Apr 21, 2017 | By Benedict
Adafruit’s Erin St Blaine has designed a “glowing viking rune wayFinder” for a barbarian cosplay costume. The prop, inspired by “ancient stories and legends” while containing the “newest fanciest tech,” has a 3D printed plastic case and glowing LED strips.
When you’re appointed priestess of a barbarian horde, you need to look the part. Wooden staff? Check. Animal furs? Absolutely. But for that extra special touch, an electronic 3D printed gizmo can really make the difference.
That’s why Erin St Blaine, Adafruit’s barbarian priestess in residence, has designed a light-up “rune wayFinder” for her own costume, sharing the design online for you to recreate.
“This project attempts to melt the newest fanciest tech I can get my hands on with the most ancient stories and legends I've ever heard,” she says.
The wayFinder, contained within an ancient-looking 3D printed case, is a kind of magical guidance device, helping St Blaine and her horde find their way through dense and dangerous woodlands. Importantly, the gizmo also looks super cool: the maker and cosplay pro wanted all aspects of her costume to look “like I stole it from a defeated warrior after an epic battle,” and the wayFinder fits the bill perfectly.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably interested in having one of these props for yourselves, and St Blaine has thankfully done all the legwork for you. To make the 3D printed device, you’ll just need to buy a handful of electronic components, including a Pro Trinket 5v, a backpack charger, switches, and lights, all of which are available through Adafruit.
As with many fun Adafruit projects, 3D printing was used to make the casing for the gadget. This part requires requires a 3D printer (or 3D printing service), acetone, paint, glue, tape, and a glass gem for a button. “I'll use 3D printed plastic for the case because I want it light and detailed and translucent (and besides which, I'm just not that skilled a metal worker),” St Blaine explains. “Making it look like metal is going to take a bit of work, but we'll see how close we can get.”
Pretty darn close, as it turns out. The “antique gold” paintwork over a base coat of brown acrylic certainly gives the 3D printed wayFinder a metallic appearance. And while you won’t fool any archaeologists with the device, you’ll surely have one of the best costumes in your horde if you produce anything close to what St Blaine has made.
As you can probably tell, we think the wayFinder looks great as is, but makers can choose to edit the design on Tinkercard if they so wish. Otherwise, the 3D printable file can be downloaded or sent straight to Shapeways.
St Blaine used ABS for her print, partly because “light bleeds through the white ABS in a super cool way,” and because the material can be smoothed down with acetone vapors.
“Woe betide any who fall asleep beneath a Waystone on a full moon night,” St Blaine warns. We’d be more worried about missing out on this awesome cosplay project.
Posted in Fun with 3D Printing
Maybe you also like:
- T-Bone Cape motion control board launches on Indiegogo
- New extruder could lower costs of 3D printing cellular structures for drug testing
- New Ninja Printer Plate for consumer 3D printing
- mUVe3D releases improved Marlin firmware for all 3D printers
- Zecotek plans HD 3D display for 3D printers
- Add a smart LCD controller to your Robo3D printer
- Maker Kase: a handy cabinet for 3D printers
- Heated bed for ABS printing with the Printrbot Simple XL
- Next gen all metal 3D printer extruder from Micron
- Pico all-metal hotend 100% funded in 48 hours, B3 announces Stretch Goal
- Create it REAL announces first 3D printing Real Time Processor
- A larger and more powerful 3D printer extruder on Kickstarter
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
