3D Printing P90: DIY Guide

Great Light - Metal 3D Printing

2025-08-25

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Unlocking creativity: a comprehensive DIY guide to 3D printing your own P90 replica

With its unique bullfighting design and futuristic aesthetics, the FN P90 has a unique appeal to enthusiasts of military simulation, airsoft, paintball and pole. Creating your own copy was once the field of professional workshops, but 3D printing democratized the process. Building a 3D printed P90 allows in-depth customization and hands-on creative satisfaction. However, this ambitious project requires careful planning, material understanding and technical execution. This guide provides you with knowledge and roadmap and insights into what professional services like Great Can improve your build for the highest performance and aesthetics.

Disclaimer First: Security and Legality
Crucially, before starting:

There is a huge responsibility to build replicas similar to real guns.

This guide is only for creating non-fire replicas, air guns, paintballs, or display models.

Never try to create components that can partition or fire live ammunition.

Always inspect and strictly abide by all local, state and federal laws regarding copying of firearms, imitating weapons, props construction, transportation and public display. Ignoring these laws can have serious legal consequences. Always distinguish replicas from real guns using bright colors or obvious visual indicators. First of all, safe.

Phase 1: Blueprint your project – Design and Preparation

Procure a reliable STL: It is crucial to find accurate, functional and well-designed 3D models. Search for well-known platforms (Thingiverse, Cults3d, cgtrader or professional forum) "P90 air gun" or "P90 replica". Prioritize good documentation, community feedback and modular design. Key features to verify include:
- Compatibility of internal mechanisms (gapbox for air guns, avoidance system for paintball shooting).
- Wall thickness (must bear mechanical stress, usually >= 2.5mm non-structural stress, higher stress parts).
- Precautions for parts orientation.
- Hard point design of screws and fasteners.

Material selection: balanced strength, completion and cost
- PLA: Easy to print, cheap, wide color range. Ideal for prototype iteration and pure cosmetics. Fragile and easily warped/deformed under pressure or heat. Not recommended Pressure components for functional triggers, transmission housings or air gun construction.
- PETG: Excellent middle position. Compared with PLA, the influence of resistance, temperature resistance and layer adhesion is better. More flexible. Smooth finish, slightly tricky with overhanging printing. Perfect for most gun body panels.
- ABS: Environment: ** good strength, stiffness and temperature resistance. Great for post-treatment (sanding, steam smoothing). Higher distortion tendency; enclosures that require heating. Exhaust smoke; ventilation is required.
- Nylon (PA6/PA12/PACF): The gold standard for durability. Excellent toughness, impact resistance, wear resistance and some flexibility. It is crucial for high stress components (transmission case, trigger, sliding mechanism). It is very challenging for consumer FDM printers: highly absorbed, requiring high temperatures, enclosed chambers and precise adjustments. Nylon carbon fiber (PACF) increases rigidity and heat resistance.
- Professional metal printing (SLM/DML): For unrivalled strength, heat resistance and realistic metal feel/weight for key components (small pins, brackets, custom suppressors). Greatlight’s expertise in selective laser melting (SLM) can be used in materials such as aluminum, titanium, stainless steel to suit these demanding applications.

Digital assembly and verification: Use slicing software preview or Fusion 360 (such as Fusion 360) to almost assemble the downloaded STL. Check for interference, assembly issues, screw/rod hole alignment and clearance of moving parts. Verify the feasibility of component sequences.

Phase 2: Get it to life – Printing and Settings

Slicing Wisdom: Settings are important!
- Layer height: 0.15mm -0.2mm provides good detail and speed balance. Lower critical surfaces.
- Fill density: Most body panels use 30-40% of grid or energy-shaped filler. High pressure parts (grip, trigger guard box, transmission mount) increase to 60-100%.
- Wall Count/Thickness: Critical. Target At least 3 walls (> 1.2mm) everywhere. For structural components, increase to 4-6 walls (>= 2.0mm). Use a slicer wall thickness adjustment.
- support: Required for overhang > ~ 60 degrees. Use tree support where possible to facilitate removal and reduce scarring. Carefully manage support density and interface settings. Orienting parts to minimize support on critical exterior surfaces.
- Adhesion: Use edges or rafts to fight warping (critical for ABS, PETG, nylon). Make sure the build board is impeccable and clean.
- Printing speed: Slow down for critical parts that require dimensional accuracy or complex features. For most people, 40-60mm/s is a good range.
- cool down: Parts cooling fans that maximize PLA and PETG (after the first few layers). Minimize cooling of ABS, originally used for nylon to prevent warping and delamination.

Challenge: Printing Performance Materials (Nylon, PACF)
Success with nylon silk requires:
- Dried silk: Nylon is hydrophobic; print immediately after drying using a special filament dryer (8 hours at 70-80°C). Store sealed with desiccant.
- Enclosed heating chamber: Prevent draft and maintain high ambient temperature (60-80°C+) to greatly reduce warpage and improve layer adhesion.
- Hard nozzle: Minimum: Stainless steel nozzles. Best: Tungsten carbide or ruby nozzles to withstand wear (especially PACF).
- High temperatures have the ability: The nozzle temperature must be kept at > 260°C (usually 270-295°C) and the bed temperature > 70°C (usually 85-100°C).
- Patience and calibration: Expect extensive calibration tests (temporary tower, withdrawal).

Phase 3: Post-processing – From original printing to polished replica

Supports disassembly and cleanup: Carefully remove the support using a rinse cutter or pliers. The sand starts with coarse sand (120) to cope with small pieces and layer lines, thus developing to finer gravel (400,800+) to make it smooth. Use a fill primer for pin holes and fine blemishes.

Assembly: Accuracy is key:
- Collect all required hardware (screws, pins, springs, rods) according to the designed bom.
- Use at hand to create clean lines in the printing hole. Lubricate screws.
- Keep testing the fitted parts before final assembly. Slight tolerances (~0.2-0.5mm) are allowed for a perfect fit. Use CA glue with caution as non-critical bonds; the strength of epoxy.
- for Function Airgun/paintball shooting: Carefully assemble the internal gearbox or shooting mechanism according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Premium finishes for premium appearance:
- Greglight’s one-stop service: Achieve results outside the garage:
  - Acetone Vapor Smoothing (ABS): Professional steam bath with seamless surface.
  - Grinding and polishing: Heavy gravel, wet sand stage and machine polishing.
  - Professional painting: Basic jacket, detailed color scheme, realistic weathered and durable sheer jacket (matte/satin/gloss).
  - Metal finish: Painting, powder coating, anodizing (for SLM metal parts) or plating for metal components.
  - Laser engraving: Add a logo, marker, or texture.
- Home page completed: Use a high-filled car primer. Depending on your material, apply spray paint that is designed for plastic or metal. Clear jacket for protection. Consider weathering techniques for washing and dry brushing.

Conclusion: Your vision has realized

The journey to 3D printing your own P90 is a challenging and very meaningful project that blends engineering, handmade and creative visions. It requires careful attention to design procurement, materials science, precise printing practices and diligent post-processing. While consumer printers can create excellent cosmetic replicas using PETG or PLA, the durability required for high-pressure air guns or the ultimate premium finish usually reaches the limits of amateur equipment and time. Working with experienced rapid prototyping experts becomes invaluable here.

Great Prepare to bridge the gap. With our advanced industrial fleet SLM Metal Printer And exquisite polymer printers, we use engineered grade plastics such as nylon CF and metals such as aluminum or stainless steel to convert your 3D model into robust high-precision parts. Our Comprehensive one-stop post-processing service – Professional finishing, painting and assembly of key components included – Make sure your DIY P90 build meets the highest standards of functionality, durability and amazing realism, exceeding the goals that are easy to achieve at home.

Whether you need to print the entire model or strengthen the key components, Gremplay empowers manufacturers to be bigger, stronger and more professional. Unleash your creativity with confidence – now quickly prototypify parts at the best price!