3D printed ODST armor [picture heavy] (All files made available)

[RedGhost]

IT'S DONE!

(Yeah, that's the best photo I got of the finished armor atm, taking photo's is hard okay!)
Even though it's "done", I'm not done yet. I plan on doing a lot of reprints (to fix scaling), an entirely new paint job with better weathering, a new strap system, and the torso armor. I'm not sure when I will bring myself to do this, but so far, my suit is wearable and could be considered 100% done Thank you all for following me on this incredible journey.

I'll see you all with me in hell, boys.

Legacy post:
Hello everyone! So, I recently acquired a 3D printer, and with it sitting idle all the time why not test its limits? I've tried to build armor before two times but failed due to multiple reasons in the past. This time, I want to finish my set. So here I am, printing an entire set of ODST armor!

All files which I've printed will become open source later on, and sharable asap because sharing is one of the best things anyone can do My 3D printer is a highly calibrated Anet A8 with some modifications like a better blower. All parts will be printed in PLA.

Files/models:
PLEASE NOTE: The scaling on most of these files are extremely wrong. It is up to you to cross-reference sizes and measure your body.
Helmet, I ended up using only the helmet, not the vac buck which was included with this. The file names are reverse for some reason. I used default scaling
Visor, It's actually meant for pepakura but I've used it for printing. I wouldn't recommend this one unless you're backing it up with clay or something.
Shoulders, I scaled mine roughly 122%, but it's entirely dependent on your own persona. Take a good look at many reference pictures. It's a lot bigger than you might think and even the author printed it way too small.
Ab plate, (Smoothed) credits to Kirrou for the PDO and model file. Modified for 3D printing by me. The original is included in the 405th archive. (Legacy old unsmoothed file: Ab plate)
Side ab plate, (Whole) also credits to Kirrou for the PDO and model file. Modified for 3D printing by me. The original is included in the 405th archive. (Legacy old unsmoothed file: Side ab plate)
Gauntlet (Smoothed) even more credits to Kirrou for the PDO and model file. Modified for 3D printing by me. The original is included in the 405th archive. Simply mirror both parts for the other arm. (Legacy old, unsmoothed files: part 1, part 2)
Chest (Smoothed) Credits to Hugh Holder for the PDO and model file. Modified for 3D printing by me. The original is included (together with other chest armor) in the 405th archive. I used the size between armpits for horizontal scaling. (Legacy old, unsmoothed files: part 1, part 2)
Hip plate (Smoothed) Since it's been so long, I forgot who to credit, sorry... My plates are exactly (from bottom to top) 20 centimeters and the scaling seems perfect for me. (Legacy old, unsmoothed files: part 1, part 2)
Rib plate I actually had to rip this model out of the game model and heavily modify it because I couldn't find good files. That's why it looks so odd. It's covered under your arms and sanding goes a long way, don't worry.
Chins, knee (Smoothed) Again forgot who to credit, sorry! Modified for 3D printing by me. (Legacy old files: part 1, part 2, part 2.5)
Thighs, inner (Smoothed) You guessed it, I forgot who to credit! Modified for 3D printing by me. I scaled this model too big, so watch out. (Legacy old, pre-cut parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8)
Belt plate (Smoothed) Modified for 3D printing by me. The scaling is perfect for it right now. There fits a buckle nicely behind it.
Butt plate (Smoothed) Modified for 3D printing by me. The scaling is perfect. It's strong enough to sit on it if you print it solid enough.
COD plate (Smoothed) Modified for 3D printing by me. The scaling is perfect. You can put stickers behind it for fun little easter eggs.
Core (Precut, in a RAR, 12 parts) I don't recommend printing this as it is.. I thickened it not so strongly, I smoothed it weirdly, I sliced it weirdly, and the scaling is all wrong. I might redo this someday. For now, it's the ugly little duckling of this collection.
M7s + silencer (two parts) The body is designed by Brain Westgate. Replace his nozzle with my silencer. The silencer is ripped from someone else's model and modified by me to be mostly smooth. I forgot who it's from, sorry.
Backpack V1 (Made from the ground up, multiple parts that screw together with metric screws) My most requested file. The hinges don't fit that well so get out your heat gun, trooper! I'll fix that in V2. Unlike the other files which are modified, this one is made from scratch by me. The handlebars are an original design, since the official design is not that good for printing, and this looks cooler

Printer used
Anet A8 3D Printer, Creality CR10
Printing with REAL PLA
Anet runs an mk6 e3d hotend, cr10 is stock

 

[macktruck]

Keep it going. .2 mm height is pretty big, but some thingiverse are so low res thst it might not matter. What is your printet? It might be interesting to keep a log of printing times. Perhaps upload the parts as a remake to make it easier for all of us. Keep up the good work .

 

[RedGhost]

Keep it going. .2 mm height is pretty big, but some thingiverse are so low res thst it might not matter. What is your printet? It might be interesting to keep a log of printing times. Perhaps upload the parts as a remake to make it easier for all of us. Keep up the good work .

I'm running an Anet A8 (which is basically a Prusa I3 copy as far as I know) which has a couple of upgrades. The 0.2mm layer height wasn't as bad as one might think- the details came out marvelous . I eventually went up all the way to 0.28mm

 

[TurboCharizard]

0.2 is pretty much my layer height when I want a part and I want it quick or if it's large and featureless faces that can get away with being sanded smooth with minimal clean up around details with needle files. My printer mostly lives on 0.1 and below though.

Seconded the recommendation by macktruck for keeping a print log with time/filament used/percent completed if failed so that you can gauge how much filament you have left on your spool and keep track of maintenance that might need to be done.

 

[blackout11c]

What version are you going for? H3, ODST, or Reach?

Seconded the recommendation by macktruck for keeping a print log with time/filament used/percent completed if failed so that you can gauge how much filament you have left on your spool and keep track of maintenance that might need to be done.

I also support this, even thought I don't personally do this (my printer keeps track of plastic used/remaining for me)

 

[TurboCharizard]

What version are you going for? H3, ODST, or Reach?


I also support this, even thought I don't personally do this (my printer keeps track of plastic used/remaining for me)

Swapping spools around does funny things to my filament feed tracker so I've just kept an Excel book with weights and approximate lengths used.

 

[RedGhost]

0.2 is pretty much my layer height when I want a part and I want it quick or if it's large and featureless faces that can get away with being sanded smooth with minimal clean up around details with needle files. My printer mostly lives on 0.1 and below though.

Seconded the recommendation by macktruck for keeping a print log with time/filament used/percent completed if failed so that you can gauge how much filament you have left on your spool and keep track of maintenance that might need to be done.

I'm keeping a logbook with all parts so far and their weight when done printing, but I haven't recorded printing times. Almost all parts I've printed took 24 hours tho, so it should be a good base line.

What version are you going for? H3, ODST, or Reach?

Aiming for H3 ODST, but nothing is solid. I might just choose what's most convenient and/or pretty

Progress update, long post
So after a lot of nights printing, sanding, filling, glueing etc I've finally assembled most of the helmet.

Looking good! In case anyone is wondering: I'm glueing the parts using Bison Super glue. I'm not too sure if it's a global brand, but it's widely available in the netherlands. They sell these 20gram bottles for 10 bucks. Lasts a lifetime As for the filler, I'm using wood filler from Alabastine. It dries extremely quickly and it's only 5 bucks for 250 grams. For sanding I began using regular sandpaper and files, but I've found a better alternative later on.

At this point, I've had run out of filament. So I ordered a 2kg spool for pretty cheap. There was a problem tho: It didn't fit on my spool holder. Whoops, so I had to improvise.

A wooden sniper rifle I build a long time ago stabilized between a chair and a large vase did the trick More printing time!
So, I forgot to make some pictures before the priming stage when it was assembled (didn't plan on making this post), so here's the fully assembled helmet after the first coat of primer to check for irregularities

It's light weight and strong. Like- really strong. I'm only using 10% infill so it really surprised me. Smoothing is a pain in the back because of the build lines and glue lines (you can see some there). I've also had to deal with Z-wobble, which are those big golfy lines you can see on top of the side-vent-thing.
It fits on my head with about 1cm spare on all sides. I count that as a succes I'll post more pictures of the helmet when I'm 100% done with smoothing and stepping over to painting the whole thing.

So, whilst I'm priming and sanding the sucker it's time to vac form me a visor. So I build the world's worst vac table which connects to my vacuum which'll do the trick... right?

Notice how I made the buck out of PLA. Notice how I didn't support it either. Big mistakes, ended up costing me a lot of time. You'll see. I hate vac forming.
So I tried heating it with a heatgun first, since, well, I had a heat gun.

I couldn't get it hot/malleable enough with this method. Even worse, the acrylic wasn't heating up the same in all areas so I ended up moving over to an oven.

Here it is. But the acrylic sheet didn't want to become molten enough to 'drip' a bit. So I upped the temperature from 130 degrees C to 150 degrees C. Terrible idea, since it became all bubbly. I regret everything. So I tried again, and this time it worked! I hogged the oven for more than 2 hours tho, so when disaster struck I felt heartbroken. After a lot, LOT of pressure it finally sucked itself vacuum over my mold. Only thing, I didn't think that the PLA would heat up so quick that it'd become soft during the vac forming process. So, the side walls caved in a bit. Nothing bad, right? I pulled off the buck, and noticed some of the woodfiller glued against the acrylic glass. Me being all hopeful I tried to keep it alive and tried smoothing it and cutting it out, and well...

Have I already told you how much I hate vac-forming? At least it'll be good for some post-nuclear exploded ODST helmet I guess . Since I've wasted too much time and acrylic on fav-forming failures, I think I'm just gonna buy one from the internet. If anyone has a good source, please tell me. I'm begging here!


Time to move to something different, which is my shoulder! I found a nice model on thingyverse which actually included the hingy part which many pepakura models don't really integrate. It also has some strap holders so it'll only make my life easier. I scaled it up a bit, and positioned it tightly on my build plate to make it an one-file-print.

Please note, at this point I've began printing all my parts at 0.28mm layer height. I'm still using my 0.4mm nozzle. Yes, I like to live dangerously. The surfaces came out surprisingly well actually. The detail isn't terrible either. I'm happy with the result. Speaking of which...

Time to clean it up later, I guess. The scaling came out perfect! The hinge is a really smart design choice. You'll have to check out the thingiverse post for that one It's all up in my main post!

It's getting late now, so I'm not going to polish the shoulder yet. My second shoulder is already printing, and it's a 24h print as well. See you tomorrow!

 

[PaiganBoi]

Your bucket is looking sweet. I've said this before in other threads... I have 3D printer envy.
If you are looking to purchase a visor check out Sean Bradley's Etsy page. He has different visors for sale ranging from $44 CAD to $85 CAD.
Visor for ODST Costume Helmets

 

[RedGhost]

Your bucket is looking sweet. I've said this before in other threads... I have 3D printer envy.
If you are looking to purchase a visor check out Sean Bradley's Etsy page. He has different visors for sale ranging from $44 CAD to $85 CAD.
Visor for ODST Costume Helmets

Thank you! I don't get why more people use 3D printers. It's much cheaper and easier AFAIK
That's a great link, but he doesn't ship to my home country sadly. Also (not trying to be cheap) it's a tad expensive since the entire helmet costed me a third of the visor's price :S I'm fine with up to €30-40 including shipping tho.

 

[PaiganBoi]

Yeah. I found that's its a little out of my price range as well. I will be attempting to make my own visor out of this material.
Flexible Metallic Visor material
I too am in the middle of an ODST build. Only difference is mine is a foam build.

 

[RedGhost]

Yeah. I found that's its a little out of my price range as well. I will be attempting to make my own visor out of this material.
Flexible Metallic Visor material
I too am in the middle of an ODST build. Only difference is mine is a foam build.

Good find! Foam is a great material, and a lot of beautiful things can be created from it. I might make the back of the main body out of foam. Glad to see another fanatic ODST-er I'd love to hear how it's working out for you. Good luck on your build

 

[PaiganBoi]

Right now my ODST build is on hold. I started a H3 MK VI build for my son's Halloween costume.
What I did manage to finish so far are the shins, thighs, cod, belt, hip and butt plates.
If interested check out my thread. My first Build - ODST foam
I also have a couple of weapon build completed but need some finishing touches with weathering.
ODST SMG
EVA foam M6C/SOCOM

 

[Thane]

Thats hot.

 

[RedGhost]

Right now my ODST build is on hold. I started a H3 MK VI build for my son's Halloween costume.
What I did manage to finish so far are the shins, thighs, cod, belt, hip and butt plates.
If interested check out my thread. My first Build - ODST foam
I also have a couple of weapon build completed but need some finishing touches with weathering.
ODST SMG
EVA foam M6C/SOCOM

Love it! Hopefully you'll continue back at it some day

Thats hot.

Thank you

Okay so I'm at a holdup here, since the weather's fighting me today. I decided to sand the helmet a bit, and coat the shoulder in wood filler. When I was wet-sanding the helmet, I noticed that small pieces of the wood filler began to go loose out of their little dents. After closer inspection at the packaging, it's actually made for 2-20mm. I'll be getting the correct filler either today or Monday (probably the latter).

The helmet is getting really smooth, finally Sorry for the blurry pictures. The buildlines are especially visible on the back. I'm currently putting a huge load of primer on there in the hope that it'll smooth it out just enough for me to wetsand it entirely smooth. Time will tell.

The shoulder plate is drying from it's coat, but since it's the wrong product I'll have to buy better filler and redo it.

EDIT: I'm glad to announce that I bought my tickets for FACTS 2017 in Belgium this year for the entire weekend. See you there!

 

[JD of Asgard]

Hot damn this is looking so smooth and glorious. keep it the good work!

 

[RedGhost]

Hot damn this is looking so smooth and glorious. keep it the good work!

Thank you very much!

So, it's been a rough time lately. That's why I haven't posted any updates. Anyhow, here's the progress up until now.
I've finished printing the second shoulder! I could post pictures of how it looks, but it'd be the exact same picture. Where's the fun in that? I did however, finish printing the two gauntlets! Again, I could post pictures of them both, but they're literally just mirrored of eachother. Nothing special to see there.

The quality in these gauntlets aren't as good as I hoped, but I shoved it away thinking it was the higher layer height. More about that later.

The glue line is also very visible. However, it's nothing a lot of sanding can't fix However, the hand-hole was WAYY too small. I couldn't even fit my fingers through properly. No worries! PLA becomes very soft at temperatures higher than 60 degrees. So I went at it with my heat gun, and began enlarging the hole with an upside down cup which I pushed through the hole to enlarge it. Eventually my hand fitted through! Hooray! However, I couldn't get it back out. So I was stuck with a gauntlet on my arm for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually (because I didn't want to destroy my print which took a full day) I pushed a towel through the opening (luckily my wrists are very small compared to my hands) to shield my arm from the intense heat of the heat gun, and then I simply heated up the hole again to enlarge it. Eventually I finally got free! My hand is still swollen from that, ouch.

I also printed the abs-part of the ODST costume. However, I began having problems with my printer. Under-extrusion was rampant, and I couldn't find the cause since the nozzle was fine, and the filament wasn't grinding. I even double checked all settings for changes, but found nothing. It was fixed after many failed printing attempts by setting the flow multiplier to 250% and the temperature to 220 degrees C. Since something was very obviously wrong and I was only pushing back the enevitable, I planned to buy myself a new nozzle. While I was waiting for it to be ordered, I printed a bunch with the temporary workaround.

Tada! They worked out fine, even through I was pushing the parts to their limits. I then began printing the rib plates on the side of the ODST suit. However, when I woke up, disaster struck

After an extensive examination, it turned out that the heating element didn't work as well anymore and cut out after a while, it was very inregular. So I ordered a new heating element together with my new 0.4mm nozzle, and now it's waiting time. Oh- and the heating bet also stopped working, but that's probably my fault since I pulled too hard on the connector and the +12v cable broke off. I'll repair that later, but it's pretty easy to do. No worries about that!

I also tried vacforming a couple more times, since I hate myself so much.

The first try got overheated badly. I need to pay more attention.

The second one turned out fine, right? I was so excited! I finally made myself a proper visor!.... Except it was impossible to see through. The plexiglas stretched too thin on the front so it became a lens-effect and even tho I tried to revive it, it was a failed attempt as well. I need to look where I'm going right? So I ordered one after a long time thinking from an etsy shop with a reasonable price of 40 euros in total inc shipping. You can find it here. Seems like I bought the last one through, so I'm sorry if anyone else wanted to order one. ODST visors are hard to find, sadly. Hopefully it'll come in time for my conference, but the seller assured me it'd be in time. I'm counting on you!

And that brings us back to today, hopefully with more improvements and development soon!

 

[RedGhost]

I finally got around to repair the hotend on my 3d printer! Sadly, it didn't fix the under-extrusion problems so I'm still looking for the cause of that.

Here's one side of the ODST torso. It's weak in some small specific areas. Really weird, but I guess that's how it's gonna be now. You can also see a burned mark. That's because I didn't secure the new heater block that well on the PTFT tube, so it leaked hot filament from the top. It wasn't a lot, and it sealed itself later during the print, but it dripped some burnt pla on the print. There's almost no negative effect in quality, luckily. For the torso I'm using Hugh's ODST torso file with a couple modifications to make it solid. It's included in the top post. Currently I'm printing the second half, and it's having some under extrusion problems as well in other specific areas. Weird...

 

[Austin3991]

This looks awesome man! I can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[RedGhost]

So just a quick update. I've been smoothing the helmet and the chest (which finished printing!) a bit more lately and thought about how easier life would be if I just got the models a lot smoother instead of sanding the corners away. And then it hit me: It should be possible in blender! So I've done a LOT of research on smoothing and here's my progress on what I've achieved so far:

Left: New, smoothed model. Right: Old, low-poly model.

I just love how the edges are kept instead of smoothed as well like I had run into in previous attempts. There's still a lot of cleaning to do, but I have a good feeling about this

 

[RedGhost]

Okay, disaster time:
I've printed the first shin piece. And, there's a problem... I can't get my (rather big) feet through it. So, I got out the heatgun, tried to enlarge it in a couple spots to hopefully make it fit better, And it still didn't fit. So, I took out my renovator with a cutting attachment and but off a part of the back, following one of the lines already in the model. Eventually, I got it off and after cleaning it up a bit it fits back (not perfectly, but I might be able to hide it with straps, cloth or other methods)! However, since I was busy trying to heat-form it to my foot, it's slightly different from the normal model Furthermore, Getting it off is still not easy, although it is possible now. The height is pretty good however. Since I already began printing the second one (and it's almost done) I'll have to somehow replicate all steps and hopefully get an uniform right shin piece. It'll be hard, but hopefully possible. Because of this, I'm not going to release my shin files just yet until I figure out a better solution. I'm sorry for this, but I'll do my best. A new update with photo's should be coming this week!