How to get mold professionally made? N3DS shell

Kitsen

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Hi there,

I'm currently working on a Bluetooth mod on a new 3ds from someone on the forum and I was inspired to upgrade mine.
Sadly, my shell is already damaged from my original mod so I wanted a new one to start fresh!.
Unfortunately, as some of you know, the New 3DS (non-XL) shell cannot be found online and you'd have to buy a whole new one.
This to me doesn't make much sense since every other shell can be bought easily except that model.

Personally, my 3DS is my favorite console and doubly true for that particular model and since the factories shut down I know finding the parts will become more and more rare (outside of modding thing like batteries and SD card slots)
Hence why for the sake of preservation I'd like to buy a N3DS, take it apart and have mold made of its shell to be able to distribute online to other N3DS enthusiasts like me who would want to preserve this console for years to come (and even have some funky colors)!
I have experiences making mold the ol' fashion way (2 parts with clay) but for a task like this maybe I'd like professional services instead of going at it myself (plus I always get bubbles and don't have the funds for a pressure chamber).

I wanted to ask the people of this forum who have experience with this sort of thing if they had company, recommendation, references, etc for someone who wants to help the 3DS community.

Thank you for your time,
 
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I'm working on a similar project. I'm trying to make custom DS, 3DS and Switch cartridges (because Pokémon Diamond and Pearl should look like Diamonds and Pearls, dangit!) and the solution I'm currently attempting is to make the shell with resin and transfer the chips and stickers to it. I'm still getting used to the medium (literally just got the supplies yesterday), so I've got plenty of kinks to work out and am no way able to take commissions. If you're looking for someone to cast it for you, I'd recommend looking on Etsy. There are tons of artists you could contact, and I'm sure they'd be happy to help

Or you could be like me and just trial and error it until you get it to look right
 

Shank

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An injection mold for a device like the New 3DS like that would cost tens of thousands of dollars, and thats assuming you have CAD files ready to go. Molds these are not the kind of things one can really have done for a funsies hobby project. If you don't have stupid amounts of money laying around, or plans to produce, sell, and distribute a few thousand of them, you are out of luck.
 
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