New Project! 3D Printed NeoPixel Mace Prop for Cosplay

from New Project! 3D Printed NeoPixel Mace Prop for Cosplay
by Noe Ruiz

3D Printed Glowing Mace Prop

A few weeks ago, I made an icosahedron using Fusion 360 and started playing with different ideas. On an episode of 3D Hangouts, I showed how to design one and went as far as hollowing it out and adding several LEDs to light it up. Originally, I planned to make it into a desktop ornament but shortly after, I had the idea of turning it into some sort of prop for cosplay. I though it’d make a cool looking pommel for a sword or battle axle. Not sure exactly why, but I landed on making a mace. At first, I was going to make the glowing icosahedron as the pommel but after mocking up a design, I realized there was more potential if it was the head and not the butt 🙂

Anyway, this project was a lot of fun to work on. I like how most of the pieces are modular and screw/twist together via custom threads. I used some pretty cool filaments like polishable steel composite PLA and corkFill wood composite PLA. The goal of this project is to inspire cosplayers and prop makers to use electronics in their builds. By incorporating micro-controllers and NeoPixel LEDs, I think it adds that extra dimension which makes it stand out. If a mace isn’t your jam, I think folks could use this tutorial as a guide for making a number of different props. The components and circuit can totally be used in lots of different ways, for example, this could be a sword, battle axe or even a wearable gauntlet.

If anyone is interested in building this project, check out the full tutorial.


Featured Adafruit Products

NeoPixel Jewel

Adafruit Trinket


649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

The Adafruit Learning System has dozens of great tools to get you well on your way to creating incredible works of engineering, interactive art, and design with your 3D printer! If you’ve made a cool project that combines 3D printing and electronics, be sure to let us know, and we’ll feature it here!

Comments