Hulkbuster Iron Man suit, Slenderman, Bioshock Big Daddy- I have seen some pretty amazing cosplay over the years. From Sydney, to New York to London, I attend conventions whenever and wherever I can. I am a big lover of cosplay. I am always amazed at the designs people come up with and how innovative they are using little more than foam, hot glue and paint to bring their vision to life. When you add 3D printing to the mix, the possibilities become endless, so today we are looking at amazing 3D printed cosplay from all over the world! I recently had the chance to speak to three different cosplayers, all three of who use 3D printing for different aspects of their designs.
Bindi Smalls
Meet Bindi Smalls. We have previously featured her in one of our Top 5 cosplay articles, but because she is so seriously talented I decided to track her down and have a chat.
Bindi is a cosplayer based in the US. She also makes props and armor.
“I use my 3D printers to make 99% of my props and armor. I’ve been cosplaying for about 3.5 years, and have been 3D printing for 3 years. I’ve loved every moment of it!”
“I’ve had several day jobs, ranging from IT to Marketing. Now I sell commissioned props and cosplay items as well as 3D printing services full time.” Bindi said. She has made everything, from Hookshots, to Cami gauntlets, even antlers!
Bindi currently has a whopping 7 3D printers, which is no surprise given the time it takes to print her cosplays (some of her bigger projects have taken anywhere from 500 to 1700 hours).
“I have four LulzBot TAZ 5s, one LulzBot TAZ 6, a LulzBot Mini, and a Form 2. Every LulzBot printer I own has been through quite a lot — and they’ve never quit. Plus if anything ever breaks, I can repair it on my own, since Aleph Objects, Inc. (makers of LulzBot 3D printers) publishes their assembly manual online — as well as the build of materials for every machine. The Form 2 is a phenomenal piece of modern technology. I’ve had an extremely low rate of failure, and the printer has a lot of sensors and automated processes to keep it running the way it should. Not to mention the quality of the prints impresses me every time!”
Her passion shows in her work, her creations are just incredible. Check out her Nova cosplay from Heroes of the Storm:
“I’d say my favorite (cosplay) is still Nova. It was my first big 3D printed project, and I’m still very proud of it. I learned so much when building Nova. And now I’m able to take that knowledge and workflow to every project.”
Everyone has a dream project, and Bindi is no different.
“My dream print is D.Va’s mech from the game Overwatch. I love the character and would love to have a life-sized mech… I mean, who wouldn’t?”
It’s an ambitious dream, but if anyone can make it happen, it’s Bindi.
What is she making right now?
“Right now, I’m making quite a few things from Overwatch… stay tuned for more!”
Variable
Variable is an amazing cosplayer from Australia. She has worked with the likes of Disney, Ubisoft, Riot and FOX, she is an incredibly talented SFX make-up artist, and her cosplays are beyond impressive:
Here is one creation using 3D printing for a prop for her Fallout creation:
The Pip-Boy in her Fallout 3 ghoul cosplay was made by Skruffy Studios. It boasts a plexi-glass screen and working electronics.
“I am a huge fan of the Fallout games, and I enjoyed incorporating my SFX make-up skills to create the ghoul,” said Variable.
Variable’s future cosplay plans include 3D printing a Samus Suit from the Metroid series.
Sunday Cosplay
Another amazing cosplayer from Australia using 3D printing is Sunday Cosplay. He is probably best known in the Aussie convention crowds as Princess Batman.
I spent some time talking to Sunday Cosplay, also known as Jarrah Brouwer, who works at Henchmen Props as their lead digital artist. He also does some work with Blizzard!
“I have no idea what got me into the 3D printing, I flat out refused to do anything in regards to 3D modelling while I did design at university. But for some reason 3D printing just had me drawn in and I knew I had to own one for myself. I predominantly use UP brand printers, my first printer was a SolidDoodle3 which died after a month. I moved on to the UP Plus 2 which has printed over 50kg of filament and I just moved on to get two UP Boxes.”
His first printed cosplay was for the Lich King from World of Warcraft.
While the whole thing wasn’t printed, most of the components were.
The best part of 3D printing cosplay is that it doesn’t just have to be for aesthetics.
“One of my favourites has been Pikachu. Pikachu had some 3D printed hinges for the shoulder bells and some pipe joint in the internal skeleton for rigging.”
Sunday Cosplay also printed some amazing Samus armor from the Metroid franchise, but ran into some issues…
“Samus was a bit of a failure, I only got to wear it for 30 minutes.” said Sunday. “I ordered a new printer to get it done, which could have printed the parts in a single piece, but it arrived 2 months late so I was pressed for time. I ended up printing 300+ small parts from my tiny printer. I didn’t even have time to try it on properly before I packed it up to take to America, and the baggage handlers smashed most of it. It was held together with glue and duct tape for the time I did get to wear it.”
It still looks pretty amazing to me, but having worn my own cosplay fraught with structural issues, I understand the frustration.
“I ran out of time to fix any problems that I encountered while wearing it, which was mainly that it was rigged poorly. I intend to redo it, it’s all sitting there, I just need to find the motivation to do it.”
When I asked Sunday what his dream print would be, he said he’d already made it!
“(My dream was) pretty much anything for Blizzard, working for Blizzard has been a goal for a long time, never thought it would be in this capacity but I’m happy it is. We also recently worked on the Overwatch PAX launch and we have some other Blizzard IP projects in the works. I guess at some point I would like to do some work for Riot Games but I have no idea what it would be for.”
If you are a cosplayer using 3D printing and you would like to be featured on our site you can email us here.
Stay tuned for more cosplay related articles in the future. In the meantime, you can check out some of our past coverage below!
3D printed props vs building from scratch
London Comic Con 2016 – Cosplayers opinions on 3D printing
Varia Bell