You know, you start off the year with good intentions, end up with extra time or your hands due to recovery from surgery, so you finally get over your burn-out and start working on hobbies again, doing 3D modelling, writing blog posts, preparing files… and then what happens? You finish your recovery, go back to work and the burn-out returns and all that progress you made, into the drink with it.
What I’m trying to say, is that I meant to actually write and publish this blog post at least 2 months ago, heck I even way before that. My trials and tribulations with respect to the design and printing of the Xeno Zapper go back to 2024, 2 years ago.
So, before I completely forget about all the issues I had to sort through in it’s design, let’s get into it.
I think one of the funniest things about this model, is that I started working on it before Satisfactory had photo-mode for the game. So to zoom in and get screenshots of the model in-game I was using the FOV slider to zoom in on it. All the lovely screenshots I took have the character’s hands in them. Photo mode would have made this so much easier to get good screenshots. If only, if only. Maybe for the next model.
Not only did I take screenshots of the Xeno Zapper, I also took reference screenshots of the Xeno Basher as it uses the same model for the handle and head of the basher. But that checks out though, what with being the upgraded version of the Xeno Zapper. Got as many angles of both of these models as I thought would be useful for designing the replica.
I also took reference images from the amazing replica that the fine folks over at Heroic Replicas made as official merch. Sadly, I don’t think it’s for sale anymore. At the time of writing this they still have a Xeno Basher available, but the cost is a bit much for me. Plus it’s fun to build my own replica.
The length of their model is 18 inches which helped me to attempt to scale my own to size. Granted this length is also with the prongs extended, which in-game they are collapsed.
Anyway, with references gathered, it was time to get to work. Parts of this model were surprisingly straight-forward to make in CAD since it was mostly cylinders stacked on top of each other. I feel like the hardest part was the base and the grip, getting the curves just right. So, modelling went much faster than with the Satisfactory Build Tool with its more interesting geometry.
I attempted to break the model into as many parts as possible by color and for ease of printing. One of the biggest goals for me is to eliminate the need for as much support material as possible. The second goal, with this model specifically, is to make it sturdy as possible. I knew from the start with this design, that if/when I upgraded it to the Xeno Basher, it was going to need rigidity and a good way to keep it all together that was stronger than just glue.
And as much as I wanted give it a battery and lights, or to even make it into an actual taser, as fun as that would be, I opted for no electronics in this one. Purely a con-safe replica.
With the design of it finished, it was time to print! And print it I did. I think I printed a good 80% of the model before I assembled it. And hoo-boy, I think I got the scale wrong on this one again. You’d have to have massive hands to grip it. I mean sure, it probably would work better as a two handed weapon when it’s upgraded to the Xeno Basher, but you do wield it one-handed in-game.
Setting it up next to my power-drill really made me realize that I needed to scale down the model some. And you can even see it’s about the same size as the Heroic Replicas model. Maaaayybe 18 inches is a bit too big. Time to do a lot of re-work.
While I didn’t have to scale it down too much, yeah, it did not need to be that large. Second iteration was much closer to the scale of the build tool and felt much better to hold. And, as a side-note, I wish I could just scale things down quickly and easily by just using the scale tool, or telling the slicer to print it at 80% scale, but as much as that would work, it really wouldn’t due to the fact that the fasteners or the holes they need to go into, need to not scale, and stay the same. Always tedious having to resize a model, but I am getting better with my modelling flows that it’s not as much of a pain to re-scale things as it was when I was first starting out.
Time to print it for real and try out the new Cos-PLA that I got from Polymaker. Hopefully it sands better and makes for an easier time with painting. It certainly prints fantastically on my Prusa Mk3. And maybe I will hopefully, someday, actually, before more years pass, get around to painting the replica, we’ll see.
I decided with this model to go back and look at the save history in Fusion 360 to tally up the hours spent on this, and I think it took me around 50 hours of modelling in CAD by my rough estimate. Though, honestly, a lot of that time is spend spinning the model to look at it from different angles and staring at reference images trying to figure out what that small texture detail is actually trying to convey on the in-game model. And at least a good few nights were spent on getting the exploded diagram just the way I wanted it.
With this blog post, I will also be publishing the 3D print files on Printables (and here on my blog) for free. As with most of my models, there are a fair bit of hardware that is needed for assembly, so unless you have all the exact screws lying around as spares, I’m sure you’ll be spending money on getting those together.
Anyways, until part 2!
