3D Printed Samus Varia Suit - FINISHED! (Pics on pg.17)
- Thread starter Talaaya
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Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I have a new guest in my living room:
It's one of the 3d printers I used to print my suit, and it is absolutely massive. My friend needed a new place to store it so here it is!
I'm so excited to finally use it myself. Previously he had just done all the 3d printing. I don't have much left to print for the suit but maybe I'll print some unrelated things too. We never printed a second elbow cap and I'd like to print a shape for the visor to mold to. The test bends I was doing with the acrylic weren't matching the shape. It's hard to guess the exact angle of the crease and there's a slight curve to the rest of it that I can't achieve on my own. If I 3d print a mold, I know it will be exactly the right shape and the visor will fit perfectly!
I have a new guest in my living room:
It's one of the 3d printers I used to print my suit, and it is absolutely massive. My friend needed a new place to store it so here it is!
I'm so excited to finally use it myself. Previously he had just done all the 3d printing. I don't have much left to print for the suit but maybe I'll print some unrelated things too. We never printed a second elbow cap and I'd like to print a shape for the visor to mold to. The test bends I was doing with the acrylic weren't matching the shape. It's hard to guess the exact angle of the crease and there's a slight curve to the rest of it that I can't achieve on my own. If I 3d print a mold, I know it will be exactly the right shape and the visor will fit perfectly!
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I had been struggling with how to tint the plastic dome shapes that go in the lit parts of the leg armor but tonight I found a solution!
A while back I bought a green vinyl film which I intended to use to color the straight lit sections on the legs and other areas. I wasn't sure how to do the domes since I didn't think the film would work on such compound curves. I tried all sorts of other stuff like using Pledge Future Shine and food coloring, and just straight up painting. Neither were anywhere close to ideal. Tonight I decided to see if I could make the film work on the domes. It's really, really difficult, but it does indeed work!! Yay!
In the picture I'm lighting the shin with an LED flashlight which has a yellow covering on it. After seeing how nice the yellow looks, I think I'll switch to yellow LEDs instead of using actual green LEDs like I originally planned. Makes it look much more lime green as it should.
I'm nowhere near ready to actually wire things up, I just felt like testing this.
Oh, also, the plastic domes are those plastic Christmas craft ornaments which have been cut down:
I've been working on a bunch of other stuff too, like the glove, but my camera's battery died so that's all you're getting today!
I had been struggling with how to tint the plastic dome shapes that go in the lit parts of the leg armor but tonight I found a solution!
A while back I bought a green vinyl film which I intended to use to color the straight lit sections on the legs and other areas. I wasn't sure how to do the domes since I didn't think the film would work on such compound curves. I tried all sorts of other stuff like using Pledge Future Shine and food coloring, and just straight up painting. Neither were anywhere close to ideal. Tonight I decided to see if I could make the film work on the domes. It's really, really difficult, but it does indeed work!! Yay!
In the picture I'm lighting the shin with an LED flashlight which has a yellow covering on it. After seeing how nice the yellow looks, I think I'll switch to yellow LEDs instead of using actual green LEDs like I originally planned. Makes it look much more lime green as it should.
I'm nowhere near ready to actually wire things up, I just felt like testing this.
Oh, also, the plastic domes are those plastic Christmas craft ornaments which have been cut down:
I've been working on a bunch of other stuff too, like the glove, but my camera's battery died so that's all you're getting today!
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I've now mostly finished the glove! It's still missing the plate on the back of the hand. To take pictures I just balanced the pieces on my hand as best I could, so they look a little misaligned. Once the pieces are glued on they'll look better. The blue stripe on the palm is tape. I have a good range of mobility; I can even do Samus' classic thumbs up!
I also threw a test coat of primer on the large section of the arm cannon to check for imperfections (some I knew were there but couldn't see very well).
The first bicep now has the final coats of primer and a couple coats of silver in preparation for the copper! I noticed some imperfections in the paint so I held off on the copper until I could wet sand those out.
This is a picture of the primer stage, not silver. It was the best picture to show how smooth it is.
I've now mostly finished the glove! It's still missing the plate on the back of the hand. To take pictures I just balanced the pieces on my hand as best I could, so they look a little misaligned. Once the pieces are glued on they'll look better. The blue stripe on the palm is tape. I have a good range of mobility; I can even do Samus' classic thumbs up!
I also threw a test coat of primer on the large section of the arm cannon to check for imperfections (some I knew were there but couldn't see very well).
The first bicep now has the final coats of primer and a couple coats of silver in preparation for the copper! I noticed some imperfections in the paint so I held off on the copper until I could wet sand those out.
This is a picture of the primer stage, not silver. It was the best picture to show how smooth it is.
Last edited:
joshvanrad
Master Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
What sort of glue do you use to secure those pieces to the gloves? That's some precision work there.
What sort of glue do you use to secure those pieces to the gloves? That's some precision work there.
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I'm actually not sure yet. That's one of the things I need to figure out. If anyone has experience with this I'm all ears.
The cannon will definitely have lights. I don't think I'll have time to do sound effects, and I was thinking I'd save that for the second arm cannon I was thinking of doing later at some point after this costume is complete. I really want to make one that has moving parts: missile flaps that open on the end, parts at the back move outward when the cannon type changes color, etc.
If all goes well, I will be debuting it at PAX Prime this year.
I'm actually not sure yet. That's one of the things I need to figure out. If anyone has experience with this I'm all ears.
The cannon will definitely have lights. I don't think I'll have time to do sound effects, and I was thinking I'd save that for the second arm cannon I was thinking of doing later at some point after this costume is complete. I really want to make one that has moving parts: missile flaps that open on the end, parts at the back move outward when the cannon type changes color, etc.
If all goes well, I will be debuting it at PAX Prime this year.
RetiredClone
Active Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I hope you don't get tired of hearing this, but with every new photo this build looks more and more phenomenal! Fantastic work! The finished product is going to set a new standard for 3D printing
I hope you don't get tired of hearing this, but with every new photo this build looks more and more phenomenal! Fantastic work! The finished product is going to set a new standard for 3D printing
TigerStoneFX
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
This is a stunning build! I love our printers especially for projects like these. Subscribed and waiting for more, great work on the pieces so far.
This is a stunning build! I love our printers especially for projects like these. Subscribed and waiting for more, great work on the pieces so far.
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
Haha! Never! Thanks so much!
I finished cutting the worbla off of the 3d printed shoulder and glued it together!
Turns out superglue works great, as I had hoped. The new shoulder is decently strong (and sooo much lighter!) but will definitely need reinforcement as you can warp it a bit by torquing the bottom points. Tomorrow I'll test resin on some worbla and if that works I'll fiberglass the inside of the shoulder.
I've also coated most of the glove armor with wood glue. So far I like this much more than gesso, which takes forever to dry and doesn't even itself out nicely like wood glue does. Tomorrow I should also be spraying a test coat of primer on those pieces to see just how much I need to fix with bondo.
I hope you don't get tired of hearing this, but with every new photo this build looks more and more phenomenal! Fantastic work! The finished product is going to set a new standard for 3D printing
Haha! Never! Thanks so much!
I finished cutting the worbla off of the 3d printed shoulder and glued it together!
Turns out superglue works great, as I had hoped. The new shoulder is decently strong (and sooo much lighter!) but will definitely need reinforcement as you can warp it a bit by torquing the bottom points. Tomorrow I'll test resin on some worbla and if that works I'll fiberglass the inside of the shoulder.
I've also coated most of the glove armor with wood glue. So far I like this much more than gesso, which takes forever to dry and doesn't even itself out nicely like wood glue does. Tomorrow I should also be spraying a test coat of primer on those pieces to see just how much I need to fix with bondo.
joshvanrad
Master Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I don't know if you'd already considered this, but I've found that super glue kind of ends up getting brittle and it lies it's strength after a little while. If you have access to a two part epoxy gel it might do a bit better than super glue in the long run.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
I don't know if you'd already considered this, but I've found that super glue kind of ends up getting brittle and it lies it's strength after a little while. If you have access to a two part epoxy gel it might do a bit better than super glue in the long run.
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
drjag
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I was also thinking of that. Superglue is great for lots of applications but if your wearing a piece joined by superglue, it will give way eventually.
I was also thinking of that. Superglue is great for lots of applications but if your wearing a piece joined by superglue, it will give way eventually.
Talaaya
Well-Known Member
Re: 3D Printed Samus Varia Suit
I was planning on the superglue just being enough to keep it together while I reinforce it with fiberglass. Surely it won't pop off the resin and fiberglass on the inside?
The outside will be coated many times with wood glue and probably bondo as well.
I was planning on the superglue just being enough to keep it together while I reinforce it with fiberglass. Surely it won't pop off the resin and fiberglass on the inside?
The outside will be coated many times with wood glue and probably bondo as well.
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