You should know him-
Dario aka FilaFlip3D

We saw your Alien rifle from District 9 film. Man, that’s amazing! Is it for somebody special?

Thx for kind words, actually I made 2 of those, one for a collector and director first-time filmmaker, City Impact Church pastor of a movie called Broken, also the second one went to set director of TV show called The Expanse, and because of messages like this “Yes I received the Blaster and it’s spectacular. We love it and thank you for the “paint job” (printed in Your colors-not painted) Thank you again for the work and attention to detail.” I love to make stuff.

The gun is really stunning with all details. How many hours did you spend making it?

In total I don’t really know, cause there are some attempts till you have the quality of print as you want, but overall 100+ hours, also weathering and decals weren’t done by me so am not including that in making hours.

How does look like the process of making? You model it, print….

I was contacted, to make a rifle sturdy enough from District 9 and as reference images I used weta workshop model, it took me around 10 hours to model it and 5 days to print it. I have 2 Original Prusa MK2’s so it went faster, also I like to see layers, cause that’s the beauty of 3D printing, but some people don’t, so if I have time I’ll prime it and sand it, that’s the job that takes most of the time, if you use low-quality filaments, but I don’t use them and I like to print with high details and lowest layer heights depending on a model.

We know you are working on a lot of props for cosplayers and fans. What was the biggest challenge as a project for you?

As I am still learning, every project has up’s and down’s, every project has their own difficulties, as my wife used to say: “Every time you are moaning about something and you still manage to work it out”. For every maker that’s starting a project, just one thing to say, don’t stop believing that you can’t finish it. One of the first and biggest projects of mine was Chopper motorcycle nixie clock, it was the most difficult project to model and to make it printable, still don’t know how I did it… :).

Is this all a hobby or your “main work”?

This is a hobby, I always liked to make stuff. When I saw a 3D printer for the first time couple of years ago, I wanted to try it. The irony was that I didn’t have any experience with modeling software, but I found many sites with free 3d models, so I bought it and printed only one cookie cutter in 6 months cause I didn’t know what to print :). I wanted to sell it, until a fan of Star Wars contacted me to make him laser beam for diorama. He didn’t have a model and I didn’t know how to make it. So I started to investigate modeling software and learning them. That was my start in the 3D printing world. I am fascinated with creating something with only one line or spline as a start and creating the whole model that is in my hands in a couple of hours. Can’t remember where I saw it, but one sentence is in my head: “3D Printer isn’t gonna make you a designer” and that’s 100% true. I should know, my first 3D printer was collecting dust for 6 months.

Someday I would love this to be my day job but I think that I need to learn more and more.

Why did you choose us for material suppliers?: )

I tried many filaments before, from many manufacturers, cheap and expensive, I don’t really remember but I think that I got a sample of your PLA Rapunzel Silver, I fell in love with it. It’s inexpensive, great colors of PLA that I use most, and details are what I was looking for, also easy to print with.

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