3D Original Sculpt - Boba Helmet

[Elumusic]

Started a 3D print of an original sculpt of my Boba Fett Helmet today. Decided to document my progress here. I am a member of the 501st. TK15279.

I am an avid 3D modeler and animator. I built my own TK Commander armor from the ground up. Helmet sculpted from a custom pepikura model and built my own molds and vacuum machine. This time around I decided to do it all in the virtual 3D world.

It is being printed on a large format 3D printer. TEVO Black Widow. This will allow me to only have to break this into four parts. And a fifth file to print the parts that need to be attached after it's complete. The model is 1 to 1. However since Boba's Helmet is on the small side my larger head will need a larger print. I am printing this at 1.125%.

So...on to my build. Here are a few screen shots of my model. I am going to print it in PLA. Two reasons. Large scale prints with ABS are difficult. The fumes are toxic. And this is going to take some fixing as a 3D print is never perfect. PLA can be glued with acrylic glue or super glue. It can be sanded and painted. And it's non toxic as PLA is derived from corn. So here we go.

 

[Artakha]

Nice start! I would suggest taking a look at the 3D helmet RafalFett has made freely available for download for reference on areas like the keyslots and dent. Looking good though! PLA for the win haha

 

[Elumusic]

First print. The reason it's pink is because it's what I had and it's getting painted anyway. Lol.

Sent from my iPhone

 

[shenphong]

Did you end up getting layer shifting?

 

[Elumusic]

Did you end up getting layer shifting?

Absolutely! Especially on larger prints. Not a huge deal if there are only a couple. I'll cut it at the shift and re-glue it so that it's in line. It's going to take some sanding anyway.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[shenphong]

Gotcha, is it due to layer adhesion issues though? Or is that an issue with the Tevo itself? It would be good just to avoid the layer skips all together lol

 

[Elumusic]

Gotcha, is it due to layer adhesion issues though? Or is that an issue with the Tevo itself? It would be good just to avoid the layer skips all together lol

It's not a layer skip issue, and no adhesion issues. It happens with a glob of the filament rests itself on the layer being printed. If it's too big, the machine will skip a tooth on the belt. my table belt is a little loose but on a larger table supported only by small rollers down the center it's the first point of give. The reason it happens on the large scale stuff is that I don't have time to site in front of a 40 hour print to clean up blobs when they happen. I am running the filament at 205 degrees and a table temp of 60. So the plastic is definitely bonding to itself, and I have slowed the machine down for these prints mostly to give the computer time to communicate with the printer. The other issue here is that these are hi res files and they are large. There is some processing that occurs and the machine sometimes slows to a momentary stop as it waits for the next piece of information. At that point I usually get a blob of filament. It doesn't happen much, but it does happen.

On another note, my extruder fan died during the last go around. I'm printing the top dome now without the fan. I don't recommend this to anyone, but I do have a small scale 120v fan pointing at the extruder from the side. I'm getting some cooling as the extruder nears that side of the table and it seems to be working. The issue here is that the nozzle has a possibility of clogging. Good times. I should have the new 24 fan on Monday. But I wanted to keep going.

 

[Atomo]

Do you know where I could find a phase 2 clone trooper helmet 3D printer file that is sliced up?

 

[Elumusic]

Update on my progress: I've gone a long way with this. Finished printing each side and gluing the parts together. It's rough, but I'm making a mold of this. Pieces are glued with Acrylic glue and I filled it with Gold Bondo. Which sticks a little better to plastic. It sticks so well I've used it to repair cracking.



To correct more layer shifting I had to make some cuts with the Dremel. PLA has a low glass point so it's never pretty to cut this stuff.


Bits and pieces that need to be re-modeled. I've found a few issues as I looked at the fitting of these components. The stock for the range finder is incorrect so I need to work that one out. And I need to add the range finder stock connector to the helmet instead of the cap that I have modeled now.

 

[Elumusic]

Round one of the after party. All parts glued and first layer of bondo added and primed. The different colors of print material I used really make it difficult to see any imperfections.

 

[Elumusic]

Did some additional smoothing and also blocked the bottom of the helmet to make it stable to be able to make a silicone mold. I also filled the dent because I decided to do a super trooper mold instead.

 

[Elumusic]

I do not, but if you do a STL search you can probably find one. Possibly for a cost. I've found bits and pieces of helmets some rough models of full helmets but nothing that is useable without heavy mods. That's why I just did my own. I did look at what RafalFett has done and it's impressive. Cutting things apart to fit onto a print table however is not fun at all. I used Maya to cut it into quarters and then bridged the edges until it was solid again.