Skyrim Dragon Priest Mask: Part One

Hello!  I've decided to go ahead and share another project I've been working on, since I'm getting bored from the constant set-backs of my Ocarina of Time coasters.  As the title suggests, this one is a Dragon Priest mask from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  I'm using a model I found on Thingiverse for this project rather than trying to model it myself.  I'm still new to modeling for 3D printing, so this saved me a ton of time and frustration.

Part One: Printing

The biggest challenge to printing this mask was the size.  This thing was way too big for my measly 100 x 100 x 130 mm print bed, so I ended up cutting it into fifteen different pieces, which I then had to struggle to glue together.  NetFabb is a nice tool for this sort of work, as even the free version will cut a model and repair the resulting holes for you.

Here you can see my cuts in NetFabb Basic

Once I got all the pieces down to a good size, I started printing them.  Obviously this took some time, and each piece had to be oriented just right to both stand up to printing and get a nice-looking print surface.  I also started encountering an extrusion issue with this print-- parts that needed a lot of retraction ended up with lots of little clogs that eventually started ruining my prints, as several layers would go by with my printer blissfully unaware that it wasn't actually extruding plastic.  I still haven't found a good solution to this, but I managed to work around it for now.

Trying to glue all these pieces together was a pain in the butt.  Since I had never tried cutting up a large print like this before, I didn't know that I'd end up with such thin pieces that simply did not provide enough surface area for super glue to bind to.  And since I couldn't fit them together all nice and neat, I ended up with a few uneven spots where the corners met and a number of gaps between seams.  It was an all-around mess, really, but it eventually pulled together.  I tried smoothing it out as best I could with my Dremel and a layer of XTC-3D, then used some cheap putty to fill in whatever I missed.

So far so good, eh?

It's still not quite ready for molding, as I've learned through my other projects.  I'll be going over it with several grits of sandpaper until its a smooth, uniform surface with no noticeable imperfections.  At that point, I'll look into how to get a mold going.  Until then, may the super glue be with you, not on you!


UPDATE 7 November:  Turns out "water putty" was a bad choice, as it kinda dissolves in water and doesn't really stick to a smooth plastic surface.  Go figure.  Instead of continuing this ill-fated attempt to be eco-friendly, I'm buying myself a tube of Bondo, which seems to be the go-to of this maker community, and will refill the gaps I uncovered.  Live and learn, I suppose!