Wilhelmina Props - Saint Drone
9:59 AMFor my Wilhelmina costume, there are a few things I decided to 3d print. One being a Maliwan SMG (gonna paint it like Moxxi's Bad Touch) that I felt was too complex to try modelling or fabricating myself. The other items I was sure I was printing is the Saint support drone and Wolf attack drone. I will go into Bad Touch and Wolf in other posts, but I thought I'd tackle Saint in this one.
So, one of the defining elements of the Wilhelm character is the drones Wolf and Saint. These are pretty damn cool and I thought a cosplay of this character would be woefully inadequate without them being represented. I had to size these drones down a bit from how they seem in the game. I would rather not be walking around with a 42 inch wingspan Wolf. I ended up deciding to give Saint a wingspan of about a tinsy bit over 11 inches and wolf will be about 20 inches. My intention is to mount these drones over and behind my shoulders by using a support rig mounted on my back made of clear and thick acrylic. This may or may not work . . . but I'll go into that once I start making it. For now, lets focus on the drones, specifically Saint.
Wilhelmina Cosplay - Saint
First, I needed to export the drone from the game itself and import it into Blender. From here, I needed to separate pieces into printable portions. For the most part, this process was fairly problem free as the pieces I wanted to separate were already detached from the body itself due to reasons outlined in my 3d printing intro. I just needed to slice the body in half (though after printing, I probably didn't need to do that) and start printing. There were a couple snags during printing, namely the front and rear ailerons were a bit thin and delicate and resulted in bending as the piece cooled. Thankfully, this is easily fixed with a heatgun and two large books stacked with the piece in between. You can see some of the pieces of the right side of Saint in the first three pictures of the album.
Once a few pieces were printed, I began test fitting. I was surprised to find there would be very little need to sand and shape in order for the pieces to fit well. The pieces ALMOST fit fresh out of the printer, as you can see in pictures 2 and 3, but a tiny bit of sanding was needed. I used a paddle sander and, of course, a dremel to get this done. The post sanding fit is tight enough that I shouldn't even need magnets to hold pieces in. Though I may still use magnets for the main wings, just to be safe.
Once the fitting was pretty solid, I continued to sand the rest of the pieces to smooth things out. After sanding, the bending in the ailerons and wings became more of a problem. This is when I reshaped them with heat and book-pressure. After they had been reshaped, I painted a couple layers of ABS goop on them to give them a bit more solidity (pic 4). As I sanded, I found there were some places that were too deep to adequately sand. This is where the coat of ABS juice I applied at the end comes in to play and I will discuss that a bit further in the post. The next two show some of the process of sanding and filling.
I chose to use bondo for the initial fill for larger seams and instances of layer delamination (where layers pull apart due to contraction as the print cools). After applying bondo and resanding those places I applied a mix of ABS goop to fill the rest of the cracks. I used a mix with a higher ratio of plastic to acetone. This made for a thicker mix allowing for better fill a tougher reinforcement.
In the last shot, you see where I began painting layers of a thin mix ABS juice (you also see some pieces of Wolf in that shot). This is great to smooth out whatever individual print layers that sanding might not have completely removed. It also fills any tiny cracks that the goop couldn't get into. Once this is dry and any last minute sanding is done, I will begin painting.
I would like to add some lighting here and there, but Saint is small enough that it may not be practical. We will have to see as we near the finished product. After it is painted and lighting is figured out, I will do the final attachment on the pieces that need to stay attached. I will post more progress pics in the album on Imgur as well as make some more progress posts.
Once Saint and Wolf are assembled, it will be time to engineer the harness and acrylic supports that will allow me to mount them over and behind my shoulders. Something I will talk about in a later post. :)
Once a few pieces were printed, I began test fitting. I was surprised to find there would be very little need to sand and shape in order for the pieces to fit well. The pieces ALMOST fit fresh out of the printer, as you can see in pictures 2 and 3, but a tiny bit of sanding was needed. I used a paddle sander and, of course, a dremel to get this done. The post sanding fit is tight enough that I shouldn't even need magnets to hold pieces in. Though I may still use magnets for the main wings, just to be safe.
Once the fitting was pretty solid, I continued to sand the rest of the pieces to smooth things out. After sanding, the bending in the ailerons and wings became more of a problem. This is when I reshaped them with heat and book-pressure. After they had been reshaped, I painted a couple layers of ABS goop on them to give them a bit more solidity (pic 4). As I sanded, I found there were some places that were too deep to adequately sand. This is where the coat of ABS juice I applied at the end comes in to play and I will discuss that a bit further in the post. The next two show some of the process of sanding and filling.
I chose to use bondo for the initial fill for larger seams and instances of layer delamination (where layers pull apart due to contraction as the print cools). After applying bondo and resanding those places I applied a mix of ABS goop to fill the rest of the cracks. I used a mix with a higher ratio of plastic to acetone. This made for a thicker mix allowing for better fill a tougher reinforcement.
In the last shot, you see where I began painting layers of a thin mix ABS juice (you also see some pieces of Wolf in that shot). This is great to smooth out whatever individual print layers that sanding might not have completely removed. It also fills any tiny cracks that the goop couldn't get into. Once this is dry and any last minute sanding is done, I will begin painting.
I would like to add some lighting here and there, but Saint is small enough that it may not be practical. We will have to see as we near the finished product. After it is painted and lighting is figured out, I will do the final attachment on the pieces that need to stay attached. I will post more progress pics in the album on Imgur as well as make some more progress posts.
Once Saint and Wolf are assembled, it will be time to engineer the harness and acrylic supports that will allow me to mount them over and behind my shoulders. Something I will talk about in a later post. :)
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