Apophis Lynx

I got inspired by Zach Freedman's beautiful Ophanim and started designing this cosmetic shell with the goal of bringing some Destiny 2/Warframe aesthetics to the Lynx, and creating a 3d printed nerf gun with a style that I'd never seen on anything else. Mission accomplished.

Behold, my sculpted monstrosity, entirely done in Blender. No multi-color printing needed.

This build is very involved, both in printing and assembly. Beauty is pain.

If you print one of these, PLEASE upload a make! I want to see it!

HARDWARE:

• Lynx 2.1 kit (or 2.0 kit with upgrade parts)

• 55-60cm barrel

M3 stuff:

• 1x M3 - 12mm hex standoff

• 4x M3 - 4mm bolts

• 2x M3 - 8mm pan head screw (or bolt)

• 2x M3 - 10mm bolts

• 2x M3 - 12mm bolts

• 4x M3 - 20mm bolts

• 4x M3 - 30mm bolts

• 8x M3 hex nuts

M5 stuff (for foregrip)

• 2x M5 - 30mm bolts

• 2x M5 hex nuts

For top snake:

• 3x 4-40 screws (same ones sillybutts/misplaced moose/captain slug uses)

For the 'catch 3' parts included in these files (but you could use different ones):

• Some length of 4mm PTFE tubing

For BCAR:

• 9x F683ZZ bearings

• 9x 3mm - 10-16mm pins

For linear rail (do it, its so niccceeee):

• 1x MGN9C 150mm linear rail

• 4x 6-32 hex nuts

• 4x 6-32 lock washers

• 4x 6-32 - 3/8in round head screws

PRINTING:

Kinda just figure most of it out. I've included an 3mf file you can use as a reference. Most parts will need supports.

For a few of the parts its recommended to use a 0.2mm nozzle, but its not strictly needed for anything.

Filament I used (All Bambu Labs filament):

• PLA Basic black

• PLA Matte dark blue

• PLA Metal copper brown metallic

• PLA-CF burgundy red

• TPU for AMS (68D) any color (its for the catch guide)

ASSEMBLY:

Follow the slides- Please read carefully, because some parts are not intuitive, the whole thing is essentially a puzzle, but it does all fit together nicely in the end with no cutting or breaking (hopefully).

You will need to be familiar with how to assemble the regular Lynx, so give this a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4hoA55K2XM

Video on how to do the filament inlays (very important, go watch it.): https://youtu.be/tJgaSslRA_U

Apophis Lynx specific assembly order: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dZBsxiRzk0x-6ioC7YxtTpDFwyCuk4_9b06knZVQKc4/edit?usp=sharing

For the linear rail, the pump is in 4 pieces. Assemble the lower 3 like this using glue and two M3x12mm screws with nuts:

DESIGN:

I spent a stupid amount of time on this so bear with me as I ramble about all the cool design elements of this thing.

There were three main design references I used for this:

The Lodestar from Destiny 2

The Vigilance Wing from Destiny 2

And the Boltor (prime) from Warframe

You can pretty clearly see how some of the design elements and visual language made it through to the final gun.

I decided on using the Lynx platform for this, since I wanted to make a Lynx and this was a nice way to spice up an otherwise (visually) boring gun.

Moving on to the theming, I always loved the 'egyptian mythology' styling of the vigilance wing, so I went with one of my favorite characters from egyptian mythology, Apohpis, the embodiment of chaos, a giant snake. I found a version of the Lynx that was already kinda close to what I wanted shape-wise, and sketched it out, and started adding layers.

Tracing paper is fantastic for sketching designs btw :)

From there I moved on to the name, which I wanted to write in hieroglyphs (kinda). I landed on this set of symbols:

These are not traditional glyphs, but they get he job done and look fantastic. The snake symbolizes apophis, with the eye of horus meaning strength, combined with the cat to make “strong cat” (lynx). In the design here it's set above waves (another symbol for chaos).

The hieroglyphs on the “waves tube” part are a direct copy of the “spell for repelling apophis” found on ancient egyptian artifacts. It's repeated twice (one for each side), and in the final design it is ‘swallowed’ by the waves element, showing that it's been completely overcome by chaos. The name is also set on the same waves design piece for the same reason.

Huge thanks to all the respective designers who's work this is built on top of.

Some color/texture ideas if you're making one and don't know where to start: