Destiny Thorn Exotic Hand Cannon
Despite this video game weapon being the most hated in the game to encounter, it is certainly a fan favorite among prop makers for its unusual design and evil looking organic nature. This is the Destiny equivalent of Darth Vader's lightsaber. It was decided to tackle this as a departure from the more standard, hard surface designs usually made. A fellow named Michael Vroegop had an impressive 3D model based on a single side view image of this weapon, released before the game even came out. Shortly thereafter, the game was released and the thorn was almost entirely re-shaped into a more wedge shaped design with harder angles, no doubt to reduce polygons in game.
Vroegop's model was printed in a standard PLA filament on an earlier printer. The prototype had large print lines indicative of the era, and all of that had to be tediously sanded down.
Additionally, the thorns on top of the gun as well as the front thorn were slightly extended, thickened, and reinforced. The trigger and moving hammer parts/mechanisms were borrowed from the previous standard hand cannon projects to fit the lore behind the design of this gun. A mechanical looking swingarm was made, based on the in-game version as well as a thicker, simplified cylinder to accommodate a thicker power cell than the original proportions would have allowed. The receiver got carefully notched out by hand for the mechanisms and thicker cylinder design since the original Model/print had no mechanisms. Since the gun was getting a slightly more mechanical look to it, We deleted the organic tumors on the mid-sections of the outer barrel.
Game: Destiny (Bungie/Activision)
Static digital model/PLA printing: Michael Vroegop (Vrogy)
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