Halloween Project - "...Aren't you a little chubby for a FO Stormtrooper?"

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monkeyking1969

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https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-star-wars-storm-trooper-vii-fully-wearable-helmet-12992

Fully Wearable Star Wars VII Storm Trooper Helmet

I have 90% of the parts printed off my 3D printer (not all shown here). Today I completed rough sanding 80% of the parts, but I need to go in with my standing tools to pick out the edges around the mouth area...it needs to be sharper. Then I just have to rough sand the rest, and then glue/bond/weld the ELEVEN parts into TWO parts (front & back). Then scrape & rough sand again to erase glue/bonding fill in all seams. Then primer-fill & dry to allow for final standings. Sand, sand, sand...drill out more air holes near where my mouth goes that will be covered with fabric and then mesh.

If I do that all the parts should look something like this when it is unpainted:

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  • Mask off areas around the five or six silver parts...paint the silver parts
  • Mask off areas around the black parts...paint the black parts with a few coats
  • Mask off the black & silver parts very precisely to paint teh helmet white several coast between light sanding.
  • Mesh around the air holes on the inside, mesh around the grimacing mouth of the helmet.
  • Get my solution to the lens in there


I will hold the back to the front using Neodymium magnets. It will not be movie accurate, but it is damn nice IMO. Fun fact...you don't realize how big these helmets are until you make one.





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BladeOfCreation

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That's awesome! If you don't mind me asking, what's your overall cost for materials? What do you expect your total time spent on the project will be?

Man, I've long thought that a movie-quality costume would be great, but I just couldn't pull it off. Being as short as I am, it would look ridiculous. I have a serious appreciation for cosplay in general and anyone who can pull it off is just awesome in my book. The skill that goes into the design, crafting, and creative problem solving is always inspiring and fascinating.

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monkeyking1969

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That's awesome! If you don't mind me asking, what's your overall cost for materials? What do you expect your total time spent on the project will be?

Man, I've long thought that a movie-quality costume would be great, but I just couldn't pull it off. Being as short as I am, it would look ridiculous. I have a serious appreciation for cosplay in general and anyone who can pull it off is just awesome in my book. The skill that goes into the design, crafting, and creative problem solving is always inspiring and fascinating.


Thank you.

Just the 3D printer filament for the helmet was about $32. (Its hard to say because I am printing a "movie accurate" FORCE AWAKENS F-11D Heavy Blaster too) Sandpapers of various grits, I bought them in 20 Yards rolls of by 2-3/4" wide w/ self adhesive backing, were $30. (The adhesive rolls of sandpaper are actually easier to use; I can just rip off a bit and stick it to my palm to "rub" the part. This is less strain on hands & fingers since you don't have to grip teh paper or a sanding block.) The various spray paint will cost me $25, but really I already had those from other projects. I bought $12 of mesh fabrics that I may or may not need or use. My darkened len idea is a real hack, which may not work. I have two sheets of smoke grey 0.5 mm polyfilm - I figure two sheets should be black enough to make it dark enough

The 3d printed parts took (will take) 90 hrs to print, but that is split up over 14 groupings. Even with my printer's 25cm x 20cm x 19cm build volume, I could only fit one or two parts at a time, and two parts I had to bisect a yet again to print in two pieces. I spent 3.5 hrs just deburring and rough sanding 70% of the parts, this far. I think all total this helmet project might be in the 100 hrs, with only 10 of that time where I am doing hand-work


The FORCE AWAKENS F-11D Heavy Blaster will be another 120 hrs of printing and assembly...but also has more costs due to nut/bolt fasteners, lights, and electronics.

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I did not create these designs, so I too VERY MUCH appreciate the skill that goes into the design, crafting that makes these 3D CAD models. I joined my local The 501st Legion (New England) this Fall. I am using the helmet and blaster projects to get my handcrafting skill up to a level where I can attempt armor...that armor project will costly in either time or money. (Probably both)

Yet, I love building stuff, it is very satisfying.

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BladeOfCreation

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@monkeyking1969: That's so cool! I've always found 3D printing fascinating, but I expected the materials would be really expensive.

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monkeyking1969

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@monkeyking1969: That's so cool! I've always found 3D printing fascinating, but I expected the materials would be really expensive.

I have access to a fused filament fabrication (FFF) Makerbot Replicator 5th ed at my work (a public library), a FFF is he most common consumer 3D printer. Such printers use a thermoplastic material filament on a reel, it looks like heavy gauge wire on a small reel. The filament can cost as little as $15 for 1 KG (about 2 lbs); or it can cost as much as $52 for 1 KG for specialty filaments. Expensive filament can give a better result right out of the machine. But, on a projects with parts that will have to be sanded, less expensive filament is useful as long as it is is not out of spec for flex, brittleness, etc.

Projects for work are done on the nice name brand filament, but for my projects I just buy my own inexpensive stuff from Amazon.

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BladeOfCreation

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@monkeyking1969: Is any of the filament "lost" in the process of printing? Like say the thing you're making was gonna end up being 1 KG when finished, would you need to add more than 1 KG of filament? Or does it come out pretty even?

I never thought of a public library having a 3D printer. Do they rent it out for use to the public? Or is it free for public use with one's own materials?

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monkeyking1969

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#7  Edited By monkeyking1969

In most cases the printed object will be on top of at least a raft. That raft is like a lily pad under the base of your print it is a firm know quantity of material with a known adhesion properties - thus it is preferred to have such a bed under most prints. Moreover, if the print requires support from underneath, for instance imagine that from the side of a tree a limb that sticks out horizontally. Once The printer is up to that branch that limb going out will be unsupported unless "planned structure" is under it. That planned structure is called support and is printed in such a way as to snap off.

So there can be two form of waste "rafts" and "support" in a print. When you print something, it is very wise to look at how the layers will print, the geometry of will overhang, and even how much raft will be produced under the bottom surface you choose. If you can arrange a print on and XYZ axis so it does not needs support - that saves material. Likewise, you could print some objects with no raft, but that is tricky and messy if it fails.

I would say a 1 KG roll will have waste, but how much is variable. A truly poorly planned print can consume half a KG in support! A truly ingenious layout of parts might waste only 5%.

In most cases the printer stays at the library- if they have one. Such a tool might be in a room with other tools or a designated "maker space". If you live around the progressive/tech cities of Portland, OR, Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; Brooklyn, NY; Bounder, CO; Burlington, VT; Albuquerque, NM; Austin, TX; Chattanooga, TN; Louisville, KY; or Madison, WI you might have a MAKERSPACE in your area.

There is a website that, while not exhaustively complete for all libraries, does have a listing : HERE

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BladeOfCreation

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@monkeyking1969: Thanks for all the info! Make sure to post pics of the finished product! I just briefly looked up this MAKERSPACE concept, and it's really cool, and I love the idea of having this sort of thing in a public library. Looks like a great way to educate and a great way to help people see libraries as worth the (relatively small) cost even in the 21st century.

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monkeyking1969

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I will post when I have more done; and I will post a photo of the whole costume - if it isn't too embarrassing.

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BeautifulSpaceCowboy

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Looks cool. Thanks for sharing, and hope to see it when it is finished :)

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#11  Edited By monkeyking1969

Tried printing the last panel, a part that will take 20h+, it made the first of many bad layers a few hours in and I only caught isty whe ist was 17 hrs into the print. I was being naughty and not watching it overnight [ sheepish shrug]. So, have to print that one again, but I flipped it hoping to make the print easier for the machine...it stuff like this that makes 3D printer not quite "any" consumer ready.

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3D printing is like making a soufflé, a pain in the butt, but the result is worthwhile when it works.

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#12  Edited By monkeyking1969

As the days tick by, I think I will not have enough time to clean and assemble the Force Awakens F-11D Heavy Blaster. Consequently, for the costume I will print a "simplified" version of the blaster that will will make in 4 parts. When put together it will be 2 ft long. Or 2 ft 2 in when I shove an orange muzzle on it -safety-first kids!

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Since this doesn't need to be a hero part, it can just look like a pew-pew "space gun". I will sand it all down and spray pain it nicely, but this will be 500x simpler, and it is something I can hand to a kid without worrying if they drop it on the sidewalk on Halloween.

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As far as progress on the helmet - I have half the parts superglued. That super glue is just to tack things together, I will use bondo and a popsicle stick to put a thin "shmear" on the outside and a thicker bead on the inside. Once dried, I can sand the outside smooth and hopefully the bondo ribbing of the inside will make teh whole thing strong. (I actually dropped one of the dried superglued sub assemblies and it held up fine; so the helmet should be strong enough the bondo is really just to fully seal and flatten seams.)

Last night I took some cheap over the calf black rubber boots and cleaned the rubber with Isopropyl alcohol -to remove oils and grease-, so I could spray "Pasti-Dip" on the outside of the boots in white. Now $12 black rubber boots are stand-in stormtrooper "white boots". Even cheap white boots were too expensive; so a $5 spray-can of Plasti-Dip and $12 gave me the boots I needed. They actually look pretty rad! I only need to make forearm gauntlets and the top-half of the chest armor which might be cardboard.

This is the basic idea of the costume. A military poncho that is in white camo; helmet, gun, the boots. For my forearms I will make armor and I have black gloves with some armor on the backside. Then I will make just enough armor on the shoulder and chest to show the bulk under the poncho. I have a black belt to hang some white boxes and "rifle magazines". If I get all the done early I will make a pauldron.

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#13  Edited By monkeyking1969

Hey, kids don't mix a big dollop of Super Glue with baking soda....it solidifies immediately with an exothermic reaction that release an invisible gas cloud that is not pleasant!

I guess you are supposed to smear the liquid super-glue on the outside of the objects then sprinkle baking soda on it slowly. However, it is not not worth it, because it is so fast acting and stinky. I'll stick with Bondo because it is more forgiving with time and sands just fine. Playing with chemicals is dangerous! ;-)

Update: Man! The rifle which was supposed to be easy is proving a pain. I printed out the first part but was not happy, so I went into teh STL file to fix it. The more I fixed teh more I felt I could improve, the rifle in now 50% more accurate in look from the movies and a bit stronger. I have also turned in into 10 parts instead of 4 so my printer need not work so hard; one part was going to take 26 hrs....that is now down to 10. This means more gluing, but less headaches with shorter prints.

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Well, after some work I have most of the sub-assembly parts glued into larger parts.

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PM_Xenos

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#15  Edited By PM_Xenos

3D Printing?! Bah. Kids today. Back in my day we made a vac mold with a shop vac.

Okay. I never did. Though a friend did. Forget if he ever did Star Wars armor, but he did use it to make a robot suit when I saw it. I think he used a heating coil from an old oven on his vac mold.

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monkeyking1969

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An Update:
I wanted to do more Marine compound to fill in every single crack and get it finish perfect...but I'm running out of time. As my college Professor one told me, "Don't get it right, just get it written!" So, this is good enough for the time I have remaining until I hand in teh project. ;-)

This is the first two coat of white on the helmet, I did the first two coats in a formulated flat white that adhere to PLA, hot glue, marine bonding compound, etc. With that coat on I will mask off the whole front to paint the inside flat black. Once I have the inside painted flat black, I will drill some air holes in the front; I know from experience that this mask needs air and venting. Then I masking off of the front to spray the glossy back around the detail areas that need to be black. Or I will paint the glossy White...then mask off for teh Black...not sure yet.

The front back back will snap together using Neodymium magnets. I would two sets of six. The first set I think was 7.96 lb pull force, which is WAY TOO MUCH when multiplied by six magnets! That second set is a more reasonable 2.3lbs multiplied by six. I think when ist is magnet to magnet the back will be held to the front with enough force to hold.

The boots are and experiment as I said above. They are black rubber boots with "Plasti-Dip" white on them. They seem fragile, so I might have to get some white fishing boots...Deadliest Catch style

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For armor I found a website where a dude makes everything from cardboard (http://www.stormthecastle.com). I will just use his Spartan Greek pattern. I just need chest, forearm, thigh, and a belt; because that will be all that will show. Painted Glossy White it will look enough like Storm Trooper armor for my tastes.

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BladeOfCreation

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Well...it's Halloween! The people want to know! How'd everything turn out?!

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monkeyking1969

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Still glueing!!! I need 40 more min...

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monkeyking1969

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You can't see the eye lens...which is good...but there is lense in the mask. I can see out really well, it does not obscure my vision at all. People asked "How do you see out?!" But the lens is just smoke grey, it only appears black from the outside. I didn't have time for armor...sorry. Next year I will do better!

Thanks for all the interest and well wishes! I dedicate this to the GB community.

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BladeOfCreation

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@monkeyking1969: Awesome job, duder! If anyone asks, tell them you're part of an elite stormtrooper unit that moves quickly and discreetly, hence the lack of armor!

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Congrats on getting it done in time.

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monkeyking1969

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More complex...more parts...more time.
More complex...more parts...more time.

Next year.....?





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#23  Edited By monkeyking1969

Just as side note: After going through the process of making and building, which was under a deadline, I have figured out the helmet was about 8% to 10% too big. Its not so big as to be super distracting, but it was a bit large. If I were to do it again I would scale down the model by 9%, or that is to say I would find the helmet I wanted and then fit it too MY HEAD.