Our pleasant Kilted Mandalorian and “Serial Kilter”, Dan Simon, has achieved it once more. This time, making a improbable Sandman Dream cosplay piece. The design for the Dream helmet (by the superior Marko Makaj) had three essential parts to be printed: the primary helmet, the nosepiece, and the backbone.

Dan shares, “The backbone mounts right into a recessed space on the nosepiece (affixed with an inordinate quantity of E-6000 glue to make sure that it’s not going wherever), and the nosepiece is joined to the helmet by three giant bolts (additionally 3D printed).”

Take a look at Dan’s course of, his struggles, and his ideas on the creation of this new piece beneath in his personal phrases… which are sometimes entertaining sufficient on their very own.

Creating the 3D Printed Sandman Dream Cosplay Helm as Written by Dan

I began the entire course of by printing the primary Dream helmet (after all) — a whopping 11.5-day lengthy print job.

The 3D printer I used for this, the Creality CR10-S5, whereas enormous, just isn’t what you’d name “quick”…or “simple”….or “dependable.”

Seems that in a protracted print run, the CR10-S5 will slowly loosen the fastened bolts that lock the print mattress down. It additionally seems that when the mattress is free on the printer, the thermocouple that checks the mattress temperature begins getting a bit…erratic. When the thermocouple will get erratic sufficient in its readings, just a little setting within the printer’s firmware kicks in and goes right into a panic (ending the print) because it thinks the mattress’s heating ingredient has gone rogue and goes to kill us all. This may inevitably occur within the final 10 hours or so of the 11.5-day print and trigger an inordinate quantity of swearing to happen.

Lesson realized: aligning the helmet with the construct plate in an simply repeatable approach may help you overcome even probably the most cussed of printer malfunctions. Utilizing the nearly-finished helmet as a information, I pulled up the slicing software program and sank the mannequin into the construct plate till it was as shut as I may carry it to the purpose that the print minimize off. Slice, queue up the printer, and end the highest of the dome. Glued the entire thing collectively and breathed a sigh of aid (with just a bit extra swearing once I realized that my hand was superglued to the helmet…once more).

The rest of the items for this Sandman Dream cosplay helm had been printed **with out concern.

**OK, this can be a lie. The heatbreak — the half that connects the heatsink to the heating ingredient — snapped when printing the backbone.  Huge mess, plenty of swearing, plenty of cleanups, and a few new components ordered by Amazon.

The totally assembled helmet was coated liberally in XTC-3D. It seems that coating something liberally in XTC-3D could cause some dripping because the epoxy dries. Extra swearing was concerned right here, although my coronary heart wasn’t actually in it. Nothing {that a} “little” sanding couldn’t repair, so operations moved on to masking…and portray…and extra masking (lather, rinse, repeat…wipe arms on pants).  

A be aware for people who don’t like seeing their recent coat of paint peel off when eradicating masking tape: permit the paint to completely remedy earlier than making use of extra masking. For those who’re really paranoid (like yours really), spray all painted areas with a layer of clear coat earlier than masking — the clear coat will be sure that nothing peels off and protects your newly painted floor.

Whereas ready for the paint to dry, I began engaged on the lenses. A vacuum former makes the job tremendous easy, particularly since Marko was sort sufficient to incorporate designs for the lens types for precisely this utility. The one drawback I bumped into right here was that I don’t have a vacuum former. What I do have is an acrylic welding shied, a warmth gun, and what my spouse refers to as “blacksmith arms” (I have a tendency to choose up unusual hobbies). Acrylic welding shields would seem to require a big quantity of warmth to change into pliable sufficient to press over the shape by hand. I like to recommend carrying greater than the leather-based gloves I selected when you don’t wish to poach your self an excessive amount of.

As luck would have it, a mixture of metallic silver, black, phthalo blue, and color-shifting acrylics give a reasonably good approximation of a “midnight sky.”  

Be taught Extra About 3D Printing and Cosplay

For those who occurred to overlook the very first episode of our podcast and video sequence 3D Universe Untethered and wish to take a look at how Dan made his 3D printed Kilted Mandalorian armor in addition to hear how fellow cosplayer Dave Lysen teamed up with 3D printed e-NABLE Prosthetics co-inventor, Ivan Owen and 3D Universe’s Jeremy Simon and Dan Pelland to create a Ok-2SO Cosplay challenge with purposeful 3D printed mechanical arms, take a look at the video above!

If that doesn’t fulfill your interior cosplay nerd, take a look at our video of our interview with Volpin Props and get your self impressed. You may watch that episode within the video beneath!

As you possibly can see, there are a number of methods wherein you should utilize 3D printing to make killer cosplay and costume designs and props. It’s only a matter of deciding which 3D printer and filament you need and making an attempt to determine which factor you wish to make first, particularly once you understand you wish to “MAKE ALL THE THINGS!”

Be taught Extra About 3D Printers and Vacuum Formers

Wish to know extra concerning the several types of 3D printers which are obtainable, which of them can be utilized to construct giant items for costuming, and what supplies work finest?

Curious how you should utilize a desktop vacuum former just like the Mayku FormBox or the Multiplier to make prototypes and completed items to your cosplay costumes?

Take a look at our 3D printers, 3D forming machines, and our supplies pages, or be at liberty to e mail us at information@3duniverse.org!