Starting on my armor

[Kono]

So tomorrow I finally get my 3D printer which is when I can start on my armor, I will use this thread here for updates as I've been excited to finally have something worthwhile to post here. I will try to update this as much as possible and show you all my progress, as it will help me get feedback on it too, thank you all for reading this!

 

[Kono]

Finally got the printer set up, going to work right now but I'll figure out the helmet files and splitting it up when I get home

 

[Kono]

Little unimportant update, got home did some messing around and finally started the print, from now ill ill update when pieces of armor are done

 

[Catsbegaming24]

Good luck on this journey! It'll be cool to see your process.

 

[VonSnake]

Welcome to the group! Can't wait to see your progress and which designs you choose.

 

[marinesniper]

i agree with VonSnake welcome and excited to see what armor you choose and color

 

[Kono]

Any recommendations on how much I should sand a helmet down and with what level of sand paper, ill be doing it by hand

 

[PlanetAlexander]

You'll probably get a number of different responses from people as it slightly varies based on what each person prefers. If I was hand sanding, I'd start with a layer of sandable filler primer, then roughly 100 grit, primer, 300 grit, maybe primer again then 800 and wetsand too. You can go further if you want an even glossier finish. The grit numbers aren't strict, though I wouldn't go under 80 grit, and that's for rough work.

I totally get that you may not have a budget that includes a palm sander, but if you think you can make it work monetary wise, it'll save you a lot of time, especially for a full set of printed armour!

 

[Spartan513]

So tomorrow I finally get my 3D printer which is when I can start on my armor, I will use this thread here for updates as I've been excited to finally have something worthwhile to post here. I will try to update this as much as possible and show you all my progress, as it will help me get feedback on it too, thank you all for reading this!

Excited to see the progress!!

 

[Kono]

You'll probably get a number of different responses from people as it slightly varies based on what each person prefers. If I was hand sanding, I'd start with a layer of sandable filler primer, then roughly 100 grit, primer, 300 grit, maybe primer again then 800 and wetsand too. You can go further if you want an even glossier finish. The grit numbers aren't strict, though I wouldn't go under 80 grit, and that's for rough work.

I totally get that you may not have a budget that includes a palm sander, but if you think you can make it work monetary wise, it'll save you a lot of time, especially for a full set of printed armour!

Alright thank you for the tips, I can't wait to try them out

 

[Kono]

Excited to see the progress!!

Yes I can't wait to finish the helmet so I can update you all

 

[Kono]

Bad and good news, bad news is I accidentally stopped the nozzle mover thingy idk the name so the positioning got messed up and I couldn't fix it.. good news is I took it off the bed to see how it would fit and it was a bit too small so now I'm restarting and I made it bigger so I'm hoping it will fit me now

 

[DeltaAlphaZulu]

Any recommendations on how much I should sand a helmet down and with what level of sand paper, ill be doing it by hand

In addition to what PlanetAlexander said, I'd recommend thinking of it like peaks and valleys. You want to sand down the peaks and fill the valleys.

I usually sand the raw print with 100 grit to knockdown the tallest lines, filler primer, 240 grit sand, spot putty, 320 or 400 grit sand, filler primer again, 800 and then 2000 grit wet sand.

Also if you have any really deep areas you need to fill that primer won't work for spot putty works great!

 

[DeltaAlphaZulu]

Bad and good news, bad news is I accidentally stopped the nozzle mover thingy idk the name so the positioning got messed up and I couldn't fix it.. good news is I took it off the bed to see how it would fit and it was a bit too small so now I'm restarting and I made it bigger so I'm hoping it will fit me now

I apologize for the back to back post here, sometimes printing a 25% scale part and measuring it's opening against the measurement you need it to be can help get you scaling right without having to spend hours printing full scale parts just to have them not fit when they are finished.

Another method would be to print just the opening you need to fit through by slicing up the model to just print a ring.

In the case of most parts they can then be used to practice finishing techniques and color designs as well after their purpose for scaling is finished! Best of luck and I can't wait to see your helmet.

 

[VonSnake]

Any recommendations on how much I should sand a helmet down and with what level of sand paper, ill be doing it by hand

With sanding 3D prints by hand I definitely recommend picking up some metal/wood hand files. They are great for sanding rough and/or high spots down on the plastic so you don't go through massive amounts of sandpaper.

Also agree with PlanetAlexander and DeltaAlphaZulu definitely make use of filler primer to help smoothen out the small lines.