It’s been a while since I put up a post here, but anyone who follows me on Instagram knows I’ve been plenty busy making cool new stuff! The 3D printed GI Joe replacement limb game is going strong. I’ve teamed up with Cotswold Collectibles to bring Prometheus Rising Heavy Industries 3D printed goodies to more collectors, starting with the Solid Arm and Solid Leg, redesigned for easier printing and more color, and a movable thumb! (shown above). Keep an eye on IG and the Cotswold Facebook Page for news about the upcoming first release. While I was updating the Solid Limbs I took the opportunity to finish another project I’ve been working on for a few years now, a full 1/6 scale robot figure. I debuted the PRHI 1/6 scale Machine Heart action figure on IG a few weeks back, and now have photo spreads of the first three prototypes.
There’s a new product up on the PRHI Shapeways Shop for customizing your GI Joe 12″ figures! Following on from the PRHI Solid Arm bionic arm kit is the PRHI Solid Leg for getting your wounded Joes back up on their feet! The kit will fit on vintage GI Joes as well as reissues and Costwold Elite Brigade bodies. The Solid Leg consists of a shin, foot, and ankle (the ankle and wrist are the same part). You can order a Solid Leg using the listings in the PRHI Shapeways Shop here. You can also pick up a PRHI Solid Arm using the listings here.
The PRHI Solid Arm is a new 3D printed add-on kit for 12″ GI Joes using the vintage style body, including reissue bodies and Cotswold Elite Brigade bodies, and is available now through the PRHI Shapeways Shop. Followers of my Instagram have seen the development process of this kit for a while now, so I am happy to have the final parts from Shapeways in-hand and be able to paint them up! Read on for details on the kits and more pics of my finished, painted arms.
I posted the PRHI ‘Box’ Mk I 3D printed toy a while back. It was designed as an exercise for me to try out some new joint designs. It’s a bootleg of ThreeA’s Square toy, with some additional detail and accessory bits by me. I had never really planned on using this model for anything more, but I have received a couple requests to share the files. Sort of an ‘open source’ Square bootleg. I’m hosting a .zip folder of the STL files needed to print your own ‘Box’ for personal purposes. The models are intended to be printed in ABS plastic, as I do not believe PLA has the elasticity for the ratchet joints in the legs to work properly. In addition to the Box Mk I, I am posting files for the Box Mk II, which I do not believe I have ever shown off before:
Here are download links for the two sets of files. Each is a .zip folder containing all the parts needed to print a PRHI Box. Parts that need to be printed more than once are labeled as such in the filename. These are provided as-is, with no support. If you print one and do something cool with it, send me an email!
I was working on a James Bond-themed 12″ GI Joe kitbash based on the first teaser of Daniel Craig from SPECTRE, wearing a simple garb reminiscent of the duds Roger Moore wore in Live and Let Die. The parts list was pretty easy overall, but there was one critical piece missing, Bond’s watch! Moore’s Bond actually wears a gadget-laden Rolex Submariner for most of the movie, but in his first scene of the film he has on something far cooler, a Pulsar P2 2900 LED watch! I have a bit of a fascination with LED watches, so I knew I needed to make one to complete my Joe Bond bash.
The trick with this model was keeping it small and in-scale looking while representing the metal link band and the shape of the face. This project really pushed the limit of fine detail capabilities from a home-grade FDM 3D printer, but with a little paint the results look the part.
This is one of those projects that was something I needed for my collection, and then other collectors expressed interest once they saw it. I had a loose M1919 .30 caliber machine gun without any of the hardware for the tripod that I got in a parts lot. Rather than relegate it to the spares bag, I decided to make something that would allow Joe to carry the MG. I looked online for examples of early MG handles, came up with a design, and sized it to fit in Joe’s hand without putting any stress on his hard hands. You can buy a bale now from my Shapeways Shop for $6 at: http://www.shapeways.com/product/ML2ZVNLEZ/m1919-30-cal-machine-gun-bale-for-12-quot-gi-joe
The bale is available in two plastics, White Strong Flexible Polished, and Metallic Plastic Polished. The WSF Polished is the default option, and better for painting. The Metallic plastic is grey with metallic flakes embedded, so it looks decent unpainted.
Check after the cut for pics of each version and Joe holding each.
This guy finally made it across the country to the guys at Tested.com so I can show him off. I’ve been a fan of the Tested crew for years, so I wanted to send them something as a small thanks for all their years of awesome content. Fortunately they are fans of making stuff, 3D printing, and Star Wars. All things I can contribute! Thanks to the Tested guys for the awesome mailbag vid and website shout out.
This Gonk Droid features a few tweaks over the first green one I did that help with printability, as well as some better detail on the (not printed) leg wires. I also took the opportunity to try out something I’ve been thinking would work, a 3D printed paint mask! Testedcles is the old Tested logo, and I really wanted to work him onto the droid for them. I traced the logo in my modeling software and made it a cutout in a thin slab of plastic that worked perfectly as a spray mask. After a few different coats of weathering, any remaining sins, and my orange Gonk Droid was good to go!
I’ve been on a bit of a Star Wars kick lately, sparked in part by realizing how awesome the current 1/6 scale offerings available are. There’s all sorts of cool clone troopers and bounty hunters and all the great, colorful characters for sale, but droids seem to get a bit of a raw deal. There’s a couple of protocol droid and astromech molds available, but they are either old cheapie Hasbro toys or outrageously overpriced Medicom toys. There are so many other great background droid designs that I love, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. The Gonk Droids, or Power Droids depending on who you ask, are such a classic, simple, goofy design that a Gonk was the obvious starting point. Read on after the jump to see some behind the scenes of my design process and lots of photos.
After the most recent Paul Kaiju show at FOE, I got a chance to stand outside in the cold of frosty Northampton and talk shop with Sanjeev Teh Jerk, master of all things 3D design. While I have been going headlong into home-grown ABS printing, Sanjeev has been working on some face-meltingly cool multimedia affairs for production through Shapeways. Production method aside, we are both always looking to existing toys for inspiration. Sanjeev mentioned to me how he had recently cracked open a vintage Gokin and found a joint design that we both were pretty sure would work in 3D printed ABS. We talked, froze our asses off, and then I went home, and the gears were in motion.
I made some pretty heavy progress on the Allaround this week, including getting weapons modeled and a second, just about final geometry print built. There are two minor fit tweaks left, but from the outside, these are the prints as theory case going to be. Next step for these two is some sanding and painting. The next step for the Allaround project is to order more joints and more plastic filament for a small production run…
Prometheus Rising Studios 