3D Printing T’Challa’s Spear from Black Panther

Inspired by the movie Black Panther, I thought it would be fun to model, print, and finish T’Challa’s spear from the Warriors Fall scene. I started off by modeling the spear in Cinema 4D by utilizing two basic shapes for the bottom portion of the handle and spear tip. The tip was made by utilizing a cube and the subdivision tool, and the bottom handle was made with a cylinder shape and the subdivision tool. The mid-handle was made by using a high polygon cylinder object with multiple extrudes on the surface and smoothed out with the subdivision tool.

Once the model was finished, the bottom handle and spear tip was printed at .2 layer height and 80% infill. The mid handle was printed at .2 layer height and 10% infill. The printed parts were then sanded using 100 grit sandpaper to start, moving up to a finer grit of 400. Primer filler was then utilized to highlight any imperfections and to help fill in minor print lines that were left behind in the initial sanding process. Once the primer filler dried, I did a second pass of sanding, starting off with 220 grit and moving back up to 400. I applied primer filler for a second time and then followed up with a wet sanding at 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper.

Once a smooth surface was achieved a final layer of primer was applied before spray painting. Chrome metallic spray paint was then applied to the spear tip and bottom handle, and matte black spray paint was applied to the mid handle. The mid handle was masked of with painters tape and antique gold rub n buff was used to create the gold accent designs. Once all the parts dried, the spear was assembled utilizing a wooden dowel running down the middle of the spear and 5 minute epoxy.