GealicWolf
New Member
I too, would pay for these
kamakazykid
Active Member
Would be interested in purchasing the files if you are willing to
Darth Suiryu
New Member
My God! I've been looking for a stl of Sauron's helmet for years and I don't understand why I NEVER saw this post!!! It's an incredible job, I can't believe it! Do you sell the stl or will I only be able to see it in a photo? (Please tell me the first option is correct)
Aerie
Jr Member
Something is stirring in the east
Clouds grow thick over Mordor
The forges of Barad-dûr have been re-lit
Sauron has returned
Hello everyone
After a long pause, I’m back.
I got sidetracked by real-life, and the project was on hold for a while. Nevertheless, I always intended to finish it, and late last year I decided that IT WILL be finished by Halloween 2024, and made a strong mental commitment.
That was a fair amount of time, and clearly doable. However, I knew I would need to get some work in on as many days as possible, to keep up the momentum, but also, to get some prints out. This project with all the printing is not something you can just cram out by working really intensely for a short amount of time, even weeks of crunch. And it’s not just the final print itself, it requires a lot of prototype prints, and general problem solving.
So, a thing I did was to create a physical calendar on my makeshift white board. In part It’s a physical reminder of the project, so it’s always on my mind, and you are more likely to work on it.
It’s very simple, there is a box for each day from then until Halloween. Each day, I either worked on the project or not, red x if I did not, and a green check if I did. This is surprisingly compelling, you don't want that red x.
Other people might be motivated by telling friends about the project as a way of making themselves accountable, and therefore feel obligated to work on the project, since they otherwise would fail. This does not work for me, if anything, telling someone about the project makes me feel that I cash in on the glory early, and I lose motivation.
Many people know that I’m working on an ambitious Halloween costume, but no more than that. Which, Ironically, actually does help me feel accountable and makes me motivated. Cant wait to show people what I’ve been making.
Anyway, I figured if I can just bring myself to work on the project for a few minutes every day, that will often lead to those few minutes becoming more, getting started is the hardest part.
And this method has proven surprisingly effective. Another part I did not count on, is the importance of streaks. Where once you are on a streak, If I worked on the project even a little the previous day, then I'm way more likely to do it the next. Also works the opposite, if you can easily have a hard time getting on again if you have a break.
Anyway, I have gotten a lot done since December. Basically have a prototype for most of the parts besides the legs. And have now started printing some final versions.
So for this project, every part has essentially 4 main stage.
Basic model
The first stage is just building the base model off of all the references you can find. It’s not going to be 100% accurate, there will be adjustments in the prototype stage anyway so it does not have to be perfect, you just need to get the base shape fairly accurate, not the details. I have done this stage for all parts even prior to the hiatus.
Prototype
Base models are usually just the outside of the model. With the prototype, you have to give and inside / thickness. Then figure out how best print it, consider mobility, so you can move enough, and lastly, but most importantly, you have to make sure it fits your body.
This is is not entirely simple, as there is a fairly narrow window you want to hit. You of course don't want it to be too small, as then it will be uncomfortable or impossible to wear, and move around in. But you also don't want it to be too big since then things just float around, you want a tight fit. So you want to get it down to less than half an inch of space. Depending on what you are wearing underneath.
So you need a good reference in the digital world of yourself prior to printing, more on this later. You can of course brute force it and just print, adjust, print, adjust, until you get it right, but that is both time consuming, and costly.
So, since Christmas I have prototyped about two thirds of the costume, and most of them have turned out surprisingly well on the first go, some have gotten many many versions.
I would say though, even if you think you could nail it on the first go, a prototype is always worth it, there are always a lot of things you immediately stand out to be fix once you have it in your hands.
It’s also very motivating to hold the thing in your hands. So if you have a project with 3d printed parts, and you feel you can spare the filament, don't hold off on printing a prototype, as I will gain you so much. I realized that the hesitation to do prototype held me back, the desire to make final prints on the first go makes things go a lot slower. So then I just let it rip.
Final prints
After the prototype is done, there is still a lot of work left before printing the final model. In this case, almost every part has textured details, which means there is a point of no return, where after details have been added, if you want to change the base shape, there is a lot of work that has to be redone. So therefore I only do this once I’m happy with the prototype. Several pieces have finished this stage, as such I can now start printing many of the parts.
Finalization
Last stage is of course some sanding, covering it with spray filler, sanding again, painting etc. I’ve lightly sanded the few pieces that have gotten to this stage, but no more than that. I will likely focus on getting all the models to final print first, and then focus on finish after this. I think the 3d modeling is the hardest part. The last parts, sanding, painting etc can actually be done in short time if needed, the 3d part is the hard part to get through.
I’ve printed the final version of the mace, as that one was completely finished from before. I just needed to decide what material and settings to print it in, which I’ve decided one what material to print it in. (More on that in a future post)
So earlier this week I printed the final version of the breastplate and assembled it. Some light sanding, brings out the pattern real nice. Really happy with it, and look forward to the relentless printing that will be going on for the next few weeks, so there will be a lot of updates in the near future.
I realize seeing this picture, that it looks like there is very prominent print lines. This is actually very inaccurate, the model comes other fairly smooth as is. And with just a light bit of sanding, its very smooth. It just the sanding makes it look like it's got very heavy print lines. Basically, the white lines are the areas that are sanded down. So worry not, it's turning out great, and with some thin layers of spray-filler it will be perfect.
A short recap of why the big pause, and what happened in between
Some of this is relevant I promise, or perhaps amusing.
So in the spring of 2021 I was on a roll, got the helmet and mace done and printed. Then several things conspired to halt my project. I had a lot of issues that conspired to halt the project.
My printer broke down, and getting the parts, and finding the motivation to repair it took time.
The biggest thing though, was, 8 metric tons of concrete blocks and slate arrived on my driveway so this needed to be dealt with. This was for my garden, så I had a fair amount of work getting them into place.
Preparing and figuring out the place they needed to go, puzzling and cutting up the slate etc. Just the work of moving each piece was a lot of work. So most spare time during the summer just went to working with stone. After the summer I was pretty spent.
Simultaneously something that had been on my mind for a while, was the wish to have a bigger printer. That would for instance make it so that I could print the helmet in basically 2 parts instead of 4, and the breastplate in 4 pieces instead of 12.
I knew that there were a few available I could at any time could print 30, 40 or even 50 cubic centimeters. But I wanted it to be a very reliable printer, since these prints take days, and you don't want a failed print after days of printing. Just the thought of the cost for the lost filament was fairly unpalatable, never mind the lost time. In short, what I wanted was a larger Prusa.
And wouldn’t you believe it, just then, in the autumn of 2021, Prusa announced just that, an XL printer was in development. I pre-order as soon as I saw it. Not cheap, but the 3d printer I have, has been one of the most rewarding purchases I have ever made, so there was almost no hesitation.
Now, the set delivery date was Q2-Q3 2022, and even under normal circumstances, I had no illusions that Prusa would deliver on that, the RnD and time to set up production, plus pandemic slowdowns, it would take more than that. I expected a delivery no earlier than Q4 2022, but likely later. Which turned out to be true, The delivery would take place late Q2, 2023. So waiting for this slowed me down a bit.
So, in the meantime there was not a lot going on with the project. I never forgot it, but progress was almost non-existent. But not completely. I did some tests in photo scanning myself. As mentioned previously having a good reference for your actual size is pretty crucial. As the margin of error is not that big, if you want to wear it and walk around in it comfortably.
Photo scanning myself proved very difficult though, so the results were pretty disappointing. Its just really hard to stand still enough and take all the pictures, and have them be sharp etc. But they still helped.
Anyway, time passed by late summer of 2023 the printer finally arrived, and this is when the project started to pick up again. One of the main things I did was to create a papé-maché bust around a sewing manikin I have. It’s not exactly the same shape as me, but at least I could photo scan that properly and have a decent reference for real-world size in the computer while modeling. I could also actually put this paper armor on, to see where the differences were, and therefore be pretty confident that It would fit. So with that I could do the Breastplate and Gorget with a fair amount of confidence.
Btw, don’t dismiss papier-mâché, its dirt cheap, it’s a great tool for some things. That being said, if anyone has a tip for how to make fast models that would be great. As papier-mâché takes forever to dry. I’ve used worbla in some cases, but it has the downside of being more expensive, and needs to be pretty hot to shape, so you cant easily do it on your body.
After halloween 2023 is when things really picked up though, I got my white board, and I was working on the project on at least a weekly basis, with only 2 major disruptions where I went traveling for 3 weeks on 2 occasions, and some time adjacent to that.
So the project has been ongoing pretty well. 7 months down, 5 months to go. So as mentioned I have prototypes for more than half of the armor at this point. And for the next few weeks I will be printing non stop for a while, as many of these piece take 3-4 days to print. Current print is 112 hours. Here is a bit of a teaser for the next part.
Clouds grow thick over Mordor
The forges of Barad-dûr have been re-lit
Sauron has returned
Hello everyone
After a long pause, I’m back.
I got sidetracked by real-life, and the project was on hold for a while. Nevertheless, I always intended to finish it, and late last year I decided that IT WILL be finished by Halloween 2024, and made a strong mental commitment.
That was a fair amount of time, and clearly doable. However, I knew I would need to get some work in on as many days as possible, to keep up the momentum, but also, to get some prints out. This project with all the printing is not something you can just cram out by working really intensely for a short amount of time, even weeks of crunch. And it’s not just the final print itself, it requires a lot of prototype prints, and general problem solving.
So, a thing I did was to create a physical calendar on my makeshift white board. In part It’s a physical reminder of the project, so it’s always on my mind, and you are more likely to work on it.
It’s very simple, there is a box for each day from then until Halloween. Each day, I either worked on the project or not, red x if I did not, and a green check if I did. This is surprisingly compelling, you don't want that red x.
Other people might be motivated by telling friends about the project as a way of making themselves accountable, and therefore feel obligated to work on the project, since they otherwise would fail. This does not work for me, if anything, telling someone about the project makes me feel that I cash in on the glory early, and I lose motivation.
Many people know that I’m working on an ambitious Halloween costume, but no more than that. Which, Ironically, actually does help me feel accountable and makes me motivated. Cant wait to show people what I’ve been making.
Anyway, I figured if I can just bring myself to work on the project for a few minutes every day, that will often lead to those few minutes becoming more, getting started is the hardest part.
And this method has proven surprisingly effective. Another part I did not count on, is the importance of streaks. Where once you are on a streak, If I worked on the project even a little the previous day, then I'm way more likely to do it the next. Also works the opposite, if you can easily have a hard time getting on again if you have a break.
Anyway, I have gotten a lot done since December. Basically have a prototype for most of the parts besides the legs. And have now started printing some final versions.
So for this project, every part has essentially 4 main stage.
- Base model
- Prototype
- Final print
- Finalization
Basic model
The first stage is just building the base model off of all the references you can find. It’s not going to be 100% accurate, there will be adjustments in the prototype stage anyway so it does not have to be perfect, you just need to get the base shape fairly accurate, not the details. I have done this stage for all parts even prior to the hiatus.
Prototype
Base models are usually just the outside of the model. With the prototype, you have to give and inside / thickness. Then figure out how best print it, consider mobility, so you can move enough, and lastly, but most importantly, you have to make sure it fits your body.
This is is not entirely simple, as there is a fairly narrow window you want to hit. You of course don't want it to be too small, as then it will be uncomfortable or impossible to wear, and move around in. But you also don't want it to be too big since then things just float around, you want a tight fit. So you want to get it down to less than half an inch of space. Depending on what you are wearing underneath.
So you need a good reference in the digital world of yourself prior to printing, more on this later. You can of course brute force it and just print, adjust, print, adjust, until you get it right, but that is both time consuming, and costly.
So, since Christmas I have prototyped about two thirds of the costume, and most of them have turned out surprisingly well on the first go, some have gotten many many versions.
I would say though, even if you think you could nail it on the first go, a prototype is always worth it, there are always a lot of things you immediately stand out to be fix once you have it in your hands.
It’s also very motivating to hold the thing in your hands. So if you have a project with 3d printed parts, and you feel you can spare the filament, don't hold off on printing a prototype, as I will gain you so much. I realized that the hesitation to do prototype held me back, the desire to make final prints on the first go makes things go a lot slower. So then I just let it rip.
Final prints
After the prototype is done, there is still a lot of work left before printing the final model. In this case, almost every part has textured details, which means there is a point of no return, where after details have been added, if you want to change the base shape, there is a lot of work that has to be redone. So therefore I only do this once I’m happy with the prototype. Several pieces have finished this stage, as such I can now start printing many of the parts.
Finalization
Last stage is of course some sanding, covering it with spray filler, sanding again, painting etc. I’ve lightly sanded the few pieces that have gotten to this stage, but no more than that. I will likely focus on getting all the models to final print first, and then focus on finish after this. I think the 3d modeling is the hardest part. The last parts, sanding, painting etc can actually be done in short time if needed, the 3d part is the hard part to get through.
I’ve printed the final version of the mace, as that one was completely finished from before. I just needed to decide what material and settings to print it in, which I’ve decided one what material to print it in. (More on that in a future post)
So earlier this week I printed the final version of the breastplate and assembled it. Some light sanding, brings out the pattern real nice. Really happy with it, and look forward to the relentless printing that will be going on for the next few weeks, so there will be a lot of updates in the near future.
I realize seeing this picture, that it looks like there is very prominent print lines. This is actually very inaccurate, the model comes other fairly smooth as is. And with just a light bit of sanding, its very smooth. It just the sanding makes it look like it's got very heavy print lines. Basically, the white lines are the areas that are sanded down. So worry not, it's turning out great, and with some thin layers of spray-filler it will be perfect.
A short recap of why the big pause, and what happened in between
Some of this is relevant I promise, or perhaps amusing.
So in the spring of 2021 I was on a roll, got the helmet and mace done and printed. Then several things conspired to halt my project. I had a lot of issues that conspired to halt the project.
My printer broke down, and getting the parts, and finding the motivation to repair it took time.
The biggest thing though, was, 8 metric tons of concrete blocks and slate arrived on my driveway so this needed to be dealt with. This was for my garden, så I had a fair amount of work getting them into place.
Preparing and figuring out the place they needed to go, puzzling and cutting up the slate etc. Just the work of moving each piece was a lot of work. So most spare time during the summer just went to working with stone. After the summer I was pretty spent.
Simultaneously something that had been on my mind for a while, was the wish to have a bigger printer. That would for instance make it so that I could print the helmet in basically 2 parts instead of 4, and the breastplate in 4 pieces instead of 12.
I knew that there were a few available I could at any time could print 30, 40 or even 50 cubic centimeters. But I wanted it to be a very reliable printer, since these prints take days, and you don't want a failed print after days of printing. Just the thought of the cost for the lost filament was fairly unpalatable, never mind the lost time. In short, what I wanted was a larger Prusa.
And wouldn’t you believe it, just then, in the autumn of 2021, Prusa announced just that, an XL printer was in development. I pre-order as soon as I saw it. Not cheap, but the 3d printer I have, has been one of the most rewarding purchases I have ever made, so there was almost no hesitation.
Now, the set delivery date was Q2-Q3 2022, and even under normal circumstances, I had no illusions that Prusa would deliver on that, the RnD and time to set up production, plus pandemic slowdowns, it would take more than that. I expected a delivery no earlier than Q4 2022, but likely later. Which turned out to be true, The delivery would take place late Q2, 2023. So waiting for this slowed me down a bit.
So, in the meantime there was not a lot going on with the project. I never forgot it, but progress was almost non-existent. But not completely. I did some tests in photo scanning myself. As mentioned previously having a good reference for your actual size is pretty crucial. As the margin of error is not that big, if you want to wear it and walk around in it comfortably.
Photo scanning myself proved very difficult though, so the results were pretty disappointing. Its just really hard to stand still enough and take all the pictures, and have them be sharp etc. But they still helped.
Anyway, time passed by late summer of 2023 the printer finally arrived, and this is when the project started to pick up again. One of the main things I did was to create a papé-maché bust around a sewing manikin I have. It’s not exactly the same shape as me, but at least I could photo scan that properly and have a decent reference for real-world size in the computer while modeling. I could also actually put this paper armor on, to see where the differences were, and therefore be pretty confident that It would fit. So with that I could do the Breastplate and Gorget with a fair amount of confidence.
Btw, don’t dismiss papier-mâché, its dirt cheap, it’s a great tool for some things. That being said, if anyone has a tip for how to make fast models that would be great. As papier-mâché takes forever to dry. I’ve used worbla in some cases, but it has the downside of being more expensive, and needs to be pretty hot to shape, so you cant easily do it on your body.
After halloween 2023 is when things really picked up though, I got my white board, and I was working on the project on at least a weekly basis, with only 2 major disruptions where I went traveling for 3 weeks on 2 occasions, and some time adjacent to that.
So the project has been ongoing pretty well. 7 months down, 5 months to go. So as mentioned I have prototypes for more than half of the armor at this point. And for the next few weeks I will be printing non stop for a while, as many of these piece take 3-4 days to print. Current print is 112 hours. Here is a bit of a teaser for the next part.
Attachments
Last edited:
Aerie
Jr Member
Not as much posting recently as I intended, but a lot more work done than anticipated, In fact I have worked on the project every day for the last 54 Days. A lot of modeling done, a lot of printing done, and I’m at the stage where 2/3's parts are ready for final print.
Will go through them one at a time.
Gorget
One of the first pieces I tackled earlier this year was the gorget, the armor surrounding the neck. I needed to do this before I could really do the breastplate, since that rest upon that it.
In the beginning I wanted to do each as a separate layer. Having each part separately is in theory better, more fidelity and freedom of movement, but more complicated to put on. I did all the parts, AND printed all the part separately. But only after completing all that work did I decide not to continue to pursue that path.
The thing that concerned me the most was the layer getting misaligned as I wear the armor, and you don't really need the mobility at all, makes not difference. Having them as individual pieces also makes it a bit thicker, so I just merged them. Could save all the work, so, not too bad of a detour. Looking at real gorgets, its seems most of them are actually bolted together, and the layers dont move independently, likely just separate layers because its a lot easier to make that way, not sure.
Despite having several good references, both from a scanned mould, and scanned papeé maché model, getting something that sits comfortably on you shoulders have been hard, the biggest problem is the collarbone eaisly takes a lot of the weight and its very uncomfortable. Will likely add some foam under the gorget in the end to make it more comfortable, since a lot of the armor rest on the gorget.
Anyway this part is finished, with pattern and everything, as visible in the middle of the picture.
Will go through them one at a time.
Gorget
One of the first pieces I tackled earlier this year was the gorget, the armor surrounding the neck. I needed to do this before I could really do the breastplate, since that rest upon that it.
In the beginning I wanted to do each as a separate layer. Having each part separately is in theory better, more fidelity and freedom of movement, but more complicated to put on. I did all the parts, AND printed all the part separately. But only after completing all that work did I decide not to continue to pursue that path.
The thing that concerned me the most was the layer getting misaligned as I wear the armor, and you don't really need the mobility at all, makes not difference. Having them as individual pieces also makes it a bit thicker, so I just merged them. Could save all the work, so, not too bad of a detour. Looking at real gorgets, its seems most of them are actually bolted together, and the layers dont move independently, likely just separate layers because its a lot easier to make that way, not sure.
Despite having several good references, both from a scanned mould, and scanned papeé maché model, getting something that sits comfortably on you shoulders have been hard, the biggest problem is the collarbone eaisly takes a lot of the weight and its very uncomfortable. Will likely add some foam under the gorget in the end to make it more comfortable, since a lot of the armor rest on the gorget.
Anyway this part is finished, with pattern and everything, as visible in the middle of the picture.
Last edited:
GealicWolf
New Member
YES! So glad to see you back at it. Your work so far is awesome. Keep up the good work.
“This task was appointed to you. And if you do not find a way, no one will.”
Aerie
Jr Member
Breastplate and Arms
The breastplate is the biggest, and in many ways the easiest part of the armor. Fairly visible in references, and easy to follow and it was very satisfying build, and even more so to finally print once it was done. The first version turned out A LOT better than expected, it fit me really well. In a pinch I could use that almost as is, though it was missing the pattern details.
I was just 3-4 cm too long for me when I wore it. But having it printed, I also saw lots of minor things I wanted to fix, thickness in armor layers, etc.
Before I could print the final version of them breastplate I also wanted to figure out some of the other parts that would interact with it, primarily the arms, tassets, As they would likely collide, so I wanted those parts to be basically finished before I printed the final breastplate.
So, as soon as I was done with the breastplate I got started with the arms, which has by far been the most complicated. On multiple levels. Firstly there is the fact that it is very hard to figure out what the arms actually look like on the actual armor. There are not a lot of good images, and to add to that the fact that I suspect that they move independently a lot. Additionally the armor there are like 10 different layers, just on the upper arm, then the elbow has several layers, and then you have the lower arm. Its very hard to see what is going on.
Therefor, for the arms i relied a lot of various official Sauron statues that you can buy. I can only hope that they have had access to better material than me, and I have found almost no inaccuracies on them, so they do hold up really well. (more on these later).
On top of these challanges, you have all the movement mechanics, I want to be able to move very freely in the armor once its done.
I started out with the upper arms. Did a quick mock-up with Worbla, not that accurate, but something to start with. Made the best model I could, but did not feel too confident about it.
* As a side not, one thing that I have struggled with a bit was that I did not want to do an excessive amount of printing. In part because it costs a bit. But mostly because I feel bad just producing lots of plastic that I will throw away. Sure its PLA, which is just lactic acid, not petroleum based, but still.
But eventually I had to let that go a bit, it was really holding me back, wanting to basically only print things once they are completely done. Once i let this go, velocity, and motivation went up a lot.
So I printed the upper arm. And as soon as it was done a knew so much more. Was pretty close in size, a good fit, and a tone of small improvements became apparent. Which enabled me to quickly make a second version, which allowed me to move forward with the elbow.
The elbow blades I nailed basically on the first try, very satisfying. Then the elbow itself got a lot of prints, but I learned a lot for each of them. The adjustments where pretty small, but necessary for things to move correctly.
The trickiest part was the interaction with the lower arm armor, which was created in parallel. The bracers, needs to move inside the the elbow and rotate without too much friction, but also I don't want the arms to be thicker than it needs to be. So I had to develop 4 major parts simultaneously, which in turn were actually 9 different parts to print, and a few versions of each were needed to nail it down. But now, they are all at the final stage, and I I have printed the final version of both arms.
Here are the different version of the lower arm. Mostly about figuring out long it should be and how much extra space is needed near the elbow. As you rotate and flex the muscles it changes size quite a bit.
Also used it do a paint test. Pretty satisfied with the result, especially considering the simplicity. Two coats of spray filler and sanding in between. Some "Montana can - Metallic graphite". and some aryllic paint to have some shadows to bring out the details and just a light polish pass. Its metallic enough, dark, not too dark, easy to reproduce.
Only thing that is missing that I want is some variation, which would have to be added after the base cote. As I did a test where I have one section of white, one black, one blue and one orange. But even with a light coat of metallic graphite it covers it completely.
Am considering doing a base coat of another spray and an extremely light coat of metallic, we will have to do some tests.
I've also spent some time making leather straps to hold the breastplate together and wear it properly.
The breastplate is the biggest, and in many ways the easiest part of the armor. Fairly visible in references, and easy to follow and it was very satisfying build, and even more so to finally print once it was done. The first version turned out A LOT better than expected, it fit me really well. In a pinch I could use that almost as is, though it was missing the pattern details.
I was just 3-4 cm too long for me when I wore it. But having it printed, I also saw lots of minor things I wanted to fix, thickness in armor layers, etc.
Before I could print the final version of them breastplate I also wanted to figure out some of the other parts that would interact with it, primarily the arms, tassets, As they would likely collide, so I wanted those parts to be basically finished before I printed the final breastplate.
So, as soon as I was done with the breastplate I got started with the arms, which has by far been the most complicated. On multiple levels. Firstly there is the fact that it is very hard to figure out what the arms actually look like on the actual armor. There are not a lot of good images, and to add to that the fact that I suspect that they move independently a lot. Additionally the armor there are like 10 different layers, just on the upper arm, then the elbow has several layers, and then you have the lower arm. Its very hard to see what is going on.
Therefor, for the arms i relied a lot of various official Sauron statues that you can buy. I can only hope that they have had access to better material than me, and I have found almost no inaccuracies on them, so they do hold up really well. (more on these later).
On top of these challanges, you have all the movement mechanics, I want to be able to move very freely in the armor once its done.
I started out with the upper arms. Did a quick mock-up with Worbla, not that accurate, but something to start with. Made the best model I could, but did not feel too confident about it.
* As a side not, one thing that I have struggled with a bit was that I did not want to do an excessive amount of printing. In part because it costs a bit. But mostly because I feel bad just producing lots of plastic that I will throw away. Sure its PLA, which is just lactic acid, not petroleum based, but still.
But eventually I had to let that go a bit, it was really holding me back, wanting to basically only print things once they are completely done. Once i let this go, velocity, and motivation went up a lot.
So I printed the upper arm. And as soon as it was done a knew so much more. Was pretty close in size, a good fit, and a tone of small improvements became apparent. Which enabled me to quickly make a second version, which allowed me to move forward with the elbow.
The elbow blades I nailed basically on the first try, very satisfying. Then the elbow itself got a lot of prints, but I learned a lot for each of them. The adjustments where pretty small, but necessary for things to move correctly.
The trickiest part was the interaction with the lower arm armor, which was created in parallel. The bracers, needs to move inside the the elbow and rotate without too much friction, but also I don't want the arms to be thicker than it needs to be. So I had to develop 4 major parts simultaneously, which in turn were actually 9 different parts to print, and a few versions of each were needed to nail it down. But now, they are all at the final stage, and I I have printed the final version of both arms.
Here are the different version of the lower arm. Mostly about figuring out long it should be and how much extra space is needed near the elbow. As you rotate and flex the muscles it changes size quite a bit.
Also used it do a paint test. Pretty satisfied with the result, especially considering the simplicity. Two coats of spray filler and sanding in between. Some "Montana can - Metallic graphite". and some aryllic paint to have some shadows to bring out the details and just a light polish pass. Its metallic enough, dark, not too dark, easy to reproduce.
Only thing that is missing that I want is some variation, which would have to be added after the base cote. As I did a test where I have one section of white, one black, one blue and one orange. But even with a light coat of metallic graphite it covers it completely.
Am considering doing a base coat of another spray and an extremely light coat of metallic, we will have to do some tests.
I've also spent some time making leather straps to hold the breastplate together and wear it properly.
Aerie
Jr Member
The other major thing that I needed to figure out for the breastplate, was the patterns.
There was one pattern which was surprisingly easy. In the behind the scenes for the making of the movies, there is a moment where they show a part of the armor, and the shot is so sharp, AND after looking at it i could see that the entire pattern is practically visible. So I managed to isolate that and warp it a bit, then vectorize it fairly easily.
The rest of the pattern, were not so easy, all pictures are so blurry and low res.
This is where Sauron statues come into play. Weta has recently released a 1:6 scale, limited edition statue. There had been other before which had helped me previously, but this one was of unprecedented in quality and detail. I don't think I have seen any inaccuracies. I also found images of the digital version of thue statue, which made things even more clear. This is the model that I relied on for figuring out the arms.
www.zbrushcentral.com
On this it was immediately clear, that at least this artist reused, the same pattern all of the place. On the front of the breastplate, on the arms, lets, everywhere. And looking at it, I recognized it, it's the same pattern that is one the mace handle. So I already had that pattern!
With this in mind, looking at the reference images I had for the real armor, I could see that this is indeed the case! At least for the breastplate, cloak-holder, legs. And even the fingers.
Knowing this, I then did some test. To figure out the approximate size and depth of the patterns. Just a simple print on paper.
Next I did some test to see how I want to do the print. Should the lines be embossed (stand out) ? Should the lines be debossed (cut in), or both, the lines should stand out, but its the negative space that should be debossed. Once printed it was clear that option 3 is the winner. The details are what should stand out, its what going on on the real armor. But you wont not Add a layer to the armor in real life, you would remove the area around it and make it stand out that way.
I also tried different depth. 0.5 mm was pretty optimal, felt too little at first. But i tried 0.1 mm depth and that was clearly too much.
So with that I was all set to print final version of any parts that I have.
There was one pattern which was surprisingly easy. In the behind the scenes for the making of the movies, there is a moment where they show a part of the armor, and the shot is so sharp, AND after looking at it i could see that the entire pattern is practically visible. So I managed to isolate that and warp it a bit, then vectorize it fairly easily.
The rest of the pattern, were not so easy, all pictures are so blurry and low res.
This is where Sauron statues come into play. Weta has recently released a 1:6 scale, limited edition statue. There had been other before which had helped me previously, but this one was of unprecedented in quality and detail. I don't think I have seen any inaccuracies. I also found images of the digital version of thue statue, which made things even more clear. This is the model that I relied on for figuring out the arms.
Weta Workshop - Sauron
Hey all, I am happy to share something that took a lot of team effort to get finalized. My contribution was the 3D sculpting and print prep, and that alone took roughly 300 hours and it had almost 50 separate pieces. It all had to be printed, cleaned, molded, cast, cleaned again, painted...
www.zbrushcentral.com
On this it was immediately clear, that at least this artist reused, the same pattern all of the place. On the front of the breastplate, on the arms, lets, everywhere. And looking at it, I recognized it, it's the same pattern that is one the mace handle. So I already had that pattern!
With this in mind, looking at the reference images I had for the real armor, I could see that this is indeed the case! At least for the breastplate, cloak-holder, legs. And even the fingers.
Knowing this, I then did some test. To figure out the approximate size and depth of the patterns. Just a simple print on paper.
Next I did some test to see how I want to do the print. Should the lines be embossed (stand out) ? Should the lines be debossed (cut in), or both, the lines should stand out, but its the negative space that should be debossed. Once printed it was clear that option 3 is the winner. The details are what should stand out, its what going on on the real armor. But you wont not Add a layer to the armor in real life, you would remove the area around it and make it stand out that way.
I also tried different depth. 0.5 mm was pretty optimal, felt too little at first. But i tried 0.1 mm depth and that was clearly too much.
So with that I was all set to print final version of any parts that I have.
Attachments
N2darkness
Sr Member
Great work!
You are 100% correct on the etching of the design looking raised as the areas around the design is etched and embossed.
The color or the armor also varies quite a bit with blues, purples and yellows with the discoloration of the metal from the high amount of heat that is supposed to radiate from Sauron's body.
You are 100% correct on the etching of the design looking raised as the areas around the design is etched and embossed.
The color or the armor also varies quite a bit with blues, purples and yellows with the discoloration of the metal from the high amount of heat that is supposed to radiate from Sauron's body.
Aerie
Jr Member
Yeah, will have to do some experiments and see what looks good.
Choosing the paint job is a bit complicated , as there are 2 armors, the resin version, which is the one in all of your pictures. And the metal version. which is pretty plain. Then there is how its actually seen in the movie.
How should it look like, how we remember it and is seen in the movie? or what it actually looks like?
Examples:
Movie version
What it looks like in the movie. (depending on which edition you watching, this might differ in turn.
You could assume that the dark version in the movie is all post effect. But look at these set photos, even with natural light its very dark
Metal version
I'm going to assume any version that is silver is the original metal version.
And any version that is colored is the resin version.
Have not made up my mind yet. Will do some tests.
Choosing the paint job is a bit complicated , as there are 2 armors, the resin version, which is the one in all of your pictures. And the metal version. which is pretty plain. Then there is how its actually seen in the movie.
How should it look like, how we remember it and is seen in the movie? or what it actually looks like?
Examples:
Movie version
What it looks like in the movie. (depending on which edition you watching, this might differ in turn.
You could assume that the dark version in the movie is all post effect. But look at these set photos, even with natural light its very dark
Metal version
I'm going to assume any version that is silver is the original metal version.
And any version that is colored is the resin version.
Have not made up my mind yet. Will do some tests.
Aerie
Jr Member
Also, need to share this, found some amazing images recently.
Someone on reddit posted a lot of on set photos in high resolution. If you are into the Lord of the rings, and have not seen them, then I cant recommend them enough. So many pictures from this time was just so low res, to have this is a treasure.
Among them, was this, my current favorite picture. Just a great composition and and angle.
Rare images part 2
Rare images part 3
Rare images part 4
Rare images part 5
Rare images part 6
Rare images part 7
Rare images part 8
Rare images part 9
Rare images part 10
Rare images part 11
Rare images part 12
Rare images part 13
Rare images part 14
Rare images part 15
Rare images part 16
Rare images part 17
Rare images part 18
Rare images part 19
Rare images part 20
Rare images part 21
Rare images part 22
Rare images part 23
Rare images part 24
Someone on reddit posted a lot of on set photos in high resolution. If you are into the Lord of the rings, and have not seen them, then I cant recommend them enough. So many pictures from this time was just so low res, to have this is a treasure.
Among them, was this, my current favorite picture. Just a great composition and and angle.
Rare images part 2
Rare images part 3
Rare images part 4
Rare images part 5
Rare images part 6
Rare images part 7
Rare images part 8
Rare images part 9
Rare images part 10
Rare images part 11
Rare images part 12
Rare images part 13
Rare images part 14
Rare images part 15
Rare images part 16
Rare images part 17
Rare images part 18
Rare images part 19
Rare images part 20
Rare images part 21
Rare images part 22
Rare images part 23
Rare images part 24
N2darkness
Sr Member
Those are amazing and many I haven't seen before. Thanks for the links and I'll have to go through them and collect a few!
Aerie
Jr Member
I have unfortunately not been able to post anything for such a long time, but only because literately any time I have to spare has been spent on the project, which is proceeding really well. Only having some time to pause because everything is printed, everything is sanded, and everything is sprayed with filler to even things out, and I'm just waiting for things to dry, so I can do the last and final pass of spraying and sanding before proceeding to paint.
The gardbrace and cloak holder were finished a long time ago, unceremoniously some time in august. Since then basically the vast majority of 10 weeks were spent doing the legs. Create a cast of my thigh and then photo scanned that, which was a great success, and nailed it almost immediately. Did a scan of my leg wearing the boots I intend to have under the armor, which helped a lot. The leg consist of 16 parts, so took some time to model. But the biggest challenge was the knees, which too so many prints, with only minor changes to get it to move correctly. Just 5 mm here or there where the holes are located makes a huge difference.
And since the entire leg, from the top the thigh, to the tip of the toe's are connected, and everything wraps around the leg, is rigid and almost skin tight, it takes a lot of precision to make it mobile. But I'm proud to say that with all the armor I can still both squat, and bend forward and touch my toes without any problems.
Before I was most happy with the helmet, but now I think the legs are the coolest part of the armor.
Prototypes for feet, greaves and knee.
On second place for satisfaction are the hands. Which did not take a lot of time, but did take a fair amount of prints. Had all the pieces finished, and just needed to adapt them to fit on the hand with a leather glove on. Many short prints, and some trial and error and they were solved.
Also spent some time making the cloak, which i think will turn out great. Had a detour where I needed more fabric of what I had bought, but the precious store was out, and I reverse google searched the image of the fabric and found ONE store. In the Netherlands, which only shipped to there, as well as Belgium and Germany. Luckily I had a Dutch friend, who was in country at the time, and could buy it and bring it back. Great luck.
All the sanding has left my fingers very sore, and if you ever have a project like this, i deeply recommend trying to sand as you go, so you don't have to do it all at once.
Have also done a lot of leather craft, for the 30 or so straps needed to hold the armor together,.
With 6 days to go, time is running out fast, but there is a detailed plan, with every step left and estimates, hope things go well and finish things in time for next Friday.
The gardbrace and cloak holder were finished a long time ago, unceremoniously some time in august. Since then basically the vast majority of 10 weeks were spent doing the legs. Create a cast of my thigh and then photo scanned that, which was a great success, and nailed it almost immediately. Did a scan of my leg wearing the boots I intend to have under the armor, which helped a lot. The leg consist of 16 parts, so took some time to model. But the biggest challenge was the knees, which too so many prints, with only minor changes to get it to move correctly. Just 5 mm here or there where the holes are located makes a huge difference.
And since the entire leg, from the top the thigh, to the tip of the toe's are connected, and everything wraps around the leg, is rigid and almost skin tight, it takes a lot of precision to make it mobile. But I'm proud to say that with all the armor I can still both squat, and bend forward and touch my toes without any problems.
Before I was most happy with the helmet, but now I think the legs are the coolest part of the armor.
Prototypes for feet, greaves and knee.
On second place for satisfaction are the hands. Which did not take a lot of time, but did take a fair amount of prints. Had all the pieces finished, and just needed to adapt them to fit on the hand with a leather glove on. Many short prints, and some trial and error and they were solved.
Also spent some time making the cloak, which i think will turn out great. Had a detour where I needed more fabric of what I had bought, but the precious store was out, and I reverse google searched the image of the fabric and found ONE store. In the Netherlands, which only shipped to there, as well as Belgium and Germany. Luckily I had a Dutch friend, who was in country at the time, and could buy it and bring it back. Great luck.
All the sanding has left my fingers very sore, and if you ever have a project like this, i deeply recommend trying to sand as you go, so you don't have to do it all at once.
Have also done a lot of leather craft, for the 30 or so straps needed to hold the armor together,.
With 6 days to go, time is running out fast, but there is a detailed plan, with every step left and estimates, hope things go well and finish things in time for next Friday.
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TymanRoach
Well-Known Member
Best film Trilogy ever made. Amazing work my friend this looks great!
Aerie
Jr Member
A day full of spraying base coat on sunday, and another 6h of doing weathering on monday afternoon.
3 days left, 18 hours of estimated work remaining.
And then just randomly when googling Sauron for the n-th time, you find some new images, just posted a few weeks ago by weta.
One of them I've seen before, but now in higher res. But one of them a great shot from the back.
His cloak is navy blue?! Heresy!
3 days left, 18 hours of estimated work remaining.
And then just randomly when googling Sauron for the n-th time, you find some new images, just posted a few weeks ago by weta.
One of them I've seen before, but now in higher res. But one of them a great shot from the back.
His cloak is navy blue?! Heresy!
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