Fortnite – Rainbow Smash Axe
James’s favorite Fortnite axe is the “Rainbow Smash” so we just had to make him one.
The original design for this axe came from Jeoncs on Thingiverse and the majority of his parts are still required to complete the axe. Fortnite Rainbow Smash Pickaxe by Jeoncs
But I have taken his design and remixed it for a number of reasons:
- Overhangs – The original design had many features that required supports, this makes the print very difficult and time consuming. It also makes cleaning the support material and subsequent scaring up afterwards an almost impossible task as a lot of the support material was in very difficult to reach areas. I have reduced these features and issues by filling in the majority of the holes.
- Shaft Size – I changed the design to accept a 36mm wooden shaft that I could more readily purchase in the UK.
- Wheels – As I was changing the shaft size the wheel unit needed altering as well, the originals a solid piece so I designed a full wheel unit that spins with the addition of a few extra bits.
Design
To edit the head I used Fusion 360 converting the mesh into a solid body and over a very very long period of time managed to fill all the gaps and holes in under the harness for the four main head parts. I then altered the shaft diameter by cutting in a new shaft. Before converting everything back to STL files for printing.
Construction
Printing
When you slice the models you may still find the odd small overhang, I turned off the supports in these areas and still got a very good quality print.
I had a nightmare printing this part not because of the part but due to me.
The first print of the lower left section of the head failed under 1 hour away from completion on a 13 hour print. The printer performed a layer shift, due to a tangle in the filament feed, I’m amazed it printed for as long as it did.
After I successfully printed this lower left section I accidentally set the printer going again printing the same part “DOH!” and only realized towards the end of the print, what a waste of filament. I have kept this piece to use as a painting trial part when I eventually paint on the rainbows.
The ICE Filaments “Precious Pink” and ESUNs “Light Blue” Filaments really match the originals coloring.
Both are filament brands I have used many times without any issues (the tangle issue in the print above being my mistake and not a product issue).
The eyes and pupils are printed in their correct colours using TIANSE filaments. The horn I did in black as I had no gold filament but did have a some gold spray paint from the Iron Man Helmet project.
Gluing
The only parts that required painting before gluing are the collar and the horn as I didn’t print these in the correct coloured filament or are two tone. These are left out of the initial build up until painting is completed.
Gluing as always is the fun stage of the project but at the same time its the nervous stage as this is where it could all go wrong, wasting the parts you have been printing for the past number of days.
Always do a dry run
There is a lot of gluing required for this project so to reduce all the risks I strongly advise to dry fit them together first using masking tape and Blue Tak.
As you do this dry run you get to find out what problems you’re going to have holding everything in place, how items align (or don’t) and which piece is better glued before another.
I used tape and elastic bands to hold items in the correct position but even then it proved very troublesome. Even with activator liquid the glue sometimes just doesn’t want to go off.
Wheels
I designed these wheels from scratch, taking only a few rudimentary dimensions from Jeoncs model.
These are a really nice easy project for Fusion 360 and when split up make for nice easy printing with minimal supports required.
Its all held together with one 60mm M6 Bolt, between the hub and the wheels I added a couple of washers to allow the wheels to spin freely. Once bolted together (not too tight) and the wheels have been tested the wheel covers are super glued into place covering the bolt and nut.
I used a 5 min epoxy to attach the wheels to the shaft as the fit needed the extra thickness of the epoxy compared to using super glue.
Finishing
Now that we have completed the axe it needs to fully look the part.
Horn & Collar
I masked off the area on the collar that required to stay blue and then with the horn applied a couple of coats of primer before applying the brilliant gold spray paint and finishing off with Matt Clear Acrylic to protect it.
Shaft
After cutting off the handle and some of the tapered end section of the spade shaft, I sanded back the varnish that was already applied.
As the end result was very smooth I applied the paint directly to the wood. First applying the pink to one end of the shaft and feathering the coverage just over half way down, once dried I did the same with the blue from the other end making sure I got a nice transition in the middle between the two colours, whilst also covering all the wood. Again this was completed with a coat of Matt Clear Acrylic to protect it.
The cans of blue in the links below are not the one I used. I couldn’t find the Hycote Ford Bermuda Blue on Amazon, it was just a tin I found while out shopping one day.
The Rainbow
As you can see from my images, I haven’t finished completely, it needs the rainbow down the side of the neck.
To do this I will first have to mask the area off and apply a primer, before airbrushing on the rainbow colors by masking each off one at a time.
When completed a coat of clear-coat is always required to protect the paint from dirt and scratches.
Wall Mounts
To display this axe in James’s games room I used a clamp design I created some time back when I printed Will his Pink Flamingo Fortnite axe.
The designs nice and easy to print and there are spacers to help stand the units further away from the wall. The clamp requires 16mm M6 Bolts and nuts but the center shaft needs a nut and M6 bolt of a length suitable for the spacers you have added to stand it off from the wall.
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