Finally working on Asajj!

[mdb]

It's been so long, soooo long, since the germ of the idea grabbed me and wouldn't let go. So now with a few projects already finished I decided to finally work on Asajj.


Lightsabers! Building them in 3D and they are so close to being able to be printed!
I started with this:

Wrestled with vanilla SketchUp for a while:

Then installed two plugins to make curves actually work through multiple layers.




And I managed to find another plugin to export as an obj file to use the printer software I'll be using:

Nothing is leaping out as wrong so WINNING! First project to actually build from pixels. I had to resort to printing and using some technical drawing skills as the only nearly flat on view is still slightly off and is quite blurry. This is scaled to fit (with zero room to spare) a standard 25mm acrylic/carbonate(heheh) tube for a blade. I am just scouting for electronic components given I need a pair of everything.

But there are also the armour pieces:




All so far flat leather and plastic but for the wait piece I needed to mold something reasonably flexible, so to the russet and wetforming.

You can see the PVC pipe I also heatshaped before diciding to 3D print the lightsabers It's a really good diameter though! 32mm which I heated and flattened as well as curved.


And fabric pieces:


And even these are detailed:

[Edward26]

Very cool! Looking forward to seeing the finished costume. I have a soft spot for female villains.

[badges2nz]

Hey Michaela, you do such great work on your costumes, looking forward to seeing this one done.
The 3d files for your light sabers look fantastic, this I have to see finished.

[mdb]

Thanks Edward Oh yeah, and Asajj and her parallel story to Ahsoka is amazing! So very happy the final story arc featured them both. I cry every time I watch the end of The Clone Wars. So naturally watching Rebels sometimes can be a bit emotional too

Thanks badges The files are printing now! There is a really great 3D printer networking site that I've been able to use and I was even able to send a new file of the buckles and domes So aside from the covertec things and the big round buckle the hardware will all be in black ABS So I can just sand/acetone wash the surfaces and polis with rubnbuff The covertec thingies I can cut from sheet plastic and weld with cement, so hooray



Got the body painted The source art is The Clone Wars so has that painterly surface detail. I was going to airbrush but hand painting seems to give a much closer effect.

[mdb]

Ventress buckles and mystery domes.

Ventress covertec and circular buckle.
I was going to make these all from sheet plastic but my hands are about done. So a few more hours on the printer is worth a little delay


And the hilt in the same program

This all means I'm really keen to try and model Ahsoka's new hilts too. Hoping to find a good set of electronics for the led and battery pack. Unfortunately we seem to just from one to four 18650 battery packs and I'd ideally want two- to pump more lumens out of an led than regular AAs. So I'm keeping my eyes open. The fantastic headlamp I got from trademe makes my current blade epic but it really is too big. So it may wind up sitting my my Shae Vizla jetpack

[badges2nz]

This all means I'm really keen to try and model Ahsoka's new hilts too. Hoping to find a good set of electronics for the led and battery pack. Unfortunately we seem to just from one to four 18650 battery packs and I'd ideally want two- to pump more lumens out of an led than regular AAs. So I'm keeping my eyes open. The fantastic headlamp I got from trademe makes my current blade epic but it really is too big. So it may wind up sitting my my Shae Vizla jetpack [/quote]

Have you had a look at the adafruit website, there are alot of interesting items on there and they are not too badly priced either.
Possibly there would be something in the neopixel range or led strip light that could work.

[mdb]

I made a teeny tiny booboo, so my hilt will only accept my current blades, but that's fine, I have perfectly useful blades I just need to clean them up I'd rather get some red tubing but hey, no one stocks it here in NZ so hello Aussie sites Or UK. So if anyone is interested in splitting shipping, the more tubes and rods the better for self support!

So today I now have everything silver that needs to be silver and I just need to seal it all. And tidy edges and make the cell shading a little more definite.

I also ordered more airbrush ink paint to do my bald cap and hands, and am about to go do the final touches on all the leather gear (fastenings and cleaning edges.)

[mdb]

Waiting for the wonders of modern medicine to kick in so here is an attempt to get my instagram-blogging added.

The model is tiny but I needed to see how much I had to take off the waist brace, it really is a brace, not a belt! It is now trimmed and the hooks added. My circular buckle will vlecro over to allow for the hooks to be moved in or out as needed. But I was overenthusiastic with the glue so that needs tidying first.


And this morning my ink arrived
http://www.airbrushedtattoos.co.nz/
$22.50 a bottle and the bottles are 50ml each. With care I can do my neck, bald cap, stipple to hide the cape and then hands. It's very white so I may need to tone with a tiny bit of lilac-grey.

So these are all the parts I modeled (yes from stratch there are no files that are useful out there yet. I spotted a booboo that manes I can't use a 15mm blade as it so I really am looking at finding different red acrylid tubing to stack and fit inside each other

Also I did not share all the sanding and acetone washes but my hands are covered in the stuff



Ventress hip swathes, these are so funky and weird. Laminated to leather i had in storage for years


Ventress armour curing outside. With a big as palm spathe (leaf like cover for the flowers) it's slightly taller than me. I forsee a few photoshoots with it


Orignal boots. Perfect heel, perfect chunky front. Luminara's boots are very tall so it was fun watching the scene when she posed as Ventress, no girl, Ventress doesn't do boots like that. Shaak Ti, Luminara and Aayla all do.. coincidence??

Argh, the side zips were functional so look at the love lovely big side missing. Well contact cement will fix that.


Ventress boots new cover. All one piece so very annoying to glue. Currently needs top and zip area trimmed and glued. Then a collar of more faux leather at the top.


Ventress collar cut. Live-gramming to keep myself motivated- swollen glands after a week of disease activity so i need to stay positive.


Ventress collar pinned to press. Might now have to start gluing the seam allowances back as tge fabric still wants to curl.


Ventress collar pressing. E6000 behind the seam allowances and tapes closed, now being weighted until the glue goes tacky.


Ventress collar pinned.


Ventress collar test, yep, still a giraffe neck.

[mdb]

Test drove the armour and fabric: I need to check blance and proportion before committing to the rigging and trimming.



I need a short break, hopefully it won't turn into a long one

[Armante]

Can I just say, this is starting to look totally awesome!

Well done