With the release of Portal 2 all the gaming fans have gone a bit turret crazy. And for a very good reason - they’re deadly, yet perfectly adorable. Want to own one? We have the models - Portal turret for Solidworks and same turret for AutoCAD. Sign up, download, 3D print.
Before I dig into the finer points of 3D printing this mechanical creature on 3 very wiry legs, let’s have some fun. Fortunately there’s tons of interesting stuff around the Portal’s turret in the internet. I’ll kick off with the official Portal 2 trailer. I wish more companies had such a creative approach to ads.
Something being made out of a Lego is a sure sign that something has reached pop culture stardom and of course there’s a tutorial available of how to make a Portal turret out of Lego blocks.
Then there’s a foldable paper turret created by Mike McDermott that you can download from devianart.com.
Finally, if you’ve played Portal or Portal 2, have you ever wondered what does a typical day for a turret look like? Wonder no more ’cause you can get a good answer to that important question from the following video.
Notes about 3D printing a Portal turret model
The most important thing to note is that the back leg is seriously fragile so either go with a really strong material (stainless steel or better yet, titanium would be good but pricey option). 1/6th scale might do the trick and keep the back leg strong enough, or if you have the skills then make the back leg a bit chunkier for 3D printing.
Where to print? If you don’t have local access to 3D printer then we can heartily recommend our partner i.materialise for any kind of 3D printing jobs. Their online tool gives you price up front, let’s you pick the materials etc. Easy and fast - check them out.
