PilotBH17
New Member
INTRO/LORE
Greetings fellow Spartan's. I'm new to the 405th and it's so good to finally see other beginners like me on the same journey making the most badass armor sets in video game history. The community in Australia is quite small for this kind of niche and finally being able to get in touch with fellow comrades is a great feeling. I probably won't make posts like this too often but as it is my first build, I wanna look back in the future and laugh at myself... or smile at how far I've come. So without futher or do it is being done, and it is going to be VERY VERY detailed on the failures, and successes of this build in EVERY aspect. Expect a lot of rambling, and yapping for this is more of a logbook on what I did, how I did it, and every step I took, whether it was forwards or backwards.
3 weeks ago, I had never touched or used a 3d Printer, software's like Armorsmith, Ultimaker Cura, Meshmixer, and Pepakura. I was a complete beginner to the world you all know. But every time I would get off the video games I'd usually play (Titanfall 2, Helldivers 2, and ALL the Halos) I always found myself going on YouTube and watching people make Spartan armor. One word....
BADASS
Me being an architecture student I was always creative and looking for a challenge, and boy did I find that in starting this journey. I had heard of the trials and tribulations involved in trying to make something as cool as this, but after wanting to so badly I knew it wouldn't stop me. I did some research and wanted to start a little more beginner friendly at a reasonable price. SO I bought an Ender 3 V3 and since then my life has changed...
LEARNING THE SOFTWARE
Okay so now that I had my 3d printer and I managed to set it up with little issues, it was time to download and learn the software. I tried using the software my printer came with which was Creality Print, but I had some issues linking to the printer as mine is not wireless and it doesn't detect the printer through cable. Of course I had the SD card, but I wanted to print straight from my PC and mine didn't have an SD slot (Even though I could buy an adapter). Luckily for me the software held in high regard by many ULTIMAKER CURA came down from heaven and open out its hand to me. My savior came when I needed him most and through here I found all the features a lot easier to use/find within its category system. Only showing what you need to see and getting in depth only when you expanded and selected more options. A fantastic program. I worked in other 3d software's for architecture so I found I adjusted much easier to this environment and began to learn FAST. Aka LESS THAN 2 WEEKS.
I am aware I still have a lot to learn, and even as is, my settings are probably nowhere near optimal for the purpose intended yet. I can't wait to hear some feedback from you guys and I'll have my settings later on with reasoning. BUT FOR NOW I needed to get a good model, and start scaling it to my body in Armor smith. I was determined to figure it all out no matter the cost. The model I used was from the Galactic Armory. I liked the amount of detail and loved the toughness, and weight it visually gave. It looked like LORE ACCURATE master chief armor and it also came with attachment points which I decided I'll figure out later. I downloaded it immediately I began scaling the armor to my body (I am 6 foot 1, 100kg/225 pounds 11.86% body fat). For motivation on the process to end result I saw some examples on the 405th. One I really liked that helped me understand HEAPPPSS is from a member by the name of Draxes . I used his armor as an example below on what I'd like mine to look like. I provided his armor below, and a snap of my Armorsmith file. I'm not sure how to credit someone on this yet so I'll link his post below also.
THE REALISATION
I always thought 3d printers were plug and play. I thought that as long as your model was well done, the print would come out as specified in the program. YEAH I was WRONG. Everything began to go wrong and I found out very quickly that the printer needs to be prepped just as much as the models do, and the settings got to be optimized for a good quality print (Proper set nozzle height, no stringing, good adhesion to the heat bed, no blobbing, optimized supports etc.) And as a result on some test prints I saw things like this...
This was a default print. I changed no settings at all and this was how it printed out of the box. I was devastated, perhaps I thought I had a faulty one. But upon further research I found that it was my fault, and I needed to put better settings into the G-code to make the prints better. SO WHAT WENT WRONG!?
As you can see these turned out WAYYY better and I was very happy with the results. Only thing I didn't like was the time it took, but I heard from everyone it was really normal for prints to take a while. So I began to try and be more patient, focusing on the things I can control and not the things I couldn't.
PRINTING THE ARMOR
BACK TO THE ARMOR. Luckily for me most of the pieces were pre-cut and one's that were just too big I sliced in Mesh mixer very easily by just using plane cuts. But what about the seams and how will you put the pieces together? you may ask. I saw a video of a youtuber who did PLA-welding by using a cheap soldering iron. This form of bonding would make the separate armor pieces fuse together and become ONE hard piece of armor. And if you look at how 3d printing is done by melting plastic it all begins to just make sense. I looked at things like glues, and other adhesives but I felt it wouldn't be strong enough for big pieces like this armor, and the thought of my armor snapping of with a small twist of my body was so embarrassing I decided the PLA weld method would be a better option moving forward. So yes just plane slicing worked fine with me chopping up the armor into blocks, and if somehow seams still show, that's where bondo/sanding would come in.
For the Helmet unfortunately I did not make it. 3D printing the helmet would've been perfectly fine with me, as I was more confident in my skills/prints now. But making the visor!? Having to get two wooden frames, places a special plastic sheet between them, heating the plastic in the oven, 3d printing the visor casing, and somehow rigging my vacuum on the bottom of it to make a perfect seal just so I could make the shape of the visor!? That excludes dyeing it, and making the cool one way tint. It sounded like a LOT of work, which I woulda done if it was necessary for the build, but then a key word came in.... PRICE.... It's an expensive method for a helmet I could just buy anyway so that's what I did. It has the lights on the side and all the wiring already done. Heres the helmet below.
The second I put on the helmet I began to smile... All the memories of my childhood began resurfacing from that single iconic helmet. I was even MORE determined to finish this project. And began working a lot faster, getting used to the routine of prepping, and printing. I started with the smaller pieces of the armor to try ease myself into such a massive project. Parts that required little to no prep. And after four days I had two SOLID shoulder pieces and the both hand plates done. As I began printing frequently my concern for how I would rig it all together grew more and more. And now I'm less than halfway through the printing phase of the armor and dreading the rigging phase. The only modifications I made were to the handplates, The original file made them super flat and when stuck on my glove it would look super clunky from the side and less seamless. So I thought I'd try this method of heating the PLA + in boiling water for a few minutes and making the piece mold perfectly to the outside of my hand. Once it cooled down it perfectly and elegantly curved around my hand and sat much better on the glove. So after that was done ,in a sketchy phone camera shot I got my snow pants that had some suspending elastics and wedged my shoulder pieces in there temporarily just to get the scale and fit. Then of course I slapped my modified handplates on my gloves with a strap, and here's how it looked.
I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT... I doubted my abilities, and thought all these other guys who were making spartan armor like this were just really smart. BUT RIGHT HERE was when I realized. I WAS ACTUALLY DOING IT. Not through intelligence necessarily but SHEER determination, and WILL. And day by day more pieces followed till we get to present day. I know I still have a long way to go, but this is the armor I have completed so far.
I'm really happy with how it's all going along. I only had one issue with the bottom of the chest plate. As you can see its only half done, because my PC decided to randomly restart during the night. This shutdown the Cura program, in turn stopping my print mid way. So I'll have to redo that part again. At a bit of a pause right now as I am just waiting for some more PLA + to arrive. I've already used 3 spools of 1kg PLA + and by the end of this project I think the business I purchase it from, is literally getting by, solely because of my purchases alone ahahaha XD. As you guys can see though I'm still very much in the early phase. Right now all that's left for this phase is to print, print, print, print again, and keep printing till the printing is done. Also if there are any tips, or advice you can provide me with below that will help me moving forward do not hesitate to let me know as I really appreciate all advice and information. Thankyou for reading this far... and I'll keep updating this as I progress with this massive project.
Greetings fellow Spartan's. I'm new to the 405th and it's so good to finally see other beginners like me on the same journey making the most badass armor sets in video game history. The community in Australia is quite small for this kind of niche and finally being able to get in touch with fellow comrades is a great feeling. I probably won't make posts like this too often but as it is my first build, I wanna look back in the future and laugh at myself... or smile at how far I've come. So without futher or do it is being done, and it is going to be VERY VERY detailed on the failures, and successes of this build in EVERY aspect. Expect a lot of rambling, and yapping for this is more of a logbook on what I did, how I did it, and every step I took, whether it was forwards or backwards.
3 weeks ago, I had never touched or used a 3d Printer, software's like Armorsmith, Ultimaker Cura, Meshmixer, and Pepakura. I was a complete beginner to the world you all know. But every time I would get off the video games I'd usually play (Titanfall 2, Helldivers 2, and ALL the Halos) I always found myself going on YouTube and watching people make Spartan armor. One word....
BADASS
Me being an architecture student I was always creative and looking for a challenge, and boy did I find that in starting this journey. I had heard of the trials and tribulations involved in trying to make something as cool as this, but after wanting to so badly I knew it wouldn't stop me. I did some research and wanted to start a little more beginner friendly at a reasonable price. SO I bought an Ender 3 V3 and since then my life has changed...
LEARNING THE SOFTWARE
Okay so now that I had my 3d printer and I managed to set it up with little issues, it was time to download and learn the software. I tried using the software my printer came with which was Creality Print, but I had some issues linking to the printer as mine is not wireless and it doesn't detect the printer through cable. Of course I had the SD card, but I wanted to print straight from my PC and mine didn't have an SD slot (Even though I could buy an adapter). Luckily for me the software held in high regard by many ULTIMAKER CURA came down from heaven and open out its hand to me. My savior came when I needed him most and through here I found all the features a lot easier to use/find within its category system. Only showing what you need to see and getting in depth only when you expanded and selected more options. A fantastic program. I worked in other 3d software's for architecture so I found I adjusted much easier to this environment and began to learn FAST. Aka LESS THAN 2 WEEKS.
I am aware I still have a lot to learn, and even as is, my settings are probably nowhere near optimal for the purpose intended yet. I can't wait to hear some feedback from you guys and I'll have my settings later on with reasoning. BUT FOR NOW I needed to get a good model, and start scaling it to my body in Armor smith. I was determined to figure it all out no matter the cost. The model I used was from the Galactic Armory. I liked the amount of detail and loved the toughness, and weight it visually gave. It looked like LORE ACCURATE master chief armor and it also came with attachment points which I decided I'll figure out later. I downloaded it immediately I began scaling the armor to my body (I am 6 foot 1, 100kg/225 pounds 11.86% body fat). For motivation on the process to end result I saw some examples on the 405th. One I really liked that helped me understand HEAPPPSS is from a member by the name of Draxes . I used his armor as an example below on what I'd like mine to look like. I provided his armor below, and a snap of my Armorsmith file. I'm not sure how to credit someone on this yet so I'll link his post below also.
Mark VI Mjolnir Powered Assault Armor GEN 3 - 3D Printed - Full Walkthrough
So thanks to this awesome community, and a special shoutout to SgtSaint, JSLund, The Tiny Geek, TylerBH2014, WandererTJ, willdillmill, TorrinNorixius, marinesniper, Invidiax4fan, SIERRA720, and especially Rock Lobbster. What I learned from you all got me started me on my 3 month adventure to 3D...
www.405th.com
THE REALISATION
I always thought 3d printers were plug and play. I thought that as long as your model was well done, the print would come out as specified in the program. YEAH I was WRONG. Everything began to go wrong and I found out very quickly that the printer needs to be prepped just as much as the models do, and the settings got to be optimized for a good quality print (Proper set nozzle height, no stringing, good adhesion to the heat bed, no blobbing, optimized supports etc.) And as a result on some test prints I saw things like this...
This was a default print. I changed no settings at all and this was how it printed out of the box. I was devastated, perhaps I thought I had a faulty one. But upon further research I found that it was my fault, and I needed to put better settings into the G-code to make the prints better. SO WHAT WENT WRONG!?
- Stringing
- Printing on desk that wobbled
- Support tips too thick
- Infill too thick
- Layer height too thick
- Poor adhesion to the heat bed
- Nozzle not hot enough
- Nozzle temp for PLA + was changed to 225 degrees Celsius (The plastic would actually melt and not harden from being exposed to air instantly)
- Began Auto setting the height and wiping the bed clean before every print (makes a huge difference to bed adhesion and print quality)
- Heat Bed temperature was changed to 60 degrees Celsius (helped with bed adhesion)
- Layer height was changed to 0.2mm (So it could have better detail on the armor pieces later on, and less sanding work)
- I made tree supports, adjusted the branch density when needed, and changed the tip thickness to 0.15mm (So they would snap off easier and not take my prints off with them)
- I changed the printing speed. It went so fast it would jerk everything around and violently throw itself around causing defects in the prints. The default 180mm/s was way too fast to make good quality prints (I changed the print speed to 40mm/s and initial layer speed to 25mm/s). THIS of course shattered my print time and took almost three times as long. But it was MUCH better quality.
- I also turned off the cooling fan. WAIT I KNOWWW I heard its a really big no no (because of things like heat creep and what not) but no matter what speed I'd set it to the material wouldn't adhere together AT ALL while it was on. And by turning it off I began to watch the layers of my print stack perfectly like icing on a cake. I found I have printed like this for weeks, and no issues have arisen as of yet. I may regret this later only time will tell.
- I enabled retraction, Z hopping, fixed the combing so you'd see less spider webs everywhere and prevent further stringing.
As you can see these turned out WAYYY better and I was very happy with the results. Only thing I didn't like was the time it took, but I heard from everyone it was really normal for prints to take a while. So I began to try and be more patient, focusing on the things I can control and not the things I couldn't.
PRINTING THE ARMOR
BACK TO THE ARMOR. Luckily for me most of the pieces were pre-cut and one's that were just too big I sliced in Mesh mixer very easily by just using plane cuts. But what about the seams and how will you put the pieces together? you may ask. I saw a video of a youtuber who did PLA-welding by using a cheap soldering iron. This form of bonding would make the separate armor pieces fuse together and become ONE hard piece of armor. And if you look at how 3d printing is done by melting plastic it all begins to just make sense. I looked at things like glues, and other adhesives but I felt it wouldn't be strong enough for big pieces like this armor, and the thought of my armor snapping of with a small twist of my body was so embarrassing I decided the PLA weld method would be a better option moving forward. So yes just plane slicing worked fine with me chopping up the armor into blocks, and if somehow seams still show, that's where bondo/sanding would come in.
For the Helmet unfortunately I did not make it. 3D printing the helmet would've been perfectly fine with me, as I was more confident in my skills/prints now. But making the visor!? Having to get two wooden frames, places a special plastic sheet between them, heating the plastic in the oven, 3d printing the visor casing, and somehow rigging my vacuum on the bottom of it to make a perfect seal just so I could make the shape of the visor!? That excludes dyeing it, and making the cool one way tint. It sounded like a LOT of work, which I woulda done if it was necessary for the build, but then a key word came in.... PRICE.... It's an expensive method for a helmet I could just buy anyway so that's what I did. It has the lights on the side and all the wiring already done. Heres the helmet below.
The second I put on the helmet I began to smile... All the memories of my childhood began resurfacing from that single iconic helmet. I was even MORE determined to finish this project. And began working a lot faster, getting used to the routine of prepping, and printing. I started with the smaller pieces of the armor to try ease myself into such a massive project. Parts that required little to no prep. And after four days I had two SOLID shoulder pieces and the both hand plates done. As I began printing frequently my concern for how I would rig it all together grew more and more. And now I'm less than halfway through the printing phase of the armor and dreading the rigging phase. The only modifications I made were to the handplates, The original file made them super flat and when stuck on my glove it would look super clunky from the side and less seamless. So I thought I'd try this method of heating the PLA + in boiling water for a few minutes and making the piece mold perfectly to the outside of my hand. Once it cooled down it perfectly and elegantly curved around my hand and sat much better on the glove. So after that was done ,in a sketchy phone camera shot I got my snow pants that had some suspending elastics and wedged my shoulder pieces in there temporarily just to get the scale and fit. Then of course I slapped my modified handplates on my gloves with a strap, and here's how it looked.
I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT... I doubted my abilities, and thought all these other guys who were making spartan armor like this were just really smart. BUT RIGHT HERE was when I realized. I WAS ACTUALLY DOING IT. Not through intelligence necessarily but SHEER determination, and WILL. And day by day more pieces followed till we get to present day. I know I still have a long way to go, but this is the armor I have completed so far.
I'm really happy with how it's all going along. I only had one issue with the bottom of the chest plate. As you can see its only half done, because my PC decided to randomly restart during the night. This shutdown the Cura program, in turn stopping my print mid way. So I'll have to redo that part again. At a bit of a pause right now as I am just waiting for some more PLA + to arrive. I've already used 3 spools of 1kg PLA + and by the end of this project I think the business I purchase it from, is literally getting by, solely because of my purchases alone ahahaha XD. As you guys can see though I'm still very much in the early phase. Right now all that's left for this phase is to print, print, print, print again, and keep printing till the printing is done. Also if there are any tips, or advice you can provide me with below that will help me moving forward do not hesitate to let me know as I really appreciate all advice and information. Thankyou for reading this far... and I'll keep updating this as I progress with this massive project.
Last edited: