Hello, everyone!
I grew up watching this film. I've wanted to do a Rocketeer cosplay for probably 15-20 years now. But it was always either too expensive, or required skillsets I didn't have. So when my best friend talked me into going to Dragon Con later this year (both of our first times), I decided now was the time. I'm so excited to finally be doing this.What I'm going with...
Rocket Pack - The wonderful "Veepy" Jetpack model by gnolivos. This is not the easiest 3D print in the world. But if you're experienced in printing it's not too bad. Some of the shapes are a little awkward, and I chose to slice some into 2+ pieces to make printing a little easier (and post processing a little harder). There's a few things that can be done to make the model require less supports, but I decided to not go through with that and just accept the extra time and material waste. But seriously, I can't say enough good things about this model. I can't imagine how much time gnolivos has invested into this.Helmet - I originally looked at the 3D printable helmet remixed by drokle on Thingiverse. But by their own addition, it isn't very screen accurate. So I settled on Do3D's 3D Printable Helmet. combined with the helmet liner from Valor Replicas. Thanks Valor! Why Do3D's helmet? Because gnolivos doesn't offer one
Jacket - After much debating, I placed an order for the Wested replica jacket. And I'm currently (eagerly) awaiting its arrival.
Harness - ???
Pants - ???
Boots - ??? Magnoli boots are a little more than I wanted to spend (for now).
Gloves - ??? Maybe the Magnoli gloves.
Open Questions...
- What are you all using for the harness? The harness from South Beach doesn't seem to be that great. I see a lot of you make your own, I'm not sure I have the skillset for that at the moment. Anyone open to a commission?
- Of course, The buckle. Anyone know how the mech on the upper buckle works? I'm working on something for the buckle and this would be helpful. More to come on that in the future.
- I'll be buying an airbrush for this project. I think I know which one I'm going to buy after reading through the forums and Adam Savage videos. But the question I still have is what would be a good air compressor for an airbrush?
- How is everyone gluing in their rivets without making a mess and ruining the paint finish?
Current Status
I ran out of black PETG part way I'm currently waiting on my friend with a resin printer to print some of the smaller pieces for me. Hopefully going to start sanding and priming this weekend. All the (FDM printed) parts were printed in PETG using my 2 Bambu P1S's.Ideas I had that I think will work well.
Cast look on bell housing
I noticed after looking at some reference photos of the real rocket pack that the taurus shapes on the booster bell housing look cast, while the cylindrical parts in between look machined. Almost like a crankshaft in a call. I really liked this look so I wanted to try and replicate it. I saw a bunch of people (Adam savage included) uses a painting technique that gave the booster a cast look. But, I had an idea... I decided to try using a feature built into most 3D printing slicer softwares called "Fuzzy Skin". So, I used modifiers to only apply the fuzzy skin where I wanted it. And after a little tuning of how aggressive I wanted the fuzzy skin to be, I think this turned out really nice!Alignment pins
I really wanted to not glue in the center hull piece in case I needed to take this pack apart for maintenance or upgrades. But I didn't want it just sitting there loosely either. So I think I've come up with a good idea, but time will tell. What I've decided to do is go with extra long rivets in key locations shown below (6 on top, and 4 on bottom). This way, the extra long rivets can be used as alignment pins when attaching the side tanks. That should be enough that when you squeeze the tanks together with the threaded rod, that nothing moves around.I'll post more updates as I progress...
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