3D Printed Samus Varia Suit - FINISHED! (Pics on pg.14)

[jzerot1437]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

The plan is to use a pair of these
View attachment 344537
which will be mounted to the chest's rigid shoulder straps. The large side will hide inside the shoulder itself. Those are wall mounts for speakers which, by the way, I am very proud of myself for finding if I do say so myself. ;D

I chose these because they have angle restrictions. Vertically it can only rotate between the two "cups" which hold the ball joint (what is that, like 30 degrees?), but it can rotate 180 degrees horizontally. This allows me lots of movement forward and back with my arms, but with less risk of smacking my helmet with the shoulders when I lift my arms. It also means that when I put my arms down the weight of the shoulders should rest on the joint and not my arms. Bonus: the big fat side has a slide on the back which means I can easily lift the individual shoulders off their mounts to detach them, versus having them permanently mounted to the chest armor.

Amazon.com: Pinpoint Mounts AM30-Black Universal Wall Mount for Home Theater Speaker: Electronics

That looks like a solid idea. I may need to expand the shoulder straps on my chestplate just a bit to provide adequate clearance inside the pauldrons, but I'll give it a shot. Thanks!

 

[The Ronin]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

That looks like a brilliant idea for mounting just about any kind of shoulder. I'm excited to see how well they work.

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

This Samus Varia project looks amazing! Have you considered 3D printing the parts in different materials or even combinations of different materials via dual nozzle 3D printers?

When I had access to a 3d printer, which I no longer do, the printer was only able to print one material type. So, no, although other materials would be awesome.

I can't wait until we can 3d print rubber and stuff. How cool would that be? Monster masks, batman cowls, whole suits...combined with the current hard surface printing, the possibilities would be endless!

 

[irononreverse]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

You can get filament that creates flexible, rubbery things. Ninjaflex is one of them.

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

You can get filament that creates flexible, rubbery things. Ninjaflex is one of them.

Yeah I've heard of that. So cool. However I'm guessing there are a lot of limitations about what you can do with that material, plus the printer beds are tiny right now, making what I described impossible.

 

[irononreverse]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Well if the peachy printer lives up to its promises you could probably use a bathtub and print an entire suit in one go!

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Been working hard lately and I've gotten a good amount done, partially thanks to my sister. If all goes well I'm on track to finish in time, but aaagh there's only a month left!

My sister did some sanding on the chest, second thigh, arm cannon tip and rings, shoulder fin, bicep, and shoe tongues. She wasn't very confident in her sanding abilities since she's new at it, so I have to go through and finish sanding some of those. I taught her how to spot putty so she puttied the fin and cannon tip/rings and will be doing more later when she comes back up from Portland. She has also started making me the harness which will keep the chest armor and thighs in place since I can't sew on a button to save my life.

The cannon tip (the only one of those things I've taken a picture of):


I molded the shoulder fin since I'm dumb and only had two printed instead of four. On the bright side, it was a really good opportunity to try out using silicone and the mother mold material for the first time (and later, resin) before I go big with the huge shoulder. The shoulder is pretty much ready to go but I've been tackling other pieces lately instead.



I finished epoxying the first shin and sanded it and I'm almost done with the second one.
The first shin:


The second shin:


The first one has also now been painted! Sooooo prettyyyyyy...



And of course I just had to put my sample piece of EL tape in it just to see, even though it's the wrong width. :3



It's not quite as smooth overall as I wanted (there are slight wiggles across the surface which are more visible in photos than in person) but I'm fine with it at least for now. It's totally acceptable but maybe after this whole project is done I'll go back and even it out a bit. If I had the time I could have made it look even better but it wasn't worth it.

It's also obviously missing the dark gray paint on the circles and the detail paint.

Those Dupli-Color touch up spray paint nozzles suck so much... I had to sand, wet sand, and repaint parts of these so many times to fix bubbles and splatter and crap. I don't get it. The tall enamel Dupli-Color cans spray great but not these. :/

 

[CorriTimigan]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

This really is incredible. You might be stressing about only having a month left, but I'm going to be mean and hope it goes quickly so we get to see what it all looks like when it's finished!

Good luck!

 

[joshvanrad]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Just take your time and do it right. You've been doing a killer job so far. Just chill and keep doing your magic. You know we're all behind you on this one!

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Circles have been painted!

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Yesterday, along with painting the circles on the shin, I spent a while trying to figure out how I'm going to get the two halves to stay together. Velcro lets things flop around too much - it needs to be rigid. I bought some clips but getting all four of them to line up while putting the pieces together is impossible because of the unusual shape of the shin and the way you have to angle them together to fit. My next idea is snaps. Normally this wouldn't work; the snaps would make a gap between the two pieces since they'd be pretty thick. My idea though is to cut a hole in the flange that overlaps inside where the two pieces meet and mount it in the hole. Hopefully hot glue or something holds it in place well enough.

Tonight I did almost all of the rest of the Apoxie on the second shin, and primed the first thigh.



Now THAT'S smooth! I wish I had more time to make the shins match.

 

[drjag]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

You could try N52 Neodymium magnets (the strongest kind possible) to join them together; you'll probably need about a dozen magnets, 6 on each piece which line up. If you do give this a go, be wary of adhesives as hot glue would completely de-magnetise the magnets, so something like JB Weld would work.

 

[irononreverse]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

There's also VHB Velcro. Unlike regular Velcro, both sides are the same and they lock together really tightly. There's no play or looseness like with regular Velcro.

 

[joshvanrad]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

You could try N52 Neodymium magnets (the strongest kind possible) to join them together; you'll probably need about a dozen magnets, 6 on each piece which line up. If you do give this a go, be wary of adhesives as hot glue would completely de-magnetise the magnets, so something like JB Weld would work.

+1

Some little block magnets work magic on stuff like that. I think I just used N48s with epoxy putty on my armor pieces and they work like a charm.

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Ah thanks I'll give magnets another try! I had bought some previously but I'm guessing they weren't N52. They are far from strong enough to hold the heavy shins together.

 

[The Ronin]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

What about some Lego technic bricks and pins? http://bricker.info/parts/32000/ http://bricker.info/parts/2780/

I was thinking about using some of those in my armors to align everything and help lock it all together. They may not be enough alone to hold it all together, but with something like the velcro or magnets you can't fail.

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Hahaha you are a genius! I'm sure there's some configuration of those plus maybe one or two other pieces that would lock the shins in place very securely.

 

[The Ronin]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Thank you! I'm a bit anal retentive when it comes to seams lining up, so I can understand your frustration (must be the autobody guy in me) I came up with the idea when I was digging through my old Lego bins to play with my kids.

 

[Talaaya]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Only 20 days to go! Aaaagh!

I haven't had time to post updates lately since I'm trying to spend any time I have on the costume, but I have some time today in between various tasks to write up a summary of what I've been doing. I don't have any pictures uploaded to post but I have been doing my best to take some, so I'll probably do a big sum up with pictures after I finish.

Helmet
A friend of mine cut my new visor acrylic. Previously I had scored and snapped it myself but the shape wasn't accurate enough and the way I was bending it wasn't working. Before the 3D printer went away I managed to print a buck (an exact negative of the inside of the helmet where the visor sits) for the visor to be shaped into, which allows me to bend it at exactly the right angle and get a perfect curve. My first attempt at the bend left the bend slightly wiggly since I pressed it into the buck with my fingers (normally this wouldn't be a problem but the reflective film I'm applying doesn't stretch and as a result can't contact the visor where it's wiggly). Next time I'll use a dowel. It also got a couple spots that are ever so slightly bubbly since I was using a heat gun. You can barely see them but I have another visor I can bend so I'll only use the bubbly one as a last resort.

I found awesome side venting fans (vs normal front venting fans) which should fit perfectly in the ear bumps, keeping my visor fog free and my head a little cooler.
I also bought some EL wire to go around the visor if I have time.

Shoulders
This week I've been molding the shoulder. Today I cleaned up the mother mold so it wasn't so sharp on the edges and I cleaned off some remnant flecks of paint that stuck to the silicone mold. Just now I casted one of the shoulder fins, in a separate mold which I had created a few weeks ago. It was good to do my first time casting with a very small piece, although nothing went wrong. This evening or tomorrow (daylight permitting) I will cast one of the shoulders!

After I have the shoulders casted I have to rig them up with interior support and attach the shoulder joints to the chest. Should be pretty straightforward.

Chest
My sister went back to Portland again but while she was here she did a rough sanding and started the spot/glazing putty process, so it's just sitting around for now. That's a task better left for when she gets back.

It also needs holes drilled in the shoulder straps so the shoulder joints can attach.

Forearm
I finally managed to get all the magnets and tabs to work properly and now this piece is officially finished!

Glove
I figured out that I can actually just use magnets to hold all of the armor on the glove. I got a bunch of really thin, really strong magnets. I haven't installed them yet. The back plate was waiting on the EL tape (which just arrived!) so I could know how to set it all up for the lighting before I permanently attached the two pieces together. It needs to be Apoxied and sanded, but it's a small piece so it won't take long.

Cannon
Other than about 5 tiny spots, the entire thing is all sanded and ready for paint, except it needs to be attached together first. I found the PERFECT size cardboard tube to act as the main support. I'll glue all the pieces on there and then I can paint!

Biceps
The first one has been done for ages, but the second one needs a little bit more bondo and another sanding pass before it's ready for paint.

Torso
It needs several more coats of plastidip (white this time to act as a good base for the yellow paint), then it's ready for paint.

Thighs
The first one is ready for paint but I need to wait until the second one is ready too, since the yellow acrylic spray paint loves to clog. I'll do it all in one go. The second thigh is in the process of sanding, then needs a spot putty glazing and another sanding pass before it's ready for paint.

Shins
The first one has all magnets installed and stays together very well! The second is ready for paint and then magnets.

Shoes
One needs a clear coat, the other is completely done including velcro to hold it closed.

Shoe tongues
Also in the process of spot puttying/glazing. Waiting on my sister.

Harness
My sister sewed me a really nice harness from backpack straps which will be the anchor point for the chest and thighs.

Joint ribbing
If I have time I'll add joint ribbing to the elbows and knees with puff paint. I don't have time to do surgical tubing for those areas - the hip surgical tubing ribbing is already complete though, and will attach to the torso.

Neck seal
Also if I have time I'll make a plastidipped foam neck seal. Not the end of the world if I don't have it; I'm wearing a balaclava.

Pretty much everything still needs detail paint, has to be rigged to be wearable, and needs EL tape installed.

I took the two weeks before PAX off from work so I'll have a lot of time to get this done. Cross your fingers!

 

[thorssoli]

Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit

Fingers crossed.

Really hoping for pictures.