Okay... for real this time. Mark VII build!

[pinoyfiasco]

Update: Got a successful print!

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There's still a bit left to be desired in both the print quality and my Dremel work, but other than that? I'm pretty happy with it! The piece is extremely lightweight and has very few visible layer lines. I'll be doing a bit more clean up before the coating goes on.

On another note, I'm thinking of trying a semi-rigid epoxy coating (Epsilon PRO) to see if I like that better than the UreCoat. I'll print out a smaller piece, such as a kneepad, to test the two coatings on.

That looks astounding. That Varioshore finishes beautifully - almost looks like EVA foam. How do you plan to go about smoothing whatever visible layer lines there are?

 

[Ulfhedinn073]

Wishing you very good luck with the eva foam forming. The part of me that knows how much work this stuff is really wants that to succeed. The part of me that is, as we speak, doing rubber pulls from molds of parts of my suit while contemplating doing the same with silicone for my undersuit wants to see how yours turns out if that's the way it goes..... Great work so far tho!
Edit: As an aside, what did you do the scan of your body with, and did you do the lattice/shrink in blender? I'm looking to do basically that, would love some pointers.

 

[blafftat]

Let's go Sam! Print looks amazing. Did you fuzz the outside? It looks like a matte finish.

 

[SamuelHan]

Hiya! It's been a minute, so I should go ahead and update. I've been doing some further testing of the Varioshore + Epoxy process on my ODST reprint, and I've learned a few things.

1. The Varioshore, as beautiful as the surface finish is, can be messy at times. I often get small, thick strands of ooze/overflow on the surface, which I've found I'm unable to eliminate or even reduce regardless of how I alter my print settings.
2. The Epoxy (Epsilon Pro) works just as desired! It's quite flexible in thin coats and gains rigidity with additional layers. Two coats is usually enough for me.
3. The Varioshore does not play nice with small, indented details when foamed. Because of this, I'll either be reducing the temperature or using a standard TPU filament (such as Overture high-speed, thanks to DeltaAlphaZulu for the recommendation) for smaller and more detailed parts.

I'll post some photo updates once I get more filament in.

 

[SamuelHan]

That looks astounding. That Varioshore finishes beautifully - almost looks like EVA foam. How do you plan to go about smoothing whatever visible layer lines there are?

The epoxy coating does the trick, especially since it's sandable.

 

[SamuelHan]

Wishing you very good luck with the eva foam forming. The part of me that knows how much work this stuff is really wants that to succeed. The part of me that is, as we speak, doing rubber pulls from molds of parts of my suit while contemplating doing the same with silicone for my undersuit wants to see how yours turns out if that's the way it goes..... Great work so far tho!
Edit: As an aside, what did you do the scan of your body with, and did you do the lattice/shrink in blender? I'm looking to do basically that, would love some pointers.

I'd love to see how your rubber casting goes! My body scan was done with a handheld scanner by a local 3D design business. I used a combination of the shrinkwrap and lattice modifiers to alter the undersuit models.

 

[SamuelHan]

Let's go Sam! Print looks amazing. Did you fuzz the outside? It looks like a matte finish.

The matte finish comes from the foaming properties of the filament itself, though I do love me some fuzzy skin.

 

[Ulfhedinn073]

I'd love to see how your rubber casting goes! My body scan was done with a handheld scanner by a local 3D design business. I used a combination of the shrinkwrap and lattice modifiers to alter the undersuit models.

Ah, good to know. I'm hoping the one I have on my phone will be good enough, but at the moment I'm not holding my breath. How much did the scan cost, if you don't mind me asking? The castings went pretty well! They were a little thin and ripped some during the con I went to a couple of weeks back, but fortunately the process for re-pouring is pretty quick. The downside is the painting, which didn't stay at all - I think I need to clean it better. I'm gonna post all this in a process post at some point, but it's worth thinking about for your build, just in case!

 

[Chief118]

The time has come... I'm ready to do a full Spartan build! Before I dove feet first into this endeavour, I decided to dip my toes in with a Recon ODST build.

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My Spartan build will be much, much more involved than this one. In addition to 3D printing, I'll also be moulding and casting.

Let's start with materials. The armour will be printed in VarioShore foaming TPU and coated in Urecoat, and the helmet will be resin casted.

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Willow Creative is the reason I went ahead with this method, as I saw she'd beat me to it. Her success with urethane-coated TPU armour gave me the confidence to fully commit to this project.

Here is the reference I will be using for the colour scheme, which is the Midnight Frost coating.

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I've scaled the armour (Titlewave) and helmet (InstinctCreative) files to my 3D scan in Armorsmith.

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The boots will be scaled separately, as they'll be made to fit heeled boots.

The undersuit will be casted in Dragon Skin silicone and backed with a breathable 4-way stretch fabric. I used a lattice and shrinkwrap modifier on the undersuit model in order to get a better fit.

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As of today, the filament has been purchased, and I'll be ready to start printing as soon as it arrives.

good idea I think I will also print my undersuite pants from flexible filament, with Ultimaker you can create a reverse 3D print model for molding

 

[SamuelHan]

good idea I think I will also print my undersuite pants from flexible filament, with Ultimaker you can create a reverse 3D print model for molding

Ooh that sounds handy. Not sure if Orca can do that, but I'll look into it!

 

[Chief118]

Ooh that sounds handy. Not sure if Orca can do that, but I'll look into it!

Yes, I did it differently, I just posted my update of my suit, I also made the undersuite out of foam, it's quicker, but I still have to adjust it^^

 

[SamuelHan]

Update: I just bought a Neptune 3 Max! Super excited to start printing my big pieces.
Here's a sneak peak of some parts laid out on the print beds.

All of these will be printed in VarioShore TPU and coated with Epsilon PRO epoxy.

 

[SamuelHan]

Ah, good to know. I'm hoping the one I have on my phone will be good enough, but at the moment I'm not holding my breath. How much did the scan cost, if you don't mind me asking? The castings went pretty well! They were a little thin and ripped some during the con I went to a couple of weeks back, but fortunately the process for re-pouring is pretty quick. The downside is the painting, which didn't stay at all - I think I need to clean it better. I'm gonna post all this in a process post at some point, but it's worth thinking about for your build, just in case!

The process of creating the scan + cleaning up the mesh was about 200 USD. In terms of preventing tearing, I've seen a technique where power mesh is casted into the piece for extra reinforcement.