Hello and welcome back to Make / Do, David here And we're back with a project
that we have had on our list since we first got our 3-D printer. It is no surprise
that James and I are huge Star Wars fans. So when Do3D reached out and ask us to make
a video using any of their designs We, of course, picked
the classic Stormtrooper helmet. So thanks to Do3D for providing the files
for this project. You can check out their best collection
of printer ready STL files over at Do3D.com They have projects spanning the MCU, DCU,
Star Wars and other fandoms. Enough about that. Let's get started. To prep our files for printing I jumped into the Prusa Slicer. The helmet does come separated
into smaller, manageable parts that should be easy to print and assemble,
but I decided to slice a few parts down to better fit on the relatively
smaller build area of our Prusa. This also allowed me to better orient
the prints to minimize sanding later on. But don't worry there will be plenty
of sanding. The majority of the helmet will be printed on our filament printer
in PolyTerra’s PLA with a few detailed parts being printed
in resin on our Anycubic Photon Mono X The FDM prints came out pretty clean and everything
looks like it should fit together nicely. Now I just have to move on
to some sanding. James, could you give me a hand? Oh, yeah... Here's the sandpaper. See ya! What the ****? Without any help from James I gave all the pieces of rough sanding,
and now I can move on to assembling the majority of the helmet
before more sanding. If you did not split your files
into smaller pieces like we did, this should actually
be pretty straightforward. And you can skip most of these steps. But since I can't make anything easy,
I have a bit of a tricky glue up. I did do a quick test piece
to work out the gluing process. My plan is to tack the parts together
with CA glue, then reinforce all the seams with five minute epoxy. This method appears the hold up and the seam disappears
with a little bit of sanding. So I start by tacking the parts together
with some CA glue, making sure everything is aligned. Then I hit it with some actiator
to speed things up, of course. Then once things are secured,
I will go back with some two part five minute epoxy
to reinforce all the seams. But I will get the whole
helmet tacked together first. We're not going
to attach the front grille part just yet. There is some detail painting
that we have to do later on down the line and having
this detached will make that a lot easier. With everything assembled,
I can now reinforce the helmet. On past projects we would have been okay
with just using CA glue, but we find that with time the glue can become
brittle and is prone to cracking. So now we reinforce all of our joints
with two part epoxy. Once the epoxy is mixed, I simply brush the interior seams
using a cheap acid brush. As always,
we will have links to all the products used for this build in the description
below. These are affiliate links, so if you make a purchase,
we will get a small kickback that will go to help support
future projects. Now for the task of making this helmet
look like one piece, which means hiding these seam lines. I'm going to be using this spot Glazing putty I saw Bill Doran
using over on Punished Props Academy. That's a bit of a strong smell,
so be sure to use proper ventilation and protection. Fun fact this weird pointy part of these types of caps
is used to puncture the seal on the tube. How is that fun? Shut up. I’m just using popsicle sticks
to apply the putty. Once it dries it is very easy to sand, so I apply it
pretty thick in areas that need it. These fancy toothpicks
from the local fancy grocery store have this flat end that is really nice
for precision application. I've learned that most
anything can be used to apply goo. after letting the putty dry I give everything
a very thick coat of filler primer. I don't even worry about getting drips
at this stage I just want to build up the surface as much as I can
and hide as many layer lines as I can. Not that there's any
left because I sanded so good Off camera I did end up sanding and reapplying
until I was happy with the finish. The bulk of the helmet is in good shape
so I can move on to these detail parts. These parts were printed in resin on
our Anycubic Photon Mono X. The earpieces just need a little assembly before
we can glue them on to the main helmet with some CA glue and two part epoxy. Once these ear pieces are in place The helmet gets another thick coat of primer
to help blend all the parts together. Oh, you thought I was going to do
all the sanding off camera and you wouldn't have to watch me sand? No. I really want this helmet
to be smooth. Like, super smooth. So that means more sanding. I go over the whole piece
with a fine grit sandpaper. I follow that up with an even finer grit sanding sponge. And then I finish everything
up with some 000 steel wool. After a quick dusting and a rinse,
we are ready to start painting. The color scheme is pretty
straightforward. It's just gloss white. I take my time building up the coat of
paint, working slowly to avoid any drips. If the drip gods will it Now I can get to adding some of the
painted details onto the helmet. I let the white paint dry for 48 hours
just to be safe before I start taping off the details, starting with this brow line
that needs to be painted black. I go in with this fine detail
thin masking tape and block out the area, making sure I have a good seal
along the tape line. Once the area is defined,
I go back and add a perimeter with this Frog Tape
that is designed for delicate surfaces. Then I cover the rest of the helmet with some scrap craft paper. Before we paint the brow line black,
I spray the area with matte clear coat. This is a new technique we are trying. The idea being
if any paint were to leak under the tape, it will be the clear coat
which you won't be able to see. Then, with all the potential leaks
sealed with clear coat, we can add our black paint over top. Also, while I'm painting this, I'm
going to be giving these small grille details
a coat of flat black as well. Okay, now for the fun part. After waiting an excruciating 24 hours,
I can take the masking tape off. And it looks great. Not perfect, but still good. I think that clear coat trick
really helped. This’d probably end up
looking a lot worse if we didn't do that. For the final details, unfortunately, I don't really have
any tricks. For these parts I just took my time and tried to keep my hands steady as I
hand-painted on the various color blocks. If you're more patient, you can take
your time and mask these parts off, but of course I'm not. Luckily, the original helmets used in
the films were a little rough. Right.
So we're going to call this accurate. Plus,
I'm going to be weathering this thing up, so it's going to hide a lot of our crimes. For some reason, I don't have gray paint, but
luckily it's a pretty easy color to make. We will have a full list
of all the Vallejo colors we are using in the description below. Okay, the final stretch. Time to put this all together. Starting with these grille details
we painted black earlier. The small vents have some amazing detail
that I want to call out. Look, the mesh actually has holes. I'm going to use a little silver
gilding wax for a Mjolnir build and a Q-Tip to apply just a little silver. Now I can attach these parts
to the front grille with some two part epoxy. And then I can make the mistake of attaching
the grille to the full helmet assembly. This was the wrong choice in the end, you'll see that Do3D’s
files have these pockets that are designed to hold magnets,
and that's the correct way to attach this. The grille section needs to be detachable
because otherwise, as we found out later
on, this will not fit over my head. But as a display piece,
this will work just fine. Okay. If you wanted to go with the fresh clean
straight from the Death Star Stormtrooper, you could stop right now. But if you're like us,
and you probably are because you're watching this video
and you want something a bit more used and grimy,
and you also need to cover up some of your spotty handpainted details,
then it's time for weathering. As you probably already know,
this is my favorite part of any project. It really ties the piece together and
takes it from being a 3D printed replica to something with a story that looks like it was pulled straight
out of a galaxy far, far away. I'm going to be using my favorite cheap
black and brown acrylic paint,
as well as this sands of Tatooine yellow, along with some mop brushes and sponges. I mean Kamino sponges to build up
layers of grime. My basic method is to make a total mess
and try to clean it off the best I can. This will give it that realistic wear and
allow grime to build up in logical spots. While David continues his weathering,
I want to take a moment to thank our patrons. Your support helps us finance our build and continue
to explore new techniques and tools. If you'd like to become a patron
and support the channel,
you'll get access to our Discord, where you can chat
with both David and myself, as well as get behind the scenes content
and exclusive patron only projects. And our Crystal tier members
also get access to free Make / Do STL files. Now for the final touch. The lenses for the eyes. I'm using the same tinted visor that
we used for both our Mando and Boba builds. I start by tracing a simple paper
template. I then transfer the outline to our visor
with a gold sharpie, giving myself a little bit of extra room. Then I trim out the lenses
with a pair of scissors. With those trimmed,
I just glue them into place using a ton of hot glue. And I mean a lot. I don't recommend using CA glue for these
as it can add a gross white haze to the lenses. And with the lenses in, we're finished. I absolutely love this build. This is one of those milestone props that we've been wanting to make
since we started 3D printing. So thank you Do3D for helping to make this possible. Be sure like this video
and subscribe to our channel to stay up to date
on all our future projects. You can also follow us on Instagram
as well as Facebook. If you'd like to know more
about this channel and all that make432 has to offer,
check out our new website. make432.com We will be posting detailed project breakdowns
and selling some of our own STL files. Thanks for watching.
See you in the next one.
