My absolute dream in airsoft is to have my own SL8 replica, but from what I’ve been searching it seems like there’s no good replica like that?
The two manufacturers that come up the most are Ares and Novritsch with their SL8/SL9/SL10 and SSR63 A3 lines respectively. The problem is that while Ares has very good externals, their internals are proprietary dogshit, for lack of a better word, while Nov has godawful and inaccurate externals and average-at-best internals.
Is there really no SL8 airsoft replica that has accurate externals and at least somewhat decent internals? It also seems that SL8 custom builds with a regular G36 replica as the base are also not possible simply because there aren’t any SL8 externals up for sale anywhere.
It wouldn’t be too hard to 3d print parts and kitbash an existing gun into it. Given what I remember of airsoft, the 3d printer would be cheaper than the gun and you’d end up with a piece worth bragging about.
This was my thought as well. It seems you could use the G36 of your choice as the base and bodge on the upper rail, stock, and so forth.
I will say this, though, if OP is worried about the finish quality of the external parts: Getting a factory looking finish on those big plastic pieces is going to be very difficult with 3D printed parts and require a ton of postprocessing.
Yeah, I think if I were really planning on a factory perfect look I’d go with extra walls and ABS. That way you could slurry dip all the pieces to remove lines and chemical bond them together for stability. It’s actually a lot easier than sanding or bondo, but the tradeoff is fumes and acitone so it’s not a perfect option.
I was surprised at how easy it is doing the bondo and sanding. It just works, yea it’s a bit of work but it’s not to bad.
Honestly yeah, it’s my go to for a lot of different projects. That said, I find you can get a near factory finish with abs, including textures you can’t print, without any changes in weight or sanding work using slurry and nonbinding materials to transfer the texture.