M203 Cutaway Model

I’ve always liked how cutaway guns have the exposed surfaces colored red, which I think looks really cool.

Example

So I learned how to do it in Solidworks!
Hopefully this means I can use this going forwards when it comes to taking/making pics of my 3d cad stuff

The baseplate might interestingly be the limiting factor here.
Shown is a 12″ m203 barrel, but the baseplate already is too big for the printer.

If I wanted to make it line up with the ends of the barrels, which I think would look nice, it would have to be like 450mm long (before scaling).

So I think I will try to modify barrel to be a 9″ version, and then also look into whether or not the M4 barrel can be shortened any? ideally, as short as possible while also having the M203 cut

My printer can print a max diagonal surface of that shape of roughly 300mm, and the baseplate is one thing you DONT want to be printing in pieces and then attaching, as it’s going to be holding all the weight, and if there are any imperfections in the way you attach things, the whole assembly will droop.

-Shortened m203 barrel
-Shortened M4 Barrel
-Added barrel pillar

As the overall length from the cut face of the receiver to the end of the barrel is ~440mm, I will have to print at half scale if I want to be able to fit things on the print bed without printing in more pieces than necessary
Max build volume on my printer is 250mm in each direction
At 22cm length, this should be prefectly desk ornament sized.
Oh and if anyone is curious, the main model is shamelessly taken from here. I have reached out to the author to get their consent before proceeding with any actual building

Update:

I am now doing this at 80% scale instead of 50. 50% is just too small to be cool, and would be hell to work on, after printing the upper and holding it in my hands
To make this happen the biggest thing to resolve is the upper, which I am currently addressing by adding these bits that will press together and get epoxied together. If the strength is insufficient, I will be replacing the gas tube connecting section with a hidden M3 bolt, and adding material under the handguard to insert a threaded nut

Old scale (50%) vs new scale (80%)
… sizing up was definitely the way to go. Little bit of hassle but things are going to be cleaner, and show more detail