Goblin Slayer Helmet

Getting Started

I started out with the printer making a mess with spaghetti plastic but I realized that I needed to add supports to the print so it would stop trying to print in air. I completely ignored the estimated print-time and filament use. The test print was much shorter then the estimated time so I thought it was just dumb. It was at least 4 days of printing estimated. The first print failed because the application on my laptop crashed within a few hours. 

I didn't want to use another USB memory stick because I was afraid it would break. The first one stopped working almost immediately. However, it was really my only safe option after the laptop proved unreliable. Luckily, it worked out fine. The printing went on for about 3 days before the spool of plastic started to look low. My printer has a sensor that will stop the print once the filament runs out. I was pretty confident that I'd be able to just press the change filament button once that happened and everything would be fine, but it was not fine.

Filament Mishap

I woke up on the 4th day, knowing the filament would be close to the very end, if not gone, however, the printer was still printing, or it was pretending to. The very end of the filament had a slight hook shape to it and it had gotten caught on the sensor that was supposed to stop the printer. So instead, the printer kept printing without any filament to actually place on the print. I tried to just adjust it down and hope it wouldn't notice, but it didn't fall for that. I actually took it surprisingly easy on myself for this mistake. I had a 78% complete helmet and it was my own fault for not changing the filament earlier, just to be safe. I had woken up earlier and checked on it before going back to sleep. I had the chance to just do it then, but I wanted to think the printer was reliable. Obviously, I live, and I learn. 

Without any certainty, I opened the file on my laptop using Blender, a 3d editing software program. I eyeballed where I thought the print had left off and used a mask to cut a perfect cube out of the helmet, leaving what looked like the top part of the helmet. Completely, winging it, I saved it as a new file and printed up the top half. It wasn't an exact fit, but it was pretty damn close. I figured it wasn't worth trying to reprint it again, but in hindsight, it would have been nicer if it was flush with the helmet, but anyway, I glued both pieces togeth with some of that...uhh...6000 stuff that I bought to glue parts inside my old phone. It'll glue anything you want and it's heat resistant, I let that dry for a day. Next I wanted to smooth it out. ALSO, I forgot that the tip in the front of the helmet was all, spaghettified and I cut away some of the excess stuff. I was going to try printing out a replacement piece but I ended up finding a small piece near the printer and it looked exactly like the piece that was missing. I have no idea what happened and I didn't even think about it again. I just glued it onto the helmet and moved on.

After Printing

The printer leaves layer lines. You can see them and know that it is a 3d print. I tried sanding the test print and didn't really like it but it was smoother. I have a heat gun, but I didn't think it would be best to try smoothing it that way, although it is a viable option. I will have to try the heat gun on something eventually. Anyway, before sanding, I tried using an exacto knife to cut down some of the overhanging pieces from the glued part and a few of the edges around the helmet. Then I sandpapered as much of the helmet as I could. I forgot to mention that the faceplate was printed seperately and I had no issues doing that. I have to attach magnets to the faceplate so it will snap into the main part of the helmet.

I really keep doing things wrong, but doesn't matter now.  I should have used a spray paint as a primer because it would probably go on a lot easier and there's just so much surface. Instead, I had some neutral gray acrylic paint that I brushed on. The layer lines are still visible but it could also be the shitty brushes I used. Hopefully a second coat will help. I have some silver paint and some paynes gray too try adding some texture to the helmet. Then I just have to drill small holes to add the magnets and then I can attach the red tassel to the back of the helmet.

Finishing Touches

I bought some red christmas cotton cloth to use as the ripped tassel hanging from the back of the helmet. That should be fun. Oh, I forgot, I bought a cushion to cut up and put inside the helmet to help it fit better.

The helmet is a little big to just sit directly on my head. I figured I could glue some cushion around the inside and add a buckle under the chin to hold it on. I might also add some sort of cloth over the back of the faceplate so my face is less visible. The final addition would be to add some kind of red light near my right eye that I could light up by pressing a button or something. That's all that I'm planning to do with the helmet.