Coffee Stain Studios, 2019.
Jumping Ship 
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