Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
Took a nice break after all the stress before PAX and I'm starting to ramp up work on this again! I'll update soon with a more comprehensive explanation of what I was doing in my hiatus just before the con (with pics)! For now I'll briefly explain what I've done recently.
I had heard about a thermoplastic called Worbla a couple times and decided to buy a sample to try it out. For those of you unaware of Worbla, it has just recently started making its way into the US. It comes in sheets which are brown and have a slight texture on one side; the other side is shinier, smoother, and has more adhesive. It sticks to itself as if you'd welded it together! To work with it all you need is scissors and a heat gun (or hot water, but I can't picture a scenario where that'd be helpful at all). It stretches and compresses enough that you can form it to just about any shape, even hemispherical ones. If you cut the wrong shape you can just butt up another piece against it (doesn't even have to be super accurate because you can moosh it around to fit) and the seam all but disappears! When cool, Worbla is hard but also has a little bit of flexibility. The only down side is the rough surface. It's not that rough, but if you want to get it smooth you need to coat it with a couple layers of gesso and then sand it. Simple though!
I was thinking I could remake my foam armor with this stuff instead since I wasn't satisfied with the paint and thought I could do a little better with the build quality. But then while researching the material I came across many people who use craft foam as a structural base; they wrap Worbla around the foam like a shell, and the foam creates the bulk of the shape. This is soooo perfect! I can just wrap my existing foam armor with Worbla, coat it with gesso, sand, and now I can paint without having to worry about creasing! Easy peasy!
So far I've only covered one of the bicep armors as a test, but it looks pretty damn awesome! I've been trying to decide if it'll be bad to cover the lower torso with it. I won't be bending over, but I don't need it pushing up on the chest when my hips are moving around or something.
The other thing I've been working on is painting the helmet. I painted it red before PAX but the gray tubes and mouth grill needed to be painted gray. Also I started experimenting with darkening crevices. If anyone has advice on blackwashing or painting on auto paint I'm all ears. It doesn't seem to like water based paints (acrylics). It just beads up and doesn't stick. I read that dish soap can break the surface tension but would it even be sticking? I'm guessing I just can't use acrylics. I successfully painted with spray paint by spraying some in a container and brushing it on, but it's not ideal at all since it dries so fast. It was more just a test to see if I could do it rather than a permanent solution to everything.
That's all for now! I should have time pretty soon to update about the pre-PAX shenanigans. Brace yourselves for the great Wall o' Text.
Thanks so much! I'll have to try this.
i'm also working on a Samus suit and was wondering if you have the other pepakura files for the rest of the suit separated like the other ones you have on your other site?
The pep files on my blog are the only ones I needed to make unfortunately. I've since updated my blog to note this fact.
