3D Printed Samus Varia Suit 2.0
- Thread starter Talaaya
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Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Thanks! And your space marine is looking fantastic so far! Clever idea for the neck seal. I didn't put anywhere near as much effort into mine; yours looks so much better! Now I'm inspired!
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
I recently had someone ask me how the torso is put together. I never did show how it comes apart so here are some pics:
It's 2mm and 5mm craft foam hot glued together. The panels are glued to supporting pieces on the interior, which you see as the deep part of the seams on the exterior. I used my duct tape mannequin to draw the shapes of the pieces, then used that to transfer the pattern onto craft foam. Gluing it together was done partially on the mannequin but couldn't be done entirely on it since it was slightly the wrong shape and its legs were attached to a base (I couldn't take it on and off the mannequin). The rest was done either free floating or on my own body. It was extremely difficult to get the shape right - it's skin tight except for the large front surface that angles away from my body to meet the chest armor.
After it was all put together I sprayed it with several coats of white Plastidip, painted it yellow with Liquitex acrylic spray paint, did a very thin wash of gold acrylic paint with a brush, painted the seams black with acrylic, and brushed watered down brown acrylic in the crevices.
It's actually starting to fall apart now after wearing it to several cons. The velcro on the top "rib" panel fell off, as are other pieces of velcro, and some of the foam started ripping out. I reinforced it by hot gluing some black cloth to the inside but it's still very fragile. I was never very happy with it and eventually I'd like to redo it, but at the time it was the best I could do with my limited time, experience, and resources. I really don't want this costume to be a perpetual project but this is something that needs to be dealt with if I want to continue wearing it long term. Currently my plan is to 3D scan the torso while it's on my body, use that as a reference for a 3D model from scratch, print that in hard plastic (I briefly considered trying to do it in rubber filament but decided it was too much of a headache and wouldn't come out as good as I wanted), sand and finish it, then mold and cast it in rubber. This will be much more durable, look way better, and if necessary, allow me to make a replacement relatively quickly.
I don't have any sort of timeline for this. I'm going to start a new cosplay project soon which I'd like to finish first. Samus has had her time and I'd like to get more than these two cosplays done before I'm elderly, lol.
If there are any other parts of the costume I never showed that you'd like to see, or if you'd like more of an explanation for some part, let me know and I'd be happy to make another post.
It's 2mm and 5mm craft foam hot glued together. The panels are glued to supporting pieces on the interior, which you see as the deep part of the seams on the exterior. I used my duct tape mannequin to draw the shapes of the pieces, then used that to transfer the pattern onto craft foam. Gluing it together was done partially on the mannequin but couldn't be done entirely on it since it was slightly the wrong shape and its legs were attached to a base (I couldn't take it on and off the mannequin). The rest was done either free floating or on my own body. It was extremely difficult to get the shape right - it's skin tight except for the large front surface that angles away from my body to meet the chest armor.
After it was all put together I sprayed it with several coats of white Plastidip, painted it yellow with Liquitex acrylic spray paint, did a very thin wash of gold acrylic paint with a brush, painted the seams black with acrylic, and brushed watered down brown acrylic in the crevices.
It's actually starting to fall apart now after wearing it to several cons. The velcro on the top "rib" panel fell off, as are other pieces of velcro, and some of the foam started ripping out. I reinforced it by hot gluing some black cloth to the inside but it's still very fragile. I was never very happy with it and eventually I'd like to redo it, but at the time it was the best I could do with my limited time, experience, and resources. I really don't want this costume to be a perpetual project but this is something that needs to be dealt with if I want to continue wearing it long term. Currently my plan is to 3D scan the torso while it's on my body, use that as a reference for a 3D model from scratch, print that in hard plastic (I briefly considered trying to do it in rubber filament but decided it was too much of a headache and wouldn't come out as good as I wanted), sand and finish it, then mold and cast it in rubber. This will be much more durable, look way better, and if necessary, allow me to make a replacement relatively quickly.
I don't have any sort of timeline for this. I'm going to start a new cosplay project soon which I'd like to finish first. Samus has had her time and I'd like to get more than these two cosplays done before I'm elderly, lol.
If there are any other parts of the costume I never showed that you'd like to see, or if you'd like more of an explanation for some part, let me know and I'd be happy to make another post.
Last edited:
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
I took another series of pictures to help explain some of the stuff I never included in the thread.
While I was at it, I also took comparison pictures of the old leg/shoe armor vs the new 3D printed ones.
There are too many to put here so just click those links for the imgur albums where I have also written explanations in detail.
While I was at it, I also took comparison pictures of the old leg/shoe armor vs the new 3D printed ones.
There are too many to put here so just click those links for the imgur albums where I have also written explanations in detail.
