Atriox

[Draxes]

4 weeks into doing an exploratory attempt on seeing if I could model and print a working Atriox Costume. Even a year ago this would have been impossible to even attempt. But so far so good. All the pieces are very roomy so while akward, should be a comfortable fit if I do it right. But boy will this be a BIG outfit. I am having to design out the hands to have extension grips built into the forearms. The ONLY shortcut I am taking in making this outfit is I am not going to attempt 100% scale. The guy is 8' 6" tall. The best I can do is 7 feet tall, so I am scaling him down a bit. As long as I am bigger than 99.9% of the general population, I'll be super happy.

Just trying to figure out how I will see out of it. I am thinking I can model a hidden viewing area at the neck under the beard.

This will also be the first costume I am going to attempt to print entirely in TPU. That way I can keep the weight down to a minimum, maybe 2-3 walls minimum, and the infill 0-4%. The only difficulty is that TPU is impossible to sand, supports don't really work that well, AND piecing together TPU is a nightmare. I have some experience with TPU and have had amazing results but I'll need to learn a bunch more. Luckily I won't have to go with the super soft TPU and can just go with 95A Shore and still get the extreme durability TPU is known for. I think I'll just have to lean into battle damage quality versus prestine smoothness of my past costumes.

I am also pretty excited that I modeled his awesome weapon, Chainbreaker. That mace is EPIC! I am just figuring out what kind of electronics and lights I'll fit into it and to see if I can keep the weight down to a minimum. I REALLY don't want to be lugging around a 10lb mace while wearing a heavy bulky costume.

I read and watched all of Saber process on them building a Brute. That looked immensely hard and flipping heavy. I think that is why I am going to avoid going that large. I am a big guy but that is waaaay to big and I would probably kill myself falling down stairs or falling on my back.

Wish me luck. I am hoping to be done well before Halofest. I am also working on a custom 343 Guilty Spark prop that talks and moves. It is so unbelievably cool. I am just about to start printing that. I'll create another post for that shortly and update this when I finalize the model.

OHHHH, and if anyone knows of anyone who has ever done this project before...or a project like this like Saber please let me know.

 

[SgtSaint]

The only difficulty is that TPU is impossible to sand,

Why would you say/think that? I do it with inner thigh parts etc. These were sanded to remove the layer lines, then spray 'FlexSeal' because I wanted that texture but otherwise it could have just stayed sanded smooth.

 

[Draxes]

That makes me excited to try and sand it. I have only printed in TPU 85 and softer for undersuits and that stuff was impervious to anything I tried. FlexSeal worked pretty good though. I will be FlexSealing and Primering the crap out of it. But I am excited at the prospect of being able to sand a little to remove anything too large like leftovers from the supports.

BTW, I am glad you are still making great things SgtSaint. You still have the best post processing methodology/setup to date of anyone I know on the internet who makes 3D printed costumes. You rock! And I am super jealous of your large print bed capacity.

 

[SgtSaint]

BTW, I am glad you are still making great things SgtSaint. You still have the best post processing methodology/setup to date of anyone I know on the internet who makes 3D printed costumes. You rock! And I am super jealous of your large print bed capacity.

Awwww... I'm touched. Thank you. Yeah I've been a bit quiet on the content posting lately: Had a string of bad luck with a few unrelated things happen one after another. Funny how that happens, eh? You go months or years with everything falling into place, then bam bam bam the universe says "time to balance the scales."

But I do have a couple projects in the works... I'm just taking a different route to the posting. Thought I try something different for 2026. Instead of a string of entries here and there... a week or 2 between... I thought I'd track it all off-line then post all at once. Mostly because I noticed that my write-up of my most recent suit got started prematurely, then sat idle so long the thread locked itself and now I can't update it. I don't want that to happen again.