Lich King Build
- Thread starter Capt TJ
- Start date
panterateama
Active Member
Can't wait to see more!
sent from my Galaxy S3 using tapatalk
sent from my Galaxy S3 using tapatalk
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
Well, it's been a bit since my last update, so I thought I'd post what's been going on. Basically, a lot of printing has been going on! The chest is finally done and I'm currently applying fiberglass cloth and resin. There was a lot of printing and gluing with the chest, but the end result appears to be worth it! I've tried it on, and it is a perfect fit! Now to finish strengthening it, then the long process of smoothing it out.
I've also been printing some other parts. The left thigh piece was printed and it looks amazing. I've also printed out the second forearm gauntlet, and I'm currently printing the second shin armor. Next up: the belt. After that, the dreaded shoulder pieces.
Here are a few pics to tide everyone over.
Thanks again for following along!
PS: If you've read this far, I'm hoping to debut this costume at the Phoenix Comic Con in June. It won't be ready for me to take with to Chicago at the end of April, so Phoenix is the next big Con after that.
Here is the left thigh armor. Ignore the different colors. That's due to different colors of filament being used to print it. It doesn't matter since it'll all be primed and painted over. Oh, you may see some gaps between the layers. That's due to the print lifting off the print bed while it's being made. It's frustrating and I refuse to redo a print that takes 5 hours. So, I'll just fix the gaps. They aren't that big, and most are easily fixed with resin, bondo or a combination.
Here's the chest with the first piece of fiberglass cloth being put into place with resin. Nothing too fancy here. It has since hardened and is holding up great. I'll be apply two layers to the shoulders of the chest piece since they will be bearing the weight of the large shoulder pauldrens.
Another forearm gauntlet. Came out really clean. Just need to do some minor sanding and filling around the glue lines. Oh, yeah, I still have to attach the 4 spikes. Whoops!
Speaking of filament...I now make my own! I have a filament maker and automatic filament winder. I'm able to make my own filament at a fraction of the cost to purchasing it. This is all ABS filament. I have a huge box of PLA waiting to be made, but I've heard that it's a bit more tricky to make. I've mastered printing with PLA, but making the filament can be a bit of trial and error, so I've been told.
I've also been printing some other parts. The left thigh piece was printed and it looks amazing. I've also printed out the second forearm gauntlet, and I'm currently printing the second shin armor. Next up: the belt. After that, the dreaded shoulder pieces.
Here are a few pics to tide everyone over.
Thanks again for following along!
PS: If you've read this far, I'm hoping to debut this costume at the Phoenix Comic Con in June. It won't be ready for me to take with to Chicago at the end of April, so Phoenix is the next big Con after that.
Here is the left thigh armor. Ignore the different colors. That's due to different colors of filament being used to print it. It doesn't matter since it'll all be primed and painted over. Oh, you may see some gaps between the layers. That's due to the print lifting off the print bed while it's being made. It's frustrating and I refuse to redo a print that takes 5 hours. So, I'll just fix the gaps. They aren't that big, and most are easily fixed with resin, bondo or a combination.
Here's the chest with the first piece of fiberglass cloth being put into place with resin. Nothing too fancy here. It has since hardened and is holding up great. I'll be apply two layers to the shoulders of the chest piece since they will be bearing the weight of the large shoulder pauldrens.
Another forearm gauntlet. Came out really clean. Just need to do some minor sanding and filling around the glue lines. Oh, yeah, I still have to attach the 4 spikes. Whoops!
Speaking of filament...I now make my own! I have a filament maker and automatic filament winder. I'm able to make my own filament at a fraction of the cost to purchasing it. This is all ABS filament. I have a huge box of PLA waiting to be made, but I've heard that it's a bit more tricky to make. I've mastered printing with PLA, but making the filament can be a bit of trial and error, so I've been told.
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
The King lives, baby! Uh - huh! Wait, not that King, the Lich King!
Yes it's been several weeks since my last update, but that's because there isn't anything particularly exciting going on right now. I have finished applying fiber and resin to the chest piece and it looks great! I just have to give it a light sanding and then I can apply the bondo to smooth it out. Since it's 3D printed from a pep file, it is very "polygonal" in it's appearance, so it needs to be smoothed.
I'm still printing pieces, and I've divided them up into even smaller chunks so there is less warping of the prints. This does add more finish time after everything is glued together, but it does save me from printing and re-printing pieces. Oh well, as long as the end result looks good!
I switched gears for the past week as I prepare for the C2E2 con in Chicago. I'll be going as Captain Jack (again), along with my brother who will be going as Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds (the outfit he wore in the talent show at the end of the movie). I also made a very quick custom 3D print of a gun for Harley Quinn. It's basically the model for Hellboy's Samaritan gun, with a few flairs for Harley. I'm not overly happy with it, but it was a rush job.
One of the great things about doing the gun build is I accidentally found out that my sealer causes my airbrush paint to "crackle", creating an amazing aged effect! I'll be using this on my armor to give it an aged and worn look. I love it when surprises like this happen! See pic below for a closeup of the "crackle" effect.
Some of the duplicate parts laying next to their finished counterparts.
The custom Harley Quinn gun. I added the Joker face on each side, along with Harely's symbol on the grips.
A happy accident here. When I applied the sealer, it caused the black paint to "crackle" and give it an amazing finish! What an awesome surprise!
I made a two sided card with the Joker and Harley. After printing I glued them together, used a bit of fire to burn up the edges and dirty it. I then sealed it and hung it from a mini hangman's noose off of the trigger guard.
Yes it's been several weeks since my last update, but that's because there isn't anything particularly exciting going on right now. I have finished applying fiber and resin to the chest piece and it looks great! I just have to give it a light sanding and then I can apply the bondo to smooth it out. Since it's 3D printed from a pep file, it is very "polygonal" in it's appearance, so it needs to be smoothed.
I'm still printing pieces, and I've divided them up into even smaller chunks so there is less warping of the prints. This does add more finish time after everything is glued together, but it does save me from printing and re-printing pieces. Oh well, as long as the end result looks good!
I switched gears for the past week as I prepare for the C2E2 con in Chicago. I'll be going as Captain Jack (again), along with my brother who will be going as Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds (the outfit he wore in the talent show at the end of the movie). I also made a very quick custom 3D print of a gun for Harley Quinn. It's basically the model for Hellboy's Samaritan gun, with a few flairs for Harley. I'm not overly happy with it, but it was a rush job.
One of the great things about doing the gun build is I accidentally found out that my sealer causes my airbrush paint to "crackle", creating an amazing aged effect! I'll be using this on my armor to give it an aged and worn look. I love it when surprises like this happen! See pic below for a closeup of the "crackle" effect.
Some of the duplicate parts laying next to their finished counterparts.
The custom Harley Quinn gun. I added the Joker face on each side, along with Harely's symbol on the grips.
A happy accident here. When I applied the sealer, it caused the black paint to "crackle" and give it an amazing finish! What an awesome surprise!
I made a two sided card with the Joker and Harley. After printing I glued them together, used a bit of fire to burn up the edges and dirty it. I then sealed it and hung it from a mini hangman's noose off of the trigger guard.
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
Quick update on the build. Currently printing the 14 pieces of the right shoulder armor. This is the piece that looks like the big skull face, as seen on the below picture:
Here's one of the issues with building a 3D printed suit of armor....well, actually this is an issue with pepakura in general: sizing/scaling. Sometimes it's really hard to match things up in the virtual world to their real world counterparts. I took some measurements of the chest armor and took my best shot at sizing the shoulders properly. Well, I'm not sure I've got it, and I won't know until the entire piece is printed and assembled. My gut feeling is that it's going to be a bit small.
This isn't that big of a deal. Yeah, it takes about 31 hours to print all of the pieces, but the cost of that plastic is crazy cheap. Enjoy the below pics, and I'll update on whether I'll be printing out a second one of these, but a bit bigger.
I mentioned that the plastic isn't that expensive. Well, here's a shot of my supplies. I extrude my own ABS filament, and I recently scored 100lbs of raw ABS pellets for less than $2.25 a pound! Yes, that is CRAZY cheap! I'm currently sitting on over 100lbs of plastic to work with. To give you an idea of what you can do with that much plastic: One of my giant thigh pieces that I printed only weighs 1 lb. That's why I don't get upset about the cost...just the time it takes to reprint things.
Here's the shoulder piece about halfway printed. Again, I slice the model into small "chunks" to avoid warping while they print. Because these are thick pieces, and some of them are layered, they are taking about 1 ~ 3 hours to print.
Here it is against the chest piece. I'm approximating where I think it will end up when completely printed. Again, I think it's going to be a bit small, but I won't know until I have it assembled.
Here's one of the issues with building a 3D printed suit of armor....well, actually this is an issue with pepakura in general: sizing/scaling. Sometimes it's really hard to match things up in the virtual world to their real world counterparts. I took some measurements of the chest armor and took my best shot at sizing the shoulders properly. Well, I'm not sure I've got it, and I won't know until the entire piece is printed and assembled. My gut feeling is that it's going to be a bit small.
This isn't that big of a deal. Yeah, it takes about 31 hours to print all of the pieces, but the cost of that plastic is crazy cheap. Enjoy the below pics, and I'll update on whether I'll be printing out a second one of these, but a bit bigger.
I mentioned that the plastic isn't that expensive. Well, here's a shot of my supplies. I extrude my own ABS filament, and I recently scored 100lbs of raw ABS pellets for less than $2.25 a pound! Yes, that is CRAZY cheap! I'm currently sitting on over 100lbs of plastic to work with. To give you an idea of what you can do with that much plastic: One of my giant thigh pieces that I printed only weighs 1 lb. That's why I don't get upset about the cost...just the time it takes to reprint things.
Here's the shoulder piece about halfway printed. Again, I slice the model into small "chunks" to avoid warping while they print. Because these are thick pieces, and some of them are layered, they are taking about 1 ~ 3 hours to print.
Here it is against the chest piece. I'm approximating where I think it will end up when completely printed. Again, I think it's going to be a bit small, but I won't know until I have it assembled.
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the compliment!
Just a quick update: just finishing up the printing of the left shoulder. Total print time of all the pieces added up to over 51 hours!
Should have pics soon!
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
At the moment it's not very comfortable since it's still not finished. I am going to add foam inside of it, especially on the parts that rest on my shoulders.
Getting into it isn't that bad. The back of it was left unfinished (big hole), so I can get in and out by myself. It'll be covered by the cape, so it's not an issue.
This looks awesome! LK is my favourite villain from the game - so much that I have both the small statue and the Sideshow statues. I'm currently in the middle of sculpting the priest Absolution shoulder pieces for hopefully what will be a full Absolution costume to go along with my friend's Sylvanas costume.
I'll be watching this thread with great interest
I'll be watching this thread with great interest
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
This looks awesome! LK is my favourite villain from the game - so much that I have both the small statue and the Sideshow statues. I'm currently in the middle of sculpting the priest Absolution shoulder pieces for hopefully what will be a full Absolution costume to go along with my friend's Sylvanas costume.
I'll be watching this thread with great interest
Thanks Jaedena! I'd love to see pics of your build. If you have a thread started, can you link it?
Sure thing: Absolution
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
It's time for a (short) update with some pics!!!
I have completed printing both shoulder pieces. Kinda....sorta....not really. See, I did finish the pieces, but as you'll see in the pics below, I think the right shoulder (when you wear it...so the skull shoulder), is a bit too small. No big deal....just a quick re-scaling of the pieces and a few days of printing.
I may have mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I just wanted to remind everyone that I won't start the finishing process on any of the remaining pieces until I have everything printed. Some of the finishing techniques are better done in large batches, so it will save me time and money to do them together.
So, currently I'm re-printing the skull shaped shoulder piece...about 15% larger. Not sure what I'm going to print next, but there aren't too many choices because we're getting close to finishing the printing! Then the crazy task of finishing the pieces, getting cape fabric, leather, finishing chainmail and dragonmail and then assembly! Ugh...seems impossible still.
Anyway, enjoy the pics!
A pile of parts. Here you can see some of the left shoulder glued together, along with all the other pieces to be sanded and glued.
Beginning the assembly. The only reason it's black and white is because I ran out of white filament and started using black. Same stuff, just a different color. It doesn't matter since it will all be finished and painted.
Finished shoulder piece glued together.
Both shoulder pieces attached to the chest piece. I'm holding the helm up in the middle for size and reference. The left shoulder (spikey one) looks to be the right size, but the right one (the one on the left) is a bit undersized.
I have completed printing both shoulder pieces. Kinda....sorta....not really. See, I did finish the pieces, but as you'll see in the pics below, I think the right shoulder (when you wear it...so the skull shoulder), is a bit too small. No big deal....just a quick re-scaling of the pieces and a few days of printing.
I may have mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I just wanted to remind everyone that I won't start the finishing process on any of the remaining pieces until I have everything printed. Some of the finishing techniques are better done in large batches, so it will save me time and money to do them together.
So, currently I'm re-printing the skull shaped shoulder piece...about 15% larger. Not sure what I'm going to print next, but there aren't too many choices because we're getting close to finishing the printing! Then the crazy task of finishing the pieces, getting cape fabric, leather, finishing chainmail and dragonmail and then assembly! Ugh...seems impossible still.
Anyway, enjoy the pics!
A pile of parts. Here you can see some of the left shoulder glued together, along with all the other pieces to be sanded and glued.
Beginning the assembly. The only reason it's black and white is because I ran out of white filament and started using black. Same stuff, just a different color. It doesn't matter since it will all be finished and painted.
Finished shoulder piece glued together.
Both shoulder pieces attached to the chest piece. I'm holding the helm up in the middle for size and reference. The left shoulder (spikey one) looks to be the right size, but the right one (the one on the left) is a bit undersized.
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
Yes, they are. I also have the models and have been using them throughout the build. I'm not trying to make the skull side the same size as the spike side...but I do need it to fit over the chest armor a bit better. That's why I'm making it only 15% bigger. Should be enough to sit just right on the shoulder of the chest piece.
Thanks for the help and the comments!
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
Sorry for the lack of an update over the past week or two. My printer was having an issue with the print head. So, nothing was being printed for almost two weeks.
It appears to be working properly, and I've got some parts printing right now. Pics and another update ASAP.
PS: This is one of the neat things with 3D printing...it's still an emerging technology, so it's fun to tinker with it. But, it's still an emerging technology, and can be frustrating at times. [emoji6]
It appears to be working properly, and I've got some parts printing right now. Pics and another update ASAP.
PS: This is one of the neat things with 3D printing...it's still an emerging technology, so it's fun to tinker with it. But, it's still an emerging technology, and can be frustrating at times. [emoji6]
godproject
Well-Known Member
Three words that make 3d printing stand out as the go to tech for prototyping. Soluble support material. Self-cleaning heads would be a very close second though.
Capt TJ
Well-Known Member
The printer is back online and I've been printing non-stop!
The newly re-sized skull shoulder has been finished. It's about 15% bigger than the previous one, and now it looks just right. It's still smaller than the other shoulder, as it should be, but it now looks more proportionate to the rest of the build.
I'm currently printing the elbow pieces, and the below pics are of the first one hot off the press, or printer as it were. It's a bit too small, so I'm currently printing another one 10% bigger. That should give my arm a bit more room to move inside the piece. I thought I would still take a few pics to give you the idea of the elbow pad on the arm, along with a piece of leather that I have clamped into place.
After the elbows, I'll be reprinting the handplates, and then on to the final pieces: the boots! The boots are a toe and heel place that will be placed over a pair of old shoes. You'll never see the actual shoe, so I'm using an old pair of black work boots. Depending on how the prints hold up after being resin coated, I may end up casting them in rubber so that they'll flex with the shoe as I walk. I'll have a better idea when I get to that point.
On to the pics!
This is the new shoulder (left) compared to the one that was too small. Other than being 15% bigger, they are identical.
A couple of shots of the shoulder being held onto the chest piece.
Size comparison of the new shoulder next to the other shoulder. They should be different sizes.
Elbow piece. Reprinting it 10% bigger.
Various shots of it on my arm being held in place with a leather strap. Not sure where I'll place it. If it's to go directly over my elbow, I may have to hollow out the inside a bit, since it's solid and wants to slide to either my forearm or behind my elbow.
The newly re-sized skull shoulder has been finished. It's about 15% bigger than the previous one, and now it looks just right. It's still smaller than the other shoulder, as it should be, but it now looks more proportionate to the rest of the build.
I'm currently printing the elbow pieces, and the below pics are of the first one hot off the press, or printer as it were. It's a bit too small, so I'm currently printing another one 10% bigger. That should give my arm a bit more room to move inside the piece. I thought I would still take a few pics to give you the idea of the elbow pad on the arm, along with a piece of leather that I have clamped into place.
After the elbows, I'll be reprinting the handplates, and then on to the final pieces: the boots! The boots are a toe and heel place that will be placed over a pair of old shoes. You'll never see the actual shoe, so I'm using an old pair of black work boots. Depending on how the prints hold up after being resin coated, I may end up casting them in rubber so that they'll flex with the shoe as I walk. I'll have a better idea when I get to that point.
On to the pics!
This is the new shoulder (left) compared to the one that was too small. Other than being 15% bigger, they are identical.
A couple of shots of the shoulder being held onto the chest piece.
Size comparison of the new shoulder next to the other shoulder. They should be different sizes.
Elbow piece. Reprinting it 10% bigger.
Various shots of it on my arm being held in place with a leather strap. Not sure where I'll place it. If it's to go directly over my elbow, I may have to hollow out the inside a bit, since it's solid and wants to slide to either my forearm or behind my elbow.
