Prop Replica Build: N7 Helmet from Mass Effect Trilogy

N7 Helmet from Mass Effect games

     Back in January, I upgraded the Mega Kossel with an E3D Volcano, and I've been running it with a 0.4mm nozzle, so it was time to tryout the 0.8mm and see what all the fuss was about. I've been a fan of the Mass Effect saga for a long time, so when I found Killonious's N7 Breather Helmet (thing:2152838) model on Thingiverse, I decided use it as a test for printing large and detailed objects with the big nozzle.

N7 Helmet parts

     Now, not all of the parts were done with the 0.8, the green and red parts were done with a standard 0.4mm nozzle, but all the transparent parts are printed with the 0.8mm nozzle and 0.4mm layers. Surface quality on the transparent parts is comparable to the standard nozzles, just slightly more apparent ridging from the layer lines. It does allow for a drastic reduction in print times, one of the sections printed with a 0.4mm nozzle took 4+ hours to print on its own, a similar sized part took only an hour with the 0.8mm nozzle, so for making large prints the Volcano is clearly the best option.

Assembled helmet with Dremel tool for friction welding

    Since most of the parts for this build are large and thin, my usual method of using 5-minute epoxy to join the parts would clearly make a big mess, so I pulled out my old model 275 dremel tool and chucked some scrap filament to start friction welding the parts instead. Friction welding can be done with either a 3D printing pen or a dremel with a section of filament loaded as the tool head, I'm using one of the smaller collets to get a firm grip on the 1.75mm filament. Once the filament is loaded, the basic technique is fairly similar to conventional welding in metal, creating small joints to hold the parts together first and them doing a second pass to finish the joint. Once that step was finished, it was time to paint this monster of an object.

Base coat of paint being applied

    As with any large prop, painting is the key to making it look like it's an actual object and not just a model. Since most of the shell was done in transparent PLA, the first step in painting was to base-coat the entire model to look like metal, I've used some silver acrylic mixed 3 to 1 with black to create a nice grey metal look before, so that's what got used for the base colour. After that, it was time to pull out the masking tape and start detailing things.

Masking applied to N7 logo area and waiting for paint to dry

     As you can see, this helmet has a lot of different sections that each need a contrasting colour to bring out the details, so it got masked and painted in stages starting from the top and working towards the back. Now, I'm not following the in-game colour layout properly, that would just be lots of blacks and greys, so this is more my personal idea of how the colours should look and I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.

N7 Helmet nearly finished

     One thing that I decided to try differently on this prop was to apply some varnish to seal the paint against scratching or any weathering that I add later, so I coated it in some spare Varathane that I had in the shop, it actually adds a nice shine that works well for this model, so that was an unexpected bonus.

N7 Helmet with finished paint pre-varnish

N7 Helmet with varnish applied

Prop Replica Building: Han Solo's DL-44 Blaster

DL-44 Blaster from Star Wars: A New Hope

     After installing the new magnetic bed surface on the Mega Kossel last time, I decided to test it out with another prop replica build. After some deliberation, I decided on Han Solo's DL-44 blaster pistol from Star Wars: A New Hope. Looking around Thingiverse quickly turned up a decent set of files for a static version, (thing:2230835) so that's the model I went with.

DL-44 flash suppressor

     As you can see, the parts printed quite nicely, so I decided to experiment with a couple alternate finishing and assembly techniques. Since the scope is setup to print in two parts with this model, I decided to try some friction welding to join them together instead of my usual 5-minute epoxy.

DL-44 Scope and Barrel after printing and sanding

     Friction welding is fairly straightforward to do, you just need some scrap filament of the type used in the parts and a Dremel with the optional collet kit or 3-jaw chuck add-ons. What you do is cut a small piece of filament, I found about 2 cm (1in) worked best, and stick it in the collet of the Dremel and use it as a sacrificial tool to weld the parts together. It does take some practice and patience to get a good joint but it worked fairly well. Afterwards there was a slight ridge of extra material on the part but some light sanding dealt with that in short order.

Glue-up of main parts

    For the bulk of the main parts I switched back to my normal go to solution of 5-minute epoxy and glued the main body sections together next. I've found that the Gorilla Glue brand stuff actually dries clear instead of slightly yellowed like the LePage stuff, makes it much better for builds like this.

Main Body after gluing with finished scope

    One thing that I did have issues with on the printed parts was the mounting screws for the scope clamps came out really badly, think it was just a slicing issue but looking at the reference images reminded me that I had some M3 cap screws that looked almost perfect in my spares bin, so I drilled out and tapped the parts to fit the screws and bolted things together.

M3 cap screws installed on scope brackets

    After gluing the remaining parts together, the next step is sanding any stray glue off prior to painting it. For this one I decided to layer the pain in 2 coats, a slightly blackened silver for the first one and then the cannon black overtop. This allows for some neat tricks with weathering the final piece since you can just lightly sand the areas that have wear to reveal the underlying paint instead of painting overtop.

DL-44 with first coat of paint applied

DL-44 half painted with initial weathering on muzzle

    After doing the rough coats on the main body and scope, it was time for some masking before painting the handle sides, this would probably have been easier if I'd left gluing them on for after they were painted, but some basic masking tape takes care of things quite nicely.

Masking applied to handle

Painted handle with masking in-place while drying.

DL-44 with basic paint scheme finished

      Once the basic paint was dry it was time to start weathering the prop, so I tried a couple of different techniques that I'd seen used online. I started off with some light sanding with 60-grit sandpaper to create some of the basic scuffing that is seen on the original prop. I followed up with some Scotch-Brite to dull finish to a slightly more matte effect overall and then got to doing some fine detail highlights with a silver marker.

DL-44 with wear marks partially applied

DL-44 Left side with wear marks

    After highlighting some of the surface details with the marker I gave the entire thing one final pass with the Scotch-Brite and then blasted the surface with my heat-gun to seal any residual damp spots. Overall, I'm fairly pleased with the result and I'll definitely be using some of these tricks for future builds.

Finished DL-44 Right Side

Finished DL-44 Left Side

Prop Replica Making: Building the Sidewinder pistol from Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect: Andromeda Sidewinder

     After upgrading my Mini Kossel to a Mega Kossel, I was browsing Thingiverse for something interesting to test it with, I was searching the names of some of my favorite games, and Rawrbomb's Mass Effect: Andromeda Sidewinder design looked like one of the best modeled props from the game available.

Sidewinder V1 parts waiting for painting

     Printing was fairly straightforward, most of the digital prep work was mostly just orienting the parts for printing with my Mega Kossel, the default orientations are optimized for a prusa i3 style machine, so I ended up sticking most of the parts on end with a large stack of support material. Final step before printing was choosing which parts to do in black or white, so most of the gun's frame is in white PLA with some of the details in black PLA. Total print time was 52 hours 41 minutes and used 369 grams of filament including the support material.

Sidewinder right side initial paintwork

     For the painting, I started with the raw parts after removing the support material and gave some sections like the barrel and grip cages a coat of acrylic paint on all surfaces. Others sections got partially masked and painted in stages for the full effect, while others were left mostly untouched since the print was already the correct colour. For some of the detailing, I used coloured sharpies to prime the area, then 'weathered' the area, then recoloured with the sharpie again. 

Sidewinder left side initial paintwork

     This worked reasonably well, but after rewatching this YouTube video, I thought I could do better, especially as some of the weathering was only highlighting the layer lines in a few spots. So, after a quick trip to the local paint store to get some more colours and brushes, I repainted it to more closely follow the in-game texturing, with a little bit of rusting around the edges and seams. I've still got a bit of weathering to do at some point, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

Sidewinder left side final paintwork