For those who haven’t tried it yet, Overwatch is a cartoonish multiplayer video game set in the not-so-distant future. With a diverse roster of characters—from the giant talking ape Winston to the gun-slinging cowboy McCree—Overwatch’s cast is as wacky as it is all-inclusive.
One of these wacky characters—a Swedish engineer by the name of Torbjörn—is a dwarf whose main role in the game is to drop a turret, then otherwise be generally useless. But his mechanical companion is so connected to the character that you can’t have one without the other. KONGDOLE Production, a small design team from South Korea, love the little Swedish man’s creation so much they decided to bring it to life (You might want to turn on captions):
Using CAD to mockup their design, the team designed a 55-pound turret including a barrel that fires and shakes with similar physics just as it does in the game. In total, over 2000 hours were spent 3D printing the finished parts, which consist of the gears, body, and mechanism of the turret.



Since a traditional motor wouldn’t bring out the shaking effect, they instead use two dynamixel servos coupled with reduction gears to increase the power. After this, it was a matter of figuring out the circuitry and modeling the rest of the turret’s design.


The base of the turret body had to be sturdy, so they used acrylic and polycarbonate panels that connect to the 3D printed legs as well as the gears which power the servos.


For the core of the turret, a series of metal ball bearings are attached to the bottom to make it easier to rotate and seek out enemies. While the final product won’t be shooting anything dangerous like the rivets you see in-game, it definitely makes the turret look more realistic. Afterward, it’s a matter of sanding down the remaining 3D printed parts and spray painting them.


The firing mechanism for the ping pong balls functions a lot like your standard baseball pitching machine. Using brushless motors and servos, they managed to make the turret barrels fire alternately with a sick mechanical sound. Once it works properly, they attach the turret onto the base and legs using a screwdriver and some old-fashioned Torbjörn hammering.


The firing mechanism for the ping pong balls functions a lot like your standard baseball pitching machine. Using brushless motors and servos, they managed to make the turret barrels fire alternately with a sick mechanical sound. Once it works properly, they attach the turret onto the base and legs using a screwdriver and some old-fashioned Torbjörn hammering.
KONGDOLE Production has more projects in the making, all of which can be found on their YouTube channel.