Rusty Vault Door

This was a fun little project that tested the limits of my both my brain and my 3D printer.

I’ve been trying to create items that are not seen on every action figure diorama — if you’ve seen one back alley, you’ve seen them all. I don’t recall ever seeing a giant bank vault in any other action figure dioramas (though I’m sure they’re out there) so I thought this would be a great project to develop.

After researching some vault doors, I set to work creating the door in Blender (3D software). This door is basically three parts that were printed all at once — the hinge, the door, and the circular frame. I’m pretty proud of myself for the hinge, because I designed it to be printed in place, meaning the pivot points and their holes were printed in place – you would need to break the pins to remove the door from the hinge. Hmmm… maybe that would be a fun idea for a diorama.

This particular print was the first full-size one, and it took almost 14 hours to print. I had to do some cutting and shaving of the plastic to get the door out of the frame, and a few of the supports were a little messy, so I thought that it only made sense to distress it even more with some paint.

Rather than a shiny bank vault, this is now a long-neglected vault from a forgotten military facility deep in the center of the earth. Who knows what you will find inside!

I’ve already got the printer running off another print with a few modifications to ensure a smoother finish, while this old rust bucket is off to eBay! (As an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase.)