emile1138's 3d printed tree hugger WIP

[emile1138]

****Adding at the top of this thread for those interested, I have a live stream running of parts if I'm currently printing any. It can be found here: https://www.seemecnc.com/pages/videostream

Hey all!

I'm beginning my scout build using 3D printing and a combination of Jesus Salmeron's helmet (found here) and MrPoopie's armor (found here). I work for a 3D printer company so ready access to printers and filament made this seem like a really great way to go for me. I'm using a combination of two different machines and materials to accomplish this.

Setup 1: SeeMeCNC Artemis with 0.5mm steel nozzle printing Atomic Filament's Carbon Fiber PETG. This is for all the large parts that need to be rugged and withstand the occasional leaving-costume-in-the-back-of-the-car-after-a-troop scenarios. These parts are being printed with a 0.2mm layer height because the large smooth surface areas of the build will make sanding and filling really easy. The CFPETG material has an insanely nice surface finish that's easy to sand and smooth out too. More on that later.

Setup 2: SeeMeCNC Orion with 0.4mm brass nozzle printing whatever Atomic Filament PLA I have on hand, usually silver or black. This is for the smaller detail bits that need the higher definition printing and won't take up a whole lof of surface area. I'm using PLA because it's easier to print tiny detailed parts with, and since the parts are so small and non structural I'm not worried about them getting soft in a hot car, they should be fine. The Orion is printing at a 0.1mm layer height for added definition in the final print.

I started with the helmet, as that's usually the most exciting to have on display while armor and soft parts and being finished up. I printed it in a few different scales because I figured my tall fat body would make a normal scale helmet look like a pinhead. I eventually decided to just finish printing the helmet in it's native scale and sure enough it doesn't look dumb on me, it seems to be the perfect fit!

The snout greeble / aerator shown in the photos above is temporary, just for showing off the helmet so far. The helmet designer's files have a snout plate that's designed to fit perfectly within the shape and curves of the snout of his helmet. So the snout plate in MrPoopie's designs doesn't fit quite right. So I printed the plate from Jesus's designs, but printed the engine detail portion off of MrPoopie's plate to glue on to it later. This gets the accuraccy of MrPoopie's design with the perfect fit of Jesus's helmet plate.

Original MrPoopie plate:

Separately printed MrPoopie engine detail:

Test fit with the Jesus snout plate:

There are some extra seams on the helmet that are there only because I cut the files up a little more for easy printing. Those will be sanded off later while doing all the other sanding / filling that will be needed. I begun that process today, and I'm writing this as I'm waiting for paint to to dry so I can start sanding.

There was an issue with printing the visor portion that was really hard to avoid. The curling of the filament while printing and my very low support percentage (5%) caused some areas to be uneven, that I feel will be a problem when it's all white against a black visor. I'll have to fill this in with some putty and try to get the shape back to where it should be.

I've also begun printing shoulder bells, and after a test fit I've decided to scale them up to 105% to fit my body shape a little better. I'm printing the new upscaled versions as I type right now.

Thanks for checking out my WIP thread! I can't wait to show more progress as this project unfolds!

[emile1138]

First round of filling / sanding complete. I'l letting things dry overnight, more progress later this week!

[emile1138]

Update time...

I've made significant progress on sanding and filling, and made a few mistakes but hey, we can't win them all.

I used putty to fill in some of the imperfections from the printing process, and I've wet sanded those spots down and I'm letting them dry for the day. I'll put a coat of regular primer on them after work to see where things are at smoothing wise. I've filled and shaped the visor problems I mentioned earlier in this thread, and the seam line from where I split the files up is really starting to disappear.

 

On the printing side of things, I've printed some of the MrPoopie details with the Orion and .4 nozzle setup I described in my first post on this thread. The detail here is pretty epic.

Armor wise, the Artemis printer with the carbon fiber PETG setup I described in my first post is cranking out MrPoopie shoulder bells. Yes I know only two shoulder bells are needed... You'll see why there are extras later...

 

That's it for now! I'll post more when I have more! At this stage I do have a few questions though.

1 - The Tbit details MrPoopie has that I printed seem to be even more detailed than screen used photos I've seen. Will this be an issue?
2 - Is there a correct or close to correct "medium grey" to use for the snout pieces? Preferably in spray paint, I don't have an airbrush.
3 - Do the details like the frown, traps, fishhook, etc. HAVE to be decals? Can they be painted? I'd love to paint them on if I can.

Thanks in advance to those who help answer my questions

[emile1138]

I'm making more progress, will post photos later, but I had another question to add to my above list...

4 - The CRL photos make the Tbit details almost look dark grey. I thought they were black... Which is it?

[MrPoopie]

6 hours ago, emile1138 said:

I'm making more progress, will post photos later, but I had another question to add to my above list...

4 - The CRL photos make the Tbit details almost look dark grey. I thought they were black... Which is it?

They should be black it's probably just the lighting or a bit of fading.

[emile1138]

9 minutes ago, MrPoopie said:

They should be black it's probably just the lighting or a bit of fading.

Thanks so much!

[StormyStormtrooper]

Looking good! Looking forward to seeing this thread.

[MrPoopie]

What are you using for filler, Bondo?

How's that Carbon Fiber PETG? I've only every used Carbon Fiber Nylon and while it's a little tricky to print with it pretty amazing once it's done. Not totally stiff but incredibly strong. It's also really expensive at about $75 for a 0.5kg spool.

[emile1138]

19 hours ago, MrPoopie said:

What are you using for filler, Bondo?

How's that Carbon Fiber PETG? I've only every used Carbon Fiber Nylon and while it's a little tricky to print with it pretty amazing once it's done. Not totally stiff but incredibly strong. It's also really expensive at about $75 for a 0.5kg spool.

I'm actually using JB Weld KwikWood. It's a two part epoxy putty stick. That fills the gaps in seams and any major outer wall seam issues that may show from printing. It's wood filler but binds well to plastic and sands nicely when fully hardened. The overall layer filling though is just multiple rounds of rattlecan filler primer and sanding. The Carbon Fiber PETG is printing with a nice enough texture that it doesn't take much to get it smooth. With a steel nozzle it's printing like a dream too. Only problem is supports are a pain to remove, the layer bonding is really good with that material. But because it sands so we'll a Dremel with a sanding drum does a real good job of knocking down the support that won't peel off clean.

[Chopper]

It's really great to see someone doing a 3D scout build and thanks for posting your progress.

[Selle]

I will be using MrPoopie's armor files as well. 

[MrPoopie]

1 hour ago, Selle said:

I will be using MrPoopie's armor files as well. 

So it'll be all my fault when it goes terribly wrong. I can except that. 

[emile1138]

Wow I'm so sorry people. For some reason my email decided to start marking notifications from PFD as spam... Lame.

Progress on armor has been slow as I ran out of my current supply of filament, but I'll be getting more soon. I've mainly been working on the helmet since that's just a matter of sanding and painting. It's alMOST DONE I'M SO EXCITED. Easily the coolest thing I've done with my printers thus far.

I'll have more photos to post very soon, in the mean time I have some paint to go watch dry...

 

On 10/12/2018 at 8:10 PM, Chopper said:

It's really great to see someone doing a 3D scout build and thanks for posting your progress.

Thanks for saying thanks! I think it's really cool that others are taking interest in this. I'm ridiculously excited to be a part of the Legion again and spending so much time and care in making the armor with my favorite other hobby is just like a cluster of excitement!

 

On 10/13/2018 at 12:36 PM, Selle said:

I will be using MrPoopie's armor files as well. 

Looking forward to seeing your progress as well!

 

On 10/13/2018 at 1:59 PM, MrPoopie said:

So it'll be all my fault when it goes terribly wrong. I can except that. 

If I'm being totally honest this is something that has crossed my mind and worries me slightly. I'm not questioning the accuracy of your designs but if I don't do the finishing work properly I'm nervous of running into disapproval. BUT if I finish things right and it looks like a normal ABS kit when it's done, what's the difference? I think as long as the shaping is similar to the screen used suits and the finish is just like ABS, it'll be approvable.

[MrPoopie]

As long as it looks similar to screen used armor and has a smooth white finish (paint) it'll be approvable. Armor has been made with ABS, fiberglass and resin, and many of our ShoreTroopers have 3D printed parts. 

You guys are just the "Tip of the Lance" for something new for Scouts. Just keep plugging away and I very confident all will be well. 

[emile1138]

20 minutes ago, MrPoopie said:

As long as it looks similar to screen used armor and has a smooth white finish (paint) it'll be approvable. Armor has been made with ABS, fiberglass and resin, and many of our ShoreTroopers have 3D printed parts. 

You guys are just the "Tip of the Lance" for something new for Scouts. Just keep plugging away and I very confident all will be well. 

"Tip of the Lance" that's an awesome feeling! All credit goes to you though for making this possible, I have zero skills when it comes to modelling accurate curvy shapes like this armor. Kudos to MrPoopie for making this possible for us

[emile1138]

Alright it's update time. I'll start trying to categorize items to make this thread easier to follow. I realize my excitement for this project will cause me to type WAY too much. I'm so sorry for the novels I will be writing in this thread...

 

Printing Updates:

I'm not a ridiculously huge guy but I'm definitely not skinny either. I'm tall and have a thick build, so sizing the armor is going to be tricky, but that's a good reason why 3D printing the armor is a super useful way of making a costume. Being able to scale parts as needed will help. I printed my first bicep piece at 100% scale and it was WAY too small. It dug right in to my skin and there was no way I would have been able to make it work without heavy post-printing modification. So I scaled it up to 115% and it's better, but still pretty tight. I'm thinking printing it again at 120% then maybe bending the curve open a little more post-printing with a heat gun will get me the size I need to fit my arm. I would post a photo of how it's fitting on my arm with the shoulder bells but after dropping my phone a few times I've realized taking a photo of this stuff while on my body is something I can't do with only two arms. I'll try to see if I can get a hand from someone else later.

I ran into an issue that I feel silly for not thinking of ahead of time though...

Scaling up the bicep armor means my already printed Tbits need to be scaled up and re-printed too... *sad trombone noises*
That's okay though, it's 3D printing, this is very easily remedied!

I finished printing a healthy amount of shoulder bells, two of these will be finished plain white for approval, and the other four will be swap-out bells with custom paint jobs for special events. One rainbow for pride events, one blue and yellow weathered stripes to rep my garrison at big events like comic-cons ans Celebrations when scouts are a-plenty, one pink one for breast cancer support events, and one more that I have yet to decide what it will be for. I'll attach the same strapping and attachment methods to the custom shoulder bells as the main ones, so I can "hot-swap" them at events if I or garrison members ever decide I need to swap back to the official costume colors for photos or whatever.

I also began printing blaster parts to try to get the most out of the last little slivers of filament left on my spools...

Blaster scope is on the way! Should be done in the morning...

 

Helmet Progess:

At this point I ran out of my Atomic Carbon Fiber PETG... so I focused on the helmet for a while since all I needed to work on that was spray paint and sand paper.

After some more filling/sanding I had this (setting the snout details on it loose just to see how it's looking):

After my final round of sanding with 400 grit sand paper to get the helmet parts baby butt smooth, I'm now adding a few layers of white primer that will be covered with gloss clear coat later... I'm really happy with how the surface quality is turning out. My excitement for this costume is skyrocketing even more!!

I went ahead and completely finished the chin cup, clear coat and all, to get a good feel for how the rest of the helmet paint job will go.

I also went ahead and splurged on one of these bad boys because I was too excited to stop thinking about this costume even at work...

 

Now to show you an exciting part of my helmet build... FANS!

I know a lot of people say the scout buckets have plenty of open ventilation in them and fans aren't completely necessary...but being a larger guy I get really sweaty really easily. I wanted to have some sort of forced airflow in the bucket. Additionally, during my test fits with the visor taped in the raw prints at the beginning of the thread, the visor DID start fogging up, and that's something that used to drive me insane before I installed visor fans in my stormie bucket back in the day, so I decided fans it is!

I used Tinkercad and the STL of the faceplate to model up some fan mounts and airflow ducts to perfectly fit the inside of the helmet. I think these will fit without pressing against my face, but we'll see when the helmet is done painting and I do a dry fit.

Some printing, painting, and soldering later and they're ready to install once the helmet painting is done...

I picked up some more filament tonight...

 

Now back to printing! Thanks to everyone for stopping by!

 

Still outstanding N00B questions:

1 - The Tbit details MrPoopie has that I printed seem to be even more detailed than screen used photos I've seen. Will this be an issue?
2 - Do the details like the frown, traps, fishhook, etc. HAVE to be decals? Can they be painted? I'd love to paint them on if I can.

[Chopper]

Very cool. Appreciate the updates.

To answer your questions -- it does look my Mr. Poopie's T-bits have more detail than the originals. To my eye they look pretty similar to the Don Jarr T-bits, which have the additional flange between the "bolts" on the square part.

Here's a photo of the screen used T-bit, you can see the difference:

Regarding the helmet decals, unlike the hand painted TK details, the helmet markings on the screen used scout were waterslide decals (you can see how delicate they are in the photo below). The CRL calls specifically for "Decals are screen accurate", so I'd say no, don't paint them.

 

[emile1138]

Thanks for the help Chopper! This saved me from doing something stupid!

[MrPoopie]

14 hours ago, Chopper said:

Very cool. Appreciate the updates.

To answer your questions -- it does look my Mr. Poopie's T-bits have more detail than the originals. To my eye they look pretty similar to the Don Jarr T-bits, which have the additional flange between the "bolts" on the square part.

I adjusted my T-Bits for future printing so they more reflect the screen-used ones. I'm always open to adjusting to make things as screen-accurate as possible. Thanks for the photo.

Do these look more like the ones in the photo now.

[Chopper]

Nice! Those look solid.

[emile1138]

I'm loving the strive for accuracy. Makes me kinda sad though because I love the extra details in the original ones I downloaded from MrPoopie

[MrPoopie]

Just now, emile1138 said:

I'm loving the strive for accuracy. Makes me kinda sad though because I love the extra details in the original ones I downloaded from MrPoopie

Thanks. You're not going to get docked for using the original ones they're just not the same as screen-used. There's a bit of room for approval when it comes to fine detail. Nobody but us ever sees this stuff either even though we take huge amounts of time and energy to get everything as perfect as possible. Which ever T-bits you decide to use will be great.

[emile1138]

2 minutes ago, MrPoopie said:

Thanks. You're not going to get docked for using the original ones they're just not the same as screen-used. There's a bit of room for approval when it comes to fine detail. Nobody but us ever sees this stuff either even though we take huge amounts of time and energy to get everything as perfect as possible. Which ever T-bits you decide to use will be great.

Okay awesome. I'm going to stick to your originals then

[Chopper]

    

2 minutes ago, MrPoopie said:

Thanks. You're not going to get docked for using the original ones they're just not the same as screen-used. There's a bit of room for approval when it comes to fine detail. Nobody but us ever sees this stuff either even though we take huge amounts of time and energy to get everything as perfect as possible. Which ever T-bits you decide to use will be great.

100%

[Selle]

3 hours ago, MrPoopie said:

Thanks. You're not going to get docked for using the original ones they're just not the same as screen-used. There's a bit of room for approval when it comes to fine detail. Nobody but us ever sees this stuff either even though we take huge amounts of time and energy to get everything as perfect as possible. Which ever T-bits you decide to use will be great.

Ill print the updated ones tomorrow, thanks for the great and fast work.