3D Printing Sword Adventures!

 One of these days I'll return to writing about Kitsune costumes, but this is what you get with me. Moments of planning and sticking to a routine, then a few weeks of chaos where I write what I feel like writing! Today I'm starting yet another series of blog posts. This one is going to be about my 3D printing prop journey. I will plan and write more practical and advice-style posts later. (Sometimes I plan things like a proper writer. Most the time it's off the cuff though.) 

Anyway, 3D printing has been THE method for me to create costume props ever since I decided to invest in one. In the past I have tried to recreate props out of EVA foam or clay or other things. 

Swords I think have been the thing I commonly print as props so I'm going to focus in on that. Lets get into it!

The First Blade

Now the first prop sword that I seriously considered making was Prince Lotor's sword from Voltron: Legendary Defender. I was going to follow the steps I had in my making props book by Kamui Cosplay.

It started looking like this: 

 Not a bad start all things considered. But you may notice the battery pack. Yeah...I had intended something mildly complicated. I wanted things to LIGHT UP. 

I molded parts out of friendly plastic, dyed it with Rit Synthetic dye, and the sword was coming together. Unfortunately not in time for the Halloween party or convention. 

My issues with EVA was the HUGE mess it was making. How much effort the sanding took. And then the more I worked on it, the less it looked like the image. So...I set it aside until I got my 3D printer. One of the first things I did was 3D print Lotor's sword. 

Side by Side blade comparison. 

As you can see, the foam blade was warping, and uneven from bad dremel work. 

Added Fairy Lights after dying the plastic. 

Now this was a learning project, I had to reprint several parts and it took forever to get things right. But the product I was seeing was so much better (in my eyes) than EVA. It was much "cleaner" too. 

But that's because I wasn't being very thorough with this sword. Technically, even to this day it is unfinished even if I printed and assembled it over almost two years ago. And that's because the BIGGEST challenge is gluing the blade parts together and filling the seams. In the image you see above, the wood filler I used is clearly visible against the white plastic. :/ Yuck. And it has been falling apart a bit. 

So that brings me to the NEXT sword project. 

Zelda's Twilight Princess Sword

Zelda's thin blade was the next project. This one was a struggle because the segments of the blade were all in one file. And I learned if you don't set up the slicer correctly, the 3D printer's extruder will knock things down. Also there's a height limit in a sense. The taller the print the more wiggling occurs which can offset and ruin the whole print. Super frustrating because it's always near the END of the print when this happens. Each segment of blade was taking between 2 - 3 HOURS. 

Unfortunately, this sword never got finished. It broke during assembly and I set it aside as something beyond my skill. (This was last year though. I could print it now.)

The Master Sword First Version

The first version of the Master Sword I made from this Thingiverse file: Glowing Master Sword Remix. I was going to just follow along with the tutorial this time. I printed the blade in white, the handle in blue and filled the blade with fairy lights. Again issues with blade seams come into play because my 3D printer is average size and not huge. (I didn't think I'd be printing so many swords and costume parts!) 

However, the wood filler I used on the seams cracked and the super glue I used was not holding very well. (This also happened with Lotor's blade.) 

So I decided to experiment with a 2nd sword. 

Master Sword Take 2

This one was the BOTW without Paint version. I thought it'd be nice not to have to paint all the parts, so I printed things up with the blade being in silver. Now...seams were still an issue especially since I wasn't going to paint the blade. (I WAS going to paint the other blades but even as of the writing of this blog, it's not been done.) I had gotten a 3D printing pen and a glue gun hot enough to melt PLA plastic. I was going to WELD the sword together. In theory, not a bad plan...

In practice...

A FLITHY HOT MESS! 

I see those seams clearly...do you?

The blade holds together better than the other ones but the silver welding is clear as day...at least in most lighting situations. 

I mean, they're easy to photo-manipulate out

Now there is totally a way to make swords look GOOD I promise. It's taken many attempts but I'm currently making 3 katana from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba. 

3 Katana for Slaying Demons

So some of the BS that I do when 3D printing because of impatience. 

1. I print with big layers. Many people print at .2 but I print at .3. 
2. Minimal infrastructure and supports
3. Sometimes I print horizontal instead of vertical for blades. 

But here are the big takeaways I've learned from the past year and a half muddling my way through 3D printing. 

1. You have to use an epoxy or a very fast setting glue for plastics. My favorite has been Scigrip's 16 Fast Set Acrylics. 
2. Gesso for canvas painting is a little nicer than wood filler for my projects. 
3. I hate sanding. I got a machine to do it for me. A mini-sander is a nice investment for those who lack elbow grease...and patience. 
4. It's really not worth printing with the final color. Especially since I print with big fat lines. 
5. So far, the best filler product is the one most 3D printer people recommend. Rustoleum Filler Primer. I think the XTC-3D is another option but I find that works better for things you would have difficulty sanding like a face. Or a curvey flame hilt...just as an example. 
6. Start gluing the middle blade segments before the ends. Balancing a sword on its tip while putting pressure on the glued bits isn't recommended. 😅 Also it's the part that is likely to "bear" the most weight. Get it secure before gluing the other parts or make sure you use a dowel or a peg-hole system. 

So here's how the Katanas are going so far. 

Kyojuro Rengoku's Flame Katana

For the handle bits I didn't bother doing any real finishing because I ended up wrapping it in velvet ribbon. But for the handle caps I coated the print with a nail polish top coat. (My alternative to XTC-3D for smaller parts. Works well enough and dries way faster.) These were then painted with metallic acrylic paints and glued to the handle. 

The flame hilt was hand sanded for a bit, then coated with XTC-3D, then painted with metallic acrylic paints and some color change paints, then finished with Mod Podge glossy. 

The blade I printing vertically. I hand to cut down one of the blade segments into two parts because it was a bit tall and got wobbled during printing. So instead of 3 seams, there's 4. UGH. HOWEVER. Once I glued the blade parts together with 16 Fast Set, I let it cure overnight. Then I took my gesso and messily filled the seams. Waiting another 24 hours for that to set. Hand sanded down the gesso so the seams were flushed against the model. Then took the Filler Primer and added a coat. Waited another day for that to set. Gave it a second coat of filler. Waited for that to set for a couple days. 

Got my hand sander machine buddy and first with 60 grit sandpaper wore things down so the gesso was even flatter and some of the chunkier lines were flat. Then finished with 120 grit sandpaper to smooth things out. It is now ready for priming and painting. Yee. 

Glued and Gesso

Sanded and first primer

Far right blade, sanded down 2nd coat of filler

Zenitsu Agatsuma's Thunder Blade

The handle I just let it print big and painted it directly. No primer or fillers because the handle is white and I don't want to repaint it. The hilt I also only painted the edges because it's mostly white otherwise. (As far as I can tell...I may need to look closer at the references.) 

The blade I downloaded has a thunderbolt in it already. So the seams have been trickier to hide. Luckily, the blade had a peg and slot system meaning I didn't have to use a ton of glue. Yay. And I printed the blade segments horizontally. 

Once the glue set, globbed on gesso and waited for that to set. Sanded things down with the mini-sander with 60 grit. Added the first layer of Filler Primer. 

Just tonight, I've had to reapply some gesso in spots that got over sanded and added the second layer of filler primer. The next step will be to sand down the gesso and filler primer to make things smooth. Then it's ready for priming and painting. 

Left Blade second layer of filler. Needs sanding.

Tanjiro's Water Blade

I was tempted to make his later blade but that would mean making another flame hilt. Yeah, no thanks. 

Again I printed the blade portion horizontally but...I think I need to label blades better. I kept gluing the wrong parts together. The blade still seems to have an exaggerated curve which I don't remember the model having. It turns out horizontal may not be the BEST way to print a blade. Vertical seems to be the best even if you have to make more segments. 

The glue is finally set enough for me to put in the gesso. I've also put gesso along the whole top of the blade. (The cross-section makes the shape of a pentagon almost. So plenty of surface area for horizontal orientation.) 

That may help with some of the unfortunate stair-steps that the curved part of the blade has thanks to my GIANT line width. (I love printing fast.) 

Middle blade. Just glued. 

Currently, I'm waiting for the gesso to harden. The next steps will be to sand down the gesso and apply the first layer of filler primer. 

So far, I think the Rengoku blade is coming out the best. The seams are well hidden and the rough parts are smooth. Zenitsu's blade with the engraving already in it is tricky because I can't sand down inside the ingraving. (It's also true of the inscription on Rengoku's blade.) Tanjiro's simple, plain blade may end up being the best looking in the end, but I'm making an effort to make them all look fabulous. 

I've already printed out a sword stand to hold these three blades. (And why is Zenitsu's so much longer!? Compensating, I guess.)

Am I cosplaying Demon Slayer? I don't plan to at the moment. It's half on my wishlist but I'm trying to finish Goro. I'm just in a fangirl funk right now and it won't stop until these swords are done. 

Anyway, that's about what my rambling brain can take. This should probably be insightful for how I think and work.