Cosplay has always been a huge part of any convention but making outfits, weapons and armor have always been difficult to make. In some ways, this is a good thing it makes people learn new skills. We learn sewing to make cloth items like clothes. Fiberglassing or Mold making to craft armor and weapons. With those skills comes potentially great cosplay. The problem is consistency. Even good prop makers have off days. Those of us without the skills are left just looking and wishing we could make something that cool. With 3d printing though even newbs can make some cool cosplay. Even if it is just a custom Pokeball to go with your Ash costume. That being said most of us also don’t have a lot of 3d modeling skills so what we are doing is borrowing someone else’s work from places like Thingiverse. I would hope those that do give the artist credit at least. Even the best of us sometimes had to leave a bit of the costume out just because it was too complex. A transforming sword became just a foam sword for instance. Maybe it just had too much detail so you left out what you didn’t know how to make. With a 3d printer, we can now add those pieces to our costumes to really wow other fans. With that here is a few really amazing props and costumes that got help from 3d printing. Maybe it will give you some ideas for your next 3D printing Cosplay.
1) Hearthstone Box – 3D printing Cosplay
First of I want to give a shout out to Punished Props. They do amazing work and offer a lot of information free of charge to the community. The video is very informative and offers a lot to the beginning prop maker. Check them out They have a few books available as well that don’t cost much and are worth adding to your arsenal.
2) HulkBuster – 3D printing Cosplay
James Bruton Jas made some Amazing things with 3d printer but this is the top of the list. A huge HulkBuster costume. And this thing is amazing. He has a full series on youtube along with some awesome BB8’s. If you want to see some crazy 3d prints this guy is your new hero.
3)Nova Terra armor suit. – 3D printing Cosplay
This outfit has an amazing about of detail. The idea to hydrodip parts of it to make it look more like carbon fiber is amazing. I’m always amazed at the amount of time effort and determination that go into these costumes. Next time you’re at a con snapping picks say hi to these people and let them know you’re impressed instead of just snapping a pic and walking off. This costume alone cost over 500$ and took just as many hours to make.
3d printing offers so much versatility. It’s not just cosplayers that use them though. A lot of movie props are being 3d printed these days. So a cosplay skill can quickly become a well-paying job with the right motivation. Keep 3d printing.
If you have a prop or costume you’d like to show off please post it here.
