The Adventure of Noble Row and his first actual build.

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NobleRow

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Alright boys and girls, it's actually happening. For the past few years I've been content with painting the occasional prop/helmet, but no longer just that! I now have the TECHNOLOGY to go further! And now I'm gonna build a spartan.

I've gained access to my university's 3D print lab and have negotiated with them a plan to print a set of Mjolnir armor for an upcoming convention coming in April, since I don't have the willpower to carve myself some foam armor.

What I Got:
This beautiful MK V helmet by Moonlight Forge Cosplay
liSjuq9.jpg

And so far the first armor piece (besides helmets) I've ever actually gotten for myself, a test forearm at 5% infill.
IHff0HR.jpg

Very raw. And currently I've misplaced my low-grit sandpaper and my Dremel tool is back at my home 100 miles north. But it's a start!

I also have a grenade launcher on order as well as a MA5C.

I'm planning on being a little eccentric with this cosplay. There's plenty of room in the helmet to carve out the headlamps and install actual lights. As well as running some LED strips through the armor itself once we get there.

I'm taking it all one step at a time, but would love some input if anyone has any. I'm following the tutorials and tips I find on this site to the letter, but it's always great to hear from the community! Hopefully before April hits you guys will get to see this thing all finished and shiny(-ish).
 
Convenient of you to comment! A couple days back I finally put the money together to get a 3D printer of my own. And now I got some pieces to show!
5YeH11Y.jpg

Got the visor tinted (It's not installed, I just set it in there for the photo), and got both biceps and both forearms done. I hope to start working on the print lines and paint the helmet while the other pieces print. I've been reading over the 405th tutorial here on how to mask 3D print lines, but does anyone have any personal suggestions?

Also I'm thinking on going with a blue for the armor color. Mainly cause the blue paint was buy one get one at my local hardware store and I considered it a 'sign'.
 
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Convenient of you to comment! A couple days back I finally put the money together to get a 3D printer of my own. And now I got some pieces to show!
View attachment 282146
Got the visor tinted (It's not installed, I just set it in there for the photo), and got both biceps and both forearms done. I hope to start working on the print lines and paint the helmet while the other pieces print. I've been reading over the 405th tutorial here on how to mask 3D print lines, but does anyone have any personal suggestions?

Also I'm thinking on going with a blue for the armor color. Mainly cause the paint was buy one get one at my local hardware store and I considered it a 'sign'.
There’s very many ways to fill those lines! First things first is you want several passes of sanding the surface. Break most of those lines down. It gives you a good surface to work with and also helps preserve some detail as you begin filling.

After that is dealer’s choice:
You can use a resin like XTC3D to coat the pieces. It leaves a very durable and impact resistant surface but the drawback is the wait for a full cure before sanding and painting.

Many people like to use many coats of filler primer to build up material in the lines, then sand smooth. Then inspect for any places that need extra material to fill lines and use either more filler primer or a spot putty to cram more material in, let cure, and sand once more to smooth completely. I can guarantee it will be many rounds of this over and over to fill everything. Make sure not to go too heavy on the spray and don’t forget to allow the layers to have time to set per directions on the can before adding more layers otherwise you will find the primer will crack and cure unevenly making it much more of a headache to fix

You can also just straight up Bondo car body filler the whole part, let cure, and sand until all the excess Bondo is removed and you find yourself with a tough, smooth surface.

And always ALWAYS remember to use a properly fit filtered respirator in a well-ventilated area when using any of these methods. Your health is more important than anything.
 
I forgot another nice method! EVAkura showed us one where you can use a heavy coat of Krylon Triple Glaze spray and immediately follow up with Krylon Chalky Finish, let cure, and follow up another coat of the same. Repeat until lines are filled.

I’ve used this to great effect though I ran with Rustoleum since that was the only alternative I could find for the Triple Glaze. Put down all my coats and sanded it until near silky smooth. After that my metallic bases were immaculate and had that extra zing to it.
 
I forgot another nice method! EVAkura showed us one where you can use a heavy coat of Krylon Triple Glaze spray and immediately follow up with Krylon Chalky Finish, let cure, and follow up another coat of the same. Repeat until lines are filled.

I’ve used this to great effect though I ran with Rustoleum since that was the only alternative I could find for the Triple Glaze. Put down all my coats and sanded it until near silky smooth. After that my metallic bases were immaculate and had that extra zing to it.
Thanks for the tips! Just put EVAkura's materials/method on order from Amazon. However, what do you recommend for a metallic base? I'm no stranger to painting props but this entire set of armor is proving a bit daunting.
 
Thanks for the tips! Just put EVAkura's materials/method on order from Amazon. However, what do you recommend for a metallic base? I'm no stranger to painting props but this entire set of armor is proving a bit daunting.
I recommend, after achieving a smooth surface, Krylon gloss black as a base, then lay your metallic layer. Then you can paint whatever color you like and mask for chipping. Or you can just lay your color on the gloss black if you like. Color undertones are subtle but can add a lot depending on what you want to accomplish
 
Alright, I've come across my first obstacle. Slicing the chestpiece...

I'm new to 3D printers and finding the most optimal way to slice up the chestpiece to be both PLA cost effective and take the least amount of time is giving me some trouble. Anyone got any suggestions?
 
MoeSizzlac or TurboCharizard any insights to this?

Happy to help.

Alright, I've come across my first obstacle. Slicing the chestpiece...

I'm new to 3D printers and finding the most optimal way to slice up the chestpiece to be both PLA cost effective and take the least amount of time is giving me some trouble. Anyone got any suggestions?

Dividing a piece depends entirely on your build plate and how much filament you are willing to part with. If you are getting into 3d Printing, I would highly recommend picking a program and learning how to split a file. Youtube (dividing stl files - YouTube) has a lot of tutorials. I use blender to split my files (
).

If you hit a wall with the splitting, just let me know and I'll split one up for you. Just need the exact dimensions of your build plate.

The best thing to do when minimizing filament usage is to make sure things are as vertical as possible with as little reaching over 45 degree angles.

Let me know if you need help.
 
To add to what MoeSizzlac said, sometimes more splits in a model is better for sake of minimizing supports and filament usage but makes for more difficult assembly down the road. It's a bit of a balance of saving a buck or two or a few hours in post processing that you kind of need to eyeball your strengths and weaknesses for. A good example of this is that I don't mind doing bondo and sanding but masking is not really my jam so a lot of small greeblies that are painted different colours I'll just separate them when designing a model and stick them on at the last stage before weathering.
 
Alright boys and girls, it's actually happening. For the past few years I've been content with painting the occasional prop/helmet, but no longer just that! I now have the TECHNOLOGY to go further! And now I'm gonna build a spartan.

I've gained access to my university's 3D print lab and have negotiated with them a plan to print a set of Mjolnir armor for an upcoming convention coming in April, since I don't have the willpower to carve myself some foam armor.

What I Got:
This beautiful MK V helmet by Moonlight Forge Cosplay
View attachment 280320
And so far the first armor piece (besides helmets) I've ever actually gotten for myself, a test forearm at 5% infill.
View attachment 280321
Very raw. And currently I've misplaced my low-grit sandpaper and my Dremel tool is back at my home 100 miles north. But it's a start!

I also have a grenade launcher on order as well as a MA5C.

I'm planning on being a little eccentric with this cosplay. There's plenty of room in the helmet to carve out the headlamps and install actual lights. As well as running some LED strips through the armor itself once we get there.

I'm taking it all one step at a time, but would love some input if anyone has any. I'm following the tutorials and tips I find on this site to the letter, but it's always great to hear from the community! Hopefully before April hits you guys will get to see this thing all finished and shiny(-ish).
Who's this Moonlight Forge guy? His cast looks terrible!

:lol:
 
I appreciate the help and support from all of you so far! If only I could speed up this printer. Currently I've been sanding and smoothing the pieces I have while the legs (currently the shins) get made in the printer.

I'm aware there's many ways to do the soft-parts of this cosplay, from getting some skin-tight morphsuit things to just wearing black clothes underneath. Do any of you have any recommendations for soft-parts that will be easy to mount the parts to? I have a flight suit from an old star wars cosplay I was going to do, but the zipper down the middle is rather obvious and the legs are incredibly baggy, as flight suits are.

And I was going to mount the parts onto the soft parts with velcro strips, does that sound like a good idea? Figured it'd be easy to put on and take off.
 
I appreciate the help and support from all of you so far! If only I could speed up this printer. Currently I've been sanding and smoothing the pieces I have while the legs (currently the shins) get made in the printer.

I'm aware there's many ways to do the soft-parts of this cosplay, from getting some skin-tight morphsuit things to just wearing black clothes underneath. Do any of you have any recommendations for soft-parts that will be easy to mount the parts to? I have a flight suit from an old star wars cosplay I was going to do, but the zipper down the middle is rather obvious and the legs are incredibly baggy, as flight suits are.

And I was going to mount the parts onto the soft parts with velcro strips, does that sound like a good idea? Figured it'd be easy to put on and take off.
I think he4thbar has a good method to secure armor pieces to undersuits. Snap fasteners for a seamless mount. I like it more than what I did.

For undersuits I personally used a cooling/moisture-wicking undersuit, top and bottom, and crafted a separate ab detail section to wrap around my torso. I attached everything to an armor rig that I wear like a vest made from nylon webbing and buckles. The armor and detail pieces cover it up well.
 
I think he4thbar has a good method to secure armor pieces to undersuits. Snap fasteners for a seamless mount. I like it more than what I did.
Thanks for the mention! I hate sewing and didn't want any buckles showing. here is my relatively in depth tutorial on how to use snap fasteners to connect your armor to your undersuit. also go through some of the comments they have insight as well. Also it is extremely easy to take off, (putting on can be easy but a litttttle of a pain for some contact points, but nothing i couldn't do myself :) ) just be carefuly when taking off to use your finger to seperate them rather then ripping the snaps off (it can cause damage).
 
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